Hey there! What’s up? I’m great thank you for wondering. It’s a New week, new challenges, and in some sense A New Concept! …and it’s time start over! Hu? Well, I’ve thought a lot lately and decided that this year we’ll go about our personal development journey in a more structured way, with a monthly theme with at least one book as a basis. That doesn’t mean you have to read the book at hand, I’ll still be breaking down the gist of what’s important and present an easy and practical challenge that you are able to do throughout the week – even if we have a busy job to attend! My intention is to give you what’s deliver the most value with the least amount of effort. That’s my idea and concept for this – less random and more planned!

I want build ourselves a solid foundation to stand on, starting from within, because it doesn’t matter if

we develop crazy mad skills in how to perfectly structure a conversation for people to like us, or how to give genuine compliments, if we don’t have any sort of clarity in who we are – self-awareness! That is a clear perception in who we are; personality, weakness, thoughts, believes, likings, emotions and what motivates.

“Self Awareness allows you to understand other people, how they perceive you, your attitude and your responses to them in the moment.” (pathway to happiness, no date)”

If we’re not pursuing our true path in life – being true to ourselves – all those other less important skills and doings won’t matter anyway. They may keep you occupied and give you a sense of meaning, and sometimes that is all we need for a while, but reality will always catch up! The sooner we can start following our true path in life, the sooner we’ll start to feel the true meaning of it all.

So this week’s challenge is going to start on clarifying our passion areas in life. Why start there? Well because when you get a sense of how your life really could look like, the motivation for taking every necessary step towards that life, will be infinite.

The Objectives of this week:

MONDAY: LOOK WITHIN

“Primal Inclinations draw us toward certain disciplines and are key to developing mastery” – Robert Greene

Looking within to connect with that primal part of yourself – sit down for five to ten minutes and think about what really has been easy and fun for you through life. What was it that you most of all enjoyed doing when you were a kid? In what situations do you most often get yourself in a state of flow? (you may sit longer, but the sense of being on a deadline forces our brain to come up with some results). Think about during the day reflect, let your mind work subconsciously, come back to it again in the end of the week to see if there’s anything you’ve forgotten about.

TUESDAY-THURSDAY: GET FEEDBACK

“you have to audit who actually are… …because then you’re not gonna bullshit yourself a story tell yourself you can motivate yourself but you’re not gonna bullshit yourself” – Gary Vaynerchuk

You are going to ask at least three persons that knows you very well, about three that you’re good at and three things that really isn’t your strong suite. Ask people in a way that makes you comfortable; but here’s a guideline if you need it:

-Hey, *small talk, small talk* so I’m doing an introspection/soul-searching/self-examination on myself this week, and I wonder if you can tell me 3 things I’m good at, and three things that perhaps isn’t my strong suit. I know this is hard for both you and me, bur I really really need to, and can handle, the truth.

THURSDAY/FRIDAY:  SCENARIO BRAINSTORMING

You now should have a list with the things that come naturally to you, from these things, set the timer for 5-10 minutes and think about how a potential career with these identified areas/skills could look like. Just play around, brainstorm and visualise how a career with these combinations could look like. I’m not saying you have to pursue this, I just want you to set yourself in a state of no limitations and beyond current musts and obligations. Allow yourself to see into that parallel universe where you do things cantered around what you really like. Now I really think this should be your path, but subconsciously your mind will try to protect you from uncertainty, and not allow you to let go of your current certainty. BUT PLAY WITH THE THOUGT – At least that very action you deserve to treat yourself with. And then maybe, when you’ve gotten an idea of one potential future, a seed will been put in the ground. And hopefully, consciously or subconsciously, you’ll start to move towards that future.

For instance, if you’d love dancing your entire life, it’s been a natural part of your life since birth.  But it’s not a big part anymore. However, you’ve also got a knack for helping people, you’ve worked in helpdesk support and always got feedback on what a great sense you have for connecting with people and taking them through a complicated process in what seems like very uncomplicated and structured way. But your current job as a school teacher is with constant battles and way too many working hours doesn’t make you feel fulfilled. Your other passion for creating music. Perhaps is there a way for you to teach people how to dance to the music you’ve created. Whether it could start out as taking on dance lessons again, while looking for opening on face-to-face dance teaching job. While also starting a YouTube channel where you could start creating dance tutorials for how to learn some of your special move, where you also get a chance to spread your music you’ve created and write vlog posts on the latest dance shows – since you also feel closely related to the art of writing.

Now from the very sight of this challenge it’s very simple, 5 minutes a day, 25 minutes total investment in what that might have the possibility to forever course correct the path of your life. Let’s do this! And the reason for not doing it all in one sit-down is because I really think it’s good to linger on things like these, have the focus with you thought the week and think about it. Look at your days and see how much of these things you truly love that is incorporated in what you actually spend the majority of your time on. It’s just so important.

Now you may actually think about how this is interfering with your new year’s goal you’ve been working on to get right. And YES. that may be the case, but that’s great, then you’ve actually realised that you were about to invest a lot of time and energy in to something that really wasn’t’ the most important thing for you to do. Look, life is finite and we have to prioritize what we spend our time on. See it as a blessing that this happened now and not one year from now, or in worst case – never. Just make sure to grab what you’ve learned from that experience, move on and improve your life even more.

If you have any comments, ideas or thoughts on this, please leave a comment!

And if you feel like it, do commit to me “I’m doing this challenge” As it will radically improve the chances of you actually following through.

Best of Luck,

Alexander 🙂

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