The Productivity Serial Killer, Distraction @coffeacoffeemy


20130419-124810.jpg

Hello readers!

It’s been while, hope you guys are doing well. 😊

I’m back at Coffea Coffee today, didn’t realise how much I missed my Madonna Flat White until I took that first sip. If you haven’t tried this place out please do, I’ll be sitting a review of Coffea in due time to launch my cafe review section, Coffee@ ☕.

I’ve gotten back to reading Robin Sharma’s blog again, there’s some really get stuff there, a lot of which i try to apply and a lot of advise that has helped me. This week i read the 51 Ways Ordinary People Reached World-Class and i want to talk about Way #10

Don’t check your mobile when you’re meeting with another person. It’s rude. And rude people don’t reach world-class.

i’ve been trying my best to apply this over the week and i have to say that i have been particularly successful.

The mobile age has brought us so much, but at the same time it has taken away a few important things… number 1 being our Focus. With all sorts of gadgets buzzing and notification and messages coming in most of us are never really focused on what is at hand, and the sad state is that a lot of us (myself included) put priority on that message we get or that Facebook notification or that Tweet over Present Physical Company. We are so distracted, we say we are multi-taskig but really that’s just an excuse, we lack Focus.

As Robin puts it, We live i the Age of Dramatic Distraction.

Work and life now move faster than ever before. We live in The Age of Dramatic Distraction with emails and text messages and cell phones and Facebook notifications screaming for our attention. All this time spent on unimportant – but seemingly urgent – things are draining your energy, costing you money and ruining your peace of mind. Oh, it’s all messing up your health too.

 

Being busy isn’t being productive.

Multitasking doesn’t mean you’re getting more done.

It’s just means that you aren’t clear on what you want,

It means that you can’t focus.

Focus has become such a rare commodity, and we have to start protecting it and more than that, we need to strengthen it.

Focus is a vital to Productivity in what ever it i you want to do. It’s the difference between Excellence and Mediocrity.

This lack of Focus has created a world where great thoughts are killed midway by distraction or even if they do survive they aren’t allowed to grow because we do not spend enough time in solitude. I find that my best thoughts come when i spend some time alone, whether it is my morning Holy Hour or just an hour during the day where i separate myself from the world and think. If we don’t spend any time in solitude thinking how will we ever be clear on what we want and how to get there? And it is because of this lack of clarity that so many of us live i a daze, going through life one day at a time, being busy for the sake of feeling that we are being productive and moving forward with our lives but in truth we’re not.

Please don’t confuse activity with productivity. Many many people are simply busy being busy. – Robin Sharma

And the most dangerous of all Distractions is Entertainment. You have the old timer, TV and also the more notorious new kids on the block, mobile gaming (candy crush, angry birds etc). Not there’s nothing wrong with entertainment, these games to have stimulating effects on our minds but like all things it must be in moderation. Without moderation TV, console gaming and mobile gaming will numb our minds, will encourage procrastination and waste the days we’ve been given.

Here are some suggestion to help us grow our Focus, kill our Distractions and be more Productive.

1. Be in the present
when we are in the company of people;
let us not play with our phones,
let us not fiddle with our phones
let us not reply messages (if it was really important they should call you)
Focus on the people in front of us, and if we need to take or make a call, excuse ourselves and come back after. I had a great dinner with a friend the other day, we didn’t touch our phones for a good 2 hours (except when our parents called) and i had a great time. Such great conversation and stimulating thoughts were born or developed or expressed.

Focus on the physical present, the virtual present if there at out\r disposal, we are not slaves to it, it serves us.

2. Do Not Disturb Mode
when we want to work, let’s put our gadgets on Do Not Disturb and set them away. Work for a set time, say an hour, and then take a break. and then repeat. This is a great way to strengthen our focus and discipline. Start with a goal of 30 minutes at the beginning and then as the days progress, increase it. There will come a time when we will be able to work 4 hours without distraction and not eve feel it.

3. Solitude
spend time in solitude, just us and our thoughts. These are the times ideas are born, the time when dreams become reality. Spend time in absolute quiet, think about life, have a pen and paper to record ideas and thoughts, or use Evernote like i Do (but you the need to turn off notifications). Here maybe start with 15 minutes of Solitude ad progress from there. I can do about 30 to 45 minutes nowadays. No communication, no reading, no talking to anyone but ourselves. My aim is to be reach an our of Solitude daily, preferably the mornings.

