day in, day out

THE PRISON

I have always moved with the ebb and flow of life saying to myself, “It’s just the way things are. I can’t change what happens. I know I have to finish (insert studies, tasks, short-term goals here) so I'll at least do that much, but then what?” I’ve done what I had to do for the sake of doing it, and moved on to the next thing, not really knowing what will come next. Not that this is a bad thing per se (it's not), but sometimes it just isn't as easy as you hoped. Why does nothing interest me? Through my perception of the environment, I had come to believe that life is unfair. This thought dominated my consciousness. In fact, some of you may be saying "You’re absolutely right. Life sucks, but what can you do?” and simply leave it up to fate in the hope that tomorrow things might be different.

I was resigned to my circumstances. My emotions continuously got the better of me. I was actively searching for purpose. How is someone ever supposed to find it?

MEDIOCRITY AND AIMLESSNESS

Aimlessness exists simply from a lack of direction. What is it that drives people to succeed? How come it seems like we always know what we should do but never actually do it?

We hear it all the time. “The secret to success is...”, “Planning for success means…”, etc. But it becomes background noise usually as life continues to get in the way.

What ends up happening is this divide that forms between what we know, and what we do. With inaction, comes cynicism--complacency--stagnation--and ultimately unhappiness. We are ghosts of who we once were, lost between where we think we should be and the idealism of our youthful days. And we cannot escape. We are prisoners of our own minds, trapped within the cages we have placed on ourselves. Lost in the desert. Where does it end?

The desert is endless. Maybe some people never escape and die in the desert. 

THE MIRROR

What is desperation? There are many variations of desperation (the obvious being one of life or death), but most of us are not living in life-threatening situations--or maybe we are. Desperation is not a bad thing (in context of course), since what it does is put a fire under us. It forces us to take a long hard look at ourselves and figure out what the problem is. For most, the problem is simple: we do not have enough money. But this is not the cause of the problem, it is merely a byproduct of it. The real question is, what are you doing to understand yourself better? Don’t look at your situation; look at YOU. Look at the way you’re thinking. The way you’re talking. The way you carry yourself day in and day out. How do people perceive you? How do they really perceive you? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What do you love/hate to do? All these things are critical in understand where to search. We don't know where we're going or what we are supposed to do because simply put, we don’t know who we really are, and that constantly changes over time as well. 

Desperation allows us to start figuring this out. Not only is desperation a good thing, it’s necessary. It’s the starting point of every journey.

THE GOOD FIGHT

Be mindful of who you are spending the most time with. A thought is like a virus. It is one of the most contagious things in existence, so if you spend most of your time in the wrong places with the wrong people putting out the wrong thoughts, you are an echo of those same qualities whether you believe it or not. People operate on different frequencies of thought, and without any conscious understanding of this notion, people vibrating at the same frequency will naturally be drawn to each other. In this sense, you are the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Your peer group defines you as a person, and (for example) if everyone in it is lazy and unmotivated, chances are you will be too. It's part of the law of conformity. 

It is so easy to get into a routine or a force of habit that we unknowingly place limitations on ourselves in every aspect of our lives, and we don't want to venture from what is familiar. The unfamiliar and the unknown is scary, and that fear becomes a debilitating entity that governs everything we do. It makes our dreams seem unattainable. It tells us we are not smart enough to achieve them. It tells us we are not financially stable enough to afford pursuing them. It tells us there is no point in even trying, because it will just end up in failure. It governs who we become and makes us unable to communicate with our truer selves. We become content in mediocrity. Complacent. Acceptant of the idea that our lives are governed by fate, and no matter what we do, nothing can change that.

That's a load of shit if I've ever heard it. Where did you hear it?

PROVIDENCE

Speaking of load of shit, this might be difficult to accept for some.

If you don't believe in something, that's cool. We are just stardust after all. But if you want to consider a change, then try shifting from impossible to improbable. I am referring to what will become the cornerstone of your soul. The will to keep moving forward. The bottomless well in which you can draw endless support, comfort and motivation to keep going. It is the foundation upon which you will live the rest of your life. Call it your Inner Chi. Call it Karma. Call it God. Call it Spirituality. Call it whatever you want. Just don’t call it stupid, because even if you don't believe in such things, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist or that you are fighting your fight alone. It doesn’t mean that somewhere, some higher power is not on your side. It is, and the sooner you believe that, the sooner you will come to realize that you are never alone. That there is a strength in yourself you never knew existed. That there is a design in everything and that every action in life causes a reaction elsewhere. If we can believe that some things don't happens at random; everything at a certain point just becomes too improbable to happen by coincidence--anecdotally speaking of course.

So believe that you are not a victim of circumstance. Believe that the struggles you currently face are for a reason that you do not yet understand. Some things are out of our control of course, and we can't hope to control every event that occurs within our finite lives. But as we start to believe that things do not just happen at random, we begin to shift our frame of thinking and in doing so, it changes our perception on the reality that came before. There is a higher level of understanding the way this world works--like waking up from some very long and strange dream. And in this world, the possibilities are endless. There are no limits. Shattering the lens you looked at the world through and exploring earnestly, you will find sometimes that providence moves along with you.

But it’s waking up that’s hard. It’s allowing a very different kind of change to take effect over your life; over your mind. 

jumping in the river

If you begin to believe that every action has a consequence–-that every cause has an effect–-then everything you do is governed by some form of law or structure that exists beyond what we are capable of seeing within our immediate environment. These are not simply ideologies; these are universal truths.

So ask 'why' if you feel interested in something. Doing so means you'll probably learn something you didn't know. After all, what is it that we really know? How do you know something is impossible? Our realities begin to expand, and the possibilities we never thought possible begin materializing. It leads to a fuller understanding of self as you begin to solidify your identity. What are you good at? What are your interests? Why are these things important?

THE MASTERS

“If you really want to do something, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse.”

You’ve heard them all before. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.” They sound great, but for most people that’s all they'll ever be--meaningless platitudes. There isn't much value this way. But if we start getting into the habit of projecting ourselves down the road, understanding that with everything that can (and will) start to happen in our lives, what we need most is to find our direction. We need CLARITY.

People who become great or do great things do so for a reason. Although every one of them becomes great in their own respect, all of them share a similar quality:

THINKing BIG

What's there to lose? The only challenge is figuring out how to get there. And like the saying goes, where there’s a will, there’s a way. If we never tried to realize a dream, how do we know it’s not possible? So why not try? Try, fail, try again. Who are you--you who has tried and understands--compared to you who has never tried at all? With Providence on your side, it’s only a matter of time before success finds you, because although you may fail 1000 times, you only need to succeed once. What else do you want to do?