Idea #1: Start your day like a Rock Star!

What do you do the moment you get up from bed in the morning, and start your smartphone/laptop?

Read emails.. Check Facebook and Twitter updates.. Shoot off prompt replies to the queries of your Boss.. Make a mad dash to get ready for your office?

Well, that’s what I had been doing all this while. And I expect many of you would be doing too..

But then, do you realize that by doing all this, you lose your chance to:

• Harness your most creative moments of the day to work on that dream personal project
• Tap in that great idea that flit through your head just before you fell asleep last night
• Tell yourself how this day would be a step ahead for your Goals

When you start your day with someone else’s agenda, you give away control of your life to others. You let them lead the day for you. You become a reactive automaton.

So that’s the theme of Idea#1 – Begin each day on your own terms, like a Rock star!

Yeah, it is hard – not allowing yourself to get swept with the tide… taking initiative at the beginning of every single day. But it is also very important (and critical), because if you want to build something truly awesome and dramatic, it is not going to be built in a day. You need to spend some time visualizing that great thing that will be the purpose of your life.

Yes, I agree that work related e-mail is important. But then, wouldn’t it be great if every morning you could take 15 minutes to brush it aside and figure out how this day will fit in the grand scheme of things! The point is – that urgent e-mail can wait till you get to work. But the awesome project you have been working on will never be urgent for anyone else – except you.

And is this 15 minute “Me” time critical?.  Absolutely! Because, life (and this world) is moving ahead very fast, and because proactive, not reactive work is the key to great things..

And also because –  “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” !

The 10 Week Idea Challenge!

How do you feel when you stumble upon something remarkable that makes you sit back and think?

Do you feel fortunate, thankful.. Inspired? Does it suddenly ignite that “Aha!” moment inside your head when you think – “Geez, That’s what I was subconsciously looking for!”..

Do you wish you had known that earlier, so that it could have grown to help you do what you’ve always wanted?

For a while now, I have been observing these memes.. how they develop like tiny droplets and gradually create ripples that grow into giant waves. Yes, I have been procrastinating too (which is why you haven’t heard from me since a while now), and wallowing in happy unhurried explorations on the Internet…

Sigh!.. Drastic situations call for drastic measures. So to push out of my own contended bubble, I have come up with this personal 10 week challenge which will jazz up and swing me into action.  The rules go like this: Every week from now, I will post about a life changing Idea which has influenced the way I think (and could probably change yours!) 

Why 10 weeks? Well 10 is a nice and even and round number, sort of official looking like the 10 commandments. And I’m hoping that in this infinite universe of awesome ideas floating around, I can dig out 10 unique ones which will make our lives richer..

So, what exactly are these life-changing ideas? My own definition goes like this.

A life changing Idea is:

• Something that transforms the way you think about life
• Challenges your regular go-to approach
• Helps you gain insights you would otherwise have missed.

Frankly, I haven’t thought about all of them yet, but am hoping this quest will make me discover many on the way. And yes, John Steinbeck had better be right when he said – “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen”!!

So without any delay, let’s begin with Idea #1:  Start your day like a Rock star!