Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste of time to be asking the question when you are the answer. We do not enter the future we create it.
Inspiring words from Ashton Kutcher, Jim Carrey, Steve Jobs, Will Smith, Stephen Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Neil deGrasse Tyson on creating your meaning of life. Meaning is not something to be found in life, meaning is something we create. May these powerful words inspire your day today Source
Have you ever heard the phrase “inch wide, mile deep” with respect to picking an area of focus for your education, career, website, business, etc? The idea here is that you should narrow your focus and concentrate on becoming highly skilled in one particular subfield. Then you’ll be able to carve out a space within your industry where you’re competent enough to compete… and hopefully make a good living. You can do that. It does work to a certain extent. But this article is about why you may not want to do that. You don’t have to use the inch wide, mile deep approach to niche down if it bothers you to do so. Many people have mixed feelings about it, and rightly so. There are some big consequences to consider. I don’t use this approach for my work because I don’t like the lifestyle consequences of sticking to one niche for so long. I’d be bored within a few years no matter what I picked, even if I picked something I love. I like variety too much. This life is precious to me, and while I love doing deep dives, I don’t want to be so myopically focused on any one aspect of life or business for so long that I miss out on exploring the other aspects that also interest me. You could say that my niche is personal growth, but that isn’t really a niche at all because anything fits into that huge space: productivity, relationships, career, finances, health, lifestyle, values, spirituality, social skills, and more. Name any topic you can think of, and I can link it to personal growth.
Mile Wide, Mile Deep
I prefer the mile wide, mile deep approach. It works well too, but the mindset and framework are different if you want to succeed with it. There are some consequences to accept, but you may actually like those consequences. To make this work in business, it’s important to focus on the long-term relationship with your audience instead of deliberately trying to nichify or brand yourself into a corner. You want to connect with them as human beings with lots of interests, problems, challenges, and desires – i.e. people just like you – not as monodimensional prospects who care about your niche. It’s important not to brand yourself in the typical branding sense if you want your audience members to relate to you as a real, multidimensional person. If I brand myself as anything, I prefer to just call myself an explorer. It turns out that many people like being able to maintain our relationship across a wide variety of interests – I like it too! – and branding myself into a singular niche would only get in the way of that. Doesn’t it kinda suck when you discover a guru you really like, but all they do is speak and write about the same narrow topic over and over again? Wouldn’t it be nice to connect on some other dimensions too, especially if you like and respect the person? How many emails or blog posts can you read about the same thing until you’re drowning in boredom and looking for the unsubscribe button?
The 50-Year Audience
Ask yourself this: What kind of audience could you keep for 50 years? Who’d stay with you that long? In which niche could you expect to still be working in 50 years after you start, assuming you lived that long? I’ll bet a lot of people in your audience would love to connect with you based on other interests beyond your main niche, and you’re probably not inviting them to do so. So they can’t bond with you as closely as they would with a real life friend with whom they may share multiple interests. But what if they could bond with you that closely? Motivation can be a lot harder in a nichified business after the first few years. Eventually the repetitiveness and lack of variety start to grind you down. I see this happening in so many friends. The passion just drains out of them after a while. And it shows up in procrastination, lifeless work, and frequent fantasizing about doing something else. What once seemed like a great niche is now stunting their growth as human beings, providing them with too little stimulation and variety. Eventually they begin to think there’s something wrong with them for being experts in their field and not feeling driven anymore. My business is a lot of fun to run because on any given day, week, or month, I can tackle any topic that interests me. I can switch topics seemingly at random, and I often do. This year I did three-day workshops on abundance, mental development, lifestyle design, and entrepreneurship. I spoke about relationships in Mexico and character development in the UK. I love, love, love that kind of variety. Even after 12+ years on this path, I’m more in love with the work now than during the first 5 years. Whichever direction my current interests twist and turn, a sizable audience has proven they’re willing to come along for the ride. Of course I lose some people now and then, but in the long run, the narrow-minded, mono-focused people get filtered out as they smash into walls at every zig and zag and can’t keep up with the course changes. Meanwhile the ones who make it through multiple years with me are the ones who, like me, love the variety and enjoy connecting with and learning from someone who’s very much like them – a multidimensional human being.
