Positive attitude. Hard Work. Will Power. Focus.
All these are pretty important in living a good life, right? Well, maybe. Maybe not.
What if I told you that there is a missing piece to the puzzle? Something in the absence of which, these concepts may actually work against you rather than for you.
Apple
Here’s an interesting incident from the movie “Jobs” based on Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple.
Steve’s co-worker was constructing the circuit board for personal computer. Steve noticed that the components on the board had a disorganized look. When he pointed this out to his friend, he replied, “The appearance is not important. What is important is that the board should work and make the computer run. The look does not matter.” To this Steve replied, “It matters to me.”
If there’s anything that Apple has proved, it is that “design matters”.
So the question remains, what makes you unique?
Here is a short list of influential peoples of the world and what made them unique.
Mother Teresa – service to others.
Thomas Alva Edison – Persistence (10000 failed light bulb experiments).
MK Gandhi – Alignment with truth and non-violence.
Albert Einstein – Imagination (thought experiments).
Do you see what makes these people unique? In each of the case above, you can find at least a single idea that was really important to them.
In order to find your own uniqueness, you need to dig deeper into yourself.
You are unique because of all the things you care about. The principles and ideas that make sense to you and feel right. And you want live in harmony with them.
Steve cared about design. And that is what makes Apple devices unique.
When you live in harmony with the ideas that are important to you, you build a life on purpose. It feels naturally joyous because what you do is directly related to what you care about. There is no mismatch.
If you are a regular reader of blogs like this one, you may often come across stories of people in the comment sections that run somewhat like this.
Completing their education from school and college, they settle down into a job. They go on to earn a good living but only to realize a decade later that they don’t really care about the work. What they had been doing all along was based on external reasons (social patterns, family preferences etc) rather than their inner desires. They may be well positioned in terms of finance and stability but there appears to be a growing discontent.
Few brave souls set out to make things right and go on to realize that it is only when they do what truly matters to them, they find fulfilment and true joy. The ride may be rough initially but the new “meaning” to life is very rewarding and they go on to be happier than they ever were before. And this is what makes them unique.
In the book 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE, Stephen Covey explains how to solve problems at their root level. Suppose you’re trying to find a place in a new city using a map. Now if you have a wrong map, your positive attitude no longer counts. In fact, the more positivity you put in, the faster you will arrive at the wrong destination. It is not about having positive attitude. It is about addressing the real underlying cause.
Each time you feel something is missing, you may be tempted to work harder, think more positively etc. But that will get you nowhere. You will be like the person trying hard to find the place in the wrong map. The harder you try, the faster you fail.
The solution is to admit that you care about the board design and work to make it beautiful.
Here are a few examples of how to act in harmony with what matters to you.
Honesty
You prefer to be honest even when you can reap benefits by acting otherwise, because honesty matters to you.
Kindness
You are happy to help a stranger even though there is nothing to be gained in return, because kindness is important to you.
Freedom
You are willing to find means of self employment rather than look for a job because freedom matters to you.
Managing Anger
You don’t lose your temper because keeping cool is important to you.
An example
A friend of mine recently described his vision for the life he wants.
“I don’t want to take up a regular job. I want to live in the mountains with a river nearby. I wish to cultivate deep peace within myself, away from the hustle of the city. I’d love to work with small kids (be a teacher or something) and also learn from their natural tendency to live with joy.”
Can you make out what is important to my friend?
Peace. Nature. Teaching small kids. Joy.
He is not the regular guy who works 10 to 6 at a job. He is the guy who lives in the mountain near the river and teaches the kids.
He is unique.
Here’s an exercise for you to get started.
Take a piece of paper and start jotting down all the ideas that matter to you. You can keep expanding your list in the future but you should be able to come up with at least ten things right now. It should go something like this.
Abundance, financial stability, happiness, travelling, truthfulness, courage (fighting fear), personal growth, eating delicious food, career based on true passion, dancing etc.
Pick out one idea that inspires you the most. Write down three actions that you can start taking right now to live in harmony with this idea.
For example, if you select to work on “courage”, you could decide to introduce yourself to a stranger to fight your shy nature.
Take these actions each day for a week.
With each action you take, you’ll get closer to the things that are important to you and make you unique.
If you live your life out of harmony with what you truly want, you end up getting lost in the crowd. Also, any success that you accomplish will feel shallow and unfulfilling.
Center your life around what truly matters to you and you will stand apart from the ordinary.
The post Cultivating Uniqueness: How to set YOURSELF apart from the rest of the world appeared first on Change your thoughts.
💙 Sunday 6pm by Thierry Tramoni on 500px
○ Nikon D800, 2002✱3000px-rating:98.1
☀ Photographer: Thierry Tramoni, AJACCIO
💙 Cloud Burst Over Half Dome by Mark Daly on 500px
○ Canon EOS 7D-f/8-87s-17mm-iso100, 3456✱5184px-rating:97.0
☀ Photographer: Mark Daly, North Vancouver, Canada
‘This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.”
– Chuck Palahniuk
Sorry to bring up the issue of death! I know most of us would rather ignore this inconvenient truth but I prefer to embrace it. You see the advantage to having your immortality bubble burst is that it injects a sense of urgency into your day to day life. No longer can you afford to waste time watching Friends re runs on TV, getting annoyed about that person who cut you up on the freeway or maybe even working a job you don’t like.
