[Working Draft] Although this post is published it is a continuously evolving document – B, 3.22.18
This post is written to myself, opening up on my views of what an ideal life is.
Starting beliefs, 3.12.18: Being able to control your time and your rituals. Being present and not an observer to your own life. Living in a state of exuberance. Having daily adventures, not simply looking forward to future planned excursions.
Finding one’s life purpose isn’t something that happens overnight, and it shouldn’t. If we have one life to get really really good at one specific thing, then we should take time to consider what that is. My vision of what I’m meant to do is constantly evolving. It is okay to not have the answers, but it’s not okay to not continue seeking them. Too often I have been complacent in my own personal development. Often saying ‘I’m smart enough to know what to do, but dumb enough to not follow through’. This way of thinking can definitely make a person feel ‘stuck’, no matter how happy or successful they may appear on the outside.
So one of the main goals for traveling is centered on personal growth. Finding what an ideal life means to me.
One of the 1st places to start is examining my day to day habits, and structuring my days in a framework. Eliminating decisions via planning is one of the biggest areas of improvement for me. Having the core highest activities of a day planned at the beginning provides a few things:
Focus – ability to focus on the biggest HLA’s (highest leveraged activities) to achieve on this day
Free my mind – I am notoriously bad at keeping all of my to-do’s in my head, and this scatter brain thought process has definitely lead to a decrease in short term memory. Coupled with smart phone use, my attention span on tasks has diminished to the point I can barely concentrate for 5 minutes on a project without needing to check my phone
Building blocks – by measuring my daily habits I will begin to have a sense of personal accomplishments, being able to see what i’ve accomplished and where I need to go. Right now think back about your biggest wins these past three months? I personally have to think hard and even then there’s nothing worth writing about here.
So planning your day is great, but why will this lead to an extraordinary life?
Knowing where your going is half the battle. I may not know yet what I truly want to be great at in my career but I want to increase my rate of finding this out ten fold.
That feeling of being stuck in neutral with no certain control over one’s life can definitely be overwhelming. I have often thought that because I was working hard at work, that I could shirk on other areas of my life, and this was fine since I was learning and moving up in my career. As you may have guessed this is not the case.
I believe every aspect of life has to be moving up and moving forward to achieve an extraordinary life –
- Mind
- Body
- Soul
- Wealth
- Relationships
- Contributions to your circles
- Hobbies, Ventures, Projects
These are the important areas for me today. This list can change, but it’s important to write out what is important to me, and how much time am I really spending to improve these things.
“Knowledge is bullshit, wisdom is knowledge applied” – Tony Robbins
I love this quote because I have been stuck in the mindset since college that knowledge is key. Knowledge is powerful, but application is key. Applying what I learn on this trip to create new daily routines is my goal.