When was the last time you challenged your ways of thinking?
I took some time away from writing recently. My wife and I went on a vacation and celebrated the holidays. Stepping away from writing gave me time to just live in the moments and reflect on life. Reading a book on a beach is so relaxing and without the usual hustle and bustle I was able to enjoy my new reading option. The Code of the Extraordinary Mind:10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life and Success on Your Own Terms by Vishen Lakhiani, is not my usual type of reading material. All I can say, is it was exactly what I needed to read on my vacation. This book challenged my version of the world and my views on life. I wanted to address only a few points from Mr. Lakhiani’s book that challenged me specifically.I strongly recommend people check out this book. You might be surprised how it can impact your life.
Challenging our routines for improvement. For years, I have felt that the best way to grow or improve my life was to read a lot. I still believe this to be true for me but what I have neglected to see are the other available paths to grow as an individual. In recent years the podcast or vlog practices have grown in popularity. In our day and age, we can access so much information to improve ourselves. We have people in our lives or our organizations who we could learn from. Everyone carries a phone with them, which allows them to access information in real-time. We can learn so much more today than we could just ten years ago. The point is, challenge your procedures for learning and improvement. If you wish to become more, you can do whatever you want at any time.
Challenge the rules we learned from our families and still live by today. The author Lakhiani talks of the rules we get from our families or communities on religion, marriage, or college. When some of us were young we were told we had to go to college to be successful. Today, many people take other paths and are extremely successful without that college degree. The topic of religion was very interesting for me because I do have a belief in God, but this book allowed me to think outside of the box and possible see the good pieces of other religions too. Many individuals are spiritual and not necessarily religious. Other practices such as meditation are helpful for some and can have health benefits too. Do all our family traditions or beliefs make sense today? Is there a better way of life if we change some of those beliefs? Hard questions to ask because it feels as if we are questioning our families in general.
Challenge what it means to be happy or successful. We have discussed the importance of reflection many times on this blog site. This idea was affirmed once again! We lose ourselves when we fail to recognize our abilities and accomplishments. How are you celebrating you? How are you tuning out the negative comments in your mind? We must live in our moments and be happy with ourselves as well as our plans or actions. We all must get to the place in our minds where we are content and truly happy with life. It is difficult to expect to wake up everyday in a great mood. Being happy or joyful everyday probably isn’t attainable. What we can do is work through difficult time in a positive way and be grateful for what we have and what we achieved each day.
Challenge the need to get approval or validation from outside sources. In leadership, we must be mentally strong. We have our fans, those who appreciate what we do and what we offer the organizations we serve. We will also have our critics that will never appreciate what we do and offer. That is just the way it is! Yes, it feels great when someone acknowledges you for your efforts, but we must get away from that way of thinking. Instead, we should take time in our week and review what we accomplished and give ourselves raving reviews. We need to start internalizing our wins and celebrating how far we have come or the good we do each day. By doing this, we minimize the need to get approval of others.
Are your methods for self-improvement working for you?
What long-time rules were you raised with that could be challenged?
What makes you truly happy and how do you define success?
How are you celebrating yourself or your accomplishments daily?
I have news for you. We are not alone in this world. There are many people with different views than us. This is not to say our views, or their views are right or wrong; just different. We can gain more and improve more by accepting other views but most importantly, challenging our own views from time to time. We will improve when we ask ourselves why we do or believe they way we do. So, I challenge you to start questioning yourself more. Thank you for checking in on this week’s post and I hope you take a moment this week to reevaluate yourself and some of your beliefs.
Steven C. Bucks- Leading Conversations
Resource:
Lakhiani, Vishen. (2020). Code of the Extraordinary Mind: 10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life and Succeed on Your Own Terms. RODALE.
