Once a month I will record a short 3-5 min video with a practical Tip, Tool, or Strategy. Today is the first edition, and is one of the most important (and simple) STRATEGIES that I teach all my private Coaching clients. It will improve your decision-making “RESULTS” by about 200%!
Enjoy.
As I suspect you know – I believe that it is the quality of our decisions that shape our destiny (which I even wrote a book on).
The yogi’s – 100’s of years ago – also knew this.
When considering the elements of the “mind” then understood that there was an Higher mind and a Lower mind.
Somewhat similar to our conscious mind and unconscious mind, but not exactly.
The yogi’s actually identified 4-parts of the mind.
Which is similar to modern psychologists with their Triune Brain model.
Although, I think the yogi’s had cooler sounding names.
The one I really like is the “Buddhi” part of mind.
The higher mind.
The one more closely connected to our individual (Purusha) and collective consciousness.
I doubly love the idea of having a “sharpened” Buddhi.
In modern language that would equate to a well-developed prefrontal cortex.
But the thing that most stands out for me (and was of primary interest to these yogi’s), was the power of DISCERNMENT.
Seeing the big picture.
I am almost 100% certain, that you, like me, have done this before.
And rather than me doing the big build up thing, let’s jump immediately into today’s topic.
But just to make sure of my “almost 100% certain” assumption, let me ask you this.
Have you EVER labelled an event – at the time – as “BAD”, only to find out at a future date that it was probably one of the best things to ever happen to you?
I am guessing you have.
We all have.
The next thing I am curious about is…
Exactly how many times do you think this has happened to you?
Once?
A few times?
Or if you really think about it…a LOT!
I have been pondering something of late.
As you may have noticed – unless you are working on your enlightenment in the nearest mountain cave – the world is a little bit bonkers at the moment.
And to be a little more specific, sad as it is, all of us have probably personally be touched by, or clearly noticed a rise in the number of people with (to generalise) “mental health” issues or challenges.
I just did a quick search online and the estimated number of people with a mental ‘disorder’ globally, in 2019 was about 1 in 9.
Which, to tell the truth, was higher than I thought it would be.
And there are several reports of that number going up significantly from 2020-2023, due to a world event (and periphery events) we are all familiar with.
So, without getting into too much more doom and gloom, we can all acknowledge that there are a lot of people having significant challenges with life in this modern age.
The second part, to set the context of the brief conversation I want to have with you, is over the last 20-years of so, there has been so much pressure on what we can and can’t say about one another, or to one another.
This has even had an impact on what is deemed appropriate for comedians to make “jokes” about.
Anyway, my point is this…
This goal is pretty common.
I have definitely had this goal, or a derivation of it, at some points in my life.
Thinking that if I attained this goal, life would be just great.
Only to find that attaining this goal is actually a little hollow.
Not actually that much fun.
And some research would even suggest it will take us to an early grave.
And no, we are not talking about getting “high” off alcohol or drugs, which most of us realise is followed by a whopping headache and hang-over, or in the case of drugs, a downer for a handful of days after (or so I have read ;-)).
The goal I am talking about…
Are you ready for it?
Is…
The Goal of getting to the place where you don’t have to DO anything.
Free of commitments and responsibilities.
And the piece I want to focus on today is – more specifically – freedom from “having to work”.
You have also likely seen a bunch of conversations online where some younger folk are all for an unconditional basic income (UBI), which is not based on work status.
Where you could still be paid to do nothing.
Sounds great.
But actually, it’s not.
And thus starts today’s conversation.
Having stable, solid, well-defined and deep foundations is ESSENTIAL to build anything GREAT from.
I am sure that concept is not news to you.
We need to have great foundations in order to build anything great.
Whether it is a skyscraper or an outstanding relationship.
Whether it is a great game of tennis, or a great business.
The fundamental foundations matter a lot.
But when it comes to us, as people, what EXACTLY do me mean (practically) when we talk about building a ‘solid foundation’?
I use the term a LOT with my clients.
So, I thought given I say it a lot, what exactly constitutes what I am calling a solid foundation?
Hence, today’s topic.
Once a month I will record a short 3-5 min video with a practical Tip, Tool, or Strategy. Today is the first edition, and is one of the most important (and simple) STRATEGIES that I teach all my private Coaching clients. It will improve your decision-making “RESULTS” by about 200%!
Enjoy.
Where to start?
How about with the name of the book I just finished reading, which shared pretty interesting insights. The book was called: ‘Why You’re Unhappy’ by Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD.
I didn’t agree with everything she presented, but because she has a background in anthropology as well as psychology, it brought a nice perspective to her discussion on biology.
And the influence on our feelings and behaviours.
She spoke a lot about the individual roles of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins and cortisol; and how they are primarily used for survival (and reproduction of genes), as with all mammals.
I have talked before about the ‘mid’ brain, also called the limbic brain or mammalian brain.
It has a number of functions including regulation and generation of our emotions, which obviously affects us moment-to-moment and day-to-day.
I found a few things in this book especially fascinating.
Particularly the author’s overarching message.
We are not – biologically – designed to be ‘happy’ all the time.
It is not only okay, but “normal” to feel our emotions go up and go down throughout our day and life in general.
I think that is a great point.
If we EXPECT to be happy, all the time, or think there is something “wrong” with us if we aren’t, then we may be fighting reality.
What I also found fascinating was…
I spoke about HABITS the other day.
Plus last week I spoke about the relationship between Goals and Process, as the authors of Tiny Habits and Atomic habits shared the same pint of view.
I also mentioned I would do a deeper overview of the book Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, which I read recently.
It really is a great book (strategically) plus ol’ BJ, who is a Standford professor, is not writing to impress people with his literary skills, but is actually passionate about serving other people.
It is great to see an academic who is more interested in the impact of his work, than academic accolades.
Thanks BJ!!
Essentially, there are a few BIG points to takeaway from his book and decades of practical application.
So…
How is your patience?
If you are anything like me, then at times it is crap.
I was just talking to my partner – Ferry – about ‘having patience’ the other night, as we transit between our farm and our ‘main’ house, waiting for the sale of our ‘main’ house, before we finish building our other ‘main’ house on our farm.
I don’t like mortgages, so I need to exercise the ‘patience’ to wait for the sale of our house, which is dragging on, and on and on…
So I have spent intimate time face-to-face with the thing called patience of late and I – as always – want to figure out how I can do it better.
At first I thought you can’t ‘force’ patience.
As in, you can’t DO stuff to make ‘more’ patience.
Because it is more about surrendering, letting go, and stepping back.
BUT…
Then I sat with and went deeper to understand patience from all angles and this is what I came up with.