How to change your life
I have been spending a lot of time lately working on this blog. There have been many positives to this: the satisfaction of creating something new, the motivation to soak up a lot of personal development material, and being able to incorporate a variety of new ideas into my life.
I have also found though that it is very easy to overdose on personal development. When personal development becomes obsessive I think it is important to consider the 3 following aspects of your life:
Yesterday morning I wrote about the FiSH! Philosophy in relation to work. Funnily enough, I had a tough day at work and my positive attitude was really challenged. I think I maintained a positive attitude (but only just). Anyway, this got me thinking about my career as a whole.
At present I have a good stable job with a good stable income. As I alluded to yesterday though, one of my major goals is to derive income from something I am passionate about. My passions? Photography, blogging, films, the outdoors…. these all spring instantly to mind. I do enjoy certain aspects of the finance industry in which I am currently employed, so I’m not ruling out a future job or small business that is meaningful and interesting in this field.
Well as I type this it’s Monday morning and the prospect of going to work looms in little over 1 hour. I have a real passion for life at the moment and, to be honest, work is the last place I feel like going. Unfortunately it is a necessity until I build up other sources of income, or my work becomes something I’m passionate about (2 things I’m working on).
That said, I always try to bring positive energy to the workplace. My attitude is encapsulated by the FiSH! Philosophy. This is quite a well known idea, but if you haven’t heard of it before I think you’ll find it interesting. Or even if you have heard of it, but don’t live it, I suggest you read on.
Since I began writing for this blog, I have found ideas for posts or further research constantly pop into my head. Ideas come when I first wake up, when I am in the shower, when I am exercising, on the bus to and from work, and when I am writing posts on related or entirely unrelated material. I’m sure this is the same for anyone who is passionately working on a personal project.
At present I have the target of 1 post per day on my blog. A habit I have found to be extremely useful is writing down ideas as soon as they come to me. Unless I do this, there is no guarantee that at 6am (when I do most of my writing) that I will be able to recall the great idea I had yesterday for a new post. So a simple trick I do is carry a pen and notepad with me throughout the day, and when a great idea comes along I write it down straight away.
I overheard a conversation at work today where two people were discussing their wish to win the lottery and thereby never have to work again. Sure, this is a great dream , but is it keeping them poor?
I think there are 2 quite different points to consider here:
Well unless you have been living under a rock you would have heard of the the shootings at Virginia Tech in the US. As I watched the footage of surviving students talking to reporters all I could think of was the senselessness and the tragedy of these students dying at such a young age. At 18, their whole life was ahead of them.
Sometimes it takes a tragedy for people to take a step back and examine their lives. Its easy to get caught up in day to day matters and forget whats really important.
Being original is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.
In an audiobook I am currently listening to, Break From The Pack, the author Oren Harari uses the memorable term “copycat economy” to describe the current state of the economy. This is state in which anything new, clever and original will inevitably be copied by the competition. This can be seen everywhere on the internet. For example, a new feature added to an online shopping site will quickly be copied by the competition.
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