Did you read the Emerson quote carefully and give it the thought that it deserves? It is really about learning the little things in life that we often overlook in our hustle and bustle, isn’t it? About the execution of these little things also. What are the little things that you missing in your life?
In her novel, The Painted Drum, writer Louise Erdrich discusses taking risks:
“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You have to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes too near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.”
Many of the individuals reading the articles on this site are business owners, marketers, salespeople and much more. In the busyness of posting that thing or answering that Tweet or analyzing that infographic, there are some things that get missed.
Sometimes it’s easy to label them “business” or “consumer” when they’re actually people just like you and I. They have feelings, goals, dreams, families, and relationships. The data we as businesses analyze may be valuable and provide trends, but there is a person behind each number.
Check out these 11 little things in life you should never lose sight of or ever stop learning about:
Have balance
Try many new and different hobbies. Keep the ones you like to further develop through the years. Work hard on maintaining balance in your life. . Unplug sometimes and pay attention to your family, which is, let’s be honest, our motivation for working so hard, to begin with.
Talk to at least one stranger every day
Strangers are always a hidden opportunity. Opportunities to make new friends, to get new ideas, to get rid of that fear of talking to strangers, to start a business venture, and much more. Expand the diversity of your network as much as you can.
Mind your relationships
Your relationships can get you through anything. No matter how well connected we are, it’s the personal, meaningful relationships that will get you through. And by personal I mean more than just a facebook post or alike.
I mean, covering the distance with phone calls or video chats. Whether it’s finding new content to curate or making sense of a data trend, your relationships will matter much more than the data. All of the success in the world is meaningless if we forget to have our priorities in order.
Manage time well
Life is composed of days, days of hours, hours of minutes. And you only get one lifetime. Make the most of the now.
Find happiness
Be constantly aware of your surroundings and breathe in the beauty around you.
Avoid putting off things until later. Instead of waiting to later at some hazy time in the future, find a way to do what you like today.
Be kind to people
Kindness means you are concerned about other people. Kind people think about another person’s feelings and not just their own. They are always looking for ways to help people in need.
It’s a little facile, maybe, and certainly hard to implement, but I’d say, as a goal in life, you could do worse than Try to be kinder.
Diversify your life
The breath of your life experiences is a huge advantage. The more different your life experiences, the more creative your ideas and the better you can relate to people.
Being human
There are only so many hours in the day. We can get caught up in the 24/7 social cycle for our clients and think we have to be married to our computers and mobile devices.
There are times, in the middle of a big project for a million-dollar deal that we have to stay alert, but most of the time, a tweet can wait, that post can be written tomorrow. Unplug sometimes and pay attention to your family, which is, let’s be honest, our motivation for working so hard, to begin with.
Get to know different people
If you’re a liberal, make friends with conservatives. If you’re part of Occupy Wall Street, befriend a banker. If you’re a city mouse, get to know a country mouse. Why? Many reasons, one of them being that we make better decisions in diverse surroundings.
Break goals into small objectives
Read a book a week, play catch with your son, go to the gym for a workout twice a week. Break gigantic projects into day-sized tasks. They are much easier to accomplish this way.
Be adaptable
Don’t be afraid to adapt or make changes. Adjustments will always be necessary; sometimes on the fly and some will require much more thought and time.
The bottom line
We can’t forget to learn the little things as we stretch and grow. If we maintain our balance, being able to stay focused on what keeps us grounded in reality, not being afraid to fail, it will help us be more effective people … emphasis on people.
