Change your Frame of Reference

I got this Anthony Robbins video off of the Big WoWo blog. We'll be doing a "blog carnival." I don't know what the hell that means, but Big WoWo and I and perhaps other bloggers will be posting on some psychology and ways to be a confident and more productive person. Everyone should be the best version of themselves they can possibly be.

I'm sure you've noticed that I tend to write a lot of psychology posts. I've always been fascinated by how people self-actualize and tap into their full potential. On the flip side, I always wondered why so many people who are clearly talented or smart NEVER fully tap into their potential. Fact is, there are very few self-actualized people running around. Most of us are the proverbial icebergs with only the tip above water.

Why is that?

How can someone who is smart and talented not accomplish anything? Many times, people don't succeed in accomplishing anything, because THEY DON'T FOCUS. They don't have clarity in their thought and in their lives. They tackle too many things at the same time, and a lot of those things are meaningless. I keep harping on this quote from Attila the Hun, but it's really quite profound:

"Superficial goals lead to superficial results."

Just like Anthony Robbins says in the above video, "Whatever you focus on in life tends to happen." If your goal is to get a million page views on your blog, then guess what? You'll eventually get a million page views, because that is the goal you devoted all of your time and energy to.

But is this goal of a million hits a meaningful goal? It depends on what your blog is about. If your blog is about meaningless stuff, then congratulations! You've achieved your superficial goal with superficial results.

There's nothing wrong with superficial goals. I like wasting time just like everyone else. But you got to acknowledge when an activity just chews up huge segments of your life for no purpose or enjoyment.

Prior to starting the Alpha Asian blog, I thought to myself, "I sure do waste a lot of time surfing the net. There's got to be a way to change the meaningless activity that I'm doing into something that is meaningful."

What I did was change my frame of reference. Rather than discontinue my normal behavior (surf the web for Asian American stuff) and call it wasteful, I narrowed my web surfing to humor, Asian American role models and high quality creative work put out by Asians. I focused on creating an Asian American blog with a positive and confident vibe, because there wasn't a blog or website like mine out there.

By compiling this stuff and sharing all these videos and insights with you, I've made my activity of web surfing/goofing off meaningful. Changing your frame of reference is a very simple way to focus and to provide more purpose to what you do.