Quit quitting..

I give up. Throwing in the towel. Calling it quits... sounds familiar? As far as I know, and I stand under correction, the human being is the only species on earth that knows how to quit and give up. In the animal kingdom, animal’s will fight to death to stay alive.

We quit in many different ways in life and it is not always a bad thing. The crutial element that differentiates a bad decision from a good decision when quitting is, when your motivation for giving up outweighs the benefits of steaming ahead. We as human beings are superior when it comes to intellectual thinking. Perhaps the latter is not a fact that applies to all of us but we can assume I am not taking those individuals here.

If I look introspectively and evaluate the likely hood of quitting, I must say that there is a probable chance that I always quit reluctantly and calculate the benefits from it before even speaking the word and taking action. I hate the thought of giving up without exhausting all resources and discovering all avenues that could be used.  I tend to be a bit stubborn and steam ahead when others would most likely just give up.

There is a fine line between giving up while ahead and losing it all. Quitting applies to all facets in life.  Quit smoking, quit drinking, quit any bad habit or addiction before it is too late. This is called quitting while you are ahead, when you stand to lose it all but did not lose it yet. There is a saying that it is never too late, but I disagree with that statement. When you lost your family due to alcohol or drugs, then it is too late. Too late for getting your old life back, but not too late to start a new life.

Choose wisely when you ponder about quitting. Playing with the idea in your head is a dangerous place to be when you risk losing it all. The pursuit of obtaining your goals should never lead to throwing in the towel but rather using defeat as your foundation to build on.

Quit, but never regret. If you regret quitting then learn from the mistakes and focus on the right goal at hand.

Passion

The one subject that is close to my heart. Often misconstrued and watered down as being used as something that depicts random sexual acts. I take great offence when a word as powerful as this is used as a meagre description for something other than its indented context. I often find myself reminiscing upon what I see as my desires in life. When I talk about something as powerful passion I do not refer to something that is close and dear to your heart, it is a lot more than that. It is your heart, the force that drives you. It is what you live for. If you do not agree with the latter then I doubt that you have found your passion in life.

To me, passion defines a purpose in life. We all have different desires and goals in our lives but that may not always be what your passion is. 90 Percent of people do not live their passions and I would estimate that about 60 percent of those do not even know what their passion in life is. I cannot help but feel sorry for them because they might not achieve to be all that they can be in life.

For all of us to be successful in life we need to know what our passion is. Passion breeds perfection. Many companies, religious institutes, academic facilities and sports use the word passion to describe the prerequisite to excel in the respective areas. How do you determine whether or not you have said needed passion? Simple... you know it, you feel it and you crave it. It is a fire burning and consuming you and your mind often wanders to a place where you practice your hearts desires.

It is a damn curse as well. I find it impossible to contain my passion at times and it can de motivate you at the worst of times due to its nature of consuming you. The trick is to harness this to power your actions to steer your future towards it. You need to be the champion of your circumstances and overcome the hardships and hurdles that prevent you from living your true passion.

When looking at business owners and relate their business success directly to them, you will often find that the richest ones have their success contributed to their passion and their dedication. It came with a big price tag.

Passion is something you have to look for and discover on your own. It can be a heavy burden to bear and thus should be summoned with respect and dedication. Once you come to realisation of what I speak of then you would understand that is actually a mystery that cannot be described.

Think about your hearts desires and distinguish them from the emotional desires. Look closely at what makes you want to sacrifice without anything in return. What do you hunger for? Now go and get it.

The price of living Life

It is not often that I get to just wander around in a shopping mall or go catch a movie on a weekday during business hours. It almost feels surreal and as if I am bunking school. I look at the other people hard at work and I get a glance of their day to day jobs.

Having the day off is something that I cannot explain. Yes I can have it really bad and be confined in a factory having to do hard labour every day, but I am not so I really should already be happy to go to work every day and sit in an air-conditioned office.  However I actually do have a point to make here and I am not just rambling some nonsense.

Have you ever just thought about what life is about? No, no.. Not the whole meaning of life speech, but what is it all about? We work our whole life’s and only get to live it when we are retired (average retiring age is about 65 – 70). We can’t go climb Mount Everest then, we can’t go on that crazy hiking expedition. What is the use of living your entire life working and not really living?

