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MSA National’s Sam Makhoul explains how to harness your ‘mojo’ to find success in life and business in 2018.
Your mojo is that magical quality that attracts good things to you. We are all born with it but lose it on the way to adulthood. We may experience glimpses of it, but it is elusive and vanishes quickly. Finding and hanging on to your mojo happens when you balance the mind-body connection. Here’s how…
In sport and in business, if you start batting on the back foot you will stop scoring runs and eventually be bowled out. You are most successful when you work like you have nothing to lose. How do you do that? Build up enough savings so that you could get through six months of the toughest financial times. Having this safety net gives you a fearless mindset.
You will never find your mojo if you are constantly thinking and using your mind as a storage device. Do a daily ‘brain dump’ in your diary. Keep nothing in your head. This will help you sleep better and get into the zone of creativity.
Never ever make your life about making money and material things. Your primary purpose as a human being is to serve and inspire others: your customers, your colleagues, your friends, your family… How do you do that? Listen more empathically and give more than expected. Your mojo lives in that space called compassion.
Looking at the colour green lowers blood pressure and dissipates stress. Walk in the park daily; go for a hike on weekends. Surround yourself with plants at home. (Book recommendation: Plant Style by Alana Langan.) Drink green smoothies and eat at least two green salads daily. Besides being healthy, plant foods are full of life force that give you that glow.
How you look impacts the way you feel. When you dress and look your best, you will simply feel more confident and ‘with it’. (Caution: You cannot eat like crap and cover it up with clothes and make-up. You still need to eat clean and stay lean.) Choose clothes that are true to your personality. Stay away from fads. Get a style coach. Read Women in Clothes by Sheila Heti and Off the Cuff: The Guy’s Guide to Looking Good by Carson Kressley.
External stress is everywhere. It only affects your mojo when it consumes you. Some people live through war and take it in stride. Others go into meltdown when someone cuts them off on the road. Seriously? Stop trying to make your external surroundings perfect. Stop putting high demands on yourself and the people around you. Life will never go 100% your way. Not even 50%. The people who walk around with their mojo intact are the ones who accept that external discomforts are a part of living and that the only people who are not stressed are dead.
When we were children, our whole existence was about exploring and having fun. Consequently, our creativity was limitless. The few that carry this fun and playfulness into their adult life go on to invent and create the most amazing human discoveries: Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, to name a couple. So my advice is to stop feeling guilty whenever you get the urge to do nothing, or to daydream or hang out with friends. Have fun whenever you get the chance. Your mojo loves to have fun.
Your appetite for food parallels your appetite for life. Food that is full of flavour not only nourishes the body but brings passion to the surface. They call it ‘soul food’ for a reason. Enjoy the variety of foods out there, but try to eat true to your cultural heritage. There is nothing more satisfying than eating food that your parents and grandparents cooked. Savour what you eat slowly, focusing on the smell, texture, colour and taste. Eat outdoors, eat with your hands, eat with friends, and above all please do NOT eat in front of the TV/computer.
New routes, new destinations, new friends, new experiences. These all keep your five senses engaged. When you do the same thing every day, your senses become dull. Parts of your brain consequently shut down. Scientists are now realising that Alzheimer’s and dementia are cases of ‘use it or lose it’ (google ‘The Nun Study’). New perspectives, new sights, new smells, new flavours all keep your brain firing and your mojo dancing.
There is a difference between life and living.
Sam Makhoul
Founder and managing director, MSA National