Breadth AND Depth
You might be thinking that you can’t possibly go a mile wide and a mile deep. You have to go for breadth OR depth, don’t you? It’s an either-or decision. I think Leonardo da Vinci would call B.S. on that, and so would I. Breadth and depth enhance each other. You can have both. In fact, I think it’s a lot easier – and way more fun – to go for both. If you explore a lot, you’ll become a better explorer. You’ll be able to go deep faster and more efficiently by building skills across multiple areas. Most importantly, your mile deep will not be in the same spot as someone else’s mile deep. You’ll do your deep dives differently than nichified deep divers. Your deep dives will also be more holistic because you’ll be able to connect the dots with other deep dives you’ve done. You’ll be better than most people at seeing the big picture and understanding each niche within the context of the others. And that’s going to allow you to offer up some really unique insights, the kinds of insights that even the so-called experts within a field aren’t commonly sharing. There’s a huge advantage to being unattached to niches as well. You can be ridiculously disloyal to all of your niches and yet still be considered something of an expert within them. You can step into the role of expert within one niche and fire a shot at another niche, then switch sides and fire back. You can explore some really interesting paradoxes this way and find new truths beyond them. I’ll just have to let you chew on that one for a while. This one is hard to describe unless you’ve already experienced it.
Is Your Niche Draining Your Motivation?
Motivation is another key factor. You can dig more and deeper wells if you keep your motivation high. Do you think your depth is really going to be all that deep if your motivation is falling below a 6 out of 10? What if you’re constantly at a 9 or 10 for your motivation, but you jump around a lot? Can you imagine some situations where the 9+ will likely outperform the sub-6? I’ll readily admit that there are some problems better suited to the stubborn sub-6 who can chip away for years. But there are other problems where the 9+ will win hands down. You can choose to tackle either class of problems. Do you have a preference? You can actually solve many of the same problems with either approach. You’ll just use different strategies. For instance, a sub-6 might make money with a regular job or with stable self-employment, doing the similar work day after day. A 9+ might earn income by working in bursts, such as by setting up passive income streams (also called evergreen) or by doing income-generating projects. Also, when you get burned out on some particular niche, you can always take a pause, switch to something else, and come back to it with a fresh perspective. You can go surprisingly deep when you’re able to stave off burnout indefinitely. And every now and then you’ll get lucky just by trying lots of different approaches to many different areas of life. Sometimes gold isn’t buried that deep; it may be buried where no one has bothered to look yet.
The Social Consequences of Nichification
There’s the social aspect too. If you niche down, you’re going to take a lot of your social life into that inch-wide pit with you. By resisting your own nichification, you could enjoy a more varied and arguably richer social life vs. one that’s overstuffed with the same types of people. Partly this is because you can offer up dozens of different interests that people may share with you. Some people will notice that they have a LOT in common with you, and they’ll often reach out to you. If you present more facets for people to connect with, you can attract a great variety of connections as well as more compatible connections. Also, who really wants to be friends with a mono-focused person? If you go the niche route, there’s a good chance you’ll attract a lot of people who want to connect with you mainly because you’re an expert on that one particular thing. That can be cool for status and income, but it can also lead to a feeling of being used by other people and by society. Do you only want people to relate to you as a tool for their own advancement? That gets lonely after a while. It can also lead to a love-hate relationship with your work. And there’s the health aspect too, although this tends to be more indirect. As odd as it may seem, boredom can actually become stressful in the long run. When you’re bored with your work, it takes more effort to push yourself to get things done. Your brain doesn’t automatically generate high levels of motivation if it isn’t engaged and stimulated. When you don’t feel highly motivated to work, it’s harder to get results. And when your results start to slip because you aren’t working as productively as you used to, this can create feelings of inadequacy, which makes everything worse. Eventually the external pressures will begin to pile up, and that can create a lot of stress. And that isn’t healthy in the long run. Sadly I’ve seen this happen to a lot of people who nichify themselves into a corner. The worst cases are usually lawyers (no pun intended), one reason being that they often earn a few hundred dollars per hour and get used to that level of income, but they have to keep doing the same work over and over to maintain their lifestyle. Try finding a lawyer who loves his/her work after a decade in the same niche, and I’ll show you a four-leaf clover. I’d probably want to hire that lawyer too… if I ever happened to need one.
