The Art of Reflection

Do you feel like you’re not moving along as fast as you like? Or that you should be further than where you are? I have. I know this feeling far too well and for a while it would emotional drain me.

Unfortunately, I have to admit, sometimes this feeling kept me down for a lot longer than it should have. In fact it was more detrimental contemplating why I was “behind” then just sitting idle and not making any kind of forward push.

Can you relate to me? I know that I am not the only one that has been in this kind of situation. However, after dissecting this issue I found that the reason why I would get stuck in the trap; my window of reflection was too small!

I am a firm believer in reflection, it is such a powerful tool. Reflection allows us to monitor our progress, continue with whats working well, and tweak areas that are needing some attention. My emotional drain was brought on by the fact that I didn’t reflect far enough back.

I want to use the stock market as an example. If we only look at a few days worth of time it may seem that we have flat-lined or progress has stalled. However, if we look back over a longer period of time we are able to see how far we have really come! Here is a comparison of Google’s stock. Look at the differences in short term vs long term.

 

 

Growth is not a short term project, therefore, don’t monitor your progress short term! Long term reflection is not only necessary in the stock market, but necessary for your growth! Don’t sell yourself short, You have come a long way and you need to recognize it!

 

If you like my blog go ahead and follow. In the top right sidebar enter your email and click “Follow” and “Like” The Thought Inspiring on Facebook!

The Rich Get Richer And The Poor…

I want to try to work on the paradigm that the rich get richer. The reason people are rich is because they value education, and not just formal education; self education. Very successful people do not shy away from personal development, however the working class tends to have a skewed view on it .I am trying to figure out why people feel they don’t need personal development(or personal growth. They’re both interchangeable). It is really a strange concept to me, , but in my opinion the issue arises with what they associate it to.

Our sub-conscious mind is very good at associations. That’s why good marketers are really good at getting your attention; they make their product appeal to a positive association. However, on the flip side our sub-conscious mind is very good at negative associations. For example lets take the swastika, it is almost always associated with Nazi’s, but very rarely is it thought of as a symbol that’s been around for thousands of year; this is a negative association. Where a large yellow “m” is almost always associated with the corporate behemoth McDonald’s. Our mind takes simple phrases or symbols and associates it with an opinion we can relate to.

When the words personal development are brought up a lot of people automatically assume that this is only for lesser people; people who are struggling or “not all there”. This association is one of the largest societal hindrances that 21st century earth has to offer. Like I said before, this association truly confuses me. Lets break this down:

The term is comprised of two words.

1. Personal
2. Development

Here is where I get confused because it is as simple as it sounds! The first word personal, simply pertains to yourself and that’s it. Secondly, development simply means getting better. Think about it in terms of professional athletes, they go thru skills development all the time. Personal development is similar. While they’re developing their skill sets for their specific sports personal development is developing our skill sets with the way we interact with people, the way we handle personal issues(external and internal), our leadership abilities, and other internal skills. Personal development is all about creating character.

To back my point up about and to add some credibility lets look at the types of the companies that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring in top leadership experts to speak to their C level employees. If fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams, The White House, bring in experts to facilitate the growth of their leaders how come we, as the masses, are so hesitant to do so?

The masses are hesitant because they don’t understand, the association of personal growth is wrong and needs to change. Having a plan for personal growth is essential. The rich don’t get richer because they get all the breaks and scam the poor. The rich get richer because they grow and become better leaders.

I was going to write a sentence to close this post, but why? I can think of a quote by personal development legend Jim Rohn that sums it up perfectly.

Formal education will make you a living; Self-education will make you a fortune.

If you like my blog go ahead and follow. In the top right sidebar enter your email and click “Follow” and “Like” The Thought Inspiring on Facebook!

Whats your investment strategy?

Here is a common topic, almost everyone invests on some level. Whether it be investing in retirement savings plans, simple bank investments, large scale business take overs, or the stock market. There is one sort of investment however that doesn’t seem to get the attention that it deserves; investing in yourself.

I recently just got back from a three day intensive training all about creating a mission and vision for my life. Courses and seminars such as these, in my mind, are one of the greatest investments you can make in your lifetime! I hear all the time statements such as “my return on investment this year is 50%” or “the ROI on the property I just flipped was 15%”. Quick question: What is the ROI, or return on investment, on something that will positively change every aspect of your day to day life?

Can you put that into percentages?

Now for some people investing in yourself may seem like a strange concept, but its not anything you’re unfamiliar with. Investing in ourselves can be broken down into two subsections and one we are all very familiar with, the physical.  Things such as going to the gym, or eating healthy are both good investments. Stepping it up, things such as a personal trainer or an appointment with a nutritionist are great investments. This is the same concept as seeing an investment specialist to handle your finances. Paying for expert service to take you to the next level.

The other subsection however, in my opinion, is far more important then the physical; investing in your mind. I consider personal growth to be vitally important, yet it is SO extremely undervalued. I don’t understand why it’s not promoted more frequently. Everything we do in life stems from a decision that we make in our mind, yet we don’t invest in the one thing that creates everything we have in our life.

OK, so for the newbies reading this, a 3 day intensive seminar in a different country may seem a bit extreme, but quite honestly this is so far from the truth. It is nearly impossible to put the power and impact an event like this has into words. There are however many other ways to invest in your mind. For starters pick up a good book! There are so many of them out there that you can get for a reasonable price on Chapters or Amazon, heck even go to the library and get them for free!

Hey, this all sounds great, but readings just not my thing. Not the first time I’ve heard this.

