What’s Your Size? February 10, 2007
Posted by The Probabilist in : [Articles], Consciousness, Goals, Society, Personal Growth, Purpose, Beliefs, Responsibility, Work, Abilities , add a comment
If you’re on the path of personal growth just as I am, then you have to stop every now and then and ask yourself what your current size is. While you could evaluate and rate your holistic level of growth as one neat figure on a scale from 1 to 10, you have to break it down into distinct areas of your whole self to see where you’re excelling and where you’re lagging behind. The reason you should do this is because your total size as a spiritual, mental, emotional and physical being is not the average of your distinct areas of growth - it is severely crippled and slowed down by the parts of you that are at their worst shape.
How you decide to categorize your own development depends on what you value about yourself, so you don’t have to use the same measures I’m defining my own growth with. But in order to inform you a bit what you could include in your list, I’ll show you which 12 points I’m focusing on, how I’m doing in my subjective opinion and what my goals are for 2007. These will give you some form of an idea of what kind of objectives and affirmations you can set out for yourself as well.
I think Steve Pavlina said it best when asked why he pursues personal growth:
“I was born really short, but after working on my growth for many years, I successfully reached a height of six feet.”
Mental, 7
This is the capacity to understand and apply patterns, cognition, language, numbers, causality and different forms of intelligence. It also includes your ability to take on new knowledge and learn new skills. This is the tool set of your mind where you need to increase your mastery at using the right tools for the right job. It should also constantly innovate and find new challenges to pursue once previous problems and worries have been overcome and labeled as personal victories. It may be considered as the most important asset you have since it has the power to influence how well you’re measuring and improving all the other personal growth areas of your life.
My goals for 2007 are to increase my entrepreneurial creativity, to innovate new systems for making money and to join Mensa.
Physical, 5
Your body is a complex system of systems and we may never know what the most optimal way to treat it is. But it’s still a fact that the way you treat it will have its impact on how long the body you reside in can function. You can’t survive life, but how far you can prolong it and how well your body treats you is defined by how much you value it in return. This question comprises of how you exercise, what you eat and if you maintain habits that damage it. This is my secondary focus for the year.
My goals for 2007 are to beat 3,000 meters on Cooper’s test, be a systematic and optimal polyphasic sleeper and to test being a vegetarian for at least a month.
Emotional, 9
Being a very emotional person or a very unemotional person doesn’t make much of a difference if you want to improve yourself - both come with their pros and cons. Being very unattached means that you are weak on both the positive as well as the negative emotions. In this case, the goal is to reach inner balance with yourself about how the universe treats you. On the other hand, if your emotions are very prevalent, attempt to ensure that the negative ones don’t cause yourself and others harm.
This has always been one of my strong areas, so my goal is simply to improve my level of equanimity even further.
Spiritual, 4
Spirituality is commonly thought of as the least important part of a person’s growth plan and I’ve been one of them. It wasn’t until very recently that I discovered this aspect about myself to begin with. I want to show faith in us people as mere mortals being only a part of a greater whole and am therefore inclined to try methods like meditation, lucid dreaming, astral projection and psychic development to seek proof in what lies beyond what our five senses can tap into. This is my primary focus for the year.
My goal is to acknowledge my intuition and find myself orientating more strongly toward subjective reality, the law of attraction, non-duality and other dimensions.
Relationships, 8
How you treat your friends, co-workers and strangers and how they in return treat you goes pretty much without explanation. It doesn’t matter that much how actively you pursue to spend time on this if what you spend time talking about doesn’t contribute to much good. Remember that you are what you like, not what likes you back, and that your relationships project back on to you how much you value the company of others.
My goal for 2007 is to better inspire others to talk about themselves and feel comfortable talking about deep issues that require attention.
Financial, 6
This subject can be highly emotional to some people and even something not to be spoken about according to others. Financial education to begin with, needs to be addressed far better so that everyone understands that they have the option of heading toward abundance. The results a person sees in this category is simply found in their own understanding, perspective, importance, measurement and value of money.
