Deepak Chopra & 7 Tips to burst out of a straightjacket

Deepak Chopra raises inter-cultural awareness about ways we each perceive and influence our own health and well-being.  He draws from traditional and alternative medicine, mind-body and spiritual approaches to health.  Born in India, he has pioneered unique approaches to modern scientific thought in America and brought them into mainstream debate.  He has authored over 40 books, touching on vast spiritual and health topics, from bestsellers on aging, the "Seven spiritual laws of success," the existence of God, arguments for the afterlife and world peace.

In his latest book, Life after Death: The Book of Answers, he offers the thought-provoking idea that our present consciousness shapes our perception and existence after death.  He believes the afterlife is created uniquely for each of us by our own awareness in this life.  He invites us to reflect on issues confined in our mind today which frame our vision of the future and beyond.  Choose to burst out of the straightjacket of what you think you know. Expand your self-view:

1) How do you see yourself?  Your life is defined by more than events you influence.  Consider sources of your conditioning, mindset, why some memories stick, and others conveniently fade?  Your self-image and self-worth are shaped by those illusions you permit to influence you.  Many components, choices and interactions shape the pace and development of your identity. 

2) Grasp the basis for your expectations.  Whether or not you're ambitious with goals and why certainly merit reflection.  Why you're satisfied or not with each of your efforts tells you much about unconscious limits you have set (or decided not to set) for yourself.

3) Identify your sense of purpose.  This runs deeper than material desires, status and luxuries.  Your purpose draws from your primary motivation.  This is why you'd be willing to compromise and sacrifice beyond what others consider rational, because of the fulfillment it represents and the exhilarating feelings it triggers.  Meaning is immeasurable and unquantifiable.  Discovering your true passions and learning to market them tends to bring opportunity and money, but they matter far less than devoting yourself to what defines identity. 

4) Determine your final destination.  As you evolve along with your evolving purpose, you will gain a sense of what contributes to greater fulfillment.  This enables you to feel good about you.  To imagine a destination is a way you begin to recognize almost infinite possibilities.

5) Which roads will you follow?  Once you discover which life pursuits make you feel good and enable you to make a contribution to help others, and the direction of your desired destination, you will make choices to give you a sense of moving forward.  The roads you follow may build and expand on many areas of your life including, personal, professional, spiritual, to others.  You'll choose paths that get you where you seem wish to go. You may also diverge from what you have known to change course.

6) Who or what prevents you from success?  A variety of obstacles may seem to prevent you from reaching goals.  Do you permit yourself to be intimidated or bullied by certain people? Do you allow yourself to be discouraged by circumstances beyond your control?  Although physical blocks may get in your way, your mindset and attitude determine whether you'll allow other people to influence your feelings. Honest self-reflection will reveal fear is the ultimate adversary.

7) Who mentors your journey?   You attract people into your life based on lessons you may need to learn or guidance you desire to help you move closer toward your goals.  As you learn to recognize your needs and desires, you'll also seek out mentors who have experience in industries and environments you hope to break into. 

My "get-up-and-go" just got up and went

People are increasingly feeling overwhelmed with options, choices and opportunities. Even if you have only little money, you will still discover a multitude of decisions to make. If your energy level is lacking or, if your enthusiasm is dwindling, you may ask yourself how you will deal with it all? A sense of motivation can be nurtured and a sense of priorities can be identified. Even if you feel as though your "get-up-and-go" just got up and went, there's hope for you. Read these tips:

1) Why did your energy vanish? As you identify the event or circumstances which have affected your energy level, then it will be easier to reformulate it and tap into it again. You can’t always get the people, pet or conditions back you may have lost, but the traits of these past situations and relationships can be found or created elsewhere to help you move on.

2) What kinds of activities boost your morale? To spend time on things that motivate you is another way to generate energy which you can later channel into other things. List a few things you get excited about. Schedule doing things you like after doing things you don’t like as much. Then, you will have things to look forward to and urge you along your tasks.

