In this article I am going to illustrate a method of turning your life around, going from mundane, boring, safe, and probably unhappy, to a life that excites you, a life of adventure, and joy.
The example is real: I went through this just about an hour ago… so it is real and it’s fresh. Here you go:
I have been waking up every morning disappointed that I woke up. And I had the
‘I only woke up in the morning because I didn’t die the night before’
This morning I sat on the edge of my bed, looking at this mood, curiously. The ‘I’ that was watching, was sympathetic and compassionate to the miserable ‘I’ that was sitting on the edge of the bed.
‘But it makes no difference,’ the miserable ‘I’ said. ‘People are set in their ways, the dark side wins by numbers, and no matter what I do, it makes no difference… not really!’ it continued its whinging.
‘OK, time to break out the big gun’ the observer ‘I’ said then, and then we both looked.
So what game would be worth playing, that would transform this morning scenario into eager ‘I can’t wait to start my day’ scenario?
We didn’t have to wait long for the game to emerge. No thinking, no forcing, it just popped out: ‘How about the game of being a winner?’
It’s a perfect game because it doesn’t have one big result and when you have to invent another one to win again. What makes a winner is winning, just like what makes a leader is leading… it is not possible to fake. You either win or you don’t. We will consider winning at this game if the results in real life match the criteria as winning.
Winning in business, winning in relationships, winning in health… perfect game. It will give us an opportunity to celebrate every win, big or small, and in order to celebrate, we’ll have to notice it all. We won’t be stingy like we have been: winning won’t be our natural state, winning will be our milestone. It will never be taken for granted.
With Landmark Education’s wording, we would say it this way: ‘The possibility I am inventing for myself and for my life, is the possibility of being a winner.’ We like that. Because it includes both the experience and the facts… the facts of actually winning.
So how do you win? Winning requires rules. Of what is considered winning.
In golf you win if your ball goes into the little hole in the ground.
So, in my life, the rules will be: I will set my sight at something. If I accomplish it, it’s winning. if I fail to accomplish it, then it’s not winning.
I will pick my games carefully but yet boldly. The word “accomplish” indicates that the game must be not easy to win, and that I will need to apply myself, grow, learn, get clever, take risks… I like it.
I just had an insight: every time I can say to myself ‘I am proud of myself!’ is a win.
Example: If you can replace one cup of coffee with a glass of water, because you’ve been wishing to do that… you can be proud of yourself.
Remember that babies take their first steps and everybody
Read the original article: Turning your life around on a dime. Become a winner in life
I first participated in what is now called Landmark Education back in 1985, the last weekend of August, in Haifa Israel.