End of the week means summary of the week. These are the bits and pieces I pushed into your head as part of the #weekdaykickoff 🌊 series, so that something reasonable (or unreasonable) will be your next action step. You’re welcome.

You’re Average Joe and Josefina

There’s nothing wrong with being average, if you’re happy with it. Being middle class (average class) has been your goal for a long time. Celebrate you made it. If you however feel that more is possible, set goals, take the steps necessary to reach them and become overly obsessive with it – in a positive way. Not everybody wants to rule the world, but why not dominate your litte niche?

Your default state is selfish and lazy

Analyzing myself I came to the conclusion that without a goal in life I would be selfish and lazy. Both character traits are so destructive that (if performed for a long time, like years), you would cease to exist.

Give yourself a meaning. It can be like cleaning the streets in front of your house every Sunday morning at 7am because the traffic is low. It can be a social service you’re doing for elderly people every Friday afternoon when school / university is over. Or a street performance you offer donation-based in your city center where you get yourself in an uncomfortable situation (getting out of your comfort zone is healthy) and entertain people.

These are all very good services that give yourself meaning. What service gives your life meaning? Yes, playing WoW counts 😉

Incest on a socio-cultural level

By copying what everyone else is doing you won’t become better (unless you copy better) and you don’t allow your true uniqueness to shine. You don’t even let it become born. With your Average Joe / Josefina mentality you won’t make it in the long run, so stop doing incest on a socio-cultural level (I know it sounds strong, it’s my intention) and get out of those circles.

The currently best way to do that is to join a travel experience with ON BOARD, a company I’m co-creating (yes, that’s biased, so what? – Do you want to become a better self and improve or stay like you are!?)

Your values first

Having had the pleasure of watching Adam Mason on Snapchat (adaminspired), I learnt a very nice formula for how to ask deeper behind the actions you’ve been doing every day.

In short: Base your actions (the “what”) and motives (the “why”) on your values. The sequence goes like: Values › Why › What

So, start with your values, and everything else follows. Without values you would be aimless, meaning dead.

The take-away for the weekend: Don’t be average if you’re not happy with it. Reach for more. Define your values and make them the core of your actions and motives to act. Avoid copying people in your circles because how original is that? Instead: Make the effort to find your uniqueness. If you don’t do it, you could find your self without goal in life and that would mean you’ll die not having lived a meaningful life. Sad. Triste. Shameful? Yes, a bit.

Yesterday I had the pleasure to watch Adam Mason on Snapchat (adaminspired). He recently changed careers to pursue his passion: photography. He was criticizing how people were only after the “What” (e.g. What are you doing for a living?) instead of asking why they do that for a living.

Also, he recommended to ask yourself every day after you woke “Why am I doing what I’m doing?” and observe what you answer carefully.

However, the “What” and “Why” should be based on your values you carry inside. Your values define your why and what creating a nice sequence. In short:

Values › Why › What

This idea is very charming since you hear a lot that you should “start with why” and then wonder what’s my why based upon. Values define your motives (your “why’s”). You have a fixed set of values or principles (yes, you will adjust them throughout your life) that you set for yourself because they define the scope of the field on which you want to play. The so many “Why’s” and “What’s” are simply a conclusion out of that.

The take-away from today: Values are the deepest core ingredients that define your existence, your being, your feelings, and they build the basis to conclude your motives (why) and actions (what). Without knowing your values, you’re basically aimless.

This was episode 29 of the #weekdaykickoff 🌊. Every Monday-Friday morning. Colombian time. Until episode 5 I also audio-recorded on Anchor, you can find me there as “Alexander Kluge”.

It’s not very popular among people in society to deliberately decide which channels you want to be contacted on or to say “No” to an appointment or any other social event. “You must be very anti-social doing that. Everyone else is coming!”, they may say.

They keyword here is “everyone”.

Everyone are the people who do things because everyone else is doing them as well. They copy within their own circles, it’s almost incest on a socio-cultural level. If you do what everyone else is doing, how can you possibly find YOUR way, YOUR passion, YOUR uniqueness. You are and will be just like them.

When they are winners, you’ll be a winner. When they’re losers, you’ll be a loser. When they’re average, you’ll be average. When you want to be unique, you go solo or surround yourself with so many groups of heterogeneous people that you don’t belong to either this or that group. You’re in between chairs but have access to many points of view. Powerful.

The take-away from today: Uncovering your true uniqueness is the greatest gift. It releases enormous energy and makes you a proud human person. Be aware to have an objective that you use in your life if you want to keep existing. If this self-discovery process means to avoid some people, that’s ok. If it means to overcome fears, that’s ok. In the end, it will be beneficial for you and the ones who receive what you radiate.

This was episode 28 of the #weekdaykickoff 🌊. Every Monday-Friday morning. Colombian time. Until episode 5 I also audio-recorded on Anchor, you can find me there as “Alexander Kluge”.