How Do I See The World?
Originally written Sep-2011.
I see life as a series of related projects. Each project is an opportunity to create something new, but builds off another. The projects that contain aspects of love and play are the ones we seek. Love is created when working on projects with others. Play is doing projects you enjoy, or doing them in a way that you can enjoy them. If there's no love or play in it for you, hand it off to someone else who finds it for them.
As a creator, each project is a new creation. We need to create projects to feel alive. To feel significant. Projects put things I think/feel into a structure my mind can build off. They become a completion of who I am.
Life is a series of small projects and big accomplishments. The small decisions you make in every moment lead to the results you get in your life. Every small decision is more important than we will every know – in fact, we have no idea how powerful we are in that moment of a decision on what we focus and act on.
Every project is either a liability or an asset. If you find yourself not moving towards your prime objective, my guess is you are allowing projects that are liabilities to take priority over projects that are assets.
Projects are the programs we run.
WE ALL START (BIRTH) THE SAME AND FINISH THE SAME (DEATH) – THE ONLY THING THAT SEPARATES US ARE THE DECISIONS WE MAKE BETWEEN THE START AND FINISH OF OUR SHORT EXISTENCE. – BRIAN SCHWARTZ
The only thing that separates us are the decisions we make during the journey between cradle & grave.
So you need to examine your decisions very closely. Where do they come from? They come from your beliefs and view of the world. If you are not getting the results you want in life, I suspect there are few reasons:
You don't have any specific results you are seeking (you haven't gotten clarity into who you want to be, what you want to have, and where you want to go). You need to ask the right questions.
You don't possess the beliefs that would cause you to make the minute decisions required to produce the results you seek (a lot of it is self-esteem and deep belief that you can achieve it, deserve it, and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices)
You don't possess the habits that are constructive when you are on 'autopilot' (which is most of the time). Remember this: We make our habits, then our habits make us.
You haven't given it enough time. We are conditioned to believe results come quick. We desperately seek the effect to the cause and want to see immediate results. The truth is that anything significant doesn't come without a lot of effort and time. My friend Becky is in better shape that ever. My dad is 70 and about to complete an ironman. Both of these individuals began their tiny habits years ago and today are living happy, healthy lives that many of us admire who haven't yet gotten the results.
Your moment to moment decisions have more to do with your self-esteem than you realize!
Sacrifices will be made, but the more clear you are on the result. On who you will BEcome – then the less they will feel like sacrifices.
Many of us have been taught to be people pleasers from an early age. In order to please the most people, you will occasionally need to unplease others. Often the closest to you and this can be painful… but if you are clear in you communications, clear on who you are and where you are heading – this won't be so difficult.
What I find for myself – is that I learn by doing – and I don't often know how I will get there (to the completion of a project) when I start – I figure it out along the way. In order for others to emulate what you are doing, track the actions from start to finish (you can use a tool like AuthorDock). Durations are helpful to help you set realistic expectations when you ask others to do for you!