Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Exploring the Unknown

Tags

Advice, Inner voice, Muse, Nudge, Regret, Suggestion, The Void, Thriving

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.” Arthur C. Clarke

Read more at: Brainy Quotes

Anything we do with our lives should be at the fringes of our capability. Anyone can continue to do what they are comfortable doing. The excitement lives in our ability to travel into unknown areas and conquer them. This is thriving.

All of us aspire to something better. We want to see new places, learn new things, and have new experiences. All of us are natural explorers. Take any person and put them into a new surrounding and they immediately look around and assess their environment. We all do this. When we investigate a new environment, we are alive. We are using every capability we have.

None of us grow when we lack a challenge. Instead, we stagnate. The mundane and calming existence we all crave from time-to-time, becomes like a prison. This prison is mediocrity, comfort, and changelessness. No one is happy in these circumstances. The mundane evolves to boredom.

When I examine my life, I see periods of growth and periods of rest. I also see periods of decline in certain areas. I have also noticed something else. I noticed a “something” in me that is always making suggestions. It is a still voice that gives me little nudges. These nudges, when I act on them, have resulted in some of the best times in my life. One characteristic about each of these nudges is the absolute chaos that ensues when I take the first step.

Chaos always results when we try something new. The unknown is frightening. We don’t know what to do; we don’t know where to turn; we don’t know what will happen. We make lots of mistakes, stubbing our toes, bruising ourselves, as we bumble about trying to adapt to our new environment. After we orient ourselves and explore this new area, we find out that most of our fears were for nothing. Then we get a nice boost. We feel a new confidence arise from stepping into the void and surviving one more time. Then we rest and look for the next area of the void to explore.

Listen to this inner voice. It will typically provide solutions to your problems you never knew were there. It will point you in the right direction. Use your discrimination when you hear this advice. You always want to have a confirmation that the advice you are receiving is right. In my case, I typically receive one or more confirmations I have made a good choice.

These confirmations can be in the form of reading something in a book, hearing something on a radio, or the same suggestion coming from friends or family members. While you are waiting for confirmations to arrive, take a few steps. These first few steps are always scary. Once you take a few steps, however, you will get a feeling you are doing the right thing. I can’t explain it. It is more like a knowing. You know you are doing the right thing for yourself.

Life is a fleeting thing. Some people find themselves at the end of their lives with lots of regrets. They regret asking that beautiful woman out on a date; they regret ignoring the book idea they had; they regret starting that business. They regret ignoring the inner voice and ended up living a life of comfortable boredom.

When does this inner voice speak? I find my inner voice speaks during the quiet times. It speaks when I am reading a book. It speaks when I am thinking. It speaks when I am working on my blog or my book. Some call this inner voice our conscience, Others call it God. Still others call it the muse. Whatever you think it is, it is there. It is there for all of us. One thing I know for sure. The more you listen to this voice, the louder it becomes. This voice is not like the voices of your friends or family. It is like an idea that pops into your mind. That’s the best way I can explain it. My voice has always been a nudge. It is like a suggestion that comes out of nowhere.

Take time today to listen for this voice. Ask a question, present it a problem, or ask it for advice. Listen. Be patient. Wait. The answer will come. It always comes.

Until next time…

Dave

Advertisements

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesdays – Finding the Best Way Forward

Tags

Conservative, Democrat, Global Challenges, Issues, JFK, Liberal, Politics, Republican, SOTU

“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” – John F. Kennedy

Read more at: Brainy Quotes

The President of the United States delivered the State of the Union address last night. 76% of the American people approved of his speech. For those readers who are not from the United States, the State of the Union (SOTU on Twitter) is delivered by the President at the first part of the year, typically at the end of January. This year it was delivered late because of the U.S. Government’s shutdown.

JFK got it right. The only way to make progress in any government is to deliberate, debate, and compromise. Finger pointing, name calling, and all the rest will never deliver the results any country on the globe wishes to make to improve the lives of its citizens. The only way forward is to engage each other in dialogue, working through the issues, weighing what’s right or wrong, and pushing legislation forward that serves the people of the nation(s) it is being created for.

We all have our political slants. We all have a vision of where our respective countries need to move forward. It is so easy to get aligned with one side of the political spectrum and attack the other side. If you find yourself getting too stressed out when watching the news or a political talk show, take stock of yourself. The news outlets of today are designed to stress you out. The news is designed to frighten, create conflicts out of nothing, and support one side or another. If you find yourself in this situation, simply walk away. Take a break from it. That being said, be tolerant and educate yourself.

