Work Less-- Make More
The American Dream has been accomplished by working harder. If you wanted more money, then you had to work harder. Hustle was the game to master. The industrious people got things done and were rewarded for it. Early bird gets the worm. Overtime pays time and a half or double time in some places.
The pendulum swings, however. The key to happiness became all about relaxing and enjoying life. Of course, you had to be able to enjoy life without money, because you didn’t have any. The counterculture became anti-money. Happiness became more important than wealth to these people.
Then the catchword became, “Balance.” People worked so hard to attain balance. But the stress they endured was a deal breaker for most. Instead of balance, most people adjusted their schedule. But instead of real balance, they only had equal times of stress. When they were with their families and loved ones, they were only thinking that they were dropping the ball on their work. When they were at work, they accomplished very little- they were too concerned that they were shortchanging their families and loved ones.
Some balance.
So how do you actually turn the paradigm on its head? How do you work less and make more? How do you spend your time to attain true balance and live a life you really want to live?
The answer is different for everyone, but the process is actually the same for each of us.
The first step is to live in the present moment. It’s the only place you can live, anyway. You can’t live in the past. You only regret or long for the past. You can’t live in the future. You only fear or anticipate the future.
The present is all you have, so live there always.
Now that you are in the present moment, notice what you are noticing. This may be the first time you have done so. If so, notice that you CAN notice what you are noticing. Become what we call, “The Observer,” instead of simply participating.
We know that Thoughts create Feelings which create Actions which create Results. Knowing this gives us the ability to not just notice what we are noticing as The Observer, but to alter and recreate our entire lives. When we observe and analyze our thoughts, we break the old chain of events and create a whole new chain to achieve our desired results- which creates the new paradigm. We call this living your life by design instead of by default.
I know that my results are exactly what I choose them to be-- either by design or by default. If I take my attention off of my designed life, it will drop to my default life level. My attention equals my thoughts. I design my thoughts or I drop to my old default thoughts. I don’t get to “not think.” Not thinking means thinking old thoughts and building a default result.
So, first acknowledge your thoughts. To do this, it’s easier to ask yourself, “What am I feeling right now?” Remembering that feelings are directly created from our thoughts. If you don’t like what you are feeling, change your thoughts. Then guard those thoughts so you don’t slip back to your old thoughts by default.
Read this a few times and practice it daily. This is the first step. In my next post I’ll share how to create the exact thoughts you need to generate the results you really want-- by design.