How often do you step outside your routine just to reflect on your life? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.
“It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way.”
—Ernest Shackleton, 20 Century Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer
Image from https://www.ernestshackleton.net/
Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic adventures are legendary. His most famous expedition —The Endurance Expedition (1914-1917) — aimed to cross Antarctica but turned into a survival epic.
His ship named Endurance became trapped and was eventually crushed by ice in the Weddell Sea. Shackleton and his crew survived months on drifting ice flows before reaching Elephant Island.
Realizing their chance of survival were slim to none he and five of his crew made a perilous 800-mile journey in a small boat to South Georgia, where on their fourth attempt eventually rescued the entire crew after nearly two years facing extreme weather, limited supplies, and unbearable isolation.
EXERCISE:
Where and when have you demonstrated tremendous endurance to conquer the life challenges facing you?
For inspiration, please watch the documentary Endurance online through National Geographic and Disney plus. Other platforms such as Hulu and Sling TV may also offer access to this documentary.
Image from Unsplash by TJ Dragotta
John Wooden was the most remarkable coach in college basketball and perhaps any sport. His many accomplishments include:
Perhaps more than any of these accomplishments was his tremendous influence as a team leader and the remarkable character development he offered his players well beyond their playing days.
EXERCISE:
What lessons can you take from Wooden’s career/life to win more games and change more lives in your communities?
Image from Unsplash by NASA
Sir David Attenborough is a world-renowned naturalist, broadcaster, and environmental advocate whose career spans over seven decades.
His work has revolutionized nature documentaries with groundbreaking series including Life on Earth, The Blue Planet, and Planet Earth.
His delightful storytelling, innovative filmmaking, and environmental activism have inspired audiences around the world and helped improve our understanding of the vital importance of the natural world.
EXERCISE:
How can you be a helpful part of our natural world to ensure there is still a place on earth for all living things— including us?
Have you done it yet? Have you stepped or leaped into the new year with boundless energy to better your world?
If not, you’re not alone. Many folks are still digging out of all the e-mails and work that piled up over the holidays and feel they haven’t even gotten out of the starting blocks.
What to do when “the hurried-er you go the behind-er you seem to get”?
Something dramatic has to happen to get your head above water and swim for the shore of the life you envision.
EXERCISE:
Try a brain dump exercise: List all the personal and professional to-dos that fill up and spill over your days.
Keep asking yourself “What Else?” until you get everything down.
Let this list sit for a day and dig some more.
Consider asking those close to you for their additional thoughts.
Once this list is complete, it can be managed, using a sorting strategy using the words More, Less, Start, and Stop.
It’s within the Less and Stop clutter in your world that you can make room for the Mores and Starts that will put you back in the driver’s seat to take your life where you want to go.
In what aspects of your life are you given to procrastination? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.
“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.”
“Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.”
“No one wants to be the skydiver who pulled the rip cord too late.”
Image from Unsplash by CDC
Today’s quote is a fill-in-the-blank question without a list of possible answers. It is intended to stretch you in a wide variety of directions should you choose to pause your life to do some exploration.
As the new year begins, it is common for many of us to make resolutions and promises to ourselves and others about the goals and habits we want to pursue and realize.
What objectives are top of mind for you? What intentions lie below the surface that appear so lofty that you dare even considering them?
Unfortunately, many of us give up before we get good at most things. Next January we will likely do this exercise again, with the excuse that we are even older to begin such efforts!
EXERCISE:
Use your favorite search engine or AI App to research some of the world’s late bloomers and their stories where they started when they started and got good and great at many things.
How will you use their examples as an inspiration to start today to get good at (fill in the blank)?
Image from Unsplash by NASA
As a science buff growing up and even today, Carl Sagan has always been one of my heroes. He was a leading figure in popularizing science through his books and the television series Cosmos, which became PBS’s most watched show for decades.
Sagan was instrumental in researching the potential for extraterrestrial life, demonstrating amino acids production from basic chemicals. He designed the Pioneer Plaques and Voyager Golden Recording, intended as a universal message for any extraterrestrial intelligence.
Among his numerous accomplishments was his role as an inspirational mentor to notable scientists including Neil deGrasse Tyson and countless young people who chose to follow in his footsteps.
EXERCISE:
In what ways do you courageously question your place and purpose in life and dig for the answers to make your time here even more meaningful?
Image from Unsplash by Hide Obara
Winter is a profound time for reflective thought, stillness, and introspection.
Following the hectic rush before and during the holidays, there now seems to be a distinct lull in activity similar to nature’s entry into hibernation. The darker days and colder temperatures are causing many of us to seek cozy, quiet, and warm spaces to rest and reflect.
For me, winter is a time to release old patterns of operating to emerge in spring with a new balance and bounce in my steps as the warmer and sunnier months emerge.
EXERCISE:
In what ways do and can you use the winter months to contemplate your inner and outer worlds? How can these efforts help balance and restore you for the upcoming seasons of your life?
Image from Unsplash by Олег Мороз
What does your emotional landscape look like? Consider the list below to see how they create your reality as you journey through your days.
EXERCISE:
Separate the list into positives and negatives, and add some of your own. How can you maximize the positive and minimize the negative to lead a more fulfilling and creative life?