* * *
Don’t swallow the nichification pill without reading the warning label first. It’s not the only way to build a following or a business, and depending on your personality and interests, it may actually lead you into a nasty pit of despair. Give some careful thought to the lifestyle consequences of nichification first, and decide whether it’s truly the right path for you. If you don’t pick a niche, you’ll probably have to build more skills, face more fears, and build a stronger social support network. For people like me, those are powerful reasons not to niche down.
It’s 2017… And it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen so much collective uncertainty and turmoil in the world. However, you shouldn’t let all the chaos affect you. Instead of seeing the world the way the masses do, view it—and your life—through an entirely different lens. One of the best ways I know to do that is to create a customized life script that uplifts, empowers and delights you. And listen… You don’t have to be unhappy, anxious, or unhealthy to do this. Even if you’re very pleased with your current life circumstances, I encourage you to design a life script. My friend, Peggy McColl, started creating life scripts about 20 years ago, when she found herself at the lowest point in her life. Even though she is now living the life of her dreams, she still constructs scripts to keep taking her life to new heights.
What genre will you choose?
Don’t let the dramas of the outside world, your past failures, or even your successes define or limit you. Failure is not fatal. And success is not final. You’ve got a power flowing through you that allows you to do things that will astound you. So, decide what, exactly, you want your future to look like. How do you want your days to play out? Who do you want to be spending time with? Where will you live? How much money will you make? How healthy will you be? The truth is, you are writing the script for the movie of your life in every moment. So, think about this… What genre do you want your movie to be – a comedy? a drama? an adventure? inspirational? Most people don’t realize they have the power to choose. So, they let other people choose the plot, the cast of characters and the movie setting. In other words, they are extras in their own movie! Well, starting today, become the conscious writer, director and star of your movie. Remember, this is your life. If you want a life with more passion, awe-inspiring relationships, a grand business, write it into the script. You are an individual expression of Universal Consciousness with your own unique purpose and gifts. And you have the power to create your life in accordance with your preferences. However, to get the most from this process, you’ve got to write a script that allows you to dream big AND still believe that it’s possible for you. Because if you don’t believe it, you won’t expect it and that will keep your desire from moving toward you. So, allow me to explain how to do both of those things…
How to write a script that tunes you in
and turns you on!
Here are five tips for writing a compelling life script that helps you create the movie of your dreams:
Handwrite your story in the present tense, as if you are living it NOW.
Make it a very positive and uplifting vision of your future. Talk about the things you want MOST in each area of your life—physical body, business or career, finances, relationships, intellect, spiritual connections.
Engage all your senses and include as much detail as possible about where you are, what you look like, who you’re with, what you do, your financial situation…everything.
See and feel yourself living in accordance with this script that is custom made for you by you. The more you feel it, the more real it becomes, and the more powerfully you are attracting it.
Review your script each day. Writing your life script is not something you do once and forget about it. You should read it every day, and refine it as necessary to keep you worked up.
When you write a life script in this manner, it accomplishes five things. It…
Compels you to change or get very clear on your thoughts about your future.
Moves you beyond limiting beliefs.
Keeps you focused on—and, therefore, attracting—what you want rather than what you don’t want.
Intensifies your feelings and expectations about your true desires.
Harnesses the power of the Universe and attracts people, places and resources just as you want them to be.
How to increase your belief
Once you create a script that allows you to dream big, you may need to work on your belief that it’s possible. To do that, read your script out loud (with feeling) and record it. Then, listen to it several times every day. I recommend listening to it when you wake up and again before you go to sleep at night. You can also listen in your car and while you’re getting dressed, working out or cooking. With this spaced repetition of new ideas and beliefs, you will be able to change your thoughts and belief systems (your paradigm). When that happens, your actions will change too. One of the reasons life scripts work is because they put your mind in a state of expectancy. The stream of plenty always flows towards the open and expectant mind. Expectation is the attractive force that moves your dream towards you. Before long, opportunities and people who can help will begin to “show up” until you become the person you want to be. Then, your whole life will become what you imagine it can be. If you’re serious about taking your life to the next level—and beyond—don’t just read about this process. Do it now. You’ll be so happy that you did. To your success, Bob Proctor Source
We’ve all experienced it: that surge of powerful motivation at the start of a project.
It’s January 1st, and you’ve started your new fitness regime.
