be thankful for the little things that you look forward to every day – and that you are excited for these things. this is what life is about – looking forward to the little things you do each day – having coffee, reading a book, going to work, listening to the radio, watching a show, having a beer – these are the things that keep us sane – that keep us from focusing on what we are going to do in the future. don’t think about what you can have one day – think about what you are enjoying today. think about the moment and be happy in that moment – this is what life is. life is not thinking about what you will have in the future – it is about what you have now – and being thankful for what you have now
Category: Life
cherish them
it came to me last night when i pray each night for my loved ones. i go through the names of all my relatives. i then realized that there are only 3 immediate family members left that are in the golden age of life. we need to cherish them in these final years because when they are gone, there won’t be anyone left at that age – only you marching towards that time in your life. it will come quickly – like everything in life. you will one day soon be that older person. you will be the one your younger relatives pray for. keep praying for them while they are alive so you can know that you have a limited time with them – to enjoy now before it is too late. pray for them because you will be them soon. they need you as much as you need them. they were there for you when you were younger – and now you must be there for them. it is the right thing to do. you know it – you just have to do it. cherish them.
safety
you must always be safe. you must always be alert to your safety and the safety of your loved ones. take that extra step and watch out for your loved ones. when a loved one is not able to always be safe, you must keep an eye out for them. one lapse in your safety watch could mean life or death. death can happen at any moment and it is always a surprise. you will not be warned that death is near. you will not have time to think about life or death. you must not hesitate in the moment of life or death. you must let your instinct take over. you must act without thinking to save a life. to avoid more moments like this, raise your alert level to a higher point. make the conscious effort to look again – to watch out for your loved ones. this will help prevent life or death moments. without saying, safety is the key to living longer. be on the lookout for danger at all times and you will be safe most of the time.
meeting by chance
does not happen. there are no such things as meeting someone by chance. every encounter is not by chance, it is meant to happen, it is part of your path of destiny. these could be brief encounters at the post office or sought after job interviews. the point is – you were supposed to be at that place at that moment –and there is a reason for every meeting. whether you see someone from long ago or you have just met them for the first time –these are not chance happenings. these are markers along your own individual path – fulfilling your own individual destiny. these “chance” encounters are sending you a message or a signal that you must interpret –and that you can interpret usually very easily. you say to yourself –“yes, I know why I ran into that person today – it all makes sense now”. each meeting gives you another piece of the puzzle – the puzzle of your life. don’t be surprised when you come across someone – and that meeting leads to good things or bad things – this is what is supposed to happen. you must take away what you can from each meeting – that is your job. learn why you had that meeting and become wiser from it.
respect
respect is a funny thing, especially when you view it from your own perspective. it is easy to give respect to someone, but how do you gain respect for yourself. you go your entire life looking for respect, but the reality is you must earn a person’s respect – whether that person is your spouse, your child, your parent or your boss. in each one on one relationship, you must establish a sense of respect -more easily done with personal relationships. with personal relationships, you can follow your instinct on how to act and respect will follow. but in professional relationships, it is harder to judge when you have earned a person’s respect. oftentimes, it is not clear if your boss or your subordinate respects you. and sometimes you realize that you are not respected as much as you believed in the work environment. therefore, the only path one must take in the work environment is to do what you think is right and act the way you feel is the right way –and if respect comes from your actions and words, then so be it. on the other hand, if respect is not earned by your actions, then so be it as well. in other words, you cannot control whether a person respects you or not, so don’t dwell on the idea of “does this person respect me”. that is not for you to worry about – you can only control your own actions and results. you cannot control earning respect from others. you might do every action with the greatest of success –and still respect might not follow. don’t look for respect from others and only look for respect from yourself.
be content
with your life. stop thinking about what your life might be in the future. stop wishing away the present. look around at all that you have now. be grateful for what you have now – for who you have now in your life – for the laughs you have now in life – for the moments you have now in life. you will never get what you want in the future until you are happy with what you have now. i don’t know why it is so embedded in human nature – to want what others have, to want more that what you have, to dream of a better life – when the life you have now is the “better life”. in every day that you live now, there are moments of joy and beauty. when you sit at a table with your family and you talk, smile, laugh – you are experiencing the best things that life has to offer –ever. it does not get any better than those moments –moments that you will yearn for in your dying hour. why are there so many cliches about living now, living for the moment, live in the present – it is because they are true. you just have to realize it. you have to flip a switch in your mind to stop wishing and wanting –and start living. because before you know it, your wish will come true – you will be in the future and you will only have regret then, for not stopping in time to flip the switch.
