LIVING LIFE AS A LIFE HAPPINESS CHAMPION
THE VITAL SKILLS AND PRACTICES TO LIVE A GREAT LIFE
As long as there are high payoffs for acquiring more skill at life, one MUST take advantage of those, for we cannot afford to be less than a true master of life, creating the most possible from this most precious (by far!) of all gifts!!!!!!!
The analogy with sports champions holds perfectly for life champions though the criteria for performance is much more compassionate and personally fulfilling in the "arena of life" and without struggle or tough sacrifice.
Read on, and hopefully you will decide to live your life as a life champion!!!!!!!
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If you want to get what you truly want in life, you must first decide. clearly and specifically, what that is and then follow the practices of those who are successful in getting what they want. If you do that, you will be a very happy "champion of life". And life will actually be much, much easier while being much, much better!
The BuddhaKahuna
I notice that when I don't do these things, I get "off" and I don't feel so good about things anymore. I see that always remembering to use the simple feedback and correction loop is essential to living a sense of flourishing and aliveness and real happiness! And I notice it will make a huge difference if I deliberately do this virtually every day.
KG
"Feedback is the breakfast of champions."
Read Effort - And How To Have Life Be Effortless - Life will actually be better, with alot less effort per amount of return on your time! It is easier to "tweek" your path as you go, so you are maintaining and adding to your momentum, in the reality of Super-Principle: The Law Of Inertia And Momentum.
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THE SIMPLE "SECRET"
I notice that life champions (or even the coolest kids in high school) did the following:
1. Noticed "feedback" in "the now", frequently, what worked and what didn't.
(But didn't stop there!!!!!!)
__ And they anticipated ahead of time levels of attainment they needed to
operate super well in life and proceeded to learn/read/study what would
enable those levels.
2. Learned what it would take to do what worked. (This resulted in
eliminating that which doesn't work, which results in having no big problems!
They "collapse the learning curve" by learning ahead of time instead of passively
picking up a few things here and there.)
3. Quickly adjusted (implemented it), so there were very frequent and
numerous adjustments, by far advancing them faster in life than the
non-champions.
4. Completely installed it. Engaged in "sufficient" completion (mastery) to
effectively implement (i.e. continued until the right results were obtained).
(Non-champions stop short of what it takes.) They "practiced" the new
behaviors or beliefs until they were mastered.
(Reread each one of those, so you "get it". Then, of course, get more details in the following.)
They weren't any smarter than others, but they simply followed a strategy that works. Although that strategy is, of course, necessary, each champion athlete also had identified a payoff that was worth the effort. See below.
And each champion in any area "practiced" each aspect of a skill until it became automatic and effortless - they completed the learning, not leaving half-unlearned- skills - and then they built on that base to create an overall combination that worked to create super high-effectiveness. They honored and harnessed the Power Of Habit - and created much of life being automatically and effortlessly well-done.
And those who rose to the highest level in any area and/or in life did it by setting aside, and committing to, a certain block of time in which to move forward in life. They use the principles of a pre-set, committed schedule and those of "Life Value Productivity".
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OF COURSE, LEARN FROM THOSE WHO ARE SUCCESSFUL!
We can learn how to succeed from a champion (highly accomplished person) in any field.
And the field that is most important to all of us is the field called life.
If we would live as a champion of life, we would accomplish what we needed to have in life to be
1. Happy
2. Effective
3. Fulfilled and satisfied
and we would have the high health that it takes to have the energy to do what it takes.
WHAT THEY HAVE AND DO TO "BE" CHAMPIONS
So, what do they have and do to become and operate as champions?
They:
__ DECIDE CLEARLY AND "DEFINITIVELY"
(Use this is a checklist to see which of these you do, don't do, or don't do enough.)
__ Decide what they want (very clearly, very definitively).
__ Set specific, by-when goals
__ Decide to do what is necessary to get what they want:
__ Take 100% responsibility for the results they produce, no excuses, no blame,
no "victim" language (meticulously), things don't "happen to" them, they
make things happen, they are the creators of all in their lives.
__ Develop Self-control (aka self-discipline, but really self-power)
__ Develop a high goal of high competence/mastery (in general, of self; also for
effectiveness in getting what one wants).
__ Develop languaging and "conversation" that is based on positive progression
__ THEY DO "ANTICIPATORY" LEARNING, REGULARLY!
__ They are proactive learners, not waiting to "react" to an anticipatable
problem (or to extreme "htting bottom" situations).
