Live Awesome!
How Do You Look At Things?
By Shazad
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Wayne Dyer
This quote is my inspiration for this post and I think it’s very timely given our current situation with the pandemic, the hardship of lockdown, the uncertainty of the future, and life in general. How are you looking at things right now? What thoughts came across your mind today about what kind of day or week it’s going to be? Why did you think that way?
We all want things to be different. To be better than they were yesterday. Sometimes, it’s as simple as changing the way we choose to look at life and opportunities in front of us. Are you scanning for problems and more trouble coming your way or are you preparing for a better version of the future? How about a better version of yourself because you learned how to be more resilient or patient? It comes down to the way you look at things and the story you tell yourself about what you see.
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How Do You Define Your Legacy?
By Shazad
When I’m gone, I want my legacy to be a combination of what I’ve earned, what I’ve learned, and what I’ve yearned for. I want my family to celebrate the life I have lived and I prefer we start doing this while I’m still alive. In fact, all of us should reflect and design our lives to live intentionally with a focus on learning more rather than earning more. It begins with having a strong desire which moves us forward - the very definition of yearning.
Don’t go through this life half-awake. Don’t focus on others or what society tells you about what’s important. DO ask yourself what you think is important and what you really want out of life. How much you EARN will be closely linked to what you LEARN about as you design your life based on what you sincerely desire or YEARN for.
Don’t delay, figure out how to live your best life based on what you truly want while you are still able to make decisions and choose a path.
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It Was Always Up to You
By Shazad
“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” Eleanor Roosevelt
You could blame your parents, society, your friends, or someone else for where you are in life. You could also say it’s ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’ and that you are just a passenger or unwilling participant in someone else’s grand plan for your life. That would be the easy and childish way to look at things.
Great people do great things because they realize they have a responsibility to step up and become who they were supposed to be. We are all potentially great people from birth. The difference is that only some of us realize this and even fewer people take the necessary actions to transform the potential into reality.
Stop blaming, making excuses, and looking for someone else to change your life. Take hold of what time remains and write your story each day. Let your Awesomeness manifest itself in your thoughts and words. This is what it means to be a Leader. No one is coming to make things happen for you. There is no superhero rescue or Divine revelation you need to wait for to move forward. This is both terrifying and emancipating at the same time. The choice has always been yours to figure out. It’s your move.
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Where Does the Time Go?
By Shazad
“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
Marcus Aurelius
We’ve all thought it and said it many times. hours, days, and even entire weeks are flying by. It seems like just yesterday that the New Year started and today, the first 3 months of 2021 have officially gone forever into the history books by the time you read this.
Are you just trying to keep up or hold onto time? It’s about as likely as trying to contain water with just your two hands cupped together. You might capture some of it but eventually, the water, just like time, will slip through your fingers. So what CAN you do about this? What SHOULD you do about this? Well, if you are like me, you do an audit of how you have spent your time since the beginning of this month and the beginning of the year. Write down the things you did repeatedly and those tasks that took the most time. Next, check back with your personal goals for the year and life in general. Is your written list of time spent matching with actions that actually move you forward to actually achieve your goals? If not, time to make some necessary changes.
Maybe you are lined up with your goals but you are going the equivalent of first gear speed in a car that has 8 speeds to choose from. It’s probably time to change into higher gear for Q2, Q3, and Q4 this year. Don’t count on momentum to keep moving forward. It’s more likely the friction of things to come and unexpected headwinds just around the corner will slow you down even further. Plan for it. Adjust and keep moving forward in a controlled way at a higher speed to achieve your goals. Keep pushing forward to achieve what MUST be done and what you intended to BECOME by the end of this year.
When this year is over, I want you to say that you know exactly how much time, effort, and attention you spent to achieve the next level of your existence. I want you to say that you had an Awesome Time doing it!
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How To Have An Organized Mind
By Ahsan
The other day I walked into my bedroom and got excited. I had been so busy with this, that and the other, that my room was a complete disorganized mess. I immediately got into a cleaning spree.
The best thing about a messy bedroom is the feeling you get after you clean it up.
The room feels clean, and you feel like all is well in the world.
A similar phenomenon occurs with our minds. That is every now and then, just like your bedroom, it needs a clean-up session, and it needs to get organized.
Consider this little-known theory.
A well-organized mind offers you three things: greater peace, a sense of well-being and more joy. Although these words sound similar in meaning, they are not. You will appreciate their subtle differences if you keep your mind open.
Imagine if this theory is true. What if you could have lived the rest of your days with joy, with peace and a sense of well-being!
Let’s begin by considering that our mind is where we live and experience life itself. Two people can attend the same family picnic, and one may come away feeling happy and the other feeling angry. The angry one interpreted events to set off their anger. The happy person interpreted things that made them feel happy.
How we experience any event or interaction with people or things is a matter of our mental interpretation of what happened.
Here is another way of thinking about your mind. When you don’t fully understand who you are, you get caught up in the mental process.
