I went to personal development seminar once, and one of the concepts that they taught us was: “How you do anything, is how you do everything”.  Basically what they were trying to say was that if you are a person that will simply jump into the cold water, you will also carry that trait into other areas of your life.  If we take starting a business as an example, you would simply go at it 100%, as opposed to doing endless preparation before you actually do anything productive.

The “Simply jump in” attitude has both advantages and drawbacks.  One of the great things about this outlook on life is the fact that it initiates action.  Inaction is the greatest peril in the way of accomplishing absolutely anything.  Unfortunately we are all susceptible to it to some degree.  The flipside of this concept is that sometimes we can act too fast, and that bears a whole new set of consequences.

So what is the best solution to this problem of making our selves take action, but acting at the “right time”? 

I often bring this up in my articles, but balance is very important in anything that we do.   To apply this concept to what we are discussing – we should “simply jump in”, but at the same time we should also be able to stop out selves long enough to do some necessary due diligence. 

The other solution to inaction is a simple piece of advice – “Get over your-self”.  It might be a bit harsh, as a statement, but I believe that it is a vital thing to do in our life in general.  People tend to over analyze a lot of what they do.  Often we simply need to push ourselves to jump into the cold water, so that we can feel less cold after we do.

Last but not least, we should talk about having motivation to be able to “jump”.  It is easy to say that we should “just jump”.  The simple fact is that if we are not motivated to do so, if the reward at the end of the “jump” isn’t big enough to get us to do it, we simply are not going to jump.  This is a very crucial point.  Imagine that you are standing on the shore of a very cold ocean.  Would you be able to force yourself to jump into it if you didn’t really want to swim?  Probably not!  

People, who are exceedingly successful in life, all have one thing in common.  They all live their passion.  What would be a better motivator then being passionate about what you do?  So the very first thing you have to do before taking any action is to ask yourself a question – is what I am about to do what I really want?  And if it is, or it will give you something that you really want, or bring you to that place where your passion lives – don’t think, even if it is unpleasant at first, simply jump!

Technorati Tags: Personal Development, Success, Fear, Self Discipline

So how do we address this situation? 

First of all I would like to say that there isn’t one thing that will allow all of us to become happy and follow our destiny with ease.  I think that the biggest thing we have to realize is that in order for us to find our real purpose in life; we first have to start looking!  I think intention, is the key element in actually achieving our goals.

Next, after we have decided that we want to find our ultimate mission in life, we have to look at what are the things that really make us happy.  I think that it could be most difficult undertaking, because in order for us to find the meaning in our life, we first have to get to know our selves.  Although this process can be difficult, it also can be very rewarding.  For example some people are very good communicators.  So good, as the matter a fact, that people always make fun of them, because they talk too much.  Their personality will work well in the activities that require them to communicate effectively with other people.  So they would probably enjoy profession such as a journalist or a sales person.  Then there are others who are more analytical in everything they do.  They might want to try something like being an engineer.  These seemingly little personality descriptions, can be very important indicators in our search to discover our destiny.

Here is what I did when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life.  First I wrote down all of the things I enjoyed doing (writing, teaching, personal development, trading on the stock market etc.).  Then I looked at that list and prioritized in order of what I would want to try and do first.  You see out of all of the things I enjoyed or wanted to do, I first and foremost wanted to have my own business.  So anything I would do would have to become a business, in order for me to be completely satisfied.  That is exactly how I started BurstCreativity.com.  This site allows me to teach, write, communicate, help people, but also it is an online business that allows me the freedom that I want - perfect compromise between my desires.  

It doesn’t mean that this is going to be the only thing I could be doing.  I could come up with some other activities that would allow me to fulfill the very same needs.  I also want to build businesses for example, so I am also involved in several other ventures. 

The most important part however is the fact that I try to choose what I do based on what I want.  My inner desires dictate what I do – and this is probably the key formula here.  Find out what you want and do it.

Technorati Tags: Career, Destiny, Path in life, Happiness

Personal Development

Jordan Shannon presents How Positive Thinking Works | Self Development Blog posted at Self Development Blog.

ananga presents Get yourself in a state! posted at Answers from Ayurveda.

Alvin Soon presents Are You Fighting Yourself? posted at Life Coaches Blog.

