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!