3) Which are your priorities? It’s useful to gain an understanding of those health, people, activities, hopes and dreams, in an order of importance in your life. We all have the same amount of time in a day, the same number of days in a week, month and year. What differs is how we choose to use our time, and what we gain as the result of our effort.

Although you may feel as though your energy has disappeared and your morale or motivation are currently low, it’s never too late to remind yourself how you can tap into your own endless energy supply. Sure, you have adrenalin.  Yet you have an aternate source. You just need to remind yourself where to look, and how you have power to inspire yourself. This can be done anytime, anywhere and as you like. 

Getting past first base

You may dream of growing a thicker skin and playing baseball as you write.  Developing resilience is useful when you aspire to market creative talent you believe you have.  To sense you have skills worthy of an audience is like developing enough courage to step up to the plate.  You may sense you’re already home, but you still have a way to go to get around to bases that matter.  An idea in your head has value, but it gains significantly more meaning as you learn to promote and distribute it more widely.

The most strategic thing a writer can do is learn to think like an agent or publisher, even get experience in these roles.  Even that doesn’t necessarily get a writer's work into the marketplace.  Nonetheless, it’s important to grasp the culture of an industry if you aim to get your ideas heard in the arena.  Figuring out your prospective audeince is key. Learn to understand why people have turned you down in the past.  This is an effective way to discover what would lead to more positive reception.  Being judged is predictable.  How or why you’re judged are things its advantageous to learn.  A willingness to listen and absorb advice can make or break you.

1) Review the proposal.  Some writers are driven to complete a whole manuscript without marketing a proposal beforehand.  This may intensify the emotional attachment to a work and ignore the benefits of less time it would require to market and adapt an idea.  If you hadn’t written a proposal before, it’s wise to do that and re-assess your outline before devoting time to a bigger project. If you must tell your story, do it in steps.

2) Seek readers and feedback.  Writers are rarely unbiased or completely objective about their work.  It’s also unusual for writers to have insider information into the industry to know what influences market trends and when.   Artistic merit is only one of the criteria that influences what is published and by whom.  The most appropriate critics are thus those who are working in or have worked in the industry you seek to break into.

3) Pay someone to assess your project.  This way, you will get someone to read your work who has knowledge of the industry genre of focus and the feedback will likely be more detailed and targeted.  Experts can often tell rather quickly if you have talent.  Assessments are based on experience.  You pay for expertise, rather than their time. 

4) Don’t naively assume publishers who reject you will offer feedback.  Note that literary agents of rejected books are also not paid advisors.  Imagine yourself in their shoes.  Publishers and agents may both desire to discover promising material, but their financial and other interests aren’t connected to helping people who haven’t yet made it.  

5) Learn professionalism.  This goes beyond physical appearance and self-care.  You need to realize that your view of your talent isn’t enough to sell it.  Gain insight into the marketing side of a publishing agency and learn how material can be exploited for commercial and material gain.  If you don’t take the work and industry seriously, then you’re less likely to have the staying power to realize success. 

6) No rejection is definitive.  How you learn to review, repackage and re-market an initially rejected work can shape a new destiny.  The people in control of promoting successful works would like you to succeed because they would share in the glory.  The more fearlessly you’re prepared to handle and use rejection to your advantage, the less likely you may have to deal with it. Reframe your perception and you’re life will change dramatically. You see what you choose and will get more than you expect.

5 misconceptions about the job

Job and career transitions are becoming more frequent. Many people are forced to learn the hard way that their job search behaviour may be self-defeating or at least, less productive than it could be. One useful approach to this process is to review how you perceived yourself in your last work role and whether or not your self-view was accurate. A re-assessment of your attitude will go a long way toward assisting you to find and secure a more suitable position.

