Mastering Discomfort from zenhabits.net

An excellent and true read from my favourite Zen website.

Overcoming discomfort is so difficult but is something we must endure in order to grow.

http://zenhabits.net/discomfort/

Every Artist Was First An Amateur

Read that again:

"Every Artist Was First An Amateur" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Take a moment and really think about what that means. Leonardo DaVinci, Karl Lagerfeld, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Livermore and any other human being you can think of or have looked up to is/was an artist sculpting their own destiny. But the one thing that every single person you can think of started with was the fact that they started out as an amateur and had to take the necessary stepping stones and building blocks to get to where they are. 

They did not start out as stars or successful individuals. 

Too often we see someone in their success and believe that they just started in their career and "got lucky". The actress winning the Oscar must have just stepped onto the scene and gotten lucky right? I guarantee that she has been working her tail off for years; going to every audition, spending countless hours learning about herself and networking and working dead end jobs in order to pay her bills. She walked a long and lonely road before she won that Oscar and will continue on that road behind the scenes AFTER she wins that award.

Dream big but start small.

Time and time again I would dream big and picture myself in the life that I had created in my mind. I would get so excited about the life I was going to create for myself and then all of a sudden the dream would come crashing down on me. I would be so depressed that no one could talk me out of my depression. I then realised that I had it in my mind that I would just wake up one day and become the dream I had envisioned without doing the work FIRST. 

Prep work.

If you are making a career change or you are just starting out in the working world make sure you take the smaller steps first. When I was working to become a professional actor I knew I would have to pay my dues and learn everything I could before I had any kind of spotlight on me. There are some stars that get blinded in the spot light WITHOUT doing much training or taking those small steps first and they end up looking ridiculous and awkward. If you are serious about what you are dreaming about make sure you are comfortable with taking those smaller yet necessary steps to become the person you need to become BEFORE you present yourself to the world. 

Prepare, prepare, prepare and don't be lazy about it!

Yes, it's boring to not get to live the dream right away and to have to spend countless hours training behind the curtain. Actors spend very little time in front of the camera and bodybuilders spend maybe 2 hours (depending on how many shows they do) on stage in the 8,760 hours in a year. So the other 8,758 hours are spent taking the necessary steps to become great. 

Do what you need to do. Do it until you are exhausted and get angry about having to do any more and then when you feel like giving up, do more. 

Never give up because when you give up on the dream you are allowing yourself to settle and essentially you are giving up on yourself. 

Your age doesn't matter. You might be 75 or you might be 25 and feel as though you've spent all this time training for something else and you no longer wish to do that thing. The idea is to start somewhere.
Read 7 Steps To The Real You to help you figure out where you belong.

"Be humble in your beginnings and then be humble in your success." - Clare Baukham

The next time you see someone you admire, remember that they too began as an amateur and for them it has been a very long road.

It Will Be Difficult

In my relatively short life I can remember a time that I wished more than anything for an easy life. The funny thing is, the more you wish for an address on Easy Street the harder things seem to get. This is a matter of perspective.

One woman's easy is another woman's difficult. 

Once an individual has been through a difficulty in life be it a death in the family, overcoming a disease, a career change or even something self inflicted like changing a diet, her perspective changes when the next difficulty comes along. It is for this change in the way I see things that allows me to invite change and challenge. Once I started to see the results of a change I had to endure, I realised that change was the best way to become better than I was the day before. 

Yes it's hard. Why would it be easy? Then EVERYONE would do it!

"Our major purpose on Earth is that of developing wisdom through struggle and self discipline." - Unknown

Think about how you feel after you have had a terrible day. Relieved that you got through it right? But also a little proud that you were able to deal with it that way you did right? Well, imagine trying something new and not stopping until you have won. Imagine how that would feel. 

We waste our lives doing things that are easy because somewhere along the line we kept telling ourselves that we didn't have the time to look after our dreams, health and good fortune. Watching T.V., eating fast food or prepared meals prepared by someone else, not exercising, speaking poorly, emailing and texting rather than a phone call and the list goes on and on. Why waste your life? You only have one in this body (depending on your beliefs). Why sit in front of a T.V. and fantasize about what a fictitious character is doing? If you want that life then GO GET IT. 

WARNING: It Won't Be Easy 

"Life is a fight for territory, it's hard to keep your spirit up, it's hard. But you need to refuel yourself mentally emotionally and spiritually. You have to battle sometimes in your own home against yourself. But I can tell you from my experience, it's worth it! - Unknown

I believe that every human being has a set of priorities and standards that they live their life by. But they also have inspiration somewhere inside of them to become what they wish to become and whenever they do that thing or activity, they experience a fulfilment beyond measure. 

"It doesn't matter how many times you fail. It doesn't matter how many times people tell you that you can't do it. It doesn't matter if you don't have a dime in the bank. You will fail your way to success. What's very important is do you really want to win?" - Unknown 

"There is ALWAYS a way to win. There just is. Your job is to find it."

