The Exploration

  “Consistency is what transforms average into excellence.” Yesterday marked a milestone that I never thought I would hit. Yesterday’s blog was the 200th in my short writing history.  I always remind myself how little time I have been doing it. I remind myself how much better I still have to get. I remind myself how little I have accomplished. But, I can’t undermine the obvious progress I have made. Day 1 was December 31st, 2021. I told myself that I was going to become a blogger. I told myself that I was going to write everyday.  That didn’t happen. Instead, I wrote for 16 straight days before I lost the ambition to do anymore. I thought my writing sucked. I was discouraged with what I was writing about and saw it as having no value to anyone, including myself. Looking back at it now provides HUGE value to me. It allows you to see how immensely better I have become at writing, how much more focused my thoughts are, and how much more mature and developed I am emotionally....

“We’re so busy watching out for what’s ahead of us that we don’t take time to enjoy where we are.” A storm is brewing on the horizon. I can sense the pain of change, the discomfort of leaving, the fear of things never being the same again. I know this storm will hit at some point, but what’s the sense in worrying about it right now? I have to enjoy the blue skies while I have them. Everyone is worried about what will happen. Everyone is stressing about the next time. They worry about the next time they have to do anything painful. So much to a point that the bridge that is between the present and the future event is completely destroyed with anxiety of the future. The time between is completely wasted with dread and worry. As I have said many times before: TIME IS THE MOST VALUABLE ASSET . You worry about running out of time. You worry about not having enough time. You worry about wasting time. But what if you just enjoyed the time you had? If you quit worrying about “the next time”, ...

“Listening is a magnetic force.” The more you listen, the more you learn. I am more of an introverted person. I enjoy fully thinking through what I am going to say before I say it. I analyze every single word that comes out of my mouth. But I haven’t always been this way. When I was younger, I used to talk a lot more. I blurted out whatever came to my mind because I wanted attention. I wanted people to notice me but instead I got the exact opposite. I was avoided instead. My peers became annoyed with my useless interjections in effort to fit in. When I talked, nobody listened. The reason? I HADN’T LISTENED ENOUGH. When you listen more, you learn more. You learn how to demand attention. You learn what people like to hear. You learn the key words and phrases that will evoke emotion and feeling in a person. You learn how to manipulate people to share your opinion. You learn how to influence people with your voice and words.  These are not skills that come overnight. It takes years of ...

“Show your scars so others know they can heal.” Someone is following you. No matter where you go. They will follow you for the rest of your life. Who is it? YOUR SHADOW Your shadow is the person in your head telling you you aren’t enough. Your shadow is the person you used to be reminding you constantly of its presence. Your shadow carries every bit of trauma, pain, discomfort that you ever experienced with it.  But your shadow is just a projection of yourself. It will be there as long as you are. You will never escape your shadow. All you can do is use it as fuel. My shadow is the immature, insecure, weak, 19-year old kid that didn’t know if my life would ever get better. He reminds me of my shortcomings, makes me aware of my flaws, and highlights my scars. I used to run from him. I was scared of him being seen by other people. I thought I had to hide him but the truth is I can’t hide him. He is a part of me whether I like it or not. Because of him, I became who I am. He reminded ...

“Your life goes toward the things you give attention to.” Is your attention being stolen? Or are you in control of where it goes? Find what has your attention. Success in any part of life is determined by how much time, attention, and effort you give that thing. The amount of time you have is limited. It is the most valuable resource. What is money if you don’t have time to spend it? Being that time is so valuable, you must make the most out of it. That requires giving maximum attention to a focused task during an allotted amount of time. The more your attention wavers from the focal point, the more time it will take to do what you wish to. My life changed when I started becoming disciplined with where my attention went. I felt like I had no time for anything. I felt like I had so much on my plate but when I finally examined it closer, I found that I was just putting my attention toward the wrong things. I would spend hours scrolling social media (not straight), playing video games, wa...

“Don’t lose sight of the current season as the next one approaches.” Winter is the working season. It is the season to suck it up and endure. It is the season to pour effort into yourself. It is the season of limited distractions and positive change. But as winter winds down, don’t let the idea of spring change your behavior. Instead, slowly transform the winter mindset so it works better with spring. It is difficult not to get a small sense of spring and completely ditch the habits and rituals you have formed during the long winter. If you want to succeed in spring like you have in winter, you must ignore the feeling of the season and embrace the feeling of change.  Certain seasons in life will remind you of comfort and happiness. You will want to stay in those seasons forever. But the more you accustom yourself to the feeling of warm weather in summer, the harder the winters become. If you adapt your winter mindset and bring it into the warm seasons, you will never feel the effec...

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” Studying the demeanors of successful people helps you figure out a lot. When you look at them, people who are successful are not successful because of what they have done, but successful because of what they have chosen not to do time after time. What do I mean by this? CHOOSING TO DO THE THINGS THAT MOST PEOPLE DO MAKES YOU JUST LIKE MOST PEOPLE. If everyone chose to NOT do what the crowd is doing, there might be a lot more successful people. But that is what separates success vs mediocrity.  Successful people hold themselves differently. They hold themselves in a way that says “I’ve done the work.” You gain respect for someone who you know does something you don’t want to do. For example, society has respect for people who are in tremendous physical shape because everyone knows it takes WORK to look like they do.  I have seen this change begin to take place in my own life. I have gained self-confidence and self-e...

“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” Overthinking leads to inaction. The pandemic of analysis paralysis is common among overthinkers. This is the act of being completely immobilized because of the analysis of every possible outcome to an action.  Even though the best thing to do is just to take action and see what happens. Thinking about all the possible outcomes is not useful because when it comes down to it, only one outcome will happen . It is for you to find out what that outcome will be. But I can guarantee you, that outcome will not happen if you continue to think.  I get stuck in bouts of overthinking quite often. All of the possibilities of outcomes circle through my mind. But they lead nowhere. Overthinking causes: Loss of sleep Inaction: less time doing, more time thinking More stress than simply taking action would Last night I found myself locked in on a topic that did not change the outlook of anything. It w...