Keep learning as you go

Great advice in 5 words.

So many of us want to be successful or achieve certain goals but what are we actually doing about it.

You might think you need another personal development, business or self-help book. Another conference, podcast episode or online course.

When you’re consuming with the goal of applying it to your own work, projects or goals it might be useful to check in every now and then and ask yourself ‘Is this helping me reach my goal?’

If the answer is no then stop trying to collect as much information as possible and start doing whatever your thing is.

It’s easy to think that more is always better but if you’re not doing anything with the information, what’s the point?

I think for some people fear comes into play. They say ‘I’ll start when I know more about it’ but there will always be something new to learn.

I think a pretty good approach is to just start and keep learning as you go. It might be scary but I bet you it will be worth it.

To envy and to aspire

People often complain about their life circumstances and how if only they weren’t working class, their parents were born in the western world, they grew up in a better area etc.

In some ways they envy the opportunities that more ‘privileged’ people have had in life. They may think it’s not fair that others have had the upper hand from the moment they were born where as they’ve had to ‘try and try , try and try’ (from the song You can get it if you really want by Jimmy Cliff).

But the thing is as much as they may think and feel this way, it’s also what they aspire to. To raise families more well off than they were. To have the money to live somewhere bigger and safer. To be a able to give the people around them opportunities because they’re well connected.

Essentially they aspire to become the people that are ahead of the majority, more privileged and people with the upper hand.

It’s hard to make comparisons about who has it harder but that’s not something worth competing over. I think we can all agree we’d like to have things better than they were or currently are.

And who knows down the line your family could be the privileged ones with countless opportunities compared to others.

But from someone else’s perspective, you might be considered pretty privileged right now.

The concepts I promote

Go, go, go until you can go no more.

I reject the concept of working yourself to the bone as it’s hard to reap the rewards when you’re ill with fatigue and exhaustion.

But the concept of working hard to reach your goals and the concept of being committed are 2 things I’m happy to promote as they allow you to get the best out of life, in my opinion anyway.

And alongside those 2 things I promote fun and I truly believe that laughter and joy are almost all we really need to live a good life.

What are you willing to sacrifice?

If someone told you that giving up Netflix for 30 days and focusing on your project/thing instead was all you needed to do to reach your goal, could you do it? And more importantly, would you?

Sometimes those 30 days of commitment, consistency and focus are all you need to get the ball in motion, simply based on how it feels.

It feels good to turn plans into actions and work towards bringing a vision to life.

So think about something that is taking up time but isn’t adding much to your life and make the choice to let it go.

It doesn’t have to be permanent, make it an experiment and see if anything changes.

Why you shouldn’t focus on what you don’t want

In a book a read a while back it explained why we should focus on what we do want instead of what we don’t want.

It gave the example of someone telling you not to think of a purple elephant and how despite being told not to that is exactly where the mind wanders. That simple example is the same for our wants and goals. It’s the reason why the focus should be on the things that we actually wan’t.

When you spend time focusing on what you don’t wan’t your mind will give energy to those things. Your mind will visualise and think about these things which will only amplify them in your physical reality.

I want… and I will…

A simple exercise to get your mind thinking.

It’s important to identify what you want from life because it gives you a sense of direction. It also helps in identifying what you do and don’t need in your life.

Following on from that you need to come up with an action to take. It’s all good and well wanting things but what are you going to do to make it happen.

When it comes to your wants and wills, make them as specific as possible because it’s much easier to stick to a plan that’s solid.

For example:

Want

I want to save more money.

Will

I will put money aside each month.

How much do you want to save and over what time period?

Make it specific

I want to save £500 over 6 months and I will put aside £120 every month as soon as I get paid.

What do you want to be known for?

It’s a question worth asking and I’d go so far as to call it mandatory for anyone that puts out content online. Whether you’re a blogger, podcaster, writer, social media influencer, youtuber, IGTVer etc.

Having an intention or some sort of direction will be incredibly beneficial.

It helps you figure out what you want to put out, the kind of opportunities you seek and the kind you’re happy to turn down.

On a random Sunday morning a couple weeks back I got thinking about The Daily Gemm and all that it could be. So now I have some long-term plans for this site outside of just posting daily.

It started with me asking myself what I want to be known for on this site. Things outside of consistency and being a writer. I came up with things like storytelling and self help/exploration/discovery.

And so now I’m figuring out how to bring more of that into what I do.