Experience = Positivity

Driving directions

• Recall the last time you drove to a place you hadn’t been to before without using GPS
• Even with driving directions in hand, you probably drove a little slower than normal
• You probably re-checked your directions a few times while on route
• And you may have thought for a moment that you should have already arrived at a certain street or passed a certain landmark by now
• If you’ve since made a second trip to that destination, especially not too long after the first trip, you probably ditched the map, puffed out your chest, and drove on confidently at a greater speed
• Why is that?
• Well the obvious answer is that you’re now experienced in driving that particular route
• Experience is simply gaining knowledge of something through participation or action
• Experience brings confidence
• What does confidence bring?
• It often brings things like:
• Motivation
• Aspiration
• Joy
• A desire to serve
• And many other things (all positive, by the way)

The simple equation

• So if experience (whether it be successfully arriving at a destination, becoming an expert in your industry, traveling abroad, or stepping out of your comfort zone) will bring about positive feelings and desires within you, why not commit yourself to getting out and experiencing life more and living richly?

The e-volution

Experience

• Experience is generally good to have, and we are regularly gaining experience, whether we intend to or not
• Even if you’re in the most mundane of assembly line jobs, each day you go into work you become a little better at what you do
• But basic experience doesn’t usually lead to a rich life because in most cases you remain an employee on a salary with limited upside, without much opportunity to really question how things are done, or propose new ideas (I’m not against being an employee, but I have a hard time with the limited opportunity to be creative and challenge the status quo)

Expert

• To live richly (whatever that means to you), expertise has got to be your goal
• Its in this realm that you become sought out (to speak to groups or to consult to organizations) and have the opportunity to question the way things are done and enact new ideas and opportunities because you are deemed an expert
• Unfortunately few organizations see the value in fully empowering their people for growth and development, but this isn’t to say that you cannot be an expert within your own company
• Its here that you have the freedom to build credibility, a unique reputation, and then be rewarded accordingly

Excellence

• Now granted not everyone is seeking recognition as the foremost expert in their field, but allow your (fertile) imagination to dream a moment and picture how excellent life could be if you were engaged, regularly contributing ideas, and an integral part of forward-thinking groups and organizations
• Given the choice, most people would take the exciting and stimulating choice over the dull and boring one
• Even if the money or the recognition or the travel aren’t important to you, isn’t the opportunity to be stimulated and influencing positive change even a little bit enticing?
• For many people it is, but they’re reluctant to step up and put themselves on the line, so they resort to feigning contentment with life