#20 Everydayness

Between the Ears - Everyday-ness

Welcome, I'm Arnold Beekes and I enable you to have a better life between the ears, because your inner state creates your outer reality. Today I want to talk with you about everydayness. Everydayness is actually the hallmark of excellence in every domain.

So it doesn't matter whether you're a pianist, a saxophone player, a writer, a sportsman, a nurse, anything, if you want to be good at it, if you want to be excellent, if you want to use your potential, you gotta do it every day and preferably multiple times per day. And people like, well, I can hear people like Arnold, I'm already so busy, I cannot do these things. Well, it's your choice, but look at any person in the world who's good at something, and it doesn't matter whether it's cooking the greatest lasagna in the world, or teaching you how to speak Spanish, or someone who wants to build a better for all world, you have to do it every day, every day.

That's why it's called everydayness, and that is what the people who are excellent in these things, research has proven this, and it's logical. Because if you say, I'm only going to be excellent one day a week, or one hour a week, well, I tell you, you won't be excellent. You need to practice.

What is practice? It's a discipline to continue learning and applying what you've learned through exercises. And why is that even more important in today's world? Because since the introduction of the mobile phone in combination with social media, we have a device which we hold in our hand, and the device gives us seven days a week, 24 hours a day, something to distract us, something which looks interesting to us, and most of those messages are not helpful for your excellence. Actually, I would argue that a lot of those messages are based on fear.

It forces you to compare yourself with other people who are between quotes more successful than you are, and you feel lousy because you don't have such a big car, or a big house, or a big boat, or a big anything. If that is what you look at, if that is what you consume every day, then that is going to have the biggest impact in your life. If you want to change that, and I know you want to change that, if you want to build a better world for all, together with other people, you got to make sure that every day you feed your brain.

It's not only feeding your body or nourishing your body, you got to feed and nourish your brain with something that is constructive, with something that is inspiring, with something that helps you to become better at what your particular topic is, where you want to be excellent at. In any case, there are three things which I suggest you do at least once a day. One thing is learn something, create something, and care.

Care about yourself or care about other people. This doesn't have to be like you got to learn how to speak Mandarin. It can just be a small thing.

Create, it doesn't have to be that you have to build a two meter high marble sculpture. It can also just take a pencil and make a small drawing on a piece of paper. Care.

Care about yourself. A lot of us, we're very good at caring for other people, we're not good at caring for ourselves. So learn, create, care.

The second thing is true self-analysis. Look in the mirror, look in your inner mirror. What are you feeling? What are you thinking about all the time? Will you feel some itching or maybe some pain in your body? So have true self-analysis and walk.

Most people are capable of walking. My heel is destroyed and the surgeon in the hospital said it was unlikely that I would be able to walk again. But now I go each morning for more than an hour walk.

So if you want that, you can do it. And walking is one of the most easy things we can all do at any moment in time. And it has so many benefits.

So do things every day. You're not going to get better. You're not going to change habits.

You're not going to have an impact if you don't do it every day. Why am I sharing all this with you? Because it's my mission to enable better brains and better innovation for better living. I invite you to go to my website which is called bio.link.beekes. That's my last name.

B E E K E S bio.link.beekes to find my sites for Brain Fitness, Brain Athletes and Innovation Athletes as well as our Brain Health Community on School. Everyday Beauty. Yes, that is why I call it that.

That's why I focus every day on beauty. And I hope you are going to do that as well. Because beauty and especially moral beauty like kindness, courage and compassion has a very positive influence on your inner state.

And as I say in the introduction, your inner state creates your outer reality. Today's example is about a lady called Florence Loma Rivo in Kenya. That's in Africa.

She has spent years rescuing girls from female genital mutilation and child marriage. Turning her own escape into a mission that now includes a school and rescue center. Now you might say, oh, there's just a small group of people.

It's not so special. Well, it is. Unfortunately, it's not only in Africa.

It's also in the Middle East. It's also in Asia and probably in other parts of the world. This female genital mutilation is still happening.

It's not something out of the Middle Ages. Yes, it's middle-aged behavior. But we see it every day.

It's happening every day to young women, even girls. It's a terrible thing. But Florence Loma Rivo, she said it's enough.

She didn't want to be the victim herself. And she creates a school and a rescue center for all these children and young women who don't want this and want to escape that kind of behavior. So I think that's extremely courageous and compassionate of that lady.

Please remember, we need your uniqueness. Be a better maker for yourself, for others, for the world.