1) You imagined you would be rewarded based on competence and ability. Politics abound in many workplaces. This means unwritten rules determine who will get recognition as much as promoted contests like “employee of the month.” Who you know, who is watching when you’re not paying attention, and who secretly values your contribution, may be far more important than your original skills. Not all workplaces are like this, yet be forewarned.

2) You assumed demonstrating initiative and enthusiasm would move you ahead. The “tall poppy” syndrome is such that people around you and especially above you in a hierarchy, won’t necessarily like it when you work harder. As you raise the standard, they will be expected to keep up or, insecure people above you may decide you’re after their job. Thus your greatest intentions may inadvertently shoot you in the foot. Your efforts to be noticed and appreciated may backfire completely.

3) You figured the more you knew, the better. This is misleading. What people think you know and whom people think you know may be more to your advantage. What you really know is often beside the point, especially if nobody knows you know. Making yourself useful is a game of strategy. You need to learn who needs to know what you know and when, according to your interests and the interests of office peers. If you get it wrong, oops!

4) You gathered colleagues were like adopted family. Not all family members are close and supportive of each other, regardless of circumstances. The sad truth is some people are only willing to be friends so long as you provide or obtain things for them and, they benefit from you. To have office politics in common may give you topics to chat about over lunch, but these people may not share common interests outside the workplace, or share your views and beliefs. If you leave a workplace, you're better off leaving old co-workers and moving on elsewhere. 

5) You believed your track record would mean something. Job experience in one venue isn't always valued in another place. You may land a position because of an internship with a particular company or, having attended the right schools, or knowing a high-level decision-maker. Yet, why you were selected becomes a thing of the past once you start work.  That is a new opportunity to prove yourself. You may have freedom to draw on past experience, but your past is not what will generally give you the edge. It may even cause resentment if you joined a group and were given seniority over people who worked there before you.  How you perform from day one and who notices determines how long you'll stay and in which position. 

Tips to get ahead

Business advancement begins as a state of mind. How and why you move forward in your life will benefit greatly from periodic self-examination and reflection. You never wish to get behind the eight ball. In order to reach the top of your game and stay up on the latest developments, you benefit from following trade journals and events. This would keep you on top of things, to better understand the impact of your efforts and discern where you could take steps to improve. You’ll decide what kinds of experiences you will actively seek and whether you will gain from them.

1) Be honest about your motives : why are you seeking the sort of business mobility that seems to drive your energy and enthusiasm? Could it be the prospect of your personal advancement? Solely financial profit? What about creating or sharing benefits? Identify the nature of your commitment and to whom. Determine where your ego and desire for status actually get in the way of bolstering results.  Understanding all the variables will keep you ahead.

2) Be grateful for assistance of others : to appreciate people can take the form of proactive recognition and thanks. Your staff, peers, competition, everyone benefits from a pat on the back. When you think about it, no person ever really gets anywhere alone. How often do you let people know you value their advice, guidance or other gems? Remind yourself that what goes around comes around, and you will naturally attract the kind of treatment you give out.

3) Be open to possibilities : no matter what ideas you begin with, there’s always the potential to make the journey to success more exhilarating and enjoyable. Do you limit yourself? Although you may isolate short and long-term goals on the books, you can still take a variety of approaches to achieve these ends. Never underestimate the impact of creativity to inspire and motivate.

4) Focus on making a contribution : as you take the focus away from yourself, you’ll free up a huge supply of energy which you can channel into generating positive results for clients or people more generally. The value you offer others comes back to you in unexpected ways. This relates to a law of the Universe that re-equilibrates balance. As you take steps to help meet needs of people, events will unfold to assist you to build your business too.

5) Make learning the primary goal : rather than focus on the end result and prospect of feeling as though your end result may not justify your effort, consider instead the value of learning from all experience. Each thing you learn is a measure of success regardless of whether your reach the original goal. Retaining transferable skills and lessons learned will necessarily make your future better than your past. Goals change and benefits from learning simply grow.