A friend of mine who owns his own painting business highly recommended the book, The E-Myth, so I had to check it out. I’m not quite through it yet, but already it’s changed the way I think about business and taught me many things I’ll be certainly apply throughout my career.

Perhaps the most powerful idea in the book (and one that is relevant to PTB) is the necessity of having direction in your life before you can create it in your business. This passage in particular resonated with me:

Great people have a vision of their lives that they practice emulating each and every day.

They go to work on their lives, not just in their lives.

Their lives are spent living out the vision they have of their future, in the present. They compare what they’ve done with what they intend to do. And where there’s a disparity between the two, they don’t wait very long to make up the difference.

They go to work on their lives, not just in their lives.

I believe it’s true that the difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next.

The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing.

The difference between the two is living intentionally and living by accident.

Are you living intentionally? For most of my life I wasn’t. I was waiting for life to find me. For my talent and passion to jump out and grab me. But it didn’t and it won’t. You have to find it for yourself.

Once you cross this barrier (and no one can do it for you), the life you desire starts falling place.

Sitting in front of a computer for hours on end with minimal movement is not what nature had in mind when she designed our bodies. Limited movement day in day out effects our posture, energy levels, body, eyes and muscle tone.

A sluggishness sets in. Bodily needs get ignored such as thirst and hunger not to mention the aches, twitches and pains that start appearing from prolonged sitting and restricted movement. Your eyes, back and legs are probably craving for some variation and blood flow stimulation.

I certainly spend hours and hours writing and working in front of my computer but due the complaints of my body I have needed to develop a few healthy habits and mini workouts to give my body the attention it deserves.

Sure I do yoga and walk on the beach most days, but long stretches on the computer definitely require some mindful additions during computer time. The following are some ideas I hope will inspire you to add a few mindful healthy living habits to your hours spent in front of your computer.

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My post from a couple weeks back on the beauty of sadness opened up a great discussion about the difference between sadness and depression and the merits of accepting sadness vs. treating it with prescription drugs.

On a very related note, I recently came across an interesting article on the tendancy of unhappiness in intelligence people. The author (a sociologist) claims that unhappiness develops in childhood, primarily because of Western cultures lack of esteem for intellectual values.

Children develop along four streams: intellectual, physical, emotional (psychological) and social. In classrooms, the smartest kids tend to be left out of more activities by other children than they are included in. They are “odd,” they are the geeks, they are social outsiders. In other words, they do not develop socially as well as they may develop intellectually or even physically where opportunities may exist for more progress.

Their emotional development, characterized by their ability to cope with risky or stressful situations, especially over long periods of time, also lags behind that of the average person.

Adults tend to believe that intelligent kids can deal with anything because they are intellectually superior. This inevitably includes situations where the intelligent kids have neither knowledge nor skills to support their experience. They go through the tough times alone. Adults don’t understand that they need help and other kids don’t want to associate with kids the social leaders say are outsiders.

Interesting stuff, although I’m not sure I completely agree. It’s nice to know that if you’re prone to the occasional bad mood, it’s only because you’re too smart to be happy.

Interview for The Happiness Project

Also, if you’re interested in checking out more of my thoughts on happiness, I recently did an interview with Alex Shalman for his series, The Happiness Project. If you have moment, leave a comment. The interviewee with the most comments wins $200 for charity.

You can really feel the difference a genuine conversation makes. I’ve left some talks feeling invigorated with new ideas. Others I have left feeling that I’ve just lost twenty minutes of my life that I will never get back. So how do you create more meaningful conversations and avoid the small talk that drains life away?

Although there are a lot of elements that go into a good conversation, I’ve found that there are only two rules that are extremely important:

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If you are in a rut, I can think of no better way to shake up your life then to pack your bags, jump on a plane, and start exploring the world. And I’m not talking about a one-week vacation to Hawaii (or wherever it is you go for your holidays). I’m talking about extended time (6+ months in my books) away from your home city or town.

For a number of years I was traveling through life on autopilot. I went straight from school to university, and for much of this time I felt that I was traveling along a pre-determined path that really didn’t interest me. However, once university finished I made perhaps the best decision of my life. I grabbed my backpack and took off for a year of traveling around the globe. And it just so happened that this year changed everything…

Why you should travel

Why should you travel? I realize that for anyone who has previously traveled, this section may come across as preaching to the converted (you may wish to skip ahead to the resources below). But I often hear from readers, young people in particular, who feel lost and want help with finding what to do with their lives. While travel may not be the right option for everyone, here are a few benefits related to travel that I have observed:

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Bill Strickland is an amazing man. However, instead of me telling you why, I would like to invite you to watch the above video from TED in which Bill shares his astonishing tale of redemption through arts, music and unlikely partnerships (with subtle accompaniment by longtime friend Herbie Hancock).

