Is it to possible hear something countless times in a hundred different ways before it finally dawn one? I guess it is.
The facts listed below fall into that category. Life lessons which many of us most likely learned years ago, and have been reminded of ever since, but for whatever reason, haven’t fully grasped.
This is to help us all, myself included, get it and remember again:
The average human life is relatively short
We all know that life is short, and that death will happen to all of us eventually, and yet we are surprised when it happens to someone we know. It’s like walking up a flight of stairs with a distracted mind, and misjudging the final step. You expected there to be one more stair than there is, and so you find yourself off balance for a moment, before your mind shifts back to the present moment and that how the world really is.
Live today like it will be your last. I am not asking us to ignore death, but don’t be afraid of it either. Instead, be afraid of the life you never lived because you were too afraid to move and take an action. Death is not really the biggest loss in a life, the biggest is what dies inside you while you are still very much alive. Be bold. Be courageous. Be scared to death, and then take the next step anyway.
You will only ever live the life you make for yourself.
Your life is yours alone. Others can try to prompt you, but they can’t decide for you. They can be with you, but not in your shoes. So make sure the path you choose to walk in agrees with your own heart and desires. Don’t be scared to change paths or make a new one when it makes sense.
Note that it is better to be at the bottom of the ladder you want to climb than at the top of the one you don’t. Be creative and patient. Realize that patience is not just about waiting, but the ability to keep a good attitude while earnestly working at a project you are passionate about.
This is your life, and it comprises all your choices and may your success be your noise in the end.
If life teaches you just one thing, let it be that taking a heartfelt leap is worth it. Even if you have no idea where you will find yourself, be brave enough to step up to the path of the unknown. Always listen to your heart, it knows how to take you to where you are heading.
Being busy does not necessarily mean being productive
Some folks think being busy can produce the desired result. Busyness is not a virtue, nor is it something to respect. There are periods when we all have seasons of crazy schedules, but very few of us have a genuine need to be busy all the time.
Being busy will not necessarily lead to productivity these days. Take a quick look around. Busy people are more numerous than productive people by a wide margin. Busy people are all over the place, and still end up running late most of the time. They are always rushing off to work, conferences, meetings, and what have you. They never have enough time for family get-togethers and rarely get enough rest. Yet, emails are shooting out of their I-phones like machine gun bullets, and their day planners are full to the brim with assignments and various tasks. Their busy schedule gives them an elevated sense of importance. But it is all a mirage. They’re like hamsters running on a wheel.
Granted that being busy can make us feel alive for a moment, but that feeling is not tenable in the long run. Sooner or later, whether tomorrow or on our deathbed, we will come to wish that we spent less time in the deceit of busyness and more time actually living a purposeful and productive life.
Some kind of failure always occurs before success
Some mistakes we made are unavoidable. So, try to forgive yourself. Making a mistake is not the problem, as human beings; we will certainly make a few in our life time. It only becomes a problem if you never learn from them.
If you’re too afraid of failing, you may not be able do what needs to be done in other to be successful. I think that the solution to destroying this fear is by making friends with failure. Want to know the difference between a master and a beginner? Here it is. The master has failed many more times than the beginner has even tried. Behind every great piece of art is a thousand failed attempts to make it, but these attempts and past failures are never shown to us.
Remember this, that it is not happening now does not mean it never will. Sometimes things have to go very wrong before they can be right.
Thinking and doing are two very different things.
Success will never come to look for you while you wait around thinking about it. You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do. Knowledge is basically useless without action. Good things don’t necessarily come to those who wait; they come to those who work on meaningful goals. Ask yourself what is important to you and then have the courage to build your life around your answer.
Hold it! If you wait until you feel 100% ready to begin, you will likely wait for the rest of your life.
Don’t wait for an offender to apologize before you forgive
Life gets much less stressful when you teach yourself to accept all the apologies you never got from those that offended you. The key is to be thankful for every experience, positive or negative. It’s realizing that grudges from the past are a waste of today’s happiness, and that holding on to a grudge is like letting an unwanted tenant live rent free in your head. I bet the business sense in you wouldn’t want that.
