There's no such thing as the "right time" So many of us make a mistake every day to wait until tomorrow, next day, or even next year to do or start something that we want, something that we feel strongly about. For some reason we believe that waiting for a better or more convenient time may somehow be better, even when we know and understand that there’s no such thing as a ‘better time.’ As result, we miss on many great opportunities in life, we let our hopes and dreams go into ‘maybe-I-will-open-it-some-day’ folder. We know that if we do not take action today, we would most likely never will, and somehow, we are ok with that. But why? Why not act today? Why not start working on your wants, goals, and dreams today? Sure, we may not have everything or even most of what we may need to get going, but we can at least start, can’t we? If we really want to read a great book during the month, why not start today and read a first five pages, and set a goal of reading 5-10 pages each day thereafter? We can do that, can’t we? Don’t have time or place to read in quiet? Why not listen to the same book in audio format? We should be able to do so virtually anywhere, at any time, and still accomplish our goal of reading a wonderful book each month. It’s the matter of getting started. As I am sure you know that we can always find other “more important” things to fill out time, our schedule with each day, creating an excuse as to why we are not pursuing our goals and plans we so want to accomplish, or so we say. Therefore, we must make time every day to pursue our goals and objectives, even if its just few minutes each day. The main point that I want to make in this article is that we should not be waiting for the “right time” to being pursuing that what we want and hope to accomplish. There’s no better time, there’s only today and now, and everything else is a detour on our life’s journey and vacuum of time and opportunities which we could never get back. As Hugh Laurie once said: “It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wain until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.” I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it, and hope that you found it to be very useful for you or someone else that you may know. Please feel free to share this post if you know someone who may benefit from reading it same way you did
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Coming in terms with our own mind Why we continue trying to change someone else as a person by changing their environment, when we know that process of change rests fully in someone’s own mind? We think that by changing person’s surroundings we can somehow change who they are, how they act or see the world. However, environment around us is only one component of how we see the world and how we feel. If our mind convinces us that world is dark and gloomy place full of mean and self-centered and greedy people, then no matter which environment we find ourselves in, even if it’s the most beautiful, safe, and welcoming, all we would see is what’s our mind is telling us to see – dark, gloomy world with greedy and mean people. So, change and how we view the world around us begins in our mind. If we see beauty and positive energy in everything and everyone around us, we would find happiness and peace. If we choose to be happy and positive, we will be happy and positive no matter the environment or circumstances that we find ourselves in. Some people who may not have much, still glow with happiness and positive energy, because, they had made a decision to feel that way. They choose to make the best out of what they do have and where they are. And others, may have everything that they want in life, and yet they feel miserable and only see negative in everything they see around then or all material possessions that they have. Why? Because, they made a decision to feel that way. Therefore, even if more great things will come into their life, their perspective will remain unchanged. Therefore, our environment and our surroundings can only be as good or as beautiful as we make them to be in our own mind. We choose to see beauty, opportunity, and happiness, or destruction, lack of opportunity, and sadness. So, before changing the environment, we must come in terms with our own mind, conduct self-analysis, and understand our life’s outlook to see if, perhaps, change is needed there first. Remember to surround yourself with people who motivate, encourage, inspire, and support you. When we are surrounded by people who inspire us, we want to try harder, work harder, achieve more. These individuals support us when we require support and lift us up when we require motivation and guidance. We are inspired by achievement and success of those whom we look up to and respect. We feel that our thoughts, ideas, and dreams are being heard, which inspires action and desire to keep moving forward towards accomplishment of our goals and plans we have in life. On the other side of the coin, if/when we surround ourselves with people who bring us down, continuously complain and give away negative energy, and only see bad things in the world around them, we would eventually feel exactly the same, even if initially our outlook on the world around us was positive. So, we should remember this when we choose with whom we plan to interact on the regular basis. Based on my personal experience, I found that it’s better to have one to two true friends who see you for who you are, believe in you, and motivate you to achieve great things with each interaction, vs. having ten or more people in your so called ‘circle of friends’ who are only there because it’s popular or expected by others, creating a false illusion of friendship. I’ve been in such situations more than once and felt the pressure and negativity on my shoulders while interacting with individuals who never viewed me as a valued member of a larger group. I had also felt a relief of a weight dropping off my shoulders when I had made a decision to break away from such groups, realizing how one’s mindset and decisions that we make can change and have a long lasting effect on what we do and become later in life. So, if we want to change how we feel about the world that we live in, or our outlook on circumstances that we find ourselves in from time to time, we must first change our mindset and ensure that our thoughts and perspectives are aligned with how we truly want to feel and see the world around us, and make sure that our mindset is focused on our own goals and dreams before we change the environment around us. Before we can create positive change on the outside, we must first create necessary changes on the inside. