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2007 – New Year, New possibilities.
What are the potential pitfalls in the context of you achieving your dreams in 07?
Comparing yourself to others.
Don’t fall in the now popular pattern of benchmarking your success off
others. About eighteen months ago, I started conducting a survey with
course attendants. The following propositions were put on the table –
number one, I was offering them a salary of €50,000 and everyone they knew
would be on €25,000.
The second offer on the table was a salary of €100,000, and in this case
everyone they knew was earning €250,000.
The attendees were then told that all other factors were equal.
Naively I thought it was a simple choice – €50k or €100k. This wasn’t to
be the case. A significant minority choose the first option to my
amazement, and many, and I mean many, had to think about the answer. This
backs up the latest research from Firebaugh and Tach that many people’s
happiness level are determined on how well they are doing relative to
their peers etc.
Comparing yourself to others is the direct route to a lifetime of stress
and missed opportunities. Happiness will be always one acquisition away.
Compare yourself to yourself for a life less limiting.
Not knowing what you truly want from life?
What do you want from life? Normally when you ask this question, many
people will give you a wish list of things. Ironically this is not what
they really want.
What they really want are the positive feelings generated by having these
things. Very simply the universal dream/ goal is to be happy. When you
acknowledge this, you will find many, many routes to this dream, apart from
just accumulating things.
Listening to the wrong people.
Who should you listen to? Too many of us are swayed by the unsolicited
advice. It is imperative that as we journey towards our goal, only
feedback from people who have travelled that path before is accepted.
Go up the mountain with a mountain climber, not someone who has read or
written about it, even drawn it, no someone who has been to the pinnacle,
is my advice.
Becoming the guardian to your mind is a key skill, and one everyone should
develop in 07. As your mind works similar to a computer, it is imperative
garbage is rejected at source.
Paralysis by analysis!
Another "potential pitfall" is overanalysis.
Be aware that regardless of what your dream is, when you consign it to a
“pros and cons” analysis, you will in all cases find enough reasons not to
act. Every dream on this planet can be left brained out
of existence.
When you consider the fact that people who truly engage in life; who dare
to dream, and commit their goal to paper always end up in a place they
recognise as better than their starting point, it is important that our
focus and intent is on the dream, not on the analysis.
If when I set the goal of writing a best seller, my focus was on the fact
that I had just passed my English exams, had no background in writing, had
no publisher, the goal would never have been achievable. When you focus on
obstacles, obstacles occur.
Dare to dream and focus on possibilities for 2007.
Sorry about the lack of entries over the past week but I was visiting China and the internet was down in Beijing. More about this intriguing journey in the next few days.....
Have a great year.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at
January 3, 2007 08:54 AM