My goals for 2007 are to reach an income of $500/month from blogging, add a few more streams of income, get closer to financial independence and actively manifest the million dollar intention.
Beliefs & Values, 9
Although being a part of the mental you, this category takes control of the direction you’re heading in when considering what you put your mind to. What you believe and know is possible and what you value about yourself and others undeniably guide you on what you spend your time on, who you spend your time with and where you spend your time. This category gives you the framework of what is possible for a human being to accomplish in the first place and what you want to see more of.
I’m a firm believer in that humans are giants trapped in the exterior of a small organic system and we have yet plenty to witness on what we can accomplish to everyone’s benefit. I have faith in myself being able to accomplish most of the goals outlined in this article before the year ends.
Work, 5
Overcoming laziness, enjoying physical and mental labor and doing it without any stress or other ailments describes this area of growth. Men were born with the ability to work out great solutions in improving the standard of living and everyone ought to love being part of building the cities, constructions and companies that we see today and beyond this day. Walking around these complex structures that we have created often makes me wonder how for every single detail there is a person who takes care of it so that the whole systems don’t come to a halt. This is my tertiary focus for the year.
My goal for 2007 is to put more effort in fulfilling my part of a working society and finding enjoyment in physical labor.
Goals & Motivation, 8
At first you have to set goals and then motivate yourself to see them come to fruition. Without clearly defined objectives we dwell aimlessly and without control over our destiny. This is where you take the framework of your beliefs and values to see what’s possible and then think through and write down what you want to accomplish for the coming day, week, month, quarter, year, five years and lifetime. You also see to it that you keep track of your progress and prep yourself to keep up and shape your progress.
My goal for 2007 is to better keep track of what my goals are, motivate myself to stay true to them and report the accomplishments to myself.
Family, 7
I’m still a member of the family in the younger generation and don’t have a family of my own, so to speak. This category is also quite self explanatory and if you so wish, you can combine it together with your relationships. The key element to remember is that you can’t choose who your family comprises of so it’s a challenge to keep up good relations with all your relatives to build a great sense of mutual belonging.
My goal for 2007 is to improve my ability to nurture and strengthen all the contacts within my kindred.
Self-worth, 8
How much you value yourself, assert yourself and autosuggest is also a barrier for what you think you can and what you think you’re worthy of being, doing and having. It is also very important to note that this aspect about yourself determines what the words of others mean and how they impact your behaviour - if at all. My view is that it’s most important that you prove to yourself what you’re capable of, let others guide you constructively and remember that by improving yourself, you improve the reality around you.
My goal for 2007 is to enhance my prosperity mind-set and work on my own good fortune in order to free time to aid others through my own examples of what is possible to achieve.
Contribution, 7
This is the question of what kind of an impact you’re making to your environment, the legacy you leave behind and the law of karma. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you believe in reincarnation or not, you still have to decide what to do with the time that is left for you to make a difference. Not believing in any form of afterlife also doesn’t serve as an excuse not to improve society to the best of your ability. I think it’s quite the opposite as it makes it even more urgent to deal with.
My goal for 2007 is to work on my blog to improve my written communication and join toastmasters to enhance my verbal communication.
When looking at the average of these 12 areas, it equates to 6.92, which is what one could consider a comfortable result. However, it feels to me like I’m on 5, a very average result, which is something I wont tolerate any longer, and something that is more a 5 than a 7 because of the areas of my growth that are doing poorly. So I want to get back to the introduction where I said that you have to put the most of your effort on the areas of your growth that are doing the worst.
It reminds me of the analogy of a buffalo herd that is running from danger. Biological evolution makes it so that the buffalo that have the worst genes or are in worst shape are the ones lagging behind and therefore the ones that get shot or attacked.
Because of this, when the weakest ones get eliminated, the speed and mobility of the herd that is left improves. This is why the current performance of the whole flock isn’t dependent on the average speed of the buffalo, but more so dependent on the speed of the weakest individuals. It also means that biologically the best genes survive once the worst ones gradually drop out.
