I’m introducing the habit of asking myself several times a day the vital question ‘am I having fun?’
In that moment I question if I’m enjoying what I am doing. If the answer is yes then I’m free to continue.
But if the answer is a no, then I look further at just why I’m not enjoying myself and what to do about it.
I’ve been meditating for about 7 years now and find the benefits innumerable. Among others I reduce stress and apprehension, ease pain, improve concentration, clear my mind when it is clouded with multiple thoughts and more.
Don’t just take my word for it though.
One respected study showed mediation can create positive changes in metabolism, heart rate, breathing and brain chemistry. MRI imaging has even proven meditation can actually rewire brain circuitry - powerful stuff.
I have been an amateur racing driver since the age of 16 and a thrill seeker from the time I lost my training wheels. I have also practiced meditation since my mid teens.
Until recently I failed to see the connection between what seem like polar opposites.
I recently had an interesting comment in response to my previous post, It Is Your Life, asking how to discover what you want to do with your life and for a career.
“It is my life - but I don’t know what I want to do with it. I have yet to have that ‘Aha’ moment … the moment of clarity when you find something you love and want to do,” wrote Hips Magee.
This is an incredibly common problem so I thought I would take the time to share my thought and what has worked for me.
If you followed my previous post you should now have a great big list of all your dreams.
Well done - if not go back and do it. You can thank me in a few years time.
Now it’s all well and good to write out your list, but it’s just the first step. There is plenty more to go.
In my last post about the positives I received from suffering from a major illness I mentioned my ultimate to-do list.
Basically while bed ridden for 18 months I wrote a list of everything I wanted to do once I got out of that bed.
To me there is nothing more inspiring. It contains every major thing I wish to achieve in my life and so far I have ticked off quite a few.
So let’s get you started on your way to achieving your dreams.
Today I want to share with you the worst and also most important time in my life. Rather than dwell on the negatives though I’m going to focus on the many positives that came from it.
Most people think of major illness as bad thing and at the time I did too. Looking back now spending almost 18 months of my mid-teens bedridden and in constant agony was probably the best thing that had ever happened to me.
Life is meant to be easy. We have this grand illusion that modern technology and society has made life simpler, however to most of us it has merely made things more complicated and miserable.
Only a decade ago most of us would have thought it ridicules to check our mail more than once a day. Yet now we are checking our (e)mail on blackberry’s and our computers constantly - like and addict awaiting his next fix, we keep checking to see if something is there.
10 years ago most people did not carry their phone around with them - if they were away from there home or office they were virtually un-contactable. Nowadays some people are shocked if they are not able to immediately talk to you. Even scarier young children are running around with them as well.
Do you ever feel like the people around you and society at large have your whole life planned out for you?
Study hard, get good grades, get into a good college/university, get a good job, perfect partner, nice car, 1.8 kids and a white picket fence.
Along the path you continually ask yourself, ‘why am I doing this’?
We are all seduced by the idea of change. In theory at least - it sounds nice.
We like to read stories about people who have completed radical changes/achieved great feats and see reports about them on the news.
Many of us deep down have a lot of dreams to make radical life changes - to take the road less traveled, to quit your job and write a book, to get serious about your health and banish obesity. The list goes on.
Yet we resist change every day.
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