#lessoftheexcess - Page 3 of 6 - getting rid of distractions and living a meaningful life...

Aha! Moments – Marta from Change with Marta

Published 11/13/2014

Meet Marta from http://www.changewithmarta.com. Marta writes about her journey to a happier, simpler, clutter free life, and the achievements and mistakes she makes along the way. Please check out her blog!

Marta shares her Aha Moment:

My dog doesn’t defend my house.

Yeap…that was the most challenging concept for me these past few years. Sorry…what? That was what I though myself, that I had lost all common sense.

I came to this realization after a few years of owning a dog. We would leave the apartment to go to work/school/cinema/dining out for a few hours, and unfortunately my dog would stay in the apartment alone.

When any of us get back home, we are received by a mess of jumps, dog hugs, running around and a sense of super happiness, not caring a bit about toys, beds or the house. Just as if we had been away for days. On the other hand, when a family member is already home, our dog would bark at any person coming into the house, in order to protect us.

I understand every dog is different, but at least I was lucky enough to have experienced this. I believe we, as humans, are not so different from other animal species, we all feel fulfilled at least to some extent by social belonging and peer acceptance. And that happiness, doesn’t rely on stuff but rather on experiences and close people.

When I realized this, I was shocked. I had been giving importance to trivial things, like valuable pieces of clothing, and electronics. When I was asked what would I save from my house in case of fire, I started listing some of the most irreplaceable things, before coming to an stop and adding, “given my family is safe of course”. But that thought came second! In my heart I know they are first, and maybe I was assuming the question referred to physical stuff. But it doesn’t matter, now people are on the top of the list, followed by my doggie, and then comes the not-so-irreplaceable-as-we-think material stuff.

Since this realization, I have been in a quest to downsize and declutter my life, to rid my life of unnecessary things and finding what I love the most and what I am passionate about. This also pushed me to start my own blog, Change with Marta. Because life is a journey, it’s not so much about goals and achievements, but about trying, making mistakes and essentially…changes. Some of these changes may take you to closer to your goals, and some may not, but it’s all about growing as a person.

Embrace change as a constant in your life to unlock yourself

I want to share YOUR stories.

If you have experienced any ‘Aha!’ moments where you realized you want to align your life with who you really are, I want to hear about them and share!

All I need from you is:

1) A written 300-700 word personal story
2) A photo of yourself, or something that represents your story (this is optional)
3) A link to your blog/website (if you have one)
4) Email the info to lessoftheexcess at gmail dot com

Take care and see you soon!

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Aha! Moments – John from The Hill of Beans

Published 10/28/2014

Meet John from www.thehillofbeans.com. John created The Hill of Beans as a forum for discussing what matters in this crazy world and to encourage his readers to simplify their lives, savor the short time they have here on earth, and think about that which is important and lasting. Please check out his blog!

John shares his Aha! Moment:

I recently read through a terrific book, The Artist’s Way: A spiritual path to higher creativity, by Julia Cameron. Written in 1992, this inspiring book on the subject of creativity is a provocative and invaluable guide for any aspiring artist as well as “non-artists”.

Cameron guides one through a process to inspire creativity. The foundational activity is daily “morning pages”. This constitutes writing three pages first thing every morning. There are no rules to the morning pages; just write freely and whatever comes to mind.

The bedrock tool of a creative recovery is a daily practice called Morning Pages. – Julia Cameron

I have been practicing the morning pages, and it has been revolutionary for my writing as well as my mental and emotional state. It has changed my life perspective.

The experience is terrific! Through the discipline of writing the morning pages, I have come closer to my personal alignment equilibrium.

On one morning, while writing the morning pages, a question came to mind.

What would my fantasy day look like if I had the financial resources to do whatever I wanted to do?

Thus, my morning pages that day became a fantasy piece. Here are the highlights of what I discovered about myself and my desires:

Wake naturally – no alarm clock (this is normally about 6 am for me)

Thank God for life and breath and salvation. Stretch and take 3 deep breaths

Breakfast (featuring slow carbs) and freshly ground, French-pressed coffee – delicious!