Read the legislation that is in consideration. Listen and read about these issues from a variety of sources. You’ll have a well-rounded view about what is about to take place and truly understand the issue. Understand both sides of an issue, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each. If you can do that, you will be in the unique position of understanding why your position works because you can argue the other side’s views as good or better than they can.

There are many issues we all face in the years to come. The challenges of Global Warming, Terrorism, Poverty, Disease, Technology, and Human Trafficking. These challenges will be met and beaten by an educated citizenry who elect people who are truly deserving of the political posts they are running for.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Socialism: Learning from the Past

Tags

Cold Weather, Confucius, Redistributing Wealth, Socialism, Universal Income, wisdom

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”―Confucius

Today is a cold one. The United States Post Office is not delivering mail until Friday. I don’t remember the last time the USPS cancelled deliveries of mail. If you are in the Mid-West in the middle of what they are calling a polar vortex, stay inside, unless you just can’t avoid it.

Today’s wisdom is provided by Confucius. I find it fascinating that so many of today’s problems are a result of ignoring what so many have already discovered. Look at socialism, for example. If you look at the USSR, North Korea, Communist China, and Vietnam, it would be easy to see how broken a system of government socialism is, yet it appears our younger generations are seeking just that. Why are so many ignoring the experiences of socialism in the 20^th century?

Socialism and communism are attractive sells if you avoid the atrocities these systems caused. In the 20^th century, socialism has easily been responsible for over 1,000,000 deaths. Why would anyone want to bring that system back? I think many crave the beauty of utopia, where we are all equal, we all participate, we all contribute, and we all benefit equally. The main issue with this is the primary tenet of Socialism, which is equality of outcomes. How do you achieve an equality of outcomes? You enforce it.

Socialism destroys production. Say you have a productive worker. This worker comes to the job everyday giving everything they have. Over time this worker realizes that other workers don’t put in the same effort they do but still get the same pay. Then it happens. The productive worker falls in line and lowers his production to meet the bare minimum, along with his colleagues. When you live in a system that does not reward innovation, productivity, and efficiency, you destroy these things.

You hear all this talk by many in politics today. Let’s tax the rich. Let’s take their money. They earned it unfairly, they stole it from the poor, they cheated the system. No one should have that much money, they should give it to others. Charity is one thing. No one has a problem giving their money to charitable causes. Taking the money of a productive person and giving it to someone else without their consent is theft. Does this improve society? Does it motivate someone who is not making any money to make more? No. It perpetuates poverty.

Redistributing wealth does nothing but keep people poor. Imagine a universal income, another platitude of politicians today. What do you think a person would do if you paid them say $1000 dollars a month for doing nothing? They would do what you are paying them to do—nothing. It really is that simple. Are we improving outcomes? Are we lifting people out of poverty? No.

Over taxing the rich will also result in rich people leaving the country. Why should they stay when they can keep their money living somewhere else? Then guess what happens? Those tax revenues are pushed down into the lower tax brackets and now you have people being taxed at exorbitant rates that cannot afford them.

The same thing occurs when you overtax companies. They will move their enterprises overseas, taking advantage of lower tax rates and cheaper labor. Along with these strategies, they will push the taxes down to the consumer. Companies must be profitable in order to attract investors. When the government passes legislation that increases taxes or affects their profit margins, these companies push these increases down to the consumer. You and I pay more money for a product because of these taxes and regulations. These regulations and taxes don’t hurt the company–they hurt us.

Let’s keep in mind the quote from above. We have gained wisdom surrounding socialism. We have seen it fail. We have seen the results of these systems repeatedly—stagnated economies, human atrocities, and the elimination of freedom. Let’s not go down that road again.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Cutting Through Media Bias and Misinformation

Tags

"fake" news, Critical Thinking, Left-wing, Media Bias, Right-wing, tolerance, Truth

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” – George Bernard Shaw

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/george_bernard_shaw_141483?src=t_wisdom

If you follow any of the news today, you have to read it with a healthy dose of skepticism. It seems that every day some media outlet makes a claim and then, within hours or days, they must retract, when the real story comes out. In many cases these stories are nothing more than “click bait”.

Our society has become so polarized that each side of the argument now has their own news outlets to listen to or read, only to be further polarized by the now “propaganda-like” stories. I don’t care if you are on the left or the right, both sides are becoming more divided and pursue almost ridiculous lines of inquiry.

