Spend your time DOing instead of watching.
Many of us spend far too much time “preparing to work” or “getting ready to get ready”.
We need more research: to read one more book, attend one more seminar/webinar, get one more expert coach. I’m not against any of those things. They are all fantastic. Knowledge is great.
When people say that “Knowledge is Power” they’re not exactly right. Knowledge is potentially power. Knowing things is good, but what can you do with it? What DO you do with it?
“The Application of Knowledge is Power.”
Sort of like the Law of Attraction. Intention is great. Knowing what you want is awesome. Taking steps to make it happen is what makes it happen.
The Law of Attraction should be read as the Law of AttrACTION!
Don’t go out and buy a new book or go to a seminar. Instead, apply something you’ve learned. Create something; a new product or service, book, article, event. Whatever.
Go create and Do!
There is a recurrent actor nag about doing the work: “Do you want to watch TV or be on TV?” Too many actors watch shows or movies “studying technique” when they should be out practicing techniques.
We are ALL merely players. Go play!
The Passive Aggressive Manifesto has a bit, “Do as much as you read.”
It says a couple of other good things about this point, too. Check it out at http://bettermess.com/the-passive-aggressive-manifesto/
Here are three things you can DO in your life to get more life in your Life.
Do something different
Take up a weird hobby. Do things most people don’t do. Not for your work, although one day it may be, but for your personal life.
Something odd, interesting, strange, weird, unusual, non-typical. Whatever you want to call it. Just something that 90% of everybody doesn’t do.
I’m not talking of doing something that necessarily has value outside of the thrill, joy, or fun of doing it. And the story to tell.
That is a long-term thing to do. Also consider trying the occasional one-time jolt. Do something that typical adults no longer do. Try something from your childhood OR something that kids do today that you missed out on.
Maybe go to a skateboard park, play Yu-Gi-Oh at the community center, roll down a grassy hill. Break your own patterns. You will feel more alive.
Contribute!
Every time I coach someone who is trying to figure out what they should do with their life OR what job they should take (or create), I have one real answer. I can’t usually just blurt it out though. In true Socratic method, they must be led to the answer so they come up with it themselves. (How else will they remember?)
They’re not ready to hear it, so they don’t. Until they’re ready.
One day, almost by magic, they figure out…
The Answer to feeling fulfilled in life is to be a contribution to the life of others. By helping people, you become fulfilled. Always.
Thinking about helping people is nice, but people aren’t helped by your thinking. Go Do something to help someone!
Volunteer to a charity you value. Call somebody that you know is going through a hard time and then go help them with something. (The talk is nice, but the actual support is best.) Just see how helping someone else makes you feel more alive and more grateful for what you have.
Make mistakes… publicly.
Here he goes again! Make Mistakes. Nothing’s wrong. Play and see what happens.
Know why I say that so much? Because it’s true! Stretch and grow. Playing small stunts your growth. If you want to have a fuller life, relationship, career, then you’ll need to be uncomfortable sometimes.
Practice being uncomfortable in small ways. That will strengthen your muscles for when it’s important.
Ask for directions, but stay lost. Sing on the street corner. Talk to people in the elevator. Whatever feels like a stretch for you.
Then, when you’re better at dealing with uncomfortable and stretching yourself, you’ll be able to ask for and try bigger things. That’s where the growth and the rewards are.
Have a go at it. Try these things. You won’t explode. I promise.
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