You are not your thoughts. If you get angry, it is really because you let something irritate you, and your angry reaction took over. You may think that you got angry because someone or something caused you to be angry, but this is not true.
Your anger was really the result of having an unorganized mind. A mind that is organized will create just enough space to pause and choose to not get angry. A disorganized mind will get triggered instantly. The mind can only be organized with a regular commitment to be cleaned like your bedroom needs to be cleaned regularly.
If you believe and understand what I am saying, your organized mind will cause you to have peace.
Peace is about having the awareness that things are happening outside of you and that you are the conscious "entity" observing what is happening outside and choosing your inner feelings.
Your organized mind will cause you to have a sense of well-being.
Well-being is a state of knowing that you have the resources both internally to be happy and externally because you have life endowing sustenance. Internally you feel just right, and externally, you recognize the air you breathe is a blessing in itself.
Your organized mind will also create a feeling of joy.
Joy is the practical experience of being content with how things are happening in your life. An organized mind recognizes that people and things are not in our control. Everywhere life is happening and unfolding. Sometimes life goes our way, and it is easy to feel joyful. Other days life does not go our way, but the organized mind sees this as an acceptable reality. Joy to the organized mind does not depend on people or things. Why should it, and how can it?
So, if you are wondering what can be done to achieve an organized mind, do not worry.
Here is the formula:
Mind your MIND: Meditate, Investigate, Navigate, Deliberate
Meditate: Take at least 5-20 minutes every day to quiet yourself and slow your thoughts down. Sit up straight so you can breathe deeply and exhale deeply. Focus on a sentence that you like repeating, like: I am not my thoughts; I am the awareness observing my thoughts. Or, I am relaxed and in control of an organized mind.
Investigate: Knowing that you and I are not perfect, the next time you let yourself get carried away by your emotions, try to pinpoint what and why it happened. If you practice this, the next time the trigger appears, don't be surprised if your reaction was in your control.
Navigate: To navigate is to set a direction towards a destination. Your mind should lead you to where you want to go. Get used to giving your mind instructions. Turn left, go right. Be chill. Enjoy this sunset. Be one with the world.
Deliberate: Make sure you fully buy into this advice. Your organized mind is where you live to attain peace, a sense of well-being, and joy. Think about this theory and challenge its truth. Just like a goldsmith inspecting a piece of gold, you should make sure what you hold is indeed gold. Melt down the concept and put it to any test necessary.
Get going because your best life depends on this theory. And hey, if you need to, go clean up your bedroom while you are at it!
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Make 2021 The Year to Level Up!
By Shazad
So what did you think of 2020? How did you get through it and what did you learn? Don’t just make 2021 a year of surviving another year or enduring some hard things. Make this a year of advancing in a meaningful way. You, me, everyone has been tested in many ways in 2020 and the many previous years of our lives. Let’s make sure these big and small tests keep moving us forward.
Each year of my life, especially the 5 and 10-year milestones is where I think deeply of how much I have, or should have ‘leveled up’ in life. If you think of this life as a game of many levels all the way up to 100 or beyond then each year you complete is actually one more level higher you have achieved. How? It’s all about the “experience points” and life skills you have acquired. As I approach “Level 50” in my life’s journey, I’ve been thinking of how I’ve improved in some things and where I need to hustle to make some meaningful gains in other areas. I don’t want to be stuck at Level 42 or 35 in some aspects. It’s very important to me to be moving higher in skill, practice, and understanding each year so that the birthdays are not just about blowing candles and inhaling copious amounts of cake. I need to feel that I’m improving my life by refining myself as an authentic person making the most of this Awesome Life!
Now it’s your turn. Evaluate your life today and consider what “Level” you are at compared to where you want to be. Age is just a single number. Levels of achievement are a better representation of how you can advance in life by gathering experience, memories, some assets and most importantly, wisdom!
Do You Know Your Numbers?
By Shazad
Metrics, Quotas, and Numbers are everywhere in our lives. Some define our attributes like how tall we are, our weight, our BMI, etc. Others define our income, net worth or amount of debt. Do you know your numbers? Do you know the key numerical values in your life of things that can be measured and periodically reviewed?
Do you know the metrics of your health as well as you do your financial portfolio? Do you know how much minimum income you need to be consider yourself a “Rich Person”? Have you been tracking how much sleep you get and how active you are during the day? All of these things matter, to some degree so it’s worth knowing about them.
On the other hand, not everything can be measured in numbers such as how much you love your family, the beauty of a sunset or the satisfaction of doing a good day’s work. Develop your awareness to all the non-quantifiable things in your life that you can’t live without. Do you know what they are and how each of these makes you feel on a daily basis?
Life is made up of many numbers but it’s more than just formulas, equations and charts. Make it a habit to know your key numbers and then learn to ignore most of these to focus on all the many things that you cannot count but mean the world to you.
What Is The Better Thought?