So, what are we to do? Think critically. Thinking critically involves considering the source of your information, looking for the reason behind a person’s article or posting, and looking at multiple points of view. Once you have done this, you can make your decision about what you believe.

The challenge we have today is created by the vast amount of information we have access to. The days of three television stations and a few respected newspapers are long gone. Now the news is regurgitated from one source to the next, almost like a gaggle of gossipers who don’t refute a rumor but propagate it.

If you see a news story, read it. Then begin looking at different sources of information. I look at folks like Rush Limbaugh, the Daily Wire, and The Drudge Report. I also look at MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and NPR. Once I have looked at a topic, I make a decision. If I am looking at a true-blue topic, say like climate change, I really dig into all the information and the science. I look at the source of the information I’m consuming. I read books.

I’m retired and have a lot of time on my hands. I get it when people tell me they don’t have that time. The best action you can take in these situations is to remain a skeptic. What purpose does the story have, who is writing it, why did they write it, where did they get their information from? These basic questions can help you out quite a bit when you take the time to really understand the story, behind the story.

I wish I could go to one source and trust it. Unfortunately, in our world, this is not the case. The news we consume is likely a biased, poorly researched, and regurgitated story, altered to fit the line or political bias the news outlet is aligned with. Whether the news we receive is from a left-oriented story or a right-oriented story, we need to take the time to look at alternative points of view and understand the purpose behind a news outlet’s story.

If you can use your common sense, do a little digging around, and make your own judgement call about what you believe is right, you’ll be able to dispense with the blockbuster story that is “gas-lighting” twitter or some other social media channel. We have access to so much information. Take your time doing some analysis before you go off the deep end and follow one of these stories down their respective rabbit hole. You’ll be less stressed, more informed, and you’ll be able to formulate your own opinion about a topic area.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesdays

Tags

Achievement, Focus, Lewis Carroll, Meaning, wisdom

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/lewis_carroll_165865?src=t_wisdom

One of the challenges all of us face is the ability to choose what we want to do—what we want to achieve. Obviously, we cannot do everything. We must choose. This fact was recently emphasized as I was reading The One Thing by Gary Keller. This book teaches that the best way to achieve success is to determine the most important thing to do each day to push you forward toward your goals.

We all have areas of focus. Health priorities, relationship priorities, learning priorities, and spiritual priorities. Of these we will also have priorities that we deem most important. According to Keller, this is our one thing. This is the thing you dedicate your time to. I enjoyed reading this book but offer a caution—each of us has multiple priorities we need to pursue in order t maintain a balance in our lives. You cannot neglect your physical priorities, to pursue a business interest. You cannot forego a business interest to pursue a spiritual focus. We must attack multiple areas in order to succeed. We must maintain our relationships, our bodies, our spiritual pursuits, and our focus on learning new skills.

If you neglect any of these, you will suffer. Make a lot of money, while sacrificing our families, our religious practices, and our physical health is not tenable. Balance is key and is attainable. Just pick something you can do to push each of these areas forward in a given week and you’ll achieve what I’m talking about.

Spiritually, you can attend a religious meeting once a week or read your religious text daily. Socially, you can set a date with your wife or significant other. Learning can be achieved by setting a consistent schedule for reading or writing, online tutorials, or one of many free online courses. Physically, you can workout a few times this week. If you plan out your week you can make sure you pick one or two things to do in each of these areas to continue pursuing your goals that are specific to each of them.

What happens if you have no focus? You’ll end up spending your time on a lot of worthless activities. You’ll be spending your time on entertainment and other time wasters. It’s OK to have some downtime, watching a good movie or moving through one of the many television series that are available, but without focus, you’ll spend more and more time on activities that will result in nothing moving you forward. This is truly a wasted life.

The best book I can recommend to you if you are lost is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. This book will provide you with character building habits and provide you example after example of what to do to move your life forward in a productive and balanced way. This book changed my life.

Once you are focused on certain things you want to pursue—pursue them. This self-motivated purpose will help you achieve a great deal of meaning in your life. Purpose provides meaning. Meaning gives us a reason for living. Meaning gives us something to look forward to and enjoy—a means of transcending mediocrity and suffering.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesdays

Tags

Dr. Jordan Peterson, Gary Keller, Life-long Learning, Maps of Meaning, The One Things, wisdom

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.” – Neil Gaiman

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/neil_gaiman_676237?src=t_learning

As many of you know, I love to learn. I ran across this great video series on YouTube, called: Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. In this series, Dr. Peterson teaches us how human beings have used stories to communicate to one another and map out the key features of our belief systems. The lecture series is composed of 12 lectures that last about 2 ½ hours each. This is a fascinating series filled with lots of ideas and things to think about. I’ve provided a link below if you are interested in checking it out.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL22J3VaeABQAT-0aSPq-OKOpQlHyR4k5h

This year, we are all going to experience new things. We are going to learn new things. When we are truly learning something new, we make mistakes. Mistakes are part of the learning process as our brains rewire themselves to a new way of doing things. Make mistakes. Learn from your mistakes. Build on your mistakes. Do not be afraid of making mistakes.

