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Mashup-Germany – Who Knew Someone Like You…
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I ran across the poem The Benjamin Franklin of Monogamy written by Jeffrey McDaniel back in July of 2005 and wanted it share it with all of you. Jeffrey McDaniel is quite the published author under Manic D Press. Many of his poems have appeared in highly regarded publications such as The Best American Poetry 1994, An Anthology of new (American) Poets, The new Young American Poets, and American Poetry: The Next Generation. I’m not too big on poetry, but when I read this piece I felt like many people could relate to it. Enjoy!

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Photo by: Emmanuel Rosario

Play Me:

As always, I’m here to write because I’ve been thinking a lot lately. This time around it’s not because I’m stressed out or feeling negative. It’s because I’m inspired, motivated, and ready for a change. A change for the better. I used to see the negative out of a lot of things rather than the positive and those thoughts were poison seeping into my mind. Those no longer exist. For example, my brother and I purchased a tape converter for the car, since we don’t have a CD player, so we could play music off our iPhones/iPods. We’ve had it for well over a year now and something started to go wrong with the chord and we can’t hear music come out of our speakers that well. Rather than saying “oh, what a piece of crap this thing sucks” why not look at it and say “wow, this thing was really worth the $20 we paid for it! It’s allowed us to play countless hours of our music that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to!” Back to the point.

In this day and age it’s very easy to get down on yourself and feel…hopeless. To feel like the world is against you and that nobody cares when in fact, they really do. It’s hard to really see beyond a person, their intentions, and who they really are. Fortunately, I’d like to give myself the credit for knowing I can easily tell a person’s character after shortly meeting with them and and get a feel for who they really are from the motives behind their drive.

What I’m getting at is that my brother and I have seen much success (not as much as we’d like, but we’re taking baby steps) with our website Drop Beats Not Bombs. Both of us have also seen a lot of success in our careers and from the perspective of growing as an individuals this past year. We’ve been through a lot, trust me. What I’ve realized through the development of my career, ambitions, and experiences is there are genuinely good-hearted individuals out in the world. People who want to help you reach your goals, keep you motivated, and truly see your vision. Though sometimes it may be hard to believe this and look beyond all the bullshit that may have previously occurred, you need find the needle(s) in the haystack. And when you do, it’s well worth it. The friendships and relationships you develop by networking are priceless.

So, when in doubt please know there’s always hope. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Keep pushing harder and harder to accomplish what you set out to accomplish and become who you desire to become.

Related posts:

1. A False Sense of Hope
2. Unfaltering Faith and Other Things…
3. Don’t Be An Average Joe, Be A Champion!

In my opinion, though in a time of sorrow and mourning, the eulogy Ted Kennedy gave for his brother Robert Kennedy’s memorial on June 8, 1968 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York is an all time great. Personally, I’d dub it the greatest speech of all time, but I haven’t listened to nor have I read many speeches to compare it with. I’ve been meaning to share this for a while now and it just so happened that I was going through some of my old audio files back from 2006 and came across a snippet of the speech that I could listen to over and over again. For some reason I draw quite the inspiration from this speech and maybe you will as well.

Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, Mr. President:

On behalf of Mrs. Kennedy, her children, the parents and sisters of Robert Kennedy, I want to express what we feel to those who mourn with us today in this Cathedral and around the world.

We loved him as a brother, and as a father, and as a son. From his parents, and from his older brothers and sisters — Joe and Kathleen and Jack — he received an inspiration which he passed on to all of us. He gave us strength in time of trouble, wisdom in time of uncertainty, and sharing in time of happiness. He will always be by our side.

Love is not an easy feeling to put into words. Nor is loyalty, or trust, or joy. But he was all of these. He loved life completely and he lived it intensely.

A few years back, Robert Kennedy wrote some words about his own father which expresses [sic] the way we in his family felt about him. He said of what his father meant to him, and I quote: “What it really all adds up to is love — not love as it is described with such facility in popular magazines, but the kind of love that is affection and respect, order and encouragement, and support. Our awareness of this was an incalculable source of strength, and because real love is something unselfish and involves sacrifice and giving, we could not help but profit from it.” And he continued, “Beneath it all, he has tried to engender a social conscience. There were wrongs which needed attention. There were people who were poor and needed help. And we have a responsibility to them and to this country. Through no virtues and accomplishments of our own, we have been fortunate enough to be born in the United States under the most comfortable conditions. We, therefore, have a responsibility to others who are less well off.”

