How many of us have got to the end of a week, month or year and had the feeling Man, where did the time go? Or, you even had the thought Time sure does fly by when youre having fun? Well, Ed Cooke, considered a Grand Master of Memory according to World Memory Championship has an interesting take on the passage of time that I personally love. Mr. Cooke mentions that he is trying to EXPAND subjective time so it feels like he is living longer. Subjective Time being how each of us individually perceives the passage of time in our lives.
Youd think it would be opposite. Youd think, if time does fly when we are having fun that in order to slow time down our life needs to be boring. Not true, the more we fill our lives with memories the SLOWER time seems to fly. So, what Mr Cooke is saying is, by remembering more we are providing more chronological landmarks. In essence we are lengthening our lives and by doing this you are packing life with adventures so, as you look back on your life, you have a lot more memories to draw from. In other words if you could remember more events, happenings & experiences in a given year, that as time progresses you will have expanded your time on this earth.
This concept fascinated me. I thought if I am going to be remembering more than I want those memories to be inspiring. And then I thought how do I make my life more inspiring? And it came to me: CHOICE I need to choose to do this everyday. Because all an exciting life is: a series of great days built upon each other.
In Part I of this 3 part series I am going to introduce you to 3 Steps to an Inspiring Life and in parts Two & Three I will elaborate and expand on specific elements. Much like building an airplane, it is important to add each piece to ensure your plane flies. Here, following any one of these steps will help, but if you really want to soar with the eagles and experience a truly inspirational and exciting life (for you NOT what anyone else says is exciting) than you should apply each of these 3 steps:
Step ONE: Plan Exciting Adventures
We know from memory training that the brains ability to recall information is dramatically linked to the emotional attachment we place on it. The Glue of our memory (what helps us recall information) is Action & Emotion. If you dont believe me than try and think about what you were doing on September 22nd, 2001. Most of you cant, but if I asked you to recall exactly where you were on September 11th, 2001, those of you who were old enough to experience this can remember in vivid detail where you were, what you were doing, who you were with, what you were eating etc . Why is that? Because you provided your brain with more than enough action & emotion to store it in the long-term part of your brain.
All this being said, if you want to have an inspiring life you MUST plan for at least some of it. Most of us dont just wake up and decide Im flying to Uganda, Africa to provide relief for the Karamojong Tribe and than the next moment purchase tickets and start setting up the trip. Although it seems super exciting and will provide an amazing service, most (I emphasize most) people arent wired that way. Most people are wired to have an exciting thought and think That would be cool, someday!
So, when I say plan, I mean put it in your calendar. Circle & highlight it and tell others about it. When I say it I mean anything that you would truly like to experience. If skydiving is your thing, than put it on your calendar and tell others you are going to do it than watch the support flood in. If someone asks you to compete in a triathlon or climb a mountain or travel to Egypt and provide love and supplies to orphans AND it is something you truly would like to do than say YES and figure out a way to make it happen. (By the way, the 3 examples above happened to me) What is holding you back?! How long are you going to wait on the sidelines of life and watch other people doing what YOU should be doing? Say yes, and put it on your calendar. That is the first step.
Step TWO: Start With Your Thoughts
From my time on this planet I have learned to define our Attitude as the way you choose to view your world. If that is true, than most of us really have to work on, what I like to call our Internal Coaching System, which I will elaborate more on in Part 2 of this series. Our ICS is a term I came up with to define what we say to ourselves and how we regulate the thoughts we experience every moment of the day.
We know from polygraph (lie-detector) tests our body react to our thoughts. Thoughts affect us physically. Noetic Science, or the study of human consciousness looks at our thoughts from a different viewpoint. As I understand it, noetic science looks at our beliefs, thoughts & intentions & how they affect our physical world.
The Law of Attraction states, that like attracts like. Or, put another way, what we focus on most of the time, is what we will receive. The pictures we see in our mind about our lives, tend to be the things we spend the most time thinking about. Another way to view it is that, what you see is what you look for.
The Bible even refers to the power of our thoughts in Proverbs 23:7 As a man thinketh, so is he. And additionally in Mark 9:23 According to your faith, be it done unto you. But, whatever your belief there is no arguing that if we simply changed the thoughts we have from negative to positive (Or switching our focus from what we lack to what we want) it will have a profound impact on our productivity, belief and excitement about our life. Our thoughts have the power to seriously influence our success.
So, all that being said, in order for us to change anything in our lives we must first start with our thoughts! We must consciously make a choice to think positive or by default we will focus on the negative.
Step THREE: Fill Your Daily Laugh Quotient
You have all heard that laughter is the best medicine and some of you even believe it is true. The fact is, and there is nothing I can find to dispute this, laughter has profoundly more positive benefits then negative. If youd like to find out more than revisit my blog on Laughter and Your Brain. Gelotology, the study of laughter and its effects on the body from a psychological and physiological perspective has much to support these claims. In Part 3 we will dive more deeply into 3 great ways to fill your daily laugh quotient, but in the meantime start up your laughing muscles and get healthy.
Conclusion
I hope you found these steps useful and I look forward to sharing more on this topic in the next couple weeks. Good luck as you begin to build your airplane, expand your horizon with subjective time and soar to more exciting days ahead. If youll simply Plan Exciting Adventures, Start With Your Thoughts and Fill Your Daily Laugh Quotient you will be well on your way to having the inspiring life you deserve. Catch you next week