I’m also reading a great book called: The One Thing by Gary Keller. It’s a book that describes a process for focusing on the very best action we can take to improve our lives. He also provides a great way to categorize our lives into areas of focus that I found to be quite fascinating. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in self-help books. It adds to the books I have read in the past and fits in nicely to the way I am rewriting my life daily. I think you’ll find it to be yet another book you can add to your yearly lexicon of reading.

We are what we focus on. If we focus on the right things daily, we will build a life of meaning. We will build a life that is exciting and filled with learning, building new skills, and increasing our marketability so that we can live a life that is fresh, ripe with variety, and productive. Isn’t this what all of us want?

Gary’s way of speaking is down-to-earth and easy to understand. He provides a way of pursuing a balance in life so that we can tackle all facets of our existence each day and build our relationships, maintain ourselves physically and financially, pursue our spiritual interests, and develop an individual curriculum of learning that adds to our skills and continuously pushes us to greater heights.

I hope each of you is having a great week so far! Take a look at The One Thing and Dr. Peterson’s lecture series. I think you’ll enjoy both.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

Tags

Daily Actions, Executing, Goals, Integrity, persistance, Self-trust, wisdom

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Mastering yourself is about keeping promises you make to yourself. I wanted to address this early in the year because this is the time of year we all begin to pursue all of those things we have established are important to us. You, like anyone else, will suffer if you are lied to—even if you lie to yourself!

When you consistently fail to do what you tell yourself you will do, you begin to lose confidence in yourself. You begin to believe that you cannot achieve anything because you have always failed to achieve what you set out to do. This compounds over time and after while you’ll find that you have lost control of everything. You’ll find that you are always taking the easier route. You cannot and will not do what you need to do.

I know this place because I was there. I love video games. I love them so much that during this dark time I could literally get up in the morning and play those games from morning to midnight and beyond. I was out of control. I couldn’t make myself exercise. I couldn’t make myself eat right. I couldn’t make myself do anything—because I didn’t believe that I could or would. If it was easy, I did it. I pursued anything that followed the path of least resistance.

I knew deep down that this was not the way to live and began to look for some answers to turn this around. I ran across a book called Mini-habits and that was all I needed. I started doing small things each day. Each day I did these small things I began doing more than I was required to do. This is called a bonus activity and this is a natural offshoot of Mini-habits.

I combined my knowledge of Mini-habits with other books and began implementing a ritualistic strategy of tackling the things that are important to a balanced life. I began reading, writing, learning, exercising, socializing, and performing my religious duties each day, even if it was just a little effort, I kept doing a little in each of these areas each day.

After a while, your internal self will begin to believe what you say. You will begin to trust yourself again and realize that what you say is what you will do. When you begin to actually do what you say you will do, the bulk of the battle has been won. Now, you can establish goals, set plans, and execute a little each day. This execution reinforces trust in yourself and edges you ever closer to the goals you set. It is just this simple.

Don’t be the person that goes to the gym in January and stops going in a month.

Don’t be the person who wants to write their book and gives up in a few weeks

Don’t be the person who sets out to lose weight and gives up on their diet within a week.

Be the person who can do anything they set out to do, through deliberate, consistent, and daily action. You can do it, just like I did. Start doing little things that build self-trust and you’ll wake up one day doing more than you thought possible.

I wish all of you well as you pursue this year’s goals. I hope all of you succeed!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Persistence

Tags

involuntary change, Paulo Coelho, Perseverance, Persistence, voluntary change, wisdom

“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”―Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

If you’ve never read this book, I highly recommend it. I read through it in a few days and it is a wonderful story. Today’s Wisdom Wednesday is about persistence. As I work through developing the character trait of forgiveness, there is one thing that is important about adding this character trait to my toolbox–persistence.

