Normalization makes life more comfortable in the short term, but I think it also makes us less resilient. For example, if I spend a lot of time exercising outdoors, the natural weather variations don’t bother me much. I’m perfectly fine running in the pouring rain. But when I exercise indoors for extended periods, I feel extra sensitive if the outdoor conditions aren’t just right.

Big variations in life (high highs, low lows) cause us to adapt. We become more flexible and able to handle more adversity. The people in my life who have very steady, stable lives are often very weak in their ability to adapt. Events that I’d see as “no big whoop” like the loss of a job will throw them completely off balance for weeks or months. They begin to fear change as a threat.

Many thanks - nice piece.

Thanks for your informative articles. I’ve been reading personal productivity books all my life and haven’t yet seen such good perspectives on things. Like this articles which I think is very close to what happens with me. I would like to ask a question though. You mention that if you stay long enough in the contraction phase it can lead to depression. That is something I can relate to. But can you suggest ways to get out of this cycle when it starts becoming harmful?

Thanks for you insights.
A “perspective shift” is often a good way to answer seemingly impossible questions.

Some quotes that come to mind:

The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.
- Albert Einstein

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man, and I will show you a failure.
- Thomas Edison

Cheers,
Peter.

So you need to create your own context for making these types of decisions. The context that works for me is the context of purpose. Define a purpose for yourself, and it cuts through all the clutter. That becomes the focal point for making the biggest decisions.

Should you work on strengths or weaknesses? Which is more important to your purpose? If communication skills were once a weakness for me, I have to make them into a strength because it’s crucial to my purpose. I also need a lot of daily energy, so I must take care of my health. But learning to play the piano doesn’t matter to my purpose.

I don’t make the decision in terms of working on strengths or weaknesses. I base it on what’s most important to my purpose; sometimes that means building a strength, and other times it means correcting a weakness. As stated previously, my purpose is to live consciously and courageously and to wake people up to start living as the great spirits they truly are instead of what they’ve been socially conditioned to be. That purpose is so important to me that if necessary, I would die for it.

Not every action in your life must be purpose driven, but a purpose makes it easy to tackle the big decisions. When you use your gift of free will to decide, “This is what my life is going to mean,” you’ve made the biggest decision of all. Everything else flows from there.

Without a purpose or an overall meaning for your life, I don’t see how you can clearly make those decisions about where to focus your energy. One choice is as good as any other. It’s like asking what color is your favorite — it doesn’t really matter what you pick. In order to make this choice intelligently and consistently, you need a life-size context for it.

I am hard working last months like never before. Timeboxing, using every minute of my life better and better. Better but not effectively in my opinion. The more I learn, the more I see I have to learn. I am study type of person, so I am always interested in many aspects of life.

In my mind is this question nowadays. Is it good to be well-rounded in many professions, to try to excel in everything I do and invest 1000 hours to every shortcoming I spot? Hmm, I think the life is too short to accomplish that succesfuly. To learn quite many businesses. I agree about the 1000 hours quote in general. But, try to count how many things you can accomplish in your life with this constant. Let’s assume that we are able to invest 5 hours a day to a new activity. It would take 200 days of hard work to be good at it. With the maximum effort, you’ll be able to cover 90-110 activities in your life. But in reality you can’t invest so much time per day to your new joys. So the list is much shorter.

I am now in the phase of my life when I evaluate where to concentrate my energy. I am able to learn anything (as opposed to many friends and ppl around me, that are still whining something is too hard for them, or they are not able to achieve it, i know it’s only the state of mind, so i am able to achieve anything, i know it) and I am really interested in many things with the same interest if I want to (I don’t mind if it’s mathematic or biology or literature, sport or meditation, I like all of these). I am also able to concentrate to very narrow field and to excel in it, but it assumes that the well-roundedness will be not pursued, which I am not satisfied with.

The time is short. What’s your opinion Steve on finding your real strengthes and escalate in them (as is described in “Now Discover Your Strengths” book for example) as opposed to investing the time to your shortcomings, to invest 1000 hours as you suggest? I like both methods, the first is making me easy flowing, because working on my strong points. But the second method is more motivational for me. I like to do the hard things and to stretch my mind or my body with never experienced thoughts and feelings before. I fully realise that the tackling with the problems is making us stronger. The difficulties are here to be our silent teachers of life.

But in reality, you can still learn and try many new things, because the more you try, the more you see you lack behind.
I can’t buy enough time for me. So what’s the most effective way of spending my hard work with?

I am really greatful for your articles Steve and don’t take my question too seriously if you don’t want to. You are helping me quite much with your everyday wrtitings, there’s always something new I can implement to my big picture. Thanks once more.