Be A Life-Long Learner

Learning To Think For Yourself 

There are three ways we learn ── kinetically (touch and feel), visually (through the eyes) and orally (hearing). 

Each of us has specific preferences and strengths for learning. For instance, some have a better capacity to learn and remember something they read over something they hear. Others learn best kinetically through doing and experiencing. And some learn best simply by watching others perform.

With the advent of the Internet, we all now have access to a vast store of information. And thanks to Google and other search engines, it is also easy to locate facts, figures and basic information on just about any subject or topic.

However, facts, figures and basic information are not knowledge. Knowledge comes from thinking about the implications and possibilities of these facts, figures and pieces of information. Knowledge and learning come from contemplation, analysis and the internalization of the data at hand. This is what makes learning how to learn so important.

It is also why reading books is so important. You need to read what others have thought in order to form your own judgments, opinions and beliefs. You won't get this from Google or lazy Internet searches for facts, data and information. You must dive into books. 

Good authors help put information into context and will help you put information into the context of your own life. As Stephen R. Covey wrote, "An educated conscience impacts every aspect of our lives."

The desire for life-long learning is not sated only by books. Magazines, newsletters, blogs, documentaries, and even some websites are all reservoirs of immense information and  the occasional pearl of wisdom. 

All of these resources will help you learn how to think for yourself, an important skill for those on a Project You Life Journey. 

As Oscar Wilde said, "A man who does not think for himself does not think at all." 

This article is excerpted from our top-selling personal development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. 

From Self Discovery to Self Understanding

Only you know and understand what you can become

The foundation of your own self definition will be expressed in your own self image. What you project to the world, and to yourself, reflects how well you understand yourself. The better this understanding, the greater will be the satisfactions you feel and experience.

For, as the acclaimed actor Sir John Gielgud said, "One's self-image is very important because if that's in good shape, then you can do anything, or practically anything."

Remember, there is nothing obvious or apparent in a caterpillar that foreshadows it becoming a butterfly. Only the caterpillar knows it is going to be a butterfly. Likewise, only you know and understand what you can or will become.

As Buddha said many times, "be a lamp unto yourself," so that you have the insight and understanding of a caterpillar. 

And in doing so, always recall the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing; others judge us by what we have done."

This planet is a laboratory of experiences and an infinite university of potential learning for the evolution of our souls. 

Use these experiences and lessons to cultivate a deeper, richer self understanding and you will find a greater balance and harmony in the spirit of your true self. 

This article is excerpted from the top-selling personal growth and development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. 

The Dark Side of Self Awareness

We all have faults. Overcoming these is gratifying and satisfying. 

The flip side to the coin of self awareness is that none of us is perfect, or even close to being perfect. 

This means that practicing self awareness will reveal to us the numerous blemishes, inconsistencies, incongruities, and harmful tendencies that are an inherent part of the composition of our sentient beings.

Unfortunately, as M. Basil Pennington, the Trappist monk and priest who wrote over 60 books in the latter half of the 20th Century, penned, "In seeing ourselves as we truly are, not all that we see is beautiful and attractive. This is undoubtedly part of the reason we flee silence. We do not want to be confronted with our hypocrisy, our phoniness. We see how false and fragile is the false self we project. We have to go through this painful experience to come to our true self."

Remember, when you see the dark side of yourself, it is like looking at the dark side of The Force as depicted in the Star Wars series. Being aware of your dark side ── your human weaknesses and all other negative aspects of your character ── is the preliminary step in being able to control and overcome these.

Of course, overcoming any personal weakness is a particularly gratifying and satisfying feeling; one of the greatest sources of self esteem you will encounter. Aristotle obviously got it right when he wrote: "I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self."

Those who do not win the battle with themselves become lost souls, empty of the self knowledge and understanding, and thus the passions, that make life worth living.

Additionally, being aware of your faults, flaws and weaknesses is also the first step in changing or modifying these. It's your choice ── you can either control these, or be controlled by them.

Likewise, you can continue to exhibit your faults and flaws, and suffer the consequences, or you can take action to change.

As Jim Rohn said, "Unless you change how you are, you will always have what you've got."

Rohn also gave this good advice: "You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of."

This article is excerpted from the Amazon top-selling book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available in paperback and Kindle formats. 

Your Personal Growth Starts Now

Find the Courage to Live A Determined Life 

Be willing to take a chance on personal growth success. There is no advantage in waiting. 

After all, right now is the oldest and most experienced you have ever been, and the youngest and most inexperienced you will ever be again. No matter what age you are, the time to establish new goals and chart a new (or revised) path is now. As the author C.S. Lewis said, "You are never too old to set another goal or to dream another dream."

