يعمل سائد يونس مديراً للتسويق في السفارة النمساوية… ترك التدخين لأنه شعر لفترة أنه يخدع زبائنه في شركته المتخصصة ببيع الأجهزة الطبية والصحية وذلك بعد رحلة 7 أعوام من التدخين بشراهة. . . ومن حينها قرر أن يكون مثالا للشيء الذي يروج له. لا يفضل كثرة الإسهاب في ذكر تفاصيل أهدافه، فهو يؤمن بأن التحدث المستمر عن أمر ما  يجعلك تشعر بالتقاعس تجاه تحقيقه، لذا تراه يفضل تحقيق هدفه ومفاجأة الناس بنتائج التحقيق. اهتمامته متنوعة، من دراسة الهندسة للتدريب في التنمية البشرية، إلى تقديم برنامج ريادي من بلادي وصولاً للطبخ. يؤمن سائد بالحكمة الصينية التي تقول: “أفضل وقت لزراعة شجرة كان قبل 20 سنة ، ولكن ثاني أفضل وقت هو الآن”.

كان يرغب بالعمل خارج الأردن كالكثير من الشباب. ولكن إنشاء ريادي من بلادي واساه كثيراً وخصوصاً بعد مواجهته قصص نجاح وطنية ومحلية. يعتبر أن تربية الأولاد هي تربية لذاتنا أولاً قبل تربيتهم، لأن كل طفل يولد بشخصية معينة وأسلوب حياة.

من هو سائد يونس؟

هو بني آدم عادي جداً، ولكنه طموح جداً، أنهيت دراسة الهندسة في الميكاترونيكس في الجامعة الألمانية الأردنية، أحب أشياء معينة في حياتي، وأحب الأشخاص الناجحين وأن أتعرف إليهم وإلى تفاصيل حياتهم اليومية المعنيّة بقصة نجاحهم، ومنذ صغري كنت أحب متابعة البرامج التلفزيونية التي تقدم قصة شخص معيّن من منزله أو مكتبته أو مكان عمله، بحيث تطلعنا على تفاصيل مخفية لا نعلمها عنهم دون التطرق لحياتهم الخاصة.

من هندسة الميكاترونيكس، للتنمية البشرية، وصولاً لتقديم برنامج إذاعي خاص بك على الإنترنت، ألا تؤمن بمقولة سسبع صنايع والبخت ضايع ز، وكيف تسيطر على تعدد المهارات لديك؟

(ضاحكاً) منذ أن كان عمري 16 عام، قرأت كتاب كيف تخطط لحياتك، وقررت حينها وضع مخطط لحياتي كان من ضمنه أن أدرس الهندسة في الجامعة، ليس حباً في الهندسة ولكن لرغبتي بإنشاء شركة هندسية، وتحسباً لوقوع أي مشكلة، فضّلت أن أكون ممتهناً للهندسة. ربما اختياري للهندسة كان خاطئاً، ولكن بسببها أتيحت لي الفرصة بأن أتعرف على أشخاص مهمّين في مسيرتي. بطبيعتي أحب التفاعل مع الناس والتحدث إليهم، لذا فالتنمية البشرية والبرنامج الإذاعي هما الأقرب لشخصيتي، خصوصاً وأنني من أيام المدرسة كنت أتولى مهمّة الإذاعة المدرسية بشكل معتاد.

حدّثنا عن برنامج ريادي من بلادي؟ 

في البداية كنت أقوم بعمل حوارات مباشرة على الإنترنت مع مجموعة من الأشخاص المهتمّين بمجال التنمية البشرية، بحيث يستمر الحوار لمدة ساعة أو ساعتين، ولكن كانت هذه الحوارات تأتي بمواعيد مختلفة وغير ثابتة وكلما سنحت لي الفرصة لذلك. وعندها خطرت لي أن أقوم بعمل برنامج بطريقة ”البودكاست “ حيث تكون لدي حلقة ثابتة بشكل أسبوعي، أقوم بتسجيلها ومونتاجها وبثها على منصات إذاعية على شبكة الإنترنت، مثل ”iTunes “ و “Sound Cloud” وغيرها، أتحاور فيها مع مجموعة من رواد الأعمال الناجحين في الأردن.

كيف تحديت عدم انتشار فكرة البودكاست بين الناس ووظفتها بفكرة نادرة نوعاً ما؟ 

الذي حدث في ريادي من بلادي أنني أردت أن أعتبره مشروعاً شخصياً، حاولت أن اتفادى فيه الأخطاء التي حدثت معي عند إنشاء شركتي الخاصة أيام الدراسة في الجامعة، حيث أنني وقعت من ناحية إدارة أعمال بجميع المشاكل التي قد يقع فيها أي شخص ريادي أو صاحب عمل خاص. الأمر الذي جعلني أفكر في الحديث مع نماذج نجاح تقوم بتوجيهي أنا وجيل الشباب الذي يحب الأعمال الريادية، بحيث يكونون لنا مرشدين وموجهين ونتعلم منهم. وعن سبب اختياري لطريقة تشكل تحدياً بالنسبة لي ولأن يكون البودكاست هو وسيلة نشر هذه المقابلات مع النماذج، هو انتشار هذه الفكرة على مستوى عالمي وقلة استخدامها في المحتوى العربي، أنني اعتدت سماع الكتب الصوتية بشكل دائم، خصوصاً في السيارة أو اثناء تنقلي بالمواصلات العامة، كوني أعمل في عمان ومقيم في اربد.

هل لاقى البرنامج شعبية في أوساط مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي؟ 

الحمدلله. برنامجي الآن بات معروفاً بين الشريحة التي استهدفها من الشباب، حتى أن منهم أصبح يقترح علي نماذج نجاح يتمنون معرفة تفاصيل قصتهم، كما أن هناك من يراسلني ليقترح علي أسلوب تعديل في هيكلة ومونتاج الحلقة. وهدفي بالنهاية هو التأثير بإيجابية على شخص واحد من كل 100 شخص.

كيف تعد الحلقات، من اختيار الشخصية وحتى بثها على الإنترنت؟

في البداية، كنت اختار الضيوف بناء على رغبتي الشخصية بالتعرف على قصص نجاحهم، بالإضافة إلى بحث مستمر عن الريادين ورجال الأعمال الناجحين بالأردن. وعلى الرغم من عدم وجود شيء ملموس من برنامجي عند الإنطلاق إلا أنني تفوقت بقبول وترحيب من قبل ضيوف حلقاتي الأولية. وكان السيد غسان نقل هو من أوائل هؤلاء الضيوف الذين آمنوا بالفكرة، على الرغم من انشغاله الدائم في أعماله.

