Aleksandra Galert's Blog: I'm thinking about... - Posts Tagged "motivation"

How many of you have a dream? Probably many. How many of you make it come true? Probably not that many. Why? Well, probably you like your couch too much. Or your work. Or anything else. Let’s say you have a dream. You’re sitting on your couch thinking: ‘No, today I won’t start doing it because:
1) I’m tired
2) It’s too expensive
3) It’s raining
4) My dog needs me
5) My husband has two left hands and can’t cook
6) I can as well start it next week when I have more time’.

How many excuses can you invent? Probably endless numbers. And the whole thing is about moving your ass.

Have you ever noticed that when you stay home, bored on your couch, you actually don’t feel good at all? Compare it to the feeling when you achieve some goal, even if it’s just making a call or asking a stranger for a photo. You see what I mean? That’s a good start.

Have you ever watched Masterchef? I’ll use this example, because I love it. I especially recommend you watching the Junior Masterchef. Those kids are amazing! Their passion for cooking and joy of life are endless! For me, they are an inspiration. Watching them, in my mind I always see my cousin, who is their age and who doesn’t have any hobby. She spends all days long by her computer and repeats like a broken CD: ‘I’m bored’. Well, of course you are. And although she’s doing nothing (which theoretically is the favorite ‘action’ of most people) and those kids from Junior Masterchef are spending hours and hours in the kitchen, practicing for many years, we all know who is happier.

Sometimes I think I have too many hobbies and often I don’t know on which to focus. But then I’m happy as I remind myself of many of my colleagues telling me: ‘You’re so lucky, because you found what you love to do.’ I’m not lucky. I’m just active, curious of the world and trying new possibilities. Meaning? Something everybody can do if only they move their ass.

I believe everybody can find sth they truly love doing and achieve something great in it. But awards don’t come for nothing. I have read that to become a master in something, you should spend 10 000 hours on doing that. Yes, the number of zeroes is correct. It is a lot of time! And you won’t be able to spend so much of it on doing something unless you truly love it. So, for example, if you’re unable to get up at 4 am to catch the perfect light, carry heavy equipment, spend hours in the cold waiting for one, ideal shot or drive many kilometers to find what you want – photography is not your passion.

It happens that somebody achieves a huge success at the very first try. Beginner’s luck. But I am not jealous of such people. Even more, I feel sorry for them. Because after a massive success, there probably will come a huge frustration and disappointment, as they won’t be able to repeat such an achievement, because they’re not prepared and don’t have enough skills yet. On a film festival I’ve met a guy whose one of his first videos scored 1 million Youtube views in just a week. And he had this fear if his next video will be as good as the previous one. The pressure he felt was too much for him.

When you watch the Masterchef Final or the Oscars, you think ‘Wow!’. You want to feel like that, like achieving the Mount Everest in your category, like feeling unbeatable, being in euphoria. And imagine that this how you imagine this feeling is nothing comparing to the real feeling itself. And you can taste it one day. The problem is that watching great victories, for example the sport ones, we don’t see the countless hours of practicing, tears, sweat, failure and disappointment that were present on the way to victory. But this is what the learning process is all about.

So why is it better to move your ass? I’ll answer you with a question: What do you prefer? To be bored, unhappy and complaining about the world or to be active, full of passion and energy while reaching for the stars? Yes, this is what you’re missing when everyday you invent new excuses not to start doing anything.

Lately I’ve been a witness of a conversation about behaviors in the underground. One of the speakers was saying that everybody just sits and stares at their smartphones or other shiny displays. His opponent was proving that it’s not true, as many people, especially the old ones, have the need to talk and they start conversations with strangers.

