Uncommon

mark divine, uncommon, simple principles for an extraordinary life in today's fast-paced and ever-changing world, many find themselves striving for more.

more success, more purpose, more meaning.

if you're among those looking to transcend the ordinary and achieve extraordinary personal growth, this guide is for you.

the journey to becoming uncommon isn't a single-step process, but rather a series of challenging ascents of five metaphorical mountains – the physical, mental, emotional, intuitional, and spiritual.

each mountain represents a crucial aspect of holistic development that, when mastered, leads to a life of greater fulfillment and impact.

in this chapter, you'll learn the essential steps to becoming uncommon.

you'll start with the physical mountain, where embracing an active lifestyle and healthy eating habits lay the foundation for longevity and vitality.

next, you'll tackle the mental mountain, honing your focus and finding your true calling to cultivate a mindset geared for success.

the journey then continues to the emotional mountain, where managing your emotions and transforming fear into courage become pivotal skills.

from there, you'll ascend the intuitional mountain, learning to trust and develop your intuition through mindfulness and creative activities.

finally, you'll reach the spiritual mountain, where aligning your heart and mind completes your transformation into an uncommon individual.

ready to ascend?

let's get started.

ascend the physical mountain physical inactivity is now recognized as a global pandemic, contributing significantly to preventable deaths.

as a result, becoming physically active is the first step in your personal development journey.

after all, the only, but nonetheless essential prerequisite to success in personal development is that you're alive.

the human mind is adept at creating excuses to avoid physical activity, but it's crucial to ignore these rationalizations and commit to moving your body.

engaging in regular exercise will not only secure your longevity, but also maintain your brain health as you age, improving your concentration, memory, and mood.

to build a solid foundation of physical fitness, aim for at least 20 minutes of functional or cardiovascular exercise 3-5 times per week.

then, start to weave in 5 minutes of somatic exercises, like yoga or qigong, every morning to enhance flexibility and mental focus.

once you've gathered momentum with these practices, try adding short, intense drills such as squats, burpees, or push-ups throughout the day to further boost fitness levels.

changing your approach to eating is equally vital.

unhealthy cravings stem from our unconscious minds, where physical hunger and mental habits intersect.

by adopting a heart-centered approach to nutrition, you can develop healthier and more sustainable eating patterns.

some initial steps include staying hydrated by drinking half your body weight in ounces of water daily, focusing on consuming natural, high-quality foods most of the time, and reducing portion sizes by about 30%.

cutting out sugary, high-carb snacks and intermittent fasting are also beneficial strategies.

ask your healthcare professional for guidance on which approaches will best support the lifestyle changes you're making.

lastly, don't overlook the pivotal role of social connections in attaining physical health.

social relationships have been found to be more critical for longevity than genetics or willpower, and they play a significant role in overall well-being, surpassing even smoking, obesity, and high blood pressure as risk factors.

success in health and fitness hinges on starting with straightforward routines and maintaining consistency.

the path is simple, but it isn't necessarily easy.

yet by embracing these practices, you can effectively tackle the first mountain of becoming in common, fostering both personal vitality and meaningful relationships along the way.

ascend the mental mountain once you start scaling the physical mountain, you can direct some energy towards the next peak you'll face, the mental mountain.

achieving mental mastery starts with honing the ability to concentrate and practice metacognition, which is an awareness of one's own thought processes.

you can cultivate this critical skill through breathwork, such as box breathing or concentration meditation exercises.

these practices will enhance brain function by engaging the control centers and calming your mind's ever-restless default mode.

once you've become more still and centered, finding your true calling will be your next essential task.

a clear calling alleviates that pervasive unease that comes with walking a path that isn't singularly reserved for you.

in buddhist and yogic traditions, your true path is known as svaradharma, which loosely translates to your unique duty or role in the larger cosmic order.

every human has been allocated a svaradharma, but it's on us to individually identify and commit to it.

to uncover what yours might be, engage in contemplative journaling to identify your likes and dislikes.

this process clarifies your purpose and helps you understand your archetypal energies.

reflect on questions such as, what do i dislike?

what do i suffer doing?

what do i enjoy?

when do i thrive?

what am i passionate about?

evaluate whether your current pursuits align with these core interests and values.

finally, embrace visualization as the advanced technique for manifesting the future you desire.

effective visualization involves vividly imagining and emotionally experiencing the specific state or target outcome, engaging all your senses.

this practice integrates the body and mind, making your visions feel more tangible and within reach.

mental success paves the way for overall success.

by reshaping your internal images and narrative, you can take more aligned action and transform your life from the inside out.

adopting this mindset and these strategies will help you deftly navigate the mental mountain of becoming uncommon, moving you closer to a life of greater fulfillment and impact.

ascend the emotional mountain having set forth on the physical and mental mountains, you're now well on your way to becoming uncommon.

let's get you geared up for the next summit that looms ahead, the emotional mountain.

emotions are integral to holistic human well-being, serving as a link between our minds and bodies.

you may not always be aware of them, but you experience emotions constantly, and they color every one of your thoughts, reactions, and behaviors.

the mind's complex wiring allows emotions to arise from both bodily sensations and as a product of our thoughts.

