I figure a good way to start my blogging career is by getting out some of things that have been swimming around my brain lately. I have been lucky enough so far to enjoy 22 years on this earth. I say lucky enough because I have been in more than one situation in my life where I was all too sure the end was right around the corner. I guess through these experiences I have become a bit more of reflective person. I’ve learned a lot in my life and hopefully I have many more realizations to come but I figure I might as well get a few things down on paper. So here are some of my opinions, about how I TRY and live and what I spend my time thinking about when I have a chance.
Since many of the things I have found to be all too true have also proven to be all too cliché, I guess I should start there. Growing up advice is shoved down your throat at incredible rate. Perhaps this is why so many young people stop listening. The term cliché and “corny” start coming to mind as soon as someone starts to ramble on about how this world works and how you should act accordingly. Well cliché and corny, I have found, to be synonyms for well founded truth. Advice that was offered to me years and years ago that I simply forgot or wouldn’t recognize as valid has come back to me in the form of hard learned lessons. Though I believe experience is the best teacher, I also believe it would do us all of a world of good to heed the advice of others a bit further along in their journey than we are ourselves.
Perspective is 99.8% of life. Everything that happens in your life, good or bad, sculpts how you perceive and react to the world. Common courtesy and “putting yourself in someone else’s shoes” are horribly over looked in today’s culture. When we start to think about where people have been, we can have a better understanding of where they are, and where they are headed. Introspectively, if you understand the things that influence your beliefs, opinions, and consequently your actions, you will have a much more rounded view of how to handle yourself in a fashion that will get you to where you want to be instead simply where you will end up. Letting your situation determine your actions allows the people and things in your situation to determine your future.
Whether you think you can or you think you can not, you’re right. Confidence is absolutely critical to success. Clearly arrogance is an entirely different subject, however, confidence breeds success. People follow leaders with confidence and leaders want followers who are confident as well. Confidence is evident in every aspect of your life whether you have it or lack it. Once you truly believe in yourself and realize that your success is directly proportionate to the effort that you are willing to put forth, paths to achieve your goals will become much clearer. This seemingly simple realization leads you to a state of mind where no one can hold you back, other than yourself. Be decisive, and once your decision is made don’t let anything or anyone tell you any different. Thinking long term and working short term will keep your heart focused on your goal while keeping your mind and body focused on what you must do to achieve that goal.
To achieve anything in life, whether it is a one mile race or 10 year goal, there are three steps: initiative, determination and hope. Initiative gets you started by providing the primary gust to work toward accomplishing something. Initiative is also sometimes hard to muster. You must realize that every marathon starts with one step, as every century starts with one second, as every painting starts with one brush stroke. In this same fashion every day passing is a wasted opportunity to achieve your dreams and to become the person you want to be. Simply put, the best time to get started is now. In all honesty though, initiative will only take you so far. After a while we all grow weary and when the end is not within an eye shot, we tire and falter. This is natural, therefore, it’s time to change gears and realize that if accomplishing what we want to accomplish was that easy, it most likely wouldn’t be worth it. This is where determination comes into play. Determination motivates us through the tough time when our initiative has sputtered and we haven’t yet the hope to see our journey to the end. Honestly this is the time when the men are separated from the boys and the girls from the women, this is the time when we must look inside ourselves to find out what we are truly made of; this is gut check time ladies and gentlemen (for help in this area read above about confidence). If you really want the reward, you will realize that this is not the time to slow down, but rather the time to push forward even harder because working towards goals is like standing flat footed in a river, if you’re not moving forward, then you are being pushed backwards my friend. Finally, if your confidence, initiative, and determination have not failed you, then now is the time that you can finally start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Take pride in how far you have come, but realize how much further you have to go. Now is the time to realize that you have come far too far to fail. Now is the time to realize that coming up short is not an option because stopping now, or anytime until now, is not only pusillanimous and lazy but even more so, stopping is not an alternative.
Since many of the things I have found to be all too true have also proven to be all too cliché, I guess I should start there. Growing up advice is shoved down your throat at incredible rate. Perhaps this is why so many young people stop listening. The term cliché and “corny” start coming to mind as soon as someone starts to ramble on about how this world works and how you should act accordingly. Well cliché and corny, I have found, to be synonyms for well founded truth. Advice that was offered to me years and years ago that I simply forgot or wouldn’t recognize as valid has come back to me in the form of hard learned lessons. Though I believe experience is the best teacher, I also believe it would do us all of a world of good to heed the advice of others a bit further along in their journey than we are ourselves.
Perspective is 99.8% of life. Everything that happens in your life, good or bad, sculpts how you perceive and react to the world. Common courtesy and “putting yourself in someone else’s shoes” are horribly over looked in today’s culture. When we start to think about where people have been, we can have a better understanding of where they are, and where they are headed. Introspectively, if you understand the things that influence your beliefs, opinions, and consequently your actions, you will have a much more rounded view of how to handle yourself in a fashion that will get you to where you want to be instead simply where you will end up. Letting your situation determine your actions allows the people and things in your situation to determine your future.
Whether you think you can or you think you can not, you’re right. Confidence is absolutely critical to success. Clearly arrogance is an entirely different subject, however, confidence breeds success. People follow leaders with confidence and leaders want followers who are confident as well. Confidence is evident in every aspect of your life whether you have it or lack it. Once you truly believe in yourself and realize that your success is directly proportionate to the effort that you are willing to put forth, paths to achieve your goals will become much clearer. This seemingly simple realization leads you to a state of mind where no one can hold you back, other than yourself. Be decisive, and once your decision is made don’t let anything or anyone tell you any different. Thinking long term and working short term will keep your heart focused on your goal while keeping your mind and body focused on what you must do to achieve that goal.
To achieve anything in life, whether it is a one mile race or 10 year goal, there are three steps: initiative, determination and hope. Initiative gets you started by providing the primary gust to work toward accomplishing something. Initiative is also sometimes hard to muster. You must realize that every marathon starts with one step, as every century starts with one second, as every painting starts with one brush stroke. In this same fashion every day passing is a wasted opportunity to achieve your dreams and to become the person you want to be. Simply put, the best time to get started is now. In all honesty though, initiative will only take you so far. After a while we all grow weary and when the end is not within an eye shot, we tire and falter. This is natural, therefore, it’s time to change gears and realize that if accomplishing what we want to accomplish was that easy, it most likely wouldn’t be worth it. This is where determination comes into play. Determination motivates us through the tough time when our initiative has sputtered and we haven’t yet the hope to see our journey to the end. Honestly this is the time when the men are separated from the boys and the girls from the women, this is the time when we must look inside ourselves to find out what we are truly made of; this is gut check time ladies and gentlemen (for help in this area read above about confidence). If you really want the reward, you will realize that this is not the time to slow down, but rather the time to push forward even harder because working towards goals is like standing flat footed in a river, if you’re not moving forward, then you are being pushed backwards my friend. Finally, if your confidence, initiative, and determination have not failed you, then now is the time that you can finally start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Take pride in how far you have come, but realize how much further you have to go. Now is the time to realize that you have come far too far to fail. Now is the time to realize that coming up short is not an option because stopping now, or anytime until now, is not only pusillanimous and lazy but even more so, stopping is not an alternative.
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