It's the end of the world as we know it*
…but we can create an even better one!
Sound like a bit of a cliché? If we chose to see it as such, then yes, it’s a cliché. But if we decide to see it as a compelling version of our future, that’s exactly what is going to be!
Are you living the best version of your life? Are you enjoying one of the best years of it? Are you really going for your goals? Are you living the best version of yourself? If not, what will you do to change that?
Start by imagining what the most amazing year of your life look would like. Can you see the rest of your life also being similar to this? This may seem like an impossible task, but extraordinarily — it is not! Yes, it’s true that you need to first change yourself – changing your internal world in order to change your external world. From the micro to the macro level, right?
As Dean Graziosi, renowned success coach and author of Millionaire Success Habits: The Gateway to Wealth & Prosperity, puts it, we first need a lighthouse (a truly fitting metaphor :)) to see where we need to go, to see our compelling future. Our lighthouse will also help us remember where we already are and then – of course – how to move forward.
Great things, financial freedom and general abundance
If we move – since staying in the same place means nothing will change or things will even get worse – we are able to do great things in the world. Because who doesn’t want financial freedom? In today’s world financial freedom is exactly the thing that can support us in leaving our difficulties behind us, and even more – it can help us not only keep going but it can also support us in helping others do the same. Isn’t that something?!
Only when our financial foundations are established can wider freedom and general abundance become available to us. We can fall in love with life with a free spirit and a fearless vision. This doesn’t mean we cannot enjoy life as it is and be genuinely okay with how things are today. That’s totally okay, really.
But! If we are restless when we look at the micro or macro world surrounding us because we feel it in our guts that we are meant to do more, to have some impact in the world as we know it, then — well, then we should definitely do something! Because then our restlessness is a sign that the world as we know it is not okay anymore.
If we feel like this, this is okay too. It is good to listen to our inner voice when it is telling us that we should not let the bully get away with bullying those that are weaker. Not only is it good, but it is also fair! And it is more than fair to help the weak when we can. But if we are to do this sustainably, we need to ensure that our own performance provides us with more than the bare necessity. This usually calls for a sort of transformation. A Transformation lighthouse, if you will.
(Graziosi’s) resourcefulness, (Ghandi’s) mirror and (Fromm’s) love
First, we need to see where we are, second, we need to figure out where we want to go and why, and third – we need to think about how we are going to get there. How are we going to outrun the wave of our specific industry or sector? According to Dean Graziosi, we need to start not only with the resources needed to build the bridge (which will help us achieve this transformation, this evolution) but also with resourcefulness itself. Because the most beautiful realization is that such bridges have already been built and they are being built every single day, meaning that it could actually be a bit easier this time around. But we need to be radically honest with ourselves – why do we even want the change that we are striving for?
As Mahatma Ghandi puts it: “We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”
Only then – as Erich Fromm, social psychologist and humanistic philosopher who, during the two world wars, devoted himself to writing about the condition of human life and the evolution of physical and intellectual abilities, noted in The Art of Love – will we witness “the economic machine serving man and not the other way around. […] Society must be organised in such a way that man’s social, loving nature is not separated from his social existence, but becomes one with it. If it is true that love is the only healthy and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence, then any society which proportionately excludes the development of love must fail because of its contradictions with the basic needs of human nature.”
*It’s the End of the World as We Know It is a song by the legendary rock band R.E.M. Enjoy:
