Author: nathancepercygmailcom

Do you get excited for sunsets?

Most people don’t. They take it as a given that it will happen. But that doesn’t make it any less impressive.

To me, it’s a daily reminder that there are forces completely out of my control. That I’m not in control of everything. This fact leaves me feeling powerless and yet supported by something bigger than myself.

That’s what awe feels like. And it’s the most powerful of all the positive emotions.

Awe is a mixture of fear and wonder at the same time. What a powerful combination! And it’s even more impressive because awe has a “humbling” quality to it. You can’t help but feel small and insignificant when you experience awe.

You can experience awe on a daily basis. You just have to allow it to happen. You simply need to get out of your head and away from your problems.

The recipe for experiencing more awe is simple: Spend more time in nature, getting lost in the woods. Or watch the stars on a pitch-black night. Or hold your child close to you so you can feel its heartbeat.

We need more awe in our lives. Start feeling awe today.

The term “10X” is being thrown around a lot lately. For example, in the startup world you’ll hear the following: “We need to 10X growth in order to hit our numbers.” Or my personal favourite: “We need to launch a product that is 10X better than the competition.”

Essentially in order to have 10X results in any field, you need to find asymmetrical opportunities. You need to think: “Where are the leverage points that if I push a little bit, I can create 10X the results?”

And the fastest way to get 10X results, is to become 10X yourself. 

Now in order to become 10X, you must do one of two things. 1) You think 10X in terms of goals. And 2) you do 10X more than you would normally do.

Our society glorifies the second one. We praise everyone who “hustles hard”, doesn’t sleep and is always working. We “love” to hear stories like these.

But the real leverage point is in “10Xing” your thinking. You start to see different patterns than the rest. You get a sense of how best to use your limited time.

The step forward is to become 10X by dreaming 10X bigger. The 10X actions can wait.

What comes to mind when you hear the word luxury?

Most people think that luxury involves having a large amount of money and being comfortable. Most people want to live a life of luxury. Think of all the things you could buy with an unlimited money supply!

You could pay for your children’s university tuition in the blink of an eye. You could buy fancy yachts and sail all over the world. You could even donate all your money to a cause you truly believed in.

But to me, that doesn’t mean you’re living a life of luxury. You’re living a truly luxurious life when you can laugh at life in any situation. If you are able to laugh even when everything is crumbling around you, then you win.

That’s what warriors are able to do. They may not have all the money in the world. They may not even have the safety and comfort that most people crave. But they are truly luxurious because they realize that it’s all a game. So they cultivate a sense of joy, laughter and play in their lives because that’s all that matters.

They can laugh at life because they understand this secret: The ultimate luxury is laughter. You’re supposed to have fun.

Are you living a life of luxury?

You have a challenge facing you every time you hear your alarm clock go off. The challenge is this:

“Do I hit snooze and stay in bed for 10 more minutes once the alarm goes off?” Or, “Do I leap out of bed, ready to tackle the day?”

Most people will do the former. Most people will roll around and look for any excuse to avoid the day. Most people will say that their back hurts. Or that the kids woke me up and I need more sleep. Or that it’s so much more comfortable here under the covers.

But I know you’re not like most people. You won’t say any of those things. You’re a warrior.

You look forward to starting your day. Because you know that you’re called to do something great. Because you believe that you can make a difference. Because you simply have no other choice.

So if that means you don’t get enough sleep today, you’ll find a way to catch up. You’ll be extra efficient today to get back to bed to rest.

True warriors know of no other way.

 

 

You savour events or moments that truly matter. The time spent with your loved ones. The moment when your sports team wins a championship. The time when you accomplish a huge goal.

You remember these moments for the rest of your lives. Those moments have emotional significance. They are worth it.

What if you could savour every day? Every day you feel the sun shining on your back – that’s a moment to savour. Each day that you get to come to the office and do your best work – that’s another moment to savour.

But if you spend the majority of your days, complaining about trivial matters, then what’s the point? What are you savouring? The negativity. The struggle. The anger.

You get to choose. You get to choose what to savour.

Savour the good. You’re worth it. 

In any circumstance, you always have two modes.

You can choose to play small. You can choose to listen to the voice begging you to quit. This voice pipes up every second. “It’s too hard… You don’t have time… They’ll laugh at you…”

Or you can choose to be a warrior. You can openly laugh at the fear. You can smile as your fear voice goes through its regular shpeal. You can choose to feel the fear… and do it anyway.

The warrior mode is always accessible. You only need to be a warrior to have access to it. Warriors have gotten a bad rap over the years. But true warriors are able to smile at danger in the face. And still execute.

Which mode will you choose?

I love watching NFL players do their victory dances.

I enjoy watching them because these dances are creative, complex and always fun to watch.

But most of all, I enjoy them because they celebrate their work.

In most workplaces, the good work that we do is taken for granted. When we help create a presentation that wins a new client, we don’t get any kudos. When we find a way to reduce costs by 2%, we don’t get the plaudits. Instead, we are rewarded for these good deeds by immediately being tasked to create more. No breaks allowed.

Since when is that a fair trade? It’s no wonder that people hate their work.

Instead, look at the NFL players. You can hate or love the sport, but you can’t deny that they do physically demanding work. And granted it’s only “a game”, but they get a chance to celebrate their efforts. They get to do a victory dance.

What if you could take that “victory dance” mentality into your workplace? What would you celebrate? How often would you do it?

What would your victory dance look like?

 

Theatre is an interaction between performers and observers (actors and an audience) in a shared physical space. In modern day usage, we can call this a “play”.

The best plays  have actors that make the audience forget that they are acting. You actually believe that the person is “Othello” instead of Robert.

While this is most obvious when you look at theatre, we forget that every single day, we are acting too. In every interaction we are playing our predefined roles: “Father”, “Husband”, “Friend”, “Manager”, “Employee” etc.

The problem arises when we over-identify with our roles. We try so hard and take ourselves so seriously to convince our audience that our roles matter. That we have some worth. In essence, we play these roles so intensely to impress others.

But if we take the time out to think about it: No one really cares. Everyone is so caught up playing their own role, that they aren’t paying attention to you. There is no audience to care about your performance.

What are you going to do with this knowledge? Will you continue to play a role simply to impress others? Or will you choose the role that impresses yourself?

Because it’s all theatre. Life is all theatre. So you might as well pick the role that you actually want to play.

When you hurt your leg, what is the one thing that everyone tells you to do?

Rest and relax. Take it easy. Recover

Sounds logical right? But sometimes, that’s the opposite of what you need to do. Because when you rest, you also kill something important.

You kill your momentum. 

Momentum is the reason an oil tanker takes a long time to come to a stop. Momentum is the reason that the successful keep making more and more money. Momentum is the reason sports teams keep winning.

Momentum is a powerful force in your life. And you must nurture that force in your life by keeping it alive.

Here’s the secret to nurturing that force:

Keep moving forward. 

Even if you only move forward an inch, that’s forward motion. That’s enough to accomplish your goals.

So instead of resting and recovering, can you keep up the momentum?

In order to see a situation clearly, we need to be “above” the situation. We need to detach and rise. We need to view the situation exactly like an eagle would. 

But this is difficult. We are easily distracted by life and the challenges that life throws at us. And on top of that, we prefer to stay trapped in our “roles”. We feel more comfortable being a “mother” than seeing the situation like an eagle.

For those that want to learn how to “see”, you must spend the time alone. Like an eagle going upward, you must go “inward”. You must take the inward journey. Otherwise you will forever be trapped in your role.

Learn to see. Become an eagle. Go inward.