Jumpstart Your Dream Life

Stop Thinking Big, Start Thinking Different

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From an early age, we’re taught to aim for the best – whether it involves the schools, companies, or people we associate with.

But what if “the best” isn’t what we need?

What if, by surrounding ourselves with “prestigious” people, places, and institutions, we’re actually sabotaging our growth?

Let me explain.

Painters in a Parisian Café

It was 1860s Paris. The city was taking the art world by storm. In a café, five artists met to talk.

The young painters – Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille – convened at the Café Guerbois. As usual, they discussed art, life, and philosophy under the guidance of the older Édouard Manet.

Right now though, they needed to talk business. Specifically, the business of getting into the Salon.

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4 Ways You Can Use Failure To Your Advantage

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It seems like we have two options in life: succeed or fail. Get what you worked for and you’re a success. Fall short of that, and you’re a failure. We think about these two outcomes as if they were binary.

But maybe it’s time we rethink failure. That is, how we can use failure to provide advantages that we might not gain otherwise.

Here are four of the most important ways.

1. Use the emotions from failure to become stronger

Failure seems to imply that nothing is gained. Hours of work and energy have been put into an endeavor, but the output is zero. At least, that’s what it looks like from the outside.

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Want to Be Creative? Stop Being So Serious

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I own a shark. A Lego shark.

So when I went to visit a Lego store recently, I was surprised to see the exact same shark on display after so many years.

Had they kept the same shark mold all this time? Didn’t they feel the need to change things up?

You know, sharpen the fins a little, try a different color, or anything like that.

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Deadly Race to the South Pole: A Lesson on Being 110% Prepared

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The race was on.

It was the early twentieth century, and the world was running out of places to explore. Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer, was determined to be the first to reach the South Pole.

He wasn’t the only one. Robert Scott, a British naval officer, was also preparing his team to reach the southernmost point of the Earth.

Previously, Amundsen’s initial goal was to become the first person to reach the North Pole. But when he heard that American explorer Robert Peary was leading an expedition to the Arctic, Amundsen swiftly changed plans and set his sights on Antarctica.

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3 Quick Things You Can Do To Boost Your Confidence

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When it comes to boosting people’s confidence, we hear the same pieces of advice all the time:

  • “Be strong.”
  • “Believe in yourself!”
  • “Just think positive.”

The problem with these phrases is that they assume people can simply build up courage on their own to achieve their goals. It makes us think that if we just put in the effort and try hard enough, we can become confident.

A lot of the times, we can’t.

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J.R.R. Tolkien’s Writing Process On Creating Good Work

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One dreary day, a professor was sitting at his desk when a fateful event occurred. As he marked examination papers, he noticed that a student had left a page blank. For some inexplicable reason, he jotted down a sentence: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

This line sparked J.R.R. Tolkien’s idea of The Hobbit, which was published in 1937. It was an immediate success. Stanley Unwin, the Chairman of the publishing firm, asked him if he had any other similar stories to meet public demand.

In response, Tolkien wrote a full account of tales and named it The Silmarillion. Some of the tales were sent off to Unwin, who decided that they weren’t commercially publishable. Instead, he asked Tolkien if he could write a sequel to The Hobbit.

Disappointed, Tolkien agreed to Unwin’s request and went back to work. The publishing firm did not expect a profit and decided to incur a probable loss of 1,000 pounds. But when they published the story during 1954 and 1955, what came next surprised them.

The trilogy immediately captured the public eye. It was adapted to radio the following year, and has since then gone on to sell over 150 million copies[1]. Later, The Lord of the Rings was turned into one of the highest-grossing and critically acclaimed film series of all time. The trilogy is considered one of the greatest book series of the twentieth century.

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The Disconnect Between Passion and Success

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Andre Agassi was living the dream. He traveled all over the world, had hordes of fans, and did something for a living that most people see as a hobby in their pastime. He boasts of being a former World No. 1 in tennis, an eight-time Grand Slam champion and an Olympic gold medalist.

Formerly married to actress and model Brooke Shields, Agassi’s life off court was as vibrant as his tennis performance. He would collaborate with brands such as Nike, Adidas, and American Express on multi-million dollar endorsement deals. Agassi was the ultimate sports star.

So why was he unhappy?

In his autobiography Open, Andre Agassi revealed that he hated tennis. He hated it with what he calls a “dark and secret passion”.

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When Positive Thinking Negatively Affects Your Success

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We’re always told by other people to think positive. The key to success is life is to believe, because once you do, you can achieve your goals. Anything is possible when you rely on the power of positive thinking.

At least, that’s what they say.

But experience shows that that’s not necessarily the case.

A few friends I knew wanted to partner up and start an advertising business. People supported their idea and doled out encouraging advice.

In usual fashion, the partners reveled in the high of embarking on a new venture. They talked excitedly about the possibilities their new business would bring. Together, they spent evenings discussing how to set up the business.

First, they set up a corporation and decided on a tax structure. Then, they looked up a few potential customers and brainstormed what kind of help they could offer. Business was going to be big.

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The Art of Self-Deception: How We Bandage Up Wounds by Lying to Ourselves

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It’s easy to see why people lie to others: to keep their jobs, to avoid an argument with someone, to protect their reputation, or because they think everyone will be better off for it. It’s wrong, we know, but sometimes we figure that doing so is the best option in a sea of bad choices.

Lying to ourselves, though? It happens quite often, and as it turns out, we’re pretty good at it. We convince ourselves that we really need that new gadget, that we made a wise financial choice, or everything is fine (when it isn’t). Even if the evidence proves otherwise, we stick to our guns and refuse to back down.

More often than not, the lies we tell ourselves are harmful to our well-being and can be more damaging than we realize. So why do we do it?

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Use Failure As Feedback

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Most of us are afraid of failure.

The time and effort wasted, the humiliation, the headaches – it’s just too much.

Most of all, what if our failure confirms our worst fear: that we’re not good enough?

As we grow older, fear of failure becomes more and more real.

Eventually, not trying anything new seems like a better option because we’d rather not know the limit of our capabilities.

Failing in any area of life can be terrifying when you look at it that way.

But recently, I’ve been looking at failure from a different perspective. It’s one that a lot of entrepreneurs and innovative companies use to test out new ideas.

Here’s how it works.

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