By Ahsan
Have you ever been stuck in stinking thinking?
When you talk to yourself, and the conversation is disempowering, what can you do to turn things around?
What have you done in the past to turn things around?
If you look back, you will likely find that you started to make a comeback by turning your back to the "weak thought" and instead chose a "better thought."
This, my dear friend, is the way to accelerate your mojo, to put some pep in your step, to sing your song and bit adieu to stinking thinking.
Whenever you feel like you are in a funk and would rather be at the disco, you've got to change the radio station in your head and go to "Better Thought" FM.
In fact, here is a Top Ten list of “Better Thoughts” for you to listen to:
Make sure to save them to your playlist:
"I've been through tougher situations, and I will get through this too."
“All things are possible with the blessings and skills that I have, with God’s grace.”
"I have friends that I can rely on, including myself.”
“Ain’t no mountain high enough. Ain’t no valley low enough. I will keep on trying!”
“I think I can, I think I can. I know I can, I know I can”.
“Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love you Tomorrow. Tomorrow is just a day away.”
"Don't stop believing. Hang on to that feeling."
“A little less talk and a little more action.”
“ Doe a deer, a female deer. Ray, a drop of golden sun. Me, a name I call myself.”
"We are the champions, my friend. We'll keep on fighting to the end."
How many other better thoughts can you come up with?
Drop us a line, and let's build this together.
Let's get up to 100 Better Thoughts and share them with the world
Please send us your Better Thoughts at: shazad@kingsquillpublishing.com
If you liked this article and know someone who is goal-oriented and should read this, please share it on your social media and suggest they visit www.awesomelifebook.com to subscribe to our email list. As a bonus, they will get our free report on Resilience.
What's Your Story?
By Shazad
“Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution -- more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.” Lisa Cron, Wired for Story
We all have one and we keep repeating it in our heads on daily basis. Some people experience a life event that causes them to change or enhance their story. Sometimes it’s good embellishments and positive explanations. For many, their story has very negative tones and beliefs like they are some kind of victim” or hopeless “sinner” that cannot be redeemed. This is very damaging to their lives and unsurprisingly, makes them very unhappy.
When you realize that you are telling yourself a story all day long, you can change it. We all need better stories to appreciate and enjoy. Need proof? Why do we enjoy movies and fictional stories in books? There is something in the way the characters are presenting something to our brain that compels us to keep watching or reading that book. Even with the best actors, a poorly written storyline will not be a good movie. It’s the same with our lives. We cannot be happy and have fulfilling lives if we are telling ourselves poorly written stories of despair and a lack of control over the quality of our lives. The ‘script’ running in your head needs to be better. This is, after all, your life philosophy, your “mission statement” and has to be aligned with your values. You cannot let someone else write it for you and you cannot let it be random events that shape how you feel each day.
It’s time for a better narrative to Live an Awesome Life. You want to change but how can you do this? Study the voice in your head and write down what you believe about yourself. Next, write out what you want to be the story of your life while you are still alive. What have you been through and seen in the world? How many people do you know and what are your favourite things in this world? How do you want to be understood and what qualities do you want to shine brightly for all to see? Third, start thinking, acting, and telling your new story every day. You can start by repeating positive quotes, affirmations, and “plot” lines in your mind. Make your personal story bold, genuine, and truly engaging with a touch of humour. This is how you become the hero of your own life and save the day, every single day! What will your story be?
Resolve to Have an Awesome Identity in 2021
By Shazad
Every year, especially around January, people are trying to develop new or better habits. People want to change their life by improving their health or knowledge. Maybe you want to have a more productive work or business life. Lots of people want to have better relationships as well and that may be the focus for many at the start of the year. The question is, How Do You Actually Achieve these CHANGES and make them stick?
I’ll tell you the one way that usually fails for everyone. It’s the idea to add some good habits or remove some bad habits because it’s that time of the year and everyone else is doing it. Simply adding or removing an activity does not equal meaningful life changes. It is very shallow and ineffective over time. So what works? What can actually cause people to adopt meaningful transformations that last? What should you be doing instead? The answer is tying your habits to your identity. A better identity than you may have today. How do you do this? Ask yourself these 3 questions:
What KIND of Person Am I? Write out your key attributes and preferences.
What Kind of Person do I REALLY want to be? Describe the characteristics of your ideal personality that you want to be like.
What are the habits, thoughts, and STORIES of the person that I want to be like? Study the daily routines, quotes, and milestones in life that your ideal person has.
Once you know the kind of person you want to be, changing your habits and sticking to the good ones will be so easy. You have to repeat your new identity to yourself each day to remind yourself who you really are and want to be. Why does this work? It’s because you are clearly defining and frequently reinforcing a new identity that will stick in your mind. This will test everything you do, say, and think against that identity. It’s automatic and you can’t really control this part of your personality. Use it to your advantage and force yourself to align with your desired identity. If you try to do something contrary to it, it will be like the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard or the feeling of rubbing sandpaper on your face. It will get your attention and cause you to stop!