You’ve just started a novel, and you’re pounding out a thousand words a day.
The launch of your new blog was a week ago, and you’re telling everyone you know about it.
Yet somehow, after a few weeks, that motivation high has gone. One in five gym members go to the gym once a month or less, and several consumer surveys indicate that 80% of new gym members drop out within 8 weeks. Among bloggers, Perseus News reported that of the 4.12 million blogs they surveyed, 66% had not been updated in two months, and 1.09 million were abandoned after only their first post! Their initial motivation was there, but it didn’t last. The same happens to you, when you hit a slump, a dip, a low point: the project you were previously so excited about feels like a burden. But if you push through that slump, you’ll find a steady, lasting drive that can carry you onwards until you achieve the goal you’ve set. From the time we embark on a new project until we are deeply entrenched in following through with it long term, we go through a few different changes and emotional highs and lows: fluctuations that aren’t so different than what we experience elsewhere in our lives.
Let me pause here, and ask you to think about falling in love. When you’re in love, you:
Forget to eat or sleep because you’re thinking about your loved one.
Spend every moment you can in their company.
Tell all your friends how wonderful they are – or alternatively, you keep it to yourself because you’re afraid of spoiling your love by sharing it with the world.
Walk around with a goofy smile on your face whenever you think about them.
Doesn’t that sound rather similar to what happens with a new project? When you come up with that wonderful idea for a new business venture or goal, you:
Forget to eat or sleep because you’re thinking about your project.
Spend every moment you can coming up with schemes and plans, and working on your project.
Tell all all your friends about your amazing new venture – or alternatively, you keep it to yourself because you’re afraid that talking about your ideas will somehow spoil them.
Walk around with a goofy smile on your face whenever you’re thinking about how cool your project is.
Love and motivation don’t remain at that high peak for long, but this initial surge of enthusiasm is a great time to enjoy throwing yourself wholeheartedly into a project. While you’re in this stage:
Draw or write a full, rich description of your ultimate goal – what are you ultimately hoping to achieve? (Writing down your goals leads to success.)
Write a letter to yourself in a month’s time. In the letter, put words of encouragement, and record how excited and keen you’re feeling at the moment. Seal the letter in an envelope, mark it with your name and the date, and put it somewhere safe. Sadly, you’ll be needing it soon…
The “Panic Dip” Phase Of Motivation
“There have been plenty of high peaks in our marriage when loving each other was natural and easy. There have also been some deep valleys when we thought we just couldn’t get it together.” – Alex Blackwell, 23 Heartfelt Reasons I Will Always Be Faithful To My Wife
No-one stays passionately, madly in love for the entire duration of a relationship. Maybe it lasts for a few weeks or months, but then reality sets in:
Your partner has annoying habits.
You have different interests, and enjoy some alone time.
The relationship means changes and extra demands that you didn’t expect.
If it’s the first time you’ve fallen in love, you might panic. You might decide that this girl or guy just isn’t “the one.” But as anyone who’s been in love, and stayed in love, can tell you – it’s normal for that incandescent fire to turn into a more bearable, steady flame.
Similarly, the burst of motivation when you first start a project doesn’t last for long, either. Maybe it blazes like that first fire of love to begin, but you may realize that:
Aspects of your venture are irritating, annoying or tedious.
You want to carry on with other hobbies, and sometimes you just want to kick back and relax.
The project has caused changes and extra demands on your life.
Like love, motivation has natural ups and downs – and it requires hard work. There are times when feeling enthusiastic about your project is “natural and easy”, and times when you want to give up. So, when that initial surge of motivation vanishes, don’t abandon your project. Accept the peaks and troughs, and start looking for that quiet, steady flame of motivation. Some things which have helped me are:
Looking back on diary entries from the very early days of the project, when I was filled with enthusiasm and boundless optimism.
Writing down a list of things that motivate me to carry on with the project.
Talking to others who are working towards similar goals, and asking for their encouragement and support.
The “Long-Term Commitment” Phase Of Motivation
“What is the best way to motivate yourself for your daily work? Obviously, enjoying your work and having a clear vision are very important, but I don’t believe that they are the most important things for keeping going during the daily grint. On the contrary, I believe that what gives us the most energy is the feeling of being totally on top of our work.” –Do It Tomorrow by Mark Forster, emphasis mine.
