Tag: Motivation

RITUAL FOR THE WIN!

Last post we talked about protecting yourself from the virus of hate and jealousy. We suggested limiting exposure to the news, social media and negative people. As well as taking a different mindset when dealing with all three. There is another important step you can take to boost your immunity before you encounter any of those. Just like when you take a supplement to protect yourself against a physical virus, there are things you can do to boost your immunity to mental and spiritual viruses. Think of them as mindset supplements.

Take a look at the three categories described above and the wins they say you require. It is a pretty good list. Notice there are several ways to accomplish each. Most people focus on the physical one. That is helpful. Getting that heartrate up is good. It is equally important to protect our minds and our spirits. Have you ever thought about this? More importantly, do you take steps to do this? Admittedly, I need to do better at this myself. One of the benefits in sharing these tools and strategies with all of you is that it provides me a great reminder of areas in which I could use a little work. Most of you know I wake up at 4am and with little time to do much other than the essentials.

Not having a wealth of time is what must people, including myself, use to justify not addressing their mental and spiritual health first thing in the morning. Finding ways in which to both incorporate this into our morning routine, but also make it as easy as possible to do. Looking at the mental category. Reading, writing, creating and learning. The last two might need a little more time than we have in the morning. The first two, however, can be done with less time than we think and offer us a big return. You could have an inspirational book and read for 5 minutes each morning. I have a daily calendar that offers an inspiring quote each day. It takes less than 60 seconds, but plants an inspiring seed in your brain to grow throughout the day. Just a few minutes of journaling in the morning can be helpful. Not enough time? How about writing out your mantra for the day? That creates the mind/body connection before you leave the door!

Spiritual wins can be harder to define, but have a big impact on our lives. Once again we have four suggestions – praying, meditating, studying and growing. Again, the latter two may take a little more time, but praying and meditating can be accomplished in relatively little time. How important would it be to develop a mind and heart full of peace and calm before the world and all the craziness start to invade it? There are a million ways to pray and meditate, but find one that works for you. Spending even just a few minutes doing this will set you up for a much better day than just rushing out the door.

Once we leave the house we are subjected to all sorts of outside influences. People who do not understand the benefit of turn signals, news anchors determined to start our day with fear and hatred. Negative coworkers who would like to share their complaint or the day’s latest gossip. If we throw ourselves into this unprotected, we can find ourselves infected with the negativity virus. Your morning is yours! Use it to serve you before other things start competing for your time.

IT IS NOT HOW POWERFUL YOU ARE…

One of the many great tragedies in life is how often we ask children what they want to be, verses how often we ask adults, including ourself, that very same question. There are far too many of us working hard to just make it through the day. We have no lofty goal, no aspiration greater than ourselves. Then we wake up and wonder why we feel so overwhelmed and that our life is meaningless. You want a more meaningful life? Than choose what meaning you are going to give. Decide on the purpose of your life.

We all work far too hard to not give it direction. Imagine getting in your car with no idea where you wanted to go. Would it matter how fast you drove? Of course not. If you have a clear idea where you wanted to go, than no matter the speed, you would be getting ever closer. Even if you encountered a detour in the road, you would still no what direction to go in order to correct the course. If you didn’t, you might think a closed road would be the end of the journey. Life is much the same. If you have a clear purpose and direction for you life, a challenge is a mere course correction, not an end.

Spend a few quality minutes deciding on the purpose and direction for your life. Whenever this subject comes up, I always get the same question, “What if I pick the wrong purpose?” To that question, I will give you two answers. First, you can change your purpose in life and adjust accordingly. When I was very little I wanted to be a whale. Obviously after some learning about biology my answer changed. I have been in a rock band. I have been a bartender. Now I am an author working on my fourth book. If you would have asked the child who was short on his interspecies transformation if he wanted to be an author, he would have said ‘No!’. If you would have asked the rock singer and bartender the same question, neither would have jumped at the chance. As the years have gone by, I have changed and refined the purpose of my life.

Which leads to the second point, you will find out a lot sooner if your purpose no longer aligns with you life if you have one! Not picking a purpose because you are afraid of picking the wrong one makes no sense. It is like skipping an audition because you might not get the part. By not even going you will not fail, but you will also never succeed. You will also feel overwhelmed and like your life has no meaning. Pick a purpose, put your entire actions behind it and see where it goes. If it is not what you hoped, adjust accordingly.

MINDSET MAKES IT EASIER!

Even those of us who enjoy the gym often have a hard time getting there. I heard a quote once, “The heaviest weight at the gym is the front door. ” Meaning that getting to the gym is the hardest part. I can agree on this point. I love working out. It reduces my stress and provides me energy. After an 8 hour work day, it still takes all the convincing I have to get myself there.

