If you’ve ever felt a sense of pressure to hurry up and do something you can feel proud of, or if you’ve ever considered that maybe it’s too late, you will appreciate the message in this inspiring video, titled “Nothing Changes.”
“Fear is inevitable, I have to accept that, but I cannot allow it to paralyze me.” ~Isabel Allende
When you think of a fearless person, you might imagine a real-life James Bond who performs death-defying stunts knowing he could die at any second.
But for most of us living “normal” lives, fear operates at a subconscious level and prevents us from being the best we can be.
For a long time, I struggled with these fears. I could not get myself to speak in front of people without experiencing extreme nervousness. When it came to talking to girls I liked, …
“If you do nothing unexpected, nothing unexpected happens.” ~Fay Weldon
During the last year I have made significant changes. I have changed my habits, values, thoughts, and perception of life. It has been an amazing journey and I have learned some valuable lessons that I want to share with you about happiness, motivation, and standing up for decisions you believe in.
I have always loved attention and I have always loved to party. In Denmark, it is not unusual that students drink two to three times a week, and I used to do that, as well.
Last year I …
“Where there is perfection there is no story to tell.” ~Ben Okri
Somehow I’d gathered my courage and volunteered from the audience during a local improvisational theater show. And before I knew it, I was up on stage with the troupe, being welcomed, supported, and seamlessly gathered into the scene in a way that only professional improvisers can do.
I left the stage high as a kite from the adrenaline rush, returning to my seat and enthusing to my friend that I wanted to start taking improv classes right away!
What I didn’t realize until I was several weeks …
“If you get up one more time than you fall, you will make it through.” ~Chinese Proverb
I remember clearly the day in March 2003 when I would receive the kind of news that no aspiring musician wants to hear.
“Sorry, but you aren’t currently at the level needed to enter our school.”
Five years of blood, sweat, and tears for what? To be told that I sucked? I sat there, lost in my own thoughts. Was I having a bad day? Was I simply not as good as my ego led me to believe?
There I was, …
“A man’s errors are his portals of discovery.” ~James Joyce
Everyone has a story of failure and disadvantage—those things we wish were done differently, better, or not at all. Take these stories for instance:
A speaker intending to be unifying and encouraging onstage leaves the audience disappointed and bored instead.
A lone manuscript is rejected by publishing houses over twenty-seven times, dismissed as too fanciful, fake, and “never gonna sell.”
A poor eleven-year-old boy, deprived of toys his entire childhood, trudges through sleet and snow on his newspaper route in order to help support his family.
An author struggles to …
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” ~Elbert Hubbard
Why does this affect me so? What am I feeling? Sheer Anger! Total disgust with myself. Hatred and disappointment in my life stain my thoughts. Why? Because in my ego’s opinion, I should already be who I am meant to be, and I am not there! Not by a mile.
I feel so much disgust. My fears and resentment have grown into hatred and pain. I am at a loss for who I never became. Full of shame, I see that …
“Sometimes in tragedy we find our life’s purpose. The eye sheds a tear to find its focus.” ~Robert Brault
“Lay still. We think both your arms are broken.”
I obeyed the police officer and stopped struggling to rise from the hard, cold pavement.
An ambulance soon had me in emergency, where I discovered that my problem was a lot worse than broken arms.
My right arm had to be amputated. My left arm was paralyzed. I had no more use of my arms.
I laughed my way through my long hospital stay.
No one could understand how a man who …
“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.” ~Pema Chodron
I was always disturbed and discouraged during periods in my life when I was stuck, circling in an eddy, moving—but going nowhere.
At times I was stuck in my job: I was bored and couldn’t figure out how to get excited again. Even though I was the CEO and had lots of freedom to make changes in my organization and in my personal work activities, I couldn’t see what might move me toward my potential.
At other times, I …
“Do something now that will make the person you’ll be tomorrow proud.” ~Unknown
A while back someone asked me to list my greatest accomplishments for 2012.
As I racked my brain, I thought of a few professional achievements that made me feel proud, but as for the top accomplishment, I kept coming back to the same thing: my sister’s wedding.