Think Happy Thoughts Happiness Blog presents Look for What You Want to Find posted at Miguel Trujillo, saying, “How your brain can help you find happiness.”

Self Improvement

Karen Lynch presents The Best You posted at LivethePower.

Victor Fam presents Personal Development Articles » Archive » Making Decisions with Less the Stress posted at Personal Development Articles.

Business

Charles H. Green presents I’m OK, You’re an Idiot posted at Trust Matters, saying, “I’m an idiot, you’re an idiot. So let’s get over it, let’s work together and let’s do something great.”

Susan Velez presents The Truths To Starting A Home Business posted at The Secret To Life, saying, “Change lives with a personal development business;income opportunity. The opportunity to make six figures from home.”

David Maister presents Relationships and Romance posted at Passion, People and Principles, saying, “How to improve your business and personal relationships with the Six Rules of Romance”

Self Improvement

John presents Are you happy? posted at OhCash.com, saying, “What’s the point of living if you’re not happy? All the cash in the world will not bring you happiness if you don’t know how to live.”

Talina presents The biggest lesson I have learned in 2006 posted at Harvest of Daily Life.

Kavit Haria presents How To Deal With Choice Overload posted at Kavit’s Letters, Thoughts and Musings.

Victor presents Personal Development Articles » Archive » Eliminate Procrastination, Now! posted at Personal Development Articles.

Shamelle presents Dale Carnegie Guide To A Happier YOU posted at Enhance Life.

Chris presents Social Skills And How To Improve Them posted at How to be Cooler.

Success

John presents Know Your Sacrifices posted at OhCash.com, saying, “Starting a business takes a lot of sacrifices, and everybody knows this. But what exactly are these sacrifices and how to deal with them?”

Alan presents The Likeable Factor - Do your clients like you? posted at Made to Be Great.

Alan presents Your True Inner Potential posted at Made to Be Great.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of personal development burst using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: personal development burst, blog carnival. ]]> http://burstcreativity.com/word/2007/02/03/personal-development-burst-2nd-edition-2/feed/ http://burstcreativity.com/word/2007/01/19/balance-your-life-with-a-feng-shui-cleanse/ http://burstcreativity.com/word/2007/01/19/balance-your-life-with-a-feng-shui-cleanse/#comments Fri, 19 Jan 2007 22:45:21 +0000 almomento Self Improvement Success Education Emotional freedom Personal Development Passion Wealth and Get Rich Goal Setting Feng Shui http://burstcreativity.com/word/2007/01/19/balance-your-life-with-a-feng-shui-cleanse/ Feng Shui is an old Asian tradition that was originated somewhere around 256 BC. I am not going to go very deep into the definition of what Feng Shui is, apart from just saying that it is an ancient art of creating environments around us for every day living, business and family. It examines how the placement of objects around us affects our life in positive or negative ways and how interaction with these objects can improve or impede the level of happiness and success we experience in life.

Feng Shui is quite a complicated art, and in order to understand it we first need to clarify a few principals that come into play.

First of all we need to know about Chi. Basic definition of Chi (or Ki) is that it is a universal energy (an energy that is present in all objects at all time). Some scientific explanation for such energy lies in the unified field theory of quantum physics. I am not going to try to explain that, but if you need a further info you can refer to that term in your research.

So in Feng Shui, placement of objects either impedes or promotes the flow of this energy. So in other words, if Chi flows freely in our environment, this also will mean that our life will be happier, healthier and more successful. If the Chi is blocked, we will experience all sorts of difficulties in our life.

How would any lay person benefit from this ancient art? One of the basic tenets of Feng Shui is that we need to balance our life in anyway that we can. A simple way to do that from the Feng Shui point of view would be to un-clutter your life from both objects and emotional clutter.

According to Feng Shui clutter stagnates our life. In stead of flowing smoothly and easily, the Chi that surrounds us and the objects we use in our daily life is obstructed. So when we have a lot of clutter in our life, it will feel as if we are stuck in some or all areas of the daily living. We also might have bad “luck” in our career. Our relationships might feel like they are not going anywhere. This concept can also be applied to the emotional baggage in our life. Too much of it can significantly impede the way our life flows.

