Good example of people that coped well with mistakes, failure and embarrassment..

Good example of people that coped well with mistakes, failure and embarrassment..

Are You Doing What You Really Want To With Your Life?

Builders cling to a personal commitment that’s so compelling to them – something so important to them that they would actually do it for free – that they must do it despite popularity.

From this quote, I derive a simple test to know whether or not you are now doing what matters to you. Simply give honest answer to these two questions:

1. Will you keep doing what you do if you do it for free?
2. Will you keep doing what you do if it never becomes popular?

If your answers to both questions are yes, then you are doing what really matters to you. If you answer is yes to only one what of them, then you are doing something that somehow matters but it doesn’t really matter. If your answers to both questions are no … well, you can guess, right?

Now, some thoughts from me.

I believe many people would say no to the first question regarding their job. Many people doesn’t really like their job; they just do it for the money. Once the money factor is gone, there’s no reason to keep doing it. Considering this, no wonder many people do not have fulfilling life. I remember what Steve Jobs said:

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.

However, I think the second question is even harder than the first one. There are many people who are willing to do something for free as long as they get some sort of popularity. Open source movement comes to my mind as an example. The people writing open source software do programming for free so they certainly pass the first question. But many of them – consciously or unconsciously – look for reputation and approval for what they do. This is absolutely normal, of course. Everyone needs to be appreciated. But if someone does something that really matters, it will be so compelling that the urge to do it is even bigger than the need for appreciation.

Many famous painters fall into this category. They really loved what they did that they did it despite money and popularity. Many of their paintings become famous and expensive only after their death.

Doing something that somehow matters (passing one question) is not easy. But doing something that really matters is even much harder.

Power Method #2) Chunking

The second reason why people don’t take action on what they want to achieve TOO BIG inside of their head.  Often a simple goal like going to the gym to work out becomes a number of PAINFUL things. 

1. I have to go get the keys to my car. 

2. I have to put my work out clothes on, and iron them because they’re all wrinkly. 

3. I gotta go to my car and drive there through traffic. 

4. Once I get there they’ll make me sign up for a membership. 

5. Once I am signed up they’ll give me a 2 hour tour of the place and try to upsell
me even more membership options which I don’t want!

6. Then I gotta work out for an hour, and I’ll get all sweaty. 

7. I have to drive home with all that sweat on me. 

8. Once I’m home I’ll have to shower, and by then I’ll have no time to do anything else! 

         “Forget it! I’m watching TV!

Going to the gym is too complicated and too painful”  Chunking, and the Rule of 3s  Our conscious mind can usually hold only a number of things to do at once.  Whenever there is more things to do than the conscious mind can handle, we feel overwhelmed and stop everything completely.

What I realized after a while is that nothing is really as big as we make it out to be. We just have a habit to make things bigger than they are.
The above gym example could be brought down to three simple steps: 

1. Go to the gym 

2. Work out 

3. Feel great and energized!

Whenever you find yourself feeling blocked or procrastinating, think of the way you are chunking down the goal into steps?  Are you thinking of ALL the things you have to do, and how PAINFUL they will be?  If you are, chunk them down into 3 steps.  As you focus on these steps, you’ll find you’ll feel much more balanced and relaxed about the goal!