This is optimal living daily episode 802 living congruently part one by Steve Pavlina of Steve Pavlina.com and I'm a very own personal narrator Justimolic reading to you from some amazing blogs and books to help you optimize your life today's post comes from Steve Pavlina Who I got to meet recently about a week ago in Las Vegas. He was super nice I went in for a handshake and the first thing he said was hugs So he started off on the right foot my business partner Lee and I got to talk to him about all sorts of stuff Some of the experiments he's done his fitness routine personality tests and a lot more really nice guy And today's post is on the longer side I'll break it up into two. Let's get right to part one as we optimize your life Living congruently part one by Steve Pavlina of Steve Pavlina calm Do you tend to compartmentalize all the different areas of your life career goes there relationship goes here spirituality fits there and health? Well, that's neither here nor there or maybe your compartmentalizing is temporal instead of spatial and you're thinking during the workday You do what you must this evening You'll do what you love and have some fun and on Sunday you'll think about what it means or perhaps you experience a feeling of compartmentalizing thought versus action I'm spending X percent of my time thinking and Y percent of my time acting when you view your life as a series of different compartments each with different rules Then life gets pretty complicated trying to achieve balance is very difficult because you constantly feel the need to task switch My relationship needs attention.
Oh, no, I've been neglecting my health. I need to work harder I've got to stop thinking so much and take more action The different bins of your life are all fighting for your time and the longer you neglect one of those bins the louder it gets And the harder it will fight for your attention put off your health for too long and you'll crash with an illness put off your Relationship for too long and a breakup may be the result put off your work and your career and income will suffer This is a paradigm that many people share keep all your balls in the air keep all those plates spinning don't let your spiritual beliefs interfere with your work But I think it's a broken paradigm Let's consider a different way of thinking what if your life had only one bin one ball to juggle one plate to spin just one No need to deal with ten different areas of your life and keep them all balanced just one as is possible It's possible if all of those different areas of your life are congruent if they all follow the same rules then thought and action are one Both pointing in the same direction. They're on the same path. Your work is congruent with your most deeply held spiritual beliefs You don't have to take your spirituality offline when you go to work improving your health improves your relationship increasing your income increases your service This means moving from a paradigm of the different parts of your life being in conflict to a new paradigm where they all cooperate Instead of seeing each part of your life as independent you begin to see them as interdependent and isn't this a more accurate model?
Anyway, can you truly isolate each part of your life as something separate? Can you abuse your health and think it won't affect your career or your relationships? Do you think your feelings about your relationship won't affect your financial situation? Can you ignore your spiritual beliefs when making business decisions and expect no negative consequences?
It seems obvious that all the different parts of your life are deeply interconnected But a common way to treat problems is to try to isolate them if there's a problem with your health You need to diet and exercise if there's a problem in your career It's time to work harder But this isolation protocol doesn't work well because there's too much overlap between all the different parts of your life No matter how much you try to isolate the problem areas and go to work on them It's often the case that the obvious cause of the problem isn't the true source If you feel lonely because you haven't been able to find the right relationship And you keep trying harder and harder to find a relationship, you may get nowhere The problem may be that you work at a career you aren't passionate about And you project this lack of passion to everyone you meet And still a deeper issue, maybe that your spiritual beliefs tell you that service to others is very important But you don't feel you're doing that Then you change careers to do what you love And it aligns with your spiritual beliefs because now you feel you're contributing and serving Then out of nowhere you meet your future spouse Who's attracted to your passion about your work and the contribution you're making And the encouragement you experience from this relationship in turn helps you advance your career, increase your income And free up more time to spend with your new spouse Your stress goes down and your health improves too Your inter-spiritual conflict was a real source of your inability to find the right relationship Everything is deeply interconnected Although it seems that each part of your life follows different rules, they all follow the same rules You may have different values for each part of your life, but the rules that govern those areas don't change An example of an unchanging rule is kindness The concept of kindness should resonate with your spiritual beliefs You can be kind to your body and your health will improve You can be kind to your coworkers and your relationships with them will improve You can be kind to your spouse and your marriage will grow stronger You can be kind to a stranger and your self-esteem will increase It doesn't matter to which area of your life you apply the principle of kindness Its application is universal Another universal rule is being proactive, assuming personal responsibility for results and taking positive action It doesn't matter where you apply this rule, health, relationships, emotions, spiritual beliefs, career, business, money, etc Being responsible works no matter where you apply it Cheating is another universal principle No matter where you apply it, the long term results are negative Cheat your health and pay the price of sickness Cheating your relationship and the cost is a loss of intimacy Cheating your education and your income suffers But more powerful than these intra-area effects There's the rippling effect due to the interrelatedness of all areas So if you apply a universal principle in one area, either positively or negatively It ripples into all other areas If you cheat your health, then in the long run this will hurt your career, your relationships, your finances, your emotional state And your sense of spiritual connectedness You can't cheat in one area of your life without suffering the consequences in all areas Similarly, be kind to your body and your increased positive energy will positively affect your relationships Your work, your finances, your emotions, etc Be proactive about building a career you enjoy And your passion will spread to every other area If you violate a universal principle, it negatively impacts all areas of your life If you follow a universal principle, it positively impacts all areas of your life Universal principles don't compartmentalize So the key then is figuring out these universal principles and aligning your thoughts and actions with them This is how you achieve congruence between all the different parts of your life So what are the universal principles? Hear that in tomorrow's episode You just listen to part one of the post title living congruently by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com I'm constantly thinking about how to optimize my health, what supplements to take, hours of sleep, what my diet should focus on Superpower finally takes the guessing out of it One simple lab test covers over 100 biomarkers and their app gives you a complete picture of your heart, liver, hormones, metabolism, even environmental toxins Plus it used to cost $499 right now, it's just $199 And head to superpower.com and use code old at checkout for an additional $20 off your membership So Steve mentioned a personality test that I never heard of back when I met him in Las Vegas I've taken the Myers-Briggs test, I'm an ISTP, also known as the Craftsman, which I found to have super accurate descriptions of how I operate But the one Steve mentioned is called Colby, I think that sounds pronounced, it's K-O-L-B-E It is paid, so it's not free, but he said it was an actionable test for him, unlike a lot of personality tests where it sort of tells you what you already know So you might want to check that one out, and there's also the disk assessment which I believe Tony Robbins gives away for free through his site You probably have to provide an email address or contact info or something That one also supposedly has actionable takeaways about how to communicate with other people So if you're into this kind of stuff, you might want to check it out, I have both linked in this episode's description I do not get anything in return from mentioning both of those, I just thought you might be interested in that kind of stuff Alright, just getting along, so I'll leave it there for today, hope you're having a great day, and I'll see you in tomorrow's show where we'll finish up this post And where your optimal life awaits