...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!!!