Every now and then in life, you have to give yourself a break. You have to give yourself a small win. A congratulations, if you will, because I know, and you know, right?
We all know that we’re working very, very hard. If you’re listening to me, you think about the issues I think about, and I’ve thought about them my whole life, and I think you probably have as well, because ultimately, what do I want for my life?
Well, I want to be happy, right? And as Aristotle said, it’s a practice, right? I have to work on it every single day.
Why do I want to be happy? Because I want to share this love, this happiness with the people I love, my family, my friends, and really, I can influence no one. It’s the hardest thing you learn as a parent or as a friend, perhaps.
You cannot change anyone. The only person you can truly change is yourself, for sure. So every now and then, celebrate the win, the win in your life.
But to do this, you need a goal to achieve at something, and then celebrate that win, if you will.
Let’s say I’m the kind of person, I have no goals initially. How do I begin to structure this life? What do I do?
Well, I think the very first thing a person must do is you must believe in you. You must say, gosh, I’m a hero to me. I’m called to do something magical in my life.
Now, this calling could be, gosh, it could be as simple as getting married, having a family. Great win for many, many people. Other people want to conquer the world.
Bless them. Bless them. It’s up to them, right?
So that’s the very first thing. I’m going to get off on a goal. I’m going to set off.
And then we do need consistency. Whatever you decide to do, you must begin. But you must begin every single day.
Some happen. Perhaps you’ve been getting up at 7 o’clock. It’s too late.
You’re rushed. You’re still rushed for work. Get up every single day at 6.30, let’s say, right?
Every day, not one day 6.30, one day quarter to 7, one day 7. No. I’m going to get up every single day at 6.30.
6.30. And you do this for 21 days, and it will become habit if you do something consistently.
And then I think along this way, of course, with my friend, The Notebook, I must write every day, the day and the date. I must write to myself, right?
My thoughts, my spontaneous thoughts, this is not, of course, a diary, it’s not a journal, it’s a book of my spontaneous thoughts.
And remember we talked about before, far away in the distance is that magical point, that serenity point, that everything, everything is going to be okay. You will be fine in your life. Pick a point.
You’re young, so pick 80, 90, pick some fabulous point way in the future, you will be fine.
Psychologically, it’s like you’re a marathon runner or you’re some form of swimmer, you can see the island in front of you, you’re going to get there eventually. Then of course, we must consider the body. The body is my temple, right?
I must protect myself. A little story, an old doctor once in India, Calcutta, he said to me, sir, I went for a checkup, I had something was a little bit wrong in India, went to a doctor. He told me, sir, the body is like an old Mercedes Benz.
It can run for 500,000 kilometers, but you must change the oil, you must change the tires, and of course, you must change the headlights. I apologize for the time, right? Our magical clock is ringing here.
And then, of course, we’re focused on the large win in the future that we’re going to celebrate, but let us not forget the small wins on a daily basis.
I like to call them sometimes a win could be as simple as an act of kindness, which is something I really enjoy, right? You hold the door for someone, you tell a joke and somebody smiles, you cross the street and let a person go in front of you.
If you’re driving a car, you let the other driver go first. Small acts of kindness, right? Celebrating those small wins on a daily basis.
And I think the big one here, once again, is always to concretize time. You must grab hold of time because time is ephemeral. Like we’ve often said, it’s running away.
I cannot grasp it. The only way I’m going to grasp time is mentally. I’m going to have to put parameters on my own life.
An interesting experiment, if you want to try this, is in your notebook, document what you’re doing, perhaps every 30 minutes or hour, every day. Just write down, brushing my teeth.
Eating lunch, talking to my friend on the phone, playing computer games, dealing with a project at work, whatever it is. But you’ll start to see that a lot of the time is actually wasted or misspent, so to speak.
You know this old story, I have no time. Now think to yourself, you have as much time as I have. We all have 24 hours every single day.
God has given us an equal amount. It’s very fair, whether you’re rich or whether you’re poor, we have an equal amount of time. It’s literally how we use it, truly.
And if you set up every day a form of routine, and you’re consistent with this routine, whatever it is for 21 days, you write in your notebook, you celebrate those small wins, you watch your health, and you are consistent with how you view life,
you’ll be fine. Get on the pan, you need a goal, right? You gotta have a goal and push forward. And think of that serenity point in the future.
No, just last thought before I go here. I always wonder when people get old and they tell stories, I wish I had done or I should have been, stories like this.
This is foolish because you’re going to leave here and you had as much time as I have had or anyone has had at the beginning, but they allocated that time foolishly, foolishly.
That’s why I think you should avoid things like alcohol, drugs, anything that are going to alter your time here. Now, I was reading an article the other day that some people are proponents of psychedelics. They can alter you.
Ayahuasca is a type of substance is taken in Ecuador. You can see God, et cetera, et cetera. I don’t subscribe to this because I think you’ve got to be clear.
You’ve got to deal with you. You’re the only person who really knows you, for sure. Other people may be close to you.
You may have a soulmate. They might know you, but not like you do, for sure. Absolutely.
So you take care of yourself and you know what they say. You know what they say. Critical thinking is everything, especially when you’re going to celebrate your small wins, leading to a big win.
And critical thinking is great, truly great. You take care. God bless.
Bye bye.