Read This If You Want To Make Your Life Easier
Okay, sure. This is sort of a click-baity headline, but I couldn't resist.
Yesterday was a challenging day for me.
I started out exhausted. I slept in until almost 8 AM, which is not something I do.
I then volunteered my time for nearly the whole day. And I was pretty uncomfortable doing it.
I was talking to people who did not want to talk to me back. Everyone I talked to the entire day was someone who I'd never met before. I also was doing work I'd never done before, which meant that I had to learn new tricks and be proficient quickly.
Being good at stuff comes with time. A new challenge helps you develop.
But then what?
Once you're good at that new thing, you've finished developing. You're no longer challenged. Being challenged further seems really hard--and it is.
But that's the point.
Growing and developing means you're constantly in a state of being uncomfortable.
So, forget the idea of being comfortable.
If you're in shape, you're constantly in a state of some kind of soreness.
It's not that you're not recovering, you're just rotating through which muscle group or body parts are recovering and which ones are active.
So, here's the punchline:
If you want to make your life easy, don't.
If you have an easy life, it might be a sign that you aren't developing!
2 Minute Action:
Let's take 2 minutes to challenge ourselves today.
Make a phone call to a family member or colleague that you've been avoiding.
Ask your supervisor for a new kind of work, today.
Sign up for that "how to be a DJ" course you've been putting off.
The more you get out of your comfort zone, the more confident you'll be.
The pain won't go away, that's the point, but you'll be building a habit of going into the unknown and feeling confident going there.
Self-evolution
If we're not learning about ourselves, analyzing our results, and rebuilding . . . then we are bound to make the same mistakes, relive the same embarrassments, and date the same kind of people. Learning is everything.When the light bulb goes off, we feel alive! When we discover something new, we are inspired to keep searching. When we educate ourselves, we practice a healthy habit of incremental improvement.For how important education is, I don't talk about it enough. I often rant on productivity and output, urging others to shoulder their biggest ambitions and push forward without conceding. What I've offered to you so far has been 1) a thought about purpose, direction, priority, or ambition, immediately followed by a 2) CTA or "Call To Action" for that thought. Although this seems like a good format, it could be more effective.
This is the ugly part of taking action.
When you've worked hard to produce something and you realize that your baby is ugly. The only logical thing to do, then, is to test improvements.I think maturity is the ability to experience this realization and still choosing to move forward, in a new direction, knowing that the pain of failure in the short term is requisite for the longevity of a healthy legacy. If we're not living for legacy, then for what?Did you know that the average American spends 5 hours per day watching TV? (citation) This is staggering. Now, multiply that by a few million people. We could build cities, multiple cures for cancer, affordable housing systems, renewable energy, ad infinitum. All of that time watching TV, selfishly idling, indulging in voyeurism and fantasy. The same goes for Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat (which are the modern day CBS, NBC, and ABC). All of those micro-moments accumulate!Not to mention that we are what we eat, read, watch, and do. Garbage in, garbage out. We literally use the cells that we consume to build our new self. Think about that for a minute.
What is your mission in life?
How are moving toward it? What do you think you need to get there?It turns out, that giant, hairy, audacious goals are often made up of lots of small, manageable, actionable tasks. Do 10 pushups every day can turn into 20, 40, 75, 100.1% compounding interest doubles every 72 days, not every 100 days.All of this to say: the blog is going to start looking a little different. The format will evolve, my words will change, and the message may emphasize things other than motivation--and that's okay. If you only signed up for a motivational tip, this probably isn't the best place for you.If you signed up because you wanted to be the change, evolve yourself, and collect on the compounding interest of your life's efforts to develop, well, this is probably a great place to start. Hope you learned something new from this post.
2 Minute Action
What's a "Garbage in" input that you are going to quit or reduce today? Doesn't have to be a lifetime commitment. Just focus on today.Let me know in the comments.