First of all, if you don’t know who this man is, like I did at first, I suggest you check him out on YouTube by searching for his Ted Talk – What Really Matters at the of Life.
https://www.ted.com/talks/bj_miller_what_really_matters_at_the_end_of_life
It’s inspirational and it is deeply impactful.
This week’s top takeaways from Miller are a couple of reactionary ideas to put into practice. What I mean by that, is that these principles should be the first reaction you have once each scenario takes place.
Whenever you are at a point in life where you are overwhelmed with stress or are begging to feel a wave of anxiety take you over stop what you are doing and look up to the sky. If you are inside, take a look out the window and begin to think about where you are. Next, imagine you are up in the sky, in the stars looking down at yourself from all the way up there. Think about how small of a dot you take up in the entire planet. Now backup even more, look outside of Earth and imagine yourself on the outside of the solar system looking down at our planet.
What I’m getting at, and what BJ Miller wants to remind us in these times of stress, is that put what you are dealing with and give yourself some perspective. It’s easy to think everyone revolves around you but much more difficult to realize how little it really does.
BJ’s second lesson I learned was how much we believe in what we think and say. If we took some time to question our beliefs and assumptions we would realize that we aren’t right all the time.
For example, a lot of our “I can’ts” stem from the fact that we don’t want to do something or that we simply won’t do something because we believe we are better than that or on the flip side not good enough.
In reality, many of these goals, challenges and actions CAN be completed. We just never put any effort or thought into it in the first place.
In the end, I believe what BJ Miller wants us to learn the most is that we should enjoy life without limitations. Enjoy the simple and small pleasures of life and let life take you places.
Thanks everyone for reading! Let me know what you all think :)
