All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don’t. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and fitted with opportunity.”
Robert Kennedy
A few weeks ago I discovered a nice little Motivational Quotes website called www.BeyondTheQuote.com. I thought it was nice, quaint and filled with some very nice uplifting quotes from a lot of very wise individuals.
I never really noticed how much of a gem it was until I began to poke around the site to see what it had to offer. I realized it had much more than I expected and I spend everyday on the site.
What’s really nice is this site hit something I was just recently thinking about doing; making positive and motivational desktops and mini videos. This site basically has it all, quotes, desktops, videos and audio.
I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly and I’m sure a few of you will as well. If you’ve found other sites similar to this, post it in a comment for everyone to enjoy!
Here’s the link again: www.BeyondTheQuote.com
Take it easy!
-YoYo
Over the past few weeks I have been slowly changing my beliefs and becoming a more “glass half full” kind of person. I have to say that I have noticed changes in myself and came to a realization yesterday. I have a very independent personality and for the most part I feel I can handle life myself without the help of others. When I go on a mini be-by-myself rampage, I find myself needing to be around people. I can expect this would happen with most people. There have even been scientific experiments done on chimpanzees and humans put in isolation. (These studies have ultimately concluded that contact with the outside world is necessary for our survival.) This past week I have been at home visiting family and friends. As positive as I am, I don’t feel as happy when I’m not sharing my happiness with them. I still feel happy most of the time, but I feel 10x happier when I’m sharing these moments with others. Experiencing this has really taught me a powerful lesson;
“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”
- Mark Twain
“Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.”
- Aristotle
These two very powerful quotes speak volumes. You have probably heard someone say that their high school or college years were the best times of their lives. Want to know why? They had friends to share it with. They surrounded themselves with people they loved and cared about. “The greatest thing you can learn is to love and be loved in return.” To share a moment with one other person whom you care about and who cares about you is a truly joyous moment. Why do we always want to hang out with our friends? Why do we even need friends? Because if you both add value to life at the same time, you experience purpose of life; to be happy.
When I really came to this realization, these quotes meant so much more to me and I learned appreciation - appreciation of the people around me. My friends, my family and all the memories we share with each other. They mean that much more to me now and I am truly grateful to live the life I do. It is a very humbling, relieving and joyous to have what I have and to know that I can experience life like this with anyone. As said by Natasha Bedingfield:
“Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else”
-YoYo
For the past few months I’ve been reading a blog called MySelfDevelopment.net. It is a wonderful blog with a plethora of valuable and useful information and tips. I was just reading today an article called “Learn How to Be Lucky” and it really ‘hit me hard’ so to speak. I found the content to be pretty enlightening and I’ve decided to go ahead and experiment with ‘thinking lucky.’
I suggest giving the article a go. For all you know, you may have been lucky finding it.
Learn How to Be Lucky
Today’s motivational clip was compiled together by Mays10 from youtube.com. It’s a clip about Michael Jordan and it includes some very enlightening quotes made by him. This is a definite fish pumper clip. I suggest giving this a go when you’re feeling down-in-the-dumps. Either way, good compilation and very motivational
Over the past few weeks I have found some amazing motivational clips off YouTube.com. All of them have made a great impact on my life and all of them have helped keep myself motivated to continue working towards my goals. I have found such a plethora I felt it would be a completely unjust to not share these videos. I’m talking seriously awesome videos.
I have made a YouTube Playlist, so here is a link: http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FE743387C5B466A3
The first motivational clip for this series will be a motivational speech given by Steve Jobs, co-creator of Apple. Here is a transcripted pdf version of the speech. If the video doesn’t work go here.
(A bit of an impulse post right here.) Today I was randomly searching the net and came across a video that may be of interest. This is a video of Will Smith talking about the two keys to life. It’s a clip of him giving his speech at the Teen’s Choice Awards for receiving an award. (I don’t know what he won for though.)
There will be times in life where we when we get to advanced techniques, we find our basics need a little brushing up on. Going back to the basics is never a bad thing because it allows you to learn more and come closer to mastering those techniques.
