Hey dude, it's time to start living the life you want
Did you know that only 27 percent of college grads actually work in a career-field related to their degree?
That's pretty amazing if you think about it.
The traditional pathway to a successful life is normally defined as a straight line from high school, college, job, house, kids and then retirement.
Obviously, life for many of us has clearly jumped the rails.
According to the book Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-lived, joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, people who are stuck in a life rut often do so because they employ 3 dysfunctional beliefs:
1. Your degree determines your career
2. If you appear to have a successful prestigious and well-paying career, you will be happy, and
3. It's too late to live the life of your dreams
The authors interviewed several traditionally successful people who were completely gutted living a life that didn't fulfill their real "needs" at a visceral level. One man named Donald confided that for close to a decade one question woke him up at 2 a.m. every morning, "Why the hell am I doing this?"
If you are asking that same question, here are five thoughts that might help you design the life of your dreams.
1. Challenge negative beliefs holding you back: Stop forcing yourself into a cookie-cutter vision of what a successful life should look like. If your job doesn't get you juiced to wake up in the morning, give yourself permission to pursue what makes you happy. If you are telling yourself you are too old and it is too late to start another career path, Burnett and Evans suggest you reframe negative thought processes and remind yourself it's never too late to design a life you love.
2. Never stop learning: This Forbes article reminds us that curiosity is a crucial mindset to cultivate. Staying on top of technological predictions and current innovations has never been easier by following these Top 10 Tech Magazines. Obviously you don't need to read them all but pick a few. Don't have any extra money to spend and don't like tech anyway, then do a keyword search on whatever you are passionate about. You will find tons of helpful information. Follow social media accounts for experts at the top of the industries, sports or hobbies you are interested in. Get motivated by people who are already living the life you want. This will inspire you.
3. Dream big: The man behind Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, revolutionized the way the world communicates, behaves, and even disrupted traditional advertising mediums like television. Like it or not Facebook has had an incredible impact over the last 10 years or so since its inception. When asked what he sees for the future of tech and communication, he predicted "the future is going to be pretty wild and some of the ideas he is working on from his mental playbook are: telepathy, superhuman brain power, artificial intelligence and laser beam technology. Pretty crazy sh*t. Zuckerberg created the future he envisioned living in and changed the world.
4. Don't fear the future and focus on serving others: Another big dreamer is Andrew McAfee. He is a MIT scientist who studies how tech processes change business. He predicts androids will replace human manpower in the future, but doesn't fear this radical change. He believes new tech "frees us from drudgery and toil." What do we do with all this newly found time? Make the world a better place to live of course. Millennials and the generations to come demand more from their governments and the businesses they give their money to than any other previous generations. They expect dialogue and demand decision-makers hear their ideas and complaints. They seek out ethical visionaries who care about what they care about. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can force feed the younger generation your ideas. You have to consciously take the time to understand their needs first before you can make a sell or motivate them into action.
5. Design your future life now: We live in an exciting technologically-advanced world but that doesn't mean we have to jump ship on proven techniques. In Steve Harvey's book Act Like a Success Think Like a Success, he touches on the subject of vision boards and why they work. Harvey reinvented himself from a comedian into a ground-breaking, national talk show host by staying on track with his vision. Surround yourself with images of the personal and professional life you want to lead and watch it manifest before your eyes.
Notebooks are also a great example of old tech that still works for all us tactile types. When inspiration hits you and you need to write down ideas right that second, it is cumbersome to log into your device, start a program and mess with a keyboard. You might lose your train of thought; however, paper notebooks aren't exactly environmentally-friendly.
What if there was a better solution that combined old and new technology? Wipebook bridges the gap.
Wipebook produces and manufactures reusable whiteboard notebooks that are a marriage between a whiteboard and notebook. Our products are portable tools that allow you to quickly brainstorm and easily share your awesome ideas with the world.