As Seneca says, “Apply yourself to thinking through difficulties—hard times can be softened, tight squeezes widened, and heavy loads made lighter for those who can apply the right pressure.”

 
I love this quote. I see this as a message to think differently, continue to be persistent through whatever circumstances you may be in and find a unique perspective to create a solution. What some may experience is being engulfed by a wave panic and become paralyzed by what is and what may become. It’s in these moments where you need to believe in yourself and draw on your creativity to push through and find a new angle of attack. In moments of stress – slow down, breath, gain insight, and a solution might be right in front of you.

I’ve recently started to re-read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I first read the book back in 2007 when I was living abroad in Thailand. A friend of mine I met through my training camp passed along the book to me, as it had been passed along to him by another traveler. I remember how weathered the copy was… some pages were a bit torn, the front and back cover weathered from nature and also from the many hands it had passed through. When I first read it, it came at a pivotal time in my life.

 
At the time, I had sold everything I had to move overseas to train and fight in Muay Thai kickboxing and for the most part, didn’t have any intentions of moving back anytime soon. I remember sitting in a raggedy fold out chair on my small balcony of my room that overlooked the training camp, opening the book and diving into the text. Instantly, I connected with the book and couldn’t set it down. The connection between finding your Personal Legend and how once you’ve set your mind to something, the universe conspires to see it through made too much sense. I would argue that we all have experienced this in some way, shape, or form. We set our mind to something and map out a plan either in writing or in our minds and we take action… taking small steps each day towards that vision. Along the way, there are trials and tribulations which force us to twist and turn along the path, but each obstacle sheds light on new aspects of ourselves and adds to the journey. Ultimately, we end up exactly where we need to be. Reading The Alchemist was a way for me to ground myself in my beliefs that I could achieve whatever it is I wanted. The book had a huge impact on my life and I re-read it about once a year, each time I find new gems of knowledge in the text.

Before I left Thailand, I passed along the book to another travel I had met, with the instructions to find someone else to pass it down to once he was done reading it. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. I wonder whose hands it’s in now, and what great things they will accomplish in their lives as they actively seek out their own Personal Legend. If you or anyone you know is going through a transition, or could use some inspiration to believe in themselves, give it a read, and see how it can transform you.

Today is my second day of the Flow Genome Project, Flow Fundamentals course. So far, I find it interesting… nothing revolutionary at this point, but then again it’s only week 1 of a 6-week course. What I like about the format is its weaving more efficient habits into the fabric of my daily routine. Some of the habits I was already doing such as drinking water upon waking up, morning exercise, gratitude, and blocking of my “flow time.” What I appreciate about the program thus far is the videos released each day that gives the scientific background for each daily lesson and how it all ties into the bigger picture. For the most part, I can see the efficiency models they are putting in place along with some essentialism practices being really useful moving forward. Prior to taking this course, I’ve been diving into researching positive psychology and flow states. A great book to check out is Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Super interesting read about finding flow and creating an optimal experience.

In today’s exercise, we had to recall moments of flow from our childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The last 2 were fairly easy, but the childhood part I had to really think about. After settling in on a few moments I realized that Flow occurs daily in our lives and we might not even realize it. By digging deeper into our own psychology, and understanding more of what makes us tick, I do believe that we can gain the understanding to better create and maintain states of flow to allow us to be more productive but more importantly, find what makes us truly happy. Which I believe for most is missing.

“However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”
~Stephen Hawking

I’ve been in a funk. Not exactly sure why, but it’s something I am trying to work through. More times that not, what I’ve noticed is that when I get this way I tend to pull back and focus on myself. In the past, after a few days, the funk passes. But, I wonder if I should be focusing on the opposite… surround myself with others and make more of an effort to help those around me. Would this create the shift needed for the head change? I’m not sure, but something I have been thinking a lot about lately is doing more charity work or volunteering for a good cause. It could be linked to feeling that the more you give, the more you get, or it’s simply about contributing for something that’s bigger than yourself. I think the last charity work I did was help build a house down in Mexico about 8 years ago. When I look at how much time is spent focusing on ourselves and then think about how much time we WASTE doing mindless tasks, I wonder how much time could be spent doing meaningful work to help others. This will definitely be something I will look into and plan out over the next few weeks.