Category: Lifestyle

Procrastination is not the problem per se. People usually procrastinate on low value activities. The problem is when you procrastinate in something that you must do.
Why do we often procrastinate on something when we’ve spent all the previous evening or week planning for it? It’s usually on the important tasks without deadlines that you’ll probably find yourself procrastinating.

Fortunately, with some self discipline, you’ve been able to reduce this behavior but still, reducing a problem is not solving it, so there has to be a reason why we keep procrastinating on important stuff.

The reason we procrastinate.

I recently found the reason why we procrastinate on important tasks, and the reason is simple: fear. Not only the fear that something could go wrong, but also the fear that something could work as expected. It’s the fear of change that worries us, the famous comfort zone.

Fortunately, it’s very easy to conquer this fear once we define what it is. That’s why I now write now a few notes along with my goals, to describe exactly what the outcomes will be, wherever I’ll succeed or not.

For example. Say that your goal is to earn $1000 per month in passive income. You should then write down:

The worst case scenario. Is there something that could go wrong while I try to achieve this goal? Will people die? Let’s see. The worst scenario I can think of is that I’ll work one year following the wrong method (unlikely) and so I’ll have to start over again. Wow, that’s really bad, I can’t think of having a life anymore after that.

The best case scenario. Everything works well instead, and my business model is scalable, so not only will I achieve my goal, I’m also able to increase my revenue without having to work more hours. I quit my job and I travel the world and follow my lifestyle design dream.

Consider that your fear might not be in the worst case scenario. After all, you know you have to work hard from nothing. Your fear might be in the best case scenario because that would be a dramatic change in your life.

It may sound counter-intuitive, but spend some time thinking about your best case scenario. Write down exactly what you want, where you will be, and what you’ll do. Only when you have defined your best case scenario you’ll finally find all the motivation that you need, and good things will start to happen.

When I first started blogging, I had no idea what lifestyle design was. I came across many lifestyle design blogs and was usually sort of confused because a lot of the content from lifestyle design blogs would be on personal development. So I assumed they were among the same topic. I would see tips on how to stay more focused, how to achieve more success, or how to be a more confident person. It wasn’t until months later until I began to see the differences between lifestyle design and personal development.

Lifestyle Design.

I guess you can say that I was naive. Whenever I came to a lifestyle design blog, all I would think of would be the blogger traveling to cool places in the world, drinking mojitos on fabulous looking beaches, and laying on a hammock with the sun shining on their belly. Even some of the lifestyle design website designs seem to imply this. But when I looked deeper, lifestyle design was much more profound.

Although when one thinks of playful words like “style” and “design”, these words may end up fooling a newcomer. Lifestyle design is about change; but not any change, a serious change in how the average person goes about their life. This change is against conventions. It’s a change against corporations and CEO’s that have run our economy. It’s about a new revolution – a choice to not have to accept working under someone else’s rules for the rest of our lives. It’s about being able to “design” or rather another word for it might be “take control” of the type of life we want to create. But most of all, it’s about freedom.

Personal Development.

I could now see why lifestyle design went into personal development. Personal development covers the topics in order to get towards freedom. To me, personal development is about a person’s change from nothing to succeeding. It’s about the underdog’s journey to becoming a winner. It’s about the student’s journey to becoming a mentor. It’s about the average person’s journey to becoming a hero. But most importantly, it’s about a person’s process from the very beginning to the very end.

Whatever comes at the end; whether this is happiness, glory, riches, or freedom, all of these accomplishments represent choice – a choice to make a decision towards what they want their life to be. This choice can also be seen as lifestyle design.

Although some people may strongly feel that being an expert in too many things is bad, I don’t see that big of a problem in integrating both aspects of personal development and lifestyle design. It’s not really one versus the other, nor is it really which one is better. They are two different subjects, but take certain aspects from each other.

I think it’s awesome that people from lifestyle design strive to go against conventional society. I mean how brave is that? To be able to handle the pressure from family, friends, peers, and everybody else who says that it can’t be done, is someone who is a true warrior. But even a true warrior still has to master themselves, and that’s where personal development comes in.

Whether or not we end up obtaining freedom for ourselves or truly even mastering ourselves, the most important thing that I am learning from both personal development and lifestyle design is that we try. We give it our all; we give it our best shot; we try. I think this holds far more value than what the differences between these two major categories can express in words.