Inspiration Blog

Do you work in a job that you don’t love in order to fund an extravagant lifestyle that you barely have time to enjoy? Perhaps it’s time to reassess your priorities in life. While it is lovely to have a beautiful new car every few years and gorgeous new clothes, your time is your most valuable asset. If you are plugging away the hours in a job that brings you little satisfaction and a deep sense of purpose, you are trading your only non-refundable value for things that you soon tire of. With the flexibility of the marketplace these days, and the ease in the availability of information and acquisition of skills – there is ample opportunity for you to find or build a way of earning a great income doing something that you truly enjoy. You are unique in the way your genetics and experiences have shaped you, and only you have the gifts designed through those experiences to offer the world. In turn, by doing something that doesn’t effectively utilise those gifts, you are denying the world of an essential component of how it could be better! You owe it to yourself and those around you to play to your strengths and trust yourself to succeed in your own passion.

When people talk about ‘doing what you love’, it is usually exclusively directed towards the world of work. This implies that there is already a pre-existing ‘box’ that will fit everything that you love into it. For some, this is true. However, in an increasingly malleable world, new ‘jobs’ are being created daily and most of the really successful ones are made by people doing their own version of something in a completely new way. It should also extend to your everyday activities that aren’t just work. If you are a tea or coffee lover – invest in a beautiful cup and good quality tea or coffee and separate time for yourself to sit and REALLY enjoy it in the morning or afternoon. If you LOVE to read – carve out that time for yourself to revel in the pages of a new award-winning book in the genre of your choice. Fishing? Plan a small part of your weekend to go and indulge in it. Reflect back upon your earlier days – what would you love to do in the free time that seems to have evaporated now? Try dabbling in it again and see if that passion is still there. If it’s not, that’s fine, but it is certainly worth investigating. You don’t have to make a career out of the habits that you love. But don’t sacrifice them from your existence – they are part of what makes you, you. Perhaps one day your indulgence in the things that you love will evolve and grow into ideas for your own style of work, but perhaps not. What matters is the immense joy and satisfaction these things bring to your life – it is worth the investment of time.

A lot of us have some time off around this time of year – it’s time to try something new! It doesn’t have to be anything expensive or particularly thrill-seeking, but it’s a great time to start or try something new. It could be as simple as cooking a new recipe you’ve been meaning to try, it could be arranging a new year party, visiting a new place, trying a new bar/restaurant, making a new friend and spending time with them. Mix up your routine to bring some more life and breath into your existence. Incorporating new experiences and adventures into your life on a regular basis helps you to resist the dangerous route of monotony that wears away the spirit, soul and enthusiasm. Push yourself to learn a new skill or expose yourself to something that you never thought you would do – the adrenaline and sense of accomplishment will give you a boost in your endorphins and general lust for life. We tried shark diving yesterday – what a rush! Why wait until the New Year to make things exciting?

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Perhaps you have decided to declutter and streamline your life. Perhaps you have decided to get fit. Perhaps you have decided to get a new job. You were full of motivation until you turned to the practicality of starting and you saw the overwhelming mess, the amount of exercise you have to do, or the huge number of jobs and the upsetting state of your resume. Your motivation takes a hit and your habitual reaction starts to whisper to you, “Do it later”, “You don’t have time now”, “It probably won’t work anyway”. We are so accustomed to listening to these voices and they feel very comfortable. Deep down, however, you know they are lying to you. It is time to stop that running commentary in your mind. Today IS the right time to start, you will make time, and it certainly will work – as it has for many, many others. If you do begin feeling this way, write down one sentence to refute each of the negative thoughts that keep popping into your mind. Find a success story or couple of images that will remind you that you want to be on the same path as that person or you want a similar outcome to what is pictured. The world is full of success stories, and it really is time to write your own. Vividly picture the feeling you will feel once you reach that first goal. Break down the overwhelm to small step goals – getting your resume re-styled (or doing it yourself and having a friend review it for you), completing 7 exercise sessions, sorting through one room of your home. Then ride on the thrill and momentum of completing those tasks. A sense of accomplishment and acknowledging to yourself that you are definitely on the path to your story of success will convince your brain that this is already planned out – the outcome is already set and you are simply walking a well-trodden path that you know the (positive) ending of. Don’t feel overwhelmed – transform that emotion into imagining the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction when you get there.

Flexibility and mobility in our lives is a goal that most have at least subconscious aspirations towards. No one ever wants to feel ‘stuck’ in their situations. As an antidote, therefore, we recommend always seeking to be ‘overqualified’ for where you are. This applies to work in that training yourself and seeking new and innovative skills will give you upward mobility or transferability if you so desire. It also applies to our personal development, constantly learning and building our skillset in communication, self-love, fitness and health are invaluable investments. Financially, when you are seeking to buy a house/car/outfit/gadget, seek only what you truly value and need, rather than looking at your bank balance and then maxing it out. If you can get a loan for $880,000 for a home, you do not need to find a home that costs the maximum. Your needs and desires may be met at a different price. Always allow yourself room – we recommend ‘making more room’ by improving your abilities, streamlining your physical space, investing in quality personal and professional relationships and, above all, always acting with integrity. If you are an honest person of your word and you do everything with your best effort, you will always have more options and possibilities with others, yourself and your situations than those who people feel cannot be trusted, are unreliable, are lazy or simply not dedicated to doing their best. Make 2017 your best year yet, by ‘making room’ and ‘being overqualified’ in the key aspects of your life.