That is what Robert Kennedy was given. What he leaves to us is what he said, what he did, and what he stood for. A speech he made to the young people of South Africa on their Day of Affirmation in 1966 sums it up the best, and I would like to read it now:

“There is discrimination in this world and slavery and slaughter and starvation. Governments repress their people; millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows rich and wealth is lavished on armaments everywhere. These are differing evils, but they are the common works of man. They reflect the imperfection of human justice, the inadequacy of human compassion, our lack of sensibility towards the suffering of our fellows. But we can perhaps remember — even if only for a time — that those who live with us are our brothers; that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek — as we do — nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men. And surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again. The answer is to rely on youth — not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. The cruelties and obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to the obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. They cannot be moved by those who cling to a present that is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger that come with even the most peaceful progress.

It is a revolutionary world we live in, and this generation at home and around the world has had thrust upon it a greater burden of responsibility than any generation that has ever lived. Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills. Yet many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation; a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth; a young woman reclaimed the territory of France; and it was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and the 32 year-old Thomas Jefferson who [pro]claimed that “all men are created equal.”

These men moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. *It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.* Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. And I believe that in this generation those with the courage to enter the moral conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the globe.

For the fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before those who enjoy the privilege of education. But that is not the road history has marked out for us. Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty. But they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. All of us will ultimately be judged, and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves on the effort we have contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that event.

*The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society.* Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live.”

That is the way he lived. That is what he leaves us.

My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.

Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.

As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:

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There’s been a part of my sub-conscious lately that, for some odd reason, keeps letting doubt creep into my mind! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Let me repeat that just one more time. I hate it! Now that that’s out we’ll move on. Many of you have probably read some of my previous posts so I’m sure you’ve been able to make your own assessment of what kind of person I am (hopefully it’s good). For that reason I’ll save both you and I some time and won’t get into the whole spiel about how I’m this and that and how you should take my word for it. Moving on…

Getting back to the point and the direction I want to go with this post. Our society often creates a false sense of hope in the minds of unsuspecting victims. Unfortunately, myself included. Creating ideas through elaborate marketing and advertising schemes or even by ways or the means of friends and family. What I mean by this is that we all have high hopes, dreams, and expectations for our future. For example, there’s not one person who can’t say they haven’t watched some show (think Entourage) and while watching that show said to themselves, “I want to live that lifestyle” or “Someday I’ll drive an Aston Martin” or “I want girls and to party like rock star.” How about flipping through a magazine and you see something, we’ll say for this example, a Harry Winston diamond ring that God forbid one day you will own. Maybe you drove past a house (a mansion for better sake of a term) and said to yourself, “Daaanngg that’s what I want my house to look like!” YES! One day it will all be ours…just wait…one day…

It’s sad these materialistic objects become the focus of our lives. That we take the most simplest of things for granted–like going for a walk outside or spending time with loved ones. You can travel to a third world country and in some areas find human beings, yes you read correctly, HUMAN BEINGS who are genuinely happy with their day to day lives with the simplest of things. They don’t have the material objects we want and desire, but don’t necessarily need. They don’t know what a cell-phone or iPod is or even what they look like for that matter. These are technologies that we submerse ourselves in everyday and something that they’ll never probably get to experience. It’s great that we have big dreams, goals, and future with all the fancy, hip, and cool stuff. But it’s also pathetic that we don’t take the time to sit back and realize that we’re truly lucky to be where we’re at today, regardless of the situations we’re currently struggling to get through as individuals and as a society.

I think and dream big. I hope you do to. Because there’s nothing wrong with that. However, as I mentioned before there’s been some doubt that has managed to find it’s way into my mind. We’re not bad people to want and desire all the material things portrayed in the media every single day. Are we? It’s good to want that stuff because it means you want more out of your life. That you aren’t going to settle for average. Simply put…it’s motivational. For me, the doubt that I have allowed to creep into my mind has slapped me across the face. Not once, but twice. As much as I am entrepreneurial, business minded, and goal oriented I’ve been pulled back down to reality. “Realistically where am I going to be in 10 years?,” is the kind of thought that is going through my head. Versus the optimistic view of what was previously going through my head, “I’m going to start a business, get rich, and in 2 years have everything I ever wanted!” Yeah…right…unless I’m real lucky. The odds of that being one in a million. I’ve realized that it’s going to take time, effort, and dedication to get where I want to be. It’s just hard for me to accept that in the end I may fail despite my efforts or whether or not I put more blood, sweat, and tears into whatever it is I end up doing than someone else who may have got lucky or put forth less time and effort.