Bible reading, prayer and journal

Write morning pages

Tidy up (always clean your bowl), dress, check email and calendar

One hour vigorous walk

Stop by coffee shop, update on today’s news, socialize, update blog

Back home to write for an hour or two

Lunch

Odd jobs around the residence (wherever that may be house, condo, tiny house or RV)

Afternoon: Exploring, volunteering, new writing projects, grocery stop, exercise/stretching

Dinner and correspondence

Write another hour (or dancing, if a group event is scheduled)

Evening quiet time: Reading, reflection, and preparing for the next day

Bed at 10

The point of writing out this little exercise is the realization that I can live a portion of my fantasy today. I don’t have to wait for some other situation to develop before I begin to embrace my “fantasy”. I don’t need to wait for enough money, better health, fewer obligations, better relationships, etc, etc, etc.

Today may be my last day here on earth, and how will I use it?

Today is the day to start living one’s dream. The only person responsible to make it happen is yourself and the choices you make.

The following quote presents a great perspective on how we should live each day. The obstacles of life are inevitable. We need to be about the business of living each day to its fullest. Embrace the dream.

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin — real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last in dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. – Fr. Alfred D’Souza

Living a simple life without the clutter and clamor that consumerism, advertising, and modern media thrust at you provides space in your life. It gives you room to do that which matters to you. It allows you to remove the unnecessary obstacles of life. It allows you to move closer to your fantasy day, because you have reduced the unnecessary and now have more freedom to make positive, deliberate choices. I choose to live a little of my fantasy each and every day.

I want to share YOUR stories.

If you have experienced any ‘Aha!’ moments where you realized you want to align your life with who you really are, I want to hear about them and share!

All I need from you is:

Take care and see you soon!

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It’s not about Work/Life Balance, it’s about Personal Alignment

Published 10/22/2014

Hi! It’s been a little while but I’m back! 🙂

I’m currently taking a course on Social Media and Content Marketing to learn a bit more about the online world and I’m lucky enough to have an instructor who shares the view of living her life according to her values, and not giving into the pressures of what society teaches us. She left the corporate world to follow her inner compass and tells her story in below’s Ted Talk. Check it out!

On another note, I want to share YOUR stories as well!

I always find hearing other people’s stories so inspiring and motivating especially if I’m in a funk, so I want to have a space where I can do that and bring everyone together because I’m sure they will inspire other people also.

If you have any personal stories about a change in your life perspective that you are open to sharing, PLEASE send them my way and I will feature them on my blog. These can be stories of spiritual awakenings, life changing events, realizing you don’t want to follow society’s rules, taking the big step to finally following your dreams, or even a book/person/film/etc that motivated you to change your life for the better.

Basically, if you have experienced an ‘AHA’ moment and realized you want to align your life with who you really are, I want to hear about it and share!

All I need from you is:

Yay, I can’t wait to share!

Take care and see you soon!

Face Your Fear And Start A Blog!

Published 09/21/2014

So you’ve thought about starting your own online business and blog but you haven’t. Why is that?

One of the reasons could be because of your fear. Your fear will tell you everything it can in order to stop you from accomplishing your dreams. It will tell you that you are not good enough, or that someone else is already doing it better. It will tell you that blogging is too technical and you won’t be able to figure it all out. Your fear will say, hey, you don’t really have any time. Maybe you don’t know where to start because you have to many thoughts bouncing in your head. It might even tell you that you have no idea how to run an online business, and everything is just too confusing. You feel lost or overwhelmed.

In situations like this when your dreams are involved, you should always do the opposite of what your fear is telling you to do.

All of these thoughts have also gone through my mind before I started this blog. I was paralyzed and didn’t know where to start.

But then I came across minimalist blogger Courtney Carver’s Zero to 100 ebook for beginning bloggers. It is a step-by-step guide on how to start a blog with PURPOSE.

I was a bit skeptical at first, but after she gets you to face your fear and start pursuing your dreams, along with a very motivational speech, I was hooked. I had nothing to lose, and only a lot to gain. It was because of this course that I actually created this blog.

So if you’re feeling a bit stuck, I highly recommend you check out this microcourse and give it a shot!

The course will help you:

inspire ideas
narrow them down
create a blog name and tagline
launch your blog (on your own or with help)
reach your first 100 subscribers
make your first $100

And some reasons to start a blog today:

Share your story and quality content to help people
Start a business
Improve your writing skills
Learn something new
Be vulnerable
Connect with awesome people
Earn money
Work from anywhere
Solve problems
Be creative

I also recommend a book called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. The whole premise of the book is to get us to look at all of the limiting beliefs and fears we have, and how we can really own and control our destiny and live our life’s purpose. Seriously, check it out!

