When the going gets good, the good stand pat. Human beings are like atoms, they seek the lowest energy state, and then they lay low unless provoked. Like the fable of the slowly boiled frog. If we are too comfortable, then we are likely to settle and minimize risk. If we settle for too long, we might forget what it's like to live and to live on the edge of chaos. A useful framework for how we live life looks like this:
- CAGED* - We are trapped in the past or others expectations about our future. We are bottoming out.
- COMFORTABLE* - We've kept up with the Jones'. When we are asked about our lives, the best we can come up with is "Fine." Trouble starts to brew. But, it's too damn stable to rock the boat.
- CHARGED* - We are fully engaged, joyful, and yearning for more. Others easily inspire us, and without noticing, deeply inspire others.
It's so easy to take those most important to us for granted. Here are four simple steps we can decide to make sure we are living a Charged life at home.
- Show UNDERSTANDING. Sometimes it's the hardest thing to do, to put yourself in someones else shoes. Emotions quickly cloud our perspectives. Take care to set your feelings on the sidelines and think in terms of the other. And when you feel you've exhausted your fairness, give them the benefit of the doubt.
- Illustrate VALUE - Take time to communicate with one another the benefit of the other's actions. Genuinely express the importance of a particular gesture. Acknowledge value by bringing value.
- Celebrate through RECOGNITION - Even the little things are cause for recognition. No need to be over the top. Sometimes a simple "Thank you" goes a long way.
- Share achievement through ACKNOWLEDGEMENT - When someone crushes it, let others know, with respect and tact.
In a focused sense relative to ourselves, living COMFORTABLY is often more of a curse than living a CAGED life. Comfort breeds complacency Complacency stalls change No change, no growth. No growth equals surrender.
To pursue rapid life change, you are helped by recognizing that you might have hit bottom. We most often find ourselves at the bottom when CAGED, though if too COMFORTABLE, these truths equally apply.
We become DISGUSTED with ourselves. Disgust is an emotion of the vilest order. Self-disgust leads to an epiphany of maximum hope. Hope drives us to make a DECISION. Our growth is most potent when we decide that we've had enough, and we are not going to take it anymore. The DECISION builds us a growing fire of DESIRE. Harking back to my earlier posts, the more we think about something, the more we will manifest success in the object of our thoughts. With a firmly established level of DESIRE, we no create unbreakable levels of RESOLVE. To resolve to do something holds power when germinated in DIGUST< DECISION, and DESIRE. Our simple New Years Resolutions are likely spontaneous commitments snatched from a late your published list or water cooler conversations. To RESOLVE something when forged in the fires built from DISGUST, we have a unique chance to create lasting powerful change in the shortest time possible.
Don't take for granted those who are part of your most valued relationships. Don't take for granted your life situation and allow yourself to be seduced by COMFORT. A changed life begins at the edge of your comfort zone. The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the amount of uncertainty you can live with comfortably.
*Framework developed by Brendon Burchard.