Our brains are wired to be CONSISTENT with our story and identity of who we are. If we develop an identity of a healthy, strong, and intelligent person who doesn’t smoke or doesn’t waste time, we will do everything in our power to live up to this kind of Awesome identity. Our thoughts, habits, and daily routines will be in sync with this idea of ourselves. Likewise, if the identity in our head is a person who is lazy, not very bright, smokes, and lacks willpower, our habits will match that image of ourselves because we can’t fight who we think we are in our minds. Why? Because that’s how we are wired. To change the wiring to do the opposite is simply not possible in the long run. The only lasting life changes come when you develop that Awesome Identity and live every day according to that identity in all your actions and thinking. It’s much easier to do this and becomes automatic after a short time of actively reminding yourself what kind of person you are.
Resolve to be Awesome in 2021 and watch all the good habits develop within you.
How To Encourage More Courage And Finally Crush It In Life!
By Ahsan
What’s that noise? As I walked through the forest, the sun was setting quickly. The crinkling sounds of my footsteps began to fade as I hurried back to my campsite. Instead, my mind became more alert to every sound other than my footsteps. The darkening forest began to envelop me. A low growling sound came from a bush to my right that was about fifteen feet away. I never thought this could happen.
Hey, did you feel that sense of fear as you read the paragraph above?
It's ok to be afraid. You and I are wired to be alert to danger. We are descendants of people who survived lions on the savannah, storms, famines, and misfortunes since ancient times.
We are also descendants of people who used their faculty of courage to survive!
It’s all about courage.
If you think about it, the difference between those who take a risk in life and those who play it safe determines a large portion of personal success.
You have to have the courage to love someone and get hurt.
You have to have the courage to set out on a BIG goal and risk failing.
You even need the courage to build more courage.
The challenge is to be courageous when your instincts want to push you to safety.
How to overcome this instinct is crucial. Now you may be wondering how to do it, and here is my five-point plan:
Action Plan:
Define Your Purpose for being courageous and define your purpose in life.
Recall past success, find your defining past success, and relive it mentally in vivid detail.
Assess the risk you need to take and the potential reward.
Count on some luck, aka blessings, because fortune favours the bold.
Act; Act Courageously Today!
Be brave when others are fearful, and you will inherit what rightfully belongs to you.
Fortune favours the bold and courageous.
Courage breeds results!
If you liked this article and know someone who is goal-oriented and should read this, please share it on your social media and suggest they visit www.awesomelifebook.com to subscribe to our email list. As a bonus, they will get our free report on Persistence and Resilience.
Do You Have Awesome DNA?
By Shazad
DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid and it is the genetic blueprint for all living things. Our DNA defines what we look like and is a significant part of our life as a foundation to making us who we are at birth. DNA also defines something about what can happen to us as we grow older but it’s not capable of predicting who we become as human beings. A big part of our success, fulfillment and happiness in life is based on our behaviors, thoughts, and movement as I’ll explain in this post.
What we do with our lives is what determines how things turn out and it can be explained by another kind of “DNA”. The choices we make every day is the D which stands for Decisions. The story in our head about our life, the world, and our relationship with everything around us is the Narrative denoted by the letter N. The execution of activity or Actions represents the A in this version of “DNA”. Actions are the everyday things we do and are based on the combination of decisions and narrative in our heads. It’s not enough to make good decisions and have the right attitude in our minds about things. We need to take the right actions to actually move forward.
If you tell me the Decisions, the Narrative, and the Actions of a person over the course of a week, a month, or a year - I can accurately predict the kinds of success and satisfaction the person will have in life. Success leaves clues. A person’s life CAN be understood to see where it’s going even before success is actually achieved. It is a combination of understanding human psychology and the collective wisdom of large groups of people over many thousands of years.
You can’t dramatically change your facial features, eye colour, height, or other aspects of your physical design. What you can always change is how you apply yourself in this world no matter how you look on the outside. You have the power to make the best impact on the world with all that you have been born with and all that you have learned so far in life. That’s where my definition of DNA comes into play.
Just like our biological DNA defines various basic features about us, this “DNA” defines the quality and likely path we are going to be on in this journey of life. Isn’t it satisfying to know that you have significant power to become the best person you can be regardless of what your biology is? You have the power to remake yourself into something Awesome so exercise your Decisions, Narrative, and Actions wisely every day!
The next time someone pays you a compliment, thank them and say, “It’s in my DNA”.
Here Is Why You Are Okay Even If Other People Say You Are Not
By Ahsan
If you want to make someone’s day, give them a compliment. On the other hand, if you want to make someone feel lousy about themselves, all you need to do is give them a well-intentioned comment of “constructive criticism.”
Why do words of criticism, fault-finding, and chastisement bother us so much? What’s going on here?
For starters, we feel bad because there may be truth to such comments. We also find ourselves facing a bit of reality¾we are not perfect!
