Live Life Aggressively!

Love that.

–> “You don’t have to like it, you just have to do it.” :)

And this pretty much sums it up: “Doing what needs to be done even when it’s the last thing you want to do, is the critical factor in achieving success.”

Reminds me of David Reynolds’ wisdom in his fantastic book, Constructive Living(see Notes), where he reminds us of the importance of self-mastery and tells us: “The mature human being goes about doing what needs to be done regardless of whether that person feels great or terrible. Knowing that you are the kind of person with that kind of self-control brings all the satisfaction and confidence you will ever need. Even on days when the satisfaction and confidence just aren’t there, you can get the job done anyway.”

(Constructive Living is amazing, btw. It’s a super-quick read and the best book you’ve probably never heard of! If you haven’t checked out the Notes/book yet, get on that!)

How about you?

How’s your self-mastery?

What do you *know* you need to do that you just don’t *feel* like doing?

Get on that!

And, while you’re at that, keep this in mind as well:

Ah, being a professional.

Reminds me of Steven Pressfield’s wisdom from his GENIUS book The War of Art (see Notes) where he goes off on the importance of being a professional rather than an amateur.

Pressfield tells us: “The amateur plays part-time, the professional full-time. The amateur is a weekend warrior. The professional is there seven days a week.

The word amateur comes from the Latin root meaning “to love.” The conventional interpretation is that the amateur pursues his calling out of love, while the pro does it for the money. Not the way I see it. In my view, the amateur does not love the game enough. If he did, he would not pursue it as a sideline, distinct from his “real” vocation.

The professional loves it so much he dedicates his life to it. He commits full-time.”

Pressfield also shares this goodness: “The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear, then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there’s no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.

What Henry Fonda does, after puking into the toilet in his dressing room, is to clean up and march out onstage. He’s still terrified but he forces himself forward in spite of his terror. He knows that once he gets out into the action, his fear will recede and he’ll be okay.”

How about you?

How can you show up as a pro more consistently?

Are you addicted to entertainment?

Let’s check in: How much TV do you watch in a given day/week?

And, are you consciously choosing shows that inspire or reality TV-esque junk that merely pollutes your brain (and that we scientifically know make you feel depressed)?

I haven’t had a TV for over a decade (we wheel the Mac out to the living room when we want to watch a movie! :). I knew that I’d slip down that slippery slope and waste way too much of my precious life energy watching stupid stuff if it was easy for me to do so. But, the Internet can be just as pernicious for me so I need to set super clear boundaries for when I’m online and when I’m not or I can waste wayyy too much time checking out the latest political news story or sports update.

Back to you.

Is it time to reclaim your life from the pits of TV madness? Or maybe just trim back a bit? :)

P.S. Not only is watching TV sucking your long-term potential it’s also not even that enjoyable while we’re experiencing it. Did you know that psychologists tell us that the average emotional state one experiences while watching TV is mild depression? Yikes!

Powerful stuff.

Perhaps you’ve noticed the same thing?

Do you only do well at things you genuinely enjoy? And, do you get depressed when you’re not doing things you love?

As Mike says, this is a blessing in disguise. The key is to spend the time figuring out what we most love to do/when we feel most alive and then to craft our lives so that’s what we’re doing!

So much goodness in there.

First, just b/c you’ve been heading down one path and everyone you know is on the same path DOES NOT mean you need to keep on going in the same direction.

Choose another path!!

And, amen to this: “I think we all owe it to ourselves and anyone that has ever had a positive influence on us to have the courage to follow our bliss.”

As Eknath Easwaran tells us (see Notes on The Conquest of Mind): “To fail to live up to this challenge, my spiritual teacher used to say, is simply being irresponsible. This is not asking for perfection but merely expecting us to do our best to grow. If we do not do this much, we are depriving life of a contribution that only we can make. Spiritual living is responsible living. I am responsible not only for myself but for all of you, just as all of you are responsible for each other and for me.”

Joseph Campbell gives us this wisdom in Pathways to Bliss (see Notes): “What is it we are questing for? It is the fulfillment of that which is potential in each of us. Questing for it is not an ego trip; it is an adventure to bring into fulfillment your gift to the world, which is yourself. There’s nothing you can do that’s more important than being fulfilled. You become a sign, you become a signal, transparent to transcendence; in this way, you will find, live, and become a realization of your own personal myth.”

Here’s to having the courage to follow our hearts and give back in equal measure for all that we’ve received!

“Thankful but dissatisfied.”

I like it.

And the idea about the most interesting people always looking for ways to evolve reminds me of some more Campbell wisdom from Pathways to Bliss where he tells us:

“The hero journey is one of the universal patterns through which that radiance shows brightly. What I think is that a good life is one hero journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There’s always the possibility of a fiasco. But there’s also the possibility of bliss.”

Here’s to doing a little more with our precious lives than building an ant farm. :)

(P.S. What’s your next hero journey gonna be?)

I never knew the only record Michael Jordan holds is for most total misses.

That’s awesome. :)

If you haven’t checked out Jordan’s incredible video on how he’s failed over and over again, check it out here.

For now, here’s how Jordan puts it: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Failure.

We touch on the importance of embracing failure again and again in these Notes.

Why?

Because it’s huge.

Here’s how Tal Ben-Shahar, one of the world’s leading experts on the science of happiness puts it (see Notes on The Pursuit of Perfect): “One of the wishes that I always have for my students is that they should fail more often (although they are understandably not thrilled to hear me tell them so). If they fail frequently, it means that they try frequently, that they put themselves on the line and challenge themselves. It is only from the experience of challenging ourselves that we learn and grow, and we often develop and mature much more from our failures than from our successes. Moreover, when we put ourselves on the line, when we fall down and get up again, we become stronger and more resilient.”

Mike also tells us: “Making a big mistake isn’t remedied by never again attempting anything new and original. Taking calculated risks is the price of living fully. Living life on the bench is secure – maybe even injury-proof – but devoid of any dynamism and contact, which is the essence of living life aggressively.”

We can’t talk about making mistakes without referencing Michael Beckwith’s great wisdom from Spiritual Liberation (see Notes): “A conscious realization of our innate oneness with the Ineffable does not mean that we will never make a mistake again. Even enlightened beings burn their bagels once in a while. It’s important to maintain a sense of humor because this is how you will stop being afraid of making a mistake. You’ll make some, but so what? That’s why they’re called mis-takes. Humor relaxes the uptight ego. You get a new cue from your inner Self and simply say, ‘I missed my cue, so let’s do a second take.’ Your willingness to take the risk of making a mistake is actually an expression of courage and a willingness to grow from them. Mistakes are about getting the blessing in the lesson and the lesson in the blessing.”

Here’s to getting off the bench and into the game and having the courage to evolve as we go for another take!

That puts it in perspective, eh?

Are you spending more time complaining about your life or creating your ideal life?

Check in on that.

It’s never easy to make changes but it’s a lot easier than living with regret.

As Mike asks: Do you have the courage to evolve?!

(Good answer! :)

Love that.

Echoes Gandhi’s wisdom who, when asked by a journalist what his message to the world was replied: “My life is my message.”

And, reminds me of Rumi’s great line (see Notes): “He is a letter to everyone. You open it. It says, ‘Live!’”