“All I can do is be me, whoever that is.”
“He not busy being born is busy dying.”
One of the most successful and enigmatic musicians of the last hundred years must be Bob Dylan. Throughout his career, albums and awesome songs he has constantly redefined himself and both confused and enthralled listeners.
Here is some clarity though, some of my favourite words of wisdom from Dylan.
1. Find what you love to do.
“A lot of people can’t stand touring but to me it’s like breathing. I do it because I’m driven to do it.”
I think this is a first step that many of us have a big problem with. Or just forget about. Because when you find something you really love to do it doesn’t seem like work that much anymore.
When you do something you love you don’t have to push yourself so much. You keep going because you like doing it, not just because your want to reach some goal (although that can be exciting too). Taking action also becomes natural when you doing something you really want to do. A lot of the time you can’t wait to get going with it.
So the problem many of us encounter may not be that we don’t know enough tips to keep ourselves motivated to keep going. The problem may be that we are working on the wrong thing all together.
So do you find out what you really want to do?
I certainly don’t have all the answers for that one, but one tip is just to explore life.
To just try things out and see what you love. It’s easy to have theories about what you or may not like. But you never know until you have tried it for a while in real life.
2. Understand that success is today too.
“A person is a success if they get up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”
When you read about success it often seems like something you should work towards. Something there in the distant future.
This way of thinking can lead to many ups and downs. Sometimes you feel really good and are working towards what you want in an effective way. Sometimes you feel like doing nothing. It can become a rollercoaster.
But one of the most important parts of success in area of your life is simply consistency. To get up in the morning each day and do what you know is right in your life.
Working out instead of coming up with excuses not to. Being kind and open instead of closing up and gossiping or trying to put someone down or making them wrong in an interaction or just in your head simply to feel better about yourself. Pushing a bit outside of your comfort zone instead of staying inside it and feeling safe.
How you live today and each today is very much connected to the most fundamental goals people have in life. To be healthy. To be effective and get the most important things done. To raise self esteem and self confidence and keep it at a high level (things that to a large part comes from taking responsibility for each day in your life and doing what you know is the right thing to do).
So success is not about what you do in a few inspired rushes towards the goal. Things take time. Often more time than you might think. So keep an eye on where you are going. But keep your focus on the process instead of that alluring goal. Do it by making today and each day a success.
3. Life is change.
“There is nothing so stable as change.”
As humans, we often want to feel safe. We want certainty. And for a while we may think we have it. And then something always comes along to knock that feeling out of us.
So there is a superstition of safety. This is not just something negative though. It’s also created by your mind so you can function in life. No point in going all paranoid about what could happen a minute from now day in and day out. But there is also not that much point in clinging to an illusion of safety. So you need to find balance where you don’t obsessed by the uncertainty but also recognize that it is there and live accordingly.
As you stop clinging to your safety life also becomes a whole lot more exciting and interesting. You are no longer as confined by an illusion and realize that you set your limits for what you can do and to a large extent create your own freedom in the world. You are no longer building walls to keep yourself safe as those walls wouldn’t protect you anyway.
If you want to grow and move forward it’s not only essential to get used to the thought of life as changing and unknown but also to let go of the past. I wrote a bit about this a few days ago in Let Go! When you let go of the past and old self-images then change becomes so much easier to handle. And growing becomes easier too.
Because if your goal is to get fitter, then when you let go of a self-image of being unhealthy and instead stick to the one where you are healthy you stop working against yourself. Your actions, thoughts and self-image are now aligned. And so doing the right things by eating healthy food and working out becomes the natural thing rather than something you have to push yourself to do every day.
