Forever Grateful

Dearly beloved,

I turn to you on the end of the long count, as b'ak'tun is at 13.0.0.0.0 today. I was utterly surprised the media has not hyped the Mayan apocalypse more than it actually did, and neither do I want to hype it. I want to make use of that occurance to have you look back at your personal year 2012, close the circle, and have a look at yourself in the mirror. We could all live up to this day, we could all form and shape that year to our convenience as much as we had control over it...and I merely want to encourage you to do one thing: be grateful!

This year did have ups and downs, it was a rollercoaster in any possible way, but look at all the things you have, all the things you were able to achieve, all the good and bad things you were able to experience throughout 2012 that brought you to the here and now...and be grateful. Say 'thank you' to all the greatness you had in 2012, get that smile back on your face, let this deep feeling of insatiable satisfaction fill your heart. Among all the little things that didn’t work, look at the many things that did work. The job you have, the opportunity to go to school/college/university, the roof above your head, the fact that you live in a peaceful community, the friends you have that make you forget the bad times and make the good ones even better, be grateful for all that. This is not ordinary, this is not common, this is a gift, a grace, and an incomparable greatness...be grateful. Appreciate it, don’t be envious, obstinate, stop longing for what you once had, or what someone else has, look at your own riches, your own wealth in life...and be grateful; as mentioned above: let this deep feeling of insatiable satisfaction fill your heart, for it will help you to take this momentum of 2012 into the new year. Winston Churchill once said: "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference," let your attitude be a little thing that can and will make a big difference...make sure your attitude is right, pure, and true...and be grateful; please do yourself that favor...and be grateful!

Appendix:

2013 is knocking at your door, a new year, for many a new beginning, a new chance, a new opportunity...take 2012’s momentum into the new year and continue your path with your head held high. Add value, add virtues, add meaning to your life. You have set new goals? Work towards them, enable them, create opportunities, generate them; you want certain things to happen? Make sure they happen; it ain’t that hard, it ain’t that difficult: “Opportunity is [only] missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work“ (Thomas Edison). Get your attitude right and get back to work...but most of all: be grateful for being able to do so.

I wish you all blessed holidays; thank you for reading my blog and giving me feedback. I hope it could inspire some of you to make this year a special and ambitious one, I hope it could fuel you to fight for your dreams as I fight for mine; and it is a pleasure to share with you the inner process behind all the motivation I hold. Have a great start in 2013!

The Long Run

This year is slowly, but surely, coming to an end, 2012, wow, what a year!!! Thou cannot say that about your year? Why? Take another look around, what has 2012 given you, what has it done to you, what has it made you become? A friend told me about how messy and awful 2012 was for her, and I’m pretty damn sure she is not the only one to perceive it that way; but give it another shot, take another look around, take a minute for an in-depth retrospect, for a holistic review—open your eyes.

When I specialized on international economics there was one phrase, one concept I was always fascinated with: the long run—not in terms of an approach regarding capital markets or modern economies, but by the concept itself. The long run in our life. Is not 2012 a tiny part of our whole life? What is one year compared to 78.2 (life expectancy in the United States), in accordance to that 2012 is approximately 1.28% of our God-given time on planet earth. So don’t be discouraged, if 2012 was not as good as expected. If this year was not your year, see it as a tiny little piece to the puzzle, a tiny little part of the whole full-on beautiful picture(s) we call our lives.

Don’t see this year as a year itself, widen, spread, endow, enlarge your perspective; see it within the whole context, within your whole life, and furthermore try to embed it in 78 years of greatness, entrench it in 78 years you have been given to walk this planet, to live, to love, to breathe. Open your eyes for the long run, what has this year done for you, what’s it meant for you in the long run? Retrospect truely, retrospect wisely. Are you not at a far more advanced point of view than you were a year ago? Have thou not gained anything, have thou not gained a lot, actually? Are you not at a "different level of wisdom, different level of understanding?" (Ray Lewis) This year has brought you to a point you never saw coming, things happened you had no clue about a year ago. Even if not everything worked out according to plan, you can still consider yourself lucky for all the experiences you were able to make. And experiencing things you never expected, not a year ago, shall encourage you to keep driving, keep going on, keep making it through this world, progressing within your spirit, and not least your life.

See the whole picture, see things in the long run, maybe this was a transition period, a transition year; maybe you had to leave a height of your life and are still on a saddlepath to another higher height (to keep reference to economic terminology)...then of course you think this year may have been awful, weird, not promising, but if you see it in the long run, does that year not make sense? Let me tell you something: it will make sense. At some point, maybe in a month, a year, a decade you will look back at 2012 with a smile on your face saying "now I see, why 2012 was the way it was, now it makes sense in the whole context of my life"; see it like that, my beloved readers, and ride with it.

The English social reformer John Ruskin once said: "The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it." If 2012 was toil, pain, blood, sweat, and tears—accept, respect, and acknowledge what it made you become: the wise and experienced person you now are!

...on being relentless!

