A New Mindset Of Success - Dr Rangan Chatterjee | Modern Wisdom Podcast 271

I mean, it's such a hopeful ideology really, isn't it? This idea that for many of us, we're in a position now that we've never been in before, that our ancestors, that even our parents weren't in. So we can now think about, "Why am I here? How do I wish to spend my time? What do I want out of each day?" You know? (laughs) T- to maybe our grandparents that would be laughable what you ... "Just gotta find a way to make some money, get food on the table and have some shelter at night." So i- it is, it is a lovely thought because actually many things that have happened in the world over the past years, including the big lockdowns and the, the sort of restrictions, uh, that were put in place in 2020, they are forcing a lot of these existential questions to so many of us. You know, how are we living our life? What was I really doing? Did I enjoy just constantly chasing all the time?

(wind blowing) 2021, we're finally out of the absolute nightmare that was 2020. Are you a New Year's resolutions guy? You got any resolutions for this year?

I used to be a resolution guy, um, back in the olden days. This year, no, haven't made any, really. I, I find, I find resolutions have helped me in the short term in the past, but haven't really helped me in the long term. And I guess that's also what I've seen with many of my patients. I, I'm not against resolutions, right? I, I get that everyone has got a different approach. Different things work for different people for sure. But for me, I think about values. What are the values I want to live my life by this year? What actions do I need to take regularly that is going to help me act in accordance with those values? And I guess if I'm honest, 2020 has probably shifted things for me in the sense that, like for many people, there was a lot of reflection in 2020. Um, you know, life came to a stop in certainly the way many of us w- used to live our lives. And I remember in August, I actually went off social media for 18 days. And it was just incredible, mate, because in those 18 days, once I'd got out of the habit of picking up my phone and looking for the Instagram app, which I'd actually deleted from my phone, I really found a sense of calm and sereneness, and I really started to tap into what I thought, not what the world around me thought. Like, what do I really think about these issues? And it, it was, it was, it was like, you know, shutting out the noise from the world and allowing me to hear my inner voice. And I thought long and hard about my values then. What are the values by which I aspire to live my life? And I thought about things like integrity, uh, compassion, uh, creativity, fairness. I, I thought of, you know, family. Big value for me is my family. And I was thinking about, well, are your actions consistent with these values? Are they real values or are they aspirational values? And so I've been doing a lot of that kind of inner thinking over the past few months, and I think that's one of the reasons why I've not set any resolutions this year, is because I feel pretty content these days, mate, if I'm honest. I've been working hard on myself, my health, my wellbeing, my thoughts, my mindset for a good five, 10 years now. And I feel that, yeah, there, there's a few things I want to focus on this year for sure. Uh, I've got a chart in my kitchen at the moment, as my kids do, and I've got three daily practices on there that I'm committing to. And I've thought long and hard, 'cause in the past I would have put eight or nine down, and I, I, I was gonna do one, but I know I'm quite confident with these three. So I've realized that if I do these three things every day, I win the day. I'm doing ?because there's a temptation, I think, these days to go online and say, "Oh, I could do that. I could practice martial arts, I could do breath work, I could do meditation, I could do yoga. Uh, I could do strength training." Uh, I've been that person before. So, you know, that's a long-winded answer to your question. Have I set any resolutions? No. Do I not agree with resolutions? No, I think they can work okay for some people, but for me, I'm at a place where actually this year at least I've made zero resolutions.