It reminded me about a funny experience I had on the underground in Barcelona. There was a teenage girl (around 18 years old) with overweight, wearing a pink T-shirt with Mickey Mouse. On the other side of the door there was sitting an old man with a storm of gray hair, wearing too short trousers. If you remember the portraits of Beethoven – that’s exactly what this man looked like. The girl was listening to some romantic songs from her phone, mostly Celine Dion and a few Spanish ones, and she was singing them aloud totally out of tune. All the people were staring at her puzzled, but she didn’t care about it at all. The funniest of all was the reaction of the Beethoven-like man. He was reading a book through his twisted glasses, but every few seconds he had a look at her with a murder wish on his face. His eyes were saying that she was committing a crime against the music (maybe he really was a reincarnation of Beethoven) and peace. The girl didn’t even seem to notice any of it – she continued to wail her doleful songs and she seemed very happy.

I have two observations coming out of this story. First – it is crucial to accept yourself. If you like how you look, if you know you are good at something, nobody can stop you from achieving what you want. Because you will not care about what people say, you will care only about your goal. And, you will be happy. Besides, every inventor or a successful person had a time in their lives when people were laughing at them or calling them “crazy” or even “idiots”. But as Ghandi said: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” So it’s crucial to be self confident and to do that you have to accept yourself. You have to be aware that you’re not perfect, as nobody is, but you are special and unique, and you can change the world and the life of others. The girl singing in the metro didn’t care at all that everybody was staring at her either with laughter or with anger. She was just happy and the opinions of people who didn’t accept her as she was didn’t have any meaning. And even though the Beethoven-guy seemed also to be a little eccentric, as the most of the population would say, he was also easily judging the girl. And who of all of the people in the underground was the happiest, you think? The observers holding strongly to the rules they were taught or the girl breaking the rules and living the way she wanted it?

My second thought is about spending time in the public transport. It is true that most of us just hide by staring into some glowing display. But as you see, in the public transport you can observe people, their behaviors, problems and joys, you can meet someone valuable. Or you can just spend this time with yourself. I mean, giving you the time to let your thoughts flow. How many times during the day you are immersed in your thoughts? Probably zero. So make yourself this little gift and spend this time with yourself. If you do so, you will get to know yourself better, find out what you really dream about, understand your everyday behaviors, frustrations and reactions. You can be surprised how many ideas or solutions can come to you when you spend the time just with yourself.

To sum up, I highly recommend you see this video that I was deeply moved by: http://blog.petflow.com/a-video-every...

Have a nice week!

Have you ever noticed that many of the most successful people ever were staying together? Like, for example, Albert Einstein, who knew Maria Skłodowska-Curie for years. They were spending holidays together, meeting at the science conferences, working together for the League of Nations. Or the famous Parisian salon of Gertrude Stein, where she was accompanied by such icons like Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway or James Joyce, to name just a few (you can see it in the Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”). You must have been amazed listening about the famous meetings in Els Quatre Gats thinking: “Wow! It must have been extraordinary! So many so talented and famous people in one place!”.

The thing is that yes, they were very talented, but what we can assume is that without those meetings and company of each other, they would probably be neither that successful nor famous. We think that they met when they were already on top, but it’s not true. It was often the starting point of their careers. You must know the saying: when in Rome, do as the Romans do. A group of people with quite similar interests and goals helps to motivate and inspire each other. When you enter a group of people where success and wealth are something normal, you start becoming like them. Things that earlier seemed impossible or very hard to achieve, suddenly become as usual as eating breakfast. You learn what your fellows do, you start sharing their way of thinking and thanks to this, you become like them – in a positive meaning of this phrase. In such a group, you can remain individual and special, but you’d be surrounded by people, who believe in the things you do, who encourage you to move forward, who don’t say that something is impossible. Such group is a power.

Of course, it’s not easy to find such a group, especially if you’re at the beginning of your way. But it’s crucial to work on it, look for the people who succeed in what you want to succeed in, learn from them and share your ideas with them. As Jim Rohn said: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” So if people who surround you are not motivating you and they don’t believe success is at all possible, don’t count on big results on your side. Of course, you can’t change your family, but you can reduce the negative influence they have on you (if they do), by spending time with people who encourage you to be your best self. As I said, it’s not easy to find such people, but it’s worth the effort.