The realization that I’ve come to is that sometimes we get get trapped into a sense of belief or hope that we can’t escape or are too stubborn to admit otherwise. The belief that I will own a multi-million dollar company one day and drive my Lamborghini to work. I intend on making that a reality… it’s great and all, but realistically and statistically the odds are against us. Stubbornness can hurt you and learning to let go and move on (knowing when to quit) is one characteristic one must acquire. Sometimes you ARE the stronger person for letting go than trying to hold on. Here’s the definition of insanity by Albert Einstein, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I know he intended the interpretation of that quote another way, but you can’t keep doing something that you know deep down inside isn’t going to change. We’ve all been stuck in that position before. Don’t create a false sense of hope or even a false sense of reality and tell yourself it’s going to work! On the flip side, we wouldn’t be where we are today without the efforts of great minds and individuals before us who just wouldn’t give up. Thomas Edison failed more than 1000 times when trying to create the light bulb. There are unique and amazing stories like that and don’t get me wrong you could be one of them. I could be one of them. Actually, let’s be one of them.

As you can tell I see both sides. Never give up because if you’re doing something you believe in you should give it your all and put your effort into it. But then again if something isn’t working why keep wasting time, which is priceless, and keep trying? We only get one life (yes I know I’m pointing out the obvious) and I guess that’s up to you what you want to spend your time doing with it. Life is tough and making decisions is tough. A lot of the time we get thrown rocks when we were expecting marbles. It’s what you do with those rocks to polish them down and create your marbles.

I don’t even know if this whole thing made any sense. It’s just what’s been going through my mind lately and I wanted to get it out and write about it. It didn’t really come out the way I expected it to, but maybe I can come back at a later time and edit this bad boy. To me, sometimes we lose our own perception of reality because we get lost in a false sense of hope and create ideas and thoughts (think Inception) that aren’t real. Or that we get stuck doing something because others have created an environment that makes you feel guilty if you give up.

Disclosure: I began working on this post back in November 2010. I let some of my posts sit in the queue…It’s refreshing to come back with a clear mind and re-edit posts I was having a hard time completing. Think of it as wine…aging in the queue whilst getting better as time progresses.

Related posts:

1. Don’t Be An Average Joe, Be A Champion!
2. What is the Key to Staying Motivated?
3. Become a Quitter at Quitting

Above & Beyond & Gareth Emery Pres. OceanLab – On A Good Day (Acoustic Mix)

Happiness is a formula. Something we are, in our subconscious, always trying to solve. For some of us the solution to the formula seems impossible. Though, some lucky and fortunate individuals are able to find the solution. Happiness is the abundance of objects that surround us in our everyday lives. The belief we have in ourselves, in others, and for some, God. Just like love, happiness isn’t discovered by or present in everyone. Some people are left in the dark never knowing what happiness actually feels like or the true meaning behind it. Others set out on a journey to seek happiness hoping to find that something or someone to fulfill their lives from the inside and out. While some believe happiness is a switch that can turned on and off. I consider happiness as one of the three intangible “wonders”. The other two being love and freedom. What is happiness? Is it a state of mind you decide upon? or is it something that you truly experience? I think it’s a mixture of both. I give you permission to slap me silly if that sounds absurd.

I find myself constantly questioning what happiness is just about everyday. Why? Because I know I’m not completely happy. Not happy with who I am individually as a person, where I am financially, and with life in general. Wow that sounded quite depressing. I know that as an individual I can improve many different aspects of my life. I just want more out of life and don’t understand how people sometimes settle for nothing more than average. I may think my life is on a downward spiral with all of the unlucky and unfortunate events that have occurred thus far in 2010. I realize however, that I have it better off than a lot of people around the world. I realize that there are many things that I take for granted, which many people could only dream of having.

EDIT 3/24/2011: Sorry everyone, at the time of first writing this I was kind of a downer. Amidst of forgetting about this post in my queue and sporadically editing this bad boy on and off since July 2010 it has taken me a while to get it to flow how I want it to flow. Yeaaahh I know, I’m lame. The year 2011 has been great and I’ve been enjoying every minute!