Dear marvelous readers,

it is about time I return to writing my blog, to provide the final stages of the 2012 tonic, to enable you all to suck in, to inhale the final tailwinds of momentum…in order to bring this overwhelming year to a good end, to FINISH STRONG! I myself had to take a few days, weeks, and months off my writing, because this time between the last blog and this one was merely indispensable with regard to experience, to making use of the relentless drive I had been able to experience throughout the summer; for it has shown me what I really am capable of if there is a will…

Let me enlighten you:

Time had gotten rough, wild, crazy, unexpected, and at parts been definitely right at the edge of what a human being is able to handle. One thing, however, has stood by my side, regardless of whatever there was, one piece had been bunned up, tightened to me, and by now blossomed and progressed within me: H.E.A.R.T. – and is that not a great indicator of perseverance? Times get rough and you feel out of place, what is the best you can do? Withstand, proceed, drive; you've been knocked down? Get the hell back up and keep pushing, keep driving.

I am asked a lot, why I do certain things others don't and won't do, why I downgrade on sleep in order to get my daily deeds done, why I sacrifice a whole lot to enable opportunities, to make things happen…and there is only one answer: because I can and because I want to. Period! Do we have to justify and explain what others don’t understand?

Travis Lazarus McCoy sums it up in one inspiring statement: "Determination, perseverance, if you don't speak that language then we ain't try'n to hear it." These two concepts are a privilege, an honor, and something so beautiful it takes a person with great and grand heart to understand it. We have all heard "if there's a will, there's a way," but does that remain a sole and desolate statement, or does that become a mirror, a reflection of our heart, our momentum, our spirit? Let determination and perseverance become a part of you, let it evolve, let it grow within your heart. Why would you not give everything you have, even more, why would you not outgrow yourself for what you believe in, for your goals, for your dreams? Is it not worth it? Go out there and fight for your dreams, your goals, achieve what you always wanted to achieve, claim what is yours!!! Don't let people who have no clue about determination, dedication, perseverance, tell you different, who are they to tell you what you’re doing isn’t right; just because they don't have the heart to do it? If they understood a damn thing about momentum, motivation, and inspiration, wouldn’t they stop asking you why you do certain things, because they're engaged with fighting for their dreams? Be RELENTLESS…do your thing, keep driving; they ask you what difference it makes? Tell 'em you make a difference, you step up for what is yours, you make things happen, you make sure things happen, you get up, where others don't, you step up, where others bow down, you rise, where others fall…and you will be successful, where others fail.

When you have heart, you don't need to listen when others try to discourage you, just because they lack the heart to step up for their dreams. You got heart? Tell them: "I do my thing, and I ain't waiting on nobody; nothing is slowing me down. You can knock me down, but you can't keep me down. I will get back up, and I keep driving, I keep walking down my path; throw in more obstacles, throw in more challenges...test me, challenge me, for I will prevail, my heart will prevail!" Bring this year to a good end, finish strong, baby!

Let Dustin Lynch tell you: "There's a want, and there's a need." And where both come together, there is a relentless heart noone can shut down, the heart of a person one cannot stop, one cannot shut down, one cannot slow down. Where want and need meets, there is a relentless heart, there is a relentless person bleeding tenacity and sweating perseverance.

...there lies understanding of what being relentless really means: HEART!

TEMPVS FVGIT

Dearly beloved,

I am writing to you in the midst of my commotio cerebri aftermath, an incident in which I had to face a tremendous momentum shift, you all may laugh, I was undergoing what yet I tried to prevent everyone from having...and I am not going to lie, the foundation of my drive, my perseverance, my tenacity, the foundation of it all was shaken – and all of a sudden I reproached myself with what is written on old longcase clocks: tempus fugit!

How is time running out? Why am I on hold all of a sudden? Can there be a single incident to take it all away? Why can I preach and proclaim certain things, but have a hard time fulfilling them myself? There were unlimited, boundless questions bugging me for days that I even went through all of my older blogs in order to find answers. Time was running, tick, tock, my momentum has stopped, but the world kept spinning. Remember those time lapse infomercials I mentioned? The everyday rush did its duties, I saw the world passing by at supersonic speed, powerless, watching the world move with me standing still, watching the world move without me.

Sometimes we just feel like we cannot keep up; and sometimes a single incident can trigger us falling back in time, being powerless watching this world spinning and our lives being still. Time flees – et tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis. Then we think we are wasting our time, or wasted our time in the past, for it is said that "lost time is never found again." But I can calm you down. Time flees, but yet we made it to a point in which we think about it. I hereby want to quote the motivational speaker Mr. Earl Nightingale, who said: "Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use." Does that not feel like a gigantic relief? It is not too late, even though we are on hold, we still have time to get back on track, to get back to where we were. Time flees, and it flees wether we do something or not, so despite a momentum shift, or incidents slowing us down, we all should have the heart to continue, to carry on, to do our deeds regardless of whatever is stepping in our way. Soon enough is well enough. And let’s put it this way: if a single incident all of a sudden shakes the foundation of your motivation, or your perseverance, the heart you have been carrying for a long time, does that not mean that you are moving on a high level, that you carried your motivational drive for a long time? Does this momentum shift not show you, how fast you are moving with and in this world?

This is something you can only see once you stop – and let it not only show you how fast this world is spinning, realize how fast you are moving yourself in order to keep up with this rushing world. If you keep up with this world for a long time and have one single incident throw you out of bounds all of a sudden, ain’t it merely an indicator that you got what it takes to keep up with this world? Are other people not thrown out of bounds as well? But they struggle getting back on track, because they do not realize their drive and their ability and heart to keep up with this world. So my fellow readers, let a sudden stop not discourage you, let it fuel you, fuel you to get back on track and keep driving on the fast lane of life. Tempus fugit? Tempus f*ckit!