The clock is ticking and unless you eradicate all activities that are not, in some way, connected to your higher purpose, you might find yourself begging for extra time when the final whistle is about to blow.
To avoid this happening, I’m presenting you with a list of life goals like no other. This isn’t your typical ‘travel to every continent on the planet, learn to play at least one musical instrument and sky dive out of a plane’ type bucket list. While these are all great conversation starters, they may not stretch you enough or prompt you to think about the legacy you want to create.
That’s why each one of the following seven is designed to provide both a direction for your life and a means through which you can develop yourself towards achieving it. So print the list out, keep it somewhere prominent, and watch your life transform as you tick each one off.
All you have to do to achieve the impossible is;
Or
Whether this means leaving the security of employed work and setting up your own business, undertaking an extreme physical challenge or overcoming a fear, addiction or hang up that’s been holding you back for years, achieving the impossible is one of life’s ultimate tests.
Do it once, and you’ll want to do it again. Keep doing it and you’ll realize that most of the limitations we’ve been conditioned to accept simply aren’t real.
Does the need to make money prevent you from doing what you want with your life?
For most of us, the answer is a resounding YES!!! If this is also the case with you then there are two means to gaining your financial freedom.
Or
Gaining your financial freedom through the first method involves either;
The other route to financial freedom involves changing the way you prioritise money. While The System teaches us to make major life decisions based on the amount we will be paid or how much money we stand to lose, you’ll have to take a different approach. The question of what brings the greatest amount of inspiration into your life will have to dominate your decision making process and as a result, every one of your days will be stimulating, largely stress free and provide a reward that money can’t buy.
This goal is about self-reflection. While the more proactive and extrovert among you may question the value of such a discipline, long term journal keepers comment on how the practice enables them to relieve their burdens, see the bigger picture, learn from past mistakes and find strength in previous successes.
I’m asking you to commit a year because it will give you a long enough period of time to assess the benefits, while not imposing any major restraints on your enjoyment if you discover that it’s really not for you.
As a staunch journal keeping advocate, my advice is to update your diary, at a minimum, once a week. Let it know what’s bothering you, what your dreams are and how you are progressing. I promise you’ll find a forgiving, non-judgmental friend who will both sooth and inspire you to greater heights.
Ever heard that Neale Donald Walsh quote about life beginning at the end of your comfort zone? Here’s how to get there. Over the next few years and into the foreseeable future, regularly force yourself to do things that terrify you.
This may involve approaching men or women you want to date, speaking in front of an audience, going to the cinema or restaurant on your own, striking up a conversation with a stranger on the underground, disagreeing with you boss, putting your work (whether it’s painting, writing or product creation) in front of a critical audience or being honest about your dreams and opinions with other people. Opportunities to partake in this practice can be found every day and by doing so; you gain the new strength and skills that can only come from being in a position where you are forced to adapt.
Here are the rules. Walk into a casino, exchange $500 for chips and then place a bet on either red or black. But don’t be mistaken, this isn’t about winning money; it’s about not being afraid to lose it.
If you win the bet then great, you walk out having doubled your money. If you lose the bet then don’t despair, you’ve just learned an important lesson on the importance not being too attached to money. This will serve you well when investing funds in your start up, helping others and having well balanced life priorities.
I chose the figure of $500 because I don’t want the loss to seriously damage your finances, yet, in order to learn the lesson; it has to be an amount that hurts to lose.
Almost everybody dreams of living a greater life than the one they presently live. However, how many of us actually take that seemingly crazy step of putting everything on the line and pursuing those dreams?
For many, the risks can seem far too great and that’s why I’ve come up with this interim measure. Whether you are in full time employment, self-employed or out of work, you MUST give one year of your life to living your dreams. This will give you a significant amount of time to assess the progress you’ve made. If you see some results and believe that further advance is possible, then carry on. If nothing happens, well then at least you can go to your death bed knowing you gave it a shot.
Fit the 20 hours a week around your work. If it means living like a monk for a year then so be it. The rewards it might bring are well worth the sacrifice.
I had to end on a soppy one! Maybe I’m an exception, and most people do this on a regular basis, but it took me 33 years of my life to tell my dad that I loved him. Our relationship during my teenage years was difficult and more often than not, we were exchanging words of hate rather than love.
Funny thing was, though, I felt fantastic after I finally said those words and I can only hope he felt the same way too.
If there’s someone you love, but haven’t told them so, then give them this gift. Don’t leave it as a silent understanding that never needs to be spoken. It brings you closer, cements the bond and improves your ability to express emotions.
Joe Barnes is an author, coach and speaker who is passionate about helping people break free from societies limits and live the life they really want. He’s author of the critically acclaimed Escape the System and runs the http://ift.tt/Xtk3Y6 website. Head over there now for your free guide on living an extraordinary life. He also works as a hypnotherapist and tennis coach.
The post 7 Alternative Bucket List Goals you MUST Achieve before Dying appeared first on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement.
💙 Peek-a-Boo by Roie Galitz on 500px
○ NIKON D810-f/5.6-1/1250s-500mm-iso400, 668✱1000px-rating:99.4
☀ Photographer: Roie Galitz, Tel Aviv, Israel
Sig Nordal 