Begin Astonishing Yourself With These Simple Steps

Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931) the inventive genius whose company, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, developed and patented many of the inventions that laid the groundwork for the conveniences we take for granted today was a man who overcame may adversities. For example, his formal education lasted only three months, many people thought him to be learning disabled, and early in his life he started experiencing deafness.

This man, who overcame so much to become America’s most prolific inventor knew how to live life to its fullest by making the most of himself. What was his secret? He once wrote “If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves!”

Last week, I urged you to try to live life to the fullest and told you about Jim, a man I met several years ago who practiced selective focus. Today, I want to give you a couple of more principles for living life to its fullest.

A very important element for living life to its fullest, no matter what your reality might be—is to stop complaining! My mother used to have a saying about people who were constant complainers—you may have heard it too—she would say, “So and so would complain about counting hundred dollar bills on the halves!”

Complaining compounds the problem in our mind. You see, when we allow our focus to be preoccupied with only the negativity around us is that it is human nature to talk about what we are focused on. The more we talk about it, the bigger it grows in our mind. The bigger it grows in our mind, the less room we have for constructive thinking and solutions.

We’ve all known people whose outlook and attitude has been colored by some event in their lives. Regardless of what the conversation or occasion, they will find ways to complain about what they consider to be the unfairness of life, the injustice done to them or the circumstances they are in. When it first happens, we try to be supportive, but after we heard the same negative diatribe several times, we begin to dread being around that individual.

Living life to its fullest means realizing that this old world wasn’t created just for our benefit and that other people are not here to make us happy. We begin to understand that this world will continue to be what it is—but not necessarily fair. This allows us to meet adversity calmly and creatively.

Another thing about selective focusing in order to live life to its fullest no matter what, means that we begin being for things and not just against things. Certainly, there are many things we need to be against—crime, drugs, racism, immorality, we all have our lists of things we’re against. But what we need to learn to do is focus on reframing our opposition in positive terms. For example, instead of railing against crime be for those things you feel would make a positive impact on fighting crime—perhaps better educational opportunities for troubled youth, more officers on the streets. Instead of ranting about how unfair your boss at work or your mother-in-law is—focus on ways to improve the relationship or change the dynamic that is causing the problem.

Researchers tell us that when we expend time vehemently denouncing the things we are against we are burn up vital energy and find ourselves depressed, overly tired and stressed. But when we focus on solutions we begin to generate positive solutions, exciting options and this produces hope, enthusiasm and personal energy. And with those things going for us, we begin challenging our self-imposed boundaries and begin to astonish ourselves!
Have a GREAT and profitable week,
Robert Hidde
bob@confidentliving.com