Make a Difference

My dear readers,

now that you encourage your fellow friends it is time you take your own encouragement to the next level—start doing; and the perfect time for that is: today!

Army General George S. Patton once said, that "a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." We all tend to postpone our deeds to future dates, tomorrows, days after tomorrows, et cetera. This somehow makes it easier for ourselves, because we can relocate responsibility from now to somewhen in the near or far future—at least we think it makes it easier on us. Why do we tend to do that? Because we are afraid of taking care of things now, so we declare it "deeds to be taken care of tomorrow." Why don’t we do things right away and knock them out already? Why do we not see that doing more today means doing less tomorrow?

We can overcome this by asking ourselves a simple question: will this make a difference? If you want to be more explicit, ask yourself: will this make the difference? This little question can and will make a difference. When you ask yourself, wether the things you’re about to do will make a difference or not you are more likely to getting them done, for you already consider doing something—so why not do it? Execute, do, and make a difference. You wonder why so many people live dull lives and are uncertain about what they really want in life? Because they want to do their things tomorrow, they don’t want to make a difference now. And these people will wake up someday and start wondering: why haven’t I done those things back then? Would that have made a difference? Why did I pile and stack up all those things and not knocking them off my list back then? A bit more here and there, how much greater could I have it now, wow. In order to save you from this experience I ask you to make a difference, to not postpone your deeds to later dates, to start doing things, and doing them now. If you get up and start DOING things right away, they will make a difference, and if you do so, you will not wake up in a couple of years with an infinite sequence of 'what-if-questions,' because you know one thing, you’ve been taken care of things, you’ve been doing all you could to make a difference—and you made a difference.

In addition to that you can make a difference for the benefit not only of yourself but also for a community. Let this discourse be a mere extension of the On being Heroic blog. The opportunity to make a difference, to make a change is in your grasp, don’t hesitate, make use of it.

APPENDIX: This is, however, of tremendous importance, if you have big decisions to make—regarding your career, friends, a person you love, apologies, and so on. This question will help you to 1. evaluate wether to do something or not, and 2. getting yourself into a position in which you can do something. And that will make a difference; and yet it will give you satisfaction and serenity, because you don’t wake up someday wondering, you took care of things and made a difference and no longer have to wake up in calamity one day. Do things now, build a reputation, because "you can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do," (Henry Ford) do things now, and...make a difference.

Encouragement!

Dearly beloved,

since by now we are all motivated, dedicated, of great heart, overcame bad days...and keep driving, it is now our utmost responsibility to share it with the world—encourage other people!

Former U.S. Representative of Kentucky George Adams once said: "Note how good you feel after you have encouraged someone else. No other argument is necessary to suggest that one never miss the opportunity to give encouragement." We are now in a position to change things, to a-/e-ffect our fellows, to move this world by radiating, by sharing our heart for life with everyone else. People desire, while you inspire people, don’t wait on others to get motivated, be motivation—Kelly Rowland told us all, now you get to do it all: be a motivation. Encourage people, do not keep your heart to yourself, share it with the world, for you are in a position to make a change, and yet, not least, make a difference.

Most people tend to do things and only continue once they see success in what they are doing. Call that conservative, but the way we get motivated can easily be understood by studying the basics of psychology, take Pavlov’s Dog: a neutral stimulus can trigger a certain action (or a complex series of actions), cause and reaction—success seen creates motivation. But most people need to get that experience first, which can be hard at times. This is where we can do something for the benefit of others, this is where we need to step in...and motivate.

Nothing can be more inspirational, more encouraging than having fellow friends motivate us, nothing is more convincing than seeing a friend accomplishing; because we get motivation at first hand, and this is what this entire discourse is all about: MOMENTUM TO GO! Show the people your heart, your dedication, your perseverance, your enthusiasm, and let it all radiate within your motivation. Always wanted to be a leader? This is where you can lead...and make your fellow friends follow your lead. You got what yet they lack, give it to them, hand it over, share. Baby, you can be a motivation. You wonder why so many artists had/have muses? Because nothing can be as inspirational as a human being. Be that inspiration, and be happy to share your heart with the world: encourage.

Get Back on Track!

This today’s discourse I wrote immediately after suffering a concussion, because I felt like sharing an experience with you that I, to this extend, have not felt in a long time: unforeseen adjustments.

All of a sudden I was in a position in which I could not pursuit and accomplish my day’s plans, an unexpected action had put me on hold, this unforeseen event looked me dead in the eye saying: stop, sit down, relax, you will continue your deeds tomorrow. I did not like it at all, I thought about the plans I had for that day and how I was simply powerless and unable to work things off my to-do list. What does that mean for and to me? Does my momentum stop here and I have to start all over again? Is that a sign of failure, for I was not able to keep up the momentum, was I not perseverant enough? Is this the end of ambition, of my plans, is that what Langston Hughes referred to as a dream deferred? Well, it took me a while to figure out what has happened, and the answer to all these questions is simple: NO!

