Always be happy, never be satisfied – Mark McKeon, author and speaker
Are you happy? Do you make time to celebrate? Do you take care of yourself?
Are you striving? If you were to update your bio or resume, do you have something new to add? Do you do your best work?
You can be happy and still strive for more. It’s a challenging balance, but that’s the fun.
True life is lived when tiny changes occur – Leo Tolstoy
What is one positive change you can implement right now – eat one piece of fruit each day, get fresh flowers for your desk, take your lunch break outdoors?
You don’t have to quit your job. You don’t have to spend lots of money. You don’t have to plan too much.
What’s the tiniest step you can take?
We must find ideas big enough to be afraid of again – Garland Wright, Guthrie Artistic Director
What items on your wish list scare you?
Are you aiming too low?
What resolution can you make right now that inspires both fear and excitement?
The greatest hurdle is convincing yourself that what you want is possible. – Author Unknown
I recently read the latest Chip and Dan Heath book, Decisive, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It is about making better decisions, and one of the book’s first recommendations is Widen Your Options. Think “And” rather than “Either/Or”. Many times that alone makes us creative enough to figure out new solutions.
This quote also reminds us to substitute “Can I?” for “How Can I?” When we assume that something is possible, we can move our energy into how to make it so.
Where are you spinning your wheels to convince yourself to move forward? What if you knew it was a possible and it was just a question of what to do next? What will you do now?
You can’t have everything. Where would you put it? – Steven Wright
Of course, as a comic, I have to quote a comic. But more significant than how funny this is, is how true this is. Having everything poses a space problem. More brings more headaches.
This isn’t to discourage you from striving. There is something to be said for dreaming big and thinking beyond either/ or. In that sense, the prospect of having it all is healthy.
On the other hand, accumulating blindly and not acknowledging the costs of your other limited resources (space, energy, attention) is unhealthy. You still want to consciously choose what you want to attain.
For me, having it all means being creative AND making money, having a thriving career AND a loving family, feeling challenged AND getting enough rest.
What does having “everything” mean to you?
The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all – Jawaharlal Nehru, former Prime Minister of India
I’m a personal finance junkie so the first example of this that comes to mind is saving in “guaranteed” rate CDs which provide a guaranteed but low return, but typically does not even grow at the rate of inflation. You don’t risk money on market fluctuations, so it seems cautious. However, you’re actually guaranteed to lose money in terms of your purchasing power due to inflation.
On the career front, I see people stay in jobs or business ventures they aren’t happy with for too long. They can’t afford the risk of losing the income. In the meantime, they also lose the possibility of a better income elsewhere, or at least sustainability and happiness.
What are you missing by not making a move, making a decision, starting or ending something?
Where in your life – career, finances, relationships or somewhere else – are you too cautious?
Is the pursuit of caution actually opening you up to greater risk?
Real difficulties can be overcome, it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable – Thomas N. Vail
Are you being conquered by worries that haven’t been realized yet?
Can you recall worries from the past? Did anything of them ever happen?
What if you divided your worry time in half and spent one half worrying (because habits aren’t changed overnight) and one half working on one small step?
What are you seeing lately? Growth, opportunity, success? Challenges, difficulties, obstacles?
What if you looked for something else?
In what areas of your life would you like to change your perspective?
Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world – Jane Addams
Some people are held back by fear – fear of failure, fear of success. Addams points out fear can propel us forward: we might instead fear not doing enough, not making a valuable contribution.
This Addams quote also calls on each of us to save the world. Our contribution might be the tipping point. We MUST continue sharing our gifts.
Where are you holding back?
For what dream can you expend an additional push, more inspired effort?
How would you act if you knew your efforts might save the world?
Now there’s a metric I can get behind – not just joy, but joy that makes you tremble. What if we made all of our decisions based on this:
What would you do differently if you had to measure your choices against the trembling joy they bring?