Having goals is important, in fact critical, to implementing personal change. As motivational guru Jim Rohn used to say:

Goals.

There's no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them.

There's no telling what you can do when you believe in them.

There's no telling what will happen when you act upon them.

Having goals helps you plan and prepare your actions. As Stephen R. Covey noted in his book First Things First, "Much of our frustration and anxiety come from the feeling of being unprepared. Many activities become urgent as the result of lack of proper preparation."

Remember, your goals should be intricately aligned with your responses to the two questions above on what you are doing with your life and how the world will be better as a result of your personal journey on this planet. Your goals also need to be relevant to both your ego and spirit.

We are not talking about day-to-day living goals or "to do" lists, or even short-term desires like purchasing a new car or funding your child's tertiary education. Too many people get trapped focusing on goals such as these, and they end up so busy making a living they forget to make a life. 

To ensure you do not fall into this trap make sure your goals and desired outcomes are designed to create the Determined Life you deeply desire. 

Don't get so busy earning a living that you fail to make a life. 

After all, you are getting only one shot at this human experience. 

This article is excerpted from the book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. 

Key Questions for Identifying and Understanding the Purpose of Your Life

Finding the Meaning of Life. Discovering the Purpose of Your Life. 

We all have an innate need to find meaning and purpose in life, especially our own lives.

From a Project You perspective, this pursuit is best stated and comprehended as:

The meaning of life is to discover, grow, develop, and enhance 

your unique personal gift and individual talents.

The purpose of life is to use your unique personal gift and talents 

for the betterment of mankind, planet Earth and the Universe of Souls.

In our last blog post we promised to give you some key questions to ask yourself that will help you identify and understand your unique personal gift and the individual talents you bring to the world.

So here they are:

What are you passionate about?

What are you doing when you feel a flow of energy racing through you?

What drives you?

At what do you excel?

What are your greatest strengths?

What do you least like doing?

How can your talents be put to use serving others?

How would you define your skill sets?

In what ways are you different from others, either in what you do, how you do it, or the knowledge and experiences you bring to what you do?

How would you define your greatest purpose in life? Your second greatest purpose?

What are your core values?

How would you list and define your principles?

What brings you joy?

What brings you authentic happiness?

How can your gift and talents be put to use helping others achieve their dreams, hopes, desires, and passions?

How can your gift and talents be put to use helping others solve their problems and challenges?

After you die what is the one thing you want to be remembered for? By whom?

After you die, what are the next four things you want to be remembered for? By whom?

It is important to also remember that your true purpose in life is bigger than just your work (Your Professional Life), even though it may be included as a component of your life's purpose.

Your overall life's purpose will encompass every aspect of your life.

Hence, identifying and understanding your life's purpose is not an exercise regarding career paths, but rather a holistic approach to identifying and knowing who you are (and who you will become) at your very core.

These are questions worth reflecting on.

Go clear your calendar for 90 minutes to two hours, at a minimum. Get up two hours early if you need to.

Go find someplace very quiet and peaceful, preferably outdoors. Use the sounds of nature to help focus your thoughts. Take nothing with you but paper, a writing instrument, and your own thoughts. Leave your cell phone, tablet, and computer behind.

Isn’t the rest of your life worth a couple of hours of solitude and quiet contemplation? 

This article is partially excerpted from the book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available in Kindle and paperback formats at Amazon. 

Identifying a Path for Your Life Journey

The True Measure of Success in Life is Who We Are Becoming

It is said that if we could truly see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

For one thing, we would stop taking for granted all the miracles of life (the daily rising of the sun, the twittering of birds, the laughter of children at play, the colors of the leaves as they change, the beating of our own hearts, etc.). Instead, we would treat and respect these experiences for the miracles they are.

As we start to see the miracle of our own lives, our approach to life changes remarkably. This leads to greater respect for our own existence, and a deeper desire for improving the physical, emotional, and mental aspects of our human vessels.

 In doing so, we also come to the clear realization that the true measure of success in life is who we are becoming rather than what we are accumulating (either in terms of experiences or material possessions).

Billions of words have been written in hundreds of languages about understanding the meaning of life. Billions more have been uttered and written about the need to find purpose in one's life. From a Project You perspective, these two pursuits are best stated and comprehended as:

The meaning of life is to discover, grow, develop, and enhance your unique personal gift and individual talents.

The purpose of life is to use your unique personal gift and talents for the betterment of mankind, planet Earth, and the Universe of Souls.

How you go about accomplishing this is up to you.

Everything in your life (now and in the future) is a reflection of the choices you have made or will make. Just remember, when you start to change yourself, you start to change the world.