I was merely confronted with a new challenge: getting back on track. And I was excited to take on this challenge, because the U.S. American professor and author Maya Angelou stated quite truly that "nothing will work unless you do." I have to do, I have to get back up on it, and despite this little delay get back on track, and do...and then things will work again; and I will regain my momentum. This is where heart comes into play (and this is exactly why I consider it, among perseverance, one of the main pillars of success): if your heart is strong, you do not let days of unforeseen events get in your way. You depreciate them, call 'em a day, and continue with the same amount of heart, believe, and dedication as before. And these days do have a great side effect: they reveal, how much you have already accomplished on your relentless way to success—use this retrospect as fuel for the next and further steps in life.

Why is this not as easy as it reads? Because once we lose our momentum we immediately tend to trigger a bunch of 'what if' questions, leading us sometimes even as far as questioning our lives and deeds. If you want to continue after this unforeseen day of deferral, look back and take stock—and see this day of pause, on hold, as an intermediate stage on your long road to success...and furthermore be grateful and happy about the things you have already accomplished up to this day. Follow the words of legendary baseball icon George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr., who said: "Don’t let the fear of striking out hold you back." Continue to do what you do, do not let anything slow you down. Former U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the freedom of fear in 1941 (as part of his famour Four Freedoms speech); and we shall be free from fear and continue our drive, keep going and doing, get back on our perseverance and back on our track. Fear to fail, fear to drop out, fear to screw up, fear to lose grip? No, I do not understand these definitions. Let’s be free from fear, and get back on track, because we are of great heart.

...and you know what’s really impressive after a day on hold? When we get back to work immediately after like nothing ever happened—and this is how we do it!

Never Stop!

Dearly beloved, enthusiastic, perseverant, and motivated dudes and dudettes, I suggest it is time for one step further, which is why I decided to clarify perseverance in this discourse in order to see life as a steady, never ending process; like a tv show in which you were born on the pilot and die in its last episode. Sometimes we drown in the rush of life – I personally like those time lapse infomercials because they reveal how fast this world is spinning –  sometimes this quick motion world makes us feel like a small spare part, a tiny cog wheel in the big clockwork of life...and all we want to do is sit down and have this process ended, complete, to just see the end of all our hard work. But once you get to that point, is there not anything missing? Don’t you want to go on somehow?

Look at yourself and how things are going in your life: when you got out of kindergarten, you went to highschool, when you graduated highschool, you went to college, when you graduated college, you started working, when you were done working, you retired, when you retired, you...

Life is a steady process, and there is never an end to our deeds, once we accomplish something, there is always another thing to accomplish, because process and new endeavors are the things to keep our world spinning. Former U.S. president Richard Nixon once said: "You must never be satisfied with success and you should never be discouraged by failure." Once we are successful, we should use that success and that fulfillment and excitement of our accomplishment to seek new tasks and quests, keep on moving, because if we have success, call it success, and stop going further, we stop. We stop in a world that is spinning at 99% the speed of light (merely using it as an allusion to our fast and speedy world). We should keep going, and keep pushing ourselves, because that is what the successful do: never being satisfied, because there is always another, higher mountain to climb. And if we have the enthusiasm I spoke of so enthusiastically, we love going further, and we are ready for new and more challenges. The successful people in this world never stopped once they achieved their goals, they kept going – the same thing regarding failure: you must NEVER be discouraged by failure. Learn, get up, and keep going, go on, rock on, never quit! It is quite interesting how close success and failure are together; both, the successful and the failing started off at the same point, maybe even with the same or, at least, similar motivation and enthusiasm, but while one kept going, the other one quitted. And wether you quit or not is up to you, the only thing that limits you from achieving something big is: you! Keep going and be successful, or quit. The successful are the ones that did what my old football coach told me all the time: finish strong! And they never stop, they keep going.

And if you decide to keep going, to seek a challenge, and once you are successful seek another one and keep your world spinning, then you have the perseverant heart of a champion. Then you have truly understood what the words tenacity, perseverance, and momentum mean, and thou will be rewarded. Keep going – and you will be unstoppable. Considered and done? Then you for sure know what Carrol Wrackley meant by saying: "Self-confidence is the key to the universe." Keep on going, baby! 

Energy and Enthusiasm: E² = m(omentum) · c(onfidence)

After getting over a bad day, after compensating failure we are now back to our 2012 momentum, as the saga continues. This discourse is on another significant component of success: enthusiasm!

I for my part have spent a long 25 years on doing all kinds of different things; that is probably the only thing to distinguish me from my fellow friends. I talked to one this past week and he was utterly astonished about all the kinds of different things I have already done in life. There is some truth to it that I have done and still do a lot of things because it fulfills me, and I will tell you how I am able to do all that: with heart!

An enthusiastic heart can be the greatest catalyst for a human being. Get involved, get engaged, get ambitious, be patient, persevere, dream...but do it with enthusiasm. There are always people trying to set the world on fire, but there are little who do it with enthusiasm. These few enthusiastic ones, in fact, are those who really have the capacity to do something big, those who have the capability of changing things.  When you ever worked with an enthusiastic person before, you know how much more fun and much less of a hassle it is than working with a dull person focussed on vague goals. The sublime thing about enthusiasm is that it radiates as steady as the fuel rods of Three Mile Island. And that is, where you as a formerly innocent by-stander get infected very easily. Enthusiasm will flood you in no time, because it comes from the heart, it is true and it is great.

