Retire the Old You

“A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment.” – Maxwell Maltz

You’ll never outperform your own self-image or your own beliefs about yourself.

To level up you have to retire your old concept of who you are and what you are capable of, and give it an upgrade.

You have to see and believe in a new and better you, and just as importantly, let go of the old version of you.

Spend some time right now. 

What do you believe about you? 

What do you have to change about that belief to move forward?

Direction vs Destination

Many people are walking around in a place they wish was better.

You can’t change your destination overnight.  

But you can change your direction.

Direction over time = destination.

Time will pass no matter what.

What direction are you heading?

What is amazing in your life right now?

The ideal life with the perfect situation in all areas is something we strive for that we will never have.  

But that’s ok. It’s not sad or disappointing to the realist.

It’s good to have better situations to strive for.

Think about it, if everything was perfect – what then? We’d do what humans do, and are doing now – find something that we wish could be better and either complain about it or strive to change it.   

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Take a moment to think about what is amazing in your life right now.

There is a lot that’s right.  Right?

"I can't" kills

You believe you.

The moment you say “I can’t”, all possibilities for you are destroyed.

What have you been saying “I can’t” to, that you need to reevaluate?

Thoughts on Maturity

“There is no ‘trick’ to being young: it happens to you.  But the process of maturing is an art to be learned, an effort to be sustained.” – Marya Mannes

“Maturity begins when we’re content to feel we’re right about something without feeling the necessity to prove someone else wrong.” – Sydney J. Harris

“Maturity is the ability to do a job whether you are supervised or not; finish a job once it’s started; carry money without spending it; and the ability to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.” – Abigail Van Buren

“Age is a high price to pay for maturity” – Tom Stoppard

Gratitude, not complaints

No matter what your standard of living, people will always complain about some inconvenience or something they think is “not right”.

Whether you are at the bottom, or driving a Maserati, it’s the nature of most people to find the exceptions to their good luck and focus on it.

It’s a good habit to count your blessings – often.  Gratitude attracts more good into your life.

You were born at this time in human history – you hit the jackpot.  

If you have your health – you are really lucky.

And if you happen to live in a free country, especially the United States, you live in the land of milk and honey.

The rest is up to you.

So what were your grievances again?

Living with Uncertainty

For many, uncertainty means risk and causes fear. 

“What if,” we ask. 

That fear holds many back.

We can’t expect a life without uncertainty.  Nothing is promised.  All we can do is work to craft the life we want.  If ‘surprises’ happen, we deal with it and keep going.

If we want certainty in life, we can only get it by playing very very small.

“If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable, we must be content to creep along the ground, and can never soar.” – John Henry Newman

“Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul when hot for certainties in this our life!” – George Meredith

“Uncertainty is the necessary companion of all explorers.” – Marilyn Ferguson

Negative Reciprocity – Don't get involved

“Positive reciprocity, the exchange of good deeds, never escalates out of control; negative reciprocity easily does.” – Adam Smith

Who are you going insult for insult, and blow for blow with right now? 

It’s too primal and there won’t be a winner.

Better just let it go before it gets out of control.

We're all in an echo chamber

Don’t forget – the YouTube and Facebook is an echo chamber.  When you look something up or watch something, the algorithm thinks that’s what you like and will keep feeding you more like that.  

This does not make the world more and more like that.  Only what you see.  It’s validation of what you think you know.

Just remember that.

Search for something different.  Watch something different. 

Don’t stay in the echo chamber.

Constantly on your phone?

For most, that is an addiction.  People are looking for the next hit of dopamine.

Yes, a phone is a useful tool and communication device.

When you have something you are engaged in….when you are making something happen in the real world…you are on your phone a lot less than people who are bored.

You are boring to the degree that you can’t evoke interest from other people.  Evoking interest is about what you can do for them, or what you are doing that is interesting to them.

Be more of a leader or participant in life, and less of a spectator to what others are doing.

In the end, people regret the things they didn’t do.