Recently I wrote two articles over at lifehack.org which you might find useful: Nine Ways to Live the Lifestyle of a Champion How to Enjoy What You Are Doing No Matter What Meanwhile, here are some interesting links I found since the last link post: Live Simple: Radical tactics to reduce the complexity, costs, and clutter of your life by John December (found via Get Rich Slowly)This ebook gives you a lot of tips to simplify your life. It covers various aspects of your life such as home, stuff, routine, and dream. Haiku Productivity: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential by Leo BabautaYou will be more productive if you do only the essential tasks and eliminate the rest. The one rule to implement: put limits on everything you do.
September 27, 2007
23 Practical Things You Can Do to Make Your Life More Fulfilling
Purpose/RelationshipsHow can we live a more fulfilling life? While there are things we can do which are more long-term in nature (such as the ones in 37 Lessons to Help You Live a Life that Matters), here I’d like to focus on practical things which we can do today. As I wrote in my post about being indispensable, human needs can be classified into eight levels in the Maslow hierarchy. The eight levels from the lowest to the highest are physical, security, belonging, esteem, learning, aesthetic, self-actualization, and transcendence. The lower levels comprise of basic needs which are essential to live. But to live a fulfilling life, I believe that the key is on the higher levels. The more your needs at the higher levels are met, the more fulfilling your life will be. Money for example, mainly meets your need at the physical or at most esteem level. No wonder money alone can never give you a fulfilling life. There are many people who do not have a lot of money but whose life is more fulfilling than those who have.
I just watched the video of Dr. Randy Pausch‘s farewell lecture at CMU. It’s so packed with life lessons that I can’t help but spread the word out to you. Randy Pausch is a computer science professor at CMU who has incurable pancreatic cancer. Despite the fact he has only months to live, he shows a very positive and inspiring attitude toward life. The lecture he delivered is far from just “another” lecture. It touches not just your mind, but also – more importantly – your heart. The lecture is entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” which I believe is an essential topic. Many people have forgot their childhood dreams, let alone achieving it. There are so many lessons in the lecture, and I highly recommend you to watch the video yourself. So I don’t want to write too much about it. Instead, I will just mention some lessons which especially resonate with me:
Last week I asked your help to give your recommendations on best books for personal growth. Thanks to your contributions, there are now 15 books on my list. Many of them are absolutely new to me. It’s always exciting to learn about new resources I wasn’t aware of before. I’m sure the recommended books can also be useful to all readers, so here I’d like to give you the complete list. Here they are: From Kate Davis: Help Yourself Get Everything Done ; Do It Tomorrow From Rexpop: Your Memory ; The Memory Book From Lawrence Cheok: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People From Corinne Edwards: The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent ; Spiritual Divorce From Martin Hughes: Tricks of the Mind by Derren Brown (I can’t find the book on Amazon) From Dave: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari From Luciano Passuello: How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci From Miguel: Maximum Achievement From Andrew Rondeau: Now, Discover Your Strengths ; The Dream Manager From Kirsten Harrell: The Joy of Living ; The Heart of the Soul I don’t think I can read all these books by the end of this year (since there are so many of them), but […]
Our vision has a blind spot, and if an object is in that area, you won’t be able to see it although it’s actually there. You might later be surprised to learn that the space which you thought is empty actually contains an object. Similarly, there could be “blind spots” in our personal thoughts and habits. We might not be aware of some bad thoughts and habits we actually have. Without realizing it, they cause our productivity to suffer. They drag our productivity down day by day. So, if you want to be truly productive, it’s important to discover these blind spots. While it might not be easy (which is why they are called blind spots anyway), here are some ideas to help you do that: 1. Always keep an open mind Having an open mind is the essential first step to discover your blind spots. What you currently believe might be wrong, so you should always be open to new possibilities. Be prepared to challenge and change your beliefs.
Have you ever experienced working hard on something but achieving very little? You may have poured a lot of time and energy into it, but the results you get is below your expectation. On the other hand, you may have experienced working relatively less on something but achieving more than you expected. It’s as if you put 5 units of effort and got 8 units of result. It’s as if you received more than you deserved. I have experienced both of them. Take this blog for example. Some of the most popular posts in this blog are those to which I spent relatively less time and energy. On the other hand, there are some posts to which I spent a lot of time and energy but went nowhere. I learn a useful lesson from such experiences in my life: we can do less but achieve more. And – in my opinion – this is the key to do less but achieve more: Follow the wind.