The American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." Being successful is as simple as that, do not merely think about it, go out there and try it, do it! School, job, internship, housework, repairs, hobbies – do it with enthusiasm, love what you do, have fun doing it, go out there and go for it, because you obviously decided to do that activity for a reason, right? Is it stressing, time consuming? Once you do it with an enthusiastic heart you will not even realize how time flies by, only because enthusiasm is flowing through you. In a little bit you will see how much fun you can have in school, in your job, your internship, your housework, repairs at your property, your hobbies – because let us be honest: We live at free will, whatever it is you do, you do it by choice, you intended to accomplish something, and in order to do that you decided to go down a certain road in life. Have fun going down your alley of life, love what you do, be all about it, for it is your life, it is what you came to do. What about the success? It will come by itself, because if you are enthusiastic, you do your deeds full time with all your heart, and that’s the only way to succeed. And guess what will be a nice side effect – your colleagues, your friends, your fellow students will start wondering soon: wow, what is going on with him or her, look at him or her, what (s)he is doing looks so easy, so released, how can you have so much fun doing this crap?

Well, dearly beloved, there is only one answer to it: enthusiasm...so go out there, and do what you do with heart!

Tomorrow is Another Day!

How was your day so far? Did you seize it, did you enjoy it...or was it not a good day at all? Although I intend to give you all momentum and a tonic so you can live your life to the fullest, so you can master every day, so you can be cluttered with ambition, heart, and perseverance, I devote and dedicate this discourse to people who had a rough day, a bad day, maybe a day perceived as the "worst day ever."

Sometimes we wake up, everything seems to be fine, and then all of a sudden: boom; things start going wrong, and before you can turn around the downward spiral has already begun. How frustrating, you start your day—ambitious from head to toe—but for some reason nothing is working out the way it is supposed to. No matter what you do, one concept, one term is overshadowing all your actions, all your deeds, all your ambitions: failure. In a particular situation like that we just want to give up on everything, we lose grip, and all of a sudden all our hard work seems in vain, our goals, our dreams seem out of our grasp, all of a sudden we feel like our entire world comes tumbling down, our dreams collapse...system overload, our life that day...withering.

On a day like that it is vastly hard, of tremendous difficulty, maybe even nearly impossible to keep one’s head up, to hold fast to the ambitious drive one had the days prior to this d-day. It may also be a poor consolation, cold comfort to merely classify this day as "just not my day." But there is something we should always keep in mind, even though it is hard to in a day like this: noone made it to the top without failure, failure is, so to speak, part of our lives, and further part of success. Name one happy and successful person who made it to the top without failure, who achieved formidable things, who has done incredible things without bad days on the road to success? There is none, failure needs to be part of our path, failure paves the way to success. Obstacles, bumps on the road, deferral, decay, destruction, desolation—they will always be there, they will always have to be overcome; and let me tell you one thing: successful is not the one to reach a high achievement, successful is the one to withstand all of hell, the one to fight against the odds, the one to not give up and as a result of this perseverance achieves his or her goal. If everyone could accomplish high objectives without failing on its way, everyone would be successful.

Charles Franklin Kettering, a great innovator back in the nineteenth century said wisely: "Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement";—failures are part of the accomplishment of objectives, so do not let a bad day filled straight to the top with failure drag you down that you decline everything, learn from it, be happy that it was only a day (or two), but do one thing after being struck down: get back up and continue what you came to do, because one bad day does not mean that your entire world is collapsing, it merely means that external (for some it may also be internal ones) forces are shaking it...and it furthermore is a challenge wether we have the heart and the tenacity to regardlessly execute, no questions asked...because that is what successful people among us have done, and that is the only feature to distinguish the failing from the successful...GETTING BACK UP!

*If you intend to let the music speak to you, have a little less Daniel Powter and a little more T.I.*

...so if your day was whacky, frustrating, coined by failure, just "not your day," there is no need to despair, get back up and keep going, because it is on the dice: tomorrow is another day.

Success Begins with a Dream

Good morning, day, and evening folks, on this one I intend to conduct an inductive approach having this discourse sucking you in:

Even I, sometimes, have my days, days to make me feel lost in time, especially when I look at fellow people, their accomplishments, their lives. And sometimes I wonder what it would have been like having a normal life – like everyone else. But whenever I wonder, there is one thing that never changes: I always come to the same conclusion – these lives ain’t my life, these accomplishments are not my accomplishments. And as here I stand, why would I desire other people’s accomplishments? I do not look forward to have accomplishments of others, to living lives of others, because there is one mere and genuine truth about me, and yes, I am going to share it with you all: I am me, I got my own life to live, my own accomplishments. And if I do not have all the accomplishments to present as my fellow people do, there is definitely one thing I have they lack, one thing I still have they already gave up on, something that is so powerful that it can make the incredible happen, something that can change the world, that can change lives, steer them, something that is always understated, and not least something that I consider the one and only foundation of success: dreams.

Do you (still) have your dreams? Do you still hold fast to your dreams like Langston Hughes told us all to a long time ago? Do you still jam on that old guitar of yours believing in becoming the big rockstar you always wanted to be? Do you still scribble notes on the big novel you intend to write?

The only words of wisdom regarding that are the ones by former athlete Gail Devers: "Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe."