So you feel bad because deep down inside, you know that you are not okay. The approval of others is what has power over how we feel about ourselves.
Don’t blame yourself too much because this was taught to you. You were taught to feel good about yourself when others give you praise and bad about yourself when you get the other stuff.
As Anthony De Mello, author of Awareness, said, this approval acts like a drug. It makes you addicted like an addict is addicted to their drug of choice.
There isn't anything wrong with praise and approval except for needing it to feel okay about yourself.
Social media showing the perfect lives of everyday people just adds to this phenomenon. The richer you are, the more popular, muscular, successful you are, the happier you should be about yourself.
This issue can be solved once and for all if you look at criticism and your abilities differently.
One solution is to block out the comment made against you and ignore it because you have come to be aware that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." That might work, but it may not be as good as the next idea you are about to read.
Here is a little known solution to handle the feelings of inadequacies, shame, and frustrations instead:
Accept the critique with a smile and care less about it because you do not focus on your weaknesses. Instead, smile because you are being reminded to focus on your strengths.
The land of strengths is where all your joy, self-esteem, and purpose in life is waiting!
When you get away from the drug of approval and its impact on your sense of self-worth, you live an extraordinary life. By ignoring the ignorant who do not understand that we should all focus on our strengths and extraordinary talents to live triumphantly, you will be a more effective and well-adjusted human being.
Don’t dwell on your weaknesses and try to improve them! This will only lead to more frustration and a low opinion of yourself.
You can’t be good at everything? Embrace your strengths instead!
When you allow criticism to bother you, you limit your growth because you don’t see your strengths.
Don't ask a fish to climb a tree. He can't do it, and he will only die trying to.
Major in your majors. Find your strengths and build those.
When a person focuses on their strengths and uses them to produce results and value for others and themselves, the product is a healthy level of self-esteem, and who doesn’t need that?
So how do you do this? Just spend some time doing a bit of reflection and personal action:
Actions:
1. Make a list of your strengths. And make a list of your weaknesses.
2. Then scratch the list of your weaknesses with a big red X.
3. Get some help from a friend, co-worker, or coach to help you identify your strengths as an added measure if needed.
4. Think about those strengths and imagine how your life could change if you polish them up. Working on your strengths won't feel like work; it will feel like heaven.
5. Spend time doing things that involve your strengths and extraordinary talents, so you live like a happy and productive human being that makes life look easy and are helpful to others in your orbit.
6. Live from now on, thinking about how good you are at things and not how you need to fix yourself. Ain’t nobody got time for that!
7. Lose the addiction of approval and teach people why this addiction is messing up their enjoyment of who they are and what they can be.
If you liked this article and know someone who is goal-oriented and should read this, please share it on your social media and suggest they visit www.awesomelifebook.com to subscribe to our email list. As a bonus, they will get our free report on Resilience.
What Does Winning Look Like to You?
By Shazad
We all want to WIN in life. This could be defined in professional terms like “Winning” at work or in business. Perhaps you define it in personal themes like “Winning” in a relationship, marriage or a family. Whatever the word “WIN” means to you, you need to define it.
How much money do you need to have before you consider yourself a “Winner” in your finances or your wealth? How many degrees do you need to have “won” in education or learning? What is the point in your marriage where you consider yourself a “Winner” as a husband or wife? How do you know you have “won” the battle to achieve better health and fitness? These are not easy questions but they are necessary to ask yourself so you are clear on the essence of what it means to truly WIN.
Take some time to define how you determine “Winning” in each aspect of your life. Write down what it looks like, tastes like, and feels like. Be clear and vivid in your description of winning. Why? Because you can achieve the feeling of winning only when you know what winning means to you in a particular arena of life. When you do this, you can actually take action to achieve those “WINS”. You will also realize that “Winning” in life is more of a journey rather than a destination you reach one day. Enjoy the path and WIN the Day with your daily habits!
The Bullets Coming Your Way
By Shazad
Neo: Are you trying to tell me that I can dodge bullets?
MORPHEUS: No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to!
I love the above dialogue from The Matrix and I think it’s a great way to understand all the threats that come our way over time. There’s always a gun or two pointed at us but we don’t have to suffer and die in the way many people are today.
Many known ‘bullets’ come for everyone as we grow old and they are called chronic and preventable illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and even various cancers. I recognize that sometimes people suddenly get sick and die as if someone “shot” them in the back of the head and there was nothing they could do about any of it. For the majority of people alive today, we know the bullets coming our way because we have studied how people age, get sick, and ultimately pass away in the modern world. The means or ways people are experiencing disease and how many of them perish from them are fairly well known along with prevention techniques.