وتجنبا لتقاعسي عن إعداد الحلقات، فقد عملت على تجهيز عدة حلقات قبل إطلاق البرنامج، بحيث يكون البرنامج مجهزاً لمدة شهر مسبقاً على سبيل المثال.

أما الآن وبعد انتشار البرنامج، لم يعد اختيار الشخصيات منفرداً علي، تشكلت لدي لجنة من مجموعة الريادين الذين استضفتهم بشكل سابق، ومن أشخاص آمنوا بالفكرة واعتبرهم قدوة لي، وهم من يختارون الضيوف من قائمة معدة شهرياً بحيث يتم التصويت عليها.

أما فيما يتعلق بتقنيات إعداد الحلقة من مونتاج وتسجيل، فلقد أنشأت في منزلي غرفة كاستوديو صغير وبسيط بإمكانيات قريبة نوعاً ما لانتاج شيء على مستوى جيد ولائق. وتسجيلي للحلقات يتم بعدة طرق، إما بشكل مباشر مع الضيف، أو عن طريق سكايب أو الهاتف.

ما هي أهم الأمور التي يهمك تواجدها في كل حلقة؟

يهمني جدا أن تصل الرسالة للمستمعين. فأنا عندما أقوم بمونتاج الحلقة أو تسجيلها، فإنني أتخيل نفسي مخاطباً عدة شرائح من الناس، وأضع نفسي مكان “س” من الناس؛ وأجيب عن ما يجول في مخيلتهم.

ويهمني أيضاً، أن أضع أكبر قدر من المحتوى المسجل في الحلقة. لا أحب كثرة المونتاج وأتعامل مع حلقاتي كأنها على الهواء مباشرة، ولكن ذلك لا يمنع حدوث بعض الاختلالات، مثل انقطاع الانترنت أو مشاكل تقنية أخرى تحدث أثناء التسجيل.

هل تطمح لتلقي عروض من إذاعات محلية أو عربية باستقطاب برنامجك ليبث على أثيرها؟ 

على الرغم من أن هدفي لم يكن لأصل للإذاعة وهدفي أن أصل إلى الناس. إلا أن إجابتي نعم وقمت بالتحدث مع جهات إذاعية معنية، وذلك مؤخرا، وأبدت اهتمامها في الموضوع، ولكن لغاية الآن لم أتلقى أي عرض للإذاعات. بالإضافة إلى وجود هدف لدي بأن لا يتوقف البرنامج على الأسلوب الإذاعي فقط، بل يبث عن طريق الفيديو كذلك

ما هي اهتماماتك الأخرى في جوانب حياتك؟ 

أسعى لتطوير نفسي من ناحية التنمية البشرية، كما أنني أمتلك شهادات تؤهلني لأن أكون مدرباً معتمداً في هذا المجال. على الرغم من أن سنّي صغيرة مقارنة مع المتدربين إلا أنني اعتبره تحدٍ ظريف بالنسبة لي..

ما هي طموحاتك لعام 2015؟ وأين ترى ريادي من بلادي؟ 

هي سنة تحتوي نقلات نوعية ومخططات وطموحات عالية ان شاء الله. ريادي من بلادي سيستمر وبصورة أروع من السابق نظراً لوجود خطط لتطويره. سأخصص وقتاً إضافياً أكيد لعائلتي، خصوصاً وأنني مؤخراً أصبحت زوجا لزوجة متعاونة جداً واعتبرها ملهمتي ورفيقة دربي وحبيبتي وأبا لابن رائع.

ظهرت المقالة حواري في مجلة ليالينا بعنوان: سائد يونس…ريادي من بلادي أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

While it’s true that a day has 24 hours in it, still each one of us might have more or less than 24 hours in their day! Or else how would you explain the huge differences in achievement and productivity between individuals?

Personal management skills, including time management, will pay some dividends in terms of increased productivity and enhanced success rates, but still time management alone won’t do the trick if you’re aspiring to be the next stave jobs – You need something else . . something more powerful.

The key hides in one word, and that is “LEVERAGE”. Utilizing the power of Leverage is the key denominator between all world-class successful people.

No matter how masterfully you manage your time, you would still have 24 hours a days to work with – I’m not denying that. But on the results level you will either end up with 24-hour based results, or a greater multiplier of that – it all boils down to the extent you leverage your skills and talents.

Let’s take a closer look on a super successful person like Richard Branson of Virgin Group. Branson wakes up each day with 24 hours, but ends up with more than 1,200,000-hours value of results! How is that humanly possible? Well, if you consider the fact that there are more than 50,000 employees currently working in virgin group under Branson’s leadership – it becomes much more understandable. Each one of those employees probably has 24-hours’ worth of results each day, but on Branson’s side of the story, he has (24*50,000 = 1.2 Million hours) – since all their individual work efforts and success will eventually pure into his bigger jar! So technically, Branson achieves each year the equivalent of what 50,000 people do, or let’s put it another way: each day he achieves more than what a normal person achieves in 137 years!!

So scale this up or down to fit your own life. If you want more results, start building your team right away. Study yourself and find out your most powerful strengths and focus on them, also find out what can be leveraged to other people and give it to them. A little by a little, you’ll become much more skillful at maximizing your results and leading others. They will benefit from working with you or even from just being around you as well – so it’s a win win situation for all.

Always remember that the major goal of leverage is freedom, NOT efficiency. You want to manage your time well and Leverage your skills and talents in order to free more space to be able to do what matters to you the most. Do not fall into the trap of productivity for the sake of productivity, because then you’ll go into a vicious circle that will bring you more stress and anxiety.

###
Photo: VirginMoney

ظهرت المقالة Can’t Find Enough Time to Do the Things You Love? Read this to Discover How the Super Successful Entrepreneurs Do It أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

According to Psychology Today, The most common self-sabotaging behaviors are procrastination, self-medication with drugs or alcohol, comfort eating, and forms of self-injury such as cutting. These acts may seem helpful in the moment, but ultimately undermine us, especially when we engage in them repeatedly.

It is all about “activation energy”! Stop looking at self-sabotage as a stand-alone issue that keeps you from getting what you want in life and start seeing it simply as a lack of motivation for doing what needs to be done when it is supposed to be done. Once you get a grasp on this concept, your life will never be the same again! Totally a game changer.

You’ll definitely learn great stuff out of this short video. Enjoy it then apply it

###

Photo: Kevin O’Mara

ظهرت المقالة Are You Standing In Your Own Way? An Easy Guide to Crushing Self-Sabotage, Once And For All! أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

The market is full of books, articles, tools and various sorts of content on time management. Yet we see more and more people complain about their inability to manage their time effectively. If you’ve read this fare, most probably you too struggle a bit with time management and so did I, until I found a magical formula that worked like charm for me.