4. Explain & Inform
Explain to the people we hangout most with about what we are trying to do. If they support us then we know they want us to grow and hence care of us, if they don’t support… then they might not understand the importance of focus or not care about us as much as we thought; this may call for a Friendship Reconsideration. The people that are closest to us will not only understand but support, and does who do not are those who will bring us down… keep them at arms length.

If you have ay other suggestion please feel free to comment below.

Hope that i’ve been helpful,

Straight From The Heart

20130419-135229.jpg

 

Advertisement

What You Achieve is as Important as Who You Become @CoffeaCoffeeMY


20130407-003314.jpg

Good Morning guys,

it’s been a pretty good morning for me so far, got up bright and early (and by bright i mean that my fibro wasn’t much of a problem, fog was like 3/10, stiffness was 4/10, pain 2/10) and got on to my journaling during my Holy Hour followed by a very good jog. That was a little an hour ago.

Now I’m at my Current Fav Coffee Spot, Coffea Coffee accompanied by a fine looking , and tasting, Maestro Flat White, though i’ve now decided that i’m more in favour of the Madonna.

So today,

I’m going to take a look at the Henry David Thoreau quote that i came upon last week:

“What you get by achieving your goals is as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”

The minute i saw this quote i knew i had to write something about it. It’s something that so many of us (myself as well) forget to think about. Now we’ve all got goals and dreams, whether you know it or not.

Some work hard to chase them,
Some work smart,
Some work tirelessly,
Some work in spurts,
And most of us use many of the various combination that can be formed

then there are those who

Pray but don’t believe
Wish but don’t act
Dream but don’t plan

Which I am going to call the Wishful Thinker, not to be confused with The Optimist or The Dreamer. A Wishful Thinker is someone who wants things to happen, dream to come true without lifting a finger.

Now to the point at hand,

The many of us goal chasers will encounter challenges, defeat and pain along the way to the finish line, now something else to keep i mind as you fight to Make It (achieve your goals, get what you wanted, reach the finish line) is who you are changing along the way, are you being Built Up, in which you get rid of the Unwanted Fat (character traits or elements in your life that aren’t exactly good, positive, productive, encouraging etc) or are you being Taken Apart (in which you find that you are losing the best parts of what makes You). It is so important to keep an eye on this, it’s all good if you’re being Built Up, that’s the best way to Keep Moving Forward, but if you find that you’re being Taken Apart, well then something needs to be done.

Do you really want to Make It but then be:
somebody that you’re friends don’t know?
or worse,
someone that you’re inner circle does’t recognise?
or worst of all,
someone that doesn’t know you they’re looking in the mirror?

To have lost the person that made those very goals in the war you fought to get here?

Achievement and Success is all great but it’s who you are that’s most important,
not what you are,
not where you are,
not how much money you have,
nor the car you drive,
how big your house is,
or
how hot your spouse is.

The ultimate goal in life is to be Happy, Pay it Forward & Live –

in a way that is in line with who you are and not try to fit in to what is deemed “normal”. Not only does normal not really exist, it’s contradicting the very nature of Us, we are all different so stop trying to be like everyone else.

Embrace who you are and work from there, don’t lose the parts that make you You. Make sure that when you Make It, You are more than You were, not less.

Ensure that as you Live and move towards your goals, you’re being Built Up and not Taken Apart. It’s not as easy as it sounds but it’ll be worth it.

Hope i got my point across,

if you liked my post and/or writing please let me know by any or all of the following:

commenting below

rating it (the scale is at the top of the post)

sharing it with your friends on Facebook

sharing it with your followers on Twitter.

I’d appreciate any and all of it.
Thank you in advance!

Straight From The Heart

20130407-003321.jpg

 

Patience, Timing & Not Rushing In @CoffeaCoffeeMY


20130407-164234.jpg
Good Morning guys,

It’s been a while since I’ve felt this good in the morning, hope to keep it going 🙂

Got out of bed, went for a run, had my Holy Hour, practice my singing a little, watched the mentalist and now I’m having a really good Madonna flat white at Coffea Coffee. The day is indeed looking pretty damn good.

