Et Ducit Mundum Per Luce

It’s been a few months since I’ve posted anything on here, but I received an interesting couple of messages over the past week that really got me to thinking, and thus, prompted this post!  They were messages from people I know but don’t really have much correspondence with on a daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly basis.  To me, their messages were completely random and unexpected.  To them, they had been thinking about sending me something for months.  Their messages were basically sent to thank me for writing these posts and for the things I share on Facebook and Twitter.  If you think about it, it almost seems a little silly, but in reality it’s evidence of how profound everything we do can be.

And all I was doing was living my life and being myself.  Trying my hardest to make myself better every day.  Doing my best to leave everyone’s day I come in contact with better for having me been a part of it.

This reminds me of part of a quote – “And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”

Are you giving the people around you the courage to be their best?

The thing that I think too many people forget is that who you are affects EVERYONE around you.  But do you ever stop to reflect on who the hell you actually are?  With all your good qualities but also with all your faults?  Who are you?  How do you impact the people around you?  For me, I am constantly evaluating how I treat other people.  Could I have said or done something that would have made a more positive impact on the interactions I had with someone?  Is there something about me that I need to work on?  What are my best qualities?  What are my worst qualities?

How can I be better so I can, in turn, make everyone around me better?

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what other people think about you – but what they think can still be used as a point of reflection about yourself.  Ultimately the people who recognize you for all the good you bring to their life will appreciate it and thank you for it.  For those who just want to point out all your mistakes or short-comings, well, let them suffer in their own world of self-imposed misery.  As long as you can say that you did your best today, well, that’s all you can do.

As Christmas (and the holiday season for non-Christmas celebrating people) fast approaches, take a moment to think about the people who make your life better… and thank them.

Feliz Navidad!

(Chad)

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11 Rules You Will Never Learn In School

Given the recent events of Steve Jobs stepping down as CEO of Apple it would be appropriate if I highlighted one of the best speeches he ever gave – Stanford’s commencement speech in 2005.  But I already did that over a year ago, so you can read it HERE.  Instead I’m going to talk about the speech Bill Gates gave about 11 rules you will never learn in school.

If you want my honest opinion, Steve Job’s speech is better, so if you haven’t seen it yet you should click the above link and watch it.  If you’ve already watched Jobs’ speech then continue on to read Gates’ rules – some good takeaways within.

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Rule 1: Life is not fair — get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping — they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

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Happy Wednesday!

(Chad)

The Alchemist

This past weekend I read The Alchemist.  Honestly, it took me about 3 hours to read because it was just really hard to put down.  The story just pulled me in and ignited my imagination.  I highly recommend you click on the link above and buy it right now.  Sparing you a review of the book I’m just going to highlight some excerpts from the book that sparked my own thought, hopefully they spark meaningful thought in you too.  Note: there are so many inspiring words in this story that I couldn’t possibly highlight them all without just copying the book into this post, so get the book for yourself and read it!

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“What’s the world’s greatest lie?  […]  It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate.  That’s the world’s greatest lie.”

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“We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property.  But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.”

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“Because I don’t live in either my past or my future.  I’m interested only in the present.  If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man.  You’ll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race.  Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now.”

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“There is only one way to learn.  It’s through action.  Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey.”

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“Wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.”

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“Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart.”

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“You have been a real blessing to me.  Today, I understand something I didn’t see before: every blessing ignored becomes a curse.  I don’t want anything else in life.  But you are forcing me to look at wealth and at horizons I have never known.”

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“My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer.  […]  Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.  And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams.”

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“The darkest hour of night came just before the dawn.”

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“Don’t give in to your fears.  If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart.”

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“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

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“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”

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Now go get the book and read it for yourself.  Honestly, might be one of the best investments you ever make in yourself.

Happy Wednesday!

(Chad)

Part One: How To Stop Worrying And Start Living

Fear and worry often limit us in our ability to make decisions and live long, healthy and happy lives.  Nobel prize winner, Dr. Alexis Carrel, once said, “Businessmen who do not know how to fight worry die young.”  I think it may be safe to say that this doesn’t just go for businessmen but for every man and woman alive.

Worry is rooted in fear.  And fear is a terrible emotion to be making decisions based off.  Not to mention all the negative health effects worry and fear can bestow upon you.  So how do you deal with this?

Glad you asked.  This is a great piece of advice from William H. Carrier, the engineer who launched the air conditioning industry and headed the Carrier Corporation, explaining the steps he took to deal with, and overcome, his own worries.  These are the steps:

Step 1: Ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can possibly happen if I can’t solve my problem?”

Step 2: Prepare yourself mentally to accept the worst – if necessary.

Step 3: Calmly try to improve upon the worst possible case – which you have already mentally agreed to accept.

Pick one thing that you are worried about.  Anything.  Life.  Love.  Work.  Family.  Kids.  Money.  Success.  And then ask those three questions in the context of that issue.

This may seem a little hokey but it works.  It’s not going to instantly solve everything that you worry about, but if you do this enough times you begin to realize that the things you’re worrying about are not as overwhelming as you’re making them out to be.  You have the capacity to overcome any obstacles.  It really just boils down to asking yourself the right questions and putting yourself in the right frame of mind to let go of undue stress, which frees up a lot of energy to improve your disposition.

So next time you’re worried about something ask yourself these three questions so you can put yourself on track to a long, worry-free life.

Happy Wednesday!

(Chad)

* Hat tip to Dale Carnegie and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

You Should Be Doing This, But You’re Probably Not

“Let’s say that when I turned sixteen, a genie had appeared to me.  And that genie said, ‘Warren, I’m going to give you the car of your choice.  It’ll be here tomorrow morning with a big bow tied on it.  Brand-new.  And it’s all yours.’

Having heard all the genie stories, I would say, ‘What’s the catch?’  And the genie would answer, ‘There’s only one catch.  This is the last car you’re ever going to get in your life.  So it has to last a lifetime.’

If that had happened, I would have picked out that car.  But, can you imagine, knowing it had to last a lifetime, what I would do with it?  I would read the manual about five times.  I would always keep it garaged.  If there was the least little dent or scratch, I’d have it fixed right away because I wouldn’t want it rusting.  I would baby that car, because it would have to last a lifetime.

That’s exactly the position you are in concerning your mind and body.  You only get one mind and one body.  And it’s got to last a lifetime.  Now, it’s very easy to let them ride for many years.  But if you don’t take care of that mind and that body, they’ll be a wreck forty years later, just like the car would be.

It’s what you do right now, today, that determines how your mind and body will operate ten, twenty, and thirty years from now.”

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These investments are the most important ones you will ever make, so choose them wisely!  If you don’t know where to begin, start simple, invest in one of these BOOKS and do something active that allows your body to do what it was designed to do, move!

Happy Wednesday!

(Chad)

* Hat tip to The Snowball: Warren Buffett and The Business of Life