Steal From Others...That Is Their Positive Characteristics
I'm a big fan of creating a vision for yourself. A template or mindmap for who you want to be and do. To create this vision of who you desire to become, it is important to consider the inputs. What or who is shaping your vision for yourself? In order to constantly improve myself I look to my interactions and observations of others to determine who I want to be, in addition to the self-analysis I do. I feel as if my world view and morals are comprised from dozens of characteristics or lessons from the people in my life. I think that "taking" (aspiring to have) the desirable traits from people and rejecting the undesirable ones is a pragmatic skill. Truth is, it is much easier to identify positive and negative qualities in the people around us than it is to do a complete analysis/survey our ourselves. Example. Recently I came across a well designed video presentation from a successful web entrepreneur and blogger. I was truly impressed and figured that it would be great to discover a new tool on how to create a similar video, so I emailed him. In a concise email I complimented him on his video and nicely asked if he would be share the service/technique that he used to create the compelling piece. Within a 24hr period during the holiday season he responded by saying that he had used the service Animoto (which I would have discovered if I had just watched the final 10 sec of the video). Instead of ignoring my email and declining to answer my question because of my failure to watch the whole 4 minute video, he gladly helped a fellow lifestyle designer out and stated that I should feel free to email him back if I had any other questions. As a follow up response, I thanked him for his time and took to heart his invitation to ask questions. I had read his bio on his blog and then I asked him how he had earned the opportunity to have a big time CEO become his personal mentor. Again, within a half a day, he answered and then began asking questions about the projects I was involved in. Here I am, this 17yr old stranger taking up his time and inbox, and he is showing interest in me and what I do. To date, we've since exchanged several emails regarding muses, ideas and mentors. What that Interaction Did. It re-emphasized the idea of being generous: generous with your time, money and talents. It re-emphasized the idea of genuinely caring about someone in your tribe or community. It re-emphasized the idea of the importance of spreading ideas, advice and knowledge. It made me think to myself, "Wow, as I become more successful and knowledgeable, I would love to do the same exact thing for another inquisitive 17yr old." Conclusion. Try and take the positive traits/behaviors/characteristics/acts of people and really commit to trying to do those same things in your life. And for the negative " ", do the exact opposite. Having seen their flaw, attempt to correct and/or prevent yourself from ever repeating what they did. (Note: We are all flawed, so that doesn't mean avoiding all of humanity.) The mental mindset (neg) : "Please promise yourself [Ryan William Dawidjan], that you'll never do what XYZ just did. That was and totally . I would never want to represent myself in that manner." The mental mindset (pos) : "Please promise yourself [Ryan William Dawidjan], that you will make every attempt and effort to replicate what XYZ just did. It was such a great and this is a valuable lesson to learn." Thank's for stopping by. Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, subscribe or email me at [ryandawidjan@gmail.com]