Each change that is introduced into your life will be accepted or fought against. Those changes that come about voluntarily, like my pursuit of 12 new character traits over the next year, are easier to deal with because you volunteer. You are the one instituting change. If you institute a change in your life it is much easier to deal with because you can always abandon the change, whenever you wish.

The changes that arise in our life like a job loss, the loss of a loved one, or the loss of health, are all much more difficult to deal with because they arrived uninvited. They are also not going to go away because they are changes to the outside of you. You cannot control your employer. If they economy goes into the gutter your employer will be required to tighten their belt. This tightening sometimes requires the elimination of people who are typically the highest cost a business has. This change requires us to find a new employer.

Losing a loved one to disease, old-age, or in the case of romance, are also involuntary changes to your life. They hurt because people who leave us, particularly those that we love, leaves a hole in our lives. Having someone in your life 24-hours a day to not having them in your life causes upheaval. In some case, this upheaval is too great for a person to handle and they do all sorts of harmful things to compensate. Others will take stock of their situations, alter their lives to compensate for this person being out of their life, and get on with it.

Losing your health to an injury, old age, or a disease that is incurable are other types of changes that we must deal with. If we’ve been injured, we heal. We compensate for the injury or ailment and get on with our lives the best way we can. Involuntary changes are hard to work through because we have no choice. We have to adapt to the things that happen to us.

Change is inevitable. Throughout our lives we learn which things we habitually do that are beneficial and which ones are not. When we take charge of our lives and decide to get rid of certain habits or activities that are not in our benefit to continue, we voluntarily opt to make a change.

If you’ve thought about all of the necessary things that warrant a change, stick with them. You put a lot of work learning about the detrimental effects a habit has on you. Persist as you begin the process of learning a new habit, a new way of doing things. If you miss a day or two, don’t beat yourself up. Just pick up where you left off and continue to move forward. At some point you’ll feel a shift and you’ll know you’ve adopted this new thing. You’ll know because it will feel uncomfortable to not do that thing you’ve established as a habit. This is when you know you’ve internalized a new habit in your life. Persistence is the only thing that will get you to this point.

I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

Tags

anguish, experiences, Joy, pain, pleasure, Suffering, Teachers

“Pain is a pesky part of being human, I’ve learned it feels like a stab wound to the heart, something I wish we could all do without, in our lives here. Pain is a sudden hurt that can’t be escaped. But then I have also learned that because of pain, I can feel the beauty, tenderness, and freedom of healing. The pain feels like a fast stab wound to the heart. But then healing feels like the wind against your face when you are spreading your wings and flying through the air! We may not have wings growing out of our backs, but healing is the closest thing that will give us that wind against our faces.”―C. JoyBell C.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/wisdom-quotes

If you spend any time reading through other blogs in the WordPress.com blogosphere, you see a great many people in pain. Mental pain, physical pain, the pain of loss, the pain of failure, the pain of addiction, the pain of poverty, and so many other types of pain.

We all experience pain in our lives. Without pain, we cannot feel its opposite—pleasure. Both have to exist for us to feel one or the other. The same goes for beauty and ugliness, love and hate, laughter and crying. These opposites are here so we can distinguish one from the other. Once we have learned what pain is, we tend to run from it and pursue pleasure.

Pain is a double-edged sword. Wallow in it and you are in hell. Use it and you can sometimes find a way out of it. Pain identifies when I’m at my limit in the gym. Pain tells me I should be careful with my back. Pain tells me what I’ve lost and to treasure regaining that again in the future. Pain teaches me contentment when the pleasure returns.

Pain, like pleasure, is fleeting. Pain and pleasure revolve around each other. They are finite. They come and go.

Don’t get me wrong. I realize there are some folks out there whose pain is so deep that the only escape is medication and psychological help of one sort or another. I am not trying to minimize this.

The pains we feel in life are teachers. There is a saying, “Things are not done to us but for us.” – Harold Klemp. Pain can be a great teacher.

Have you ever come out of a challenging situation in your life and failed to learn something? I, like most, have had my share of troubles. When I go back through my journal and read some of those entries, I am almost brought back to that point instantly, reliving the pain, the fear, and the absolute despair I was experiencing at the time.

When I take the time to really examine these periods, from a more balanced and neutral point of view, I can see the lessons that I learned from those experiences materialize. If I had not gone through what I did, I wouldn’t have learned what I now know. In fact, my greatest learnings over my lifetime have been initiated by painful circumstances, painful relationships, or painful experiences. I am not advocating that you seek out pain to learn, just to be aware that when life gets hard or you are presented with a problem that appears to be unsolvable that there is a way out. “There is always a way.” – Harold Klemp.

