An alien’s perspective on humans
What you will get: Reflections from an Alien on what it is to be human.
This is Bob the Alien.
(his real name is impossible to pronounce)
And, sent down from his planet, Curiosa, he had a very specific mission.
To observe humans.
And in particular, based on the assumption that most humans like to be happy, Bob was sent to observe what makes us happy.
And after an extensive time observing a variety of humans from the so-called “developed” world, Bob was confused.
(By the way Bob chose to observe the developed world because again he made the false assumption that “developed” must mean more advanced humans.)
You see…
Bob noted a big gap between what most humans actually spend their time doing and what they would be doing instead if they wanted to be truly happy.
Given that the average human life amounts to just 30,000 days, Bob was surprised to find that most human lives look something like this…
Get born.
Make some friends.
School (focusing mainly on lots of logical, impractical things that don’t make humans happy and aren’t useful in daily life)
Family time (much of which is spent glaring into small rectangular devises called smartphones)
Working 5 days or more per week. (normally in a job they don’t love)
Drinking too much to “turn off” from work.
Recovering from drinking too much.
Worry lots and lots about things like money, looks, confidence, jobs (that they don’t like anyhow), possessions, health and more possessions.
Get sick and worry some more.
Feed their brains with stories of over-dramatised, distorted negativity and despair (humans call this “The News”)
Sleep lots (but often badly because of all the worry)
Regret lots (not having enough time for family, friends and the things they love)
Die.
Now, like I said…
The real puzzling thing for Bob was that most of the above didn’t fill humans with feelings of joy, happiness, and fulfillment.
Yet they spend so much time doing it!
“Weird,” thought Bob.
And then…
Bob went on to explore the few humans (sadly the minority) who don’t accept the above, and create a different life for themselves.
And after carefully observing these “different” humans, Bob shared the following advice.
(Advice that you and I know makes sense, right?)
- Worry less about your abilities. You have the ability to love and be loved – a truly amazing human trait.
- If you want to be kind to yourself be kind to others. It really does feel great!
- Remember technology won’t save humans. Humans will.
- Laugh more – it’s natural and unique to humans and who didn’t feel good after a good laugh?
- Be curious and open-minded. Question everything. Don’t accept that things have to be a certain way and you have to fit in. Find your own way.
- Make your own daily news items – and fill it with arts, poetry, stories of human kindness and things that celebrate the human spirit.
- As you only have around 30,000 days, make sure you fill most of them with happy memories.
- Remember all tragedy and failure will one day be something you look back on with fondness and learning.
- Let go of regret and needless worry – they are useless.
- Ultimately, happiness is not out there. It is in there.
And Remember…
So what would Bob say about your life so far?
I’m off to follow Bob’s valuable advice.
How about you?
To your success
Steve Neale
“Europe’s Leading Expert on Personal and Professional Growth”
P.S. Great news, my brand new True Success online webinar programme will give you all the tools and guidance you need to make 2016 your most successful year ever. Details to follow soon…
Psychologist, Executive Coach, EI Practitioner, Award Winning Trainer, International Author, Psychodynamic Therapist, Hypnotherapist, Mindfulness Instructor, International Speaker, Creator of the LPS, Creator of the Accredited Masters in High-Performance Leadership
