Be content with what you have, but always strive to be better. Put in the effort, but don’t be too hard on yourself if the outcome isn’t what you expected. Go with the flow. “Be water” and you will be much happier.
Tag: advice
Getting started
You don’t have to know it all to get started, you just need to know what the next step is. If you wait until you have all of the information or until you know exactly how things will play out, you will be waiting forever. There is risk and uncertainty in everything we do in life. There is even risk and not taking action.
Determine where you are currently and where you think you want to be in the future. Once you have an end result in mind, then reverse engineer the next steps to get there. You don’t have to have everything planned out to a “T” to get started. Have a general guideline or a framework on how do you think it should look and what you need to do to get started. I guarantee that how do you think it looks and how it will eventually end up working is going to be at least a little different. But if you don’t do anything, if you wait for all the answers to come to you, if you wait for certainty, you’re going to miss your opportunity.
Focus on the good, not the bad
When you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have. When you focus on what you have, you will always have enough.
Be grateful for what you have. Chances are that if you’re reading this you’re way better off financially than the majority of people in this world. Focus on the good in life and seeing the silver lining in every situation. Train your brain to find what is good and to make the best out of any situation. If you only focus on what is going wrong in your life, eventually that is all you will see.
Progress, not perfection
If you won’t remember this specific event in a week (let alone in a year or at the end of your life), then stop worrying so much about it. It’s not a big deal. Don’t blow things out of proportion.
So what if you got a B (or C, D, or F) on an assignment? Does that mean that you’ll never succeed in life?
So what that you didn’t get 8 hours of sleep? Does that mean you’re going to be a zombie the next day?
So what if your kids have some chocolate or didn’t eat the most perfectly grown, organic/non-GMO food today? Does that mean that they won’t grow and their health is now in jeopardy?
The point is, we are more resilient than most people think and so are our kids (if we let them). Don’t think that everything has to be perfect, because it won’t be – and you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to make it perfect. Go with the flow. Be nice. Treat others well. Do your best everyday. But be kind to yourself. Understand that the goal should be progress, not perfection.
Admit your mistakes…you’ll feel better
Embrace your mistakes. Do not hide from them. Confess…if you’ve wronged/hurt someone, admit it to them and apologize. If you’ve done something that doesn’t align with your values, try to right your wrong and make sure you never do that again. To say it out loud – admitting it, owning it – will help to prevent you from doing it again. Hiding your mistakes or covering them up is lying – to yourself and others – and will eat you alive.