Happiness to me is like trying to find the perfect relationship, but not being able to. Trying to make something happen that just wasn’t supposed to be. We’ve all be in that situation. Where we want something to work out so badly that we would do anything in our power to get the outcome we desire. What I’ve realized is that things never really work out when we approach them with that kind of mentality or mindset. Instead of trying to make a perfect relationship happen with someone, let that someone walk into your life unexpectedly and let a perfect relationship develop. Instead of trying to find happiness, do the things that truly make you happy and surround yourself with people who are able to instill happiness into your life. Whether it be through their positive energy or their friendly presence. Essentially, what I’m trying to say is not to go looking for happiness because you won’t find it. Let it come into your life unexpectedly. We can’t let the burdens or outcomes in our lives affect our attitude. By doing so, we dwell on the past instead of appreciating what we have right in front of us. We have to learn to let go of the past, embrace the present, and prepare ourselves for the future.

I always ask myself whether or not the saying that you can’t love others until you love yourself is true. To some extent I agree with that statement. How can you love someone else if you don’t even know what it feels like to love or appreciate your own self? I do believe that you can love others even if you are struggling to understand yourself. That you can help others even if you’re struggling to find help or guidance in your own life. For the most part I try to think of it as, what goes around comes around. If I’m able to help others in some small way hopefully someone will be there when I need support or to be lifted up.

Lately, I’ve realized that whether or not I’m happy that I love to help others and see smiles on other people’s faces even if I’m not “floating on air” or “high on life” so-to-speak. I guess you could say that I wear a mask sometimes, not good…I know. However, you can be happy without all the material objects that our society ingrains into our heads that we, for some reason, need in order to be accepted by others. Take a look at children in 3rd world countries. You can find happy kids running around even though they don’t have access to the sophisticated technology, 5 course meals, or designer clothing we get submersed into everyday. There’s people living on less than a dollar a day! If they can find happiness, then we surely can. If they can experience happiness, so can we.

It’s crazy how many people, including myself, believe or used to believe that money will lead to happiness. WRONG. Money buys freedom and with that freedom we’re able to do the things with the people that make us happy. Just because I’m able to afford a $100,000 dollar car and sit in it doesn’t mean I’m happy (don’t misinterpret this–I don’t own a 100k car). Just because I can afford the most expensive designer clothing and put it on my body doesn’t mean I’ll be happy (I don’t own expensive designer clothing, either). These material objects only support our short-term gratification and the mindset that “hey I can afford this stuff and that person can’t so I’m better than them”. The “I’m better than you” mentality, when in fact, you’re probably not. What I want to come to is that, to me, the true meaning of happiness is understanding yourself, the amount of effort, and commitment it will require to reach wherever I want to go in life. Money doesn’t buy happiness, it only makes life a little more simpler.

So keep this in mind when you’re thinking about happiness…We make fun of a lot of the celebrities, politicians, athletes, and other people always in the spotlight of the media. We make fun of them for wanting to save the dolphins, adopting children, donating money to certain charities. Guess what? These people make SO much freakin’ money that they’ve figured out what truly makes them happy. They’re doing and supporting the things that they want to do, not what others expect of them. In a sense when we make fun of these people we’re really making fun of ourselves because we haven’t reached that point in our lives where we don’t have to worry about any financial obligations. We haven’t reached that point in our lives where we can sit down to reflect and figure out what we truly care about and have a passion for.

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Photo by DeviantArt user PardonMyFate

This post is a few weeks overdue (now long overdue–I wrote this mid January and forgot to publish it). I wanted to take the time to thank everyone who has purposely or unintentionally come to my website this past year in 2010. This past year has been a roller coaster and this is one of the places I come to let the steam out. I used to hate writing posts because it felt like a job, “Ohh man I need to update my blog, what the hell am I going to write about?” always went through my head. I always thought of myself as a horrible writer as well and I would force myself to write. Another reason why I used to never like writing on here was that I thought my diction and syntax sucked! It still does… Sometimes I guess I don’t give myself enough credit and usually have the thought that I could have written my posts better.

Anyway, writing here puts me at ease and as corny as it sounds, at peace. It seems like my head gets cluttered with too many thoughts and emotions that I store inside and never let out. It’s overwhelming when I try to keep it locked inside rather than share it with others. I’ve come to realize that many people probably feel the same way I do about things but aren’t comfortable sharing it to the public or may just not have someone to express themselves to. Whatever it is that’s going through your head and want to scream out loud…To that I say you’re not alone. I used to be uncomfortable and embarrassed to let my friends know I had a blog. Now I feel fine sharing my posts on my Facebook page for the whole world to see! Regardless, it has been a rewarding experience. I know that people are coming here and actually reading my articles thanks to the emails and comments I receive. So again, for you silent readers out there, or ninjas for a better word…thanks for taking the time to listen and hear my voice.