Committing Internally
When you’re in a relationship, part of your responsibility is to help yourself to stay in love with the other person. That doesn’t mean being wildly romantic, pretending that your every thought revolves around them, or refusing to let yourself ever express any reservations about an aspect of their personality or behaviour. But it does mean:
Giving them not just your time but your serious attention.
Thinking about the future of your relationship, not just the day-to-day.
Confronting and working through problems, rather than ignoring them.
It’s the same with your any other serious project. You need to help yourself to stay motivated about it. This means doing the same things as you would in a relationship: devoting time and attention to your project, and being willing to accept that there will be some tricky patches along the way.
Committing Externally
When a couple decides to commit themselves for life, they often get married. This is a commitment to one another, made in front of friends and family. When difficulties arise, that commitment, both public and personal, can provide extra motivation to work through them.
“None of us likes to look bad in front of others. We will go the extra mile to do something we’ve said publicly. … you can do it with friends and family and co-workers, and you can do it on your blog if you have one. And hold yourself accountable — don’t just commit once, but commit to giving progress updates to everyone every week or so.” – Leo Babauta, The Ultimate Guide to Motivation – How to Achieve Any Goal
Making It Through the Dip
“There are two great times of happiness – when you are haunted by a dream, and when you realize it. Between the two there’s a lot of uncertainty, a strong urge to let it all drop. But you have to follow your dreams to the end. There are abandoned bicycles in every garage because their owners’ backsides got too sore the first time they rode them. They didn’t understand that pain is a necessary part of learning. I almost gave up a thousand times before reaching those moments of happiness when I forgot that I was cold.
You can accomplish this through painting or music, provided that you concede that, before you can play a Bach sonata, you must first learn to play scales. It is only through perseverance that each of us can find himself. It is up to each of us to find his own Pole.” – Dr. Jean-Louise Etienne, the man who walked alone to the North Pole
This is a hugely powerful quote, reminding us that there will be difficult, tedious, even painful moments on the route to any goal. As with love being strengthened by marriage, you will find that your motivation is strengthened by making a firm commitment. This means:
Writing down a promise to yourself. For example, “I will commit to working on this project for at least six months, regardless of whether I am seeing any results.”
Ideally, making your commitment public. Post it on your blog or a web forum. Tell all your friends that you’re going to lose 10lbs before Christmas. Let everyone know that you’re writing a novel.
Focus on what you’ve achieved and learnt so far, and celebrate how far you’ve come. Look back at all the ground you’ve covered, before you turn your eyes towards what lies ahead: and look foward to the next stage of your journey.
Are You Dipping or Soaring?
[reddit-me] If you’ve been worried because your initial surge of motivation has worn off – stop being concerned, and realize that going through this dip is a normal phase in any long term endeavor. Focus on finding that steady flame of lasting enthusiasm for your projects.
If you want to make, or remake, a public commitment, please feel free to add it in the comments. I’d also love to hear from anyone who’s ridden out motivational dips and dry spells to finally achieve their dreams – whether in a business, personal or social venture.
The best motivation is self-motivation. Here’s how to get in an inspired state of mind. How do you stay motivated and inspired? How can you keep your passion, your excitement, fired up? By reviewing these self-motivators on a regular basis:
1. Get serious.
Make a decision to go all the way to the top. Up to now, you've thought about it. Up to now, it's passed your mind. But now make up your mind to go all the way to the top, and your life will take off. It's the most extraordinary thing. Your life is like a shadow going up the dark side of a hill—until the moment you decide that "I'm going to be the best at what I do.” And suddenly you rise into the sunshine, and your life is forever after different—wonderful. Get serious. Don't fool around anymore.
2. Know your limiting step.
What's your limiting step? What's the one skill area that's holding you back? What's the quality? What's the action? Ask other people. Find out what you need to become good at. Find out what's keeping you stuck. What is the critical limiting step that's determining your success today?
3. Get around the right people.
Who are the right people? Winners. Get around positive people. Get around people with goals and plans, people who are going somewhere with their lives and have high aspirations. Get around eagles. As Zig Ziglar says, "You can't scratch with the turkeys if you want to fly with the eagles." And get away from negative people. Get away from toxic people that complain and whine and moan all the time. Who needs them? Life is too short.
