Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Where's my Ferrari?
5 keys for getting OFF the hidden hamster wheel so you can
start making a great living doing what you love
Why is this?
The majority of people spend their lives running on a “hidden hamster wheel”
that keeps them chasing after dreams, goals & solutions that NEVER arrive.
The hidden hamster wheel is a false belief – a belief that gets taught to us as
children & gets reinforced throughout our lives, without our even realising it!
Hundreds of years ago, the belief that the earth was flat stopped people
exploring new lands for fear of falling off the edge. In the same way the
“hidden hamster wheel” stops most people from:
QUESTION: If you're caught in a trap, what's the one thing you HAVE TO
DO before you can escape?
Until you realise you've been caught in a trap, you're VERY unlikely to get out
of it.
But once you know about the trap, & you can see how it works, then escape
can be pretty straightforward. Especially if other people have escaped from the
same trap, & can show you how YOU CAN DO IT TOO!
Here are five MASTER KEYS to help you escape from the stress, struggle &
frustration of the hidden hamster wheel & start creating a life you really love.
While “I’ll be happy when…” seems like common sense, a quick look at the
miserable lives of countless celebrities, Olympic gold-medalists & lottery
winners will demonstrate that it’s just not true. It’s an illusion that keeps
people chasing after a carrot they never quite reach.
There's nothing wrong with material success – it's perfectly fine, as long as you
build it on your sense of inner wellbeing & security instead of “mortgaging your
wellbeing” with deferred happiness.
When I first introduce people to the idea of the Hidden Hamster Wheel, they
often say something like “But if I didn’t have that belief, I wouldn’t be
motivated to do anything!”
That’s just not true. You weren’t born believing this, and you were motivated
to learn to walk & to talk. You were motivated to use your hands, & to play &
to explore. You were motivated to love & connect with other people.
We are all born with a natural sense of wonder & curiousity, a desire to explore
the world around us & to create whatever we feel passionate about.
Action step: What are some of the more obvious ways you’ve been deferring
happiness until now? What are your “I'll be happy when...” goals?
Please be clear – there's nothing wrong with wanting the things you want.
That's fine! But if you think you NEED them in order to be happy, it does two,
really damaging things:
1. It separates you from the natural source of peace, wellbeing & security
that's already RIGHT THERE INSIDE YOU.
2. It dulls your awareness of what you REALLY want, your authentic desires.
When you were first born, you didn’t know you had arms & legs. You were
happy, joyful & full of wonder (except when you weren’t). One day you realised
you had arms & legs, & you started on a learning curve. As far as I can tell,
you were still just as happy, joyful & full of wonder as you learned to use your
arms & legs.
• You didn't learn to walk & talk because you thought you should.
• You didn’t need to defer your happiness to motivate yourself to walk & talk.
• You didn't settle for crawling & gurgling.
• You didn't learn to walk & talk in order to get someone's approval.
You did it because you WANTED to. And why did you want to? I’m guessing it
was because you liked the idea! It was an authentic desire.
Stop for a moment, & think of all the things you’ve done, just because you
liked the idea… We all have natural desire & motivation placed within our
hearts, but it can sometimes be temporarily obscured by the list of things we
think we “should” be doing, or need to force ourselves to do.
But here’s the thing: if you’re doing something because you think you should
(usually obeying someone else’s rules) or because you think you need to in
order to be happy / fulfilled / secure / OK, you’re in danger of deferring
happiness.
• How will you know you’ve got it? What will you see, hear & feel?
Here's one of my favourites, the miracle question. It's great if you've been
telling yourself that you don't know what you want...
• If there were a miracle tonight, & when you woke up tomorrow, everything
was exactly as you want it to be, how would you know a miracle had
occurred? What would you see, what would you hear, what would you feel,
what would you believe, what would you experience that would let you
know a miracle had taken place?
Take some time to dream, to imagine how you'd love things to be. How would
you love to spend your time? Where would you like to spend it, & with whom?
Here's one more question to help you create your happy, successful life:
• What would you do if you knew you were going to be happy, secure,
successful & loved, no matter whether you got it or not?
• Your lifestyle
• Your mood & attitude
• Your health & fitness
• Your financial situation
• Your relationships
• Your goals & achievements
• Your developing skills & competencies
As my friend Dan Bradbury says, “Surround yourself with sad, lonely, fat,
broke people, and you'll wind up sad, lonely, fat and broke! Surround yourself
with happy, fun, fit and wealthy people, and you'll be happy, fun, fit and
wealthy!”
2. Approval & Acceptance – In days gone by, the people we spent our time
with represented our safety & security – being cut off from the tribe meant
certain death. All of us have a desire to be approved & accepted by those
around us – to conform & fit in (no matter how non-conformist we might
think of ourselves as).
Action step: Even if you do nothing else, take action to spend time with
people who are either ON THE PATH to living the kind of life you want, or
already living it.
“Follow your bliss, & don't be afraid, & the universe will open doors
where there were only walls” - Joseph Campbell
Your authentic desire gives you clues to your life's purpose, & is an excellent
compass for living a happy, successful life. People who make a great living
doing what they love are inevitably people who take inspired action. Here are a
few reasons why...
When you take inspired action, you extend your comfort zone
This is another important one. As human beings, we're designed to value
familiarity, at least to some degree. This is truly valuable - our survival
depends on our ability to respond appropriately to situations that are new to
our experience. When you take action & move with awareness into a new
situation, you continue extending your comfort zone. This opens up your
domain of possible experiences more & more every time you do it.
Action step: Make a list of some of the things you know are the right thing to
do, but you've been hesitating about. Use courage, take action & watch with
amazement as your confidence grows by leaps & bounds!
2. Emotional freedom
Worry, anxiety & unhealthy stress are ALL the result of thinking patterns, & a
lack of understanding of your psychological immune system. As you develop
your understanding of the nature of thought, you'll begin to experience more
PEACE OF MIND, wellbeing & an inner sense of security that can't be knocked
by external events, which brings us to...
1) I'd starve
2) I'd end up on the streets
This is just plain untrue! While there are sadly many homeless people living on
the streets, they're typically suffering from mental illness, running away from
horrendous family lives or trapped in the cycle of addiction. They are RARELY
people who left a job to do work they love, took a wrong turn & ended up living
in a cardboard box. The first step towards financial freedom is working for
yourself. Step two is developing passive income streams which gives you...
4. Time freedom
When you can make money without selling your time, you have time freedom,
& can spend your time as you please. Of course, the process may require a
greater degree of...
5. Mental freedom
As you get more in tune with your psychological immune system, you're able
to let go of unhelpful beliefs & get more deeply in tune with your innate
wisdom. This allows you to take inspired action to a whole new level as you
discover that who you really are (unlimited & powerful beyond measure) is
capable of a lot more than who you thought you were. This gives you more &
more space to enjoy...
Action step: On a scale of 1-10, where one is “No freedom” & 10 is “Total
freedom”, rate where you are currently in relation to these six freedoms, &
where you'd like to be.
Emotional freedom
Financial freedom
Time freedom
Mental freedom
Social freedom
If your want to increase your level of freedom in any of these areas, the
answer is simple:
Make FREEDOM your number 1 priority. Commit to it, then take inspired
action. For lots of useful information about HOW to do it, visit the blog at:
http://secretferrari.wordpress.com/
Jamie