Motivation and staying positive - we all do it, don’t we?
A little over 50-years ago you would have to search high and low to find a person that was not enthused about the prospects for themselves and the World. For those that can remember, the world was getting better daily. Back then, despite the “normal” conflicts between the super-powers of the time, the future was an exciting thought and generall,y people everywhere faced every day with excitement and all-round good feelings.
Back to 2018, the general consensus is slightly different. One can even say it’s the exact opposite.
Over the last couple of years, I have noticed that people all over the world have more fear-based experiences that ever before. And this fear makes us do less and less every day.
The world is a different place to what it what it was 50-years ago, no doubt. But are we? Are we a different people? Think about that for a second.
Any well-informed person will tell you that we have to consider the environment that surrounds us to fully understand the difference. And that is quite correct, so the other day I posed that very question to my still very lively grandfather - who is 75 this year - to hear what he has to say. In my life, he is by far the most level-headed and reasonable person that I know.
He still manages his business daily and is probably more fit and healthy than most of us.
Here's what he had to say. "The world will change every day and we will have many different things to occupy our lives as we go through life. The one thing that will never change is our ability to adapt and conquer life’s challenges. Human beings are the most adaptable animal on the planet and we have gotten this far by doing that consistently."
Granddad probably saw the perplexed look on my face, because he asked if I understand, and for the most part, I did.
As a person that has lived for three-quarters of a century and seen more devastation and change than anybody else I know, I have always respected his Point Of View. Yet I was not quite there this time. In his point of view, the world is not a different place to what it was 50 years ago, but we as a society has changed. We are the difference.
We have become less of ourselves than ever before. Our experience of life is smaller than it was.
Our lives appear better on the surface
Less. How? In comparison we have more, more technology, more connectivity, more ability, more of everything so how can our lives be less than before? And what does that have to do with being motivated?
After our conversation, I was intrigued with some of the things my grandfather said, and I took some time to consider it all.
With everything that is going on in the world today and all that has happened just in the last decade, I was not surprised by the first statement that we as a society have become more fearful. Wars, Economic recession and outlandish political leaders and more all contributed to it.
All this has made us a generally fearful and more cautious people and in turn, has diminished our desire to push the limits of our abilities and our motivation.
So how did we choose to be less when we have so much more in our lives than before? If the world has not really changed in 50 years and it is us that have changed, how did that happen?
Why are we not more than we were 50 years ago? Just like before, our world is created by the information we surround ourselves with, media, social media, friends, family and of course our leaders. You can’t listen to the news without hearing about some problem that will potentially change our lives for the worse or hear about corruption or terrorist threat.
Raise your hand if you did not think about the very real possibility of some kind of attack today?
But was it not the same 50 years ago? Did the world not have the same problems? Nuclear war, Communism, and economic rebuilding were the order of the day in the 50s and 60s.
The world did not really change that much after all
If you think about it, you will most likely agree that the world did not change much if at all. Sure, the perpetrators and source of the threat have changed but the conditions and the way it affects our lives is the same.
In understanding our perceived lack of motivation and positive outlook on life, I am merely suggesting that we take a good long hard look at what we are exposing ourselves to daily.
For the record, I am not saying that we should not heed the warnings or recognize the specific conditions of our lives, just that we change the way we interact with them.
Our daily challenges are maybe more complex but in principle, we still have to do the same things as our parents and grandparents had to. We have to earn a living, provide for our families, be a productive part of society - bring our side as it were and not leave it up to others to do for us.
We have left so much of our lives in the hands of others that we have become the epiphany of passengers in our own lives. Those that have created wealth and success, we venerate as special and different, but when you ask those “special ones” they are not living in a different world than we are, they are not different by their own measure.
More often than not they just interact with the world differently than most.
Threats become opportunities. Weaknesses become strengths. They took control of their surroundings and made the best of it. These people live in the same world that we do yet they are more: More in so many ways. More. How do you do that? Can you really be more than you are now? You bet!!
You just need to do better than yesterday and even if its just 1 percent better you are still better. In this way, we expect more from ourselves, our family and our environment.
Most of all. We must expect more from our elected leaders and representatives. If we can be better every day and yes, we can, so can they.
So, I challenge every reader to be better today that yesterday in just three things.
They can be three things of your choosing in your life to be better at today than you were yesterday. Do that for just one week and you will see a vast difference in your experience of the world around you.
Each journey worth taking starts with a difficult first step, so make the first ones small and easy and build yourself and your journey up as you go along.
100-day challenge - 1 percent better every day = 100 percent better in 100 days. Whose is up for the challenge?
I will check in every 10 days or so just to see how much better your world has become and if we all get better just imagine what the world will be like in 100 days…
