Just now realized…

I just recently realized that nothing is owed to me in life. You only get what you demand of life AND, just as importantly, then work towards it with equal fervor.

I didnt understand the momentum of things, that just because something bad happened it doesn’t mean you’re owed something good up next. That’s bullshit. Life is only as fair as you make it.

It can just as easily be unfair in your favor if you want it so.

You have to demand from the world that something good happens next for you, and give that thrust of will to have it be so. If you get complacent the world will trample all over you, or will at least leave you in your place with only the leftovers of those who demanded first dibs.

Care less to impress

You’ll soon realize it’s easy to impress people when you don’t care whether they’re impressed or not.

Of course the only way to reduce how much you care to impress is to have plenty of other options so that one doesnt mean as much. And the only way to have more options is to keep trying more. Experimenting more. Leaving yourself vulnerable more.

Throw more against the wall and see what sticks. Rinse, repeat.

To try or not try

If you try an approach you’ve never tried before and it turns out to be the wrong move, then you learned your lesson.

If you don’t try something new today then tomorrow when you face the same situation you still won’t know whether the new approach works or not.

So then the answer is simple. Try it today so tomorrow you don’t have to debate the approach.

The fun

Find the seed of fun in any activity, my friends. Fun is the big flashing arrow pointing you towards something you’re likely to excel at. When you’re good at something, no matter what it is, you’ll usually enjoy it.

The fun indicates where your strengths are.

Any activity can be turned into something fun, but any fun activity can also be made to be a chore if you don’t protect its experimental integrity.

Keep it fun and allow room for mistakes.

Cultivate that little grain of fun and who knows what harvests of greatness await you.

Tightrope

Life is a tightrope. Everyone’s walking on it but no one’s sure whether their next step will see them still on the rope or not.

Common sense says you SHOULD be unsure, there is very little holding you from falling off. But there is something you CAN be sure of, and that’s yourself. You can be confident in how you’re balancing yourself and of taking control of that small area you have a say in. Forget the rest. Ground yourself in that bit of security and let that be the source of your confidence.

Those that can radiate this confidence become the winners, they understand that it doesn’t pay to worry about all the other variables they can’t control.

One lesson away

What we don’t know can kill us. Or at least it can kill our chances of achieving our goals.

We often don’t realize that we are just one lesson away from getting there. There’s that one small thing we need to learn to turn everything around. To become professionals.

Sometimes it’s right under our noses, and sometimes it’s been pointed out by our peers yet we ignore it. It can’t be that important is what we say. That can’t be what’s holding me back. But it very well might be.

What’s the one lesson you haven’t learned yet? Look around, it’s much simpler than you think it is. Thank me later.

The limit

Finding out our own limits and vulnerabilities is a powerful tool. Tiptoeing the edge of that cliff and still surviving.

It scares the shit out of you. And even though others might not see it, it bursts your confidence bubble a bit because now you have no doubts about where your powers end.

But it more than makes up for it with the alleviating realization that EVERYONE goes through it. Finding that it is only by creeping to that edge that we can truly progress.

Makes success seem so much more blue collar, and that’s a GREAT realization.

The narrow band

“The battle is won or lost before it is even fought.”

Sometimes I laugh at myself for fearing a disastrous outcome that will most likely not happen. It’s equally ludicrous when I expect a perfect outcome knowing damn well the necessary preparations haven’t been laid.

We lose track of what I call the “Narrow Quality Band,” the range of results you can get from a specific effort. At any given point you can only be so sucky, or you can only be so great. And truth be told, they’re never too far from each other.

You can move this quality band up or down, but it takes time and gradual work, or lack thereof.

Have you tested your band lately? Do you know where you stand? Having a clear estimate helps you get work done and shipped without worry since you kinda already know the outcome. The daunting fear of the unknown reception is what usually holds us back. If you know what to expect the worries almost disappear. Poof.