The fault of traditional time management is at its core. The books on this topic are great and you get really excited motivated while reading one. You might try a method or two or even all of them, yet slowly but surely you’ll get back to the normal state you’re accustomed to. If you’ve ever tried one of those methods where you should track every minute of your time for a week or so, you’ll know what I mean. Tracking itself is ok; it gives you a good and accurate insight of the measured variable/variables, but in the case of time, it is not as easy as portrayed in books!

So what should you do? Here are 7 simple steps that you can start applying today:

1. Never try to micromanage your time

Micromanaging your time will not bring you any good. Instead, it will stress you out and turn you to a living freak. We live in a world of high uncertainty where nobody can predict for sure what’s going to happen in the next couple of hours, not to mention calibrating a schedule for 24 hours or even a week.

Continuously breaking your schedules and pushing away appointments and tasks will make you feel bad. It will affect your self-image and weaken your trust of your ability to ever stick to a schedule of any sort again.

Action step: instead of micromanaging your time, macro-manage it. Always look at it as a whole, divide it into blocks of 2-3 hours each or regions – morning, noon, afternoon, etc. – and try to allocate important tasks into those regions without specifying a numerical hour:minute:second value to it. This will give you flexibility and reduces the stressful urgency you feel when you try to chase your time by the minute. Also it will eliminate the amount of guilt you feel when you –for example- send that important email on 4 pm instead of the scheduled 15:35:20!

2. Focus on your most important outcomes for the day

An outcome is a desirable result you want out of something. Each day should be defined by its most important outcome. Usually a day will have an outcome or two that can be classified as important outcomes and rarely there will be more than three.

Action step: before you go to sleep in the day before, grab a small piece of paper and a pen (I chose to do it the old fashion way and leave the sophisticated mobile apps for something else) and write down your most important outcome/outcomes for the next day. By doing this you will clear you mind and most importantly you will be more likely to achieve those outcomes.

3. Beware, to do lists are dangerous

Entrepreneurs are fond of to-do lists. They’re a practical way of keeping track of all what you want to do. They also give you an exaggerated sense of achievement; since the mere act of writing stuff down makes you sometimes feel as comfortable as when you’ve achieved them – sounds familiar?

Do you remember being so eager to buy that great book/audio program/online course you’ve wanted for so long and felt like it will be the book that will change your life forever, and finally you bought it? What happened next; just after you’ve put it on the shelf or laid it on your desk? You were so satisfied and felt so comfortable that you didn’t have to read it anymore! This is exactly where the danger of to do lists resides; writing them might subtly sedate you into not taking any further action. Even worse, by the end of the day when you review what you did and didn’t, you easily postpone the uncompleted tasks to the next day. Surprise! This will satisfy you for the rest of that day – because scratching items out of to do lists is linked subconsciously with achieving them even if you’ll rewrite them for the next day, and then to the next and so on.

Action step: instead of being obsessed with to do lists, use them as a ways to remember things without falling in the trap of the to-do illusion. Never postpone a task more than one time; make it a personal must and stick to it.

4. Utilize the power of NOT-to-do lists

“Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

When I read that quote for the first time, I immediately fell in love with it. Our days are full of tasks that should be done – or at least so we think. Most of these tasks are trivial matters that don’t contribute substantially to our wellbeing and success. In this sense, NOT-to-do lists play a much more important role than to-do lists. They allow you to live a richer, more fulfilled life.

Action step: Put it your goal to differentiate between what matters the most to you and what doesn’t. This should originate out of your heart and guts. Then start to eliminate as much as you can of the trivia and daily nonsense.

5. Schedule time for recreation and relaxation and stick to it

Usually people falsely assume that productivity is related exclusively to workplace or business. However, being productive simply means that you produce large amounts of desirable results and goods. In order to be able to do that, you should rest; relaxation and recreation are integrated parts of productivity.

The time you spend resting is not wasted at all; as long you do it consciously for the sake of your wellbeing. If you want to cut trees you can’t do that forever without sharpening your saw every now and then; because it will wear gradually until it becomes useless.

Action step: put aside an hour a day for total relaxation. It has nothing to do with the time you allocate for sleeping. During this hour you can meditate, listen to calm music or just lie down and admire the lovely clouds and the blue sky. Consider it a chance to recharge you batteries and increase your productivity.

6. Use the Pomodoro Technique®

The Pomodoro Technique® is a time management method. This Technique helps you to transform time into a valuable ally by helping you accomplish what you want to do and charting continuous improvement in the way you do it.

This technique helps you eliminate distractions by working in 25 minutes time blocks. You should totally focus on the task for 25 minutes then you take a 5 minutes break. You repeat this cycle 4 times and after that you take a longer break for 20 minutes. Your brain will use this time to assimilate new information and rest before the next round of Pomodoros.

Action step: learn more about the Pomodoro Technique® by visiting their website (Link) and try to integrate it into your daily routine. You will notice large increase in productivity within a couple of days. Try it, it is amazing!

7. Use the 7-minutes rule

Procrastination is one of the worst productivity killers on earth. It sneaks into your life unnoticeably a little by a little until it takes control over your whole being. One of the biggest reasons behind procrastination is that our brain gets intimidated by the perceived complexity of a certain task and therefore, it tries to protect you by moving away from that task.

The 7 minutes rule is a diplomatic way to ease your mind into doing any task you want. You simple say that you will do that task you’ve been putting away for just 7 minutes. Then if you like it you’ll continue and if you don’t you stop. Once you get started, you’ll gain momentum and find it much easier than what you thought. You’ll hardly stop at that point and before you know it, the task is done!

Action step: make a list of 3 important tasks that you’ve been postponing for a long time. Pick one of them and give it a try for 7 minutes. Once the task is completed, do this for the remaining 2 tasks.

###
Photo: listentothemountains

Start today and notice your progress for the next week. I will be glad to receive your feedback and comments on what worked best for you and which other methods you use as well.

Stay Lively
Saed

ظهرت المقالة Forget About Time Management. Use these 7 Incredible Steps And Gain Instant Control Over Your Life Today, Number 6 Is Unbelievable! أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~Plato

Many people would say that fear is their worst enemy. That might be true; because fear can paralyze people from taking action and moving forward. It comes hiding in different shapes and forms- like fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of heights, fear of closed places, fear of success, and the list goes on and on. It is the main reason that most people live and die without achieving their dreams or even a part of them. It is the reason behind many failed marriages and broken relationships. And it is the reason why people fail – personally, professionally, socially or in any other arena in their lives.

Fear is really a monster that can eat you alive. In some extreme cases it turns to a mental illness called paranoia – which is defined by the Collins English Dictionary as “a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion.” The majority of us haven’t reached this extreme level, but we do struggle with fear and fearful thoughts every now and then.

To get a closer look on how powerful fear is, watch this video:

Fear has tremendous amounts of control over humans just as with animals. So wouldn’t it be great if we can leverage this power and use it to our benefit? The answer is yes it will be great and yes we can!

