Richard Yong

You've got to find what you love.

Here are a few if's worth thinking about.

• If you were going to die in 15 years. Would you do anything different? What about 50?

• If you had a dream, are you still dreaming?

• If you  were going to be remarkable, what would you do?

• If you had the resources and the time to do anything... what would it be?

• If you could be a good person, who would you be?

• If you didn't have to please your parents/wife/children/friends/golf buddies, what would you do?

The power isn't in the if. It's in the question of the when.

I've got one more piece of advice from Steve.

Almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Flickr credit: Voetmann

Mindfulness and the impermanence of life.

  The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius explored the frailty of man in Meditations, '... if we live longer, there is no guarantee that our mind will likewise retain that power to comprehend and study the world which contributes to our experience of things divine and human... so we must have a sense of urgency, not only for the ever closer approach of death, but also because our comprehension of the world and our ability to pay proper attention will fade before we do.'

If we consider this in our daily life, many people 'do their time' in painful, stressful jobs with some expectation of a greater life in retirement, we miss the urgency of the present and the attention we should pay to it.  If we always live for the future, when we retire, become rich, famous, or hit that big idea to really live life, it's as though we're waiting for future before we allow ourselves to start living.

These are the times when we launch into the 'if only I had' or 'If only I were' something or someone before we can be happy. The problem with the future is that it's not yet here and that we only have the present. And if we wait too long, we might miss our chance to really live. We may no longer have the youth, energy, vitality and ability to live in the moment as we do right now. Perhaps it's a reason why the most inspiring, talented, authentic and emotionally open people are those with terminal illnesses or disabilities, with finite dimensions on their lives, they are driven to make every single moment count.

One of the best techniques I've found for living in the moment, and living life right now, no matter what I'm doing is to think deeply and be mindful to each of my five senses. It's easy to fall into the trap of defining moments between scheduled 'events' as times to place your mind on cruise control, for example commuting, boring client meetings or talking to someone you dislike. Letting these times pass without thinking is a waste of your time, precisely because it is yours, it's your life, and we can only ever experience life in the present, everthing else is over or is yet to come. It's a powerful way to kick the habit of going 'through the motions', and it can bring a vivid experience to everything

Don't touch. Feel
Don't glimpse. See
Don't hear. Listen
Don't eat. Taste
Don't sniff. Inhale

Be curious, and make use of every thing you have. Now.

Image credit: Dominic's Pics

The three little lies we tell ourselves about work.

Most of us as children, as students, and as workers come across three beliefs about Work that become so ingrained in us they feel like reality. Worst of all we use them to rationalise  whatever we're doing, even if it doesn't make sense:

1. Work must be boring.
2. You have to be smart and know a lot to be successful
3. You have to work hard and be stressed to be successful

From young we are told that we need to study things we don't like, because some how it's good for you. If you work hard (and if you're lucky, you know a lot and you're smart) you'll get good marks, and when you grow up, those marks become money. and you will be successful in life.

People have a masochistic tendency to undergo pressure, stress and bore as some kind of badge of honour.

A lot of people I know fell into their lives, fell into their jobs, careers, study. It's easy when you learn values like the three little lies to think that whatever it is we're doing that it's somehow okay, because 'thats just the way it is.' But it isn't... and life is far too short to accept things as they are.   

I've got one point to say about the three little lies of work.

Life isn't a trial run. 

If we're lucky we get 80 odd years. Once we die, as far as we know, it's over. All that pressure, stress and bore will mean absolute squat. squat.

I challenge you today to think:

1. Are you doing what you love, or are you working towards it? Once it is about doing what you love, work isn't about trying to compete, earn more, know more or about the grind, it's about happiness. It's not about trying to earn more money, be more powerful, it doesn't become about working faster or harder anymore, it becomes about being excited.

2. Is the life story you're writing the one you want to tell?

Mark Twain once said - 'Twenty years from now you will be more dissapointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.'

Explore. Dream. Discover.

Image credits: maveric2003