You drive? You ride the bus? There is so much great material in audio form and commuting is the perfect time to feed your brain! Think about how much time you shut your brain off while commuting? Take 20 minutes a day and invest in yourself.

My intention here is to get you aware of some of the ways you can invest in your mind and start making positive changes to get what you want out of life. The amount of material readily available is endless, yet so few utilize it.

Do you have a plan for personal growth?

If you’re not growing you’re dying, thankfully it is not too late to create a plan. Start off small, grab a book or grab an audio disc on personal growth and go from there.

Don’t get overwhelmed with all that is available just start small and get the wheels rolling. You will be amazed what results will come your way if you’re open to grow.

Set an intention to invest in yourself and furthermore set the intention to grow.

Together lets grow

As a society so many of us roam around oblivious to what we subject to our sub-conscious mind. There is so much negativity and poor associations that most of us fail to pick up on and, unfortunately, a good number of us adopt as our own.

TV is the worst for this, I have heard stats that the average American spends 4 hours a day watching TV… That’s 2 full months and year and if you live to be 65, 9 of those years would be spent glued in front of that box. These numbers are mind boggling, I don’t even have words to describe how I feel about this statistic. This is not even the WORST part! The amount of time is one thing, but whats even worse is the content that modern TV is filled with. Garbage!

I know I probably offended a bunch of people when I called modern TV garbage, but hear me out I want you to become aware of something. I am going to come right out of the woodwork here and use the news as an example, it seems like something most people would call beneficial right? I mean being informed is crucial! Yes, being informed is extremely important and I encourage everyone to do so, BUT you need to know what you’re being informed of!

I want to talk about the awful events that happened in Boston on Monday. Extremely terrible, I won’t argue that. I want to high light what the news exposes us to!

“We caught the bomber”, “No we didn’t”, “X amount of injuries”, and on and on. Yes this is information we should know, but why does it get played on every single TV, Radio station constantly over and over again for days and weeks? Wheres the information on where we can help? Wheres the information on how, we as an individual, can take steps to prevent something like this again?

Here is the reason why the news doesn’t give us this information. If you knew a way you could help a victim of the Boston Marathon would you? OF COURSE you would! I believe all of us would! Here is the problem, if I know I can help I am going to help. Strange problem? Yes, but if I go help I am now leaving my TV/Radio instead of sitting around watching hours of manhunt footage and interviews about who is to blame for this. Problem for the stations ratings. Programmers know what content will keep us in our seats and that is what they are going to feed us.

Why do we hear more about celebrity scandals then the charity work they do?

Hearing about celebrity scandals make us feel better about ourselves, like “oh someone did ____, that’s horrible! I wouldn’t ever do that!”. It is re-assuring. Hearing about all the charity work and non-profit work a celebrity does makes us feel like we don’t do enough. So what do we do? we surround ourselves with the scandals and bad stuff every does and that makes us feel better! This boosts ratings, and the media programmers send us more of it to keep us around longer!

I strongly believe that if we expose ourselves to anything long enough without being aware we will begin to associate these actions as the norm. With social media news travels fast and to to the masses, there are somewhere around 2 billion people connected to the internet today. An example, it seems like every other day we hear about a celebrity or someone in the spotlight involved in an affair. News travels fast and divorce rates have never been higher. Are we putting 2 and 2 together? This is what I mean by poor associations to what we read/see/hear.

This is not meant to be a rant, but it is a true cry for a societal wake up call. We need to open our eyes to what we feed our brains and what new associations we are developing. We have become far to easily influenced by the wrong things.

Together, as a global community, lets grow. Together lets all become aware.

Patience? What comes to your mind?

What is patience? What is the purpose of it? I know I have always been told to be patience since I was young, but is there actually any true value in it? I wouldn’t say that I disregarded patience or underestimated it, but like a lot of the generation y’s preferred the ways of the microwave society: Instant gratification.

Patience is defined as: an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay. Now I believe everyone is familiar with the literal meaning so I won’t elaborate on it. I want to focus on the purpose and the value of patience.

The purpose of patience is to test the strength and integrity of our character. When we want something or feel that we should have achieved something that we have not makes us uncomfortable. Being comfortable is one the foundational states of personal growth, I truly love this state! It is when we are uncomfortable and outside our comfort zone that all growth occurs. Patience is a test, it is a test to see if we can grow large enough to overcome the obstacles placed in front of us. It tests to see if we have what it takes to keep moving forward. To put one foot in front of the other when things are not going as well as planned; it is a test of our emotions and our ability to control them. Remember back to when your were a kid and waiting in line for ice cream? You run to the front and try and grab the first cone and your mom grabs you and says “you need to wait your turn. You need to be patient” Although most likely unaware, we are simply being told to control our emotions that driving our impulsive actions. It is an uncomfortable time when you want something so bad to rise up to the test and manage your emotions and wait your turn.

The value of learning patience is once we have learned how manage our emotions and rise above the test we become virtually unstoppable. Growth is a life long endeavor; you’re either growing or you’re dying. Learning how to manage and more importantly funnel your emotions into the right directions when faced with adversity is a skill that cannot be beat. There are some things in life that just do no happen over night and growth is one of them. If we learn to be patient and keep striding along one foot in front of another we will achieve our desired results. The biggest takeaway about patience I want to remember is that at no point is there any mention of giving up. We are faced with an obstacle and will be patient and persevere until the goal is reached.

Patience is a virtue. Don’t view it as something you don’t want to do, but rather a test of life. A test of your character and who you are and always rise up and overcome your emotions. And remember there is no quitting in patience!