So go find it and don't worry about what everyone else is doing or saying. You know what you have to do. Do it and don't look back no matter how hard things get. You will succeed and then the next challenge will seem that much easier. You will then have a system in place for mastering anything. 

Do what you have to do to get that system in place and then you will become the person you wish to become.

It's Easy...But Only When You Love It

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius

Whatever you choose to master in life, make sure it is something you absolutely love doing. It doesn't have to be 

a money maker but something that you absolutely lose track of time doing. What do you find yourself searching 

for on YouTube all the time? I search shark videos often just because I love the ocean, it's life and it's sports 

(surfing for example).

With this passion and love for what you are pursuing you will find instant motivation once you start working at it. 

An athlete like Tiger Woods would not dread going to train everyday on the golf course. Yes it would be difficult 

at times when you are tired but you'd go and do it because you loved it and you would not have to talk yourself into 

playing or training everyday.

When something becomes a part of your lifestyle, much like watching t.v., you would start to look forward to that 

routine activity. That place becomes your sanctuary and provides you with a similar comfort to being home. In 

essence that training ground, workplace, field, basketball court (or where ever) becomes your home. Once you 

establish this feeling and routine you will create an amazing snowball effect. You start to see results and you 

crave more and more. That is when you will become unstoppable.

Remember, nothing will happen if you are forcing yourself to do it. Whether it's weight loss or a new career or skill.

You have to WANT to do it. 

As soon as you truly WANT to do it for the right reasons, you are on your way to mastery.

Do what you need to do, to become the person you need to become and you will succeed.

Once You Know, You Know What You Know

"Someone's opinion of you does NOT have to become your reality!" - Les Brown

Once you experience something you will never be able to go back to the way things were. We have a saying that goes "once you know, you know what you know". This means, once you learn something, you simply can never go back to not knowing that thing.

Try this:

Assuming based on the fact that you are reading this right now, you know how to read. You've learned that skill. If you looked at a page in a novel BEFORE you had that skill versus AFTER you had the skill of literacy would you be able to look at the page the same once you knew how to read ever again? Probably not. Once you learn something you know it for life.

Now on a different note. How many people told you in life that you were no good at something like mathematics? I was told in grade 10 that I was terrible at math and I should continue in the general classes (rather than the advanced or applied). My entire life I was convinced that I could not do anything math related, thus leaving out some very viable career choices. I now deal with numbers all day every day in the stock market and I am excellent with math.

Why? What happened?

It's very simple, I told myself (and believed) that I was excellent at math. Once I accepted that I was great with numbers and started to learn how to calculate ROI (return on investment) or percentages or Fibonacci numbers I couldn't go back. Once I knew, I knew what I knew!

The point is two fold. You decide what you can and cannot do and then once you know, you know what you know forever.

Go ahead, tell yourself you CAN do something and then DO IT. Don't be intimidated. Remember that the masters all had to start somewhere and if you are worried you'll look silly trying something new I can guarantee that more people will be jealous of your tenacity than think you look silly. 

Believe in yourself and remember the next time you don't know something, don't shoo it to the side; figure it out and empower yourself to KNOW.

Think this looks intimidating? That's only because you currently don't know what it is. It's a VERY simple Fibonacci sequence. 1 then 1+1 = 2, then 1+2 = 3, then 2+3 = 5 and so on. Add the last number to the next number to get the new number in the sequence. See? Once you know.....

REMEMBER don't negate something just because it scares the heck out of you. I bet you'd be great at it. Increasing your skill set can only help you to be more successful and a well rounded interesting individual.

The Climb

Always strive to be on top in life because the bottom is too crowded. 

The climb will not be easy but it will be worth it. 

Just put your head down and keep going.

One foot in front of the other. 

Don't ever give up.

It's hard.

But,

You CAN do it,

I will see you at the top.

Use Your Mind

Happy New Year 2013! Let's start this year off on the right foot: 

"Our mind comes as standard equipment at birth, it’s free and things that have been given to us for nothing we place little value on; things that we pay money for, we value.  The paradox is that exactly the reverse is true; everything that’s really worthwhile in life came to us free our minds our souls our bodies our hopes our dreams our ambitions, our intelligence, our love of family and children friends and country. All these priceless possessions are free but the things that actually cost money are cheap and can be replaced at any time. If our home burns down we can rebuild it and if we lose something we can buy another but the things we got for nothing you can never replace. The human mind isn’t used because we take it for granted. Familiarity breeds contempt, it can do any job we assign it but yet we use it for little jobs. We use only 10% of our minds. What is it you want? Plant your goal in your mind. All you’ve got to do is plant that seed in your mind.  Care for it, work steadily towards your goal." - Earl Nightingale