Think of all the preventable causes of death like slowly moving bullets coming your way over the many years. You can clearly see them and you know they are headed your way to hurt or even kill you. Armed with this info about the future, you can train yourself to ‘stop’ those bullets by changing how you live, think and move today. You can take control of your health in terms of mind, body, and soul so that you don’t suffer the fate of so many others who follow the ‘wait and see what happens’ approach to aging. Such people are just waiting for one or more of these ‘bullets’ to strike them so they can do something about it. Sometimes one bullet is all it takes so this is obviously a careless approach to living.
We are not bulletproof and cannot dodge bullets like the chosen ONE from the Matrix. We can, however, choose to “stop” many of the bullets that will simply freeze where they are if we change the course of our lives by eating better, developing healthy fitness routines, and taking the time to rest, recover, and refresh our mind.
So now that you know the path to change your future, go walk it and be the hero of your own life!
Make 2021 Your Best Year By Doing This One Thing
By Ahsan
Here we are; it's the first week of the New Year! We are all hopeful and apprehensive at the same time for obvious reasons. Regardless, we still look forward to making life a bit better with a bit of old-fashioned determination and goals for the new year.
So how many goals and resolutions have you set for yourself? In my opinion, the average number is likely four, the usual four…exercise more, eat healthier, make more money, stay in touch with family and friends. And therein lies the challenge.
You have all these unique goals, but few of them get done due to a familiar pattern: set goals, start all of them at once, get overwhelmed, get distracted and then using “busyness” as an excellent excuse.
Well, there is always next year. Right?
Let us think about this for a second. Why don’t we achieve more of our goals? It’s because we have too many of them.
Having too many goals is like going to the buffet for dinner; there are too many choices, and the food ends up creating indigestion in the end. With too many goals, you end up in a world of overwhelm, dissatisfaction, self-incrimination, and your goals go to the wayside.
So, is there a better way?
Of course, there is. And here it is.
You need one "WATERFALL" goal. A waterfall goal is a particular goal that has a cascading effect on all your other goals.
Let's give you an example: Let' say your Big Important Goal (BIG) for the year is to write a book. You will need to break that goal down into several actions and stay motivated and act on your plan. You know this, and I know this. But what if you also had a goal to get in shape this year too? What if you made working out your Waterfall goal?
It’s just like seeing Niagara Falls. When you stand near the Falls, you see the water calmly flowing over the edge, and then it powerfully crashes against the river and rocks below, setting in motion a constant mist! A Waterfall goal of working out will spill over and cause motion for the BIG goal of writing the book.
Your Waterfall goal can have an impact on all your goals. Your daily workout will cascade into better eating, increased alertness, so you write better; increased confidence so you perform better at work or business; and gives you a sense of well-being, making even your relationships more harmonious.
As the famous business philosopher Jim Rohn said, “if you really want to do something, you will find a way, if you don’t, you will find an excuse.”
So here is what you might like to do.
Actions:
Make a list of all your goals for 2021.
Choose one goal out of your list and make it the Waterfall Goal: Set aside 6-12 months to master it! Think of how it will create the cascade effect.
Track the accomplishment of your BIGs that are fueled by your Waterfall Goal.
Keep your Waterfall Goal as a life-long commitment because it will likely accelerate all your present and future BIGs.
What goals do you need to focus on for 2021? It’s very natural to have more than one goal. Just figure out one Waterfall Goal and make it your focus for all of 2021.
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2021: Only What You Take With You
By Shazad
There is a scene in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back that I really love. It’s the one with Luke meeting Yoda for the first time and he starts training to be a Jedi. When he's done for the day, Luke notices a mysterious cave and he asks Yoda, "What's in there?"
Yoda replies, "Only what you take with you."
To achieve a better 2021 and beyond, you need to take only those tools, habits, and thoughts that can help you. Like Luke Skywalker, you must face yourself in the present and go forward with the best of your being. Take the lessons from the struggle and shortcomings of 2020 but don’t repeat the same mistakes. There’s no need to pack all of the sadness, worry, or sense of failure with you. This will weigh you down and result in destructive patterns making you reckless. and afraid.
Whenever you face a crisis, remember these wise words of Master Yoda:
“Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger… anger leads to hate… hate leads to suffering.”
Bring just the minimum amount, but the most important things with you. Your love, your courage, your wisdom, some patience, and a sense of moderation about people and events that will unfold. Don’t allow external events to blast you off into space with excessive joy or let negative people and news make you want to crawl deep into the earth due to sorrow and fear. Don’t lash out at everything that comes your way trying to deny or discredit it. Do not be the first one to take an offensive position on some information or event. You should develop your critical thinking skills more and confirm what is true versus opinion. Watch, listen, and try to understand what’s happening. Look for meaning and make it a habit to get a better perspective. Sometimes you will need to zoom in to focus on something. Other times you will need to zoom far out to get clarity and see the big picture.
Whatever happens, know that you can figure it out and manage the situation to the best of your abilities. Here comes 2021!
May the Force Be With You all!
Please share this article with anyone who could benefit from the message as we begin the new year. Here is the direct link for this post https://www.awesomelifebook.com/motivation/2020/12/30/2021-only-what-you-take-with-you
The Secret to Being Awesome is...
