“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

— George Bernard Shaw

The irony of life is that when you are in your 20s, and filled with optimism and energy, you felt like you could take on the world. Except, you didn’t have the wisdom to know “how” to create that life. As you get older, Life happens and you start to pick up wisdom. But by now, the administrative nature of life has overshadowed your optimism and energy and you forget about the drivers that once made you optimistic about who or what you could become.

This speech by Simon Sinek (famous for his TED talk on finding your WHY) to university scholars is one of the best presentations. It will remind you of the key principles you once had and inspire you to resume the journey to becoming who you wanted to be.

1. Focus on the free bagel (goal) - not the line (obstacles)

Despite what we really want in life, we lose sight of the end goal because the obstacles are so immediate. As we focus on the obstacles, they become bigger and eventually, we end up giving up on our goal. Why? Because we can see the obstacles clearly and in HD. But the goal is just some vague blurry picture in our heads.

You can choose what you want to focus on. So focus on the goal. That way, you won’t become disenchanted by the obstacles.

2. Fear is the same as excitement

When you experience fear, sweaty palms, higher pulse rate, extreme concentration on a single object. It’s exactly the same symptoms as excitement. You brain doesn’t know the difference between fear and excitement because your body is experiencing the same symptoms.

So use this loophole and train your brain to interpret sweaty palms, higher pulse rate, and extreme concentration as excitement rather than fear. Very soon, you will be excited to do things that are scary to you rather than fear the unknown.

3. Take care of others

The single common trait of greatness that can be extracted from those who are the most successful in pushing through challenges, are those who despite how tough the situation is, still focus on looking after others. People remember you for how you made them feel, not the material achievements you’ve accumulated in life.

4. Always be the last to speak

Learn to calm your mind and listen to the perspectives of others. Don’t just listen to the words being uttered but identify the perspective you are coming from. The person speaking will feel heard and you will find that you’ve learnt new insights and appreciations that you would’ve missed if you speak first or listen with the intent to answer.

Great leaders are always the last to speak.

5. Serve others as your foundation purpose in life

When you have a goal higher than yourself, you’ll find inspiration in extracting the best from others and together get through the obstacles in life. Everyone faces obstacles. The secret to pushing through them is to accept that shit happens and then help others to push through together.

So there you have it. 5 key principles we can adopt today to find the inspirations we lost along the way in this journey of life to rekindle our inspiration and resume our journey to becoming the best version of ourselves.

Blog Photo by Kenny Krosky on Unsplash

Further Reading

How to easily command respect in a group

Commanding genuine respect, one that doesn’t rely on your position power is one of the hardest things to do for an introvert. There are five simple actions we can adopt straight away that can help us to establish our presence in the room and command the attention and focus on what we have to say.

How to be Value-Adding

Being seen as value-adding is one of the biggest planks in the foundation of your career success. Here are four simple steps you can take, which if you do consistently, will guarantee that you seen to be contributing meaningfully at work and maximise your chances of promotion and success.

Looking confident while working remotely

It’s hard to project confidence while on video calls. It acts like a barrier that stops us from achieving the best version of ourselves. Be it the sound quality or just trying to get your message across amongst the traffic of voices all trying to chime in at the same time. Here are six simple things to do that will give you the best chance at projecting the best version of yourself on a video call.

How to overcome Social Anxiety

Social anxiety is the single biggest blocker to introverts recognising the best version of themselves. The rapid heart beat, sweat, and mind blanks cause us to lose our perfectly thought through logic. Instead, a jumbled mass of words and ideas come out. The solution isn’t to stop feeling anxious. It is to recognise it and then start focus on the people you are speaking to.

Confrontations - Doing it the right way

Confrontations need not be daunting and one sided. The traditional leadership theories that focus on feelings and behaviours aren’t wrong. But they are missing a core component that make a massive difference. There is a simple framework from Simon Sinek that ties it all together.

STOP your nice guy / girl behaviours

Stop saying yes when you want to say no, and learn to prioritise your needs first. Nobody else is going to make your career goals come true except you. There are simple steps you can take now to stop sabotaging yourself through your nice guy / girl behaviours.

Being the best version of yourself while Working From Home

Don’t let the pandemic cause you to regress on your self improvement journey and fall into the comfort trap while working from home. Take charge of your new routine and refocus on these six foundation steps to get back on your self-improvement journey and use this opportunity to become the best version of yourself.

The key to demonstrating confidence

Your ability to demonstrate confidence is key to your career success, progression, and getting what you want. If you understand frame and can hold it in any interaction, then you will come across as confident. Here are some simple but highly impactful techniques you can use to project confidence.

The key to promotion for introverts

The key to promotion for introverts is to unleash our deep thinking and put them into practice. The mindset shift is to realise, you have to demonstrate you are operating at the next level before you actually get promoted. There is a simple way to demonstrate this by changing what you say and do when you encounter an issue. Use this principle to change your mindset and you will find success.

How to be charming as an introvert

There are a few simple actions you can take, to be as charming as Keanu Reeves, who is a stand-out as an introvert in a very extrovert dominated industry. It doesn’t require you to pretend to be someone you are not, but these five simple actions, give you the tools to embrace your introversion and use them to genuinely connect and interact in the most value-adding way. You will be both charming and unforgettable.