Create a Good Day
Archive for August, 2009
The art of saying NO
Aug 21st
How many times do we find ourselves saying YES to every request that comes our way. I used to be the typical yes man. It didn’t seem to matter what I was doing, if someone were to ask for something or help with something, I’d say yes right away. Now, I’ve come to a better understanding of my time and how to master it, and unfortunately it does not always warrant me saying yes.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying if you come to me with something I will instantly shrug you off and say no. Most of you know that if you need something I’m very reliable. But it might not be right away anymore. Or sometimes it may just have to be a no you hear from me.
As teenagers and young adults we’re at the point of our lives where we are trying to progress our education and careers, and if we don’t devote time to ourselves and allow ourselves to stay on the time we scheduled for our tasks, we will always be behind. Your friends are important and supporting them is as well. You need to because one day you will need them as well.
It takes a strong person to say no when others are in need. Again though you don’t have to say no every time. But if you find yourself devoting more of your scheduled time to yourself and getting less of track, you can accomplish all you set out to.
I appreciate all my friends, and do know that if there is anything I can ever do you let me know and I will try to find a way to help. Mad love.
Good Night
Who do you look up too?
Aug 20th
Who are the people that allow you to be different? Who are your role models? Who inspires you as a person?
Why do I ask these questions? If you have those individuals or role models that allow you to look at your life differently, analyze why. What is it about these individuals and their actions that inspire you?
For me, I am inspired by the actions of Ghandi. He preached the message of using words over actions and truly lived it out in his life. This is part of the reason I am trying to do the same thing.
Live the days of your lives around the ways your models did. Something worked for them and something can work for you.
However, remember that you are an individual as well. You are your own person and combining that element with the idea of taking from your models will make you in the ultimate person. You not only have your personal and unique traits, but you will have some traits of your role models. There is nothing wrong with modeling your life around the life and lifestyle of someone else as long as it does not compromise your goals and ultimate life plan.
Example- You can’t say you want to be like Bill Gates and simply drop out of school. Instead emulate the traits he has picked up since being successful because there is no secret in saying that school with probably further enhance or life plan more than hinder it.
Overall, remember that you have been put on this earth to serve a purpose. Part of that purpose is to learn from those who have done it before you and make it better. Make the lives of everyone around you better by remembering that while you can take the traits, thoughts, and tactics of the inspirations before us, it is ultimately you as an individual that can truly make that impact.
Good night!
Learning is ongoing
Aug 19th
I know we’re all happy when we’re done school for the summer or graduate because the idea of class and exams are a thing of the past. The truth is the power of learning doesn’t end. Learning is something that is continuous in your life. It’s important to constantly allow yourself to intake education. Every element of our life gives us something to learn. We may not always get what we want in a certain situation but we definitely get experience from it. How you progress in life is through learning from all the experiences that occur in your life.
Learning in life should not be an expense. It shouldn’t be something you dread. Learning is in turn an investment. It’s something you do to warrant a return. Learning leads to better decisions and better decisions will ultimately lead to greater success. We all hope to attain success and one way to heighten that hope is by learning from our failures and bad experiences.
You have proved to yourself that you are committed to progressing with life. By taking the time to even read a motivational blog life mine you commit to being on a pathway to success, and it is with each step in your life that you will get their. Not because they are positive, like-minded aspects of life, but because they are elements that will allow you to find yourself and find your meaning. Getting from A to Z may seem like a road that is simple to clear, but if we stop and absorb and learn from each step, we will surely be stronger by the end.
The best of luck goes out with you in your journey in life and if motivated, you can be anywhere you want to be.
Good Night!
Who needs credit?
Aug 17th
So you want to make a difference. You want to do something to change. You want to be a leader.
If you want all of those things bad enough, do you really need to be recognized? Is it really about the accolades or the fame that sometimes comes with being successful or accomplishing a task? Yes, it is natural to want attention and to desire it sometimes but the act of being selfless is one of the most important human qualities. To do something simply out of the betterment of society is a unbelievable attribute that separates the ordinary leaders from you, the extra ordinary leader.
