Think back to an unexpected event or a by-chance encounter that led to a sustained relationship or a newfound interest. Now think, what were the conditions that allowed for that encounter to happen? Chances are it occurred because of an open mind or an internal pull (to note, this internal pull isn’t always easy to feel and can often get crowded out by other noise in our life—most commonly the racing thoughts and desires in our minds).
When we’ve acknowledged that something internal compelled us to follow our feelings and open ourselves to opportunity, the question shifts to how we can elicit those deep feelings on a more regular basis.
In a basic form, this can be broken into two categories we can focus on improving:
- Reducing our internal noise — If nothing else, the continual process of self-discovery and exploration is fed by the absence of mental noise and our openness to entertain the thoughts and ideas that come to our mind. To strengthen the signal of our most impactful thoughts, we first need to reduce the number of inputs we take in. This means stripping our routines of the activities we carry out mindlessly and noticing our thought patterns when they take over. If necessary, we need to be the ones who discipline ourselves and set some direction to the actions and behaviours that are aligned with our goals and values, ultimately leading us on a path that is self-reinforcing of the ideals we wish to live out.
- Opening to opportunity — The second component to finding new frontiers is an openness to opportunity. In this case, the obstacle is most commonly fear. Like a muscle, the more we face discomfort, the more we tackle fear head-on, the more likely we are to occasion these moments of opportunity when a door opens where we didn’t know one existed. When we’ve stripped our mental inputs down to the most critical ideas and influences, our task shifts to following the blissful projection that is cast forth from inside us. This is simple, but not easy. Fortunately, we can consciously affect how frequently we expose ourselves to foreign experiences.
Through a dedicated practice, we can directly influence the number of times a special moment creates a new opportunity. Better yet, we can directly control the valve of novelty that so often sits neglected in our range of experiences. Yes, comfort is easy and, well, comfortable—but from short-term discomfort arises a world of unexplored possibilities; in the end, rewards lie for those who have the courage to open themselves and seek.