(Photo: BK)
In his seminars, Tony Robbins often talks about the difference between success and failure being one millimeter. Many people hover somewhere in between. They want to move up the success ladder, but don’t realize that a few simple tweaks, or a few millimeters, can catapult them to a whole new level. Not only that, but many businesses just blindly make changes, day in and day out, hoping that eventually something will stick. Using this strategy can take months or years to yield any measurable results.
Persistence and will power can get you very far in most things, but these require an indefinite amount of time. Not only that, but if applied to the wrong thing, they can take you far away from the outcome you desire. Want to save yourself some time and frustration? Just reach deep into your being and pull out this little thing called “awareness.”
It’s nothing new. Awareness is accessible within all of us, even with ADHD. It’s what allows us to make conscious change and what gives us our brilliant ideas or epiphanies. It’s activated by simply noticing and acknowledging your feelings and/or surroundings in any given moment. Unfortunately, most people live on autopilot and rarely use it.
When you become aware of your surroundings, life slows down and becomes more enjoyable. Plus, when things are going great, you begin to see more synchronicities in life. Some call these coincidences or deja vu. Religious people call them “signs.” I like to think of them as being in vibrational alignment with the universe. In any case, the effect is the same. We feel like everything is going our way and we ride this wave where life is just smooth and effortless, like perfect harmony… That, my friends, is when greatness will happen.
Want to know if you’re on the verge of greatness? Stop for a moment and pay attention to what you’re doing. How do you feel right now? How do you feel about what you’re doing? Do you feel like you’re on a roll? Have you done something lately that felt good? Not just temporarily pleasing, but that felt good down to the core… Do you feel like you’re living in constant state of deja vu? What anomalies have you had in your personal life or business that showed overwhelming, yet unexpected results?
(Photo: Hans-Peter)
If you have a hard time developing present-state awareness, try mindfulness or focused-attention meditation. They teach you to focus on an anchor, such as your breathing, which you can come back to if you get distracted. If you’re an adult with ADHD and get restless doing meditation, try starting small, say two minutes a day, and work your way up from there. Studies show that consistent meditation can improve focus and memory recall, decrease anxiety, and help you block out distractions, thereby boosting productivity. Read this Lifehacker article for more detail about how meditation affects the brain and an app you can use to start meditating today.
Want to recognize that unmistakable greatness faster? Work smarter, not harder. Become more aware, watch for cues, and swim with the current. You can work your tail off and swim against it, but at the end of the day, you could end up on the wrong path, or worse, on the right path but burnt out and miserable. If you swim with the current, you’ll become aware of that unmistakable greatness much faster, and you’ll enjoy every step of the way. Are you swimming with the current or against it? Do you see greatness up ahead?
