This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
-Morpeus
I started the personal development journey about 5 years ago and there are times when I would beat myself up about the fact that I haven’t achieved anywhere near what I’d set out to achieve 5 years ago. As I thought about it over the last few days and over the two weeks since I started this blog, I came to a few key realizations about beginning personal development. If somebody could have provided me with a set of instructions these would have been it. I also think that by following these simple tips you’ll find that you’ll achieve your goals much faster and with significantly less effort.
1. ENJOY THE JOURNEY: If there’s anything that should come in the instruction manual for personal development it should be this written in big bold letters. I think the analogy of travel is really a perfect one in this case. As you look over your life at destinations that you’ve traveled to, you’ll notice that the journey from A to B has been one of the most enjoyable experiences. Last fall when I lived in Brazil, I traveled all over the place, and as I began to write my novel about the experience, I realized that all the adventures, all the laughs, all the experiences happened during the journey. My real growth from the experience came from the journey.
2. Detach from outcomes: This is something that we all struggle with. It’s simple, but not easy. When you look at the world around you, you will see we live in a world driven by instant gratification. Frozen Food that’s prepared in five minutes, pizza delivered to your door in under 30 minutes, fast food meals that take less than 2 minutes to purchase are just the beginning. Every day we indulge in instant gratification without even knowing it. When we move beyond your daily lives, it gets even worse. Big Screen TV’s, Designer Shoes, and all those things that you have to absolutely buy today are more icing on the cake of instant gratification. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with any of those things. I personally have my own set of material goals that are among those things. But, attachment to them is ironically what has kept them from manifesting in my life. When you look at the energy of attachment, it starts to become obvious why it hasn’t manifested. Attachment to an outcome is a signal of lack and thus you create more of it in your life. Based on my recent experiences with searching for a job, when I focused all my effort on this blog, and just kept submitting resumes, and didn’t think about it, I got some interviews.
3. Commit to to it: According to Tony Robbins Personal Power Program roughly 90% of people buy a self improvement tape set and never finish listening to it. This is kind of amazing considering how badly you want to see change in your life if you’ve started the personal development journey. I wrote about the importance of commitment and consistency earlier. Just realize that the journey of personal development doesn’t have an end, it’s lifelong. Once you are on the journey there’s no turning back. In the words of Morpheus, “Take the red pill, and I show you deep the rabbit hole goes.”
4. Measure progress against where you were before, not where you want to be. I don’t remember who told me this, but it was a pretty great advice. When you measure the distance to your goal, it might feel like it’s really far. When you measure how far you’ve actually come, you’ll be blown away. You’ll realize you’re already more than half way there. It just required you to shift your perspective.
5. Peace of mind: According to Wayne Dyer’s book, Manifest Your Destiny, this is really all you are trying to achieve. Once you realize that the only goal you are trying to really achieve is peace of mind, things have a way of flowing into your life. This blog is the best personal example I can think of. Although I have jotted down a list of 30+ ideas for blog posts and continue to do so throughout the day, some mornings I just wake up and write whatever has come to me because it’s better than the ideas I’ve written down.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
#1 is SO important!!! I agree with all of these — great ideas!
Agree with #4, you always want to reflect back on how far you’ve gotten and grown.
Thought this was very appropirate to my current condition. I thank you very much for providing it.
Please take the time to look at this web site it changed my life. I learned how to be successful in all areas of my life because of a 90 day program. http://www.abundancewealth.net
Number four is such a great thing to remember. I’m definitely going to try this from now on. Such a positive way to look at all that you’ve achieved!
Yes, don’t we wish there was an instruction manual!
Your analogy of the most fun and interesting stuff actually happening on the journey is so appropriate. It might even be helpful to consider that there is no destination… the journey is the thing! As we continue on, the goal posts keep changing anyway as we learn and grow… so we may as well savor each step in the present moment.
Your list of 5 are all valuable insights for starting the personal development journey… great post.
Cathy Johnson Campbell´s last blog ..Faith the Dog