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it, and hope that you found it to be very useful for you or someone else that you may know. Please feel free to share this post if you know someone who may benefit from reading it same way you did
Why surround yourself with lies when truth is an obvious choice? Why spoil someone’s trust? Why go to great lengths to create various stories, lies, vs. simply stating the truth at all times? No reason. We all know that things that we lie about eventually resurface over time, placing us in a very uncomfortable situation with those who trusted us, and who’s trust we had betrayed. Often, it may not seem like a big deal to many, however, it is always a big deal to someone on the receiving end, someone who trusted and who’s trust was broken. It doesn’t matter what happens after once we break someone’s trust, it can never be repaired, because, once we betray another person’s trust once, they will now be suspecting and expecting for us to do it again. Therefore, the only way to preserve and maintain strong trusting relationship with others is always to be honest and tell the truth, no matter how painful or uncomfortable that truth may be initially. A lot of times, the truth itself may not be as damaging as we may think. In many situations escalations or conflict can be avoided if we simply tell the truth no matter how scary that truth may be or sound. However, when we create a lie just to cover up tough truth, over time we tend to make original situation even worse, and instead of us addressing the issue, we extend it over longer period creating more problems than solutions as a result. So, what is the solution? Tell the truth and be honest with yourself and those around you whether it is at home or in the place of business. Honesty is highly valued and goes a long way. When we are known for being an honest person who speaks the truth no matter the circumstance, we command respect and loyalty. People are able and are willing to share their inner secrets with us, because, we can be trusted. We can be relied on to follow through with important projects, goals, and objectives. Why? Because, we had proven to others that we can be trusted. Therefore, to keep mind clear of worries, fears, hesitations, and to tackle each day not from the past but from the present with confidence and clear consciousness, remember that being truthful to yourself and others every day can be a very powerful thing in the short and long-term for you and your future. As Anton Chekhov once said: “One drop of lie spoils the ocean of trust.” I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it, and hope that you found it to be very useful for you or someone else that you may know. Please feel free to share this post if you know someone who may benefit from reading it same way you did
Learn from it, overcome it, keep moving forward, no matter what When we fall and bruise ourselves, we don’t just say: “well, maybe walking isn’t for me,” we get up, dust ourselves off, cover up our bruises and keep on going. So, why do many of us feel that failure is something that is permanent, something that if experienced once, should never be experience again and be avoided at all costs? Because, it shouldn’t be avoided. Failure is like a small pebble on a very long and exciting road we call life When failure is encountered, all we need to do is move that small pebble away, study it, learn what we can from that experience and just keep on walking. I know that I make it sound like it’s so easy to overcome failure and find a solution to keep moving forward, however, in reality, anyone who has experienced failure before knows and understands that it’s not always that easy, and you are right, sometimes it is not. Overcoming failure can be often very challenging, frustrating, discouraging, demotivating, etc. But what I am saying is that even though it can be all these things, it is not permanent. Failure can only become permanent if we choose to see it this way in our own mind and try to convince others that it is so. Stop allowing you own negative thoughts, your mind, your own challenging circumstances, dictate how you should see yourself in the mirror, how you should respond to temporary setbacks. Remember, failure is not permanent unless we choose to make it so. In almost every difficult situation, exists a solution. It’s not always easy to find it though, and sometimes we must spend hours, days, weeks, months, or even years looking for a solution. Therefore, it’s very important that we remain patient and focused on a positive outcome when things get and remain tough for some time. It’s important to also remember that as long as we have the desire to find solution and win, and get ourselves out of difficulty we may be in, when we are ready to keep going and keep trying no matter how difficult or unpromising our efforts may get, we will eventually find that what we seek. Why? Because, we try. Because, we did not give up when everyone else did. Because, we knew and believed that failure is temporary. So, let’s stop treating failure as some kind of mountain that we cannot climb, and let’s being looking at each interaction with failure as a challenge of our own motivation and desire to win each and every day. Why? Because, we can! I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it, and hope that you found it to be very useful for you or someone else that you may know. Please feel free to share this post if you know someone who may benefit from reading it same way you did
