In the midst of our turbulent lives, it is all too easy to be overwhelmed by life’s challenges. Concerns about family, money, health, and employment can easily take over your consciousness.
Are you living or are you firefighting?
It is normal to struggle with these mental blocks. But imagine for a second how different your world would look if you took those fears, worries and stresses and re-routed them into gratitude.
So a few days ago, I got really demotivated.
I woke up that morning knowing I have a whole lot of stuff to do. Though I knew there’s a lot of work, I was actually looking forward to doing it because it’s the kind of work I sincerely like doing.
I first had to run some errands and got to doing the work only in the afternoon. Just as I was about to start working, I realised I just can’t be bothered. You see, this work is the kind of work I do for myself – I am my own boss at this job, there’s nobody watching over my shoulder. Nothing disastrous is going to happen if I simply slack off (nothing good either, of course).
If you have tasks that only you hold yourself accountable for, it’s easy to give in to the temptation to do nothing.
So that day, instead of doing everything I had planned, I just wasted several hours browsing random stuff on the web. Several hours that did not produce anything, did not make me a better person, and didn’t even provide me with much entertainment or relaxation. Complete waste.
That got me thinking: why did I lose motivation like that? It wasn’t the first time this had happened. Does this occur randomly? Or could there be a pattern to all the times that I lack motivation to do what I should be doing?
When we fall short of our goals, it’s easy to say things like, “I’m just not cut out to do this job,” or “I’ll never be smart enough to do the things I want to do.” These totalising views are part of your overall mindset, and whether you realise it or not, your attitude towards life plays a huge role in your success. If you find negativity constantly creeping into your daily thoughts, it may be time for a mindset shift. With some focused thought and a desire to change, you can give your mentality a makeover.
I think there’s some confusion surrounding the art of positive thinking nowadays.
Positivity is not magic.
The universe is not going to go out of its way to fix all your problems just because you decided to adopt a positive frame of mind.
What it is though is a hugely practical skill that will get you very far in life if you do it right.
At times, you may feel entirely hopeless and depressed; you try to clutch onto something that shall lift you out of your misery, but you do not seem to find anything. You might even feel disconnected and begin to lose inspiration in life; or maybe everything just seems boring and pointless. The counter to this kind of attitude is the practice of gratitude.
Gratitude is the element that most people tend to ignore in their personality, possibly because it’s so easy to ignore. If something is already there in your life, why feel grateful? This however leads to a life of constant grasping, always trying to get more without ever really feeling happy about the present.
Gratitude is to acknowledge the good things in your life, and to be able to sense their worth.
Maybe you want fortune, or maybe you want fame. Perhaps you just want a peaceful life. Whatever it is, we all seem to agree that what we really want is to be happy.
Even a little kid understands the concept of happiness and yet it’s a super difficult subject to give advice on. Happiness is a lifelong study for most of us. Nonetheless, there are a few tips that I can give you that are quite certain to bring more “happy” into your life.
As Og Mandino once said: “The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them.” Goal setting helps break large and tedious tasks into smaller chunks that become achievable, ultimately leading to the completion of that big task.
We all have been told to set goals in our lives but few know how to do it. Simply hailing goal setting as a solution to everything is of no use unless we also learn to it effectively. On the observation of many people, it has been found that around one-fourth of New Year’s resolutions are broken in the very first week. If we look at those who go to the gym, around 80 percent quit within 8 months of joining.
Perhaps the biggest reason for failing to accomplish goals is the inappropriate way people set them. If one sets the bar too high, the goals would become demotivating and people would end up dropping them at some point in time. For instance, if one knows that he/she only has 4 hours available at most for studying, then setting a goal for 8 hours of study per day is not wise at all. A realistic goal would be near 4 hours plus/minus any hour that can be negotiated over the time period (say a month or a year).
It is crucial that you create practical goals for yourself. Let’s go through this point by point.
You are not standing still.
Change is inevitable. You are going to change anyway. Whatever you choose to do or not to do, you are going to be a slightly different person in 6 months time.
If you are going to change anyway, might as well make a choice. Choose how you want to change. Making no choice at all is also a choice, but it’s one that leaves you randomly floating about the seas of life with no direction.
On the other you hand, you can choose to be a better person in a half year’s time. A more successful person. A more skilled person. Whatever you like.
Here are a bunch of personal development ideas to help you move along.
Philosophers and intellectual thinkers have argued over and over again on the true purpose in life. Each and every one of them has her/his own unique take on the matter. However, this question does not only concern intellectuals; it concerns the entirety of the human kind.
People go about their lives, wondering about the value of their existence. This question can partly be answered by finding one’s self-respect.
Self-worth means defining the reason behind every action you take throughout your journey; and whether the outcome reflects the true nature of your own unique identity.
To start discovering your self-worth, you need to stop comparing yourself to others.
The only one you should be comparing yourself to is your former self.
Do listen to your inner voices. Some of these voices might be destructive so you have to maintain a somewhat critical attitude. You need to challenge the destructive tendencies within you and work on strengthening the beneficial ones.
How much longer are you going to postpone your dreams?
Why is today a worse day for starting than any other day?
You do dream of a better life and a better you. Probably your life goals are more specific than that, but they definitely involve some sort of improvement in either your circumstances or yourself.
The longer you put off doing things that bring you closer to that desired state, the longer it will take to get there.
Here are a few things you should today, right now, in order to start bringing yourself closer to what you dream of.