There is truth to the statement that if you’re worth being found you will. The more you do, the more you put it and the more selfless you are the more people will begin to recognize you. It’s not important to SEEK that attention as truly special leaders will get noticed. Be that special leader. Be the one who does not want the attention despite the amount you deserve. You all deserve attention. Instead of searching for it, push yourself to do more with that energy and give yourself more of a reason to be discovered and get the attention.
SIDE NOTE: In Your Hands Charity Soccer Challenge Raised $2475 for the Childhood Cancer Foundation. Thank you for ALL of the support.
Good Night!
Sometimes your ears are better than your eyes
Aug 14th
The Story Says it all:
Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.
Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.
As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.
One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn’t hear the band – he could see it. In his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Days and weeks passed.
One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. Finally he would have the joy of seeing it for himself.
He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”
Different Path to the peak of the mountain
Aug 13th
So I really don’t think my mountain post yesterday went off as well so I’m going to re-post it and add just a bit to the bottom. The point I was trying to make was that the mountain is symbolic of life. The top of the mountain is not your ultimate success, but shows your ability to push through the struggles, and the bumps and bruises of life. While along the way you may achieve monetary success and status that was not the main message I was trying to send off.
Here is yesterday’s post with some additions:
One of my favorite analogies is this: Life is like a mountain. Let me explain.
A lot of people define ultimate success in life as reaching the top of a mountain. You as individual are generally judged and respected based on how high of the mountain you climb.
What if you fall off the mountain? What if something forces you back? It’s when you fall off the mountain where you are ultimately judged in life. The real judgment comes from the following: are you going to be that person that has accepted that the mountain pushed you to the ground, and the climb is over? In life that is the equivalent of letting the obstacles that arise in your life force you to stay down and ultimately not succeed.
You can choose to be that person. OR you can be that person that upon hitting the ground is so motivated to get back to the climb and keep aiming for the top of the mountain. With, I was on the path up the mountain until I was forced back by cancer. Instead of letting it hold me down however, I started my slow climb back up the mountain because that is what life is about. Life is not about stopping when the obstacles tell you too. Life is not about not reaching your goals because of a road block. No matter how long it takes you to get back on your feet and start climbing, the important thing is that you DO start climbing period. For me it was a quick journey from falling and climbing. For others it will be longer. No problem.
You are judged as a person not on the success, but how you got there. No one is going to hand you life, just like no one will fly you to the top of the mountain. It’s just not practical to think like that. You’re going to fall, you’re going to stumble sometimes over and over again. But if you keep dusting yourself off and starting your climb again, you will no doubt figure out the right path up the mountain, and stand at the peak and yell down to the world.
Congratulation on your climbs to date and best of luck in your on going journeys.
Good Night!
The path back up the mountain may not necessarily be that same path you first took. In fact, it rarely ever is. One of the benefits of falling off the figurative mountain of life is that it allows you to find another way to achieve what it is you want. The difference in this path, is that you will use what you have taken from the previous path up and find a way through the tough part of the mountain, should it arrive.
Hopefully this allows you to understand more of what I was going for in this post. This analogy is something I came up with in my head, it’s definitely not the greatest in the world. The point again is that you ultimately want to be at the top of your life. You want to reach the peak of your life where you have conquered the mountain. To do that, you must be willing to get back up 8 times if you fall 8 times. But those 8 falls will allow to learn and persevere effectively the 9th time you go up.
Comment with questions or feedback.
Good night!
How high will you climb
Aug 12th
One of my favorite analogies is this: Life is like a mountain. Let me explain.
A lot of people define ultimate success in life as reaching the top of a mountain. You as individual are generally judged and respected based on how high of the mountain you climb.
What if you fall off the mountain? What if something forces you back? It’s when you fall off the mountain where you are ultimately judged in life. The real judgment comes from the following: are you going to be that person that has accepted that the mountain pushed you to the ground, and the climb is over? In life that is the equivalent of letting the obstacles that arise in your life force you to stay down and ultimately not succeed.
You can choose to be that person. OR you can be that person that upon hitting the ground is so motivated to get back to the climb and keep aiming for the top of the mountain. With, I was on the path up the mountain until I was forced back by cancer. Instead of letting it hold me down however, I started my slow climb back up the mountain because that is what life is about. Life is not about stopping when the obstacles tell you too. Life is not about not reaching your goals because of a road block. No matter how long it takes you to get back on your feet and start climbing, the important thing is that you DO start climbing period. For me it was a quick journey from falling and climbing. For others it will be longer. No problem.