The key is to shift your perception and start looking at fear from a whole new perspective; a simple mind game that you play with yourself. That’s it.

Have you heard the saying “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” before? Since fear is your worst enemy, then you should keep it the closest. This means that you first have to know what your fear/fears are, understand them and employ them to work for you rather than letting them enslave you.

If you try to ignore your fears and pretend like they don’t exist, they will fire back big time. What if I told you: Do NOT think of a pink elephant. What happened in your mind? Have you NOT thought of it? You did, right? This happens all the time when you try to dictate on your mind what NOT to do – it goes and does the exact same think you are trying to avoid.

That’s why you should always focus on what you want and keep your eyes on the result/outcome that you want to get. The twist here is to make your fear of failure very strong so that instead of paralyzing you, it forces you to take action forward.

Here’s one simple, yet powerful technique that you can use right away to leverage the power of fear to work for you:

“Close your eyes and take several calm deep breaths. Visualize yourself 5, 10 or 20 years later all sad and lonely because you haven’t achieved any of your dreams or goals. Imagine the amount of pain and regret you’ll have and make it feel as real as possible. Now imagine that everything around you is disappearing one by one; furniture, buildings, trees, people etc. then you’re standing alone in the middle of an empty desert screaming for help, but no one answers! Suddenly you start drowning slowly in a sand whirlpool and you’re scared, helpless and hopeless. Now take a deep breath and open your eyes. Have a look around you. And be thankful that none of that has happened yet. Promise yourself to do whatever it takes to succeed.”

You have only one life time, so make it worthwhile. Don’t waste your time in fear and regret. Go out there and show the world what you’ve got. Try to add as much value as you can and seek to help as many people as you’re capable of. Eventually the law of reciprocity will work for you – you will start to see the fruits of the all good that you did and you’ll defiantly reap a hundredfold what you’ve ever sown.

###
Photo: epSos .de

Has there been any fear in your life that kept you from achieving your important goals? Have you successfully overcome a major fear before? If yes, how did you do that?

ظهرت المقالة Why I Love Fear: Incredible Secrets You Probably Don’t Know About Fear And How It Can Boost Your Success أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

Did I know the devastating effects and health implications of smoking? Sure I did; I was living them each and every day – no exceptions. But the pain of smoking wasn’t big enough for me to quit. I tried several times, but none of them was a deadly-serious sort of attempt.

Years after smoking I decided to finally quit, and I never looked back since. Several factors played an important role of me being able to finally quit. When I analyze the situation, I can chuck them down a few fundamental factors. In this article I’m going to talk about the first one.

When you take a decision, make it extremely hard/embarrassing/devastating for you to break it and go back to where you’ve been.

This means that you have to do whatever it takes to assure that you can’t go back. Burn all the ships, go public with your decision and announce it to friends and colleagues, stand up in the middle of a crowded street and scream your intention out load or even threaten to beat yourself up. Just do whatever it takes.

In order to succeed, you have to figure out what makes you tick and also what makes you stick – to your decisions of course! The later might not be so attractive to you, but still you have to punish yourself when necessary.
In my case I immediately announced my decision online so that my friends will know about it. Here’s the post I made back then:

Then to broaden the circle of potential embarrassment, I started an initiative to promote healthy smoke-free lifestyle in my university. I called it “ShababCare” –Shabab is an Arabic word that means the youth-, launched a Facebook page for it Link. And to make sure that enough people hear about the initiative and ride along with me, I reached out to friends whom I knew hated smoking so much that they were willing to participate in any campaign against it.

To go even further, I emailed the student affairs department at my university promoting the initiative and asking them to forward it for all students and staff members. Within one week, almost everybody in my university knew about my decision or at least heard about “ShababCare” initiative. Not all of them liked the Facebook page of course, but going public alone was enough for me to think 10 times before even thinking of returning back to smoking again.

Almost a year later I discovered that this method –self-punishment/threat- is actually a scientific strategy pioneered by the Noble-prize winning economist Thomas Schelling. The idea is simply: if you fail to achieve your goal, you give money to a charity of your choice. The tricky part is that: You must pledge to give to a charity that you HATE.

This strategy alone might not be 100% effective on the long run. You have to support it with other strategies to make sure that your decision becomes permanently carved in stone; I will dive deep into the strategic power pack I used in future articles. However, it is a great technique to start with and it gives you enough momentum to depart the runway.

###
Photo: Celestine Chua

So, do you have a similar experience with smoking? Have you tried this strategy with other areas in your life and succeed? Please share your ideas and feedback in the comment section beneath.

ظهرت المقالة A Proven Simple Strategy That Will Help You Kick Out Any Unwanted Habit Forever أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” ― Socrates

We have been told over and over again that life is the greatest school ever, and that is absolutely true. As entrepreneurs, we are on an ongoing quest for a greater success and achievements. Therefore, we must be committed to lifelong learning and growing.

Of course we learn a big deal out of our mistakes and failures, but if you want to live a remarkable life that exceeds all expectations; then you have to learn from other people’s mistakes as well. Simply because no matter how long you live, you won’t have enough time to do all mistakes by yourself!

Wise people learn from everybody and everything. They consider every day as a gift and a chance to learn and grow. They learn from friends, babies, birds, waterfalls and even stones!

A couple of years ago, I came across a wonderful philosophy for success. The idea was so simple yet so profound that I pondered on it for a long time. It is the Ant Philosophy as narrated by the late motivational speaker and coach, Jim Rohn. It had a huge impact on my life and the lives of many others; for that reason I wanted to share it with you to give you a fresh boost of motivation and to inspire you to take substantial action toward your goals.

Here is the short list on the Ant Philosophy:

1. Ants Never Quit

If they’re going somewhere and you stop them or block their pathway they’ll look for another way; up, down, all around. How long will they keep looking? Until they find another way. See, that’s good philosophy – the Ant philosophy.

2. Ants Think Winter All Summer

That why ants appear to be on a hurry all summer. Go go go – why? Winter winter winter . .hurry hurry hurry . . The clock is running out, time is running out. Hurry hurry, get the food, bring it back, bring it back. The winter is almost here . . hurry hurry hurry. That’s a good philosophy!
Think winter all summer, don’t think summer all summer and get faked out; look how lovely and look how nice. Ants don’t do that.

So be careful; do NOT build your house on the sand during the summer. You have got to think storms when the weather is nice. You should build your house on  rocks because the weather will not stay nice long.

3. Ants Think Summer All Winter

In the winter you’ve got to say: we won’t be in here long – we’ll soon be out of here. We’ll be out there working and gathering more food providing for the future. Winter won’t last long; we’ll soon be out of here.