Forgiveness is an obligation you give to yourself. When you refuse to let go of a hurt or pain, you put yourself in the same hole of torment with the other party and you get to suffer more. When you forgive, you have choosen not to hold the past against your present self. It has nothing to do with letting a criminal go of his or her crime, and everything to do with freeing yourself of the burden of being an eternal victim.
You have no business being around some individuals you tag along with
You will only ever be as great as the people you surround yourself with, so be brave enough to let go of those who you know should be gone. You shouldn’t force friendship with those who usually make you feel less than amazing.
If someone makes you feel uncomfortable and insecure every time you’re with them, for whatever reason, they’re probably not close friend material. They are making their insecure self feel good at your expense. If you feel emotionally drained after being with them or get a bout of anxiety when you are reminded of them, listen to your intuition and act accordingly. There are so many right people out there for you, who will energize and inspire you to be your best self. It makes no sense to force it with people who are not worth a dime of your time.
It is your responsibility to love and accept yourself
It is great to be nice to others, but it is even more important to be good to yourself. You just have to love yourself to get anything done in this world. Make sure you don’t start seeing yourself through the eyes of those who don’t value you. Know your worth, even if they don’t.
Friend, let someone love you just the way you are, as flawed as you might be, as unattractive as you sometimes feel, and as incomplete as you think you are. Yes, let someone love you despite all of this, and let that someone be YOU.
Your possessions does not make you
You are a lot of possessions? That is great, but it has no relevance on who you are as a person. Most of us can make do with much less than we think we need. That is a valuable reminder, especially in a consumer-driven culture like ours which focuses more on material things than values.
You will have to create your own culture. Don’t watch certain programs on TV, Don’t read gossip magazines, and don’t eat junk food. Find the strength to fill your time with meaningful experiences. The space and time you are occupying at this very moment is called LIFE, and if you spend your time thinking how perfect Beyonce’s, Kim Kardashian’s life or some other famous face appear to be, then you are disempowered.
Don’t give your life away to marketing and media deception, created by big companies to motivate you to dress a certain way, look a certain way, and be a certain way. This is tragic, as this kind of thinking is all just brainwashing. What is real is YOU, your friends, your family, your loves, your highs, your lows, your victories and struggles, your hopes, your plans and your fears.
Sadly, we seem to have a getting mentality. Get a degree, get a job, get a car, get a house, and keep on getting. Most of these “gettings” are not bad in themselves, as they are part of life. But, some of us are so immersed in the getting that we have lost the meaning of what life is all about. It is sad, because someday you’ll wake up and realize you’ve been deceived. And all you’ll want then is to reclaim your mind by getting it out of the hands of the brainwashers who want to turn you into a drone that buys everything that isn’t needed to impress everyone that isn’t important.
Change occurs, every second
Welcome change and realize it happens for a reason. It won’t always be clear initially, but in the end it will be worth it.
What you have today may become what you had by tomorrow. You never know. Things change, often spontaneously. People and circumstances come and go. Life doesn’t wait for anybody. It moves rapidly and rushes from calm to chaos in a matter of seconds, and happens like this to people every day. It is likely happening to someone nearby right now.
One moment, people were chatting in a plane, talking to loved ones, a smile of victory played on someone’s lips as he remembered that all his toil of past years has finally begun to pay off, a newly married couple looked into each other’s eyes and smiled in expectation of many happy lives ever after, a young mother rocked her baby tenderly; then suddenly, GBAM it was all over. That is the kind of world we now live in.
Sometimes the shortest split second in time changes the direction of our lives. A seemingly harmless event jolts our whole world like a meteorite striking Earth. Entire lives have been twirled and tossed upside down, for good or bad, because of an unpredictable event.
No matter how good or bad a situation is now, it will change. That’s the one thing you can count on. So when life is good, enjoy it. Don’t go in search for something better every second.
Your turn…
What vital life lessons do you often forget and would like to add to this list?
Memoir-Of-Eve 