I talked to a woman yesterday and she told me about her dream. I asked her, why she was not 100% sure about chasing it in order to make it become reality. She said she did not know really. I told her there were three things to keep her from making these dreams come true: other people being in the way, oneself being in the way, and the lack of true will. Making dreams come true is dedicated to those who are willing to. If you buried your dreams already, dig deep and rediscover them. What was it, that gave us the car as a medium of transportation? What made the human being being able to fly? I tell you: a dream! What has put a man on the moon? A dream – and the everlasting faith and belief in making it happen.

If you are the dreaming kind of person, if you got that dreamer’s disease, let me tell you that you still got a little flame inside that can do tremendous things. Chase your dreams, do not give up on your dreams. Does it matter that your fellow people consider you obsolete, or your episteme surreal? Did it matter to Neil Alden Armstrong, what his fellow people, his friends said when he placed his footprint in the moon's dust? Did it matter to Christopher Columbus what others said when he sailed westwards (do not feel offended by this whiff of Eurocentrism) in the late fifteenth century? It were dreams that changed this world, that gave opportunities, that made things happen. The biggest things, the biggest accomplishments all started with a little spark of hope, with a little dream. It is merely up to us and our limited imagination wether we make that little thought, that little spark of hope, that little surreal dream develope into something of tremendous relevance, into something big...or if we do not hold fast to it and let life and rush extinguish our little flame inside. If you are a dreamer, you will not need to compare yourself to your fellow people and their accomplishments, because if you are a "true" dreamer, you know you are capable of much more than your fellows could ever achieve. Let that little dream develope, let it blossom, and create something big, make things happen, leave your marks, change this world...and people who tell you it’s not going anywhere? Ignore them, because they don’t know about heart and dedication – and furthermore they obviously never heard about this:

If you can dream it you can do it!

Rewards and Retrospect

One of my old football coaches once told us two things we have to do in oder to be successful: polish and shine! Ever since these two content words were said I started thinking about it. Is that really all we have to do – work hard and once we get rewarded look good, shine?

This one is on intrinsic motivation. In 1987 MIT professor Thomas Malone and Mark Lepper of Stanford University have defined intrinsic motivation as “what people will do without external inducement.” Most of us human beings, however, are extrinsically motivated and seek to be rewarded and credited by others, by friends, by their families, by colleagues, et cetera. Once these rewards and credits are absent, though, our motivational basis starts to collapse, we lose our momentum, and do not do our deeds with devotion, with love, with heart anymore. Would it not be great to keep that drive alive, though? Would it not be amazing to have an untouchable motivation that perseveres, regardless of other people’s impact on us; an independent motivational relentless momentum? It is amazing, and it is possible, and it is said to be the secret ingredient of infinite success: intrinsic motivation.

Our motivation has to come from within, not from our surroundings. The things we work on can be a long process, there is a briefing, competing, and after a long while of hard work there is a completion, but only, if we are devoted and dedicated to polish in order to shine. We have to stay motivated all the time, in good days, in bad days, relentlessly, we cannot let our vague motivation let us down. We have to polish steadily, we have to go hard, we have to be prepared, when opportunity is knocking at our door, and there is only one way to keep that motivation at a sublime sacrosanct level: it has to come from within.

If you remember the last thing you gave your everything for, was it not great once you achieved it, once you got rewarded for your hard work? It is great to be rewarded for your work, your deeds, your opus, but if you want to keep the train rolling, that also has to come from within. Reward yourself! Do not wait on being credited by others, credit yourself, reward yourself. Is it not incredibly satisfying to see the result of hard work? There is no reward by others that can come anywhere near the feeling of satisfaction you have once you see your work complete, no money, no award, no nothing can replace inner freedom, inner satisfaction – retrospect, and see. Let this internal enrichment be your motor, your engine, your motivation, motivate yourself! Soon you will be able to see how your life of calm changes to a life with tailwinds.

Don’t make your success, your motivation, and everything related to it a matter depending on others, be your own fountain of motivational drive, of relentless momentum. Credits and rewards by others? – They will come, but by the time they come you will not need them anymore, because you already got rewarded more intense than your fellows can ever reward you: in your heart! Once you are a person of intrinsic motivation, you do not need the rewards by others, but believe me, you will get them, because an inner motivation leads to an inner confidence and satisfaction, and that reverberates, and wether you want it or not, that radiates. If you know how to polish, if you’re willing to work and go hard, you know how to shine, and once you shine be true and happy shining, for it feels great...

...just one of those days!

Dearly beloved, have you been heros and heroines the past two weeks? I decided not to write a blog last week, so you get two weeks to unfold your heroism. I for my part can say I accomplished my mission, I hope you can say the same.

This blog I want to start with a hard hitting question: what is it that makes us satisfied in life?

There is probably more than one possible answer, but I guess a general satisfying foundation that unites us all is to be identified as “security,” don’t we just love security? A secured job, a secured future, a secured relationship, we love security and adore secured realms in all its facets, all and everything has to follow a certain pattern, a pattern we are used to that we feel safe – and furthermore that we are satisfied...but what, if that security of ours begins to sway, what, if our safe and satisfying status quo comes tumbling down? Not necessarily all our security facets, not the entire secured construction we erected needs to collaps, but let me tell you one thing: if only one facet shakes that may be enough to interfere and weaken our entire security. It is therefore more precise to speak of our security being of many smaller but interdependent facets that all complement our satisfactory construction. One caused to fall often causes a chain reaction – one little facet shaking can be enough to quake our entire security in life. What is our common reaction? We are overwhelmed with the situation and uncertainty surrounds us as we try to find explanations and then search for solutions; and not necessarily in that order. “It’s just one of those days” – a common statement we make to euphemize our insecurity, and it is our mere helplessness in these particular situations that forces us to state such phrases as an explicatio substitute, because we are just not able to explain the novel situation, our condition and state of mind being challenged – what was perfect and, furthermore, safe a moment ago is all of a sudden being approached differently accompanied  by a doubting tenor. What shall we do  to re-establish our security, how are we to deal with such a momentum shift?