In this case however, constantly eliminating the ones that are doing the worst inevitably leads to total extinction. Do not do this with your personal growth. What you need to do is take the weakest links about yourself and nurture them to the same levels as the rest of you are performing. In this way you greatly enhance the holistic capacity of reaching outstanding momentum and results in your life. It’s all about balance and improving your overall level of personal development. But don’t let yourself down if you don’t reach all goals. Even if you successfully accomplish only 25 %, it’s guaranteed to be a better result than what you’d have achieved not having any goals at all. For further clarification and perspective over this matter, read also my post on the topography of self growth.
Create a similar list about yourself, write down your goals and track your progress for the year of 2007. Make it your best one yet.
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Doing too Much of What You Love? January 29, 2007
Posted by The Probabilist in : [Articles], Creativity, Personal Growth, Purpose, Responsibility, Work, Abilities , 7 comments
Are you one of those guys who do too much of what you love to do? You get yourself occupied with something and spend 12 hours straight at it and don’t even notice how hungry you’ve gotten? After you’ve personally mastered a given ability or interest you seem to find another thing that again completely occupies your mind. If there’s a gene for this behaviour then I certainly have it. And I see it runs in my family as well.
When I read and did the excellent mental exercise presented by Brian Kim (How to Find What You Love to Do) I soon noticed that it’s quite pointless for me to list my abilities and interests, mainly because there are so many of them and moreover because I just can’t see myself doing the same thing for more than a couple of years at a time. I have to experiment and experience. I have to go find a new field with greener grass once the old one starts to lose its flavour.
I’ve never kept a journal, but after thinking it through I was able to chronologically list every major point of interest I’ve had since I was a wee child. Some lasted one month and some up to a year and a half. There’s not really anything remarkably significant about these things, but it goes to show a bit how a person and his interests evolve and what I’ve been into. It’s like a chain of synchronicities where some things have definitely been leading to another.
A blog is a personal log so I don’t mind who reads this stuff. But yes, I’ve obviously been a handful. No parent should have to raise a child constantly incapable of automatically and spontaneously doing any work around the house. But I guess I turned out all right in the end (miraculously enough). Some say it’s part of becoming an adult that you stop doing what you love to do. My guess is still that I’ll never find a reason to apply that statement into my life.
So how does one make a living doing what they love to do? Heck, I’d be a very rich man if I knew the universally true answer to that question. But there is a distinction of mind-sets found within this issue as well. Some people, like Steve Pavlina go through the process of hating being an employee and that drives a person to become self-employed.
I’ve never had anything against being an employee.
But being a business owner and investor sounds way smarter than insecurely working and making somebody else rich. Still, happiness certainly doesn’t statistically follow one line of work more than another. That is in the mind of every individual person and goes beyond what kind of labour one performs. But everyone has to provide value in some way, whether we love doing it or not. That’s why I had to drop several of my previous interests and start to focus on matters that seriously and genuinely make a positive difference in others’ lives. The bonus of teaching personal development is that you get your own fair share of learning as well, both spiritually, mentally and bodily.
My father is a great role model both doing what he loves to do and always finishing the must-dos of life. And he has certainly shown me the benefit that comes from constantly shifting the focus of what you love to do - for getting the most experience and lessons out of life. In return I’ve been a role model of living without any kinds of worries. We all come with different sets of strengths and a unique list of interests and abilities that shape the way we are today. However, finding a balance both with what we love to do and have to do should be found. Currently, I’m at a great level of balance in this light as I have the pleasure that comes from combining them together.
If there’s only one thing in life that you can combine with both loving and having to do, then by all means do that for the rest of your life. If you can’t make a similar list of what you’ve done in the past 10-20 years then you’re most likely one of them. But make sure that you do find what it is and make sure it doesn’t completely blow your mind away, leaving your body without sufficient attention. It’s the only you’ve got so take good care of it too. This is one of the latest lessons I’ve had to learn and I hope it sounds meaningful for you to follow as well it has been for me. Remember that there are those of us who want to change the point of interest constantly and it’s just as natural as for those who find one true purpose that lasts a lifetime. Always having at least one thing in life that you love doing is a medicine for the soul that keeps you healthy, happy, fortunate, blessed and without worry.
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