Hey guys!
I hope you had a fantastic week, and you’re looking forward to the last few weeks of the year. Last week, I found an interesting short article called by The parable of the two villages . Here is a snippet from the blog post:
A man who was traveling came upon a farmer working in his field and asked him what the people in the next village were like. The farmer asked "What were the people like in the last village you visited?" The man responded "They were kind, friendly, generous, great people." "You'll find the people in the next village are the same," said the farmer.
Another man who was traveling to the same village came up to the same farmer somewhat later and asked him what the people in the next village were like. Again the farmer asked "What were the people like in the last village you visited?" The second man responded, "They were rude, unfriendly, dishonest people." "You'll find the people in the next village are the same," said the farmer.
In this newsletter, I want to discuss my three biggest takeaways from this blog post. First, your mindset will always determine your environment. You will always be surrounded by who you think is around you. If you focus on the negative, you will always see the negativity around you and never the positivity. Likewise, if you focus on the positivity, you will always see the positivity around you (however, I have a slight bias towards the positivity in that you can also see the negativity but still decide to focus on the positive).
Your mindset determines your environment
Secondly, change your mindset before your environment. We mostly believe that the biggest change we can have is by changing the environment, when in fact the biggest change comes from changing our mindsets. Most people believe that they can make radical changes to their lives in the new year, but if you don’t work on changing your underlying habits and thoughts, new year resolutions mean nothing at all.
Lastly, my biggest takeaway from the blog post is that you will always find the good and the bad. One mistake I made at the beginning of my personal development journey was seeing life as black and white and not appreciating that there was grey in between. In all positivity, you will always find some negativity, and the reverse is true. The only way to live about it is to be conscious of this phenomenon and choose to focus on what you want to achieve.
How to Optimise Our Mind to See Good and Bad ?
—"Opportunities in Difficulties💡"—
Yes, it can be very naive not to see that the cup is half empty. But in retrospect, it's also half full, and it's always that we have to strike the balance between the two in order to make the best of the environment we are in. However, it's always a question, and this is one of the ideas we have been writing and exploring ourselves in this blog and journey. These are some of the actionable actions:
Break into new communities - this is one of the greatest ideas that we have been working on. Not only do we believe that it's not just about what we know but also about who we know. This is a good way to meet smart, competent people who can generate a great deal of ideas around you.
Do the hard things - most of the time, we are afraid to tackle the challenging tasks, such as breaking into new communities, as mentioned above. However, it's doing these hard things that build a strong and creative mind that can identify and embrace opportunities. We all had a great experience this year when we participated in hackathons, and we are planning to write a blog post about how we learned from stepping away from the easy tasks.
🔁 Stay consistent - as one writer said, we often fail to acknowledge the growth over a decade because we can't see it over a long period of time. However, doing your best to stay consistent and continue with what you are doing can yield significant results over an extended period.
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The parable of the two villages
What are some of the biggest takeaways from your personal development journey? Share them with us in the comments below.
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