noiz viol8ion

Category: Mindset

  • Blog #31 – My Hero’s Journey

    The Hero’s Journey is a analysis of all the stories ever told by Joseph Campbell. In these most famous stories there are characteristics that they all share.

    All of the stories are focused around one hero. This hero is living in his/her everyday life when all of a sudden there is a divine call to action. This call to action challenges the hero to leave behind everything they are comfortable with and go on a journey to the scary unknown. Once on this path there are many obstacles, enemies, fears and self doubt that must be conquered. Then after the quest the hero returns home a new person and shares the experience, wealth and knowledge gained from the trails and tribulations.

    This is the basic format to all good stories.

    You are the hero. Accept the call to action. Conquer the villians. Come home and share the wealth.

    To learn more about the Hero’s Journey I suggest reading Joeseph Campbell’s The Hero with A Thousand Faces.

  • Blog #30 – Are you an Amateur or Professional?

    You choose!

    Everyone starts out as an amateur but few people have the mindset to be a professional.

    Amateur and professional have two completely different mindsets.

    The amateur does it for fun. The amateur does it when they feel like it. The amateur is not consistent. The amateur will get around to it. The amateur has an excuse for why it didn’t work out. The amateur has something else going on that is more important. The amateur does not have a deadline. The amateur doesn’t know their worth. The amateur does it as a hobby.

    There is only one way to turn professional you must decide. You must decide that you are a professional and are willing to accept the responsibilities of being a professional.

    The professional does it because they have to. The professional is consistent. The professional does not have a choice. The professional shows up to work everyday whether they feel like it or not. The professional has deadlines they must meet. The professional knows their worth

    The list continues but the key is to create professional habits and leave the amateur habits behind

    “Do you remember where you were on 9/11? You’ll remember where you were when you turn pro.”

    Steven Pressfield – Turning Pro

    I suggest reading Steven Pressfield’s Turning Pro

  • Blog #29 – Stuck in Life?

    The reason you are stuck is because you believe you are stuck. If you believe you are stuck then you are not willing to take the same action as if you where growing towards something.

    Everything you do should be in preparation for where you want to go and who you want to be. You must position yourself as the person you want to be. You must be willing to sacrifice some now for more later. If your looking for that beach body then you know you can’t have all the sugar you want. You must follow your diet. If your looking for that dream job then you can’t go party every weekend. You must educate yourself and develop the talents necessary to succeed at that position.

    Only you know what you want and where you want to go. And if you don’t know what you want or where you want to go then that is the first step to figuring out how to get unstuck.

    What is the perfect day?

    What is the perfect job?

    What is the perfect life?

    What is the perfect amount of money?

  • Blog #28 – How to achieve perfection

    Perfection is the hardest goal to achieve because there is no such thing.

    If your main goal is perfection then you will always be disappointed.

    Perfection is the carrot dangled in front of the horse. A goal that is always taunting us and just out of our reach.

    If you work hard enough and finally reach the top of the mountain. The goal becomes the next mountain.

    If you wait to do something until it’s perfect then you will never do anything.

    Perfection is out of our reach because we already have it. What makes something perfect is the imperfections. The imperfections are what makes things real and gives things character. The imperfections are what people are attracted to. To achieve perfection you must be perfect with imperfection.

  • Blog #27 – Test Yourself

    Where are you at?

    Are you getting better or worse?

    How do you know the answers to these question if you do not test yourself?

    Testing yourself benchmarks where you are at. A test is not only a scantron done in school. A test can be anything that gets you out of your comfort zone. Test are meant to be challenging. Tests are meant to fail beginners and be easy for masters.

    A test or examination is an assessment intended to measure a test-taker’s knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics.

    merriam webster

    The point is not to pass or fail but to use the test as feedback for where you are.

  • Blog #26 – Finding Beauty

    There is a lot of bad things happening everyday. If you want to know about it then turn on your nightly news and you will hear about the murders, kidnappers, frauds, wars, politics and any other conflicts going on.

    Even the thoughts going through are heads are not always the most pleasant things. We often put ourselves down or see the faults in other people. We tell people whats wrong with them. We let the bad things take over and replay that in our heads.

    It is so easy to point out the negative that we don’t even have to try.

    We do have to try to point out the positives. We do have to make an effort to give compliments. We do have to make an effort to share things we like. We do have to make an effort to see the good in a terrible situation. We do have to try hard to learn from our mistakes. We do have to make the decision to find beauty in life and share it.

  • Blog #25 – Deadlines, a curse or blessing?

    Whether self imposed or put on you by someone else, deadlines are a powerful thing.

    I have always been a procrastinator. In school I would work on something right until the moment it was due. If I had a test then I would study the night before. Now that I’m in a real world job, most of what I do is in accordance to meeting deadlines. There is not a big change either. I am still working on something right until the deadline.

    Deadlines have the ability to light a fire under people to get things done. Deadlines make people go crazy. Nice people turn into giant balls of stress. All that matters is meeting the deadline.

    Even though the stress and craziness that occurs with deadlines. There is a strong power to get work done to meet these dates. They are great motivation.

    Once they are passed and you have successfully met the deadline there is a great relief and reason to celebrate.

  • Blog #24 – Common Goals

    If you want to work as a team you must set some common goals. Where are you going together?

    The environment must be collaborative where everyone has a say and their voice is heard.

    Each person must have a team first attitude. This means the success of the team is more important than the individual success. The individual must sacrifice at times for a greater team reward.

    The tone must be set by the leaders and everyone else will buy in. Nothing is in the dark. Everyone must be radically truthful and have radical transparency.

    With everything in the open, there is a trust and encouragement for everyone to be the best they can be.

  • Blog #23 – Growth Takes Time

    There are two ways to look at why people do things.

    1. Short Term – It is human nature to want things instantly for nothing. Everyone wants to win the lottery. Everyone wants to have a hit song. Everyone wants the one big break. They want the results without putting in the work. They want the quick change from a miracle pill that solves everything. I am guilty of wanting this too but this is not the path to get what you want.
    2. Long Term – This is not natural and must be trained and taught. I read that one of the biggest tests for success in kids is the marshmallow test. In the test, a marshmallow is put in front of a child and if they can wait 10 min to eat it then they will get two marshmallow’s. Short term pleasure is not as important as long term happiness. This means that you must do what will give you the best long term results and not leave your decisions up to the short term monkey mind.

  • Blog #22 – Keep Blue Skies in Mind

    Imagine a clear blue ski for as long as your eyes can see. The warmth of the sunset on your skin. Birds soaring through the air off in the distance. How do you feel?

    This is the ideal analogy for a calm mind.

    Know that whenever we are going through a storm that behind those clouds there is still a blue ski.