Live your truth.
Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s fine. It’s not their journey to make sense of. It’s yours.
Zero Dean
Author | Photographer | CG Artist | Filmmaker
Zerosophy
Use your free time wisely
Everything you do today influences what you’ll do tomorrow — and over time, your entire life.
Use your free time wisely.
What you do in your free time determines what you’ll be doing when you don’t have a choice.
If you’re not using your free time to direct your life where you want it to go, don’t expect to arrive at your desired destination when the rest of your time is spent being told what to do by other people.
You can’t just wish for what you want to happen — you have to work for it. And that means taking action when you have the time.
“If you don’t make the time to work on creating the life you want, you’re eventually going to be forced to spend a lot of time dealing with a life you don’t want.” — Kevin Ngo
Balance in life is important — and taking time to simply relax and enjoy life is vital to maintaining that balance — so this is not to glorify “work”. This is only a reminder that it is important to be mindful of where you want to go in life and to take consistent steps forward if you want to have the pleasure of getting there.
Working towards your goals on a daily basis can be as simple as just reaffirming those goals (both short and long-term).
Since what you do today influences what you do tomorrow anyway, you might as well use the opportunity to influence your tomorrow in as positive & productive way as possible.
Go on, do something today that your future self will thank you for.
“If you don’t build your own dream someone else will hire you to help build theirs.” — Tony Gaskins Jr.
Follow-up:
G+ comment: What do you mean when you don’t have a choice?
Zero:
Obviously we all have a choice to do or not do something at any time (although “results/consequences may vary”).
But I mean, we all have things we WANT to do. And we all have things we feel we HAVE to do.
If these two things are not one and the same, then what we do in our “free” time (when we feel we have a CHOICE) can have a drastic impact on those things that take on the “have to do” portions of our lives (those things we feel we don’t have a choice in).
“I have to make money to survive.”
Here’s a real world example:
Teenagers who spend all their free time smoking pot and playing video games will likely find themselves in a much different set of life circumstances (of things they “have to do”) than teenagers who spend their free time being proactive in various areas of their lives (educating themselves, learning new skills…).
Another example:
If someone loves photography, and would love to have a career in photography, but spends all their free time watching TV, then that will have an impact those things in life that they feel they have to do.
If someone loves photography and spends their free time honing their photography skills, then that will lead to a much greater likelihood that what they end up “having” to do is also something they WANT to do.
If you “have” to have a career, then it certainly makes sense to make it something you enjoy doing.
By being proactive and directing your life where you want it to go, you are presented with far more opportunities than if you simply go where life directs you.
Regardless of what society “says”, as independently thinking and acting individuals, we make choices every day that can either fall in line with what society suggests, or fall in line with what we truly want (if the two are not the same).
“Look closely at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming.” — Alice Walker
Related:
- The results of your actions speak louder than words
- Offsite: Do you know what you want?
- Offsite: Look closely at the present you are constructing
- Offsite: The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present
How to overcome boredom.
This post is a follow-up to: “If you’re bored, you’re boring.”
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The cause of boredom is often a result of not having a clear idea of what to do or having the motivation to do it.
The key to overcoming boredom is taking action.
Children will often sit in a room with a computer, games, and books, and say, “I’m bored.”
This is not a result of lack of things to do, it’s a result of not having any motivation to take advantage of any of the immediately obvious options. And this is often because it feels as if everything that can be done with the available options has already been done.
- I’ve already played that game.
- I’ve already read that book.
- I’ve already used the computer and visited my favorite web sites.
Anything that you do over and over without reward (such as learning something new) feels repetitive and is no longer challenging. Or if it is challenging — such as in the case of a difficult video game — it is no longer challenging in a “fun” way. It becomes more of a source of frustration — so it is not an option.
If you’re bored, you’re boring
I received a comment on facebook in response to the following quote (image here):
“‘I’m bored’ is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen none percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless; it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to say ‘I’m bored.'” — Louis CK
J: Well I don’t have a creative mind and why would I explore the world when I am 12.
Me: What makes you so certain that you don’t have a creative mind?
J: I can’t even attempt to think of anything my friends can. All I can do is run scenarios of super heroes fighting and who would win.
Here’s the deal J:
1. Research indicates that the human brain isn’t even fully developed until about 25 years of age. Coming to conclusions that you’re not good at something before your brain is even fully developed is a bit premature, at best. Because even after your brain is fully developed, we always have the ability to focus on learning new skills and honing others.
2. If you’ve ever had a dream, you’re creative.
If you’ve ever worried, you’re creative.
If you’ve ever made a wish for something you don’t have, you’re creative.
If you’ve ever made up an excuse, you’re creative.
If you’ve ever run scenarios of super heroes fighting and who would win, you’re creative.
Congratulations, you have a creative mind.
Knowing something doesn’t get you results until you apply it.
- It’s important to balance work and play…
- Junk food is unhealthy…
- Smoking causes cancer.
- Eating processed meats is linked to cancer…
- Exercising more and eating a healthy diet is the key to weight loss…
“Yeah, I know that,” you say.
But what you know isn’t doing you any good if it hasn’t changed how you live.
Knowing something doesn’t get you results until you apply it.
Knowledge is only potential power. It doesn’t become true power until it is applied.
Related:
- The results of your actions speak louder than words
- Positive thinking vs positive doing
- “I have no opportunities.”
- If you want something extraordinary
- “Think positive.” No. Think intelligently.
Stop wishing for more time
Stop wishing for more time.
Anyone who ever accomplished anything great in life had exactly the same number of hours in their day as you do.
Today we have more ways to solve more problems and get more done in a single day than have ever existed before in the whole span of history.
Your “lack of time” is not a time problem, it’s a priorities issue. One thing you can do to better manage your time is to stop doing so many of the things that bring little value to your life and start focusing on the things and people that do.
That’s all anyone who has ever gone on to accomplish great things has done. You don’t get more time by wishing for it. You get more time by making better use of the time you already have.
Related:
