Push that boulder uphill, happily.
You have to assume there is happiness in your struggles. You cannot be grinding, laboring under a lie hating every minute of it. anger and regret are counterproductive. You must have some semblance of happiness in the work you do. You must take on more responsibility if you want to progress.
Failure
You can either sit and cry why me on your failures or you can actually put some effort into learning what went wrong and not make the same mistakes again. Make new mistakes.
Going Ugly
“Do something that scares you every day” is the lesson I learned from this feisty Australian who befriended me because she was scared of me and wanted to get to know me. That lesson has stayed with me and I’ve amended into a concept I call “going ugly”. Trial and error, trying something for the first time, learning new things, experimenting, no matter what, go ugly. Just dive into it, get dirty, get ugly and make your way through it. you will learn, you will grow, without going ugly, you’re just sitting far away wondering what if. Life begins outside the comfort zone.
Don’t go full Monkey mind, ever.
I’ll just paste the excerpt from the book directly.
Mind on corresponds to the mental state we use in regular life to plan our day, work on projects, pay attention at meetings, and, in general, to focus and concentrate. This mental state is active—it takes energy—and afterward the mind needs rest.
Mind off corresponds to the mental state we use to re¬ charge ourselves and restore perspective. We might still have thoughts about work in this condition, but instead of actively thinking about them, we let them drift by (as though they were clouds drifting across an empty sky). This mental state is passive—it renews energy—and after¬ ward the mind is clear.
Mind on and mind off are complementary: the ability to turn the mind on depends on regularly turning it off.
If we don’t turn the mind off, a third mental state emerges, which is known as monkey mind—in this condition, the mind is overstimulated and moves all over the place, like a monkey. We can’t concentrate and we can’t relax. There’s no switch for monkey mind because monkey mind controls us.
Some people think that monkey mind is our normal, everyday state of mind, but I disagree. I could be wrong— we are like monkeys in lots of ways. For example, I really like bananas. I usually eat one a day (for breakfast, with a little yogurt) but only if the skin is yellow. Yellow isn’t my favorite color—my favorite color is blue. I read that Alfred Hitchcock once served an entire meal in which all the food was blue. I’m not sure I like blue that much. But I do like Hitchcock’s movies, especially the ones with Cary Grant, such as North by Northwest Sometimes I wish I lived in the Northwest. Portland, Oregon, is supposed to be nice. Where were we? Oh yeah, monkey mind.
[From: Naked at work by Paul Hellman]
Create your own Happiness Machine
Invest in your happiness. In every aspect of your happiness.
Material, spiritual, physical, mental.
You need to be a sane, happy person alone, with your own thoughts and actions. Your happiness shouldn’t be dependent on other people.
Be curious to try new things that bring you joy and keep you happily occupied.
Indulge in things that keep your spirits alive, a good book, a new song, whatever it takes.
Workout should be a lifelong habit, not something you take up for a few months every couple of years. I go for an hour long walk every day, and that alone contributes so much to my sanity.
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