So the key is to think summer in the winter and think winter in the summer. Think negative when it’s positive and then think positive when it’s negative. Isn’t that a challenge? The answer is yes that’s a challenge; but that’s life, that’s the DEAL!

How often does winter follow fall? Every year!

Do you know how the next ten years are going to be? About the last ten! Winter follows fall, summer easy and summer hard, summer difficult and summer simple. Then spring follows winter. It has been so for at least 6,000 years of recorded history; so it isn’t going to change.

We can’t rearrange the coming of winters. But here’s what we can do: be stronger, wiser and better – so that we can survive better and our life will be less eroded by learning to handle the next winter. The next winter of a crisis, a divorce, a death of a close one, a financial lose etc.

The essence of life is: OPPORTUNITY MIXED WITH DIFFICULTY. That’s about as simple as you can put it. Sometimes there seems to be more difficulty that opportunity. It does! Then it turns and there’s more opportunity than difficulty. The key is to take advantage when the opportunity comes in excess. Take advantage, build the city, build the economy and build everything.

I leave you now with the original sound recording of Jim Rohn explaining the Ant Philosophy and I hope you enjoy it.

###

Photo: Charlie Stinchcomb

So what do you think? Did the Ant Philosophy resonate with you? feel free to share any ideas or comments you want.

ظهرت المقالة The Ant Philosophy: 3 Simple Steps To A Remarkable Success – Number 2 Will Blow Your Mind! أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

Your brain is designed to protect you. It is wired in a special way to pick up any signals of threat and danger. It has to stay alert and sensitive to all sorts of things that can endanger your life and it can act automatically to protect you when necessary. It is designed on a fight or flight basis in order to keep you alive. And that’s pretty much it!

Think of your brain as a computer with huge processing capabilities that tops any manmade machine. It receives and processes a huge amount of data every single day – and still, no matter how excellent its processing powers are, still it does what it is told to do. It is just an instrument that strictly follows a predefined set of rules.

You can choose to use it to support your success and vision or to put it on autopilot and leave your life for the chances. Simply put, your mind doesn’t have a mind of its own! Therefore, you have to think for it and install whatever operating system you like.

Photo: Sybren Stüvel

Are you familiar with the carrot and stick approach? It simply implies that we are primarily driven by two forces. We try to get closer to happiness and move away from pain, right? Well, if you think about it carefully you’d find that we are first and foremost driven by a single solo force: We move away from pain. We hate to lose more than we like to win – we would do more to avoid punishment than what we would do to get the award.

If you’ve been to college you’ll know what I mean. We all know that maintaining good and consistent studying habits is our paved way to A+s in most courses. It is common sense that you should study from day one and digest the material step by step along the whole semester; this way it is stored in your long term memory and you can easily retrieve it anytime you want: say during the exam for example. But in reality what happened with most of us is that we bluffed, right?  We pushed and pushed studying times until the absolute ultimate deadline; the night before the exam. Back when I was in college, I had this motto that I used to repeat over and over again: NEXT SEMESTER I WILL STUDY HARDER! But then again there was always a way to maneuver.

Sure enough, we all want to be successful and wouldn’t mind graduating on top of our classes (If you did that already, I deep heartedly salute you). We all want be rich and famous and live the happily ever after version of life. How come that we always try to be happy or to install new good habits into our lives and still succeed in failing to maintain them? It is simply because your mind won’t decisively act unless there is a near danger, a real threat, a prominent risk.

Once you absorb this concept, playing and experimenting with it gets exciting. You are no longer enslaved to the primitive setup of your brain. You become the master of your fate; you become the captain of your soul!

Do not be intimidated by the complexity of the human brain. No matter how complex that grey matter between your ears gets, you can easily control it and trick it if you go back to the basics. One of the things I liked the most in my engineering education was field trips; Lots of field trips. I remember when we visited the control room of a large factory or a power plant, we would see a crazy amount of buttons, switches, lights, push buttons, levers, wires and you name it. However, once the control engineer started explaining how did controlling actually work, it went somehow like that: see those 150 swishes? They are for the lights; the other 50 buttons to the left to turn on the turbines, the 30 green buttons are responsible for the steam and so on. You don’t have to be an unprecedented genius to get a grasp on it in a short time. Most importantly, you don’t have to understand every single connection and wiring in order to use it effectively.

All you need is a clear understanding of the most basic concepts and a few strong, yet simple tools to leverage your powers. The same applies to your mind; you don’t need a degree in cognitive psychology in order to achieve great success and happiness in life.

Always remember: your brain isn’t designed to make you happy. It is your job to nurture it and use it to achieve happiness, health and wealth.

###

Photo: Steve Jurvetson

So what do you think? have you mastered the mind game yet? you are welcomed to share any ideas and thoughts you have on this topic.

ظهرت المقالة Watch Out: Your Brain Is NOT Designed To Make You Happy! أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

On the other hand, the commute may be perceived as an opportunity for growth and a fertile source of inspiration and recreation. You shouldn’t underestimate the commute time no matter how short it might seem. Let’s say that you need an average of 60 minutes each morning to get to your work and you need the same amount of time in your way back home. This means that each week you spend 10 hours commuting. To put it in a wider context, you spend 40 hours each month, here you go a whole work week at your disposal!!– which is a modest estimate since many people spend more time on the road than that.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau 2013, 10.8 Million people travel an hour each way on workdays and 600,000 people travel 90 minutes (50+ Miles) to work.

Personally, I live approximately 60 miles from work and I travel 90+ minutes each way every single work day. At the beginning I tried to use my car, it was ok for a week or so, but then it turned out to be more tiring and stressful than I thought, especially during heavy-traffic days. Although I’m a big fan of long distance driving and I really find it relaxing and mind clearing, that didn’t stop me from taking the decision to stop using my car and switch to public transportation. I liked the convenience of not having to worry about driving and traffic jams anymore. However, sitting in a bus or a train for 90 minutes isn’t entertaining at all if you don’t plan it ahead and utilize it to your own wellbeing.

Here are 10 tips that will help you maximize your productivity while maintaining a good and positive mood:

1. Mind Your Own Posture First

Photo: Ernie Migraine

Priority #1 when commuting for long distances is to take care of your posture and to be seated properly. This might be tricky, since not all public transportation means have the same type of seats and options. Still, most buses and trains that are used for long commuting have adjustable seats. You should keep the back of your seat in an upright position with a little inclination that suites the ergonomics of you back. Do not be tempted to move it all they down if you want to sleep; because this will exert a lot of pressure on your lower back and might cause you some back pain.

Also try to keep your legs stretched to the front with your heels on the floor to avoid stressing your knees for a long time. Every once and a while rotate your feet around the ankle little bit and move your toes to refresh the blood circulation in the lower part of your body.