Please share your thoughts in the comments below! I’d love to hear them. If you liked what you read, please subscribe!

Deliberately Creating Memories

Published 09/18/2014

Leave the memories as they are, you just can’t duplicate something like that. ~ an old friend

Something’s been on my mind. On the one hand I love the internet and technology because it allows us to communicate across distances and accomplish our dreams in a way we would not have done before. But on the other hand, as the meme says, I miss my pre-internet brain.

I miss those days when we would wait forever for our favourite musician to release their new album, and line up at the store just to purchase it. Then we’d go home and listen to it on repeat for hours, probably with some good friends.

I also miss feeling like I could actually be OFF THE GRID when I traveled, or like I was escaping somewhere where nobody could find me. Now I don’t feel like I’ve gone very far because everyone is just a click away, or I could easily be tracked down because my flight and bank details are probably online somewhere, if anyone had to really go searching for me.

On the flip side, music is at our fingertips. Anything we want to listen to, we can get, how cool is that? Anything we want to learn, is right there. Now when we travel, we can update our friends and family in real-time and show them what we are experiencing. We can look up our childhood friend and reconnect with them.

But here’s a question –

When is the last time you looked back and thought, wow, that was such a great time when I watched that YouTube video on cats, I’ll remember that forever…

That was so much fun scrolling through Facebook for hours on end. I’ll remember it until the day I die.

Yeah…not quite the same as real life is it?

The difference is we created a lot more MEMORIES. And we valued things that took more effort to do as opposed to the instant gratification of today.

My fear is that I, and anyone else who is guilty of too many hours being distracted by Facebook/YouTube/Reddit/video games/name your vice here, (and I know there are many of us) will one day look back and realize all this time has passed us by and we don’t have any wonderful memories to look back on. At least not to the degree of what it used to be. I mean, aren’t memories part of what makes life so amazing?

I worry about our children who will grow up with their faces glued to an iPad or computer screen, and sure they will probably learn a lot, but I wonder if their childhoods will be as magical and full of memories as the pre-internet world.

I don’t know…just some thoughts. What do you think?

Other than that, my point is I think it’s important to be mindful of deliberately creating memories. Take that time to disconnect ourselves from the digital world, and live in the real world. Have a little picnic in the park with an old friend, or meet a new friend while hiking up a mountain. Because it would be so sad to look back and realize we could have had a richer experience.

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My Fall Capsule Wardrobe

Published 09/05/2014

I did it guys! After my Decluttering Your Closet post, I got serious about my clothes and did another purge. I thought about the style I wanted to have, the colours I liked the most, and the lifestyle I lived.

I was inspired by Unfancy’s capsule wardrobe strategies and followed her How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe principles linked here.

It was really fun being deliberate about my wardrobe and planning all of the bits and pieces. It’s also freeing to know that I wasn’t impulsively buying things just for the sake of shopping. I already owned pretty much everything, and only had to purchase a few things. I tried to stick with neutral tones and classic styles. I do have some leftover bits and bobs that I kept because I’m not ready to part with them, so they might show up from time to time in my real life, but below is my core Fall Capsule Wardrobe!

The 34 items that make up my Fall Capsule Wardrobe!
You can see everything on my Pinterest Board here.

TOPS & JACKETS – 17

3 Sweaters
Taupe slouchy sweater / Navy blue slouchy sweater / Black slouchy sweater

4 T-shirts
Grey jersey long sleeved shirt (new) / Black t-shirt / Navy and white stripy shirt / Plain white t-shirt

3 Button-ups
Black button-up #1 / Black button-up #2 (sheer) / White button-up

3 Tanks
Grey tank (new) / Black dressy tank / White casual tank

4 Jackets
Leather jacket / Fall coat (need to purchase) / Casual army green jacket / Black blazer

BOTTOMS & DRESSES – 10

3 Pairs of Jeans
Black skinny jeans / Dark blue jeans / Light blue jeans

3 Trousers/Leggings
Black loose trousers / Mustard yellow loose trousers / Black leggings

4 Skirts/Dresses
Black cotton long skirt (new) / Black pencil skirt / Grey jersey dress / Black jersey dress

SHOES – 7

Black chelsea boots (new) / Black ankle booties / Camel ankle booties / Black loafer flats
Brown flats / Black Converse sneakers / Black Nike Freerun running shoes

I’d love to hear if you are working on a fall capsule wardrobe yourself, let me know in the comments below!