Why, if I know and enjoy all the benefits, do I still have to argue with myself to go? It has a great deal to do with mindset. Looking at the gym as something we have to do instead of something we get to do. So many people who are physically unable to workout would love to trade places with us.

Dick Van Dyke has a great outlook here. It has served him well and can do the same for us. How about you? When you face having to do something you don’t want, what is your attitude about it? Do you have to go to work, or are you grateful for being employed? Do you have to pay your bills or are you grateful you have the funds to do so?

To some this may seem like a small difference, but it will make a big impact on how your life feels and how productive it will be. What is your favorite hack to improve your mindset?

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!

Whether it is my books or Margie’s bakery, we always appreciate the help we receive from both friends and strangers. Some of the most impactful things people can do is help us get the word out for the many things we do. If you have a friend who offers a local product or service, one of the best things you can do for them is promote them. In a world where there are a million different choices, it is often only the people with the largest amount of cash who can buy the greatest exposure. What you can’t buy is quality and joy that you bring to someone’s life. If you know of a local business that does that, please do one of the activities listed above or something else to assist. It is the only way that little guy can compete with large corporations!

This week try supporting one local business a day. Do that for an entire week or longer and watch your community and friendships grow and blossom. It does not have to cost you anything more than a little time and energy yet it can change your entire community.

USE YOUR OWN RULER

As we approach the start of the week many of us will worry that we are not as far as we should be. This could be in the area of career, finance, relationships or a million other categories. The question we should be asking ourselves is what metric we are using to come to this conclusion? Is it the new house our friend on Facebook bought? How about the new car we saw pull up at Starbucks while we are writing? The couple posting their wedding photos while we are still requesting a table for one? Never, and I repeat – never measure your life using someone else’s ruler.

If you find yourself frustrated with your progress because you are not living up to your own standard, that is one thing. Then, by all means be upset with yourself. If you know you could have worked harder or given more, than it is ok to give yourself a little pain as motivation. If, however, your pain is because you are not as far as someone else even though you have given it your all; stop it. You never know what advantages they may have had. Perhaps it was not advantages, but lack of challenges to overcome? I have quoted Earl Nightingale’s definition of success many times. “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” If you are progressing on your goals and working towards them you are a success. This includes discovering things that do not work. Some may call that ‘failure’ but the more informed know that it is just another step in the process of success.

Comparison really is the thief of joy. Why let comparing yourself to other steal the joy of the progress you made? Everyone evolves and grows at their own pace. As long as you are working on growth and evolvement, than do not look to your neighbor to decide how good your progress is. Instead look at who you were a year ago, or six months or maybe even yesterday! Use your own ruler when measuring your success.

JUST A QUICK REMINDER

There is a lot of talk about hustling and the grind out there. I am all for working hard. It is one of the best ways to purify the soul in my opinion. Striving to be the best version of yourself, whatever that may be, should be a goal for all of us. What we should avoid is being miserable through the entire journey. We spend most of our life on the journey. Even when we reach a goal we have been chasing, we celebrate a little and soon set our sights on the next goal to chase.

While it is healthy to pursue continual self-improvement, you do not have to be unhappy with your current state. Yes, things may not be as you wish they were, but there is beauty in that too. The hard days help us not to take the good days for granted. The challenges we go through along the way will help us enjoy the destination that much more. Life has a way of passing by in the blink of an eye. If we delay enjoying it until we reach some finish line, we may find we never get to enjoy it at all.

Today, focus on enjoying the journey. Remember that all of the bumps along the way form the incredible person we are. The strengthen our resilience and patience. They give us stories to tell and credibility to help others. There is beauty in all of life. Slow downn that you may appreciate it all.

HOW DO YOU VIEW THE RAIN?

This is a great challenge for all of us. The example of the rain is something we can all wrap our heads around, but it holds true in many examples of life. When something challenges our life, we often see it as something bad. Sure, life may not be the way we had planned or even wished for. If we look close enough, we will find some good that came out of it. There are several examples that come to mind when I think of this. While our own life may not seem as grand as the examples that I am going to reference, the principle is the same. As you read the following words, think of how you can apply them to your own life.

One of the people I really enjoy listening to is the Dalai Lama. His story in a nutshell is one of tragedy turned into triumph. Before him, the Lama was a sacred spiritual leader in Tibet. They lived in a palace and had very little worries. They were often disassociated with the common people. When China took over Tibet, the Dalai Lama fled with many of his followers. The made a long and dangerous journey into India. Through that, the position of Lama changed. He became someone that could relate to many more people. He was thrust into a position of importance. Without the invasion, many people would not have heard his words of compassion and wisdom.

