1. Swim and float. The river will take you a long way, but it’s not likely to land you where want to go.
- Know where you want to go - The river of life will take you wherever the hell it wants to, unless you decide otherwise. If you don’t know where you want to go, get a job and suffer. At least your owner will have a nice life. Or get a life coach and figure it out. Invest in a good life coach after you get a car, but before you buy a house. It’s important to know where you’re going.
- Where you want to go - You want to do what you love. (Duh.) Do what you love and the money will come. Make a plan to get there from where you are. Don’t just quit your job and life, and walk away. Figure out how to make a smooth transition, but if you’ve been working at it for more than two years, just get off the river and walk away, or you’ll never get there.
- Swim some - If you swim against the current, you’ll be too exhausted to enjoy life. If you swim with the current, you’ll soon be out to sea.
- Float some - You should be able to float to a good starting point for your successful life by making successive course corrections - swimming some.
2. Eliminate all negativity - internal and external.
- Your boss fired you and told you what a total failure you are. Let me tell you: Your boss is mean and a total failure. Every human being I ever met has great value - very often a whole lot more than they give themselves credit for. Any boss who doesn’t recognize that shouldn’t be a boss.
- There are a lot of possibilities that are passing you by. All you need is one. Think like a rock: Let all the No’s roll off you like rain. They simply don’t matter. The Yes’s are the only thing that count.
- You choose your own thoughts and feelings. If you’re not choosing them, then any piece of crap can float into your worldview. If you begin to notice a lot of crap in your mind, then you know it’s time to start making hugely different choices.
- People talk about how they have to choose between bad and worse. Bullshit!
- Know the difference between power and force. Force is from outside. Power is from inside. Nobody can force you to make a bad choice. You have to the power to find (or create) a better option and to choose it. People who do this make big money.
- Think! People don’t take time to think, so they end up floating down the river of life, and every so often some sewage gets poured on them. That shouldn’t be a surprise. Take time to think. Make choices that take you where you want to go.
- It is always easy to choose the best in life. Take a moment to think about what is coming into your life. How does it feel? If it feels like joy, choose that! If it doesn’t, always find a different choice, one that brings joy. If you don’t think that’s possible, it’s because you never tried it, and you’re too concerned about everybody else and their unending opinions.
- Work smart: See that stuff up above. Oh, and never stop reading or learning.
- Work hard: If you’re working smart, it’s easy to work hard and long with a minimum of unhealthy stress. Healthy stress actually makes you feel good, like after you finish a run or work on some exciting idea till 3 in the morning. If you’re not doing what you love, it will always be unhealthy.