Different From Yesterday

I Can’t Go Back to Yesterday,
Because I Was a Different Person Then.

^{— Alice in Wonderland}

I continue to change, so does my destiny. Every choice I make turns me into a different human being, in ways great and small. And every difference, no matter how subtle, affects my future.

We tend to obsess about the past, to replay situations over and over in minds hoping for a different outcome. Instead we should follow the advice of Alice’s creator. Our actions are the choices that will turn us into a different person and change our future. Wallowing in guilt will not move us in a positive direction.

It’s tempting to give up, to feel trapped, to think that there’s nothing I can do to change the future. But that’s not true. That’s the path of least resistance but not the path of upward growth and change.

We always have a choice to make. We choose how to respond to those situations. Whatever life throws us, we choose our reaction. It’s up to us to make it positive or negative. And whatever our reaction, we do in fact become a different human being because of it – either for our benefit, or, to our detriment.

You Can’t Do Everything – And If You Try, You Won’t Do Anything Well

If you do move from one shiny object to another, you’ll slowly discover a fundamental truth.
Chaos. Disunity. Lack of direction.

We live in an age of distraction. Never-ending notifications, instantaneous communication, and easy access to endless information. Fear of missing out moves us motivates us to try to do everything that our minds and hearts desire. Keep your phone on the table so that you can instantly check the super-important messages that come in every 7 minutes. Walk to work so fast you overtake peaceful joggers. Tell your mama you’ll definitely visit next week. Oh, and, God forbid you don’t have 18 certificates on your Linkedin page and five urgent projects to attend to. The list goes on and on.

Having a lot of irons in the fire may sound like a smart plan, but given the distractions of technology and communications, it is easier than ever to fall victim to the temptations of trying to do too many things – and accomplishing none of them.

In comes Steve Jobs 30% Rule:

“We examined the future product roadmap. Not the products we’re shipping today, the future product line. And what we found was that 30% of them were incredibly good, and about 70% of them were either ‘pretty good’ or things that we didn’t really need to be doing. Businesses we didn’t really need to be in.”

Focus on the 30% of ‘incredibly good’ stuff in your life.

Just ask yourself:

• If you had to end 70% of your relationships, which would they be?
  
• If you had to quit 70% of your projects, which ones would you choose?
  
• If you had to cut your time off by 70%, what would you leave?

Just by honestly answering these questions you can identify more clearly which parts of your life deliver the most value.

Minimalism begins with elimination — once you get rid of the stuff that slows you down, you can start replacing it with stuff that helps you grow. The hard part is being able to let go of things that are ‘pretty good’ in your life — perhaps even things you’ve grown to love.

You Create Limits in Your Mind

The Garden of the World Has No Limits,
Except in Your Mind.

^{— Rumi}

This reminds us that we set our own limits in life.

You can choose to see the world as a lush green garden scattered with waterfalls that flow with possibilities. You can also choose to see it as a bottomless pit of troubles and a life-sucking machine of death.

Which one will it be?

The world is a direct reflection of your mind. Look through a lens of positive possibility and you will see the gardens of growth; look through a lens of negative restrictions and you will see the abyss of demise.

When you are Scared to Jump… JUMP – That’s When Life Will Begin to Blossom 🌼

When if feels scary to jump,
that is exactly when you jump,
otherwise you end up staying
in the same place your whole life.

_{— A.Morales}

It’s the fear that keeps us in our comfort zone. We don’t have to let go of the fear to push ourselves forward into growth. It’s pushing through the fear that makes us strong and the fear falls away in the process. Many say that if we want to follow our dreams, we should follow our fears. If our dreams don’t scare us, they aren’t big enough.

We are stronger than we sometimes think. Facing our fears is less scary than thinking about it. It’s the anticipation that builds and causes our pain and resistance. The more often we put ourselves in an experience that gives us opportunities to be uncomfortable, the easier it will become and life will begin to blossom.

You’re Not a Tree 🌳🌳 – Change

If You Don’t Like How Things Are,
Change It! You’re Not a Tree 🌳🌳

^{–Jim Rohn}

We have been granted the abilities of choice and change. You deserve to live a life full of more happiness and joy. Find what will make you happy, in all the areas of your life, and start working towards that. If you are fully committed to finding more happiness and joy in your life, tough decisions of change must be made. The essence of life is growth; do whatever is necessary to ensure your continual growth.

Living An Amazing Life, Means Taking More Risks

“Without risk, growth is impossible.”

^{— Mike Hyatt}

Leaders who break records, launching new product lines, and beat impossible odds don’t let fear of failure keep them from achieving success. And you shouldn’t either.

Failure is something to be learned from, not feared. Choose to take chances, make mistakes, and learn from them in order to really grow.
Life moves, even when you’re trying to avoid change. Step forward so you determine the direction you’ll go.
Practice taking small risks to minimize your fear of ‘bad’ outcomes. You’ll find courage to embrace bigger risks when the time comes.

Take intentional, focused risks to achieve the life you want to live.

Strength & Struggle

Strength is the product of struggle, you must do what others don’t, to achieve what others won’t.

^{— Henry Rollins}

Mark Seery from the University of Buffalo, SUNY, has extensively researched stress /struggle and how humans cope with it. His research concludes that “a history of some lifetime adversity predicted lower global distress, lower functional impairment, fewer post-traumatic stress symptoms, and higher life satisfaction over time.” His conclusion doesn’t point to one single predictive factor for a positive outcome, but many. Some of those factors include mastering past hurdles, feeling in control, and building social support networks.
And then there’s this idea of post-traumatic growth. Coined in the 1990s by Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun, post-traumatic growth describes when individuals experience profound transformation as they cope with various types of trauma and challenging life circumstances. Up to 70 percent of trauma survivors report some positive psychological growth, research has found.

Challenges Help Us Grow

Every challenge, every setback is a reward.
Without them, you wouldn’t grow.

_{Pauline Nordin}

Facing challenges and navigating one’s way through them builds resilience capacity. Knowing that one can overcome obstacles, learn from struggles and benefit from mistakes lays a solid foundation for success in later life. 

Tired Mind or Tired Body?

Being tired is a state of mind
more than a state of body.

_{Pauline Nordin}

Resistance comes up all the time in life, and not just with exercise. It’s there when you have to do things you are not excited about. By sitting with the feeling, you discover you can do much more than you thought.

Whenever you have this feeling now, you can focus on the growth it can bring you. That it can help you be who you want to be. That it can eventually get you to the summit. And the satisfaction that comes with it is one of the best feelings in the world.

3 Questions to Change for the Better

1. WHAT IS WORKING
2. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO STOP DOING
3. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO START DOING

Change can teach us to adapt and help us develop resilience, but only if we understand our own capacity for growth and learning. When change makes us better, it’s because we have learned how to turn a challenging situation to our own advantage, not merely because change happens.