notably, however, we have the ability to control thought-driven emotions, a superpower we don't possess when it comes to physical-derived reactions.

this is a crucial insight, as it's the thought-driven emotions that shape your personality, experiences, and memories.

so by understanding this connection, you can better manage and choose more productive responses, and ultimately achieve superior outcomes.

kicking off the day with a positive mantra can be an efficient and effective way to sculpt your inner landscape.

negative thoughts can weaken both your physical and mental health, whereas positive thoughts can promote healing and well-being.

by consciously focusing on positive thinking, you can improve your emotional health and mature emotionally over time.

as a result, morning mantras can help you navigate daily challenges and keep negative feelings at bay.

no small feat given the brain's tendency towards looping in fear-based thinking.

but to free yourself for good from these limiting emotional patterns, you must go a layer deeper.

by consciously and consistently feeding courage and starving fear, you can reverse the direction of your thought and feeling spirals from downward to up.

for instance, viewing fear simply as a signal from your nervous system can help you remain poised and see the trigger as an opportunity to unlock an untapped reserve of your potential.

conquering emotional challenges involves recognizing the power of your thoughts and emotions, managing them effectively, and transforming fear into courage.

coincidentally, these are skills that will serve you well as you move toward scaling the final two summits of becoming uncommon.

ascend the intuitional mountain intuition is a unique form of intelligence that many misunderstand or overlook because it isn't communicated in words.

unlike our rational, critical thinking, intuition comes to us through images, gut feelings, sensations, and sometimes even sounds and smells.

just because intuition speaks a different language doesn't mean it isn't communicating something important.

in fact, our intuition contains an abundance of wisdom, and as a result, it's the next peak of personal development to conquer.

there are two main types of intuition, transrational and inferential.

transrational intuition involves receiving insights from external sources and seems to defy our conventional understanding of how we come to know things in the physical world.

inferential tuition, on the other hand, is the more commonly accepted means of acquiring information, drawn from our life experiences and training, and acts as a mental map we refer to when we encounter similar scenarios.

learning to honor and heed both inner and outer awareness will lead to holistic awareness, a state of heightened intuition.

this heightened state will allow you to understand yourself and your environment at a deeper level, enabling quicker and more accurate responses to potential dangers or opportunities.

mindfulness meditations can further enhance your intuition by allowing you to understand the root causes of issues without immediately seeking solutions.

such meditations require patience.

humans default to problem-solving over self-restraint and percolating, but will reveal underlying truths and help prevent obstacles from reappearing on your path.

lastly, consider engaging in a right-brained activity, such as music, movement, literature, or visual or martial art, all of which can develop and refine intuitive awareness.

these activities are holistic modalities, that is, they stimulate the heart, mind, and gut, encouraging you to unlock more of your intuitive abilities.

you might not have expected to climb the intuitional mountain when you set out on your personal development journey, but becoming uncommon isn't possible without this rare capacity.

now equipped with this vital skillset, you're ready to face the final frontier.

ascend the spiritual mountain achieving spiritual fulfillment requires aligning your heart and mind in every action, a concept the japanese call kokoro.

this alignment signifies a unified approach to life where inner thoughts and outward actions play together in concert.

now is a great time to revisit your primary purpose, or svartharma, which will remain constant even as your specific duties change.

if you need a little more clarity or would like to double down even further, consider the japanese ikigai framework.

picture four overlapping circles, one representing what you love doing, one representing what you're good at doing, another representing what the world needs doing, and the last representing what you can be paid for doing.

the intersection at the center of these overlapping circles is what the japanese believe reveals your ikigai.

in addition, your journey up the spiritual mountain is underscored by eight paired virtues simplicity and boldness, excellence and non-attachment, drive and contentment, trust and respect, justice and peace, courage and commitment, honor and truth, and lastly, discipline and joy.

these pairs present a balance between inner reflection and outer action, similar to yin and yang, crucial to this final frontier of personal development and creating a sustained harmonious flow in life.

from here, adopting the one-day, one-life mindset will encourage you to live mindfully in the present as you enjoy the view from the peaks of personal development.

treat each day as if it were your first and only, making the most of every second.

pay extra attention to your initial thoughts, words, and actions each morning, and your final actions, words, and thoughts each night.

this modest yet momentous practice will encapsulate and emphasize the essence of a lifetime within a single day.

as you continue your ascent, remember to acknowledge and celebrate the distance you've covered since you set out on your journey.

every success proves that you are, in fact, one of the uncommon.

in this chapter to uncommon by mark devine, you've learned that achieving extraordinary success requires cultivating an uncommon mindset and employing uncommon strategies.

greatness isn't reserved for a select few, but it does demand non-trivial commitment, discipline and perseverance.

by consciously and continually scaling the five mountains of personal development—the physical, mental, emotional, intuitional, and spiritual—you can join the rare few who've eschewed the ordinary and achieved excellence.

the journey may be demanding, but the path is simple, and ultimately, it's the only one that leads to a truly fulfilling and impactful life.

watch your world transform beyond belief as you embrace the power within and strive to be uncommon every day.

okay, that's it for this chapter.

we hope you enjoyed it.

if you can, please take the time to leave us a rating.

we always appreciate your feedback.

see you in the next chapter!