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Distraction Detox – September 2014

Published 09/04/2014

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but maybe I just needed that extra kick in the butt.

Well I got two kicks in the butt, and I want you to join me!

The first kick was from a section I came across about having a “Low Information Diet” from the book The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Here’s an excerpt from the book that explains it a bit, but I’d recommend checking it out for more in-depth information:

The Low Information Diet – Cultivating Selective Ignorance

From this point forward, I’m going to propose that you develop an uncanny ability to be selectively ignorant. Ignorance may be bliss, but it is also practical. It is imperative that you learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable. Most are all three.

The first step is to develop and maintain a low-information diet. Just as modern man consumes both too many calories and calories of no nutritional value, information workers eat data both in excess and from the wrong sources.

Lifestyle design is based on massive action – output. Increase output necessitates decreased input. Most information is time-consuming, negative, irrelevant to your goals, and outside of your influence. I challenge you to look at whatever you read or watched today and tell me that it wasn’t at least two of the four. – Timothy Ferriss

My second kick in the butt was from a YouTube post from Unconventional Living which I’ve posted below. He challenges us to do #30daysunplugged from the internet in order to increase productivity, and not use it as a distraction because we’re bored.

My Distraction Detox!
And why you should join me!

While the internet in general is not my focus, I am committing to a 30 day Distraction Detox of my mindless YouTube and Netflix watching. I want to be deliberate and mindful of the time I’m spending on the internet, so I can get FOCUSED on my personal dreams and goals. It is so easy to get sucked into the land of aimless video watching, and it’s not getting me where I need to be. Yes, there is a lot of valuable info out there that we can get by watching videos that are more educational, but if that is the case, it’s also about taking a break from the research and absorbing, and doing a little more… doing. I’ve already disconnected from Facebook and have noticed a huge benefit of the extra time I got back.

Let me know if you want to join me. What is distracting you from achieving your current dreams and goals? What are the things you know you should focus on but keep getting sidetracked by?

I’ll follow up at the end of the month and talk about my experience. This is something I want to revisit from time to time, or maybe every month, there will be a new distraction to detoxify from!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Minimalism in the City vs the Country

Published 09/04/2014

There are SO many ways minimalism and simplicity can be looked at, and so many ways we can apply it to our living situation, whether it’s in the city or the country, or if you live in an apartment or a house.

While I’m currently in an apartment in the city, I’ve also lived in a house in the countryside. Below are a few things I’ve loved about living in each.

Living in the City

Using public transit, walking or biking to get around as we won’t need a car
We can work closer to our home as there are more job opportunities
Being close to the public library so we can borrow items instead of collecting books and dvds that add to our clutter
We don’t have to spend time tending to our lawns and gardens, but can spend a nice stroll in the park
The greater ability to meet likeminded people simply because there are more of them
We likely live in a smaller space (apartment, basement suite, smaller house) which means owning less stuff
Less need for purchasing indoor entertainment like a big screen TV or video games when we can go out to a concert or a movie

Living in the Country

Growing our own fruits and vegetables in our garden, which means less groceries to shop for
Entertainment options are farther away, so there is more motivation to do fun and free things at home
Everything moves at a slower pace and is more relaxing
A slower life means more opportunities to really connect with our close friends and family.
We likely live in a bigger space, so there is more opportunity to invite people over and spend quality time together
Enjoying the sights and sounds of nature
Less pressure of keeping up with the latest fashion trends in order to feel good
Not having to deal with constant shops, advertisement and consumerism surrounding you
Less tendency to eat out, and more cooking at home
More self-sufficiency and relying on what is available at home
More conscious or planned spending as you have to plan your shopping trips

What is your current living situation and how do you apply minimalism to it? Or if there is anything I’ve missed, please add to the list and comment below!

If there are any specific topics you’d like to hear more about, PLEASE let me know in the comments, or send me an email to lessoftheexcess at gmail dot com. I’d love to hear your suggestions!

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Minimalism and Spiritual Awakening

Published 09/01/2014

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle. ~ Albert Einstein

I follow a lot of Minimalism blogs (see them here), and I’ve noticed there seems to be two common ways people approach or discover Minimalism if they weren’t always a minimalist in the first place.

