I wish to begin by setting the record straight. I’m an advocate of formal education and conventional schooling. However, I’m firmly certain conventional schooling systems are not designed to teach us all of what we need to know to live a successful and fulfilling life.
In fairness, I also believe conventional, formal, educational systems are not singularly responsible for the holistic education necessary for everyone to live a life of total freedom and fulfillment. So, here are some simple, life-changing disciplines that weren’t taught in school, but have profoundly impacted my life in a most incredibly beneficial way.
1. Major in the majors, not in the minors: Many of life’s circumstances that we allow to cause us the greatest stress and anxiety are often inconsequential. They’re not really major issues! We simply over-exaggerate them emotionally. Barring real tragedy, we’re often responding to things that amount to brush-fires that would burn themselves out without any real loss or calamity. We must instead, focus on the things that really require our immediate attention, and we must react with calm patience, creating strategies and action plans to resolve our dilemmas instead of spiraling into unnecessary panic. Ironically, most victims of Rattlesnake bites don’t die from the bite itself. They die from their panicked response, which leads to some unreasonable action that leads to their demise, like falling off a cliff. So, major in the majors, and you may save life and limb.
2. Understand the Power of Perception: How you view your world and the events that constitute the context of your life are of ultra-importance. Your perception shapes your actions and responses, and your perception is further shaped by those actions and responses. Amazingly, many people could experience one event, but how they see it, think about it, and feel about it could be as varied as the colors of a box of crayons. One sees challenge and adversity as robust and beautiful opportunities, while others see them as benedictions on their dreams and futures. You must decide if you will dare to walk in hope and optimism or if you’re going to drift among the droves of people convinced of failure before ever exerting an earnest, disciplined and calculated effort.
3. Get clear on the “I” to embrace the “we”: Self-confidence is an extremely complex idea. It is good and essential in its reasonable and appropriate measure. But when excessive, it leads to conflict, contention, and it results in isolation and loneliness. I believe self-confidence is better understood as a progressive appreciation and understanding of self so one can nobly serve causes as well as others. It would be impossible to serve and find one’s appropriate place and relationship to others, in this vast world of beings, without a healthy sense of self. However, there is little, in this world, more annoying than feeling forced to listen to someone rambling on about themselves all the time. Therefore, true self-confidence, the comfort of being in one’s own skin, and with one’s intrinsic talents, abilities and value is the foundation for embracing the “we” in life. Let your soundness include others, as you embrace their intrinsic greatness and value. When we clearly understand our own worth we’re more open minded and able to perceive and appreciate others. Embrace the “we” and realize the power of harmonious synergy.