Photo Credit: Contiki

A lot of us tend to get bogged down in the practicalities of getting things done to the extent that we stunt the role that imagination and inspiration can play in helping us to find more effective and innovative ways to reach our desires. If thinking about your goal and the necessary steps to get you there brings emotional stress, anxiety and other negative emotions, it is likely that you won’t be engaging your imagination in the process and your result may even feel slightly tainted by these feelings. If you allow this thought process to build and you surround the steps with negativity, it is far more likely that you will start using avoidance strategies and completing tasks half-heartedly or with limited possibility for improvement. If you can consciously sit and begin thinking about your daily tasks and their significance for their completion, attaching positive emotions of anticipation, pride, excitement and optimism, it should encourage your mind to begin inventing novel ideas and room for growth. The tasks will become opportunities, rather than liabilities. This is such an important step to maintain your commitment to your goals. Is there something that you are procrastinating with at the moment that you have started to build a negative mental story around? Attack it with positivity today.

If you speak to some of the greatest athletes, thinkers, businesspeople and generally successful individuals, many of them will talk about motivation. However, they will also acknowledge that there are periods of time in which motivation escapes them. What happens then? Long term success is not necessarily about motivation. It is about effort. If you replace the common excuse, “I just don’t feel motivated” with “I’m not willing to put in the effort”, it is equally true but acknowledges the truth of the situation in which you are relying on something external to yourself that you expect to ‘appear’ to give you success. If you switch your thinking to acknowledge that your performance relies on effort – day in, day out – you give yourself agency again and it is not dependent on mood swings, circumstance or energy levels. True success is based on hours and hours of effort, not just acting when conditions are favourable. Grinding through tiredness, a lack of inspiration and generally feeling ‘blah’ are important habits for successful people. The effort that you put into your goals will spread throughout the rest of your life, assisting you in building your integrity, keeping your word in business and relationships and improving your health. You know that you can keep your promises to yourself. So, start thinking about your success in terms of ‘effort’, rather than ‘motivation’ and notice the changes in your behaviour.

Are you living your dream life, or are you well on your way? If so, great! If not, why not? If the reasons that come to your mind mostly focus on things external to you – circumstances, the behaviour of other people, etc. you may have identified a deeper weakness in your plan. The failure to recognise your own culpability in your situation. And no, this isn’t a blame game. In fact, identifying the pattern that you have neglected your own sense of agency is an empowering force in making strides towards your goals. If you see yourself at the mercy of others and circumstance, you consciously limit your ability to do anything to make a difference. However, if you see yourself as the crucial agent of change – which is the case in most circumstances – you have the power to take incredible action today! It is important to identify self-limiting beliefs such as thinking that you are not good enough to get a better job, exercise will never work because you don’t have the personality to stick to something, you’ll be single forever, etc. These attitudes undercut your progress and you need to take responsibility and action today, even if it is a small action to get started. Challenge those limiting thought patterns.

The most effective way of making progress is to find a method of tracking that suits you. This can range from using a journal, a colour-in progress sheet, an app that helps you to track milestones, a wearable fitness tracker (for physical fitness), an accountability meeting scheduled at set intervals, tick-off lists and the possibilities go on. It is important for your mind to recognise and aim for consistent and meaningful progress that is aligned to your goals so that you can stay on track. This is usually the reason that we see people having so much success on ‘8 week transformations’, ’30 day programs’, etc. They have programmed their mind to a specific time frame, a specific goal with high expectations and the appropriate structure and support that is needed. Could these same people have done exercise or mindfulness for 30 days on their own? Yes, but the mental structure and accountability provides you with a much better chance of success. When you expect something to work and succeed, your chances of coming out the other end with transformed. Does this mean that only pre-packaged plans work? Of course not, we can use the principles of these plans to ensure our own success. First, we set a realistic but optimistic timeframe to achieve a goal (or a step of a goal), then we structure the activities needed to do that goal – chunking it into daily pieces, we then set up accountability and support people (either face to face, daily text check-ins, workout buddies, or online groups), and we use our tracking method that suits us and keeps us motivated to continue. Usually we all know what it is that we must do, yet we lack the tracking structure to keep our mind engaged on the task. How about you try it this week?

There are many times where we put off ‘big things’ such as going on a holiday, treating ourselves to a lovely day out, indulging our passions by enrolling in a course, or chasing our dream of owning a home. We do this because we feel ‘too busy’ with the everyday. The miniscule to-dos on your list consume most of your time and brain space, but rarely leave you feeling inspired or accomplished. There is a great video on youtube that has been around for a while where a man puts big golf balls in a jar and asks if the jar is full – the class answers, ‘Yes’. Then he pours little rocks into the jar – full? ‘Yes’. Then he pours sand – full now? ‘Yes’. He then pours two beers into the jar until it is brimming. He then makes a comparison – the golf balls represent the important things in life, such as family, big experiences, passions and the like. The rocks are the ‘must do-s’ such as work, bills, and the others things that we must do. Then the sand is ‘everything else’. The beers represent that there is always time to have a drink with a friend. We loved this analogy as it shows us how important it is to put your priority on things that make life memorable and satisfying – you WILL find time to do all the other things. You will work things out to ensure that life runs smoothly. We tend to always put the other things first, however, and we can’t possibly fit the golf balls in after putting the sand and rocks in first. Take stock of your priorities today and have a look at how you can shuffle your priorities.