__ They do reading/learning regularly, with most doing at least 60 minutes/day.
__ SEE WHAT WORKS, CORRECTING QUICKLY
__ Pay attention to what works and doesn't work - and quickly correct, but
do it more often and more completely than the non-champion.
__ Seek and get feedback very frequently (so they can make more course
corrections, make more progress more quickly, and stop practicing
something that will throw them off).
__ The Short Pause to see what is going on, to get perspective and
__ Plan to do what is needed (which may require some learning
first), and then they
__ Pace themselves, never too fast, never too slow, smart tortoise-like, almost
always keeping themselves in optimum functionality (with special focus on
not being stressed...)
__ Go deeply enough to solve/correct what is needed, not seeking comfort or
escape but only results, while not stressing or pushing too hard, so it is
actually pleasurable.
__ Hold themselves accountable and make themselve accountable to other (because that is what work psychologically), not hiding or excusing - almost always using coaches and other means of doing so, such as monitoring sheets.
__ LEARN TO A HIGH, COMPLETE ENOUGH LEVEL
__ Learn all they can about what it takes to be great at what they do, systematically __ Accessing and using from experts, including using coaches
__ Observe and learn from models who are masters at whatever it is
__ Learn to a high degree how their bodies, minds, and psychology work.
__ Learn which impulses and signals are valid and which they can simply
"let be"
__ PRACTICE
__ Practice, practice, practice (do over and over what is right and workable),
very often using visualization to get "perfect" practice and "see" what works.
__ KEEP THEMSELVES IN GREAT OPERATING ORDER
__ Keep themselves in shape (high functioning balance) so that they can execute
what is needed. (Maintain this: Homeostasis)
DO AS A CHAMPION DOES --> BECOME A CHAMPION
If you do as a champion does, you will become a champion. If you are "being" how a champion is and operating as a champion would operate, then you'll have the greater ability and greater ease to achieve whatever you want.
I invite you to consider being a life champion and setting a goal to be that - and soon.
Or you can live in the illusion of living a life of avoiding discomforts and/or not doing the right thing - which you 'know' doesn't work, since you at a deeper level don't feel so good about how you are doing or being in life.
You get a choice:
1. Invest a bit more upfront and get great investment returns or
2. Let things go as they are, thinking that you're saving effort.
The irony is that in the latter case it actually takes dramatically more effort (and unpleasantness) over the long term to keep on living a life that is not working as you would wish it to - and to keep repeating and correcting the symptoms of the same old unsolved causes.
(I define "not working" as any more-than-occasionally unhappiness or being stressed or being overweight or spending too much or not being successful enough financially or being unaccomplished or having uncleaned-up messes in your life. So a highly accomplished executive who doesn't see his family very often, who is highly stressed and overweight is not a success or a champion of life - he/she has to "notice" the feedback and then correct back to what works and then practice it until it is automatic and habitual.)
THE ESSENTIAL VITAL INGREDIENT: "DISCIPLINE" (= PATH)
I ask you:
How could you expect to get what you want in your life if you couldn't keep yourself on the path to what you want?
The term "discipline" derives itself from the word for path. Discipline is just a matter of keeping yourself on the path. And noticing when you are off the path and then having enough self-control (and emotional reserves) to get yourself back on the path.
You cannot get to where you want to be in life without having self-discipline. (You must understand what discipline is and let go of the false ideas that make it have a negative connotation to you - negative connotation triggers a human's fear response - and, if you've studied how things work, you know that fear responses shut down your higher brain, making you operate stupidly. I don't recommend that...)
When you do the learning necessary to see the false beliefs that hold fears and dysfunctional behaviors in place, they you will solve the opposing forces that cause the conflicts with self-control and getting what we actually want in life.
If you cause and maintain your power such that you exercise self control then you will, indeed, do the other vital ingredients! And you can't humanly operate without "fuel" for that self control. (See The Willpower Reserve and the corresponding The Emotional Bank Account.)
How can you be a champion of life without doing all of these??????
The answer is there is no other way!
But, can you do all of these things?
Absolutely. They are simply the "compounded" results of doing the little "doable" things, with some mistakes, that you'll get better and better at as you recommit and correct and persist.
(Note that people do not steel themselves and then do giant, difficult leaps to being disciplined. No human can do that. They, instead, "practice" the little things, which then build habits. The habits become part of the system doing the work for you, as habits are automatic and effortless. And then you put a little effort into practicing the next desired behavior or way of thinking. But it's all a bit at a time - the human way. We learn a bit at a time - and if we practice (repeat) then we build habits and then life works easily and incredibly productively.)