overwhelmed
as you get older, life moves faster. and as life moves faster, more pressures build upon your shoulders. this will inevitably cause you to feel overwhelmed. this is natural – it happens to every single person in this world and most people go through their entire lives feeling this way at some level or another. however, you do not need to feel this way at all. but it will take a conscious decision in your mind not to feel this way. you must understand that you have a destiny in this life -we all do. you must understand that you will fulfill this destiny if you keep moving yourself forward at all times. don’t give up and just keep moving forward –and you will continue down your path of individual destiny. and because you know that you have a destiny to fulfill if you stay on your path, then you don’t need to worry about being overwhelmed. just tell yourself that you need to be calm -that there is no sense in feeling overwhelmed -that you are on a path of destiny -so feeling overwhelmed doesn’t make any difference. it is pointless to feel overwhelmed when you look at life this way. you have a destiny and these feelings do not change that destiny. take a breath when you feel overwhelmed and understand that these feelings have no bearing on your life or your destiny.
don’t fear the future
know that you can handle whatever the future has in store for you. know that you have had down times in your life before and that you have recovered from them. know that because of this, you will be able to handle problems in the future. know that because you have pushed through uncertainty in the past –that this will help you push through uncertainty in the future. and because of all of this, you do not have to fear the future. you do not have to waste the present worrying about the future–because you will push through. this should allow you to enjoy the moment more and feel good about what you are doing today –and feel good about where you are in your life at the moment. it is a good moment because you don’t have to worry, you just have to live. your mind will always push you to fear –but you must fight against it and move towards the positive. an easy way to do this, is to look around and see what good you have in your life –and be grateful. remember, you handled the past and you can handle the future the same way. embrace the future and embrace change.
kissing ass part 2
i wrote about this topic in 2010, but now i understand it more. we shouldn’t feel bad about kissing ass – it is part of the natural flow in this world. essentially, everyone has to kiss someone’s ass –even if you are the president of the United States –you still have to kiss ass to get what you want. thus, we should embrace the act of ass-kissing because in order to eventually get what we want or keep what we have, we need to kiss ass. for example, you must kiss your boss’ ass, even if you are the best of friends –you still kiss it a little, so that you each know where the other officially stands. your boss then kisses his/her boss’ ass and so on – all the way to the top. even when you want to tell your boss to “go to hell” – don’t do it –just bite your tongue and keep kissing ass. this is what keeps the world on track. if everyone didn’t bite their tongue a hundred times a year, we would all be living in chaos. the world runs on kissing ass. it has always been this way and will always be this way. get used to it and don’t fight it. just become the best ass kisser and watch your star rise! one day, there will be more people kissing your ass than the asses you have to kiss -but you will always kiss ass. the goal is to kiss less ass as you get older.
never give up
this is part of the Toby Code – “never give up, never quit”. and it is part of a great quote from Harriet Beecher Stowe – “Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”
Stowe’s mindset is the key to success. what i have found that if you keep doing something and you do not stop doing that something, you will eventually find success. but the problem is that so many people, including myself, eventually stop doing that something, especially if they do not find success fast enough. so what happens is you end up with a life full of trying things, but never succeeding or finishing the job. this then leads to long days in your older years full of small bits of regret. sure, these are small bits of regret, so most of the time you will be happy. but, if you really want to go to your grave satisfied, then you need to concentrate on sticking to something until it plays out. this is the hardest thing in the world to do. why would you keep doing something that yields no immediate or quick results? you wouldn’t. 99% of the people in the world would stop doing that something and would move on to their next fancy. but if you do keep pushing yourself to keep doing that something no matter what –even when you can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel -even when you think “why am I still doing this” –then you will be rewarded. you will find out that the journey is really the main part of this whole thing–not the end result. but the real key is to think about the end of Stowe’s quote – “the tide will turn”. when you are ready to give up – don’t. because that will be the moment that the tide will turn and all your efforts will start to be rewarded. this is what every person who has reached their dreams will tell you -just like Stowe has told us and all future generations to come.