By Shazad
You want a simple answer like a “Magic Bullet” or a single piece of advice that will make you instantly smarter, faster, younger or richer, right? Sorry to disappoint you. There is no such thing that works for everyone. There are however, a bunch of little things done on a consistent basis that lead to success and even, being Awesome!
First, taking time to work on yourself each day. What are you thinking about? What are you doing? What are your values and goals in life or just for the new Year? Figure out and then write out these things and read them frequently. Doing so will reinforce who you are and guide you towards doing what needs to be done.
Second, ask a few trusted friends what they see as your strengths and some weak points or shortcomings to work on. Listen carefully and without interruption. Make a point to reflect on these and make the necessary changes in life to do more of the things you want to be known for and improve or stop doing things you don’t want to be part of your personality.
Third, read broadly and widely on the past. What was it like to be a leader, a business person, an inventor or just a family member in the past? How did people live and who was thriving? How did they do it and what were their challenges? Read and study the past because it offers clues about human nature, relationships, the art of living a good life and even hints at what the future can be like.
Lastly, remember A-B-C which stands for Always Be Curious. Have a sense of wonder in life and a thirst for understanding things better than you currently do. Make it a habit to read, listen and watch interesting people talk on a variety of subjects. Explore the origin stories of individuals and companies or even nations.
So there you have it. Everything I have personally used to create my Awesome Life and keep it going with 4 simple strategies. If you do all of the above, you’ll be on the road to a more Awesome version of yourself!
How To Live With Yourself
Compiled by Ahsan
The biggest problem that people face in life is they get an education in school that teaches them the rules of grammar and geometry laws, which they may never use. Unfortunately, they don't learn the most crucial subject. And that is how to handle your mental state so you can have a higher quality of life.
What do you do when life throws you a curveball? How do you mentally adjust to adversity, move on and not become crushed by life? What kind of adjustments do you make when life hands you a dirty deal?
The following is a synopsis of ten points that will help a person live with themselves and avoid major mental issues. The author is Dr. Murray Banks, who was a psychiatrist that was from New York. He passed away in 2008 at the age of 92. He was as brilliant as he was funny.
Dr. Banks referred to his ideas of mental therapy as mental hygiene. I listened to the recording and tried to capture his ten points. I hope you will benefit from it and share it far and wide. Please.
Ten Points of Mental Hygiene So You Can Live With Yourself
by Dr. Murray Banks
Are you happy? Happiness is a by-product. It's the result of effective life adjustments! It's not a destination you arrive at; it's a manner of travelling.
Do you have a zest for living? Regardless of age, are you interested in love, play and learning more? There are people 80 and 90 years of age who are getting younger every day and 18 who age every minute.
Are you socially adjusted? Do you like being with others? Sharing with others? The most telling symptom is the loss of interest. A well-adjusted person enjoys being around others.
Do you have unity and balance? If you are going to do something, you should enjoy it; that's unity. Don't wrap your life around one thing; that is about balance. Do you realize what you are doing when you identify too much with any one person or thing? You're building your whole personality on one support. If you ever lose that one person or thing, your life will be ruined?
Can you live with each problem you get in life as it arises? Don't look at regrets of the past or worries of what might happen in the future.
Do you have insight into your own conduct? You know the main underlying reasons for what you do? A psychiatrist can never fix you. All they can do is help you to help yourself. If you won't do that, you are doomed. A broken finger will heal itself without your cooperation, but not a broken personality. A nervous stomach will get cured once you understand that you have a fear and you attack that fear, not a moment before.
Do you have a confidential relationship with some other person? Every human being needs someone whom he can talk to so honestly, so freely without fear of being double-crossed.
Do you have a sense for the ridiculous? Do you have the sense of humour to laugh hard and long at what the world does to you? Can you laugh at yourself? Laughter is the sunshine of the soul. If you forget how to laugh, you are dead. Here's the hint of living longer⎯ laugh because when you laugh, you can't get angry or get ulcers.
Are you engaged in satisfying work? You won't break down if you run around too much. You break down from over worry. If you work all day at something you love, you'll be tired even with tension and tears, but you won't break down. Just adjust yourself.
Do you know how to worry effectively? There's only one thing to do if you are worried. Do something active about the cause of your worry. If you are worried about your health, go see a doctor. You have an emotional problem, go to a psychiatrist.
Here is one of many jokes Dr. Banks tells in the presentation:
A patient calls me on the phone and says, "is this the crazy Doctor? I said, yes. Well, I want to make an appointment to see you, how much do you charge? I said $20. The patient replied, well, I'm not that crazy."
The only difference between a happy person and a broken soul is never the problems; the problems are just about the same for all of us. It's the attitude towards the problems that makes us what we are.
