personal development

Ikigai

Ikigai (生き甲斐, "ee-kee-guy") is a Japanese concept that describes the things that make your life worthwhile; the things that give you a deep sense of purpose, satisfaction and joy. Ikigai is made up of two Japanese words, iki (生き), which means life, and kai (甲斐), meaning effect, result, value, benefit, or worth. Iki and kai come together to give us ikigai: a reason to live/to exist.

What is stress?

What is stress?
I’m not a medical expert so I cannot give you a medical answer. One of the best descriptions of the word that I have head was from the marketing guru, Seth Godin, who described stress as wanting to do two things at the same time, for example, stay and go, be quiet and be seen, whatever two things they are. When you are stressed at work it’s because you don’t want to be at work and the same time you want to get paid, and that causes stress.

 

I think that if you are stressed all day long it’s easy to lose all enthusiasm for anything, and what amplifies this is when you are afraid of something; you’re afraid of being insufficient, you’re afraid of doing a bad job and you feel like an imposter. When we add all of this up, modern industrial work is filled with stress and kills passion, so it’s not surprising that there is so much dissatisfaction in the way we do our work. This is why people who can’t find a better path go home and self-medicate with alcohol, pills or Netflix, and the people who can go home and find a hobby or literature that elevates themselves. Contact me via e-mail when you ready to turn your work or hobby into more of a less stressful choice which fills you up with energy and joy.

Why before the what

When you really feel an idea and just don’t take “no” for an answer, it doesn’t take much for us to feel good about ourselves. We don’t have to announce it to the world, we just have to begin, and the small journey will have begun.

“I am so grateful for the circumstances that brought me to this place as all these twists and turns have brought me to this destination. Now I have the opportunity to serve other people as well as to help myself fulfil my destiny.”
— Burrellism

Perseverance is the key

Perseverance means to do something continuously in spite of obstacles and the key to success in any field is the perseverance of a human being. Success in life doesn't come easily and there are many failures and hurdles that one has to clear before reaching the goal of achievement. I think that almost every successful person begins with two beliefs: the future can be better than the present, and I have the power to make it so. And if you keep persevering long enough, you will achieve your true potential.

“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”
— Maya Angelou

There is magic in the air

We should focus our gratitude exercise on the meaningful things in our lives of which we are certain, such as our friendships, passions, or family, thereby reminding ourselves that while uncertainty exists in some aspects of our lives, certainty still prevails in many others. I think that there is magic when organisations can inspire people to align their own personal passion, self-understanding, and desire for growth with the common organisational ambitions.

“No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

Do your best

I think in a remote working environment, autonomy, mastery and purpose helps to replace managerial control with empowered self-control. Nowadays, everyone has the opportunity to improve their knowledge and skills. As a leader, it is your duty to offer your employees the opportunity to master new skills. Overcoming challenges and acquiring mastery is a satisfying part of the human experience, whether it’s related to your work or not. Everyone wants more money; in my experience salary is rarely the main motivator for excellent performance.

Mind over matter

We can pinpoint interesting things in our environment by using our reticular activating system (RAS). Our RAS focuses on whatever is occupying our thoughts and sifts through the countless bits of information that bombard us every day until it finds something that fits. Many of us think with a negative mindset that calibrates our RAS to filter the wrong type of information which leads to failure reinforcement. We can recalibrate our RAS by focusing on positive thoughts by actively seeking out the positive elements of a given situation. The RAS can be reprogrammed to see opportunities where it once only saw problems. In addition, you can focus your RAS by setting specific goals, by having short and long-term goals and using affirmative wording will actually make the goals easier to achieve.

Familiarity vs. Awareness

I have found it really useful to find out everything about a company or organisation before I have a meeting with them. We are taught that knowledge is power, well if that was the case then why are all researchers not millionaires? Disclaimer: This is not to say that the only measure of success is financial. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, knowledge is defined as ‘facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.’ I think this is because knowledge is potential power but it’s not power in that sense of the word. Knowledge has to be properly organised and intelligently directed for it to be explicit (theoretical) or implicit (practical). How will this help you personally or professionally?

“When you do not seek or need approval, you are at your most powerful.”
— Burrellism

Hard work pays off

Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with things that you would rather not deal with, for example, fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Hard work is about training yourself to leap over this barrier, drive through the other barrier and overcome whatever obstacle is placed in front of you. And after you’ve done that, to do it again the next day. I think the biggest influence in life is habit.


To get better results, adopt better habits. I ask myself everyday: 
1. How will I create value for my customers?
2. And how will I make money doing so?

Mind power

Image © James Brown - Polydor Records

The human mind is magnificent organ of intelligence, unfortunately we are not taught how to fully use it. In fact, because of our limited understanding of the mind and our limited expectations of it, we limit the minds’ ability to function at its full potential. As you know, you cannot heal what you don't feel, so my aim is to help my clients to replace negative self-talk with positive self-talk, for example, I have already managed to replace bigotry, intolerance, and racism with fairness, friendly and tolerance. 

 

I have been working on a rapid transformational program, it will be a monthly subscription-based program with the aim to reprogram your mind. Watch this space…

Your perception is your reality

On a daily basis we evaluate others, we also regularly look into our own hearts and minds. Many aspects of our minds are hidden from us, we think in two different ways: self-judgement and how we judge others. I think the way we judge others is to look at their actions and the way we judge ourselves is by our use of words.

I have recently been made aware that in social psychology they use the term: “naive realism”. This is a human tendency where we see the world around us objectively, and that people who disagree with us must be uninformed, irrational, or biased.