I’m a strong believer that in order to be successful in virtually anything, you first have to become conscious about it. You have to be able to understand why and what it is you’re going to achieve, and to also be absolutely conscious about how long it’s going to take you and what is the price you’re prepared to pay.
Steve Pavlina has just posted a great article: 10 Ways to Become More Conscious. I like his style a lot, and I agree with his point of view on most occasions. In this article of his, Steve gives you his ten reasons to become more conscious. Each of the reasons has a one-liner explaining the idea of it, so when all of them combined, they look like some a code of conduct or even ten commandments.
Here they are – the ten rules. I strongly suggest you read the full article though:
1. Truth. Truth raises your consciousness. Falsehood lowers it.
2. Courage. Courage raises your consciousness. Cowardice lower
3. Compassion. Compassion raises your consciousness. Cruelty lowers it.
4. Desire. Desire raises your consciousness. Apathy lowers it.
5. Attention. Attention raises your consciousness. Distraction lowers it.
6. Knowledge. Knowledge raises your consciousness. Ignorance lowers it.
7. Reason. Reason raises your consciousness. Irrationality lowers it.
8. Conscious people. Conscious people raise your consciousness. Unconscious people lower it.
9. Energy. Energy raises your consciousness. Disease lowers it.
10. Intention. The intention to raise your consciousness raises it. The intention to lower your consciousness lowers it.
My personal 3 strategies to stay conscious would be these:
- Knowledge combined with TruthI’m an extremely optimistic guy, but even I know better: if something seems to be too easy, this probably means there’s more learning to be done ;) I try to be honest about everything in my life, and I hate being forced to break my own rules and principles.Because of this, I do everything in such a way, that truth is my guideline, and knowledge is my means of following it.
- Reason combined with Desire For anything we do or we choose not to, there has to be a reason. And for positive changes which you know you’ll benefit from in the long term, it is absolutely crucial to have a strong feeling of desire.Being passionate about your goals will make you stronger and more productive, and will also help you stay focused.
- Intention combined with Energy Making a decision to achieve something is the first step towards the conscious achievement. When you state your intention to pursuit any goal, you make a commitment. And just like anything else, your intentions are going to be much easier to follow through if you have the energy to do so! That’s why I always concentrate not only on the clarify of my goals, but also on my energy levels – because I’ve already learned that without the energy, you’re not likely to do the first step towards reaching your goal, and this will mean you can fail even with the purest intentions and the greatest reasons.
Nothing is as important in reaching goals as the first action steps you take towards the goal as soon as you’re committed to achieving it.