Wednesday 23 January 2019

Enjoy the ride

All too often we get caught up in the results when developing our dreams. We forget that the best part of the experience is the process itself.

The first step in achieving anything, aside from imagining it, is taking action. Many miss out on the actual “happy” part of the experience when they do take action because they’re blinded by their future expectations. They feel that accomplishment equals happiness, and anything less is sub-par. There’s actually quite a bit of happiness within our goals – not only when they’re reached, but when you’re reaching them.

Enjoy the ride when in pursuit towards happiness. There’s a ton of untapped happiness within your journey to reaching your goals. Your inspiration will perspire when you do. Often times, we reach a goal and become disappointed, or we get afraid of the future because we haven’t enlisted any new goals. Find the happiness that resides in your everyday experiences on the journey to your ideal lifestyle, rather than just focusing on the end result, otherwise, there’s a good chance you’ll be eighty years old in your rocking chair wishing you had have appreciated, respected and enjoyed the ride.

Enjoying the ride is like living in the moment. The more you practice it the happier you’ll be.



Exercise: Eliminating the need to be perfect

Society teaches us less than perfection is weak. We see television ads every day that “guarantee” a better life upon purchasing their products. The images portrayed in these commercials show youthful, hard-bodied individuals with perfect white teeth and extremely well dressed. What they don’t show in these ads are the numerous plastic surgeries these models have had, or the amount of money they spent on facial and body products to make them look this good, or their intense workout regimen. They paint a solid picture that nothing but perfection should be accepted. This, of course, reiterates a message that reaches our youth in a negative way. It depletes their values and deflates their ambition. It makes them feel less than adequate. Our youth aren’t only the ones affected by them. In fact, all of humanity is affected. It isn’t only television commercials that are the concern. This delves deep into the marketing budgets of the top executives that spend billions of dollars on understanding the psychology of consumers. This gives them leverage over us because their marketing dollars tell them exactly where we live, what we buy, what we do, what our interests are, etc. All too often we get blinded by our need to be and look perfect. Our beliefs are set to think that happiness resides in the purchases we make. After the blindness sets in we get disappointed by our purchases because they failed to serve us the type of happiness the radio ads promised.

Don’t get sucked in the realm of unhappiness by following the crowd. Nobody needs anything that’s advertised on television. Nobody! Materialism is just a quick fix to our unhappiness because the more you own means more possibilities of things breaking. Think about it; if you owned a ten thousand square foot mansion, had a collection of fifteen cars, had eleven children and managed ten companies, there’s a good chance you would get extremely overwhelmed. Often times, more things just means more dissatisfaction. This is an example where abundance isn’t always the best.

Commercials are a part of the plague that ruins our society. They’re filled with negative messages that deplete our happiness, and they do nothing but make us feel inadequate. Don’t let them plague your mind and forget about what’s truly important. Perfection only distracts you from enjoying the ride. Stop believing you need to be perfect in any area of your life. I can surely tell you that nobody’s perfect. I can personally attest that even though I’ve been a motivational speaker for over fifteen years, I am not perfect nor will I ever be. The same goes with anything in my life. The same goes with you too. Neither of us are perfect in any way. If something seems perfect it just means you’re not seeing the imperfections underneath. Imperfections are the beauty in life. You just need to see them that way.

Pay attention to how many advertisement you come across in the next few days that portray perfection. How many of their messages subliminally tell you you’re going to be happier after purchasing their products or services? A simple count will suffice. This is a simple exercise to help you realize how much of our mind is influenced to think in the realm of perfection.