We have so much to see around us in everyday life. How nice is it not to just take a drive to the beach late morning? Or waking up early and enjoying a picnic until 9am and then go have a nap.

These might sound stupid little things but it is different for each person. I am trying to prove a point here and that is that we are all slaves. The real price of living life is only paid in full when we are too old to enjoy it. We have to put aside our desires to want to break the endless routine of working sunrise to sunset and missing out on OUR life’s just so we can stay breathing. Most of us enrich other people and those people actually retire young, or they can afford to live their lives as they want.

I always think of just how I can break free from this heavy price tag, but alas... we all have to pay it. So unless I invent a new best selling device that makes me an instant millionaire, my price for living life is unfortunately my life. We shall eat our daily bread by the sweat of our brows.

Sorry if this was not very motivating, it was not my intention to dishearten you but rather to open your eyes and see that there is so much more in life. Instead of always just going to work and earning a salary, try to aspire to become greater that your current circumstances. Never give up on rising above the price you have to pay to finally live life.

The ugly duckling

If I had to create myself, I would have perfect teeth. I would have a balanced metabolism and have the right muscle definition. From head to toe, I would maliciously sculpt every part. No more faulty tonsils or wisdom teeth. Would you pass up the opportunity to re sculpt yourself if you were presented with an opportunity?

I think that unless you are attractive and stunning, most would jump at the opportunity. Now why do I want to promote having a bad self image? Well truth be told, I am not. It is quite acceptable these days to want to change who you are and how you look simply because you do not conform to what the world perceives as appropriate and normal.

I do not state that you should just let go and become unhygienic and obese. Not at all, I would like to pose a question to you, the reader. Are you happy with the way you look? Are you satisfied with what kind of person you are? If your answers were yes then I am really preaching to the choir. I want to bring my viewpoint across to the crowd sitting in the corner at the back of the hall. Life to me has so many facets that it is inconceivable to be happy in all of them.

I am by no means a mean lean body builder. I am just an average Joe. Now with the latter sentence I would like to mention that I am by the law of averages, average. I had to accept that age does affect your looks and sometimes life experiences does change who you are. We all have a certain piece in ourselves though that is to you like your DNA. We never lose it but we do lose sight of it. It defines your unique traits.

We want to look appealing, it’s natural. But where do we draw the line? My thought on this is that we cannot be appealing to everyone. Who are the most important individuals in your life? Do they love you unconditionally, and if they do not, why are they still that important? We have people in our lives that are like the fat we would love to get rid of. You will find that once you rid yourself of that "fat", that you are halfway to accepting you for you. I am finished with trying to please people at my own expense.

Stand up for yourself. Become acquainted with yourself and embrace your inadequacies. Re discover that piece inside you that makes you who you are. The real essence of why you are they way you were born. We all are pieces of a puzzle and if everyone look the same way, then we will never fit together.

We are who we are and when you decide to accept that, then you can start to live life with confidence. Remember that your flaws are only as big as you allow them to be and most definitely can become your greatest asset.

Passion

For me there are few words that accentuate it like passion does.

I do realise that there can be various connotations tied to this word but let’s concentrate on a select few. I assume that the first thing that comes to mind when people mention this word is commitment. For fear that I sound like a walking thesaurus, I will not elaborate on the meaning.

One thing I do however want to talk about concerning this word is my perception. I love this word. If I could envisage it as a mental image, I would depict it as a red round cherry in the blue sky. Yes I know it is not exactly very spectacular nor what you would expect, bearing in mind that it is one of my favourite words.

I tend to think that the most successful people are extensions of passion. To me personally I would define it as the endless pursuit of perfection to fulfil ones heart desires. Passion can lead a person to take uncalculated risks. It leads to rash decisions that can change lives. Whether it is to enrich one or to uplift the fellow man, it is what drives most people to push boundaries.

A man filled with passion is not just an unstoppable force but a weapon that can devastate. It is a force to be reckoned with when placed in the wrong hands. I do think that more people use this driving force to enrich themselves. I wish there are more charitable individuals that harbours a strong degree of passion towards the poor, the social failures, the fallen and the aspiring. Passion is a drug that will consume you.

Decide what you want to apply it to because it will envelop you and change you. I hope and trust that anyone who digests these words will reverberate with love and compassion towards an equal benefit to all.