They’ve had a profound shift in perspective, usually due to a significant event or series of events. Things like break-ups, job loss, deaths in the family, illness, travel, having children, etc. After these events, they have realizations of what is important in life. And then they discover Minimalism.
They are searching for something ‘more’ out there and are tired of the status quo. They are trying to figure out what the purpose and meaning of their life is and question everything they’ve been told. They aren’t sure what that is yet and discover Minimalism as a way to get there.

No matter how we are introduced to Minimalism, I think it is tied to Spiritual Awakening, and our need for the shift for something more. Now, I realize some people find this topic a bunch of mumbo jumbo, but it has some value. This post was oddly enough inspired by a dream about mice last night. I never dream about mice. Today I found a dying mouse in my building. I’ve never seen a mouse in my building.

It is also inspired by a dream I had about two childhood best friends, and the next morning I received a message from a childhood best friend who wanted to reconnect. I hadn’t seen or talked to her or her sister in 8 years. We met up this weekend and they introduced me to Spiritual Awakening as they are on similar paths. I’ve never heard about it before, but after some research, it was a huge aha moment so I had to share it.

Apparently synchronicity and clairvoyance are part of spiritual awakening…

What is Spiritual Awakening?

The process of becoming a whole person, reaching higher peaks of awareness.
The individual sense of self identification falls away. We no longer care about the superficial world and we are left with awareness, sensing, thinking, feeling or being.
It is a process that can take a lifetime. It doesn’t happen over night.
It is similar to Maslow’s Self Actualization or Carl Jung’s Individuation.

Below are 22 signs of Spiritual Awakening:
Original sources are here and here. This post also has some really great advice.

1. Asking Questions about the world around you and the stuff that is taking place in your life.

2. Changes in sleeping patterns to suit your needs and requirements as a growing individual.

3. Stimulated sensations like random bursts of emotion that you didn’t usually feel before, such as crying during movies, feeling compassion and empathy towards those around you, changes in body temperatures, or sudden random urges to go and do something like running, swimming, or climbing a mountain.

4. Having great ideas and putting them into action, seeing the depth of the truth, willingness to look beyond the tip of the iceberg, compassion on a bigger scale, and thirst for knowledge.

5. Feeling pressure in different parts of the brain, such as the frontal lobes which is the male logical and thinking part, or the back of the brain which is more connected to the female, intuitive and space of connectedness.

6. The recognition of issues that have been denied, repressed, and avoided in the past and present may surface to be processed, in many cases, this may happen in relationship to someone or something, which offers opportunity for growth for everyone involved in the vibration.

7. Changes in the body like looking younger and stronger, which also goes hand-in-hand with changes in the eating habits and life style. Everything revolves around health.

8. Having personal and peak experiences where one feels at one and in peace with her/his surroundings. Having meaningful dreams and in-depth visions are not uncommon.

9. Craving more and more to break free from traditions, outdated institutional thinking, blind conformity, and useless beliefs that do not serve the greatest good of humankind… taking that craving, and turning it into action.

10. Seeing and comprehending the world in a way with deeper meanings. More and more awareness of synchronicities between the physical world and the feelings, thoughts, and energetic representation of the physical world.

11. An increase in occurrences – (there aren’t any coincidences) An increase in psychic, mediumistic, clairvoyant, and intuitive skills.

12. Acute sensitivity to negative energy around specific people or environments.

13. A desire to “find yourself”, change your social group, behavior, job etc. Sudden extreme sensitivity to people or crowds. You may find that your once sociable nature suddenly disappears and you simply cannot bear to be with certain friends, family members, colleagues, or coworkers.

14. Sudden awareness of recurring patterns or relationships– A noticeable inability to tolerate someone with whom you have had a previously close relationship.

15. Sudden inexplicable panic or anxiety attacks occurring at any time with no valid reason. A feeling that something has changed within you.

16. Acute sensitivity to shopping malls or crowded environments such as restaurants, clubs, festivals, and so on.

17. Extreme sensitivity to mobile and digital phones, laptops, computers, wireless routers, and all microwave technology, as well as certain types of lighting.

18. Zoning out for long periods of time with an overpowering need to sit and do nothing. (This often occurs as a result of our consciousness spending increasing amounts of time in the fourth and fifth dimensions.)