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© 2009 by Henrik Edberg
译文:
鲍勃 迪伦的三句最富有智慧的话
“无论是谁，我所能做的就是做我自己” “他不急于出生而忙于死去”
上个世纪最成功的又富有神秘感的一位音乐家当属鲍勃·迪伦了。在他的生涯中，他的专辑和令人敬畏的歌曲总是对他进行重新定义，同时也迷惑了听众。 这里是他对听众澄清事情的话，但这其中有些迪伦说的富含智慧的话语，我很喜欢。
1、找到你喜欢做的事
“很多人不能忍受周游的日子，但对于我来说，那像呼吸一样舒服。我周游是因为我有动力去做这件事。” 我认为这是很多人产生问题的第一步，或者说人们往往忘记这一步。因为当你发现某些你真正喜欢做的事时，但事实上你不是那么喜欢做的。
当你做你喜欢做的事时，你不必逼着你自己太紧。你一直做下去，是因为你喜欢它，不是仅仅因为你要达到某种目标（尽管这样你也会让你激动不已）。当你做你喜欢做的事时，你的行为也会变得很自然。很多时候你都迫不及待地想做这些事。
所以我们遇到的很多问题可能不是因为我们不太懂怎么让自己有动力继续做下去，而是因为我们所做的事不是我们喜欢做的事，那些事不适合我们。
那么你知道你真正想做什么吗？
当然，我不能回答这方面的所有的问题，但我有一点小建议，那就是去探究生活。
就是试着做各种事，从中找到你喜欢做的事。说你自己喜欢做什么不喜欢做什么是很简单的。但只有你在实践中试着做一段时间某件事，你才能真正知道你喜不喜欢它。
2. 要明白要成功，今天的努力也很重要。
“如果一个人早起晚睡，并在其中从事他所喜欢做的事，那他就是一位成功者。” 当你读到一些关于成功方面的资料，那似乎就是你努力的方向，未来某天能实现的目标。
这样的想法会让你产生很多的起伏。你充满信心地迈向你的目标时，有时候你觉得这种感觉很好。但有时你又觉得你什么都没做。这两种情况会交替出现，不断变化。
但是在你的生活中，要取得成功，其中一个最重要的因素就是持之以恒。每天早上起来就去做你认为正确的事情。
你只管去做，不要给自己找借口。要思想开放，心存善意，不要封闭自我，议论或者设法让他人不好过，让他人犯错或者仅仅是让你自己感觉好一点。把你开心的事与他人分享，不要独自一人享受。
你今天怎么过的以及你每一天是怎么过的，这都与你生活的真正目标有密切的关系。健康，有效率，完成最重要的事情。增强自尊与自信，而且把它们保持在一种比较高的水准（很大程度上，事情的成功需要你每天带着高度的责任感做事，并且做你认为正确的事）。
所以，成功不是你一时头脑发热而达成的目标。成功需要时间。而且所需的时间比你想象的要多。因而，你要专注于你所做的事。但要专注于你努力的过程而不是诱人的结果。为你的目标而奋斗，今天及每一天都要有成就感地生活着。
3. 生活是就是变化不定的。
“任何事情都是变化着的。“
作为人，我们总想要安全感。我们想要事情是确定的。在一段时间内，我们发现事情是确定的。之后，有些事情总会纠结成一团，感觉似乎不再我们的掌控之内。
所以，人们有一种对安全感的迷信。尽管这不是什么消极的思想。它也是在你脑中形成的，你可以让它对你的生活起影响。从这一分钟开始，今天之内或者今天之后会发生什么呢？对这种事情进行猜疑事没有意义的。一味地对安全感进行幻想也是没有多大意义的。因而，你要知道一个平衡点：你既不要被不确定感困住，但也要意识到这种对事情的不确定感是存在的。你就怀着这样一个平衡点继续你的生活。
但如果你摆脱对安全感的依赖，生活就会变得更有活力、更有趣味。你不在为那些幻想所困，你还意识到你明确了什么事是你力所能及的，在一定程度上，你给你自己创造了自由。你不再构筑墙壁来让你感到安全，就如同不再构筑那些根本不能保护你的那些墙壁一样。
如果你想让你自己成长，想有所进步，你就要接受生活是变化不定的这一现实，并去适应它，这一点是很必要的，同时，你还要做到让过去的事情就过去了，不再计较那么多。关于这一点，最近，我在《放手》中写了一些类似的东西。当你放开过去的事情和过去的形象，那么各种变化就比较容易应付了。你的成长就简单多了。
因为如果你的目标越适合你，当你放开过去的不好的自我形象，然后专注于你现在的良好形象，不再和自己过不去，你的行为，思想及形象就一致了。所以，健康饮食，并做你认为整确的事情，工作就成为你自然想做的事，而不是你每天被压着去做的事。