 2. Secure You Neck

Photo: Tom Magliery

One of the most affected parts of your body by long distance commuting is your neck – especially if you suddenly fall asleep while your neck is in the wrong position. So if you want to maintain a good spinal health on the long run, you need to take care of your neck.

One of the easiest ways to protect your neck and keep it safe and comfortable at all times during your commute it to use a foam neck pillow. It is comfortable and most importantly it fits easily into your back bag or suitcase.

I’ve used a micro bead neck pillow for a while but then I had to abandon it for the more comfortable foam one. You can buy it at amazon for around $13.

Don’t forget to clean it regularly to prevent the clustering of bacteria and to protect it from bad smell. Good news is that some of them are microwavable; so you don’t have to worry about a complicated washing process.

3. Stay Hydrated

Photo: Leo Newball, Jr

You should keep a small bottle of fresh water with you at all times. Your body needs water in order to stay active and energetic. Don’t wait until you feel thirsty to drink water, keep the bottle close to you –preferably in the seat’s bag in front of you- and take regular sips along the way. Sitting in a bus or a train for an extended period of time and not performing any major muscular activity doesn’t mean that your body isn’t losing water. Truth is that it does, and you need to act on it. If you wait until you’re thirsty, this means it is too late and your body is already dehydrated.

4. A Few Minutes Of Planning Each Way, Let You Harness The Fruits Of The Whole Day!

Photo: john.schultz

Start your journey in the morning by planning your day ahead, also do the same on your way back and plan your evening in advance – Just a few minutes each way will work like magic. Use a journal, notepad or simply your smartphone to jot down the main ideas and actions that you need to take and write the desired outcomes that you want to achieve.

This will keep you focused thought the day and the evening. You don’t need to write detailed plans; just keywords and highlights will be enough for you to clear your mind without forgetting about what really matters.

5. Read, But Do Not Over Read!

Photo: Jens Schott Knudsen

It may seem surprising and counter-intuitive for some, but the truth is reading for a long time isn’t the wisest thing to do if you are a regular commuter. Reading requires you to be alert the whole time, which makes your trip a little bit tough and draining.

If you like to read on your way to work, do so for 10-20 minutes after you’ve written down the brief plan of the day/evening. The repetitive movements of the bus or train you’re in and the constant background engine and traffic sounds will put you in a semi-hypnotic state that will make it harder for you to stay 100% attentive the whole way. You will notice that after a while, you’ll keep losing track of what you’re reading and you won’t comprehend the material entirely.

6. Audio Books And Podcast Are A Heaven For Commuters

Photo: Eric Bennett

Since prolonged reading isn’t the best thing to do during your trip, audio books and podcasts of your choice are much more practical. After all, it’s about effectively optimizing your method of consuming information.

Pre download your favorite audio books and podcasts and copy them to your iPod/smartphone. Make customized playlists based on your preferences and make them ready to go. Listening to books narrated requires much less mental effort than reading them. Make sure to have a pen and a paper handy to quickly capture any ideas or pieces of information that are important to you. Don’t rely on your memory, you might be in that semi-hypnotic state and forget them once you get out of the bus – True story!

If you are too tired to read or listen to audio material, just put on some calm music and relax. Relaxation when needed is productivity as well. So don’t worry much about finishing that book or listening to that whole podcast today, you’ll do that later.

7. Put Your Smartphone On Silent

Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns

If you want to listen to music or podcasts using your mobile phone, make sure to reduce the ringtone volume to the lowest or simply put it on silent mode. Why? Just try to leave it on full throttle while you have the earbuds on, and you’ll discover the why by yourself when somebody calls you!

8. Set An Alarm Even If You Are Not Planning To Sleep

Photo: Massie

If you’re commuting 2-4 hours a day 5-6 days a week you shouldn’t rely on your own pure willpower to stay awake. Always set an alarm that goes on at least 10 minutes before you arrive at your destination. This way you will make sure not to oversleep and miss the right station. With smartphones, now it’s very easy to set a recurring alarm for work days so you don’t have to worry about setting the alarm each time you travel. I prefer to set my smartphone’s alarm 15 minutes before arriving in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon. It adjust the settings to silent mode (vibration only) – since I usually keep it in my pocket.

You won’t always need it and mostly you’ll be awake when it rings, but it’s definitely worth the embarrassment of having to explain to your boss why you came late. If you are your own boss then you owe it to yourself to be punctual and reliable.

9. Keep A Light Sweater And A Baseball Cap Or A Pair Of Sunglasses In Your Bag

Photo: chantrybee

You can wear the sweater in case you felt a little cold inside the bus or train. Mornings are usually cold even during summer and sometimes the air conditioning is set to a low temperature. So instead of approaching the driver and asking them to adjust the temperature just pull out your sweater and put it on. This will save you time and effort and most importantly will keep you warm and cozy. However, you should choose a lightweight sweater to carry on; so that your bag doesn’t turn into a powerlifting contest!

When you decide to sleep, you can use the baseball cap or put on the sunglasses to cover your eyes. This will give you a sense of privacy inside the bus or train and will block direct daylight so it becomes a little darker for you to sleep with no trouble.

10. Breath, Breath & Breath

Photo: Shawn Rossi

One of the easiest things to forget during your long commute is to breathe well. Although the closed, air-conditioned atmosphere of buses and trains doesn’t provide you with very fresh blasts of air, this shouldn’t keep you from maintaining good breathing habits. Having regular deep breaths will keep you lively and relaxed. Your brain thrives on oxygen, remember? So you need to make of breathing deeply a fixed habit. Usually people feel exhausted and sleepy inside public transportation because they automatically start taking shallow breaths once they get in. you can easily prevent that by focusing on deep Diaphragmatic breathing until it becomes a routine.

###

Photo: Nicolas Alejandro

ظهرت المقالة Master The Art Of Commuting: 10 Simple Steps To Maximize Your Productivity While Enjoying The Ride أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

According to the ALS’s official website, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has until now secured a handsome $70.2 Million in generous donations from more than 1.3 million new donors compared to $2.5 million during the same time period of 2013. In case you’re wondering, the period here is less than a month; July 29 to August 24. Thumps up ALS, this is indeed a remarkable achievement!

Just as anything else that happens around us in this world, people usually split around it into two groups: the yeas and the nays. Obviously the challenge had both! You might be one of the enthusiastic yeas or one of the less excited critical nays. Anyways, whatever position you hold towards the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, this doesn’t change the fact that it is still a great case study for us to watch closely and learn a lot of valuable lessons from.

I have always been interested in social psychology i.e. how people react and behave in different social situations and settings. Understanding how people respond to circumstances, environments and other people around them can be a key gate opener to a whole new perspective about life and living, especially if you are working in branding and marketing. I caught up on the challenge a little bit late; when Mark Zuckerberg challenged Bill Gates and I knew right away that it was time to set back, relax and keep an open eye on the whole scene.

