Rick's Journal (Replies Welcome)

Entry #30 (Exclusion)

Exclusion isn't necessarily a bad thing. This happens when you are different which, in our society, is often portrayed as something bad. Different is associated with outcast and someone who isn't part of the norm. Yet, we must look at the successful people in our society today who have found success other people could only dream of but could never hope to achieve.

This makes these successful people different but we don't view this as bad. Therefore, you being excluded means you are destined for greatness. You are different because you are given different tools, thoughts and dreams than other people. What you possess will get you success others people can only dream of. Does your difference still appear so negative now?

Many of the successful people also got scoffed at and excluded in the past. Many of them were excluded as they were seen as too radical and too weird. Instead of letting these hold them down and forcing them to become someone they're not, these people kept going with their ideas and dreams until they achieved a situation where they couldn't care what the critics say.

What's stopping you from finding similar success? You might be excluded and have no friends. Yet, these factors won't stop you from achieving new heights. The lonely road will make you stronger as long as you stay true to your journey following a dream only you can see. The only person who can stop you from completing this journey is you.

Don't see exclusion as something bad. You probably outgrown where you are spending most of your time. These people are those you want to befriend. Sure, they want to be your friends when you find success but they will keep their distance during your lows in life. Better accept loneliness as a gift that will make you more than ordinary than stay with people who fear what you are capable of. In addition, the exclusion saves you the trouble from needing to rid these people later on in life.

That's it for the thirtieth entry.

Entry #31 (Falling Behind)

I have personal experience with falling behind where I'm struggling with my studies while the others seem to be doing very well. They are either graduating or close to graduating with jobs lined up. I don't even know when I'll be graduating so you can probably understand why I'm feeling discouraged. As a result, I started making excuses and playing the blame game for why this is happening to me.

After experiencing life, watching videos and learning more about myself, I realized that I haven't really fallen behind. These are just stumbles in life that happens to everyone. However, making excuses and playing the blame game was making me fall behind because these were how I was spending my time. Time, as we all know, is a valuable resource which isn't renewable.

We all have hopes and dreams. To achieve our dreams, we need a certain number of small steps so we'll use a million small steps for this example. Since there are no shortcuts, we cannot take a thousand small steps to reach our dreams. To simplify things, let's say we need hard work and time to make our dream a reality. Everyone can work hard to meet the steps needed.

If I was too busy making excuses and pitying myself, I'm essentially investing no time in the pursuit of my dreams. This is time I won't ever get back which means that, the more time I waste, the less likely I'll be able to reach my dreams. I'm not saying it's impossible but it gets even more difficult the later it gets. Therefore, the wiser approach is to make the best use of my time now and start taking these small steps.

Failing in studies isn't falling behind. Stumbling in our journey is part of life and life was never really a race. We all have different paths to walk so even something like comparing with others is a waste of time. The best use of time is focusing on the road ahead of us, steel ourselves during the challenges and invest every bit of it on the dreams we always had.

That's it for the thirty first entry.

Entry #32 (Falling Behind)

In our society, it seems like we are living a very fast paced life. We also want instant gratification where we don't want to wait for something good to happen. Due to these factors, I can actually see falling behind being a good thing. Instead of racing with others to the destination, we can take a moment to look around our surrounding and admire the beauty of it.

The journey is always more important than destination. The journey also has numerous lessons we need to learn before we can reach newer heights in life. If we rush through the journey, we miss those valuable lessons and later look back wondering what we missed. Since time flows only one way, we won't get to experience the same journey again so we won't have a second chance at obtaining all the skills to tap into our full potential.

It's true that falling behind is tough. We see the backs of other people who are sprinting into the distance to their definition of success. Yet, we will stumble in life and sometimes we don't get back immediately. During this struggle to get up on our feet, we take a moment to get our breath back and a quick glance around made us realized that we missed so much of what life can truly offer us.

