Motivational Lesson – If you’re someone who has given up on your life, and don’t feel like doing anything, then this answer will bring you back to LIFE.
Motivational Lesson : QUORA Answer by James Altucher –
I hated being 23. I had just been thrown out of graduate school and my girlfriend broke up with me.
I used to daydream that I would marry her. I used to daydream that I was going to write a great novel and marry my girlfriend and life would be great.
Once she broke up with me I tried calling my best friend but I was so upset I couldn’t even talk and he kept saying, “Who is this?” until I hung up the phone.
I took a job the summer after I was asked to leave graduate school but then they fired me. I tried to move into a homeless shelter but the director of the homeless shelter said, “no” to me.
I was depressed and would try to hang out in the shelves of a used bookstore but the woman who ran the bookstore said to me, “this is a book store, not a reading store” and asked me to leave.
I hated her then but now I guess I understand what she was saying.
I took another job but after a few months, I realized that everyone hated me at that job so I left. The sad thing is, a year later they went public and all the first employees (I was employee #10) became rich.
I became an addict of sorts. I started playing chess online every day for hours at a time. I couldn’t handle my own life so I started to live in another world and live another life all day long.
This was a long time ago. 25 years ago now. At the time, it seemed like there was no end.
It seemed like everyone was passing me. And I was afraid that even the people “behind” me would grow up and pass me and I would be left all alone in my failure.
There’s one way out. And it took me awhile to realize this. But it worked. 25 years later I can say it’s now worked for me many times.
Experiences compound. They don’t add up. They multiply everything that is good in your life.
All you have to do is give yourself one good experience a day.
Here are some good experiences you can gift yourself:
- Read a chapter in a book you enjoy.
- Write a list of the things you are afraid of. You did it with this question. Do it again tomorrow in a journal.
- Take a good walk and look at the rooftops of the houses instead of the ground.
- Share one vulnerability with a friend and have them share back.
- At the end of the day, write down three things you enjoyed today. Everyone has three things, even if they lasted a moment. Even if it was just a gust of fresh air on your cheek.
- Write a list of ten ideas of what else you can do with your life. This exercises your idea muscle. You might not need a strong idea muscle yet. But you will. And the person with the strong idea muscle beats the person with the atrophied and useless idea It doesn’t mean you will do these ten things. It’s just exercise.
- The Honda Effect. When someone buys a Honda car, suddenly they notice all the other Hondas on the street. I’m not a big believer in affirmations but you can use affirmations to create the Honda Effect. Say in the morning, “I am enjoying today!” And you will start to see all the things you enjoy.
- Help one person. The best gift you can give yourself is the feeling that you gave a gift to one other person.
- Think of one person you hate. Close your eyes and picture them bathed in your compassion. This is a powerful meditation. You don’t have to meditate for an hour. Do this for 60 seconds. Now you are done for the day.
- Listen to a song you like and then look up the lyrics to that song and think about what they mean. Good songs are poetry. Poetry carves a beautiful sculpture into your soul if you let it.
Every time you feel yourself thinking, “I’m giving up” say, “this thought is not helping me.” And then try to do one of the things above.
Nothing is going to happen tomorrow. Tomorrow you will still be in the cubicle. Maybe a year from now you will be.
But they will compound. The seed of rice that doubles every day is the size of a kingdom in 32 days.
Maybe it will take you a little longer. But that’s ok. I know from my own experience that this compounding has changed my life 50 times over. Over and over. I’ve been the hitchhiker around the galaxy.
Sometimes it’s been fun. Sometimes it’s been painful. Sometimes it’s been joy, and sometimes horrible stress.
But then I look at the rooftops. Then I take a walk and try to learn from all the things I never saw before.
Motivational Lesson- What are your thoughts? Comment below.
