Inspiring You to Uncover and Design a Meaningful Life
Thinking back, I can’t help but shake my head. Wow, was I naïve.
Just 6 months ago, I had idealistic expectations of how being a freelancer and entrepreneur was going to go. I planned out big goals, action steps and milestones. I thought things were going to work out a certain way by this time and that.Continue Reading
It happens to the best of us.
It’s why Sunday evenings and Monday mornings are mixed with remorse and the first day after a vacation seems to drag on in a funk.
We’re suckers for happy endings that stay that way. After all, the stories we prefer usually end with happily ever after.Continue Reading
Many of us have spent time stuck in the trickiest of the myths of happiness, focused internally but unable to gain a sense of meaningful progress.
Following my initial realization while I was in Prague, I realized something that led me down the less-traveled path I’m on today.Continue Reading
We live in a culture that is conditioned to look outside of ourselves.
It starts when we transition from children into adolescence, when we stop placing the emphasis on what’s true to us—what’s natural to us as children—and turn to external influences and opinions.
We learn that there is a certain look, feel and sound to what’s considered desirable and worthy. We see others looking up to these sources. We begin to tie our values and priorities to external influences.
Sometimes, we look everywhere else but internally for validation, confidence, happiness and the like—things that can only truly come from within. Hence, we have #5 of the myths of happiness:Continue Reading
At a young age, we’re taught to focus on the goal. Keep your eye on the prize, they say.
So when we want to achieve something, we focus our full attention, put in our best effort and keep track with measures along the way.
For the practical items—from simple tasks to longer-term projects—that’s a proven way to get things done. There’s a checklist, a formula to it.
It’s common sense when it comes to goal setting, but not when it comes to happiness.Continue Reading
Warm sunshine. Bountiful smiles. Open laughter.
The popularized idea of happiness is free-spirited and effortless; it is less often associated with concentration, hard work or sacrifice. In addition to believing the myth of happiness is a must, we also have this idea that happiness is easy.Continue Reading
Blame it on advertisements, TV shows or social media, but ultimately the responsibility is yours to detach yourself from the fairest of the myths of happiness.
Perhaps it’s the carefully airbrushed and crafted images of attractive, stylishly dressed celebrities in extravagant settings, giving off an impression of happiness and success, among other desirable aspects. Maybe it’s Instagram, Facebook and other social updates—the manicured snapshots of a second of someone’s life artificially representing a whole.
With these ideals of perfection flashing on multiple screens in your life, it’s reinforced repeatedly, “This is what happiness looks like.”
This leads us to the second of the myths of happiness series.Continue Reading
No one said it was easy.
On the contrary, following your passion—whatever is meaningful to you—is likely to be more work than any job. In bringing a meaningful project to life, whether it is building a company, honing a masterpiece or writing a book, there will be many hours, days, weeks, or months, even years that pass before milestones are reached.
During the periods of nose-grinding persistence, there will be a general sense of never enough time, weariness from lack of sleep, wavering moments of doubt, fear from numerous unknown variables, multiple failures and tough lessons.
Yet, there are perks you can look forward to when you’re going through the ditches of meaningful hard work—perks that will keep you going when you would otherwise burn out and quit.Continue Reading
It’s not enough to start with the inspiration, although it’s farther than most people get.
It may be the first step to living the life you love, but nothing else happens if you stop there. If you’re not making progress towards doing what you love, here are the 3 steps to bring your inspiration to life.Continue Reading
The ever-shifting fear keeps many of us stuck and unable to move forward on projects and new ventures. We could all learn a lot from Kurt Kohlstedt, full-time digital nomad and de facto CEO, who successfully built his publishing companies and websites from the ground up over the past seven years. I’m honored to start off this first feature of People, Uncovered with such an awesome friend and role model!
In the audio conversation below, we talk about what questions to ask as you’re figuring out the life you really want, how to handle those moments of doubt, and how to combat common blocks to getting things going!
Check out Kurt’s background, his websites, and our conversation highlights below.