It's like the story of the mother who takes her twin boys to see the Psychiatrist. She says one is an optimist and the other is a pessimist. Can you do something to level them out a bit? The Doctor said to put the pessimist son in a room with a large box of new toys and the optimist in a room with a large box of manure. So the mother does and comes back to report the results. What happened? Asked the Doctor? Well, the pessimist son complained about all the boring toys while the optimist son kept digging through the box and said, "you can't fool me; with all this manure, there has to be a pony somewhere!"
Dr. Banks concludes his talk by saying we are all going through life trying to climb a slippery hill. The difference between how you end up is, are you going to get up after you face a worry, frustration or disappointment and try to climb a little higher or are you going to stay lying down and have a nervous breakdown?
Happiness is like chasing a butterfly. If you try to catch it, it will just elude you. However, if you sit down, it will land softly on your shoulder.
Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you!
Listen to the recording if you are a keener:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCvZufTc9G8
If you liked this article and know someone who is goal-oriented and should read this, please share it on your social media and suggest they visit www.awesomelifebook.com to subscribe to our email list. As a bonus, they will get our free report “HOW TO DEVELOP A DIAMOND HARD MINDSET.”
How Well Do You Know Yourself?
by Ahsan
I bet you know your favourite person quite well. You probably know a lot about them, like their favourite foods, where they grew up and how they think about life. That likely goes a long way to creating a great relationship with them where you are in tune with that person.
Now stop for a second and think about how well you know yourself?
How in tune are you with who you truly are? What makes you tick? And wouldn't you say that understanding yourself should be the most important thing before you go onward in life and try to understand others and life itself?
To know thyself is the key to successful living. This was an ancient Greek philosophy. It also governed the thinking in the East:
"He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened." Lao-Tzu
The primary benefit to knowing yourself is that you will get along with life in a more well-adjusted way. All people on earth have to deal with others and with reality. If anything, we tend to have problems with one of the two and sometimes both. By knowing yourself, you will learn how to understand others better and the situations life presents. If you don't get to know yourself, you leave a lot of potential on the table and may reach the end of life, having lived a mechanical existence. You are just going through the motions.
If life is a gift, individual gifts were implanted in you from the beginning. Being aware of your thoughts and consciously understanding your rational thoughts compared to your random thoughts is a gift. Just remember, you are not your thoughts, so don't get too wrapped up in your head. Understand that what makes you human is that you are the one that is listening to the thoughts. In listening, you will begin to grow on the path of self-awareness. Again, all this is necessary if you want to live well with yourself, others around you like family members and co-workers and if you want to face the struggles of life like a boss!
Most people are looking for a quick fix in life. They are not willing to do the work. The deep work is akin to finding a "cure." The quick fix is useful for temporary relief. So, if you want to make the most of your life, get to know yourself. What does that mean, you ask? Simple. Know things like what makes you happy or sad. What scares you? Why do you have these feelings? What is your personality type? Are you an introvert with an analytical mind, or are you an extrovert with an undertone of creativity? Do the work. Understand yourself.
When you understand yourself and your mental inclinations and understand that they tend to rule your behaviour, you begin to create the possibility of awakening and living as you want to. You know that your higher level of self-awareness gives you greater agency over your thoughts, feelings and actions. You will have a greater understanding and empathy for others, and you will take life in stride. Not a bad outcome for a bit of hard work.
Action Steps:
Take time every day to go into self-isolation, meditation or prayer where you spend time thinking about who you are: call it self-discovery time. Here is a tip: for every one time you look at yourself, look 20 times at the Prophets: like Krishna, Confucious, Moses, Jesus and Mohammad, peace and blessing be upon them all.
Take a personality test and find out what personality type describes you best. You can also ask some friends and co-workers to offer their observations.
Pay attention to your unconscious behaviour patterns. If you get angry quickly, start to notice the trigger and, more importantly, where the quick temper is coming from? Is it a deep need to be respected? Well, maybe you can be ok if you are not respected as long as you respect yourself?
Work on your practical and spiritual life at the same time, in the midst of ordinary day to day life. There is no need to go to any extreme. No need to renounce your passions, no need to suppress your thoughts and no need to go on a retreat.
Always repeat the following phrase in moments of contemplation: I am what I am, and I can still be better! This will give you the subliminal message to always move towards your best self and cultivate higher virtues like temperance, kindness, courage and all the other good stuff!
Here is a parting story. A Rabbi was asked by a believer why it is said that the Torah is written on the heart and not in the heart? The Rabbi replied, "because the heart has to first open for the goodness to be absorbed."
Likewise, by doing the deep work of understanding yourself, you become open and allow the positive benefits of understanding yourself, others and reality itself to create a life where everything is working in harmony.
You are not just an acorn; in you is an entire forest of Oak trees.
If you liked this article and know someone who is goal-oriented and should read this, please share it on your social media and suggest they visit www.awesomelifebook.com to subscribe to our email list. As a bonus, they will get our free report "HOW TO DEVELOP A DIAMOND HARD MINDSET."