I never thought that my blog would reach this…milestone? This past year in 2010 my blog received a total of 25,004 unique visitors. Those visitors generated a total of 51,758 pageviews (1.94 pageviews per visit). Unfortunately, the average time spent on my site was only a mere 42 seconds. BUT, looking at the last two months, November and December, of 2010 I had a total of 3,242 unique visitors that generated a total of 10,240 pageviews (an average of 2+ pageviews per visit). That’s pretty good! The average time spent on my blog for the last two months was 1 minute and 7 seconds. Quality over quantity. What seizes to amaze me though, is my bounce rate. For those of you who don’t know what Bounce Rate means–it “is a term used in web site traffic analysis. It essentially represents the percentage of initial visitors to a site who “bounce” away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site.” The bounce rate for my blog is only 3.59%, which means that 96.41% of people who visit my blog stay here upon the initial page they landed on! I could get into more in depth analysis, but it would probably bore you to death.

As I mentioned before, I know many of you come here and don’t leave comments. That’s fine! I just wanted to let all of you know that I appreciate you taking the time to read my posts. Contacting me directly through my contact form is always welcome. What motivates me most is the fact that I know I’m providing support, inspiration, motivation, and empowering complete strangers around the world!! It’s most rewarding when I wake up in the morning and check my inbox to see an email from someone who reached my site thanking me or telling me to keep up the good work. In some small way I’m able to make a difference and that’s all that really matters.

With that said, I look forward to a fantastic 2011. Follow your hearts, always dream big, and accomplish your goals. In regards to life in general, here’s a quote from Transformers “Fifty years from now, when you’re looking back at your life, don’t you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?” Take a second to think about it. Just think about it. Live life with no regrets

30 Seconds to Mars – Closer to the Edge

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Photo by DeviantArt user ni-ki-tas

I’ve probably put this quote in previous posts, but doing some morning reflection on my drive to work made me think of it some more. One of my favorite quotes is by George Seaton, “Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.” When most people look, read, or hear that quote they don’t know how to interpret it. Myself included. It seems pretty simple to understand, but actually applying it in your life is a whole other story.

My interpretation of the quote is that regardless of whether or not every nerve in your body is telling you not to do something, you do it. You follow your heart. Why? Because you believe in yourself, your decisions, and your capabilities to accomplish whatever it is you may be trying to accomplish or to succeed in whatever it is you may be trying to excel in.

This quote was taken from the movie The Sunset Limited. If you haven’t seen it, see it. No action and takes place in one room, but amazing dialog. This quote got me thinking as well… It’s the perception of reality that we have in our minds that which gives us hope. It’s all about having a purpose and what keeps me waking up in the mornings are my dreams. My dreams and hopes to get where I want to be in life.

I wish I could write some more and put to words the thoughts running through my head, but I’m having a difficult time expressing myself. Just a few things I wanted to share, though.

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Photo by DeviantArt user Darkness-in-the-lens

“The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.”

-Joan Borysenko

This will be short and sweet.

My view and philosophy on life goes as follows. We only live once. We have one life to make the most of everything, literally everything. I don’t want to live my life and look back when I’m older asking myself “what if” saying I could have done that or I should have done that. I want to look back on my life and tell my friends, family, and my kids, “look at all the shit I did growing up”.

Work hard. Play hard. Don’t let anyone or anything hold you back from doing what you want to do. If you want to do something, do it. If it’s something you think you’ll regret later, who cares. You live and you learn. Make your life worthwhile and worth sharing.

Related posts:

1. Life is Too Short to Wake Up With Regrets

Photo by DeviantArt user karwahe

There’s a part of me that wants to drop everything I’m doing on a daily basis, give it up, and do something that truly makes me happy (or that I think will make me happy). I want to forget about the past and everything that has happened and start a clean slate. As much as I want to do that today; start fresh and pretend like it’s a whole new life, I won’t. Why? Because there’s doubt running through my head. Then I start thinking about how this doubt is able to spawn within my own thoughts. Where is this all coming from? Me. I’m slowly letting it happen to myself.