Someone quite different from the Dalai Lama, but whose story has challenges just the same is David Goggins. Growing up, David’s father abused both him and his mother. They ended up moving to a different state where David faced racism, and more abuse. As you can imagine, this impacted his ability to learn in school and to develop as an individual. One day he realized that there was nobody to save him. That propelled him to take control of his own life. He lost over 100 pounds in 3 months, became a Navy seal. He became an ultra-marathon runner. Even running 8 100-mile races on back to back weekends. Now he shares his story online, in person events and his 2 books that he wrote. The challenges he faced in life could have been an excuse but instead became his source of motivation.

On the surface, these two men seem to have little in common. When we take a step back we see that the rain that might have ruined their picnic, ended up helping a part of them grow that would not have otherwise developed. What challenges in your own life can you put to use? What can you learn and develop in yourself from the challenges you have faced? What credibility do they give you?

Every challenge we face gives us choice. Will we define what this challenge means to our life and put it to work for us or will we let the challenge define us? Quite often, the more pain we survive, the more opportunity we have to help others. How do you view the ‘rain’ in your life? Do you use it to fuel growth or do you use it as an excuse not to grow?

I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW…

Recently, while writing these posts, I noticed that this site had passed a total of 3000 posts. This is post number 3009. That means, if you were to read a post a day, you would have over 8 years worth of reading. The funny thing about this was this milestone was reached while we were busy celebrating a month of gratitude posts. We were so busy creating content that will help us all live an amazing life that we did not even notice we had reached 3000 posts. This brought up a point that I think would be good to revisit.

In our own life we often take time to criticize others. The people who you do not hear doing this are those who are working hard to make the most of their life. Why? Time spent saying something judgmental or critical about someone else is time that could, and should, be used to better your own life. Next time you are tempted to be critical, ask yourself a few very important questions. Is what I am about to say beneficial to me in any way? Would the time I am about use making this statement be better served working on improving my own life? Is my own life perfect? The answers to these questions should be pretty obvious for most of us.

If you want an amazing life, your focus should be solely on your own life. What can you do to become the best version of yourself? Here is a fact that may seem sobering, but can also be liberating. You will never be the best version of yourself. The more we learn and experience in life, the more that we can grow and develop. In the world of self-improvement there is not a finish line. That means there is opportunity to improve every day. When we spend time being critical of others and the life they are living, we are moving further away from becoming the best version of ourselves. We are sacrificing improving our own life to put another life down. It makes no sense and in counter-productive to becoming the best version of ourselves.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING YOU CAN DO TODAY

Who would not want a more beautiful world? These days things are getting a little ugly in many places. We can feel helpless to make any real change. Most of us are not leaders of countries. We are not those who make laws. We do not lead religions or are not celebrities who have millions of followers. Considering these facts, how can any of us hope to make changes that can make the world a more beautiful place?

The answer can be found in our own lives. When we think about who made the greatest difference in our life it was not the government or a celebrity. No. It was usually a kind word from a friend. Perhaps an encouraging word from our parents. A supportive and loving word from our partner can change our life. Even random kind acts from strangers have a greater impact in our life.

The point is simple. If you wish for a more beautiful world, then spread kindness and love to all you meet. It is those interactions that change people’s lives.

THIS AMERICAN ALSO WANTS TO CONQUER GREENLAND!

With all of the wars of conquest happening around the globe and the foolish words and actions taken by the government in this country you may fear I am adding to that. On the contrary. I would like to point out there is more than just one way to conquer a land, or a people. In the world of this blog, we are viewed in over 200 countries. Some, I must confess, to not even have known about prior to them viewing this site. One country that has yet to join our community of motivated people pursuing an amazing life is the country of Greenland. I do understand that it has less people than the city I live in, but I would love to reach and offer some positivity to them.

Have you ever thought about conquering in such a fashion? It can be conquering someone’s hateful heart with love. It can be conquering your own lack of self-discipline to accomplish your goals. It can be helping a friend conquer their self-doubt to love themselves more completely. In this case, I would like to add the wonderful country of Greenland to our self-improvement family. Reaching a whole new country and its culture would be wonderful. We can all learn so much from each other.

One of the best things we can do in this world is to conquer the division and hate that is being put forth. Love your neighbor even if that neighbor is different or holds a different opinion than you. Conquer your own inclination to judge someone just because they are different. These are conquests the world should be pursuing!