How to Survive in the Modern Era in Which You Live

Do you ever feel like the modern era in which you live becomes increasingly difficult to navigate? Although you have more conveniences than at any other time in history, your life moves at an ever-quickening pace, your days become overfilled with commitments, and it’s difficult to focus your attention. So much information comes at you all the time in so many ways and from so many places, and you are presented with a multitude of opportunities that require choices of all types. Despite all the progress in the world, you feel as if you live amidst chaos, confusion, and struggle.

You aren’t alone. Many people today feel this way. So how do you navigate your life and find calm in the middle of the storm?

To thrive in the modern world, you need to develop specific abilities or characteristics. They include:

• Clarity
• Focus
• Energy
• Courage

Clarity and Focus

Clarity and focus allow you to be productive even when you could easily become distracted or go into information overload. When faced with so many options—like read your email, check your social networks, look at the news, watch television or a movie, send a text, read or listen to a book (just to name a few)—it become difficult to choose a particular action in any moment.

So you don’t choose! You switch from one option to the next as if you suffered from Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). Or you get caught up in an activity that doesn’t truly serve you or your goals. Or you choose a mind-numbing activity, like television or surfing the Internet, or do nothing at all.

When you get clear about what you want or need to do, you can focus on your priorities. You develop the ability to shut out the noise and distractions, and you choose the activities or tasks that feel “on purpose” for you. Once you make that decision, it becomes easier to stay on purpose or “on task.” This allows you to fulfill your purpose and potential.

Energy and Courage

Today, you also need energy and courage. The constant stream of information to process and act upon makes it easy to feel drained. Every day feels like a marathon, especially if you work more than a 40-hour week. Raising your energy allows you to keep moving forward toward your goal faster and longer. It helps you focus on a task until you complete it and beyond.

Courage helps you make decisions and take action upon them. With so many choices to make daily, it’s easy to get stuck in indecision. I’m sure you’ve been there: “Should I? Shouldn’t I? I don’t know so that I won’t decide. I won’t do anything (or I’ll do what I’ve done before).”

You need to take daring action to achieve your goals and dreams. If you allow it, fear will hold you back and make it impossible for you to create change in your life or do what is necessary to accoplish your dreams.

Couple courage with clarity, focus and energy, and you become unstoppable. When you get clear, you focus on the steps you want or need to take. With energy and courage, you take those steps and keep moving forward. Neither fear nor exhaustion stops you from moving toward your goals and dreams.

Productivity

With clarity, focus, energy, and courage, you can increase your productivity. Getting more done each day helps you feel as if you have more time. Life doesn’t feel quite as pressure packed or chaotic. You relieve some of your stress and anxiety—and you open up time to focus on other personal and professional activities. Not only that, you gain more clarity about what you want to do—and can do.

However, without clarity, focus, energy, courage, it’s easy to fall into overwhelm or indecision. You then get stuck in the chaos, and you feel unsure about which way to turn, what steps to take, or how to make the most of your time. In fact, you waste time. You find yourself off purpose and task, and then the stress and chaos in your life increases.

Succeed at Modern Life

Clarity, focus, energy, courage, and productivity are qualities possessed by the most successful people. These high performers are equipped to survive the modern era. They have the life-management skills to handle the daily chaos. But the chaos doesn’t enter their lives. They move through their days like superheroes, warding off the chaos and leaving order behind. They accomplish what they desire in every area of their lives—as if they had super powers.

But the qualities they possess are not extraordinary. You can learn or develop them, too. I did.

I’ve often been called a “very productive” person, but I knew I could be much, much more productive if only I could focus for longer periods of time—or some days for even an hour. Many times I’ve found it easy to get lost in my email box or on social networks—and I still do. If I feel stressed or overwhelmed, I go into avoidance mode. If I have any fear or self-doubt, I procrastinate. I don’t do the things I need to do, and then I feel even more stressed when my work or commitments pile up undone. When that happens, my life becomes more chaotic. My obligations and tasks mount up, and I have to work long hours to get everything done.

However, as I developed my capacity to get clear, remain focused, increase my energy, and behave courageously, these negative habits began to disappear. (I won’t say I’ve totally rid myself of them, but I can manage them.) And my productivity increased enormously. In turn, the chaos disappeared to a great extent.

My clarity helps me keep my priorities in front of me. I daringly plunge into my daily commitments and tasks, often the hardest or scariest ones first. And I don’t find it difficult to block out a period, such as two to four hours, to complete a project. I keep my energy up during this time block with a variety of easy methods, so I don’t get sleepy, lose focus, or find my mind responding slowly or lethargically.

I have a new sense that I am, indeed, productive. Not only that, most days I am on purpose. That means I’m fulfilling my purpose and my potential. And I’m clear that’s exactly what I want to be doing!

Additionally, I find myself less stressed. I take the time to take care of myself and my family, and my work gets done as well. I don’t worry about how to get it all done. I know I can as long as I stay clear, focused, energized, and courageous.

Daring action keeps me stretching toward big goals and achieving my dreams. I wouldn’t have become a Certified High Performance Coach, a bestselling author, or an often-requested speaker if I hadn’t had the courage to pursue these goals.

These high-performance qualities—clarity, focus, energy, and courage—have helped me create a calm amidst the storm we call modern life. More than that, they have provided me with the tools necessary to navigate this fast-past, ever-changing, data-fill world in which we live as I work diligently to achieve my purpose and potential. While more and more information and opportunities swirl ever-more-quickly around me, I know everything will be okay. I will be okay. I have what I need to survive the modern era. And I can thrive in the constantly changing world in which I live.