I believe that self-doubt presents itself within our thoughts, minds, and through our emotions because we let society influence our lives. The inevitable will occur whether or not it’s through your family, friends, government, etc. So let me repeat myself again…OUR LIVES. Something of which we have complete control over, but for some odd reason let society and other people dictate what we do with this thing so called life. One of the few things we only have one of. Now, please explain to me why we’re letting society set expectations for ourselves when we should be setting our own expectations and defying the conventional way to do things? Why do we let others control what we do and how we do it (influenced decisions because of a fear or doubt that the way you want to do something may not be acceptable)? By this I mean, we may believe in something but get told that that something is not possible or it’s stupid. This leads into the why do we ultimately base our decisions from these critics? We live once. Ignore them and pursue your dreams. Our most valuable asset in this life is time. It’s this intangible concept that we can’t put a price on or say to someone “hey, I’m going to the bank to withdraw more time!” It just doesn’t happen like that.

Forgetting about the past and starting fresh may be scary for some. It’s hard, but the truth is it’s the past. Let go and move on. Great people have come into my life and for that I am grateful. Whether or not some of these people will be a factor in my life in the future, only God knows. What I have learned, however, is to surround yourself by like-minded individuals who will constantly and consistently challenge you by pushing you to your limits in regards to all aspects of life (you interpret that how you’d like). Ultimately, the qualities of trust and character are two key ingredients (and variables?) that you must find and learn about with another individual.

I decided to include this into the post as well because it’s what’s going through my head right now. I know if I put it off I’ll forget about it and won’t write about it either. Along the lines of being “happy” and in constant search for this other concept, which is also intangible like life, that I hope to experience and pump my veins with one day. And I would also like to share happiness with those I care about. The ones who have been there for me through thick and thin. The ones who have shun a positive light when I may have been sitting in a dimly lit or dark room. You know who you are.

In recent posts you’ve seen me write about how I’m going to start a business and this and that. Blah blah blah, right? This is, I guess in some way, my journey to hopefully hop on the right path in the pursuit of happyness and to find a passion that I truly care about.

As you’ve read in previous posts I thought happiness was getting rich and living the lifestyle of a celebrity or athlete. I also thought that getting rich was going to happen quickly. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works and it’s hard for me to accept, but these last few years have put things into perspective and I’ve accepted the fact that I’m not going to be a millionaire by the end of this year. Damn. What I’ve learned is that it takes commitment, hard work, dedication, and passion to make something into a reality. You want to build a business? Great! Well, ask yourself what you’re going to need to do in order to start that business. For most of us, myself included, we haven’t started a business or gone through the trials and tribulations that our predecessors have. I truly believe that you can’t understand something to the fullest extent until you’ve actually experienced it yourself. You’ve experienced something, learned from it, and now you have the knowledge and a new acquired skill set for the future. You’ll have a new found understanding that you didn’t have before. You’ll probably be thinking, “Wow, my parents were actually right!” Getting rich isn’t just about money either. You can be rich with the right people in your life (wow that was corny..sorry)!

It’s almost been a year since I graduated. No, not high school (since people still say I look 18)…yes…college! This is my experience that I’ve gone through. I know some of you probably haven’t experienced “real life” yet, and I don’t expect you to understand what I’m saying here. I’m not all that wise yet, either. Maybe one day I’ll be able to grow a long grey berard and look wise I probably sound like your parents or professors right now, whatever I’m saying right now is probably going in one ear out the other. Then you have that ah hah! moment where you realize, “HOLY SH*T thaaaaaat’s what they were talking about.” So here it goes…

What I learned and applied in the classroom taught me absolutely nothing about the real world. Books with case studies that we read gave me the knowledge how to do the basics in accounting, finance, conducting research, and writing marketing plans and strategies…sometimes for made up businesses and the list goes on. It was a matter of who could memorize the most amount of information in the least amount of time before the exam! I sometimes think why I wasted, let me rephrase that, spent 4 years of my life attending a university! We could go back and forth about the benefits of attending college, this and that, but I don’t want to go there. Don’t take me as a fool who thinks there was absolutely no benefit to college. There was.