Sure, we can gain a lot of information on social media and google. Yet, these can never rival what we can experience in real life. We can easily forget something we read online but the experiences we have stick with us. Even if we cannot recollect the details, the experience will always have a place in our memory and it can be brought out at various moments in our lives.

When I was falling behind, life actually had something planned for me. It allowed me to do a month of door to door sales. This changes my life and taught me more about life than all of the school I've taken up to that point which is closing in on fifteen years. Therefore, falling behind is just a way life tells us that we have other paths to take. If we are daring enough to take advantage of the opportunities, we will find ourselves surpassing the other people in no time.

That's it for the thirty second entry.

Entry #33 (Purpose)

We all want to believe we have a purpose in life. We are here for a reason and something great is waiting for us to accomplish. We usually think about our purpose when we experience the lowest point of our life. When I was depressed and suicidal, I thought and honestly believed that I don't have a purpose in life. The world wouldn't change if I left as though it could go forward without me even existing.

I even had the belief that the world would be a better place without me using up resources. I'm sure a lot of people have similar experiences when they face anxiety and depression. They wonder why they are existing on this world. However, I now believe that everyone have a purpose. People have great potential and possess a gift that would enable them to do the seemingly impossible.

The main issue with this purpose and gift is that we struggle to discover it. Things like education can bar us from discovering our true purpose. Let's use our schools as an example. Schools teach us to not make mistakes, get good grade until we get a diploma or degree and work until we retire. Society makes it so any path that doesn't follow education is seen as foolish.

As a result, many people don't unlock their potential. These people might do well at school but there is something they could do better. When we are told that school is the only way for success, we become too terrified to do something different that's out of our comfort zone. Now, there are people who do find success after going to school and doing what society praise as the norm. Yet, this isn't the path for everyone.

Regardless of whether we feel down or happy, we must find our purpose. Once we find it, we will know what we excel at. Things we can do better than other people. Things other might believe is impossible but, since this is a gift we are given, we can accomplish and change the world to make it a better place!

That's it for the thirty third entry.

Entry #34 (Purpose)

We all want to find our purpose but we wonder how we can do so. One method that usually doesn't work is searching on the internet for answers. There might be a lot of information on the internet but it's just so easy for us to experience information overload. We also become overwhelmed as we see so many opportunities out there. We start dreaming about what we can do and dreams don't come true by dreaming alone.

I believe people must see more of the world if they want to find their purpose. If you lack the budget to see other parts of the world or another part of your country, you should explore you own city or town. There are rich histories that probably isn't well known. Go to a library and look at older newspapers to see what sort of secrets are hidden from much of the public.

Doing something out of your comfort zone is another method. If you haven't found your purpose from your immediate environment, it might not be available from where you are at. Be bold and, when you succeed, you build more confidence. Too often, people lack confidence to pursue their dreams even when they know this dream is what's needed to make them happy. Start building confidence so that, when you discover your dream, you can pursue it without hesitation.

Therefore, you shouldn't always remain indoors when there's so much to see outdoors. Don't always sit in front of your computer unless your purpose and dream involves game designing or software programmer. We don't experience by reading things on a monitor. We only experience by doing something, talking to people and making mistakes that teach us valuable lessons. Go out there and know that opportunities and special people are there waiting to meet you.

That's it for the thirty fourth entry.

Entry #35 (Purpose)

We define purpose differently and here's how I define it. There are a few requirements before you know you found your purpose. First, a purpose is tough and doesn't become a reality until time and effort had been invested into it. We all know the saying of easy come easy go. The same applies to purpose where, if you lower the bar and it comes true very quickly, you began to wonder if there's more to life.

Secondly, a purpose must be something you enjoy and are passionate about. It must be something you truly believe in and no one could convince you otherwise. If this isn't the case, then you will likely give up when the going gets tough. If life taught us anything, it's that things don't normally go our way and our resolve and determination are tested often. You shouldn't be dissuaded from your purpose ever regardless of the situation.