4. Take care of yourself.
Take excellent care of your health. That means good diet, good exercise. Everybody knows they should eat better foods, work out regularly and get lots of rest. If you're going to work hard five days a week, go to bed early five days a week.
5. See yourself as the best.
Visualize yourself as the very best in whatever you do—continually. Remember, all improvement in your life begins with an improvement in your mental pictures.
6. Talk nicely to yourself.
Control your inner dialogue and practice positive self-talk. How? Say, "I'm the best." Say it. Say, “I like myself,” “I can do it,” “I love my work.” If you say those things to yourself and you don't believe them, isn’t that lying to yourself? No, that's not lying to yourself—it’s telling the truth in advance. Because it doesn't matter where you're coming from—all that matters is where you're going. Talk to yourself the way you want to be, not the way you just happen to be at this moment. Remember, you may have gotten where you are today largely by accident. But where you're going in the future is purely by design.
7. Get going.
Move fast. A sense of urgency is the one thing you can develop that will separate you from everyone else. Develop a bias for action. When you get a good idea, do it now. And the faster you move, the better you get. And the better you get, the more you like yourself. And the more you like yourself, the higher your self-esteem is. And the higher your self-esteem is, the greater your self-discipline is. And the more you persist, then you ultimately become unstoppable. Want to be successful? Check out 7 activities you should be doing in your spare time.
Excerpted fromSuccess Mastery Academyby Brian Tracy I hope you found this useful. Please let me know what you think below. Source
“A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means” – William Hazlitt
Imagine the last time you had to work on some dreary task – something you truly dreaded. Go on, close your eyes and do it. I bet just now, merely thinking about it changed the way you felt – your emotions. You may even have furrowed your brow, grimaced, tensed up your muscles or pursed your lips. Just thinking about it likely changed your body language. Now close your eyes and think about a time you were doing something you loved. Perhaps a hobby, sport, or working towards a dream of yours. How does that make you feel? I bet your body language and feelings changed again. That difference in attitude is the difference between how we approach doing something because it’s work (something that you have to do)and doing something because it’s your passion (something that you want to do) – and we’ll explore that a little in today’s post.
Note that in this case, when I say work I don’t necessarily mean your career. There are plenty of people in jobs and careers they love. I’m taking my definition of work from the general productivity sense of “stuff I don’t want to do – but have to.”
The Puppy And The Plough
I was thinking about this recently, and the best analogy I could think of is working is like pulling a plough. The plough is cold, hard material – it has no feeling, no desire to go anywhere, and you don’t want to pull it! However, if you want to get anything accomplished, you have to muster up the motivation and determination to pull it anyway. That’s what work is like – you don’t want to do it, but you suck it up and get it done.
Passion on the other hand is like walking a puppy.
Have you ever taken a puppy out for a walk? You can barely control it! When you’re inside the house, as soon as it hears your pick up the leash it starts running in circles in anticipation. It gets excited. It starts clawing at the door trying to get out. As soon as you get outside, what happens? It tries to run up the street. It runs to the next tree. It practically pulls you behind it, and about all you can do is guide it in the general direction you want to go. Now that’s what following your passion is like. When I”m working on an exciting piece of software, or writing a new song on guitar, or even writing new articles for this website – once I get started, the project practically does itself. I get in a zone – I forget to eat, I forget to shave, I literally will start falling asleep at the keyboard sometimes because I have to force myself to sleep!
Work Versus Passion – Energy Levels Over Time
Another way of looking at this is considering the long term impact of work. In the short term, we can put up with just about anything – but what are the long term ramifications? I think they look like this: Work: Over time our “energy” (motivation and actual physical energy) goes down over time the longer we work on something we don’t want to do. What keeps us motivated to keep working? I think it’s small accomplishment boosts from payoffs. For example, occasionally we’ll get paid, earn a bonus, get a pat on the back – or perhaps we reach a short term goal because of the work we’re doing. Nonetheless, the general trend is downward – and without enough payoff, we’ll eventually reach a point where we can’t stand it anymore. The work in and of itself is not rewarding. Passion on the other hand I’ve found generally increases my energy over time – almost regardless of progress. When I’m passionate about something, I go to sleep and wake up even more motivated to work on my projects than the night before. When I accomplish a small goal, it helps to further fuel my momentum – but with passion, the general trend is upward anyway – and (I didn’t show this in the graph) this helps push me through short term setbacks without losing enthusiasm. The activity itself is rewarding, and I continue doing it even without bonuses to motivate me.