19. Changes in your energy levels. The need to rest and sleep for much longer than usual or sudden insomnia in normally sound sleepers.

20. A stronger connection to nature

21. Quicker manifestations

22. A change in what you read, watch on TV, and your hobbies

Let me know if you’ve experienced any of these signs and share your thoughts in the comments below, or email lessoftheexcess at gmail dot com.

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Turn Your Current Job Into Your Dream Job

Published 08/26/2014

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. – Confucius

Sometimes I look back to where I used to be and where I am now, and while I still have a long way to go and many many more dreams to pursue, I have carved out my work situation in a way that I get to do what I specifically love doing for a living and I want to share with you how I’ve done that. Aside from entrepreneurship where we can start our own business doing what we love, there are some tips and tricks on how you can turn your current job, into one you will at least enjoy a lot more (that’s if you’re currently in a job you don’t necessarily like, or would prefer to be in a different job). Which will eventually lead to new opportunities.

I’m really only speaking from my own experience, but I’ve witnessed other people do the same, so I will share this anyway. And I’m fully aware that some work environments may not allow for any of these techniques, but if it helps one person, I am happy 🙂

Five Steps To Guide You Toward Your Dream Job

1. The number one rule you first need to adopt is to make decisions that are in line with your dreams and values, and do not compromise that. Check out this post on how to make difficult choices and this post on living according to our values. That means knowing what those values are and doing a little soul searching. Take some time to write out a list of what you value the most, what your strengths are and what fires you up.

2. Look at your current job situation and see how you can use those values and skills to enhance the current working environment or job role. For example, my value of connecting and developing people was important to me in a workplace. My first ‘job’ out of university was in Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS). This is a quite technical, data oriented part of HR. Definitely not my interest or strong suit. But I had a passion for people and making them happy in the workplace. A few things I did to incorporate those skills were:

Get my entire team to do an “About Me” powerpoint presentation over a conference call to get to know one another (most of us were remote workers and we didn’t know each other at all). This brought us closer together as a team.

I joined the Events Committee and took part in creating fun company events or lunch and learns.

I became the Diversity Champion Lead of our Vancouver Location to help promote and celebrate the diverse cultures of our company and set up related events.

I had/have a huge love of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), so I set up a team building event to discover my team’s working styles so we could communicate and work better together

None of these were related to my actual job role. And I made sure they didn’t take time and work away from what I actually had to get done. Most of it was done on my spare time.

Another example is from a friend of mine who worked in the IT department, but had a huge passion for health and exercise. He created a company exercise team/program where employees could participate in various sports or exercises during lunch hour, or various monthly challenges like the Monthly Ab Challenge. This would build upon his passion of helping people live a healthy lifestyle even though it isn’t directly related to his current job. Check out his blog here.

The main point is to keep building on your skills by adding new things.

3. Add these new special skills to your Resume. Now that you’ve got some experience under your belt related to what you love to do, add them to your Resume.

4. Connect with people who have similar interests and values. Through the power of filtering, when we obsess over certain things, we start to open doors that lead us in that direction. Someone, somewhere, will be looking for someone with your skill set. Meet lots of people. Join meetup.com and attend events and meet like-minded people. Keep your eyes open for job opportunities that allow you to grow your skills and apply for them. That’s where finding a good mentor can help you get there.

One note about rejection and failure. Try not to worry about it. As much as we hate it, it will happen at one point or another. But the opposite of happiness or success is not failure, it’s boredom. Just keep sticking to your guns, because the people who reject us aren’t a good match for us anyway. We want to be in a situation where our passion is appreciated.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4. Eventually you will keep building and building to the point that you’ve flipped your working situation around. You’ll either end up in a new job that allows you to build upon your strengths and passions, or if you’re lucky enough your current job will build a space for you to flourish. This might even lead you to starting your own side business because now you have actual ‘work experience’ to back you up. The road can go in several directions from this point, but that’s what makes life so exciting!

That’s it! I just want to mention again that Step number one is the most important, and you have to be really strict on choosing things that line up with where and who you want to be. Sometimes you’ll be presented with a shiny opportunity, but it won’t be related to where you want to go. Don’t get side tracked. Stay on course and you’ll eventually end up where you need to be.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below! I’d love to hear them. If you liked what you read, please subscribe!

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#lessoftheexcess Posts

And some reasons to start a blog today: