Posted on by Raj Daniels

Wish others happiness

Do you spend any of your time consciously wishing others well? Wishing them happiness and sending them good thoughts? Or are you so focused inward that the well-being, happiness and success of others never crosses your mind?

Wishing others happiness is not a natural behavior for everyone, but it can be learned with practice. I know you might be thinking ‘what if someone has done something to hurt or betray you, how can you wish them happiness?’ And this is a valid question. But how much time and energy can you spend being upset with them and what was your role in the situation?

Wishing others happiness can actually improve how feel about yourself because it shifts your mind, even if temporarily from thinking about your own problems and challenges.  Practice today to send thoughts of happiness to people you know and random strangers and experience how it changes your day.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Unlimited Resources

 

If you had unlimited time, money and energy what would you do with your life? Would you really be motivated to do anything productive?

Working within resource constraints naturally forces you to be more creative. It pushes your mind to find new and unique ways to produce results. Nature itself is designed to work and produce against constrained conditions and the strongest of any species are those that learn to adapt and thrive with limited resources.

Nothing you need to or want to start doing requires unlimited resources; in fact having limited resources forces you to be more resourceful.  Whatever you want to do, start today and remember, the only place you need to have unlimited resources is in your mind.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Superpower

What is your super power? The thing that you are so good at that you always feel confident when you do it? The skill that when you look back on your life you know you could always rely on?

If you don’t know, or are not sure what your super power is then think of a time when someone asked you ‘how do you that? You’re so good at that? Or, ‘that comes so easily to you? These are all clues to what your super power is. You can also think about activities that you really enjoy doing, productive activities that you would do for free.

Once you identify your super power then you can learn to nurture and grow it. You can design your life around it. You can find roles or jobs that leverage your inherent talent and when you do you will ultimately do and feel better.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Break your routine

Break one of your routines today. Choose one thing you do every day and change it just for today. It doesn’t have to be huge change; in fact it can be a small as using a different cup for coffee, using the opposite hand to brush your teeth or sitting somewhere else at work. Just something that feels a little different.

Making a small change to a routine will engage a different part of your brain and spark new connections. You’ll see the world differently and experience different emotions.

Breaking a routine can be a great gateway for creating new habits. It can give you the courage to eventually make bigger more drastic changes because you learn to get comfortable with change. Try it today, because you have nothing to lose. If you don’t like the change you can always go back to your routine.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Conventional Wisdom

rajdaniels_opentime_conventionalwisdom_120516

Are you living your life according to conventional wisdom? Doing or acting in a certain way because it fits within the box of ‘the usual.’ If everyone lived according to conventional wisdom then the following would never had happened.

Conventional wisdom = No automobiles

Conventional wisdom = No airplanes

Conventional wisdom = No space program

Conventional wisdom = No organ transplants

And this list could go on for pages.

Stop relegating yourself to being constrained by conventional wisdom. As you can see by the items on the preceding list, conventional wisdom is very often just wrong and based on outdated information.

Conventional wisdom will happily provide you with all the reasons you cannot and will not do something. Pay careful attention to your thoughts and actions so you can see how much of what you’re doing is just because you’ve accepted the path of conventional wisdom.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

Take a break from media

When was the last time you unplugged from all media?

I mean nothing at all. No TV, radio or social media? Do you think you can unplug, even for half a day?

If not, what does that tell you about yourself?

You see, media only has one goal. To sell you stuff. And they do this by providing you ‘news and information’ that focuses on two ends of the spectrum, bad news and good news. The bad news is to create fear and urgency and the good news creates envy and questions about your own ‘success.’

Boring news about people’s everyday lives would never capture an audience because it can’t be sensationalized. And this constant exposure to bad news and good news drives your mind to constantly compare your life to the life of others. It’s a continuous; my life is better than or worse than others conversation. Even though the majority of the time this conversation is happening subconsciously for you, it’s still happening.

Consider the act of taking a break from media a fast for your mind. Providing your brain a break from the constant bombardment can give you the opportunity to think and listen to what you have to say instead always listening to the thoughts of others.

Posted on by Raj Daniels

I doubt you can do that

When was the last time someone doubted your ability to do something?

Was that ‘someone’ you?

And what did you do after you felt the doubt?

Driving through your own doubt is one of the hardest things you can do. However, with practice you can learn to do so. So many people kill brilliant thoughts and ideas in their heads because they allow their own doubt to hold them back. They project their own thoughts and concerns on to others and draw conclusions before they actually share their ideas.

We all suffer from doubt because our ideas are tied to our identity and we want to do everything we can to protect it. Even as I type this I’m thinking ‘what if it’s not good and you don’t like it?’ But I’ve decided that I’ll let you tell me that and not just keep the idea in my head.

Letting the market or individuals question or even reject your ideas is a difficult habit to form but well worth the effort. As with any other new behavior, start small and in good company. Share ideas with people you feel safe around and see how they react.  Put your doubt on pause and at least give your thoughts and ideas a chance to get out in to the world.

Posted on by rajdaniels

Control

You can only control what goes in not what comes out. This applies to almost everything.

A person may not react how you expected them to when you do or say something.

A recipe may not turn out the way you expected even though you followed the instructions.

A party you planned may turn out different than you expected.

A project you started doesn’t work out how you thought it would.

Even though deep down we know this to be true about so many things we still expect certain outcomes and are disappointed when they don’t happen. Continuing to staying attached to outcomes will only cause you to be stressed, anxious and less happy.

Not wanting an outcome is not the right answer, because as humans we are wired to seek outcomes. However recognizing the desire to want to control all outcomes is a great first step.

Posted on by rajdaniels

What If?

What if I’m late?

What if they think it’s a stupid question?

What if she/he leaves me?

What if they don’t love me anymore?

What if I lose my job?

What if I don’t lose the weight?

What if I miss my flight?

What if it rains?

What if I can’t afford it?

What if it breaks?

What if I fail?

What if I don’t make more money?

What if they don’t invite me to their parties?

What if my house isn’t clean enough?

What if my car breaks down?

What if they don’t like my writing?

How many of these will you think about today? And which ones do you think about most often? We all have our own list of  ‘what if’s’ and spend so much of our time wondering and thinking about what could go wrong.

Spend some time today thinking about some of your past situations where things did go wrong and how they eventually turned out. Hopefully you’ll realize that the outcomes were not as bad as you had imagined them to be.  This exercise should give you some confidence that things will work out fine the next time you have a negative ‘what if’ moment.

Posted on by rajdaniels

One Small Win

Those of you that have been following my blog know that earlier this week I had written about the passing of a family member. Both the funeral and the wake were yesterday and my day didn’t end until about 11:30pm last night. As I was falling asleep I thought to myself, you can sleep in tomorrow and put off writing your blog for the day. There it was! in my moment of weakness an excuse reared its ugly head.

It’s when we are tired, frustrated, hungry, sad or any other moment of weakness that the excuses appear to lead us astray.

Skip writing today

Have one more drink

Sleep in a little longer

It’s too cold to go to the gym

The best excuses are ones that nobody else can hold you accountable for. But they’re also the worst because you know that you didn’t live to your own commitment. Over time these small excuses chip away at your own psyche and eventually you begin to lose faith in your own ability to commit.

So this morning even though I am tired I will have my one small win and I hope you find a way to have your small win for the day too.