I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to write about today, on one hand I’m thinking about talking about a dream I had the other day and on the other I’m thinking about writing about the Patience and the like. You know what, I’m going to take a look at patience.

There’s always a conflict between being patient and wanting to get certain things done. When I want to do certain things, I want to do them immediate and I used to get pretty restless until I got the thing done, I’m still working on it but am at a better stance than previously.

I’ve found that most good things that have happened to me in my life are the result of being patient, that at the right time that which I want and work for will work out. I have also found that most of my mistakes and general bad and/or stressful things have occurred due to me rushing into things, usually with the mindset that it’s now or never. But you know what, looking back, I’ve realised that those times when I thought I needed to rush or get into that thing now, could have actually waited. I will of course work towards the things that I want, but I have to remember that being patient has lead to many great things, and even when it seemed like I missed an opportunity because of patience, it ended up leading to better things later, most of the time. Rushing into things has caused me much pain, at least I learnt from them, and the most common lesson being, patience.

I’m going to remember to Prepare, Learn and Wait for the right time, not to chase because there are certain things that aren’t meant to be and others that are. I do believe in greater Forces, I’m not saying that we’ve all got preset paths or the such, and sometimes if it doesn’t feel right, then don’t do it. Take a step back and be patient, because I find that through patience is when I can stand apart, observe and learn, and through this is when I believe that we find ‘The Right Time.’

Being patient and finding The Right Time can sometimes be confusing and conflicting, but this is what I’ve learnt: The Right Time isn’t about rushing in or chasing after something, it’s about standing back to observe and learn (actively, consciously) as you wait, and then stepping in when it feels right to you. It isn’t going to be easy, especially at first, and we’re all going to have to make mistakes in order to get to a better understanding of when to wait and when to step in. It’s experience that truly makes a difference in this department, and from all that i’ve dealt with over the last few years and what little I’ve learnt it’s better to wait than to rush into something, maybe that’s just me.

One more thing, do not confuse being patient with wishful thinking, while being patient we are also preparing, wishful thinking is just expecting something to fall in our laps.

Have a great day!

Straight From The Heart

 

Of Living Now & Anticipation


20120824-150200.jpg

Im sitting here in this Starbucks, my Caffe Latte on my right and my iPad right in front of me, thinking about how long I haven’t blogged and how blogging right now would just make my morning even better.
20120927-110043.jpg

Good Morning dear readers, it’s been a while since I last took to the iPad and opened up my WordPress app to share my thoughts with you. I’ve been in a bit of a rut, waking up late, wasting too much of my time on unnecessary unproductive things, but today I have snapped out of it, thanks to my Holy Hour yesterday afternoon that got me feeling good, aware and driven. My Holy Hour is such a important tool in my life, I have to make sure I keep it up, because when I don’t, everything just goes out of sync, priorities get disorientated and my mind gets cluttered. But enough about that, that is the past and I will learn from them and Keep Moving Forward.

Right now I’m enjoying this very moment, not thinking about the last or looking forward to the future in Anticipation, but just sitting here in this black arm chair, in this tastefully designed Starbucks sipping on my caffe latte, breathing in the moment, savouring my coffee.

Enjoying the moment, I think I wrote about this before, but anyway let me write about it again.

20120927-110741.jpg

If you visited my Facebook FanPage recently, you would have seen a quote from the current book I’m reading:

“the only moment we ever live is the present moment. It is the only one we ever have to be happy.” John A. Schindler

How right is that. Read it again and let it sink in. The only moment we can do something about is this very moment. Not the moment before this, or the moment after, this moment. So don’t waste time, try your level best to enjoy it.

The biggest threat and detriment to enjoying the present moment is Anticipation. The anticipation of something coming up that you are looking forward to or the classic,”I can’t wait to go to high school,” when you’re in middle school or “I can’t wait to go to university!”, when you’re in high school and so on. Stop wanting to fast forward through life all the time and enjoy what you can from the present phase of life you are in. Every phase has its benefits, so stop looking at the negatives. Stop being so glass half-empty. There’s always a Silver Lining.