Here is a bit of those basics to visit today. Try not to get so caught up in what you’re doing that you forget what you learned in the beginning. That has happened to me many times to me and it’s always nice to stop, take a break and do some review.
I’ve been following this blog called MyPersonalDevelopment.net for a few months now and it is just great! There are so many good reads it’s amazing. I’d like to point out one great post that I just read. It’s a guest post by Eric Zorn and it’s called “50 Things I’ve Learned in 50 Years.” There are so many fun-filled little life facts and it was so enjoyable to read.
As you can see above, there’s a link to go check it out. Here is a mini excerpt of some of the wonder life tips it offers:
“9. Cough syrup doesn’t work.
10. Empathy is the greatest virtue. From it, all virtues flow. Without it, all virtues are an act.
11. The Golden Rule is the greatest moral truth. If you don’t believe in it, at least try to fake it.
12. Keeping perspective is the greatest key to happiness. From a distance, even a bumpy road looks smooth.
13. You can’t win arguing with police officers or referees, but every so often you can fight City Hall.
14. It’s not “political correctness” that dictates that we try not to insult others’ beliefs and identities. It’s common decency.
15. It may not feel like it, but it’s good luck when you have people at home and at work who aren’t afraid to tell you when you’re wrong.
16. It’s 10 times easier to fall in love than to stay in love. And no matter what the sad songs say about romance, broken hearts do mend.
17. Don’t waste your breath proclaiming what’s really important to you. How you spend your time says it all.
18. Keeping an open mind is as big a challenge as you get older as keeping a consistent waistline.”
Being in a State-of-Limbo is not a fun place but it’s only as difficult as we make it out to be. What many don’t realize is there are simple measures they can take to boot themselves out of limbo, but have made the transition in their head to be much more dramatic than it actually is. The situation you are faced with may be difficult, but moving past limbo is ultimately easy.
If you don’t know what I mean by being in this place called limbo, read one of my previous posts, The State-of-Limbo.
1) Weigh the pros and cons and then decide based on the ratios you come up with.
This is a very classic method to use. As a refresher, here’s a simple explanation on how to do this. You get a piece of paper and a pen. You write down at the top of the page a one to two sentence summary of the situation you are currently in then underneath you write down each possible choice you can make with two columns labelled Pros and Cons under each choice.
As soon as you’ve done this, try and consider every possibility and write the Pros and Cons. Ultimately what you want to do is tally them up and look at the positive and negative ratios. One thing is keep in mind is the fact that you’re a biased opinion. Sometimes in order to solve problems we need to look at the situation from a different perspective so I would suggest that after tallying everything, ask someone you can trust to review what you’ve done. Ask them for suggestions and their take on what could possibly happen. Maybe this outside perspective will shed some light to the circumstances and allow you to understand the situation better.
When making the decision, just remember to keep outside opinions in mind.
2) Follow your gut feeling.
Another classic right here. For the most part, this method works pretty well. If you don’t feel comfortable about a certain choice, chances are you just shouldn’t pick it. If you really feel that the most popular choice doesn’t seem to be a good one, don’t pick it. On the other hand, if you do feel very confident well then go for it! Just remember to keep in mind that the positive and the negative that our body is telling us will come out of it, may not be the one that we think will happen. Just remember to not hold expectations because it almost always leads to disappointment. Your body may be telling you something that you haven’t really conceived of yet and whatever positive results your body is telling you will get may not be the positive results you want.
Your body is wise, so take its advice! Remember you and your body may not be on similar pages so you may find you won’t get the results you wanted. In the long run you will be better off, but in the short-term it may seem like the wrong decision. Keep an open mind.
3) Ask for advice from others that have faced the same sort of situation you are in.
It is helpful to ask advice from others who have had similar experiences to you. Senators wouldn’t ask Dr. Phil for advice on future legislation right? So why should you ask a Physicist for marital guidance? (Not to say that physicists don’t get married and can’t possess this knowledge. The kind of advice I’m referring to is the advice from a marriage counsellor.)
