Too many people are simply bored with their life. The boredom can create a downward spiral. The spiral can include depression, listlessness, hopelessness and many other negative feelings. Perhaps the biggest issue for a person in this situation is a sense that they don’t know what to do and so they do nothing. I call this the “deer in the headlights” effect. When faced with life (as in your life) too many people stop in their tracks, frozen with fear of making that first step.
I’d like to present 8 critical skills that you need to develop now and keep finely tuned. These skills will help you avoid the negative spiral and keep you out of the traffic.
Skill #1: Dream about the future
You don’t need to sleep in order to dream. Spend time thinking BIG about your future life. If you have an unfulfilled dream from childhood, re-examine it as a place to start. What exists in your mind but is so exciting it scares you?
Skill #2: Eliminate barriers for your life dream
More than likely, you’re your own barrier. What is holding you back? I know of a thirty something that regrets not going to college. She thinks she’s too old to do it now. That is the kind of barrier I’m talking about. I have a friend that at 50+ is the “old man” in his political science department. He’s getting his Doctorate. No barrier there.
Skill #3: Attain purpose and meaning
Over 40 sometime, we start seeking purpose in new ways. Earlier in life, purpose was creating and establishing elements of life such as: spouse, children, house and career. Now that many of those are in place the purpose shifts. Purpose can be found in giving yourself and surrounding yourself with those things that nurture you. Explore. Find your purpose.
Skills #4 Empowered to choose life direction
Our future is more than the circumstances of our past. There are only 2 things you don’t have a choice over: death and taxes. Like the gal previously mentioned, she can choose what comes next. It’s your life, take charge of it.
Skill #5: Continuously learn new things
The benefits of learning are numerous. The primary benefit for you will be all the new opportunities that will open up. The possibilities are unlimited. You could learn a new skill, about new places, interests or attitudes. Basically, you will continue to grow. If you aren’t growing, you aren’t thriving.
Skill #6: Recognize what’s possible
Somewhere in our life we start shrinking the possibilities. Remember when you thought you could do pretty much anything? I went to a lecture by Dr. Wayne Dwyer and listened to a young man play improvisational drums. He had no hands. He didn’t let that fact shrink him. He looked AND FOUND what was possible.
Skill #7: Learn from mistakes
Failure is a good thing IF you learn something in the process. It’s also good because it means you are striving toward something important. Failure can also be an attitude. I’ve read that Thomas Edison “failed” 10,000 times. He never considered himself a failure. He looked at these results as 10,000 chances to improve his work. If you haven’t failed recently, give it a try.
Skill #8: Cultivate meaningful relationships of trust and respect.
We find nourishment from others in our life. We are social creatures that need to give and receive of ourselves to others. Think of this concept like fabric. Fabric has many threads, going in different directions. The sum of the parts is stronger than any one thread.
How developed are these skills for you? It’s easier to stay excited about your life than to pull yourself out of the ho-hums. Make this easy on yourself- get these skills and keep them tuned like an expensive sports car.
Author's Bio
Bored with life? No direction? Want something better? Take the free NEW LIFE assessment and get some answers. Dorothy Tannahill Moran, Life Coach and Change Agent http://www.nextchapternewlife.com
Enjoy the following collection of leave letters and applications written by people in various places.
1. Infosys, Bangalore: An employee applied for leave as follows:
"Since I have to go to my village to sell my land along with my wife, please
sanction me one-week leave".
2. This is from Oracle Bangalore: From an employee who was performing the "mundan" ceremony of his 10 year old son:
"As I want to shave my son's head, please leave me for two days.."
3. Another gem from CDAC. Leave letter from an employee who was performing his daughter's wedding:
"As I am marrying my daughter, please grant a week's leave.."
4. From H.A.L. Administration dept:
"As my mother-in-law has expired and I am only one responsible for it,please grant me 10 days leave."
5. Another employee applied for half day leave as follows:
"Since I've to go to the cremation ground at 10 O-clock and I may not return, please grant me half day casual leave."
6. An incident of a leave letter:
"I am suffering from fever, please declare one day holiday."
7. A leave letter to the headmaster:
"As I am studying in this school I am suffering from headache. I request you to leave me today"
8. Another leave letter written to the headmaster:
"As my headache is paining, please grant me leave for the day."
9. Covering note:
"I am enclosed herewith..."
10.Another one:
"Dear Sir: with reference to the above, please refer to my below..."
11.An application of leave:
"My wife is suffering from sickness and as I am her only husband at home I may be granted leave".
12.Letter:
"I am in well here and hope you are also in the same well."
13.A candidate's job application:
"This has reference to your advertisement calling for a ' Typist and an Accountant - Male or Female'... As I am both(!! )for the past several years and I can handle both with good experience, I am applying for the post.
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Have a great day!
Nothing is random, nor will anything ever be, whether a long string of perfectly blue days that begin and end in golden dimness, the most seemingly chaotic political acts, the rise of a great city, the crystalline structure of a gem that has never seen the light, the distributions of fortune, what time the milkman gets up, the position of the electron, or the occurrence of one astonishingly frigid winter after another.
Even electrons, supposedly the paragons of unpredictability, are tame and obsequious little creatures that rush around at the speed of light, going precisely where they are supposed to go. They make faint whistling sounds that when apprehended in varying combinations are as pleasant as the wind flying through a forest, and they do exactly as they are told. Of this, one can be certain.
And yet there is a wonderful anarchy, in that the milkman chooses when to arise, the rat picks the tunnel into which he will dive when the subway comes rushing down the track from Borough Hall, and the snowflake will fall as it will. How can this be? If nothing is random, and everything is predetermined, how can there be free will? The answer to that is simple.
Nothing is predetermined; it is determined, or was determined, or will be determined. No matter, it all happened at once, in less than an instant, and time was invented because we cannot comprehend in one glance the enormous and detailed canvas that we have been given - so we track it, in linear fashion, piece by piece. Time, however, can be easily overcome; not by chasing light, but by standing back far enough to see it all at once.
The universe is still and complete. Everything that ever was, is; everything that ever will be, is - and so on, in all possible combinations. Though in perceiving it we imagine that it is in motion, and unfinished, it is quite finished and quite astonishingly beautiful.
In the end, or rather, as things really are, any event, no matter how small, is intimately and sensibly tied to all others. All rivers run full to the sea; those who are apart are brought together; the lost ones are redeemed; the dead come back to life; the perfectly blue days that have begun and ended in golden dimness continue, immobile and accessible; and, when all is perceived in such a way as to obviate time, justice becomes apparent not as something that will be, but as something that is.
Winter's Tale
by Mark Helprin