Yes please plan ahead, plan that event you want to do, or plan for they concert you want to go for, but in the mean time, before that very exciting event happens, don’t let the anticipation to get to that future moment kill all the time in-between. The most valuable commodity in life is time, so don’t waste it living in fast forward or sleep-walking. Be aware of what you are doing at all times, at all moment and try your very best to enjoy each moment or at the very least live each moment, really live.

Put more living in your days.

20120927-110802.jpg

A suggestion, the next time you are walking, take a look around. Observe the people, the scenery, the sky, the plants etc, really observe and maybe, just maybe you’ll be able to see beauty and colour of all of it, to really see it and enjoy every bit of it.

To round up, enjoy the moment, don’t fret about the past because there really is nothing you can do about it but learn from it and plan ahead but don’t live life in fast-forward because of the Anticipation of getting to that next moment, or that next event or that next phase in your life.

“love what you have, and then go for heat you want. Enjoy the climb up the mountain, but never take your eyes of the summit”Robin Sharma

20120927-110142.jpg

6 Things To Do to Feel Like a Champion


20120818-194155.jpg

Good evening guys, I’ve been feeling pretty damn good over the last few days, feeling like a Champion. In this piece I’m going to talk about 6 things that you can do to feel like a champions or start your day of feeling awesome and like a champion.

Number 1

Get up off the couch and get some exercise. Get your blood pumping, get some endorphins released. I’m not asking you to go do some intense exercise, but do something, just get started and soon you’ll start looking forward to your exercise time because of feel good after effect. Start by scheduling and accomplishing two 15 minute walks a day. you’ve just got to get passed the initial barrier, get passed the Pull of Laziness, that urge to sit down on the couch and watch tv instead of breaking a sweat doing something healthy.

Number 2

Almost all of us have smart phones now, so let’s put them to good use. Set up a playlist on your music player and get the tunes pumping. Name it Good Feeling, Feeling Good or Feel Good, whatever tickles your fancy. The name isn’t important, it’s the tracks in the playlist that matter. They’ve got to be songs so get you in the right mood to go forth and conquer the day, play them in them in the morning, or whenever you’re not feeling good. Music has a way of tapping into our subconscious and our emotions, so the type of music we listen to is of the utmost importance.

Here are a couple of songs that I think are must haves on the list.

1. Michael Buble’s Feeling Good
2. Flo Rida’s Good Feeling
3. Hans Zimmer’s Zoosters Breakout from Madagascar
4. Hans Zimmer’s Molossus from Batman Begins
5. Showtek & Tiesto’s Hell Yeah! (this is probably going to be very much dependent on you)

Or put in music that triggers happy memories. For me, whenever I listen to Linkin Park, I’m reminded of the concert of their i saw when I was 12, and specific songs bring back specific feelings and emotions. Use that, tap into it, hack your brain.

Number 3

Spend time with some family and/or friends. I know this one is pretty obvious, but it truly is funny how so many of us don’t to it. We neglect some of the most important people in our life’s because we’re so busy being distracted (this is a topic for another post). Go do something fun with them, don’t waste time witting around doing nothing and staring at the ceiling together, yes you’re spending time but wt this juncture you’re all really not helping each others mood. Go do something new, exciting. Explore new sights within your area, your town, your city. Go play a fun board game, nothing too competitive, remember the aim is feel good champion not Winner Champion. Try out Meeples in Ss15 Subang or Kota Damansara. AS MUCH AS ALL THIS IS FUN AND WILL MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD, MAKE SURE IT’S IN BALANCE. DON’T DO EXTREMES.

Number 4

Start having a Holy Hour, or if you already have one, don’t neglect it. No this isn’t something spiritual or religious, it’s just something I learnt from reading Robin Sharma’s book. Take an hour for yourself everyday, either first thing in the morning or just before you go to bed. Use this hours for you, replenish your spirit. Within this hour, spend sometime listening to the good feeling playlist, spend some time reading, spend some time journaling and writing, spend some time dreaming and spend some time on your goals and assessing how far you’ve come and how far you’ve got to go. Look into yourself, think about what you can do better and how far you’ve come, look back and smile just don’t get stuck looking back.

