Success For Life

Personal Development & Zombies

Personal development and zombies don’t usually get brought up in the same sentence. But in my crazy mixed up world somehow they’ve gotten smooshed together.

Me and my wife watched Zombieland last night and we loved it! It stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. There’s even a cameo by Bill Murray with a huge Ghost Busters reference.

Now I wasn’t watching the movie with the eye to discover real-world life lessons. But as it went on there were a couple of them snuck in there to really take this movie to the next level for me.

If you’re open to it, all things, people, and situations can teach you something and help you with your personal development.

Personal Development Lessons Learned From Zombies

Nut Up or Shut Up
One of my favorite sayings that I heard years ago is, “You can’t complain about what you permit.”

Complaining: We get sucked into it at work, we sit around the table and whine about it when we’re out with our friends, and we grumble about it under our breath when we’re alone. Sometimes secretly resenting a person or situation, pointing fingers and blaming external forces for our crappy life.

Well like Woody says in the movie, “Nut up or shut up.”

We have more power then we give ourselves credit for.

Is there something that’s bothering you about your life?

Why is it bothering you?

What have you done to help create it?

What’s the lesson hidden within it?

And remember the Serenity Prayer, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference.”

Nothing Stays The Same
Whether it’s the weather, your life, or a fast acting plague that quickly infects the human race turning them all into Zombies, nothing stays exactly as it was.

We can’t fight change because if we do we’re really fighting against ourselves.

Laurens van der Post said that, “Life is its own journey, presupposes its own change and movement, and one tries to arrest them at one’s eternal peril.”

Embrace change and your free. A natural spontaneity happens within us because we tap into the joy that’s at the center of our being.

Family is What You Make It
Family is more than the one we’re born into. And I know that sometimes our families are not all Brady bunch or what we want them to be, but the “perfect family” doesn’t exist.

And family isn’t defined by DNA.

If there’s anything that sites like facebook or twitter are teaching us it’s that we’re all connected.

We’re returning to a tribe mentality.

Realizing the we’re a global family sharing a precious home called earth.

So enjoy the family you have and go out there and make it bigger by honestly connecting with others.

Trust Can Be Given Freely
What’s to lose by starting each interaction from a place of trust? By being open and honest?

Have the courage to wear you heart on your sleeve.

I’m not saying to be a doormat or anything like that. But it’s OK to trust. It’s empowering actually.

Working from a place of trust fills you with self-confidence, power and clarity.

It gives you a chance to bond to your fellow travelers along the way. And it opens up doors where there were once walls.

Be Yourself
This is a scary one for a lot of people. Being yourself is sometimes crushed under the weight of trying to fit in. Or we have it beaten out of us in grade-school.

But life is all about diversity.

When we fall in love with a person it’s the unique qualities that set them apart from every other person you’ve met before. It’s those individualistic traits that makes them unique. Special even.

We’re all unique.

The philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche gave this advice about embracing and being ourselves, “At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.”

We are fragile creatures. We try to hide this. Build impenetrable walls around us. But it’s our fragility, our softness, our vulnerability that makes all the difference.

Our own fragility is an oasis of opportunity.

The opportunity to explore, create and connect.

Ask yourself the tough questions, “What do I like? What brings me the most joy? Who am I really?”

Work With What You’ve Got
Are you waiting for everything to be perfect before you do something about your life?

Well stop right now!

The perfect time that you’re waiting for is RIGHT NOW.

Woody and friends beat up and pulverized Zombies with whatever was around. They used hedge clippers, cars, sports equipment. Anything and everything became a tool for them to use.

Don’t get hung up on the fanciest gadget, the shiniest widget, or the stars to align.

Start right now and work with what you’ve got. I still use spiral bound notepads to jot down my thoughts and keep track of my life.

You’d be surprised what you can come up with and achieve by just doing your best with the tools, talents and gifts that you posses right now.

Enjoy The Little Things
Maybe it’s twinkies, a hot cup of orange pekoe tea, or sitting on street benches watching the world go by. You’ve got to take the time to enjoy the little things in life.

Take what happened to me this morning.

I had stumbled to bed at about four in the morning hoping that the kids we’re going to sleep until nine (pipe dream).

At about 7am I heard the little pitter patter of feet coming down the hall. It was my son Shea.

He came into our room and climbed into the bed with me to cuddle.

And sure he had a little bit of dragon (morning) breath but that really didn’t matter compared to the couple minutes of joy he brought to my day.

Maybe it was the warmth of his little head in the crook of my arm. Or the big grin he had when I hid his little hand in mine 25 times. Or the fun he had going “boop” every so silently, being sure he didn’t wake Mommy, while he turned my nose into a button.

But for those few minutes I lay there, taking the time to really enjoy the moment.

Be inspirational!

Ian

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