Thirdly, our purpose should affect a lot more people. We see people with goals like being rich so they can afford all the bells and whistles. There's a lot more to life than wealth. If you can do something that helps other people like getting them out of poverty or give them hope during their darkest moments, you will find those moments much more fulfilling than having more money than you know how to spend.

Purpose also doesn't have to be something incredible. Our society portray people who found their purpose as those millionaires or billionaires or people who are fighting things like poverty. Yet, purpose doesn't have to be at such an enormous scale. It could be something small but impactful. One example I can think of is creating a stronger community where you live.

There are communities out there where people don't necessarily know their neighbors. Other than exchanges of a few greetings, neighbors don't interact with one another. Someone could change that by ways like organizing a barbecue and inviting all the neighbors. You are letting them know one another more and create stronger bonds. This results in a stronger community where people will support each other during the tough moments in life.

Now, this won't show up in the news or be well-known across the world but it can be impactful. We shouldn't underestimate how small gestures can change the world. A better community see people more positive and positivity can spread further at workplaces or other locations outside the community. If we have a million of these small changes, we can see a larger impact on the world as a whole. Remember that our purpose might not make us famous but it can improve the world in ways we cannot imagine!

That's it for the thirty fifth entry.

Entry #36 (Sleep)

Sleep is sort of a weird topic but I can see it tie closely with success, purpose and how we live our lives. There are many people who watch motivational videos like me and we no doubt come across some videos where the speaker tell us that we should sacrifice sleep for a dream. They say that, if it's big enough of a dream, we should put more time and effort into it.

I personally can run off five to six hours of sleep a day where I remain somewhat productive. There are definitely people out there who can run on less sleep. For me, I don't see myself able to function with less sleep than five hours. I just start dozing off as my body complains and no amount of willpower, at least none I have discovered, can gets me to overcome dozing off.

I believe that, at the very least, we should try to avoid oversleeping. During the weekends, we might be tempted to remain in bed, especially during the dark winter days where it's warmer in bed. However, the extra sleep doesn't necessarily help us. I find myself becoming more drowsy when I oversleep and don't even feel rested. Therefore, we don't need to sleep in as seven to eight hours is about the most we need. Anymore and we will be cutting into time we can use to pursue other things in life.

Now, we must find a balance between sleep and work. When we are young, we can stay up late studying for exams. If we do this regularly and even later when we are working, we get into a habit that will affect our physical health. When we get older, we'll develop various problems because we didn't take better care of ourselves when we were younger. After all, we feel invincible when we are younger.

The reason why we sought out our purpose and pursue our dreams is to achieve happiness. Yet, we cannot find happiness when we are sick all the time. How positive can we be when we have a terrible headache and struggling to recover? If you can push yourself when you are young, you should do so. Yet, keep in mind that the body shouldn't be neglected. We shouldn't be so focused on making our dream come sooner that we lose sight of how we still need our bodies to enjoy the bright future we create for ourselves.

That's it for the thirty sixth entry.

Entry #37 (Motivation)

Here I want to talk about my thoughts on motivation including their pros and cons. Yes, there are cons for motivation but I will be covering that for a later entry. Motivation is generally the drive or passion people have which sees them start or continue doing a certain task regardless of how difficulty it made be. If we ask a lot of people why they aren't pursuing their dreams or why they aren't changing certain habits, chances are they will answer that they lack motivation.

Motivation comes in many forms and I'll be discuss one of them for this entry. Let's use the scenario of someone who had gone to school, got a degree and have been working at a job for ten years. He or she might suddenly wonder if there's more to his or her life. Essentially, life seems mundane and not necessarily what these people had in mind. It's also quite possible that they thought back to the dreams they had in the past like singer, writer and game developer to name a few examples.