This is my experience. After graduating and sending in / applying to jobs left and right I realized one thing. College didn’t prepare me for this. Sure, the career center offered workshops on how to “fix up” your resume, write a cover letter, and how to go into an interview but it wasn’t the nitty gritty stuff. I showed up to a few interviews (never having done formal interviews in the past) and just like any newbie I was caught off guard with a few questions. My nerves were tense, my pits were sweaty, and I had no clue if the bullsh*t coming out of my mouth was even making sense. I was later asked back for a few second and third round interviews. Let me tell you, my classes didn’t at all prepare me what it was going to be like working a 5 hour day and analyzing data to the core with some of these companies. Especially since most of this stuff was internet related (pay-per-click advertising data, analytical data, eCommerce data, trends, etc.). None of which most schools don’t offer courses in, but need to adapt to our generation’s evolving technology and offer these freaking courses! Fortunately, I’ve taught myself most of this stuff and understand the surface of it all, but never really had any formal training or guidance on how to interpret some of the analytical data. I understand that we’re all human and should have our own level of competencies and creativeness. That these interviews are designed to see who can think on top of their feet and all that nonsense. I just wish I was more prepared [for the unknown].

Then we get to the part of my life where I started a sales job. I learned more at that job in four months than I learned in any of my classes. I learned basic sales techniques, how to be an effective leader, and time/territory management. We didn’t have classes in college that were geared solely on leadership, which is an essential quality for anyone to have in this thing referred to as life. This is knowledge I can take with me anywhere in the future and apply. And I paid how much for a college degree? I’ve moved on and am now working full-time as a marketing analyst. What I’ve learned in my first three weeks at this J.O.B. cannot be compared to what little I learned in the classroom or from reading a book. The pay may suck, but I’m learning and that’s all that matters to me. If I’m not learning (about something I’m genuinely interested in), I get bored. Fact.

I completely lost where I was going with this. But the point I want to get across is that you must build the necessary fundamentals to go on and do great things. Build a solid foundation to grow from. Once you’ve built a solid foundation then start building another on top of that. It’s like a…pyramid? Except your foundation shouldn’t get smaller as you build upon it! You can’t skip a level either, that’s just impossible (there can’t be an invisible foundation in the middle of two solid foundations!). It’s all about your experiences and how you utilize those experiences to keep building and growing as a person. Some experiences may be negative. Don’t ignore them, take something away from it so the next time you run into that situation you can avoid it or approach it differently.

This was a long rambling by me…I hope it made sense to whoever may be reading this. I have a difficult time expressing how I feel and putting them to words, but need to let my fingers flow and get it out occasionally. Thanks for reading this 1,805 word post. Until next time my friends and silent readers…!

On another note, this is one of my favorite songs right now. Surprisingly inspirational. It’s titled Breathe & Shine a mashup of John Legend’s Shine and Sia’s Breathe Me by LeeDM101. Don’t forget to Download this great song!

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This quote was taken from the movie Step Up 3D. My brother and I watched it last week and at first I wasn’t too sure what to expect. I like the quote “To travel is better than to arrive,” because it truly is about the journey we take in life. Sometimes the journey isn’t what we expected. I, for one, know that first hand. However, it’s the knowledge we gain, the people we meet, and the mistakes we learn from that gets us to where we want to be in life.

In my opinion, when we just have the destination in mind it skews the direction we want to go in and the way we ultimately perceive things. By only seeing the destination in mind we don’t realize the obstacles we’re going to have to go through to get there. I think this quote truly defines that we won’t get anywhere in life without having to work hard for whatever it is we want to achieve or where we want to get. We WILL have to work hard and put in the effort to learn. We WILL meet people, make friendships, and build relationships–some that last and some that don’t, unfortunately. And we WILL make mistakes. With those mistakes (and failures) we’ll have to learn to pick ourselves back up.

I also think that this quote is telling us not to take the simple things in life for granted. Every day we’re fortunate enough to just take a breathe of fresh air. A lot of us don’t think about the lives we live on a daily basis (sometimes thinking we’re miserable). We don’t realize that there are kids and families around the world who barely make $1 dollar a day, don’t have food on the table (or even a table to enjoy meals at), and their main focus is survival. We’re so caught up about the way we look and what others may think about us when in reality it doesn’t matter. We often think too much about the future and what’s up ahead than just enjoying the now.

What makes life so precious? It’s the journey we go through. What we experience and what we gain from those experiences while headed towards the destination. The end result.

I’d like to hear what your thoughts are about this quote and even the experiences and journeys you’ve gone through in life! Feel free to share in the comments below! I’ll be looking forward to hearing back from anyone who reads this!

Photo by DeviantArt user jjuuhhaa

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