In our next blog post we will give you some key questions to ask yourself that will help you identify and understand your unique personal gift and the individual talents you bring to the world. 

This article is partially excerpted from the Amazon best-selling book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available in Kindle and paperback formats. 

The Purpose of Life is to Find Your Gift

Live the Length and Width of Your Life. 

Plato said over 2300 years ago, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

The Project You Life Journey is not just an opportunity to examine your life at a particular point in time, but rather an on-going observation and examination that helps you build and journey on a path that aligns with your life's true purpose.

There are no set elements, rules, protocols or rituals involved. Rather, it is a holistic approach to understanding how your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual attributes work and function across the various components of your human experience (personal life, professional life, family life, etc.).

As you embark upon your own Project You Life Journey, here is a wonderful, motivating thought to keep in mind: some of the best days of your life have not yet happened. Now, isn't this a great reason to get your Project You Life Journey underway right away? 

From a universal sense, the purpose of life is to find your gift. Life has a rich meaning when you are able to find your gift and put it to use for a purpose bigger than yourself. The Project You Life Journey will help you accomplish both.

As Henry James wrote, "It is time to start living the life you've imagined." 

This is true for each and every one of us.

After all, wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to claim American author Diane Ackerman's words for ourselves: "I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to live the width of it as well." 

A good question to ask yourself this weekend: what will be the length and width of your journey from now until the end of your life? 

This article is partially excerpted from the book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. 

Shift Momentum When You Don't Need to Change Direction

Focus on Changing Choices to Attain the Results You Want

After your self-discovery introspection (which we have discussed in the previous two Project You Life blog post) you will have a pretty good indication and understanding of who you are and what goals, dreams and desires you have. 

The typical next step is to assess where you are in relation to achieving your dreams and goals, and even whether you are currently on the right path in pursuit of them. We call this the Shift Momentum phase. 

For most, some change is required; either in the actions being taken or in the effort and energy being put into the actions you deem should be continued. 

Actions and effort, however, are not the total story or the only factors dictating your achievements and personal satisfaction. Also playing big roles are your attitude and your personal outlook on life (both short term and long term).

Often what is truly needed is a shift in momentum, not a complete change in direction. 

As American writer Ralph Marston points out, "Shift your momentum, and a bad day turns into a great day. Problems change into opportunities. What was once negative energy turns into a useful, creative force."

On the other hand, most people will find that various aspects of their lives (but not all) need a slight or fundamental change in direction. After all, every thing and every person in your life at this very moment is a reflection of a choice or choices you have made in the past. 

The formula for the future is simple: if you want to be in a different situation, surrounded with different things, or have different people in your life, you must start making different choices and taking new actions.

Remember, as Flora Whittemore says, "The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live."

Or, as well-known keynote speaker Patricia Fripp advises, "Challenge everything you do. Expand your thinking. Refocus your efforts. Rededicate yourself to your future."

The key, of course, is focus. Everything from the recent best-selling book The Secret to ancient Asian philosophies highlight the importance of focusing on what you want, rather than on what you want to rid yourself of (i.e. focus on becoming slimmer, not on losing weight).

Because your journey is equally as important, if not more so, than your desired destination, it is therefore more important to focus on what you need to change than on what you are aiming to attain. As the saying goes, "If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results." 

This article is partially excerpted from the book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon. 

Be Inspired to Be What You Know You Could Be

Allow Yourself to Have a Better Life

One of the greatest breakthroughs you will experience in the Project You Life Journey self discovery process occurs when you realize how easy it is to learn whatever you need to know to embark upon and remain on the path you choose. 

Information today is so readily available and easily accessible through the Internet. Want to learn more about self motivation? How about gaining a better understanding of your emotions and those of others?

Want to awaken your spiritual side by reading the thoughts and ideas of those who have also pondered the questions you ask yourself? Why do people believe in a God or gods? How about those who do not believe in a God or gods, what do they believe?

All this and more is available for your study, contemplation, and internalization. 

The poet R. W. Emerson wrote in the 19th century, "Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." Well, for you that person is you! 

There is no need to seek answers or motivation from others. The answers to the critical questions regarding your life are within you. Only you know what makes your soul and heart feel is right for you. You are the only listener to your inner voice. The key is to ask the right questions of your inner voice, and to verify the answers received with your heart and spirit.

This is by far the biggest discovery of the Project You Life Journey process ── the answers you seek about yourself, your life, your life's purpose, and how to attain authentic satisfaction and happiness are within.

People use various tools to find these answers, ranging from listening to motivational speakers to reading self-help books, and from seeking the counsel of teachers and religious leaders to discussions with family members and friends. But at the end of the day the true answers for you must bubble up from within yourself. And the specific answers and actions you derive from your contemplation and reflection will differ, at least slightly, from the answers and actions that others find suit them best.

