The Joys of Failure

Image via Wikipedia

I have noticed that a lot of my blogs are really long so I'm going to give all of you people who read this a shorter blog this time. Everyone wants to be a winner and when we are young everyone gets a "trophy" for trying, but as we get older those rewards go away and we are taught to fear failure. Being taught to fear failure and not embracing it might not be the right thing to do in the long run. Because failure is sometimes an important step in creativity I thought that it would be a good thing for me to provide insight on.
All my life i have HATED losing and the thought of failing has left me being harder on myself when I have fallen short of my goal. I have cried after losing a playoff game, I have had to bring a report card home that wasn't what it should have been and I have made LOTS of mistakes. But now im starting to realize that I am the person I am today because of the failures and mistake I have made. Failure is an important part of creativity, risk-taking, and aiming high in my goals. If I'm not failing then i might not be trying hard enough. Some of life's most important lessons are taught through failure.
I think in order to be happy we must think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right in an atmosphere of growth. People get a boost from learning new skills,  and from experiences that provide an atmosphere for growth. However, while experiences and challenge bring happiness, along the way, they also bring frustration, insecurity, anger, and fear.... happiness doesn't always make us feel happy along the way.
I think that sometimes we spend so much time thinking and focusing on our past and thinking about what would have happen if we would have not had made the mistakes we had made. But I am glad that I have made the mistakes I have made because I know that I would not be anywhere near the person I am today if it wasnt for the mistakes I have made. I think that if we set our standards high and accept failure and think of it as a stepping stone to success than we will be happier with our lives. I know that this blog is not the length of previous ones but i think i got the message across, Im going to leave you with one of my favorite quotes.
“We're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take time to enjoy where we are.”-Calvin and Hobbes

Life and Death: What is it that scares you?!

Image by Unitopia via Flickr

Most of my post have been about life and how I think most people are not living life to the fullest. But I was thinking the other day that most people instead of focusing on living life to the fullest they worry about avoid death. Whether it is the thought of non-existence or the uncertainty of what happens after we leave this earth we all have a fear of death. But I think there is a difference between thinking about it and letting it consume our thoughts. But worrying so much about it cant be healthy and hinders you from living a happy life. I think that instead we should try to live life with no regrets. Live life so that when it is over the people around us know that we lived life to the fullest and the way life should be lived.
Lots of people believe that if you want to live successful life you must have well paid job, big houses, expensive cars and wear new fashion clothes. But very few people understand that happy life is not what you have in your material world, it is how satisfied you are about what are you doing in your life. Because people are not going to remember everything you had, they are mainly going to remember the type of person you were. You can either be seen as the person who was trying to make it to the top and cut people down on the way up or, the person who was willing to do anything for other people. Which of these people is the one whose going to have more people at their funeral? Which one of these people is going to have more tears cried because they are gone. It goes back to past post about the impact you have on people. Power and wealth only bring happiness when used to serve others. The ultimate success is to live life in a way that will enable you to feel free of guilt when you reach the end of the journey. I think that the world tries to tell us the opposite and that is why we live in a broken world that is constantly looking for happiness. The truth is if we only lived life like we did when we were kids we would be a lot happier. When we were younger we didn't worry about what others thought, or if we had more money than our friends. We didn't worry about dying or happiness because we were happy. Our worst enemies were our siblings and not other countries, war was a card game and not something that effected our everyday live. There were not race issues because the only time we worried about race was when we were trying to beat our best friend around the slide and back. What happened to that way of thinking and all that happiness. We grew up. We couldn't wait to grow up because it looked awesome but now that we are older we waste our lives trying to find happiness in the wrong places. True happiness is in the hearts of children and can still be found there.

I leave you with this final thought. If you believe that you come into the world with nothing and that you'll leave with nothing, you can give away everything you own while you are alive. Give away not only your money, but also your time and energy. Using your resources to serve others is the surest way to find happiness and prosperity. The most difficult hurdle you will encounter on the road to happiness is the leap from self-centeredness-self-interest-to other-centeredness. So what is it that makes you fear death or make you feel your not living life as well as you should? Feel free to comment, I love to hear other peoples opinions.

Heroes

Hero- a person who performs extraordinary deeds for the benefit of others.(Wikipedia)
Since I was a child I have always known the technical definition of a hero as being a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life. I always was inspired by stories of knights, supermen and courageous men and women who did wonderful things and changed the world around them and thought of them as heroes. Then as i got a little older it changed to professional athletes and athletes that were from my school that were older. But recently when thinking about this and thinking that since I was older I might be a little kids hero and not ever realize it. So i decided to think about what a hero was to me. I came up with this, A hero is someone who does what he is afraid to do. A hero has a mind of such a balance that no disturbances can shake his will, but follows the music of his heart. Self-trust is what makes a person a hero, for if he does not trust in his capabilities he will not achieve what he proposes to himself. A hero is someone who will stand up and make a difference, not expecting any rewards.
I remember in 2001 right after 9/11 the firefighters and police that stepped up on that day and risked their lives were seen as heroes. The nation was inspired by these people who started September 11th just like any other day and when they were called to step up for this country they did and went to bed that night heroes. A few months later there was a little dribbers team that instead of being the Heat, Lakers, Spurs, or Knicks like the teams usually were, they decided to be NYPD, and NYFD in honor of their heroes and every ones heroes. But now that the years have pasted the only time it seems like I here the term "hero" it is talking about men and women who have died in war or doing something noble but i don't think that that is completely right.
To some degree a lot of us are a hero to someone. Whether it is a brother or sister or even a kid at school that we played basketball with, we may have a huge impact on someone and be their hero. So on thinking about this it got me thinking about how i live my life. Everyday am I living my life the way that I would want someone to see me living it? I have tried to be a positive influence to people around me and brighten their day and live life the way that I would want someone that I care about to live it. So as I end this I want to leave you with a quote that I came up with that I posted on my Facebook. "They say never judge a book by its cover, but isn't the cover trying to sell u the book? Sometimes what someone sees of you in your worst moments could be the type of person they see you as."-Cale Bloskas... So how we live our lives everyday or just one day could be the way that someone sees us and sometimes that is not the way we want to be seen.