The answer to those questions, for there is only one, is not far away, we simply have to turn on our iPod and listen to what singer William Bailey has to say: “All we need is just a little patience.” Taken out of context, however, depicts that phrase the most accurate answer to our decayed satisfaction. Our hamartia is not final, it is temporary, and we will overcome these obstacles, we may be weary, worn out, desperate, but Bailey tells us all what to do, because all we need is just a little patience.

Our problem as human beings is our vicious impatience, we want everything right here, right now, we don’t want it in two minutes, we want it now; and there is to be seen a main pillar of our dissatisfaction, we are simply not able to wait anymore. The rush of the twenty-first century? That is a weak justification, don’t you think – nearly as vague as “everybody’s doing it.” We, however, need to find a way back to patience. I remember back in 2002 writing letters back and forth with a really good friend from the midwest, a letter took about six days, and that was alright, whereas now we get impatient as soon as we do not get a reply within a couple of minutes. None of us has a flawless life, everyone has his or her burden, and not every day is perfect, but if we are facing “one of those days” a return to patience will help us to get over that hardship. We have to stand firm and remain on top of the situation, we have to brainstorm possible solutions, and confront our security threatening issues with a genuine overdose of rationality and patience.

What is hereby important is vision for the whole frame, for the entire image. What we lack is insight on particular situations, we look at the now, the now does not fully satisfy us, we are at rock bottom. But the one is of tremendous wisdom who sees the entire discourse. A problem consists of three parts, a beginning, let us call that the inciting incident (to allude to Aristotle’s dramatic structure), then a main part, and a solution. Once the incident strikes us we are occupied with the sudden strike only, not keeping in mind that there will be a time to work off the plague, and that there will be a solution. It is therefore helpful and relevent that we do not lose sight for what is to come regarding these struggles; and that one can achieve by being patient, remaining calm, and staying firm. Retrospect now, what was the last issue you had to overcome, you had to resolve? Was it not a vast relief to work on a (re)solution, and was it not even better once the day of solution was there? Did we not gain a gigantic amount of experience, did we not learn a whole lot?

Fact is, hardship and issues appear, bad things occur, but they are also there to learn and to be better prepared once they or similar ones happen again. Once you approach situational issues, threats to your security with sight for the whole frame, for the whole discourse, you will suddenly recognize, and further realize, the positive experience-achieving richness our hard times have to offer. Get a reward from it, look back once you resolve an issue, was it worth it, can you equate and scale positive versus negative? If we get to a point, where we can label ‘going through hard times in order to gaining a lot of experience’ a “necessary trade-off for ourselves”, we can consider ourselves lucky, never lose sight for the whole picture, and never forget:

All we need is just a little patience! 

On Being Heroic...

This discourse is about an assignment, a task everyone should accept as such and as a personal mission in life: making the world a better place. We all were young and admired leading figures, we all idolized sole individuals that were doing tremendous things in life: heroes.

Do we have what it takes to be a hero? Most of us do not feel obligated to do their deeds in the limelight, most of us are too afraid and too lazy to do something for the benefit of others, and most of us are merely uncomfortable to take responsibility, for being responsible regarding one’s own business can be a vast and hard enough task that is showing us as individuals the boundaries of our capability. So why, if we can hardly keep our own life together, if we can barely manage our own affairs turn to others, turn towards the world we live in, turn towards our environment and do something that does not benefit us as individuals? If you think about if from that perspective, does it not reveal to you the foundation of selfishness? Does it not depict how narrow-minded we are as human beings? Why is it like that? Do we admire our heroes, not only the ones we admired as kids, but also the idols we admire now, because their devotion fascinates us? Do we idolize these leading figures because they have what we lack, selflessness and a heart for our fellows? Get up and do something for the benefit of others; everyone has a hero or heroine inside. There is no need to be able to fly, there is no need to be Mr. Bond hunting down terrorists to save the world, there is no need to be rewarded by the appreciation of our friends and fellows. There is one reward only that is ought to be greater than all materialistic and extrinsic gratifications: SATISFACTION!

In this context I cannot help but present an imposing paradigm being shown in the movie Men in Black II, where Agent T and Agent J have a piece of cake in a cafe. T is being asked why he joined the secret authority and replies by mentioning his love for action. J responds: “You wanted to play hero. Well, you joined the wrong organization. You ever hear of James Edwards?” – No – “Well, he saved the lives of fifteen people tonight, But nobody knows he exists. And if nobody knows he exists, how can anybody love him?”

In my opinion that is a great example of what being a hero is all about, it is not the respect, success or recognition – a hero is characterized by the intention to help selflessly, by declining his or her own needs  in order to help others. Life is not Hollywood, life has its own script, its own screenplay, its own rules. Just ask yourself in which realm you can be a hero, in which realm you can do something for others. The greatest heroes are the ones that have so much heart that they do great actions without demanding or expecting any kind of reward in return.

