Use stress to your advantage.

I watched this Ted Talk How to make stress your friend | Kelly McGonigal and it changed the way I look at the stress.

Before I always saw stress as something that stays on my way, something negative, something that drains my energy. What I was missing is understanding why my body consumes more energy when it's under stress.

Turn out that when you perceive something as "dangerous" situation, the subconscious program reacts to your thoughts and prepares your body to for the challenge.

Hmm, that changes few things. First of all, I should probably be grateful for that. Secondly, I don't need to "fight" it. I can recognize that my body is trying to help me, accept it, and my tune up my thoughts. Thirdly, remind yourself that you are responsible for your body. You are responsible for giving it a good food, keeping it exercised, and last but not least for thoughts that you put in your head.

Intentions

We often hear the expression "your actions define you". Is that a true statement? This is one of the questions that I can argue with myself forever and still would not be able to neither agree nor disagree with it.

I once had a fireside chat with a friend about life purpose and what happens after the death. We looked at it from Christianity, Buddhism, and science points of view. Finally, he said "What if starting tomorrow I'll begin giving some money every beggar I see. Would those actions earn me a good karma or a place in heaven?"  What he said didn't sound right to me. At that moment I realized that behind each action there is an intention. This realization changed my perception in many areas of life.

If I rephrase the saying "your actions define you" into "your INTENTIONS define you", then I can't argue with that anymore. The problem with actions is that they can be done on purpose to mislead you. You can use actions to lie even to yourself. Looking into your own intentions is like taking the mask off and seeing a pure truth.

What do you say when you say "I am ..." ?

When you present yourself to someone else with the "I am", you'll probably mention one of the masks you wear or one of the roles you play in social games. You might say "I'm a salesperson" or "I'm a mom of 3 children". This is interesting, but ...

... what do you say when you say "I am ..." to yourself in your head?  I bet it's something related to how you feel at the moment i.e. something like "I'm tired, happy, hungry, full, excited, scared, cold". What about the situation when something went wrong - you failed an exam or your business deal falls through? In this case, you might say "I'm such a failure". This is where it gets interesting because a statement like this represents a belief. Otherwise, why would you say something like that to yourself, not someone else but yourself, if you don't believe it?

Beliefs are very powerful. They are walls around you. They limit your possibilities. They dictate what you can and what you cannot achieve in your life.

If you are on a quest to identify your beliefs, I challenge you to watch your "I am" statements and see what comes out. Good luck.

I don't have the time

Why are you not exercising regularly, not eating healthy, not learning?  "I don't have the time" is probably the most popular excuse. Everyone wants to be healthy, wealthy, and wise, yet time seems to be a problem. Is it really?

I really like how Tony Robbins talks about this subjects. He says that the time is an emotion. People don't think about time, they think about what's painful. If they don't enjoy learning, then when they think about it they think it's painful. Nobody wants to do something that is painful. It's much more enjoyable to do something they are competent in or successful. The painful activity can wait until tomorrow, and then tomorrow, and then tomorrow...