Number 5

Create a photo album, call it whatever you want or you could just use the same name as your iTunes (Music) playlist. This album will be a collection of your happiest moments, the times you felt great. The times you felt most at peace, whatever make you feel happy. Look through them when you feel down, if you want look through them while listening to your feel good playlist. Make sure you set a specific amount of time because you don’t want to get caught trying to relive those memories in your head, you don’t want to spend 3 hours looking through them. Spend 15 minutes every few days, or use a few minutes of your Holy Hour. Don’t put in anything they brings back negative or emo memories, this isn’t an emo session, it’s a FEEL GOOD session.

Number 6

watch something funny, I don’t know whether I should be encouraging this because we tend to go overboard with this. My all-time favourite is Friends, I can watch Friend over and over wishing and still laugh my heart out. Comedies are about 24 minutes, so stick to one episode, 2 AT THE VERY MOST. I know it feels good to watch more, but what you’re really doing is wasting time and distracting yourself if you overdose ( more than 2 episodes daily). Have a selection of your fan courier episodes and pick one to watch when you’re feeling low. For that one episode, put everything away, your books, your phone and just focus on the show and enjoy it. Enjoy every second of it. Laughter is the best way to counter low moods, follow this with exercise and then the other things live listed and you’ve got yourself a Champion start to the today, or at least for me it’s so. Remember to always put yourself on the clock when it comes to tv, I generally believe that we shouldn’t exceed more then an hour of tv a day, it not easy at first but it will get easier over time.

These are the things I use, helpfully they are beneficial to you and that you feel the same way.

Straight From The Heart

Tuesday Inspiration – 6 ways to Keep Moving Forward.


20120605-135945.jpg

Good day readers,
Today didn’t start well at all, but like yesterday, I adapted and did what I could and am will continue and do what I can, so when I was thinking about what to write today for Tuesday Inspirations, I thought why not write about how I Keep Moving Forward.

My week is primarily divided into 2 categories, good days and bad days. There are days that I wake up fine, but there are days where I wake up feeling heavy, foggy and in pain. That’s how I’ve been living for the a while now in my fight against Fibromyalgia and I happy to say that I’ve come to a point where the good days outnumber the bad, which was the complete at the start of the year. During that time good days were rare. Why? Because during that time, they period of my life, I had given up fighting, I had given up trying to move forward, I let the Fibromyalgia reign without resistance, at that point not only was my body broken, but more importantly, my spirit as well.

Every time I look back at the starting months of the year, I realise how far I’ve made it so far, and let me tell you this, it’s a damn good feeling. Yes, I still have bad days, like yesterday and this morning, but I keep myself moving forward, no matter how little, it is always better than nothing.

20120807-145620.jpg

So here’s a list of 6 things I do to keep myself moving forward and improving my state of mind (helps me feel better)

1. I spend the first waking hour alone, just thinking. Thinking about how far I’ve come, how far I can go, what needs to be done & what I can improve on. I call it my Holy Hour.

2. I spend time reading a set list of articles everyday, sometimes more than once. It’s a collection of blogs, articles & excerpts, which I have so “creatively” called Daily Reading. These readings motivate me, nourish my spirit and remind me of where I want to go. Below is part of my current Daily Reading list.
– my current 30 day improvement guide (just make a list of things you want to implement, improve, change etc)
Robin Sharma’s 60 Tips for a Stunningly Great Life
71 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Life
30 Ways to Look and Feel Great in 30 Days

3. I get some exercise done, whether it’s taking Stitch for a 30 minute walk (good days), a 5 minute swim or even walking up & down the staircase a few times (bad days), every little bit counts. It’s always better to do a little exercise than none at all.

4. Practice. Over the last few months I’ve been taking vocal lessons, and after I sing, especially when I’m on form, I always feel better than I was. So not only does practice help me improve my voice, tone etc, it also makes me feel a lot better.

5. Just do it. Just get cracking on you’re to-do list, start with the easier ones, and as you keep going you’ll build momentum to tackle the bigger tasks which will lead to the completion of goals. Of course for this you’re going to already need a list of goals and to-dos that are in-line with the goals, so you might want to get cracking on that during you’re own Holy Hour.

