The Second Chance.

I used to wish to go back in time and do things differently and be a more successful person. Sometimes I would think about ideas that came to my mind but they remained ideas while someone else worked on the very same ideas and became successful. There is a saying "hindsight is always perfect". This implies that if we knew the future we can do things differently in present and become more successful than we would be without that knowledge.  Now compare this to "foresight" which is fraught with you making wrong decisions and not doing what you should have done. We always wish for a second chance to do things, the right way. 

One would think that the only way to get your Second Chance is to Travel back in time. Wish it was as simple as sitting in a time travel machine and go back. the problem with time travel is that right now there are no means to travel back in time except in sci-fi movies. However, there does exist a way to travel ahead in time i.e. the future. To do that all we need to do is use the machine we all already have. The machine is called imagination. Past cannot be imagined, for it has already happened, but nothing stops you from imagining the future as it has happened yet. Use your power of imagination and travel to the future and see your successful self, having achieved everything that you think would make you a successful person, but right next to your successful self imagine your unsuccessful self who failed to achieve anything. Here lies the really important trick, you can envision both your successful self as well as unsuccessful self then figure out what it took to get to become either one of them. 

Okay, enough of envisioning for now, travel back to present and the whole perspective has changed with the knowledge that you can reach your successful self in future much easily than just going through the life aimlessly and dealing with it as it hits you. If you still haven't got it, then just think you are 5, 10, 15, 20 or how many years in future and are broke, broke financially, physically, emotionally. Your family life is a ruin too, and you are just contemplating how you got there and "what you would do differently to not get to where you are?". This last part is really very important. This is going to be the key to your ultimate success. Now travel back to your present and think about what you just experienced, spend some time thinking about your failed self that you just saw and make a list of things you would do differently to avoid becoming that person. Start writing the list on paper or into your computer/laptop/tablet/phone. This list, if followed, almost guarantees you to become a successful person. Here's the catch, you are now living your "Second Chance", so make sure you do what you should have done the first time around so that you can become the successful person you just visited.

To get you started I have listed below some simple things we can start following today which i feel would lead me to the successful person I saw sanding next to the failure I wanted to avoid becoming. Feel free to add your own items to list or to simply start with your very own list from scratch. Just remember this is your Second Chance so don't make the mistakes you made first time around. Let's name this as "My Life List".

• Send a note/email/message to someone daily about why you like them. Send a note a day to certain people, a week to others, and a month to others. Keep adding more, but try not to delete anyone.
• Talk to a stranger, daily. Get to know about them, remember their name and other details and try to contact again.
• Take pictures every day and sort out the ones you want to keep.
• Identify a belief, daily. Question this and try to change it for the better
• Walk/exercise for at least 30 minutes every day.
• Identify one good quality about yourself, daily. Try to improve upon it.
• Try a new recipe, once a week.
• Refrain from one bad habit for at least 30 days, keep adding one habit a day.
• Write a blog entry, daily.
• Practice on a skill, daily. For example draw something, play an instrument, play a game.
• Watch an inspirational video, daily; Can be self-improvement, educational, biographical, documentary.
• Read at least one chapter of a book, daily.
• TV fast, daily. Sop watching TV outside a specific time (less than an hour)
• Meditate, daily, for 20 to 30 minutes.
• Wake up early, daily / Sleep in time, daily.
• Write a journal, daily.
• No excuses, no lies, no complains, forever.
• Do something you are scared of, daily.
• Do something selfless, daily.
• Pray, 5 times a day. Morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night.
• Thank before eating a meal.
• Plan your day the night before, daily.
• Plan your week, the Sunday before.
• Plan your month the last day of previous month.
• Plan you year the last week of previous year.
• Smile while talking, in person, on phone.
• Smile while writing a message.