Photo Courtesy of 96dpi (flickr)
Accidents happen. Your life, however, shouldn’t be one of them. When I imagine someone who truly embodies a graduated and clueless lifestyle, I picture a wanderer, someone with no direction, no purpose, and no real understanding of anything beyond the present moment. This person probably has a history of success and productivity but for one reason or another has no real focus at the moment. In addition, this clueless chap has no idea how to begin the journey to discover a future life worth pursuing. Don’t get me wrong, living in the present is the best and only way to live. All life is lived in the present. The past is a memory and the future is a projection, both of which only exist in our mind and that take us away from the present moment. Therefore, the goal is to make our present moment more useful, more productive, more purposeful, driven, and meaningful. Ultimately, your mission is to live with great intention in all things you do. Living on purpose is grounded in clarity of thought, clarity of intention, and clarity of action.
Clarity of Thought
Thinking is not natural. In fact, real hard core thinking is a very refined skill that most people rarely engage in. In order to utilize the vast power of our brains we actually have to make an intentional decision to think. Creating clarity in our thoughts occurs as we clear out the clutter that mucks up our daily decision making. To clear out your thoughts you have to think about that process and do it. A practical application of this could be journaling, brainstorming, or thinking out loud. You can greatly enhance these processes by drinking green tea, cleansing your digestive system, practicing yoga, doing vigorous cardiovascular exercise, and/or getting enormous amounts of sleep and relaxation for many days in a row. The key to these exercises is repetition. As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” Make it a habit to think. Make it a habit to clear your mind and think thoughts because you chose to and not because you just happen to. Thinking clearly doesn’t happen on accident. ‘Aha!’ moments can occur randomly, but you can dramatically increase their probability by clearing your mind as often as possible.
Clarity of Intention
After spending some time clearing the junk out of your brain you will be thinking with the highest possible clarity. This is a very exciting and possibly overwhelming experience because your brain will feel like it’s on fire! You will experience a rush of thoughts, enormous amounts of positive energy through enhanced endorphin and adrenaline rushes, and a general sense of peace and happiness. To enable your clear intentions you have to weed through the many useless thoughts that are flying through your brain. Keep the good thoughts and discard the less desirable ones or write them down to save them for later processing. Intention is the act of making a conscious decision. Thinking should not be an accident. Make it purposeful.
Clarity of Action
Group your best thoughts together and make a clear-headed decision about what must be done. Your intention alone to act on your thoughts should make you very excited. At this point you probably have a many wonderful ideas and narrowing down your best thoughts will be difficult. You will be tempted to act on many or all of them, but resist it. Act only on the top ideas that will yield the best results. Make a prioritized list and focus on the most radically effective ideas only. Then set out to make a plan of action to complete the #1 idea that will change your life more than any other. If you’ve made a great decision you will feel empowered by doing so. Doubt will creep in later, but you must fight through it. Clarity of action is a reinforcing behavior because you will want to continually take more positive, powerful, and permanent action steps. Remember, activity breeds activity. So, as you act on your best ideas you will feel motivated to continually moving forward in a positive direction. Much like when you’ve broken through the wall on a long run, all you want to do is continue running without any thought of stopping. This is ideal. Create a situation where your productivity and efficiency is so high and so unstoppable you are not just “in the zone” for a short time, you are experiencing it all the time.
Living on Purpose
In my own life I strive continuously to create clarity in all situations. I will attribute the vast majority of my recent clarity to my dietary changes and exercise habits. I switched to an organic, vegetarian, all natural, and whole foods diet. I am also on the way to becoming a vegan. I run multiple times a week and I’m training for another marathon. I drink tea more than coffee and I eat considerably less than before. I drink green smoothies very often, which cleanse my body rapidly and springboard me towards purposeful action as efficiently as running does. I have noticed that my greatest moments of clarity occur in the late afternoon to early evening when I am hungry, tired, and slightly buzzed on caffeine. In those moments I can think with impeccable clarity and make decisions with ease. I have similar sensations an hour after I wake up and that is also when I have the most energy. My most productive hours of the day are between 7 and 10 in the morning. Learning to recognize your own best hours of productivity will help you focus by scheduling your most important tasks in that time block.
If you have reached the point where you are living on purpose each and every day, you will be making clear intentional decisions based on intelligent thoughts that produce powerful results. You will take bold, purposeful action and your energy will swing into overdrive as you pursue the optimal direction for each major area of your life. Living on purpose is the only way to create long-term success. It’s the only way to become financially secure, to lose weight, to move forward in your career, to develop lasting and meaningful relationships, and to create the life you actually want, not just happen upon. Don’t just go through the motions each day, choose to go to work. Choose to socialize with people who support and encourage you. Choose to pursue a better life than you are living today. Choose to maximize your own life and let others choose what they may. Make it your mission to live on purpose in each and every moment. Don’t let life happen, make it happen.
The Clueless Graduate,
Jeff Sanders
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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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