You are judged as a person not on the success, but how you got there. No one is going to hand you life, just like no one will fly you to the top of the mountain. It’s just not practical to think like that. You’re going to fall, you’re going to stumble sometimes over and over again. But if you keep dusting yourself off and starting your climb again, you will no doubt figure out the right path up the mountain, and stand at the peak and yell down to the world.
Congratulation on your climbs to date and best of luck in your on going journeys.
Good Night!
Take the time to listen
Aug 11th
How many of us in our day decide to pass up an opportunity to listen to someone? Great leaders, successful individuals take the time to listen to the words and problems of other people.
There is so much reward that comes from listening. Firstly, listening shows respect. It’s so hard for someone to take the time to listen, and by doing it you’re showing someone that for those moments, they are the most important thing on your mind. Too much we get caught up in our own actions that we fail to realize what’s going on in the lives of others. If we overlook the power and art of listening, we will stop and wonder why certain people have stopped talking to us and are no longer in our lives. Too many good people fail to stick in our lives, in my life for sure, because of my lack of willingness to devote just a little bit of time to them. No one is asking for psychiatric advice, or life changing revelations, people simply want to know that they are loved and cared for as well.
It’s important that when you do listen, you do exactly that. IF you are committing the time to listening, find it in yourself not to interrupt. Like I said, devote the time to them. Don’t plan the response, don’t check your phone. Be a friend. Be a friend to a person who needs one at the time.
Everyone is looking for someone to spill to, someone to talk to. If we don’t act as that someone when others need it, we’re not going to have it either.
Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to listen to me.
Good Night!
I’ll do it tomorrow never really works out
Aug 10th
So you have an idea. You have a plan. Let’s wait till tomorrow to execute it.
Good night.
Jokes. If we always waited till tomorrow to progress with our plans, we would always find an excuse to stop. Get started now. We don’t want to watch life pass us by, and before we realize we’re going to be too old to execute whatever it is we want.
I’ve had this idea to start documenting my thoughts forever, and I let a year go before I started it. I wanted to start speaking about my experience through cancer right away, but I waited a year. In those years there is no saying how many more people I could’ve impacted. But at least now my ideas and my passions are coming out.
In your lives, it makes no sense to have an idea or thought if that’s all it’s going to be. Too many of us settle for just having the words in our heads, but are always scared of following through. If we start making excuses right now, it’s always going to end up being one excuse after another and sooner than later, your passion will fade.
What’s the point of holding something off till tomorrow when you have the idea and thought today?
In no way am I suggesting you jump in the deep end feet first not knowing how to swim. What I’m saying is that if you have an idea, if you want to go swimming, figure out what you need in order to jump in and swim. At least by planning around your idea you show some sort of commitment to yourself and your thoughts. The most successful people become that way by developing their small ideas. There is no saying how high you can go. You want move if you don’t start. Tomorrow may not come.
Good night!
Pay for a FRIENDS meal
Aug 7th
So often, on dates with our significant other we find ourselves (males) picking up the check. Let’s be straight it is the RIGHT THING TO DO.
Why is it with friends though we so often look to do the separate bills? Friends are as important, if not MORE important than a relationship sometimes, because when all else falls on you, you rely on your friends.
Today, randomly, my friends picked up my check. Sure I got them tickets to see Real Madrid, but I didn’t do it with the intention of getting something back. Never ever. But you know, it felt good they knew to think of me and thank me in this way. It’s not about the money, it’s about the principle. Knowing they thought of me and wanted to thank me meant a lot. Show a friend you care sometimes by taking his or her bill and just paying for it.
A friend is someone you can rely on, someone you can trust and someone you should not mind paying for at times. The return you receive may not be monetary but it’s there. People remember when you do small things for them. This was so random, it wasn’t something anyone had to do for me but my whole ride home (see long drives home post), I just thought of how nice it was for them to have done it for me.
So thank you guys, I appreciate it, and I appreciate your friendship.
Good Night
