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Posts Tagged ‘enthusiasm’

The “XY” principle is something that came to me recently and explains desire and achieving in a basic sense.

Firstly “X” is what you desire and “Y” is what’s required in order to have “X”, so if you want “X” then you need to do “Y”.

Let’s say you want a house (X), you think about the area you want it to be, how many bedrooms, the type of kitchen, the amount of land, etc. The thoughts fill you and you feel the inspiration. You begin doing research on the Internet to find it. You then find a couple of homes that look like they fit all the criteria and you go to the bank and sit with the manager to work out how much of a loan you can service and then go to look at the houses and put in an offer. All these steps that happened after the thoughts of your desire are your “Y”.

Now what you find when your desire fills you with enthusiasm, is that you FEEL INSPIRED to take steps. If the steps feel like a natural progression, it all flows beautifully but if you find yourself beginning to force yourself to do things because you think that that’s what’s required in order to get what you want, then you’re going down the path of struggle and most likely it’ll feel like you’re beating your head against a brick wall.

The most important part of this is getting in touch with the enthusiasm for the things you desire and see yourself already enjoying them in your mind, that’s the “X” at it’s most powerful. If thinking about your “X” doesn’t bring up feelings of joy, then it’s not really something you desire at a deep level, it’s just something you think would be nice at some point. Don’t waste your time with this, unless what you want is in fact struggle!

Despite what “realists” will tell you, life is supposed to be fun and joyful, so why not spend your time thinking about things that stir up this joy in you? When you feel yourself overflowing with joy, the action you take is super charged and it doesn’t feel like work to you, it simply feels like a natural progression to the next joyful moment. And remember that no matter where you find yourself (physically or emotionally) you do have the ability to reach for a thought that can give you relief if you’re not feeling so good right now.

Angelo Campione

Student Is Ready

Extravagance is not a word associated with Warren Buffett, he’s one of the richest men in the world (I think actually the richest at the moment) and yet he shows what it is to live a life of humility and service.

He still lives in a modest home in Omaha Nebraska that he bought 50 years ago and he doesn’t have flash European cars, on top of that he’s highly ethical in all his dealings.

While there’s nothing wrong with living a grand life, it’s more important to be clear that the material possessions don’t add anything to your worth as a human. It seems Warren is very clear about this.

So here are some tips from the great man in being happy:

• Think Simply – “I want to be able to explain my mistakes. This means I do only the things I completely understand.”
• Live Simply - “I just naturally want to do things that make sense. In my personal life too, I don’t care what other rich people are doing. I don’t want a 405 foot boat just because someone else has a 400 foot boat.”
• Look for Simple pleasures - “I have simple pleasures. I play bridge online for 12 hours a week.”
• Find Someone you admire - “I was lucky to have the right heroes. Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you how you’ll turn out to be. The qualities of the one you admire are the traits that you, with a little practice, can make your own, and that, if practiced, will become habit-forming.”
• Money should never be your primary motive - “If you’re doing something you love, you’re more likely to put your all into it, and that generally equates to making money.”
• Find the happiness inside you - “In my adult business life I have never had to make a choice of trading between professional and personal. I tap-dance to work, and when I get there it’s tremendous fun.”

The way I read this is that Warren is into feeling good in the moment, everything else is a flow from his enjoyment and enthusiasm for life and so the outcomes don’t really matter that much.

Warren’s an inspiration and shows what true abundance is, his outer abundance is simply a reflection of his inner abundant nature. The truth is that we can all live this way right in this moment, we don’t need to wait until our circumstances look better!

It may not be easy to accept that we can be happy without our circumstances supporting this, but it comes down to seeing the choice and choosing it, consciously.

If you find yourself thinking, “yeah, it’s easy for him because he’s got the money”, well… maybe, but why not see if you can live this way anyway?

As a side note, a further testament to Warren’s character is that he is systematically donating all his wealth, with 83% going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation over the next 10 years, that’s approximately $4.5 Billion per year! I don’t know about you, but Warren shows me what we as humans are capable of when we let our spirit fly.

Angelo Campione

Here’s a nice little video about Warren:

Firstly, What exactly is laziness?

We generally just label it on anyone that sits around and doesn’t do much (or doesn’t do what we think should be done). Sometimes we quietly feel lazy ourselves and then have an internal struggle between the guilt of not doing what we think we should vs. what we feel.

So another way of looking at laziness is as a lack of motivation. After all, we’re motivated when we have the urge or desire for something other than what we have now or where we are right now.

The question is, how do find more motivation rather than just being prodded all the time by external events, to take action?

It’s all about how you FEEL in any given moment.

The feeling required to be motivated can either come from inspiration or desperation (or simply discomfort). While it’s great to be driven by inspiration, I think that for the majority of people, desperation is what drives us. A good example is when people say, “I have to work, otherwise I’ll lose my house!” It may not feel good but the discomfort gives rise to the motivation to go to work and earn money.

So, having established that we’re all motivated by something, whether it’s pleasure or pain, the next step is how do we get in touch with the feeling that will have us take conscious motivated action, enough to overcome any excuses we may come with?

You have 2 choices:

• Adjust the way you think, as thoughts give rise to what you feel (positive thinking), or
• Be present by focusing on your breath and allow everything to be ok just as it is, where nothing needs to be done or changed. And see what comes up from there.

Most self help books suggest that you focus on the first one, but for me the second one is the way to go.

Angelo Campione

Student Is Ready