Did it ever happen to you to throw a look over your shoulder and just…gasp? It doesn’t matter it was for a landscape, a cool view or just a pair of pretty eyes. It was something that brought you contempt in a nice way of fulfillment. Today I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and wrote down the most important moments of 2018. The good ones and especially the hard ones, from which I’ve learned the most. That was my gasp moment. In a good way.
I do wanna share with you the most important 7 lessons I walked away with this year. Find them below. Some of them, you might’ve experienced yourself.
- You already know where your performance is going to be.
What brings you fulfillment is somehow related to what you’re going to be doing on the long run. And not just that, but it’s also related to what you’re gonna rock at.
I learned that expressing my creative self it’s a very important piece of puzzle for reaching my inner state of fulfillment, regardless what I am doing. A lot of things that I did or still do are making sense right now because of that. Starting a vlog, acting, bringing photos to life, visualizing and so on. They’re all part of this inner need that I feel embossed.
I used to think that each of the ‘out of office’ hobbies that I’ve practiced at a particular point in my life were about to be the start of an entrepreneurial game in the end. However, the timeline we set for ourselves doesn’t always match with what life’s got for us. I’m not the owner of a famous brand, nor a bestselling author or a Creative Director internationally renowned.
Yet.
What I am, now, is closer to who I’m becoming and I keep on going after what’s fulfilling me. For now, I fell that this is the right thing to do.
2. Being aware of how you respond to life.
Life has endless scenarios for all of us. And you can choose to play in those you want for yourself. Of course, the variables are part of the ecuation as well, but the way you respond to life’s events and how you choose to act on them it’s your game-changer. Pay attention however, there’s a butterfly effect in every decision you take.
And what you need to understand is that if you choose to play life by these rules you assume that “If it’s meant to be” turns into “If I do my best to get it’.
This process of being aware on how I respond to life started by observing myself in different situations.
I started to notice how I feel in specific scenarios and how I act on them. What is it that makes me vulnerable, what is it that empowers me and how much can I stretch my limits while working towards achieving a goal?
What’s that I can improve for the future and what are the invariable elements in the equation. It helped me on taking better decision and, most important, on setting healthy principles over the decisional process.
3. Appreciate the hard times you’re going through.
Tough experiences awakens the strongest incentives for growth. When you find yourself into moments that are hard going through, remember that whatever you are feeling at that point is going to be the best driver you’ll ever experience. Because you’ll never want to find yourself in a similar situation again. And you won’t.
My take away from 2018’s challenges was reframing.
I learned to reframe hard periods into growth experiences. At the end of them, you’ll either:
- Set up new Principles
- Gain self-confidence by finding solutions to unexpected problems
- Have an improved crisis-management skill or
- Have a better understanding of yourself and the ones around you.
It’s about absorbing the best you can. From everything.
4. Everyone has their own demons.
Everyone. And it’s human. There is however something that will make a difference and that is the way we proceed further.
- You can choose to accept your demons and grab them out from the horns.
- You can cover them and pretend they’re not even there or..
- You can allow them to take over and drive you towards proving people wrong. The bad part with this one is that it’s usually at your own cost and not necessarily the healthiest drive you can have for yourself.
The first one is most probably the hardest one, since it’s not easy to accept vulnerabilities. But once you do it, your growth process will bring out the best version of yourself.
Don’t run away from your fears, face them and do it so often that you won’t consider them fears anymore.
5. Have Friends who travel the world!
I absolutely love to surround myself with brilliant people. Having friends that travel the world while working in different cultures and experience life at its best it’s one of the strongest pillars for my own growth process. When you hear stories from all over the world and surround yourself with people that shows you everything it’s possible you just can’t settle for less.
6. Listen to what you need and want first.
Everybody wants to maximise their potential as fast as they can. There are very few of them however that really listen to their minds and bodies while trying to do so. Our body and mind tells us exactly what we need in order to perform at our best. We just need to take time and listen to them.
I’ve notice myself on my best performance, as on my weakest moments and my average experiences as well. For each of them I wrote down a list of circumstances that brought me there. Here’s what I suggest you pay attention:
- Physical features: Are you hungry, rested or with a bad tonus? Your performance might be affected because of that.
- What are the context circumstances? How’s the environment you’re working/living in? (Me, for example, I learned that I need very good light where I work and live and silence to get into the state of flow).
- What is your incentive for what you are doing right now? Did you ever think that your average performance might be due to the fact that you don’t have a strong incentive? Knowing what you’re aiming for and where you wanna get is very important on finding the right incentives.
- Last, but not least, as I said above, pay attention to what fulfills you.
7. Love is a powerful advantage, not a weak spot.
I learned that love really brings out the best in us. In every part of our lives.
The inner peace and the sense of empowerment you get by having someone that’s right after the same things as you are, it’s priceless. Genuine and profound. Do keep in mind one thing though, always give before you receive.
Otherwise, put your helmet on and dive into the unknown! Have an amazing year!