6. Accept pitfalls and work around them. Yesterday I planned to wake up at 9am and get on with my day, I woke up late. Instead of beating myself up for waking up late, I adapted and rescheduled my day, and you know what, I got quite a bit done. I can say that yesterday was more a good day than bad.

Straight From The Heart

20120807-145430.jpg

Tuesday Morning Inspiration


20120605-135945.jpg
Good Morning, it’s my first day back to class today, unfortunately I woke up later than I planned which messed up my morning routine, couldn’t have my Holy Hour and I’m going to have to rush through this piece. For a while I just wanted to stay in bed, for a I while I asked myself why didn’t I just why did I decide to come back this semester and a few excuses started popping into my head. I got up anyway, off my bed and into the shower and that’s when I realised why i was thinking that way, I was scared.

I’ve been away for more than 7 months and it’s scary getting back to class. What if I fail again? What if I can’t handle the stress and the Fibromyalgia decides to flare up again? What if, what if, what if… Well, I’m never ever going to know when I’ll be fully ready to get back, I’ve spent the last few months trying my best to get to this point, so let’s see what happens. I’ll never know what will happen if I just stay under the covers.

I need to believe that I’ll be fine and organise myself to stay on track. Sleeping early, getting up early, eating healthy, laughing, studying and all that jazz. All that is going to be more important now than before, to keep me moving forward. To further propel me as I enter the next phase of my Second Coming.

Yes today didn’t start as planned, but I’m here now, I’m writing now, I’m on track for class, sure I didn’t get my Holy Hour, I’ll learn from the mistake and correct it. Mistakes will happen, not everything will go according to plan, I’m just happy that I adapt and made the nest of the time I had before class.

Yup I’m scared, because once I enter that lecture hall, it all becomes real, I will be back at uni, and in the back if my mind will be that fear that I might fail again. But as I wrote sometime back,

Facing Fears = Power

Good morning everyone,

For a change I’m writing from the Starbucks at Gardens, but still with my cafe mocha.

Today is a big day for me, I hope it all goes well.

On that note, I want to talk about the power that you get once you face your fears, once you’ve completed that task that you have been resisting. I’m actually pretty scared now, I’m going for a job interview after this, to get a sales position at Machines, hopefully Machines Gardens. I’m scared because I have never done this before, this is new to me. Have never had a real job before. Thoughts have been popping into my head. “what If I can’t do it?” “what of I don’t get it?” “do I really want it?””I can still cancel” “I don’t have to do it” bla bla bla.

But you know what, I want this job, It is a step in the right direction, I want to learn how an apple reseller works, so that maybe i can have my own franchise one day, I want to sell Apple products because I am passionate about them, I want the experience as i want to continue to grow but most importantly, I want to move forward. It’s been a great productive 5 weeks, and I want to continue that flow. I’ve been writing, reading, sleeping well, exercising, dabbled in investing, meeting people etc. I think I’ve mentioned before, this feels like my second coming.

All those questions and doubts, were coming from a place of fear, fear of failure, fear of the unknown. And I will face that fear because once its done…. It will give me power and confidence.

For example, yesterday I finally met a lecturer that I’ve been meaning to meet for a while, I put it off for so long cause I was scared, intimidated, worried etc etc. I was afraid I would mess up the meeting, but finally, yesterday, i just did it. I took the elevator up and met her and you know what? It was a great meeting. She has pointed me in the right direction to sort out my issues reading my Accounting Major and I have a meeting with the Director of Undergraduate Studies today. Hopefully she will be able to help me solve my problem. I’ve been procrastinating for so long simply because I didn’t want to face the fear of not being able to pursue Accounting, or having to delay my graduation by another semester and all those things. The phrase “Ignorance is Bliss” comes to mind, but ignoring the problems isn’t going to make them go away. No. That require conscious effort. Sometimes we run away from our fears so that we can pretend they’re not there, I sorry, but it’s time to wake up.

