You’re Choosing To Live The Way You Live Right Now

Certain experiences make us feel joyful, engaged, amazed and motivated.

1. Concerts, museums and great outings engage all our senses, making the moments stand out intensely.
2. Breaking the routine, or the ‘script’ of life provides us with a pleasant surprise, resulting in little moments of big memories.
3. Competing in something, like a game or a bet, raises the stakes and creates in us a rush of endorphins, making the event more entertaining and memorable.

The number one reason for employees to leave their jobs is the lack of recognition, praise and appreciation.

In research spanning decades, employees were asked about their motivation factors at work and had only one common factor across 46 years, which was the appreciation they got from the employer for their hard work.

If we look at our dreams and the brain’s capacity to hallucinate, we can see that nothing outside our existence may be real.

Everything could be an illusion, a long dream, and we could be the only person that existed in a world of ‘Maya’. This is what solipsism is all about.

The philosophy of idealism states that reality is something that exists on a mental level, and many or most of our outer experiences could just be imagination.

The idea behind BAT is that we have to do happy to feel happy. Instead of our mood changing what we do, we need to change what we do to fix our mood. The first principle of BAT is to change what you do. Engage in the right activities and positive feelings will follow.

We can't wait until we feel better before we act. Emotions perpetuate themselves. We have to move now and break the cycle of our feelings. This is how we grab hold of happiness.

• Pleasure is vital, but we want the kind that will last and not leave you even more stressed than before you started. We're looking for a deeper satisfaction that comes from truly meaningful activities like relationships, exercise, and reading.
• Mastery can be thought of as a feeling of accomplishment. Progress in goals that are meaningful to you, whether it pays the bills or not.

Create a balance between leisure activities and mastery.

Competency requires practice. It doesn't get easier overnight.

Playing the part doesn't mean to just fake it, even if there are some benefits to that, too. Instead, by diving in and doing the work even if you don’t feel 100% prepared, your skillset will start to improve as you get more practice.

When you’re really unsure, asking questions may be last thing you'd want to do, because it could feel like turning on a spotlight when all you want to do is go unnoticed. But masking uncertainty tends to amplify it.

In many situations, questions are an important tool: the more comfortable you get asking for clarification or help, the smoother the path is down the road.

Set some time aside to see what courses are available.
Take advantage of any free lessons, watch the introductions to their classes and see if the instructor will be a good fit for your skill level and speed.

Watching online tutorial videos can become addictive. Keep in mind that you are trying to learn something, not get distracted.

How long you would be able to study depends on the density of the subject and the level of your knowledge about the subject.

If one is too busy, the gates of curiosity, wonder and serendipity become forever closed. We have to take time out to do something new, exploring life, and what all it has to offer.

Our desk job followed by our home responsibilities will rob us of a good life if we are too busy to be curious.

Life is about the new, and curiosity keeps life novel. Doing new things, learning new stuff and innovating in your field of interest.

Doing things that you are curious about will make your life full of joy, giving you a long, satisfying life experience.

There are five core concepts to keep in mind as you think about the second half of your career:

• The entrepreneurial mindset : Your life is not to be sold to a person who can give you a monthly paycheck (however large it is) but has to be moulded and perfected so that it becomes your business.
• Self-confidence: It may seem like everything related to management, digital transformation, marketing and sales has been told already, and sharing your own experience would not be something new. What is to be understood is that your own experience has a unique value, which no one has or can steal from you.
• Continuous learning: Staying curious and well informed will help you to shape your brand.
• Continuous improvement: Being enthusiastically skeptical is a great strategy for a constant endeavour to improve oneself, and finding a better way to do one’s task.
• Reinvention: Being forever employable means that you have to reinvent the core aspects of yourself.