In Brendon Burchard’s book The Charge he begins by asking: are you trying to muster up enough energy and enthusiasm to get through your busy, meeting choked day? Are you also just trying to make it to the weekend so you can do the something you really want to do?
He identifies three modes of living and we all predominately live in one of these. More on that in a minute. The good news is that “you can choose to keep it, amplify it, or change it all together.”
Recent psychology research indicates we operate on either an internal or external locus of control – referring to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them.
According to the prominent psychiatrist Dr Daniel Amen, you control your mind; your mind controls your brain; your brain controls your body – so really you can be in control!
So what are these three modes of living?
Firstly there is what Brendon calls the The Caged Life: that we are confined by our past or by the expectations of others (the boss?) and we never really seek to break out of the boundaries we or others have set for us.
We are concerned about what others think and adapt our behaviour to fall in with the external ‘rewards’. We feel locked in or controlled. The focus is “Will I survive? Will I be safe?”
The way out is to choose to change, and that may not be easy, or fate or circumstance forces a change.
The second mode is what Burchard calls The Comfortable Life. We work hard, get a good education, have a good job, have family and friends and a ‘comfortable’ lifestyle.
You know that this is your fate when someone asks you how you are and you answer, “I’m .. well .. fine.” Its when we wonder – is that all there is? What about all those dreams and plans – some day? So its is more of a rut than a cage. The “comfortable self feels limited by its own success.”
The third state is The Charged Life. No more boredom and dissatisfaction, now you have energy and enthusiasm for whatever challenges you will face in the world, enjoying the journey and having a purpose or direction in life.
Recent brain research has discovered that the notion that the number of brain cells are limited and die off with age, is a myth – we can continue to grow and develop our brain throughout our life with new experiences, training and knowledge.
For more on the book see: http://thechargebook.com/