“I know of no more encouraging fact than th unquestionable ability of a human being to elevate their life by conscious endeavour.” Henry David Thoreau

So today, I’ve got two big steps to take, my first real job interview and a meeting at university. Both are big steps. And I am scared, but I’m not going to run away from this challenge. I will face it

And whatever happens, I will face that as well. If I don’t get the job so be it. If the meeting doesn’t go well I’ll extend my studies by another semester because failure is inevitable in the journey of life, you just have to make sure that the failure doesn’t stop you from moving forward. I’ve had enough of being scared, how about you?

“Fail Faster. Succeed sooner.” David Kelley

“Screw-ups are the mark of excellence.” Tom Peters

“twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do that by he ones you did.” mark twain

“the real risk lies in risked living.” robin sharma

Straight From The Heart

And I’m also reminded of this one,

The Lack of Self-Belief and the Fear of Failure

Good morning people,

Again i know it’s been a while since i’ve posted and i apologize, i am working to make this a more regular thing.

Today I’m going to talk about Belief, not religious beliefs but Believing in yourself.

“Belief, strong belief, triggers the mind to figure out ways and means and how-to.”

The lack of self-belief is plaguing us.There are so many of us that are scared to exit our comfort zones, so afraid to leave it because you might fall or get scratched. All because society has tabooed mistakes & failure, (largely due to flawed fundamentals of education systems, but that’s for another day) making it seem that in order to be successful and live a good life, one cannot fail, one cannot make mistakes. This goes on to lead people into confining themselves to the “Known” so that they minimize the risk of failure. But what most people do not seem to understand is that we are human and we will make mistakes. Mistakes is the fundamental ingredient in success, progress and greatness.

Richard Branson. Steve Jobs. Thomas Edison.

What is life if you do not experiment and learn? Better yet, what would life be like if everyone confined themselves in their comfort zones? The human race would not be where it is now. BIll Gates and Steve Jobs would now have gone to form Microsoft and Apple. Henry Ford would not have mass manufactured the car. Slavery would still be a norm. Columbus would have never discovered the ‘New World’ and the list would go on. The conclusion being that we would have never progressed, that we would still be hunting animals and living in caves, if we would have even made it that far.

WD-40 stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt, they failed the first 39 times.

Mistakes help us learn, failure makes us stronger, it weeds out the weak. The most successful amongst us are the ones who fail the most; the difference is that they didn’t let failure paralyze them into fear, they picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and kept going. These are the people who end up being great, the “Crazy Ones”. They aren’t afraid of falling in the mud, of entering new areas, they aren’t afraid to learn and push the boundaries of what they already know. The reason that they weren’t afraid is because they believed in themselves and what they were doing.

Persistence. Experimentation. Determination.

Self-belief is the most important factor in fighting fear of failure. People are afraid to make mistakes because they worry that they will not be able to overcome it. They do not believe that they can handle the potential curve ball that life has been known to throw. They do not believe that they will be able to pick themselves up after what could be a potentially bad fall. They lack the confidence to think that they can do it, and that’s the difference between achieving greatness and mediocrity. That’s the difference between winning and losing, and yea, you may not win all the time even though you believed in yourself but you’re not going to let the loss of one battle make you surrender the war.

“When looking at the most successful people and organizations, we often imagine geniuses with a smooth journey straight to the promised land. But when you really examine nearly every success story, they are filled with crushing defeats, near-death experiences, and countless setbacks.” – Josh Linkner, Fast Company.

Straight From the Heart,

I need to start believing that I will get through this. One semester at a time. This is the next big step in my recovery, in my Second Coming, in strengthening my Will to Keep Moving Forward.
And you know what, I will get through this. It’ll be fine, as long as I don’t lose focus and most importantly, as long as I don’t lose faith in my ability to get through, as long as I don’t stop believing in me. And so what if I fail, I’ve been through worse, from where I was when I left Monash all those month ago and now, ive made quite the turn around. From the broken young man who was ready to just give up, to one who is ready to face his fears, to Keep Moving Forward. As I have mentioned before, I know it won’t be smooth sailings, but as long as i don’t need up like how I was 6/7 months ago, I think I’ll be fine.

Facing my Fear will give me more strength to Keep Moving Forward, easier said than done I know, but doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

And you now what else helped make my day a little better? That my Soy Café Mocha was free today. 🙂

Straight From The Heart

20120724-094929.jpg