What happens is these people desire more in life whether it's a better job to afford more stuff or more exciting life. This motivates them to change what's happening in their life and habits or ideas could be changed. Maybe a change in budget sees more saved up for vacations or trying out new hobbies when the person normally sits in front of a television. The desire gets the person to change because he or she doesn't want everything to be practically the same every single day.

We all know that, often, starting something is the most difficult. We all have great ideas but we often need a good reason to do it. Sometimes, we wait for encouragements from other people. Other times, we need something to happen in our lives. In the scenario above, it's the fact that nothing is happening in our lives that makes us want to do something about it. The motivation simply gives us the reason to do and, for some people, that's all they needed. A push in the light direction and they would do the rest.

That's it for the thirty seventh entry.

Entry #38 (Motivation)

Motivation is also great when we are already pursuing our dreams. In the early stages, we will encounter difficulties which is normal in life. We, after all, don't find success instantly. Even the small victories we need won't show up until we have been pursuing a dream for awhile. I will be using a business as an example for illustrate this.

At the start of a business, there's a good chance that there is very little, if any, revenue. The only customers might be your family members but this isn't how your business will grow. You need to reach out to the wider market and other people to buy. Naturally, you do marketing and advertising to get attentions but, as a new and small business, time is needed before you really find a loyal customer base to make the business grow.

After a few months, your business might be losing money and your family members along with friends suggest you quit and cut your losses. This is one of the tougher moments regardless of what your dream is. You had all this drive to start your dream but it does disappear after awhile. This is when we are tested in how determined we are to make our dreams can come true and this is also when motivation can be quite helpful.

Before any victories, we will be discouraged by the lack of success. Motivation can help by rekindling the fire we had when we first started. We all need a few pushes along the way to get back our momentum and not lose hope. Listening to successful person, especially someone who is your role model and have done what you wish to accomplish, is vital in that they will share their experiences, some of which being quite similar to what you are experiencing at the time.

It's not smart to underestimate what motivation can do. They can get you to do something you always wanted but maybe hesitate to do. They can continue fueling the fire inside you so you can persevere and move forward without ever giving up. Yet, motivation do have their cons as they aren't perfect and I'll be discussing those in the upcoming entries.

That's it for the thirty eighth entry.

Entry #39 (Motivation)

We'll be starting with the cons of motivation which seems like rather odd. After all, I did mention how motivation can spark us into doing something or give us the push to keep doing what we started. Know that I'm not saying motivation is bad. I'm just saying that motivation comes in all forms and sizes and isn't always necessarily the only way to find success so we shouldn't rely solely on it.

One of our motivation is fear. People afraid of losing job or being homeless will be motivated by fear. It's not great motivation but it's motivation nonetheless. There are a few issues with fear being your motivation. First, it's never a good idea to stress out about life all the time. We have all been there where we have some exam and we stress out on whether we did well or not. This is not a healthy lifestyle at all.

Secondly, fear is only motivating us when it's there. We no longer found the drive to keep going when the fear is gone. Let's say you work at a company and heard news of possible downsizing. Fearing you might be one of those people to be let go, you decided to work extra hard and your performance improves dramatically. The downsizing then happens and you keep your job. No longer fearing the loss of a job, you stopped working hard and go back to your old routines. It's quite possible that, if you kept working hard, you would have moved up the company much faster.

Another example might be a guy wanting a girl but the girl doesn't want an overweight guy. Therefore, he went to the gym daily and dropped a lot of weight until he got the girl's hand. Now that he got the girl as his wife, what's motivating him to keep going to the gym? Therefore, there are motivations that are terrible and aren't worth the trouble. When we are driven by fear or goals that are short term, we are only temporarily motivated before we return to our mediocre self.

Motivation can be great but we must be very careful with what motivation we use. Temporary motivation won't get us anywhere since anything great or meaningful takes time. Fear is also something we don't want running our lives. We must focus on what's important and not let negative emotions control us or our every single day would be miserable as we never see the positives of our future.

That's it for the thirty ninth entry.