Most important, as sentient beings living a human experience, we each owe it to ourselves to take this journey of discovery into ourselves. As Richard Bach, author of several insightful books, including Jonathan Livingston Seagull and The Bridge Across Forever, wrote, "No matter how qualified or deserving we are, we will never reach a better life until we can imagine it for ourselves and allow ourselves to have it."

Discovering the personal relevance of Bach's comments is one of the first steps toward creating A Determined Life. 

This article is partially excerpted from the book Project You: Living A Determined Life, which is available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. 

Create a New Direction, New Journey for Yourself

The Joy of Self Discovery

We have been writing in the last few blog posts about knowing yourself and defining yourself. These are the key steps in what we call the Self Discovery phase of a Project You Life Journey. 

This exciting and highly revealing  self discovery phase of the Project Life Journey is immensely self-rewarding. This is because one of the best discoveries you will ever make in your life is uncovering the great potential of your mind.

Your mind has the potential and capacity to lead you on this journey. And, with sufficient reflection, your mind can entice your spirit to collaborate in building the motivation, fortitude and momentum for you to continue on this journey through bumps, hurdles and annoying obstacles.

The reason your spirit is willing to cooperate is because it understands discovering your life's purpose is one of the core reasons for your individual human existence and experience. It is why, when you pause to reflect and contemplate the questions how well do I know myself? and why do I feel that I am not on the most optimal journey for myself? that you instinctively know the validity and relevance to you of both these questions. For, as the Rwandan proverb states, "You can out-distance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you."

This joining of your human form (the mind) and your infinite soul (your spiritual nature) is a powerful combination of "yin and yang" that unearths the true nature of your very self.

A Project You Life Journey can be embarked upon at any stage of your life, no matter your age, health, family status, or socio-economic situation. You can be the CEO of a multinational company or a person incarcerated in prison for past deeds. You can be a single mom struggling to make ends meet or a pillar of your community actively engaged in the most important issues impacting where you live.

While none of us can ever go back and start a new beginning, or change any aspect of the past, the beauty of this process is that each of us at any time can decide to create a new direction, a new journey and a new ending for our lives.

And it is not just a new ending you are after, but equally important (in fact more so for many people) is the creation of a new journey. After all, your personal growth, pleasure and happiness will come more from the journey you take than the final destination you reach.

This article is excerpted from the book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon. 

Change Your Attitude. Change Your Results.

Shift Momentum By Changing Your Thoughts

You have the power to change. Whether you exercise this power or not is up to you. 

The remote control device for change is your attitude. Understand that your attitude can be changed as readily as you change channels on your television set. And like your TV, your attitude has many channels that you can access:  positive, negative, playful, angry, flustered, becalmed, passionate, uncaring, optimistic, pessimistic, nonchalant, excited, enthused, disdainful, lethargic, energized, and many others.

When you use your remote to select a channel on your television, you decide what you want to surround yourself with for a period of time: soap operas, sports, news, crime shows, movies, music videos, nature and wildlife, or whatever else interests you at the time.

The same is true when you consciously or unconsciously select your attitude channel. This choice will determine what messages you surround yourself with until you make another selection. 

If you have a negative attitude you will interpret the events of the day (i.e. traffic jams, long lunch queues, interactions with most people) as negative occurrences. 

With a positive attitude you are more likely to turn these same events into more uplifting situations, such as an unexpected time for thinking or listening to your favorite songs (during the traffic jam), an opportunity to explore a new cuisine or food outlet (when your regular eating place is crowded) and chances to get to know others in a more meaningful and deeper way (interactions with people).

The events will be the same. The only difference will be your perspective and interpretation of the events, as influenced or determined by your attitude. How you experience life is determined by your attitude at the time events, people and situations pass through your life. 

Here is how Groucho Marx approached his life, "Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it."

Another way to shift momentum is to open yourself up to new experiences and possibilities. By opening your mind to new thoughts and new ways of doing things, you create a fresh perspective and generate new ideas on future possibilities and outcomes for yourself. The benefits of doing so are well described by writer and thinker Roshanna S Evans:

"When your mind is open by wonder it is a creative burst to the soul. You feel energized, excited, wildly open to information yet to be formed in consciousness but rather at the fingertips of your soul.

Anything less means we are closed by belief, be it cultural, familial, emotional, or imaginative belief. We feel physiologically restrained, limited, boxed in, uncertain, and less than empowered." 

Once you shift your momentum with positive thoughts and attitude, you will find it easier to move forward in your journey to Living A Determined Life. 

This article is partially excerpted from the book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available in Kindle and paperback formats at Amazon.