Today, I listened the reading twice
Brian Johnson – 50 Things I Am Going to Do Today
1) Grow. We’re growing or dying, either stepping forward into growth or back into safety. Seize every moment as another opportunity to expand your soul.
2) Dream. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.
3) Floss. Do the little things to the best of your abilities. When you get in the habit of living at your potential with the mundane things, it becomes second nature to do the second stuff.
4) Breathe. Take a deep breath in, exhale.
5) Smile.
6) Sweat. Our bodies were made to move.
7) Shower.
8) Be nice. Wayne Dyer, Science of Kindness.
9) Be grateful. Think of three things that you are grateful for every day.
10) Drink water.
11) Take responsibility for your life (learned helplessness).
12) Meditate. Slow down, breathe, and quiet your mind for a moment or two or three.
13) Be here right now, the present moment.
14) Turn off the TV.
15) Open a book.
16) Learn out loud (audio books).
17) Pay your bills with a smile. Never let a dollar come in or go out of your hands without gratitude. Honor the exchange.
18) Get a journal and use it.
19) Ask yourself what you would do if you weren’t afraid –and then do it.
20) Ask yourself that question again and do it again and again. Do it ten times and you’ll be a different person. Do it every moment and you’ll be telling your story to the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson, “always do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain”.
21) Create a new habit. Ask yourself what is the one thing you know you should be doing that would most dramatically change your life, and then commit to creating that habit.
22) Become aware. When you’re aware you’re awake, not asleep. You’re not just going through the conditioned moments of your habitual life, you’re consciously creating it. Buddha – budh – one who is awake to reality.
23) Step forward. In any given moment you have two options, you can step forward into growth or you can step back into safety. Become aware of your behavior. Become aware of the decisions you’re making every moment of your life. Be conscience of who you are and the decisions you’re making, how you’re expressing yourself and what you’re actually doing. Your destiny is shaped by your moment-to-moment decisions so choose wisely and step forward.
24) Say yes.
25) Quit worrying about what other people think. There’s no way you can please everyone all the time. By worrying about what other people think of you and working hard to try to please them you’re losing the essence of who you are.
26) Listen.
27) Put the sock straight in the hamper. Wash the dish and put it away. Do the little things the way you know you should.
28) Push yourself. William James, “you have enormous untapped power you’ll probably never tap because most people never run far enough on their first wind to ever find their second”. The training effect – 1, overload your body with more stress than it can currently handle, enough so you’re out of your current comfort zone and 2, overcompensation, the body repairs itself so next time it’s stronger.
29) Move. Take action. Flow (river vs. pool of water). Don’t let the pond scum grow.
30) Be authentic (authentic means to be your own author). Be you. Don’t pretend to be anyone or anything else (read “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Milman).
31) Stop. What one thing do you know you should STOP doing? It’s not serving you anymore and it never did. Replace that old behavior with a positive one.
32) Act “as if”. Who do you want to be? Get that image. On a moment-to-moment basis act as if you already were that person.
33) Regain your balance. Put your arms straight out. Spin around five or six times to get off balance. Stop spinning, put your hands together like you’re praying and stare at your fingertips, then look all around you. When things get stressful you can look all around you to get perspective or focus on what you know to be true, what your intention in life is.
34) Go straight at your problems. Take them head on (read Pilgrim’s Progress). Problems kick your butt when you avoid them, don’t show your backside.
35) Serve. Give yourself to the world (read Man Search for Meaning by Victor Franco). “Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it; for success, like happiness, cannot be pursued, it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintentional side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself, or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself”.
36) Be the change (Gandhi).
37) Fill your water pot and hit the rock. Consistently train yourself to be your best. Buddha, “little by little a person becomes evil as a water pot is filled by drops of water, and little by little a person becomes good as a water pot is filled by drops of water”. The stone cutter hits a rock with a hammer, people say “wow, he’s strong” because he broke a huge rock with a single blow but they don’t know he’d been hammering a long time. No one is lucky enough to reach any level of excellence without an equally diligent and consistent effort. Hit the rock.
38) Be consistent. Focus on consistency not intensity. Aristotle, “we are what we repeatedly do”.
39) Be inconsistent. Be willing to change your mind. Ralph Waldo Emerson, “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”.
40) Embrace opposites.
41) Make your room your cave. Bedrooms are for sleeping and baby-making.
42) Support someone in the process of achieving greatness, anyone and everyone who has the courage to follow their dreams and try to make them a reality, including you.
43) Follow your bliss (not someone else’s or what you think it should be).
44) Use a dictionary. Write your new word down. Expand your mind.
45) Quit comparing yourself to others (you have to be either inferior or superior, and neither is a good basis for a loving relationship).
46) Brush your teeth. While you’re doing it, look yourself in the eyes and say “I love you”.
47) Squeeze the old Kiegle.
48) Stretch.
49) Quit milking the cow (eliminate dairy).
50) Say thank you. Go to bed with those words, wake up with them, and pop them in during the day.
