Discomfort can be a pain or a springboard for success. When you are uncomfortable you want to change your status. You are not happy with the status quo. This creates the impetus to take action.
When you are comfortable you can easily become satisfied with status quo. This can potentially lead to mediocrity.
Therefore do not view discomfort negatively but rather use it to provide the impetus to change – and change for the better.
To get to the next level of success, you need to leave your comfort zone and learn new things and seize opportunities. You have to make yourself accountable for going the next level or find a mentor who can make you accountable.
Our work is an integral part of who we are, and if we are not able to feel joyous when we are at work we are probably falling short of living our true potential.
Not only is joy our very state of being, but it is also a touchstone of all that is going well in our lives.
So let’s explore some methods that can help put the zing back into work.
➢ Define your mission – The articulation of who we are, what we want in life, and how we want to lead our lives can spell the difference between dragging yourself to work every day and choosing a workplace that helps you crystallize your vision.
➢ First things first – Before you go to sleep at night, write down three priorities you would like to accomplish the next day. If you complete these three priorities the next day you will feel terrific. So try your best to do them as early as possible.
➢ Widen your circle – We spend 70% of our waking time at our workplace, so it’s only natural that we want to spend it with people we enjoy being with. However, you also need to create meaningful relationships with other people. So go ahead and widen your circle.
➢ Treat every problem as an opportunity – Every challenge or problem carries within itself the opportunity for growth. What is needed is an open mind and self-awareness. Once you decide to view every challenge as an opportunity, life begins to unfold in amazing ways.
➢ Help someone – The fastest way to get out of misery is to help someone. To start with, it immediately diverts attention from your own misery. Second, it enriches you by adding value to your life. Third, the other’s relief and happiness are infectious.
➢ Create your own special ‘Joy Ritual’ – Whether it’s having that peppermint tea at four in the afternoon, or going out for a walk, create your own special moments to savor.
➢ Be in the moment – The past is no more, and the future is not yet here. All that we have is the present, and the present is loaded with opportunity.
When you have aged parents who are having serious health challenges it can be quite taxing on you as you try to navigate your own responsibilities of parenting, profession, partnership, other.
You sometimes feel you have to pick and choose to cope and sometimes you ask the question why me?
However, when you take this responsibility as a blessing and remember what your parents did for you when you were young, not only does your perspective change but you find great joy and inner peace.
The reality is one day you will be old and the treatment you will get from your children is the treatment you are giving your elderly parents. Children don’t do what they are told, they do what they see.
So, when put to a challenge of looking after your aged parents instead of saying Why me? Say, Why not me?
How does magic happen? We are not talking about a circus magician but the magic that is created by someone like Michael Jordan in sports or Steve Jobs in business.
Michael Jordan in his prime was magic. However, he said he missed hundreds of shots he took. He also missed game-winning shots he was entrusted with. He failed many times and yet he was magic and one of the best ever.
Steve Jobs had many failures including being fired from his own company before becoming an icon of creativity.
Being magic does not mean not having failed. In fact most successful leaders, athletes who end up creating magic go through enormous challenges, struggles, and failures. They fail their way to success.
The key to their success was the unwavering faith that they will make it no matter what. Odds were stacked against them during their journey but that only enhanced their resolve instead of diminishing it.
So if you are going through challenges, struggles, obstacles do not panic. You have to go through enormous hurdles before you can eventually claim the so-called magic.
Persistence, in and of itself, is usually a good thing, but what if you are chasing the wrong goals? This is where the idea of “enlightened persistence” comes in. Rather than chase goals that are not right for you, establish goals that make you happy and keep you fulfilled.
Some of the questions you can ask yourself are:
· Are you chasing futile goals which, even when achieved, will not invite happiness?
· When doing what is right for you, do you prevail even when the odds are stacked against you?
· When the task is to turn goals into concrete results do you do a little extra to create breakthroughs?
· Are you focused and consistent?
Persist until you succeed, however, exit if you’re chasing the wrong goals!
Many people are urgency-driven as opposed to being purpose-driven. Being proactive will help you spend your time on purpose-driven areas of your life.
When you have a purpose-oriented time-management system, you are managing your life. You know what is most important to you, and you make choices that are aligned to your purpose. You devote your energies to things that have your highest priority and are able to balance spontaneity and planning to achieve optimum results. You analyze the way your time is being spent, so you know whether it is aligned to your purpose.
When you’ve established your priorities, every job, meeting, phone call or e-mail becomes a purpose-driven exercise. Constantly ask yourself: “If this doesn’t advance me toward my purpose, then why am I doing it?”
We all have many challenges. However, there is usually one major challenge that impacts everything else. I call this the ‘Big Rock’! Think of a rock almost the size of a car.
One can often find a way to remove all the pebbles, but the Big Rock remains. This impacts your ability to unleash your power!
The reason most people do not remove the big rock is because:
– they don’t know what the Big Rock actually is or
– those who do know what the big rock is do not put enough concentrated effort to remove it.
How about you? Do you know what your Big Rock is? If you do, are you putting enough energy towards eliminating it? Are you seeking the help you need to remove it? If not, why not?
