Staying Motivated in an Uninspiring Environment
I recently moved to an area that I consider to be a bit on the boring side. After years of living in a major metropolitan area, I kind of miss the culture? museums? and business opportunities. I was ready to plant my roots and a house and put down some roots. I have been here for 5 months now and the novelty has worn off. I am starting to feel bored with what is going on here. To be honest it is the grass is always greener syndrome.
Statistically speaking, my area ranks 27 out of the 30 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States. I have lived in bigger cities then this in the past though, but there is something about the overall feel of the place that is just not exciting to me. I’ve taken a step back and come up with ways to make this place exciting. I have been able to make it a lot more exciting over the last few months.
Surround Yourself with Excellence
Surround yourself with intellectual greatness notably by reading and listening to inspirational books and audiobooks.
The right books can help you discover your purpose and find your balance. Reading great books and listening to audiobooks is a great way to empower yourself with wisdom and knowledge.
One of my favorite types of books are biographies of great historic figures. I have a list of 20 books that will help you build a framework for who you really are and why you are here on the earth.
What you learn will be transcended by others and be applied in your life in different unexpected ways.
Books have the power to help you broaden your perspective, become a better leader, strengthen your relationships, and feel great about who you are. I have read hundreds of books in my lifetime. They have shaped who I am and, in many ways, I am who I am today because of the books I’ve read.
There Is Greatness Around You
I was at a mastermind weekend retreat once, and a very successful energy healer brought up a concept she learned about from her teacher. She explained that the same energy that gets attracted to negative people, also gets attracted to negative situations. She explained it like this, remember Billy Mays? The TV pitchman for Oxi-clean? Well, he died not so long ago. His funeral was a huge production. I mean, the guy lived modestly but was very rich. When Jennifer Lawrence heard about it, she tweeted the next day, “Every time you watch an oxi-clean commercial, they have to pay Billy Mays’ family a royalty.”
I thought about that tweet for a few days. I thought about all the other people who passed away that get imitated every day by marketers. I thought about how each of us have the power to be a Billy Mays in our own way, and as soon as one of us passes, someone else will take our place.
But that’s not the point of this. The point is that you can get easily frustrated that you haven’t gotten where you want to be, but the people that you look up to have far more talent in one area than you have in all of yours combined. There is greatness around you and you don’t even see it.