|
 |
Message From: madure |
Total Posts: 261 |
Join Date: 06/06/2006 |
| Rank: Coach |
Post Date: 16/08/2006 21:07:40 |
Points: 1355 |
Location: Sri Lanka |
|
“The secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for. Without a stable conception of the object of life, man would not consent to go on living.” The Grand Inquisitor in Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov
Research has repeatedly shown that successful people have a very clear sense of what they want. They have a clear vision of the future they aspire to, and they identify their passions in life. Examples abound.
History’s most accomplished people, including artists, writers, composers and leaders, all tended to find their calling relatively young.
Thomas Stanley, author of The Millionaire Mind, found that financially successful people typically identify what “lights their emotional fire” at a relatively young age, and translate that passion into a profitable business venture. Just as the three keys to real estate success are location, location, location, the three keys to wealth for most millionaires are vocation, vocation, vocation.
Joseph Campbell, who studied the psychological meaning of mythology and literature throughout the world, offered three simple words of advice for those seeking to make their way in the world: “Find your bliss.”
Those who devote themselves to their passion not only accomplish more, but they enjoy the process; to those who have found their bliss, the word “work” does not have negative connotations because it doesn’t “feel like work”.
A passion and a purpose do more than merely provide a direction for one’s life; some have even argued that, under extreme circumstances, having a purpose in life is essential for life itself. Perhaps the most compelling delineation of this idea comes from the work of Victor Frankl, a psychologist whose thinking was greatly shaped by his experiences in a World War II Nazi concentration camp. In this most dehumanizing of circumstances, so many of the goals and expectations that the prisoners once had for their lives were completely stripped away and rendered impossible to achieve. Some individuals found new goals and meanings in life, ranging from the very tangible - such as striving to obtain food, information, or jobs within the camp - to higher-level purposes such as easing the pain of others or remembering events in detail for future historians. But others did not find new goals to strive for, and that lack of purpose was often associated with a sense of passive resignation, a feeling of aimlessness, physical and psychological deterioration, and ultimately death.
How Uncertainty Hampers Success & Motivation
In many ways, the opposite of passion and a clear meaning in life is ambivalence. Uncertainty about one’s future is a clearly a barrier to change and success, but it can have more far-reaching effects as well, even to the point of effecting physical and mental health. Research has shown that people who have conflicting goals, or are ambivalent about their goals, are more likely than others to...
Experience depression and anxiety
Be less happy and less satisfied with their lives
Have more physical illnesses & doctor’s visits
Be indecisive, uncertain and rebellious
Be easily distracted and procrastinate
Spend more time thinking about their goals
Spend less time taking action toward their goals
In fact, compared to others, people who are uncertain about whether they really want to make certain life changes are up to six times less likely to accomplish their goals.
How To Clarify What you You Really Want From Life
So how do you get more of the Vision Thing? In my book and at my seminars, I present a number of "Vision Quest" techniques and exercises to help people clarify what they really want in life.
Consider four Vision Quest-ions.
What would I try to accomplish if I knew I couldn’t fail?
What would I do if I won the lottery and had no financial contraints?
At what point in my life was I most excited about my future?
What do I want my life to be like in 50 years?
These questions, by themselves, won't instantly or magically give you a clear, compelling vision for your future. But they can jump-start the process of thinking about your future in a different, more optimistic manner. Most importantly, these questions encourage a long-term time horizon, risk-taking, intense optimism, and a focus on true passions, all of which are characteristic elements of the thinking styles of highly successful people.
From the writings of Dr. Stephen Kraus
|
|
|
|
|