Facing and conquering life's obstacles through continuous hard work fueled by extreme determination We should never expect for things just fall in our lap just because we want them to. In the real world, the opportunities come to those who are ready and willing to work hard to achieve them. And, I don’t mean working hard one day and slake off the next, I mean putting in time, energy, and extreme amount of effort every day, pursuing personal and professional objectives and life’s plans. There will be time when things get difficult, frustrating, often unreachable, but with the right mindset and unwavering desire to win, no matter what, we can, and we will overcome any challenge or obstacle in our own mind and in the real life. Listen, I am not an exception to this, and have also experienced and continue to experience similar struggles as everyone else. There’ve been many times when I simply wanted to stop pursuing my goals and passion in life – joy of personal development, growth and, of course, writing. However, every time I wanted to stop because things got very difficult without any visible results of my efforts, I reminded myself why I am doing what I am doing. I reminded myself that it’s not just about me and what I want, but also those that count on me, who look up to me every day – my wife and my children, as well as other people who choose to follow my personal and professional development and growth story, who find my story motivational and get inspired to invest time and energy into their own growth and development. So, what I am trying to say here is that we’ve all been there at some point in our lives, where we’ve doubted ourselves, our passion, our goals, our ability to ever reaching them. It’s ok to have such moments, but what’s not ok is to allow those moments of temporary weakness and doubt define what we do with our life. If anything, those moments should serve as a reminder why we do what we do, and why it’s important for us to keep going no matter how challenging things may get at times. Also, we should not expect for any obstacle that we face on our path to just disappear on their own with time. We must put a lot of work and effort in understanding and finding ways to solve our own problems and limiting beliefs. One of the biggest benefits of problem identification and its solution is an opportunity to learn something new during the solutioning process. It may not initially seem like we can derive anything useful or beneficial for us and our personal development, simply because we may not see the benefit right away. However, with time we often realize that while we were going through solution-finding journey, facing one obstacle after another, we learned and acquired not just one but several very important skills which can now use in other aspects of our personal and professional lives. For example, when I did not speak English, I faced many challenges and personal and professional roadblocks, when I didn’t know what to do, when I was made fun of and ridiculed by my peers, because, of my lack of English language knowledge and inability to respond appropriately, or being unable to write a complete sentence that actually made any sense, such experiences were very difficult at that time, over time it only made me stronger, more persistent, and more determined, making me want to work even harder and faster in learning the English language in order to prove myself and everyone who might have doubted me or made fund of me, that I can achieve anything. Such experience helped me to develop extreme determination and grit, which came to my rescue time and time again throughout my life. So, why stop when things do not go as planned? Why let somebody else tell you what you can or cannot do or accomplish? From personal experience, there’s not a single reason to do so. Difficulties in life will pass as long as we are ready and willing to work hard to overcome them. Don’t expect for things to improve and go away over overnight, as often it takes time, in some more challenging situations it can take a long time before we are able to see the finish line. It’s like running a marathon, we do not see the finish line until we are on the final stretch of the race. Until then, it’s whole lot of nothing, and a lot of hard work, training, determination to finish, and belief in ourselves, knowing that we can. And, when we finally cross that finish line, the joy of personal accomplishment win over temporary doubts created by our own mind are some of the sweetest rewards that we can wish for. I had never personally ran the entire marathon, however, I did ran half-marathon without any prior preparations or training, which I definitely do not recommend anyone to do the same, as training is a very important part of preparing and getting ready for the big race. In my personal experience, running half marathon, I learned a lot about myself and reconfirmed my extreme sense of determination and never-give-up character which I had built over many years of going through challenges, failing and getting back up after each failure, to keep on trying again but differently, using lessons I’ve learned as result of prior failed experiences. I will close with a quote by Napoleon Hill which I believe sums up everything that I wanted to highlight in this article – “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it, and hope that you found it to be very useful for you or someone else that you may know. Please share this post with another person who you know may benefit from reading it same way you did
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