Month: May 2024

Chasing Who I Am in 10 Years

Recently, I heard Matthew McConaughey speech:

They are three things to my account that I need each day. One of them is something I look up to, another is something to look forward to, and another is someone to chase.

Someone To Look Up To

The something he looks up to is GOD. He thanked God for his blessings – how amazing that is! I too believe that God is someone I look up to and give thanks to everyday. I am who I am today because of God’s amazing love and grace.

Someone To Look Forward To

The something he looks forward to is his family – how wonderful that is! To always look forward to his loving family is such a blessing. We must never take granted our family and friends, who have supported and love us.

Someone To Chase

The person to chase? That’s him in 10 years time! He is constantly chasing the person he will be 10 years away. He knows he is not going to attain that, and it’s fine with him because it keeps him with somebody to keep on chasing.

I love this concept of imagining my future self and chasing after my own hero. I get to envision the best version of myself in 10 years time, and keep on chasing after my awesome Future Self. It is a moving target of chasing the best version of who I can be in the future. I can play my own hero in my story, writing the adventures of my life!

I want more from my life because I know I can be more – that I can contribute more to the world. There is a purpose of who I am – to do something that I was meant to do, that only I can contribute to in this world. It is the unique contribution of my Future Self that I am pursuing – whether it is in one year or ten years’ time!

Overcome Feelings of Being Stuck

After starting a project, we sometimes go through a phase of feeling stuck, where we don’t feel like we are making much progress, or not making progress fast enough. What I would call: an annoying plateau.

One of the ways of overcoming this feeling of being stuck is to have a sense of progress, however small the progress. Maybe write one sentence for your book, or one line of code for your program, or one small social media post to say ‘Hi World’, a 3-minute exercise, or reading or researching on your topic, or making connection with someone who might be related to your project.

Just do anything – the smallest action – to gain a sense of progress, especially when you don’t feel like it. Make the action so small that you can’t not do it.

The strongest known force in daily motivation is a sense of progress – Hidden Potential by Adam Grant

I believe what is most important is not to get stuck for too long, as the longer we are stuck, the harder it is to get unstuck! I like the idea that I read somewhere – not to miss your daily action task for two or three consecutive days. Quickly get back on track as soon as possible, even with a small action to get that sense of progress. For example, if your project to lose weight requires you to exercise 20 minutes a day, just do a 3-minute exercise to keep the momentum and have a sense of progress, instead of having a total loss of one day. I always tell myself: 3 minutes is still better than 0 minute.

The secret to overcome the feeling of being stuck is by having a sense of progress, however small the progress is. A progress is still a progress, however small or big.