Guest Post for 5ThingstodoToday.com Blog
by: Jay Kshatri, www.ThinkSmarterWorld.com
Image courteousy of CompFlight
In our digitally connected, 24/7 worlds it is easy for us to submerge ourselves in the habitual patterns of everyday life. At some level it’s comforting and even provides a level of stability in a highly unstable world. Yet, that stability comes at a price. Those habits and routines can sometimes take us down paths that don’t allow our true greatness to emerge. At worst, we can become mere reflectors of the world around us rather than conscious, thoughtful beings in control of our own destinies. We become reactive rather than proactive.
Fortunately there is a very simple way to solve this dilemma and regain our footing – it is by asking ourselves questions that challenge our established patterns and assumptions.
To get yourself started on this mind-expanding journey, here are five questions to begin contemplating now:
1. What would I do now if money or time were no object?
Time and Money are usually the two biggest reasons we remain in a certain life trajectory. The weight of these two forces is so great, that they are usually able to quickly squash most desires and inspiration that are trying to rise to the surface from your subconscious mind. But you must not let that happen because the lack of time and money are temporary illusions. They can be altered. So ask yourself what you really want to accomplish in life and what will cause the greatest happiness. Brainstorm with yourself, just let the thoughts rise to the surface. Experience them, sit with them, meditate with them. After a while you will be surprised to see that if you don’t dismiss them, you will start to imagine the solutions to the time and money issues that will allow your desires to be realized.
2. What is the One thing I could change that would dramatically accelerate my life?
Many of us can be pretty hard on ourselves for our shortcomings. We can easily fill an entire page with what we should be doing differently – either in our personal or professional lives. Unfortunately, the long list overwhelms us and we many times end up taking no action at all. But at any moment in our lives, there is usually one major thing that is holding us back from progressing to the next level. Figure out what that is and make the change. When the list has just one item, it is more likely we can achieve the goal.
3. What are my hidden filters?
When we speak with someone, we have a natural tendency to view them and our conversation through a number of filters, such as beliefs, concepts, and biases we’ve acquired through our life experiences. I’ve found that the filters can be categorized as one of the following types: Physical (someone’s appearance); Emotional (our own emotional state of mind at the time); Mental (the person’s sophistication in how they convey their message): Auditory (how a person sounds or speaks); Cultural (a person’s particular cultural background and how that manifests itself in their communication style); Background-Related (a person’s reputation, personal history, or track record).
What this means is that every time you have a conversation, you may not accurately be hearing what the person is really saying. The person speaking likewise risks that what they’re communicating to you may not be getting through as intended. This problem alone is most likely the root cause of much of the conflict, lack of cooperation, and apathy among people. To prevent this, we need to be truly present and tuned in to the speaker, and we need to do this without judgment or applying any of the communication filters I’ve described.
4. What am I the most passionate, angry, or enthusiastic about?
We each have our hot buttons right? Some issue, concept, event, person, or belief, that really gets our juices flowing. We find ourselves thinking and talking about our particular hot button frequently though out the week. The interesting thing is that ideally, what we do in life should be aligned with our passions. It is those items that raise our energy and make us feel most alive. Most people’s work lives for instance don’t end up that way. Their passions lie elsewhere – and in a typical week they are spending greater than 50% of their waking hours doing things that they really don’t care that much about. Of course we can’t all immediately align our work with our passions, but the first step is identifying what they are and then looking for ways to incorporate them into our daily lives. Maybe there is an interesting new project coming up that would align better with your interests, or perhaps you could suggest a new business idea and volunteer to spear head the effort? And on the personal side, perhaps we can re-arrange our priorities a bit to find ways to enjoy those things more often.
5. What is my plan for upgrading my Mental Operating System?
Windows has it, MAC OS has it, as do most software programs and apps. The ubiquitous Auto-Update that regularly enhances our various software programs with new features, bug fixes, and speed enhancement. But what about the most powerful Operating System there is – our Brain / Mind? There is no auto-update, it’s all manual.
We need to take the initiative in order to increase our ability to more efficiently process the complex world we live in. Otherwise we bog down. Our performance starts resembling a Windows 95 machine trying to run 2013 software programs. Our ability to make sense of complex situations and process ever more increasing amounts of data requires that our engine – the brain and mind – are updated and working in peak condition. And, it is this capability to process, analyze, and make sense of a multidimensional world that will set apart those that succeed in this century and those who don’t.
The good news is that there is a large selection of tools to enable our Mental OS upgrade. The bad news is that it is easy to get overwhelmed by the massive amount of apps, websites, blogs, podcasts, videos, and more. Drinking out of the proverbial data firehose causes all sorts of “Digital ADD”. We therefore need strategies to manage this Information Abundance and move away from our reactive state of being to our more natural proactive mode of interacting with our world. Some of the strategies are decidedly low-tech (like changing our perspective by asking different questions), while others are the combination of using applications to harness the powerful stream of data along with process steps to optimize how and when we interact with information we are interested in. If you are interested in learning more, please visit www.ThinkSmarterWorld.com and download the free e-book.