Throughout life you will find that many people love to give advice but many don’t take it. If you’re nutritionist is overweight, then maybe you should see a new nutritionist. If your housemaid looks sloppy and bummish, then get a new housemaid. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck…then it’s a duck.
If you are having relationship issues and you’re looking for advice, don’t go to a friend that jumps around from relationship to relationship with issues in each. He/she isn’t the person to talk to even though they may have similar experiences to you. Remember to not just ask for advice from people who understand the situation you’re in, but also ask from people who have come out of adversity positively. You want to make the most positive decision you can and you don’t want to ask for positive advice from a negative person because chances are, you’ll get negative advice.
4) If the situation can be changed, decide to change it. If the situation can’t be changed, learn to live with it.
There are situations in our lives where we feel we can’t change them, but because of our perspective we can’t see those ins and outs of making change. There are of course situations where there is absolutely nothing we can do about it and we just have to learn to live with it.
Take for example the businessman who has found his passion is art. He hates his job and hates his boss and wants to follow his passion for creating artwork but is not sure how to do it. Usually people want to make the situation more difficult than it needs to be so they will miss the obvious solution to this situation; tell your boss, “I quit.” There will be many that feel that quitting your job is not a feasible possibility, but many people tend to sell themselves short. (There are ways to make a living while pursing a creative-type career such as art. Tell your boss that he’s fired and read this article from Genius Types. Brian explains how to use passive income to make a living while pursuing your dreams. Just a heads up.)
Now let’s take for example someone who has just been diagnosed with Diabetes. There is not much this person can other than follow all of the instructions their doctor has given them and learn to live with their ailment. Complaining about it doesn’t help because it doesn’t cure Diabetes. Throw complaints and expectations aside and learn to make the situation as positive as possible by keeping yourself as healthy and as happy as you can.
Learn to identify changeable situations and change them!
5) Flip a coin.
If you’re on your last thread and you have absolutely no idea what to do, decide that you will commit to whatever the coin happens to flip. This isn’t the most intelligent option, but who knows, maybe it’s fate that you choose the action the coins flips. No matter what, you are better in motion than not in motion. Making a decision is better than making the decision to not make one.
6) Toss fear of the unknown aside and just decide!
Going along with the flip of a coin, you make life much easier when you learn to set aside limiting fears and just make a decision. As said before, you are better off making the wrong choice than not making a decision so forget about fear and just pick!
7) Research the topics related to your situation and from your new knowledge gathered, make the most intelligent decision you can.
Educating yourself is the best way to go to prepare for decision-making. Ultimately, every fear is rooted in fear-of-the-unknown, so absorb as much information as you can. You may find that the situation wasn’t as bad as you initially thought. Education will put you in a better position to make the best choice.
Let’s say you just started playing the stock market and you have the important decision of selling or keeping a particular stock. It doesn’t help to not know anything about the stock market, so if you don’t have the knowledge, your chances of making bad decision raises tremendously. Now if you have some basic knowledge you may be able to recognize what kind of opportunity you have and based on that you can make a much more educated decision.
Any knowledge is better than no knowledge.
Have confidence in yourself
Remember to always believe in yourself. Don’t ever sell yourself short and don’t ever give up on yourself! You have all that you need to develop the skill and make the right decision and when this is mixed with confidence you are unbeatable. There isn’t anything you can’t do, so try to understand how far having confidence in yourself goes.
9) Relax.
Relax and understand that your essence as a person will be exactly the same before and after your decision. There will be life and death situations that you may need to make concerning health, but to know that your essence will be completely untouched no matter what you do helps to put everything into perspective.
So just relax and jump in head first!
10) Look to the future.
Always remind yourself what results you want. If you do this, you help your mind focus on the results and based on this, will help you narrow down the choices you need to make in order to achieve those results. No matter how dismal your present may seem, stay true to your dreams and you will find a way to get there. You will make the choices you need to and you will achieve your goals.
Just remember, pass it on.
-YoYo