I wasn’t the planner, and I didn’t pay for the whole thing, but I was a big part of it.
Even though I live 3,000 miles away, I acted as her Maid of Honor, helped plan her bridal shower, planned …
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” ~Elbert Hubbard
A while back, I was invited to attend the Asian Chamber of Commerce’s 22nd Annual Awards Gala. Focused on “The Spirit of Entrepreneurship,” the Asian Chamber of Commerce celebrated individuals who exemplified great leadership skills in the Houston community.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Lynda Chin, surprised me by talking about failure. A scientist, Dr. Chin is the first to admit medical mistakes. She talked about cancer-related pharmaceuticals having a 95% failure rate, because the medication needs to be tailor-made to …
“Excellence can be obtained if you care more than others think is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical, expect more than others think is possible.” ~Unknown
After several excruciatingly painful and profoundly frightening years of undiagnosed symptoms, I was diagnosed with a “progressive and incurable” neurological disease, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy/Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (RSD/CRPS). It’s characterized by unrelenting pain that is disproportionate to the inciting event, usually an injury or trauma.
As luck would have it I was diagnosed and, shortly after, hospitalized for the first of three times, just as …
“Life is a process of becoming. A combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.” ~Anais Nin
I’ve always been an optimist, looking for the good in situations, even when they seem like the bleakest thing that could happen to me or the people around me.
But failure is a difficult one to turn on its ear.
You know when you don’t reach your goal. You know when you don’t get what you wanted.
Now I know the Rolling …
“What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful.” ~Dalai Lama
Success is something most of us want. But we want happiness, too.
I think we go about these two important things the wrong way. With some simple changes, I believe anyone can become both happy and successful.
A man, dissatisfied with his life, wants to become successful, and, therefore, happy.
So he seeks out a millionaire. The millionaire is the head CEO of a Fortune 500 Company. He has fancy cars, many possessions, and most importantly, a huge mansion.
His business is the …
“Some people think it’s holding that makes one strong—sometimes it’s letting go.” ~Unknown
A few weeks ago, I took a sip of my morning tea hoping that the day would be better than the prior ones. I had somehow tripped over the cracks of life and couldn’t seem to pull myself back. I had woken up feeling eager to start a new day, but like every other day of my life, within the first few hours, things had gotten off track.
I was stuck in a downward vortex of fear, anxiety and self-ridicule. I read my Yogi tea bag message, …
“What matters is the value we’ve created in our lives, the people we’ve made happy, and how much we’ve grown as people.” ~Daisaku Ikeda
Ahhh success! It sounds so good. We all want it, but are you brave enough to define what success means to you and go for it?
Society conditions us to define success as being the best, attaining prosperity, making a lot money, or having a fancy CEO title.
I thought I had “success” ten years ago where I spent five years working on Wall Street at Credit Suisse, an investment banking firm in New York City. …
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.” ~Henry David Thoreau
Success.
A word defined by you and me.
Do not be manipulated by the definitions applied to that word by others. Choose your own definition.
Though I believe we all have the potential to succeed in reaching our dreams, I have found that success reaches to a far greater depth in our lives.
Whenever I hug my wife of 28 years and tell her that I love her, …
“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.” ~George Sheehan
Here’s the routine: wake up, do my work, watch TV, and go to bed.
This was a regular day in my life not long ago. It was not too eventful and not overly challenging, and to be the honest, the less challenging it was, the less stress there was for me—at least that’s what I thought.
I had been working online for a few years, and my income was not up to where I wanted it to …
“Just as much as we see in others, we have in ourselves.” ~William Hazlitt
Most days I am a dedicated writer and artist, focused and working away with my oh-so-happy hands.
Most days I feel inspired to share adventures and insights from living in Paris for over two years while going to graduate school. Or referencing the intense spiritual work and personal growth I’ve experienced in recent years. Or describing how I quit the unfulfilling rat-race to focus on my passion and my life dreams.
Most days I have confidence and pride in my personal creations and feel pretty darn …
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