Note that these are extreme examples. For me, most of my passions involve some amount of work, so it’s not always exciting. For example, I don’t especially like some aspects of software development, like tracking down frustrating bugs, but these short term instances of work don’t impact my overall passion for it.
Final Thoughts
What do you think? What are you passionate about? Share your thoughts with me in the comments, over email or over Twitter! Source
Work out what you want your life to be about, what your mission is, what you are passionate about, and you will be motivated to become a master learner. You have to work out the why for everything to fall into place. If you are going to stay on a learning habit, then you have to have a bigger vision for yourself! Source
Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn't the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of "grit" as a predictor of success.
"Grit is passion and perseverance for very long term goals."
"Growth mindset: The belief that the ability to learn is not fixed: that it can change with your effort...When kids read and learn about the brain and how it changes and grows in response to challenge, they are much more likely to persevere when they fail, because they don't believe that failure is a permanent condition."
You need a lot of passion for what you're doing because its so hard. Without passion, any rational person would give up. So if you're not having fun doing it, if you don't absolutely love it, you're going to give up. And that's what happens to most people, actually. If you look at the ones that ended up being successful in the eyes of society, often times its the ones who love what they do, so they could persevere when it got really tough. And the ones that didn't love it, quit. Because they're sane, right?Who would put up with this stuff if you don't love it? So its a lot of hard work and its a lot of worrying constantly. If you don't love it, you're going to fail. Pretty amazing, huh? Let me know what you think below! Source
An inspiring motivational video featuring motivational speech from Ashley Zahabian. Check out her channel at - https://www.youtube.com/polishedofficial "While you're killing time, time is killing you." Source Let me know what you think below!
Unbroken is a 6 minute inspirational video which has been watched by 22 million people and counting. It is designed to remind us of what is important in life.
No matter who it is making it, I always hear the same lament. CEOs of companies tell me they are overworked. Farmers back in my home village in southern India say they have no time. We can all complain that we are under the tyranny of schedules, that there is no time in our day. Each of us can say that much of our life is driven by someone else’s agenda or outside pressures—things we have to do, things we would like to do, things we are expected to do.
When I graduated from business school, I had a terrible time organizing my day. Seven days a week, work was my number-one priority. I fed on the thrill of accomplishments. I dashed to meetings, raced to meet flights, ate whatever food was given to me—airline food and conference food, which is terrible stuff. My house was a mess—stacks of bills that I was too busy to open, let alone pay, suitcases half unpacked from the last trip and partially packed for the next. A few times my phone was cut off or my credit card declined. Not because I didn’t have the money, but because I was trying to focus so much on my work and travel that I didn’t have the time to pay bills. It was embarrassing, as though I couldn’t take control of my own life. This chaos went on for quite a long time—almost a year—until I reached my breaking point, and started asking myself,
Why am I living this life? What is the purpose of it? What am I trying to do here?And what is the price I am paying? My life had become travel, bad food, and not enough exercise and meditation. And I realized that I had to reprioritize.
I asked myself, If I only had a few hours—or just one hour— fully under my control, what would be the one thing I would do with it that would maximize this quality of joy, presence, and life? What would support my five essentials on a day-to-day basis? I came up with ten items. As the list developed, the idea switched from a theoretical notion to a tactical way to structure my days that would support what’s important to me in my life, what resonates and brings me joy.
Your list of how to spend your hours in each day might contain different items with different priorities. My list has changed my life, and I’d like to share it with you.
1. Sleep at least 8 hours a night
If I had a few hours to spend as I wished, then the first choice I would make would be to spend those hours sleeping. Ideally for eight hours. Sleeping dictates how we feel physically and emotionally, which affects our level of joy. We violate that simple rule and the laws of nature can respond with ruthless brutality.
