Jumpstart January Pt.1: Be The Best In The World At What You Love

Through courage, creativity, and commitment

Photo by Armand Khoury on Unsplash

Hello friends! 👋

As always, a warm welcome to our new members and a whole lot of gratitude to each of you helping share this newsletter broadly.

This week we continue our series in creating transformations that can help making 2023 your best year yet!

I’ve studied and tried multiple strategies that worked and others that failed me - I decided to share my experience so you don’t have to make the same mistakes I made, and help you move closer to your goals.

Let’s dive straight in;

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⭐️ HAVE THE COURAGE TO DREAM BIG

Most people choose to settle for safety (and comfort) in order to feel security.

And there is nothing wrong with that - Maslow and experience tell us safety is one of the psychological needs we need in order to live well.

However, if we want to unlock our potential and live fully (not just well), we have to get comfortable with taking risks.

We take risks all the time, but we got so used to some of them we actually forget that we take them; the mere act of driving (or being a passenger) every day involves a myriad of very high stake risks including risking our very own lives.

Yet, we do it. Everyday. Without hesitation.

So, it’s really more about the frequency rather than the how uncomfortable that risk is.

Our ultimate potential lies right outside our comfort zone, but we avoid it because of fearing the uncomfortable.

And courage, I found out, is not the lack of fear. Rather, it is the realization that something matters more than our fears.

To take action in spite and in the presence of fear.

If we wish to create our best life yet, we can start by looking inside and allowing ourselves to dream big, choosing to step outside the comfortable and taking action in spite of our fears.

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⚠️ DECIDE WHO YOU WANT TO BE

In this post I dissected the different ways we can create meaning in life.

One of the three pillars talked was “Comprehension”, that is; having a coherent story about who we are (who we’ve been and who we want to be).

In today’s distracted world, it is very hard for most of us to know who we are.

That’s because our values are constantly being “defined” by what’s trendy and popular, what’s forced and expected, or by what’s available and allowed. Leaving no room for us to know what we truly value.

However, that’s no recipe for achieving our actual potential.

What others value isn’t necessarily what I value, despite its popularity.

That’s simply because no two people are the same, and our uniqueness is what gives us purpose to create that which shows it.

If we wish to create our best life yet, we can start by envisioning who we truly want to be and deciding to be that person… Not tomorrow, but today.

Being the best in the world at what we choose to do, whether it is making music, managing projects, gaming, or consulting.

And taking an intentional and active role in telling our story 20, 5 and 3 years from now.

Decide, comes from the Latin de + caeder meaning “cut off” - to decide is to cut off all other options, everything else is a distraction once you decide.

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🔎 YOUR PASSION FINDS YOU AND YOU FIND IT

I used to hate the word “passion”.

Simply because I thought of passion as this ONE-THING that I have to do forever.

I don’t want to do just one-thing forever, nor do I love just one-thing.

I love traveling, handcraft, studying, designing, art, clothing, photography etc..

But passion, I realized, shows up AFTER you’ve set out the welcome mat for it.

The best and fastest way towards finding that passion, and it finding you, is to get your fundamentals right:

• 🛏 Sleeping: a rested mind is a creative mind.

• 🍉 Eating: 90% of our serotonin is produced in our gut, we need healthy and nourishing meals for creativity.

• 🤸‍♀️ Moving: engaging in exercise produces a multitude of neuro-chemicals responsible for optimal functioning of our mind and body.

• 🧘 Meditating: without calm clarity it is very hard to see, pursue, and commit.

• 👏 Celebrating: directly impacting our mindset and self-esteem.

• ✏️ Planning: transforms a dream into a goal into a reality, one step at a time.

Once these fundamentals are operating optimally, we find ourselves operating from a space of fullness not emptiness, from space of inspiration not fear, from space of growth not neediness.

And that’s how the creative juices of curiosity, confidence, and courage start flowing.

Back to you now;

• How do you rank in each of those fundamentals? (score yourself 1-10)

• What is one thing you can start doing today so you can increase your score in each?

• What is one thing you know you, and only you, are uniquely positioned to do?

Let’s take intentional and active roles in shaping the life we want.

Let’s dream big and decide to be that person doing what they’re passionate about.

Till next week.

Have a Super Sunday! 💪

Hashim