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!!!

Live Life for a Living!

This is to be a, or let us preferably say the next step to jumping onto your dream bandwagon, a processual evolution to make yourself living in congruence with your soul, with your self, with your inner wealth – a stable entity. Do not read this as a finish product, adapt to the New York School mindset and see it as a process.

Let’s turn this process into progress. Go back to the first blog and read it again, find the two spelling mistakes, the Jachin and Boz of success, the two pillars of making dreams become reality: heart and preseverance. – Good job, thou shalt be rewarded for your savvy. Now we can move forward to the actual discourse:

Living life for a living!

What is your goal in life, what is your aim? What do you want to achieve? Did you ever ask yourself that questions? Well, you are a true person if you can honestly answer yourself that question, because it represents a blurry and distorted proposition. Be a true person, be honest to yourself, what is the point of lying to yourself, hoping you can cover something up? You will get caught, that much I can promise you. So be true and pick your goals wisely, with a pure heart, with great devotion, and it will grant you great opportunities. How can you make your dreams come true without knowing what your dreams really are, without knowing what you want to achieve? Be true, and pick up what is true.

Do not get distracted, do not get deflected, do not get dejected, be effective. There are many vague characters out there chasing wrong dreams, chasing their washy excuses of what they consider their dreams - people chasing something that they a) do not know anything about; b) do not really want; c) are probably not going to be happy with. These people are the ones that want to make a living, that spend their entire lives working hard on making a living, the ones that hustle every day for they want to make a living. They want to make a living so bad that they forget their own living. But what does it do to the ones that want to make a living, if they have no time left for living?

This life is definitely not about wealth, social status and position, respect and reputation. Of course, wealth, an eminent social status, a notable position, respect and a good reputation are definitely desirable conditions, but they are nothing without a heart – and that heart is longing for personal happiness, for inner satisfaction, for devotion. Who is richer, someone with a million Euros (and yes, I picked the Euro, because it implies a dominant monetary status as we have it in Europe, greenback=twentieth century; purpleback=the future) or someone with no economic wealth of any kind whatsoever, but being happy? If you have no true heart and no inner satisfaction, no happiness, then I can guarantee you, that no 9-digit-money-amounts will catapult you out of your desolation or dissatisfaction. Stop chasing the wrong dreams, get your heart straight…and live. There is nothing sadder than seeing people who work on making a living only, who work on it so much that they forget to live. There will be the day we leave this planet, can you then look back and say: wow, I had a great life, I had to struggle once in a while, but I lived every moment to the fullest…or will you be saying: oh my gosh, I spent all life working on making a living, I just forgot to live? Approval, admiration, respect? Do you really need that, when you sit there by yourself, look at the stars, and think about how you seized the day, how you lived this day, how you enjoyed every second, every breath, every heartbeat? Keep in mind three things:

1) memento mori

2) tempus fugit

3) carpe diem

…and live!!! And what shall you do when your stuck up “friends“ come and ask “so what do you do?“ Smile, and tell them:

 “I LIVE LIFE FOR A LIVING, you dumb rascal!“