Aug 1

Aug 1 BZ Book Review 25: <Design Your Future>

Key Takeaways

1. Overcoming limiting ideas can help you avoid the trap of predictability.

If you can predict your future, especially there is no change from your present, there is something wrong and you are trapped. “Trapped” is what you feel when you are living into the future of more of the same.
One important thing that trap you in that cycle is the limiting beliefs you have towards yourself and life in general. Think about those “should” sentence you said to yourself. I should work more, I should get married, I should have a kid… There are so many possibilities if you give yourself the permission to try.
You are your best when you know everyday is different, when you work on challenging projects, when you are perfecting yourself.

2. Fear keeps people stay in their line and stay in status quo. There are three simple steps you can take to break the cycle - Awakening, Disrupt and Design

Awakening: It is all about mindfulness. Take a step back and observe yourself and find out those habits and patterns that keep you in the cycle.
Disrupt: After identify the blocks, start to disrupt those bad habits and replace them with new ones and exciting ones.
Design: Create a new routine that makes you live the life that you have always wanted and be the true self that you are.

3. Connect with your future self can help move you start making positive changes.

Experiment conducted in UCLA School of Management concluded that when asked to imagine the future self, the MRI scan reveals that in many people’s mind that person seems like a stranger. No wonder it is hard to make the changes today to become a better self. You are not connected to your future self well enough to make you work for it.
Visualization is the key. Imagine yourself and how you look, how you carry yourself, where do you live, who do you hang out with, what are you expert of … Imagine yourself as that and work towards becoming that day by day, step by step.

4. Meditation takes practice but it can help you embrace your full potential. Take some time out everyday, every week to reflect on his life and true desire.

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.

5. Challenging your habits and being picky about your social circle can help positively disrupt your life.

Set rules to yourself to make your challenge you challenge yourself. For me between 9:00pm-10:30pm, I did that as no phone zone and put my phone in my bedroom while I work or study in my study room. I set rules for me to watch 2 videos at most to avoid falling into the time sucking and brain numbing activities.
Be choosy when it comes to your friend circle. You are the average of five people you hang out with through your life, during your day.

6. Focus on one goal at a time makes it much more likely that you’ll fulfill your ambitions.

FOCUS: Follow one course until success.
It is also important to be clear about why you are pursuing your goals.

7. Scorecards and daily rituals are great tools to help you design your future.

Set three target for myself: No more than two youtube videos a day, workout seriously everyday; do visualization exercise everyday. (keep a scorecards and accumulated crosses on the calendar)
Follow morning and evening routines and rituals. Make this a score card too

8. Achieving success is all about keep your eyes on the price and taking things one step at a time.