To quote the late Dr. David Viscott,

“If you cannot risk, you cannot grow.
If you cannot grow, you cannot become your best.
If you cannot become your best, you cannot be happy.
If you cannot be happy, what else matters?”

Does everyone believe in this line of logic or is it just me?

Risk=Growth

If you cannot risk, you cannot grow.

In this statement, Dr. David suggests that in order to grow you must risk.
Let’s look at the different types of growth: mental, physical, and spiritual.

• Mentally, in order to grow, we must challenge our current frame of thought and be open (risk) to new ideas, methodologies, and thoughts. If we were to keep the basic same beliefs and knowledge we would never learn or grow.
• Physical growth happens when we push our bodies past what the body considers “normal.” Let’s consider your bicep. In order for it to grow (there’s that word again) we must have it lift more and more weight over time. If you continually lift the same amount of weight, you will eventually reach a point where your muscle will no longer grow. By lifting more and more weight you are risking injury, time, and overuse. Therefore it is the safe, right amount of risk that manages healthy growth.
• Spiritually, growth comes from a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us. When we allow new beliefs to enter our mind, we have to again risk being wrong or challenging our past understanding. Spiritual growth only comes from letting down the defenses of our mind and allowing in new beliefs and understandings.

Growth=Becoming Your Best

If you cannot grow you cannot become your best.

What does becoming your best mean to you? To me, it is realizing our true potential. Potential is different for everyone, while I believe we all can achieve great things, all of us have different unique abilities to be our best, with one constant, universal refrain: you will never reach your true potential if your skill set and mindset do not grow.

Similar to risk, you must be willing to learn, adapt, and change in order to grow, it is those changes to our mindset that allow us to realize our true potential. One could almost jump straight from Risk to Potential, but growth is needed because as we realize our best we learn paths to take and which ones to avoid.

Growth allows us to learn and build upon that learning, thus realizing our best.

Best=Happiness

If you cannot become your best, you cannot be happy.

When you talk to those around you who are truly happy, are they people who are satisfied with their lives or do they constantly want for more without actively working towards it?
I find that those who are truly happy are the ones who feel they are living life on their own terms. They are happy because they are fulfilled.
When I see people fulfilled I see them at their best. Happiness is finding joy in the life you live. If your life is not as you want it, you are not operating at your true potential.
I see this all the time in people’s jobs. People take a job because they think they have to, but don’t feel fulfilled by the tasks they do. This lack of fulfillment leads them to not perform to their optimal level and thus not be happy with where they work. Conversely, people who seem to be exceedingly happy are those whose lives are filled with activities that bring them joy and allow them to work to their true potential (be their best).

Happiness=All That Matters

If you cannot be happy, what else matters?

Life, is about finding happiness and living on my terms. A poem I recently read said, “Life is not a dress rehearsal, you’ve got one life, get living it!”
This line got me thinking about all those people who are miserable in life. They are unhappy with who they are, what they’ve become, and what their prospects are for life.
They live life like someday it will be different.
Newsflash: life doesn’t change. You change your life through your actions and decisions. If you want to be happy you have to make it, you cannot “find” happiness. Happiness must be created.
What would life be like if everyday you felt fulfilled? I am happy, and I have found that happiness comes from a love of the life I live. Life isn’t easy, but if I’m not happy, what’s the point of doing what I do everyday?

What can you change to make your life more fulfilled and thus be happier? What else matters?

Thoughts, questions, disagreements, or other ramblings- please comment below or email me.