I learned many interesting things just watching the development of the challenge and how did it go so viral in such a short period of time. It was very appealing to me to see how people (macro-celebrities, micro-celebrities, and non-celebrities) presented themselves to the camera and reacted to the chilled water. It was also interesting to see how and whom did they nominate for the challenge. After watching the challenge develop from being either a $100 donation or an ice bucket, then to a donation along with accepting the ice bucket and finally to just being all about dumping the ice bucket! Out of the many lessons I learned, here are the main 5:

1. What makes people share a certain piece of content online?

Usually people share what they really like and most importantly what they believe will make them look good in front of their friends and other people. When you say “viral”, that means a piece of content has been shared by your friends and their friends. Meaning it reached out to the third circle. Therefore, sharing is no longer tide to the personal relationship/friendship with the author but rather to the degree of “coolness” of the content itself.

In the case of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the early traction it gained with a lot of celebrities riding along made it a good sharing material. People responded to the challenge for different reasons, some for genuine charity, some for publicity, some for the sake of challenge and others did that just for fun. However, everyone did it for their own reasons hoping that it will make them look good to others. So if you want your content go viral present it in a way that looks good and makes other people look good too.

2. How new should your new idea be? 

Just because something exists, that doesn’t mean people will know about it by default. ALS is by no means a new disease and it has been around for decades. However, fighting ALS it hasn’t gained much attention and donations until someone decided to present it in a whole new package – a cool package indeed!

As entrepreneurs this can teach us that no matter how old an idea or a concept seems to be, we can always package it in a new revolutionary way that is useful for ourselves and for others. You don’t need a 100% new idea to build a profitable business around. All you need is a 1-5% new idea wrapped in an appealing package to start selling and adding value. A great example of this is the bestselling book: The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph By Ryan Holiday. Holiday took the ancient roman philosophy of stoicism and turned it into a 21^st century self-improvement material. People didn’t mind that most of the concepts in his book are old and he hardly came up with anything new, still they bought it and enjoyed reading it. So if you think that the market is over saturated with ideas, concepts and inventions, keep in mind that there’s always a place for more.

3. Know how to ring the “bell curve” – Innovation Adoption Life-cycle

It is a fact that most people aren’t innovators nor early adopters (together form a shy 16% of the whole market). However, choosing the right innovators can set the line between life and death of your business/product. Some people think that if you go for famous figures and gain their support then you’ve stepped with your product on a solid ground, this isn’t very accurate since being a celebrity doesn’t qualify you automatically to be an innovator or an early adopter.

During the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge we could easily spot those who were really innovators among celebrities; those who weren’t afraid of publicly dumping a bucketful of ice over their heads at the very early stages of the challenge – when it wasn’t that known or trusted. Then it was time for the early adopters, who most likely did it because they were challenged by an innovator friend. Currently we are witnessing the clash of majorities and the cycle will continue. Eventually we’ll see those laggards who will do the challenge too late after the flame of ice has faded just because everybody else did it and they’re left with no choice. Still some will chose simply not to respond to it at all.

So choose your target segment wisely. Sometimes choosing the wrong influential audience – especially if they were lazy – will trigger the alarm and might do you much more harm than good.

4. People will appreciate it if you lead so that they can follow. As an entrepreneur, you owe them at least that much

Have you ever been to a new place where you felt as a total stranger? An example of that might be your first day at school or college, your first day in your job or simply being lost in a new crowded city. What was the first thing you did? Was it maybe that you looked around until you spotted someone who seemed to know where they were going and then you followed them?

Leadership is a unique and valuable trait of successful people throughout history. Being a leader means having enough courage to go first and discover the realm of the unknown on the other side, then to get back and teach others how to succeed just like you did. Being a leader means to create a new way when there’s no way.

After many people saw their celebrity role models whom they love and trust dumping bucketfuls of ice over their heads, they started doing the same and sharing their videos on social media with their friends. Most average people don’t like to take initiative – they fear being first. Understanding this concept will free your imagination to come up with more and more ideas to add value into other people’s lives. In this sense, being driven towards success and excellence and striving to be #1 in what you do isn’t selfish at all. After all you are doing everybody else a favor!  Remember that the prize waiting for you at the finish line is proportional to the number of lives that you touch and improve.

5. Surfing is an essential sport for marketers and entrepreneurs. Learn how to surf!

Getting viral is a means to an end. It is just like a huge ocean wave that will eventually fade away; so be prepared to utilize it when it comes and to kiss it goodbye when it goes. A wave might boost your business/product for a while but it won’t provide you with continuous growth. So before marketing your product, plan a head and know your milestones in advance. Always be thinking in terms of what’s next. Never take anything for granted; because life has proven to us time and again that only fools think in terms of entitlements.

finally, people loved the Ice Bucket Challenge because it gave them a sense of adventure and excitement. Dumping a bucketful of ice over themselves isn’t an easy task for many people; or at least they have never tried it before to see if they can do it or not. together with the joy of giving to charity it made a nice combo for a hit campaign.

You don’t need to record yourself on a camera in order to prove to the world that you are a courageous good person. All you need is a deal with yourself, a contract if you well, that states your willingness and commitment to achieve a certain goal in your life – or else you will dump a bucketful of ice all over yourself. The Ice Bucket is symbolic to whatever makes you tick; be it a high stake condition on yourself, a promise in front of a friend whom you trust and admire, a donation to a charity of your choice to a cause that you hate, not to buy yourself that chocolate cake you love or anything else that will set you liable in front of yourself. Simply but: a decent motivation to take action and achieve your goal.

Go ahead and find your own Ice Bucket. Raise the bars a little bit and you’ll be amazed how fast your muscles grow and your skills develop. 

###

Photo: Kymberly Janisch

What do you think of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? Do you consider yourself an innovator/early adopter? Have you done the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge yet? If yes it would be great if you share your story with us or post a link to your video.

ظهرت المقالة Social Psychology 101: 5 Marketing Lessons I Learned Watching the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Go Viral أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

Since I was 9 years old, I have surrounded myself with all self-improvement literature. My idea of a celebrity was a bit different from that of my peers; because mine were names like Tony Robbins, Brian Tracey and Stephen Covey.

I have spent countless hours trying to decipher the puzzle of my life hoping that I could eventually reach a satisfying answer for the one and only question; what is my purpose? I tried almost every formula there is and bought every book, e-book and audio book that I could have a grasp on. You name it – I did it! Today I have more questions than when I started the purpose-quest, I have changed course more than I can count, and I have got the feeling that I am still where I have started years ago!