For those of you who are experiencing loss. For those of you who are experiencing physical pain. For those of you afflicted with mental pain of any type, I send you good thoughts. I hope your pain passes. I hope that one day you can regain some semblance of normalcy in your life.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesdays

Tags

change, David Allen, habits, Improving, Paul Twitchell, Stephen Covey, Stephen Guise, Truth

“It is easy to hate, and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve, and bad things are very easy to get.” – Confucius

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/confucius_119273

Ever wonder why things that are bad for us are so easy to do and the things that are good for us are so hard to do? I have read a string of books by Stephen Guise and this is one thing that pervades his work. The bad things that are easy for us to do are there because they are easy and bring almost immediate rewards. Because they are easy and bring rewards each time, we do them, they become habits.

Conversely, the good things we want to do for ourselves are not so easy. They must be learned or practiced, which takes time. They also give us rewards but they are not instantaneous.

Bad habits like binge-watching television, eating junk food, or mindlessly surfing the Internet are all so easy to do and rewarding. We literally need zero effort to accomplish these things.

Good habits like reading every day, writing every day, exercising every day, or learning every day take work. They deliver tremendous benefits over the long-term but only if we make them habitual.

Our brains are wired to resist change. When you have a food manufacturer that offers a “healthy” option that takes 3 minutes in a microwave to prepare—beware. The rewards for this option are easy to cook and get into our bellies. The huge disadvantages are the chemical soup that is within each of these so-called, “healthy” meals, the overabundance of salt, sugar, and fat, and the preservatives, unnatural coloring, and processing that occurs that change whole foods into “Franken foods” (Stephen Guise uses this in a book I just finished about weight loss.)

If you are unsatisfied with your life, look at what you do every day. Are you on autopilot or are you making conscious choices about how you fill your day? Are you moving toward anything meaningful or are you just filling your day with meaningless activities?

I’m not trying to guilt you out. I am merely asking the question. If you are totally happy with your life as it is—don’t change it.

If you are unhappy with your life, take some time to contemplate what is missing. Take inventory of how you feel. Examine your emotional states. Are you bored? Are you stressed? Do you feel terrible and apt to get sick more than most people? Do you have back problems or issues with obesity? Are you depressed?

If any of these things sound like you and you’re tired of feeling or being this way, take some steps to make a change. You don’t have to strike out on some crazy crusade. Too big of a change will not work. You will try for a day or so and digress to your old patterns and behaviors. Make really small changes. Changes that don’t require too much willpower or motivation to accomplish.

If you’re wondering why I ask all these questions and tend to gravitate toward this subject matter on most of my postings, there is a reason. I used to be that guy. I could play video games for 24 hours a day. I could binge watch entire seasons of shows on Netflix, all while stuffing my face with absolute garbage. What was the result? A back surgery that put me down for 2 years, walking around with a back brace. Massive weight gains up to 247lbs before I put a stop to that. The loss of not one, but three separate marriages. I also filed for bankruptcy—twice!

I’m trying to provide advice to people who may be in the same situation as I was. It is a horrible place to be when you realize one morning that you can’t make yourself do what you know you should do. I was really in a very dark place.

How did I turn things around? I took some time to do some research. I began searching for information about how we form habits. I began looking for information about how to make changes. I began to examine the things other successful people were doing each day that made a difference in their lives.

My searches resulted in some books that I re-read every year. These books are here for you. Read these books and put the suggestions they offer to good use. These books changed my life for the better and will do the same for you—promise.

Booklist:

• Mini Habits by Stephen Guise
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity by David Allen
• The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad by Paul Twitchell

These books helped me create a personal framework for self-improvement. They gave me categories of life to cultivate. They gave me a meaningful way to write down my goals, plan my weeks and days, and utilize an “outside brain” instead of depending on my own brain for everything. They taught me how to make very small changes that have a lasting and awesome impact. They opened my mind to wisdom, truth, and provided me with an architecture of what our existence is truly about.

My levels of self-discipline, motivation, and determination are on an entirely different plane. I found that our improvement never ceases. There will always be another plateau to reach, another level of proficiency to attain, a new area to explore. It all starts with very small steps.

If you are tired of the way things are in your life, take some time to read one of these books. I would recommend Stephen Guise’s book first. It is the easiest read and contains the means of starting your transformation with very little effort. His book is the one that jump-started my journey.

I wish you well.

Until next time…

Dave