Tag: Thriving

Thirty, Flirty and Thriving (part 2)

“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”

Bruce Lee

30 goals for my 30th year:

  1. Get married and go on a ballin honeymoon
  2. Nanowrimo
  3. 1000 Email Subscribers
  4. 2 podcasts episodes a week
  5. Start a side business that makes an extra $1000/mo
  6. Become a confident singer
  7. Resign the Renaissance Life website
  8. Create and ship an app
  9. Become a YouTuber
  10. Create an online course
  11. Find / Build an incredible work environment
  12. Earn $10,000 / mo
  13. Get Nutritionist License
  14. Self-publish a book
  15. Debt-free lifestyle
  16. Surround myself with a solid group of friends and communities
  17. Piano music theory, Learn Jazz
  18. Get better at music production
  19. Release a music ep
  20. optimize my mind, body, and spirit
  21. Take an acting/theater/performance class
  22. Take an improv class
  23. Be more decisive
  24. Become a better decision-maker. Plan. Prep. Perceive.
  25. Learn a martial art
  26. Increase my RAM: Learn accelerated learning/ memory techniques
  27. Improve storytelling/communication skills
  28. Make stuff with my hands
  29. Learn to “greet what comes my way with gratitude”
  30. Learn Japanese

For the last couple of years, instead of doing New Years Resolutions, I do them on my birthday and come up with a list of goals I want to pursue during the year. (Part 1 was a brief look back at my twenties.)

The plan is to add one more goal each year, until I (God willing) reach a certain age (50 or 55) and then start removing one goal per year. So at age 55 I’ll have 55 goals, but at age 110 I’ll only have one goal (aka get out of bed lol.)

Ambition isn’t always about reaching for more. Often it’s more ambition to pick a big idea and go deep on it.

One thing you might notice about my 30 list is I’m a little all over the place. I feel like I’m still in the discovery phase of who I am and what’s possible. The two big themes that stand out are creativity and fear. Put another way, my list may look scattered, but each item is driving toward the goal of pushing me to be bold, put myself out there and try things that scare me.

Fear is a powerful motivator. It’s something that can motivate us to keep our heads down and shy away from attention. Yet fear is also something that can show us what we need to do. A flashing signing telling us we need to do this. Taking an improv class terrifies me—that’s why I know I need to do it.

Some of these are specific and concrete, others are a little too vague for my liking, so I’ll be thinking about how I can refine them into tangible actions.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #1095

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Joyful

“Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.”

Michael Jordan

In order to thrive, we need stability. In order to have stability, we need to thrive. A catch-22. (Or perhaps an ouroboros.)

And yet, maybe not. What is stability? What does thriving mean? Is it something external? Free from harm? A hot meal and a warm bed?

Anyone who has started their own company knows that the stability of a job is abstracted away from the business’s finances. An employee at a company that’s doing well is secure. And an employee at a company doing poorly is also secure. The employee at the thriving company will more likely keep her job than the other employee, but both could end up unemployed if something goes unexpectedly wrong.

A job is an external thing. It provides for our basic needs, but it’s not what gives us stability or the ability to thrive. That comes from within. If we cultivate our minds and learn to let go in the face of uncertainty and things that aren’t in our control, no amount of instability will hold us back from long.

Thriving starts is in the mind.

You can see it radiating out of people into their lives, but it starts with the thought of knowing that despite everything challenging going on, you’ll be okay. The sun will rise. The birds will sing. And we can begin anew, wherever we are and use what we’ve got as an opportunity to do great things and keep on living.

The happiest people in the world aren’t happy because of all the things they own, or because of their success and accomplishments. They are happy—no, joyful—because they decided to be.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #1010

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Thriving in Uncertainty

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

To say there’s a lot of instability and uncertainty going on in the world is a top ten understatement of the decade.

Whether you have been affected directly or are sweating from the sidelines, a lot of what’s happening is outside of our control.

The difficulty of any problem we face is not letting fear and panic control us. Within every problem, there are two things happing simultaneously. There’s the event—your business is hurting, your finances are rocky—and then there’s our mind piling on worry and fear.

One of my favorite quotes by Amelia Earhart hits upon this —

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.”

Fears are paper tigers.

Perhaps what you are going through is as bad as you think, or maybe it’s not bad at all but you’re panicking nonetheless. The question you must ask yourself is are my fearful or negative thoughts making it better or worse?

There’s a lot that can stop us, but the biggest culprit is usually ourselves.

The key to thriving in uncertainty is focusing on what in our control, not the things out of our control.

Everything that’s uncertain hasn’t happened. And if we strategize and take necessary precautions, it likely never will happen.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #889

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A Recipe for Frustration

“Well done is better than well said.”

Benjamin Franklin

“I guess I’m just one of these people who, when I decide I’m going to do something, I just do it.”

Tom Ford

Here’s one surefire way to thrive in life: Let your words align with your actions. Don’t just talk — Act. There’s a countless number of factors that go into creating success (including pure chance), however, there’s likely a reason that one of the largest brands in the world has a slogan that says “just do it”.

This is easier said than do, of course. 😉

Talking about something you want to do makes the desire feel more real, and can potential suck the wind out of your sails. It also opens you potentially being criticized or shot down by people around you. Even when people have the best intentions for you and want to see you succeed, sometimes they can say negative or rational reasons why you shouldn’t do it. When this happens, it can be even harder to act when your dreams and ideas have been riddled with bullet holes of people trying to look out for you. We live and die by what we do. There’s a lot standing in the way of what we say and what we do. Fear. Doubt. Uncertainty. Ego. Expectations. Past assumptions and beliefs. Do we really want to limit ourselves more by throwing other people’s opinions in the mix too?

A excellent recipe for frustration in life is to never do anything you say. When your words don’t align with your actions, no one trusts you, no one believes you — including yourself.

“There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”

Morpheus, The Matrix

This is corrosive to the community around you, but even more corrosive to how you think about yourself. Your words become untrustworthy to yourself. You no longer believe you can do what you say, and without that believe in yourself you get stuck in life. Your dreams become wishes. Your words become fiction. You become an arm chair quarterback to your own life.

It’s far better to act before speaking or at the very least make sure that when you speak, you’re going to follow through.

Name anyone you admire and I’m sure their actions speak louder than their words. I find this the greatest form of authenticity. Not only being about to speak your truth and be vulnerable in front of others, but to be able to back up your currency with gold.

The great thing is all action takes is a small step forward, and the dedication to keep going. A small step turns “this is what I want to do” to “this is what I’m doing”.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner

Daily Blog #580

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Updated: 5/30/2019, 8:11PM: Added Morpheus quote 😉

Grit

Grit is what makes us stronger.

It’s what leads us to a thriving life.

 — doing the legwork.

— Taking the necessary steps to get there. (you know… there)

— To be who we want to be.

Hustle, Heart, Effort, Grind, Action..

You can’t climb a mountain by just dreaming about it —

or half *ssed, or only doing it once.

Achievement takes more than one-and-done. It’s takes grit.

But there’s also one more component: Rest

Without grit there are no gains. Without rest there is no rejuvenation.

Habit both and you’ll truly thrive.

Related:

“Hustle it’s the most important word. Ever.” — Gary Vaynerchuk

 

“If you have no time to rest, it’s exactly the right time.” — Mark Twain

 

#KeepPursing,

Josh Waggoner

‘Brevity is the soul of wit.’  Email me (josh@renaissancemanlife.com) your thoughts on this post. Can you reduce the essential idea further?

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