You will be suprised how pleasing it is to help others and then retrospect upon your deeds figuring how that little thing you have done brought a smile to another person’s face. Maybe it is not meant to be for you to be rewarded, maybe it is your destiny to help and then exclude yourself from the situation, a person has been helped, a person has been made smile – and your work is done, your mission complete. I can guarantee you, that your actions will be not only an example to others, they will be a motivation to others, and people will recognize your good will. People are shy and may not tell you how impressed they were by your good deeds, but they surely see your good will and will internalize it. And who knows, maybe one day you come to a train station not even being able to help the old woman walking on crutches, because other ‘everyday life’ heroes came first, and who knows who of those was inspired by the good deeds he saw you doing? It is incredible and simply transcendental what big of an effect we can have on others, and it is amazing how everyone can do his or her part to make this world a better place, to change something, to be a hero for others.

However, do not try to control and manage the world and its issues and affairs right away, begin in a small ambit, a domain you can influence and control and where you can make changes for the better. The nineteenth century brigadier general Albert Pike wrote in his work Morals and Dogma:

“Many great deeds are done in the small struggles of life. There is, we are told, a determined though unseen bravery, which defends itself, foot to foot, in the darkness, against the fatal invasion of necessity and of baseness. There are noble and mysterious triumphs, which no eye sees, which no renown rewards, which no flourish of trumpets salutes. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields, which have their heroes - heroes obscure, but sometimes greater than those who become illustrious.”

Our “insignificant” lives need heroes and heroines, too, go out there…and be a hero!!!

Opportunity is Knocking at Your Door!

I do not know wether you have a problem with unbidden guests or not, but I can tell that it is somewhat uncomfortable, even a bit awkward if unexpected things happen all of a sudden. But how do we know if a good or a bad thing awaits us? Does it depend on our personality, exempli gratia if we are pessimists we rather expect bad things? Optimists on the other hand have a higher tendency to expecting good things to happen; ataractic people merely shrug once and turn around without a concern at all. We obviously all reveal and show different reactions to sudden strikes, a different crisis management depending on our character as well as the issue assaulting us. Well, I remember those kind of people who share a dumb and surreal dogma with the world, they call it "preparing for the worst, and hoping for the best" (I merely consider that a justification for being pessimistic and a lame excuse for infesting the world with a negative mindset and dark thoughts). Did you ever think about that quote, anecdote, or naive statement, or whatever you want to call it? – But hey, that is not the subject matter, let them pessimists be as they wish, cut me some slack and let’s move on to another important aspect of mastering this life of ours: PREPARATION!

Whenever I am facing challenges and need to be aware of whatever it is to come a quote of former U.S. president George W. Bush always crosses my mind: "Our military is powerful...and it’s prepared!" What does it mean to be prepared? Doesn’t it mean that we are ready for a certain task, ready for a challenge, ready for a job; or how Clifford Harris said it wisely: „Boy, I’m ready for whatever!“ Being ready, being prepared, wow, does it not grant us security and relaxation, peace of mind, and a deep satisfaction that we are ready, that we are prepared for something? If you look back in time when you graduated high school, were you prepared when you took your final examinations? Was that not a great feeling, walking into the room being prepared? Was that not a great thing at all that rewarded you in the end?

Being prepared, what an amazing feeling, what a great thing. You should be woken up by this message, and take a steadily good preparation into consideration for any situation in your life - be aware, be ready, be prepared. Be prepared without expecting the worst things to happen, be prepared in a sense that you are ready to kick some ass at whatever it is, anytime, anywhere. That you are prepared not only when bad things show up, but also when good things show up, because if you take blog one and two into consideration and do what Langston Hughes tells us, if you "hold fast to dreams," if you persevere, and if you do it with such a great heart that all this hustle and love for your dreams still gives you the opportunity to live every moment of your life, to smell an overdose of life everytime you take a deep breath, to inhale vitality second after second, to seize day after day, then you better be prepared, because I can guarantee you, that opportunity will be knocking at your door sooner or later. Let it be the special someone you’ve been waiting for all your life, the job you always wanted to have, redemption for vast mistakes in the past, or a dream coming true, if you have the heart and relentless perseverance, and if you live your life true and to the fullest, then it is only a matter of time until opportunity is knocking at your door. And all I’m trying to suggest is: when that happens, when opportunity is knocking at your door...you better BE PREPARED!

How can you prepare yourself for that to happen? With a great heart, and great devotion. If you work on your dreams day and night, people tell you how dumb it is to chase your dreams, but you do it anyways because you got it in your heart, if you give it your all, then the day will come sooner or later when you hear the bell ring, open the door, and opportunity is asking you: "Hey there, are you prepared?" The day will come, when all the hard work will pay off, when all the blood, the sweat, and the tears made sense, for it pushed you harder and further to stay on it. In this particular moment of the discourse it is manditory to quote Mr. Mathers’ song Lose Yourself in this context, where Marshall wisely says: "If you had one shot, one opportunity, to seize everything you’ve ever wanted - would you capture, or just let it slip?"

What would you do? Would you be occupied when opportunity is knocking at your door? Or will you be prepared? The key to success is in your heart, find it, and unlock those doors in your life, but most importantly, unlock your own door and be prepared, when...

...opportunity is knocking at your door!!!