WHY THE "NO VICTIM LANGUAGE RULE"
When a champion is on the way to becoming a champion, you would not catch him ever saying something like "well, the wind was off" or "well, I just wasn't feeling so good that day, I was upset." In fact, you'd never hear him talking about problems - he would only talk in terms of "here's some feedback, now I'm going to figure out how to implement that and to learn more."
He/she cannot afford to be anything less than meticulous, too be at all sloppy or permissive about letting his/her language be "victimy" or justify it by saying "well, I can't be perfect all the time in how I say things, so just let me speak this way because it is easier." (See Clean, Pure, True Languaging - And Preventing The Negative Messages, especially "Why this is vitally important".)
I DOUBT IF I CAN BECOME A LIFE CHAMPION...
That's understandable, as you don't quite "get it" about how it can happen and how it is guaranteed if you use "The Process" and just follow the steps that do "the build" to gradually accumulating all that it takes.
See also the reasoning in Am I Capable Of Making My Life Excellent? Can I Have Confidence In Reaching That High Level.
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A SPECIAL NOTE: CREATING THE STATUE OF DAVID
"Michelangelo, how did you create the statue of David?"
"It was simple. I just chipped away all that wasn't David."
Although, of course, this was not the whole secret, it is a major strategy to employ in life.
Of course, as suggested in the above article, he knew exactly what David should look like. But to do that he had to get the vague idea and then refine it and refine it and refine it, until it was great - although his "idea" of it was well defined, he even improved it as he went. (An idea of what it might look like: The Person Living Life As It Should Be Lived - An Attainable Model For Us All.)
But the point of this note is to have you identify all that isn't consistent with being a life champion and then to chisel all that away.
If you picture yourself as being in the huge marble stone slab, then you might write in all that is not the "you" that you want, writing it in the margins:
Poor thinking, inability to solve problems well or make good decisions
Untrue, unexamined and unrefined beliefs
Reactivity to false believed threats - False fears
Uncertainty
Lack of a firm foundation
Poor health habits
And, if you are to be a life champion, you would know that there is enough stone to carve a work of art, beautiful in the sense of happiness. In other words, you would know that anyone of normal intelligence can uncover and develop and do those things necessary to have some wonderful talent and to have the skill of happiness.
What did I do wrong in my life?
The standard answer is that you "stopped short" of completing the solution to a problem and/or to assuring you know enough to do each area of life well. Essentially, you did not invest sufficient effort into learning each necessary area of life and did not follow an effective learning path. or
Getting there
Select your path: The Paths
after you've made:
All champions, in any area, have made the decision to be life champions. Implicit in that is the one decision to do what is necessary to achieve being a champion. The equivalent in life is making The One Decision That Determines All Of Life.
Where Are You At?
Overall Life Test - Take this to see how things actually are working - and to see what to work on.
Can You Actually
Achieve It?
The Means To Becoming A Life Champion:
The Quickest Life Improvers - The first step, then follow the links to the other life improvers! When you finish that path, life will be hugely better!
For Your Journaling - Just Do This! - Use this process much more effectively!
The Life Improvement Journal - Noticing daily makes a huge difference!
CHAMPIONS HAVE MASTERED THESE:
Homeostasis - Staying in
power
Pieces to read and a grand overview of the elements for success in life.
How Not To Be Successful - The Checklist - They are aware of what doesn't work, so they don't do that!
"Feedback - the Breakfast Of Champions"
LIFE CHAMPION CHECKLIST
Are you a life champion?
The ultimate test:
__ High results
__ Hardly any stress all day
__ Highly healthy
Behaviors
learning every day, to accelerate getting
to higher levels and to collapse the time
it takes to learn life.
__ I adjust immediately for all "problems"
in "the now", learning whatever is
needed and installing it asap!
Where I am:
__ I am a life champion
__ I am not yet a life champion - therefore I
will implement all that is on the
checklist (in the body of this page).
__ I will not change to this level because
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The key distinction that creates a life champion is that he/she has developed the necessary mindset and the practice of seeing what is not working and immediately and completely
correcting it, including practicing it
until it is installed and working. He/she also does that proactively, ahead of time, anticipating what is needed to be a true champion of life and learning and installing it "ahead of time"! He/she embraces the principle that one must "build" a life and not just let it happen "somehow".
He or she has decided, at some point in life, to live a great life and to not settle for less. He/she set/learned high standards for the level he/she will function at. Then he/she, in smart anticipation, set about learning the knowledge and the processes that work to have one function at such a high level. A major part of the learning was from identifying/following exemplary models of others who have done it and then copying, and improving on, the processes they used that worked for them.