What can we do about the clutter in our life? It is very simple. Do a Feng Shui cleanse! Follow these simple guide lines to free your self of clutter:

1. If you haven’t used it in a year you don’t need it.

2. When you are getting rid of clutter, you are in fact making more space to receive new objects - so learn how to let go of things (and emotions)

3. Do it. Don’t put it off. Act and don’t give it a second thought.

Once you uncluttered your self, you will gain a brand new outlook on life. Things will seem fresher. It will almost feel like a weight has been lifted from your chest. And you just might also feel the difference in other areas of your life as well.

Try it, it’s going to be well worth the effort.

We can however put some broad definitions to the term success that would apply to most people.

One of such definitions would be financial success. I define it as the ability to live a financially worry free life. For some people this might mean that they would be happy to make enough money to survive and others might want to have an extravagant life style. There isn’t really a right or wrong answer. It all depends on what is important to us.

I think that even a better definition of success would be living as close to your true destiny as possible. Here are a few tips for discovering what your true destiny is.

1. Know your dreams.
It isn’t enough to just have goals in life. We often know the direction we want to go to, but do not know where exactly that direction will bring us. Knowing exactly what you want is a key component in designing our destiny.

2. Live your dreams.
Living your dreams is a must. All our happiness depends on how close we come to living our true desires. Think about it. Do you think you would be happier if you were to experience what you truly desire in your day to day life?

3. Take responsibility for your life.

Part of being truly successful is being responsible for the way we act. We all know that things do not always workout the way we want them to. Sometimes we make mistakes. Admitting when we did make a mistake can do great things for us. This ability is crucial when learning anything. When we admit to a mistake we learn from it and are able to move on without hindering our progress. It is being stubborn that prevents us from learning the lessons we need to learn.

4. Let go of any hurt you might have experienced in the past.

If there is one thing that holds us back in life, it is when we hold on to the past. We all experience terrible injustices at one time or another. There are times when we get hurt and go through what seems like incredible difficulties. The sooner we will develop the ability to let go of anything that happened in the past, the more our life will seem successful to us. The easier it will become.
5. Make a plan and stick with it.

Goals are important, but so is action. We must have a plan and follow it to reach a desired destination. Action is of paramount importance. Without acting we will never be able to get anywhere. So make a plan, and follow it with abandon.

Success will come to those who are able to act fearlessly in the face of adversities life troughs at us every day.

It is a well known fact that we perform our best when we are passionate about what we are doing. As the matter a fact this is so important that we can not be fully fulfilled if we are not living a passionate exciting life. We feel inspired when we are passionate. It enables us to overcome obstacles and gives us an ability to see the world as a place of infinite potential.

The other characteristic of passion is that you can’t fake it. We can spot someone who is not sincere about what he is doing from a mile away. A charlatan, although a good actor at times, always lacks in the spirit that true passion brings. Anyone with even a little bit of intuitive ability can spot this shortcoming.

Passion is different for everyone. Some people like extreme sports, and others enjoy collecting stamps. To be honest it really doesn’t matter how we define passion as long as it is there.

We all know that if there is no passion in a relationship, sooner or later it will stop being relative and seize to exist. As well we can attest that if we are passionate about what we do for a living, we will be better at it and stick with it for a longer period of time. So what can we do to be more passionate?

Passion stems from deep within us. It is often something that reflects an unfulfilled desire in our selves. For example if our emotions were repressed for a long period of time, we might find our selves drawn to some extreme way of expressing our selves. People who like extreme sports or anything else that puts their life in danger might fall into that category.

So to become more passionate we have to pay close attention to what is it that evokes high level of positive emotion in us. And then do more of it.

The darker side of passion is fear. As we go through life we get hurt over and over again. These little and big hurts cause us to become hesitant about taking chances. And being truly passionate most certainly will require us to take risks. What we need to realize is that if we do not take that plunge and through caution to the wind in pursuing our dreams our life will never become the true definition of fulfillment. In order for us to rich that place of happiness, we need to live through the spirit of passion.

To be fair, we have to note that too much passion can also lead to a lot of misery. An example of that can be variations of obsessive behavior or working too much while neglecting other parts of one’s life. As with everything else in life there must be a balance.

Here is a site that examines what people are passionate about:
http://www.43things.com/