2. Eat Mindfully
We all know that what we put into our bodies can support or sabotage our well-being, our state of happiness, our joy, our energy, our health, how well we think, and our creativity. Conscious nutrition means we’re mindful of what we put between our lips. I’d love to say I’m 100 percent conscious all the time, but I’m not. I recall attending an official business dinner in my first job after college, and getting carried away with my business colleagues, bingeing on the free food and alcohol, and staying up late. Spicy Madrasi, Old Monk rum and Coke, and aloo parataha—talk about sabotage. I’ll never forget the embarrassment of nodding off the next day in a meeting with my boss and a senior executive of Indian Railways. Whether we grow our own food, cook our own food, or even just eat food made by somebody else—it’s important to choose and eat our food consciously and mindfully. So if I had just another 30 minutes to play with, I would shop mindfully and choose my meals with care.
3. Move Your Body
If I had another hour, or even less, I would pick exercise as my next-highest priority. Exercise fuels my physical and mental energy. Often when I’m traveling, I can’t fit in the full hour, so I might practice a bit of yoga, maybe three or four sun salutations on a towel in my hotel room, or squeeze in 30 laps in the small hotel pool. This method works for me. You might prefer another method. Whatever you do—swim, walk, run in the hills, practice yoga, dance, or play tennis—I think it’s essential to find a form of movement that delights you.
4. Meditate
If I found another 20 minutes available, what would I choose? Meditation. My meditation practice guides me personally and sets the tone for the rest of the day. It fills me with joy and allows me to clear my head of noise and clutter, bringing a level of clarity to my mental processes that allows me to operate at peak performance. Often I have to get creative about my meditation, and I can’t always meditate before I begin my day. For example, since my job requires so much travel, I find time to meditate on the plane during those 15 minutes during takeoff, when all electronics are turned off, there is no service, and it’s very quiet.
5. Give Time To Those You Love
The next thing I added to my list was love—the thoughts and actions that generate love inside me, and giving time to those I love. Many might ask, “Shouldn’t love be number one on the list?” I’ve put it fifth, because if I’ve not slept well, eaten well, exercised, and then found time for a little bit of mindful meditation, I can’t be present and in a state of high energy and joy with myself or my loved ones. I can’t operate at an optimal and peak state of love. My philosophy is no different from that of the airlines. Think about what all flight attendants tell you before takeoff: “Put on your oxygen mask first before helping someone else.”
6. Complete Small Tasks
What is the one thing I would choose to focus on with my next chunk of time? Taking care of the stuff in my life. When I say “stuff,” I mean mail, dishes, and day-to-day chores that I need to take care of to keep my life running smoothly. These tasks aren’t urgent or life shattering, but if I let all of them pile up, they start interfering with how I feel and how I perform.
7. Focus At Work
The next item that made my simple list is work. Now, don’t tell my employer that my work ranks seventh. Many would put work at the top of the list, but I feel that if I take care of numbers one through six, I’m a much better performer, I deliver a higher quality of work in less time, and I find my work much more fulfilling. Give it a try. I think you’ll find that everyone benefits. You benefit, your company benefits, your co-workers benefit, and your boss should be super happy.
8. Spend Time On Passions
If I had another hour left, the one thing I would do is focus on my passions. There are things that move me, things I do because I love them, not because I have to do them or I am going to make a living out of them (although my work is also one of my passions). I have many passions—public speaking, for example, teaching yoga, singing kirtan music. So if there is an hour left in my calendar, then I put it into my passions.
9. Learn New Things
Whether it’s playing the harmonium, producing a TV show, cooking vegetarian food, or open-water swimming, learning helps me realize new possibilities and expand my universe.
10. Be Of Service
If I were lucky enough to have any time left, I would spend that time in acts of service to my community, acts that draw my energy outward. For me, that time might be teaching my yoga class at Google, simply hosting my friends for a cup of tea or dinner at home, or organizing an art project for the Burning Man community. You might work with your church, or volunteer at your kids’ school, or help out at a shelter. Or maybe you devote your time to an act that’s less structured, such as taking the time to reach out and call a friend you have not spoken with in a long while, or practicing random acts of kindness to connect with others, creating a sense of community.
Incorporating this list into my daily life shapes how I feel as a human being, and it increases my focus and sense of accomplishment. I become more conscious of investing my time in a manner that maximizes my energy potential. Once you create your list and start following it, once you consciously spend your 24 hours each day, I believe you will enjoy increased physical energy and operate at a higher level of performance and productivity. You will alter your perception of time and change how you view what you should focus on. And most important, you will live a life of greater joy and presence.