Competition

Bill Strickland has recently released a book, Make the Impossible Possible. I have read the book, and loved it, so I am very excited to have 15 copies of it to give away. All you have to do to be in the running to win a copy is to leave a comment below. Share your thoughts about the video, or tell us one thing you once believed to be impossible that you have since discovered is possible.

Find Out More

If you would like to learn more about Bill Strickland, see also:

• BillStrickland.org
• Manchester Bidwell
• TED Speakers: Bill Strickland

Photo by Sister72.

According to one source the amount of people seeking treatment for depression has doubled in the last 15 years. Ninety percent of those people left their doctor with a prescription drugs. Clinical depression is a real disease, and antidepressants can help. But these statistics make me wonder whether our perceptions on happiness are in dire need of an update.

Somewhere, I think society got into the idea that its wrong to be unhappy. Not just that being unhappy was undesirable, but that happiness was the entire measure of life. As a result, if you feeling blue, you aren’t just sad –you’re also a failure. I wonder if the relentless focus to always be happy can actually make more people depressed?

Respect Your State

There’s nothing wrong with feeling sad, angry, frustrated or burnt out. It isn’t a moral weakness and it doesn’t mean you lack emotional control. Of course, if you aren’t feeling happy, you should do something about it. I’d never recommend a pity party. But at the same time, don’t compound your bad feelings because you don’t have a giant grin on your face all the time.

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Despite improving living standards and wages, there is a growing phenomenon of people becoming addicted to working. The workaholic becomes obsessed with work leaving little time and energy for anything else in life. To rely on work for all aspects of life is to live an unbalanced life.

If you feel work is dominating your life, these are a few suggestions for creating a better balance. However, the first thing we often need to do is to acknowledge the prominence that work has gained in our life; if we are not careful, we can be in denial about how much work has come to dominate our lives.

Are you A Workaholic?

Take a moment to consider the following questions:

• Is your first thought on waking about work?
• Is your last thought before sleeping about work?
• Does work take priority over everything else?
• Is your social life based around going out with your office colleagues to talk about work?
• Do you take work home with you at the weekend?
• Would you struggle to enjoy a 3 week holiday away from work?
• Is your greatest aim in life to get a promotion and the respect of your work colleagues?

If you find yourself answering yes to many of these questions, you would probably meet most criteria of being a workaholic and you should consider creating a better balance between life and work. These are a few steps to breaking your attachment to work.

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I love working with children. Unlike adults, their dreams have no ceiling. It’s inspiring to listen to their goals and ideas.Children start dreaming at an early age. They think about their future career, their wealth, their education, and so on. And their dreams can be huge.

As far as careers go, some will choose the typical police officer, fire fighter, or doctor. Others will choose Astronaut, Olympian, or President. If we’re talking about wealth, some will aspire to simply “have money.” Others will seek a business empire or the ability to retire at age 40 or younger.

As parents, we have more control over whether our children achieve their dreams than we might think. For kids, parents are inspiration, motivation, and leadership.

You might think that your child’s dreams are unrealistic. That’s the negative adult inside you. You should believe in your child because they believe in themselves; and you’re probably the only other support they have.

All that’s left to discuss is the how:

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Life is full of pressure. Worries about your health, terrorist threats on the news, financial troubles, conflicts at work and family concerns. Without a center in your life, those pressures are likely to push you around. I’ve found taking time to center myself every day gives me the strength to do my best.

Centering is often seen as a religious or spiritual activity. Centering yourself around spiritual beliefs or rituals is perfectly fine. But if you aren’t a particularly religious person, or situations have caused you to change your faith, you might find it hard to center yourself.

I’m not a religious person, but I still find time to center myself every day. Here are a few of the things worth centering on:

The Now. Focusing yourself on what you have instead of what you don’t have. Focusing on present actions instead of future worries and past regrets. Focusing on what is.

Your Dreams. Center yourself on the direction you want to take your life. Re-reading any goals I’ve written down helps me reaffirm what I want from life instead of responding to cynicism and frustration.

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