If you’re into self-improvement stuff -like me- and you enjoy consuming as much information as you can, I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Your Life’s Purpose” many times before. Personally, I have heard it and repeated it so many times by now that the term itself lost its charm and even its meaning. It happens often when you keep on repeating a certain word, after a while it loses all meaning and it starts to sound weird! Try “Chair” for example. . “Chair” “Chair” “Chair” etc. the same thing happened with me repeating the word “Purpose” over and over; it somehow becomes vague.

On the other side of the equation, constantly thinking about your life may have made you more eager than ever to unveil the mask off your purpose. In either ways this means you haven’t reached there yet – the shores of purpose-land are still out of sight!

We’ve all heard about the importance of defining your life’s purpose, setting short-term, midterm and long-term goals, being clear on your passions and true desires, being discipline in your approach and last but not least, being grateful for having done all of that! And I bet you have bought one of those famous goal-setting books, sat down and tried to figure your life out.

Do you know someone who’s discovered their lone talent early on, or somebody else (say; a parent for example) has discovered it for them and they held on to it without ever revisiting the idea again? That 8 year-old violin addict that chess genius in 5th grad, that brilliant 12 year-old painter or that 10 year-old ballet artist and the list goes on and on. We’ve all have encountered those among us who seemed to have figured it out and acted accordingly. Did they really figure anything out at all?

Well, you might be one of them; which is great for you. However, I know for sure that I wasn’t. I used to look at those friends with admiration and jealousy at the same time. After all, I just wanted to know my sole singular passion too! I tried sports early on – I forced my father to sign me up for karate training when I was 7 years-old. I lasted only to the yellow belt hooray! I went for reading books and tried to force myself to become a reader, but the problem is I get bored too easily and I couldn’t stand sitting with a 300 pages book till the very end. I then went for music; I signed up for the school musical band when I was in 6th grade and tried to learn to play the piano; I was disciplined enough to learn to play the national anthem and that was pretty much it for my career as a pianist before I quit out of boredom and lack of discipline.

I went again for sports and tried to enter the school’s basketball team when I was in 7th grade, after 2 weeks of general fitness training we got to the real business and the coach started auditioning for the district’s schools tournament. Out of 60 shots I was supposed to through at the basket from different distances I miraculously scored 2; Needless to say that I didn’t make it to that team! One year later, it occurred to me that playing the guitar was my passion –or at least it seemed a good classy passion to stick to for a while; so I convinced my parents to buy me a classical guitar and then to register me in a guitar summer school at my home town. And the list goes on and one until this very day! I tried acting, teaching, repairing bicycles, drawing, writing peotry and even singing. But still, without actually satisfying my quest.

So is it me, or there is something wrong with the singular passion formula? In the past I used to put all the blame on myself; after all, how could you blame Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey or even Deepak Chopra for your misfortunes?! It didn’t make sense at all.

Later I began to doubt the whole singular-passion life-purpose paradigm and shifting toward what’s felt right to me. I started asking a different question. This new question shifted my whole focus and energy to a brand new level which has totally changed my life.

The new question was: what do I really want – a purpose of life or a purposeful life?

What if the one purpose or one singular passion are nothing but fancy bla bla bla?! What if we are meant to have several passions and fulfill more than one purpose in a single lifetime? What if you are not the one who should be searching for his life’s purpose and it is the other way around – your life’s purpose should be searching for you?
What if your life’s purpose is –as simple as it sounds- to be happy and joyful in every single moment? So whenever you’re not happy or you don’t feel joy, you are contradicting your purpose in life?

Forget about being a part of a huge master plan. Forget about 10 years, or 20 years goals. Think of 1 day goals i.e. today I am going to be as happy as I am ever capable of being. That’s it, no more or less. When tomorrow comes I’ll worry about it then. For now I only have today to enjoy. After all I might not be given a tomorrow!
Every moment, we are being bombarded with a tremendous amount of information coming from everywhere. This does more harm than good because it annoys us and puts us under constant stress to keep our focus and sanity. Overwhelm is the new common dilemma nowadays, where you are encouraged to do more, be more, achieve more, read more, and think more – but at the same time you feel helpless and hopeless somehow!

Don’t waste your time in extensive planning for the future. There’s no such thing as a 20-year plan or 10-year plan or even a 5-year plan. The best you can do is to draw a rough direction for yourself – don’t sweat yourself off trying to curve this direction into solid rocks; because you will change it many times over the course of several years. Just live today to the fullest and it will move you forward one step at a time.

If you look at life as a game, where you come to it with a certain outfit (your body) and a certain set of circumstances, abilities and disabilities, then you have one chance to play it right. The fun part is that you don’t get to see the whole map in advance; you are able to discover each part of it as you approach it. Then the best you can do is to do your best at every single step.

If you are a student, be the best student you can ever be. If you are a parent, be the best parent you can ever be. If you are a janitor, be the best janitor you can ever be and if you are a president, be the best president you can ever be. Regardless of where you start your journey, make sure to make the end worthwhile. Walk slowly but surely towards your vision even if you don’t have one yet; make your vision to be the best person you can ever be in this world. The game will step up a little bit each time and you’ll soon develop strong sense for what you want and what you don’t.

I remember a rule I learned during one of the entrepreneurship workshops I attended, it was given to us after the end of a long strategic/business planning session when the instructor paused and said something to the extent that: you can through away the detailed business plan you’ve just made, the plan is worthless but the planning process is invaluable. What you’ve learned along the way of planning with remain with you although that the plan itself might become obsolete the moment it is finished!

Therefore, we can project this on our lives and conclude that life itself isn’t that important. What’s really important is the process of living. Living is action, movement, regeneration, development, vitality, energy, persistence, joy and laughter. Life is the obsolete sheet of paper that we call; the business plan. It is a record of wins and losses and it doesn’t mean anything by itself.

Don’t spend much time in thinking and wondering. Rather use that valuable time in LIVING. One of my all times favorite quotes is by Les Brown when he said:

“Leap and grow your wings on the way down. Put all your bets on you, and on your ability to achieve your goals. Throw caution to the wind! If you have a catastrophic set-back…know that you have the power to overcome it.

If you lose a job, you will find another one, or create one. If you make some mistakes…learn from them, and come back again. This is a time to use your talents, skills, and resourcefulness to make a radical change and take your life to the next level. Remind yourself everyday…that you’re in it to win it. You are your most valuable asset. Do what you need to do to make it happen! You deserve.”

So go ahead and take that leap of faith you’ve been waiting for so long to take. And remember, the best you can do is to do your best.
###

Photo: Irene Mei

Have you encountered similar experiences? What was the thing/concept you liked the most in this article? Did it resonate with you well? Are you encouraged now to take action on what you really want? Do you have anything to share with us? Please join the conversation and comment to this article.

ظهرت المقالة A Purpose Of Life Or A Purposeful Life? Discover What Do You Really Want أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.