Be Awesome

There is no need to have a plan B because it distracts from plan A. – Will Smith

Two days ago, I decided that my life is fantastic.

And it has been.  For the past two days.  And it will continue to be, until I decide that it is not.

I decided that all the things that were making me unhappy…well, shouldn’t make me unhappy.  Because I am too awesome for that.  And the only reason that my life was not fantastic before two days ago is because I got too distracted and forgot that it was.

If you are at a loss for goals for the new year, consider these.  I promise these will change your life.

1.  In the long run, not everything matters as much as they initially seem. Live more in the moment.  Be spontaneous.  Take risks.  Try new things.  Just do it.

2.  If you’re not having fun, don’t do it. Or make it fun.  It’s all perspective, anyway.   I always have fun, whether it’s hanging out downtown or putting together portfolios.

3.  Be confident.  You are awesome, attractive, unique, and successful.  You only fail because you set yourself up to do so.  Believe it.  Do it.

Lastly, some things are worth waiting for, but many things are not.  Keep things in perspective.  If you decide something is worth waiting for, still keep those three things above in mind.

And now, some relevant pictures.

Life’s Challenges

Life’s challenges usually make life fun and worth living. Life would be unexciting if everything came easy.

I especially like challenges. I remember one time I said that I’m “ready to get hurt again,” referring to that I’m ready to move on from the past and meet new girls who will end up making me unhappy since that is usually what happens. But, you get hurt, you move on, you learn a few things, and it gets better. And when something finally works, it is that much better because of how hard you worked for it.

That is why I enjoy running, I suppose. It’s so much work, and sometimes there are disappointments, but you also see results. Seeing the fruition of all that hard work is rewarding.

Challenges sometimes come in the form of others not believing in you. Those are quite fun. The next time someone tells you, or you think someone would tell you, that what you want to do is crazy and that you’d probably fail, consider taking that challenge; if not to spite the people, but just to better yourself, even if you end up failing.

Time

Time is a difficult concept to comprehend.  It may seem like one of the more obvious concepts: there are 24 hours in a day, so let me organize my day so that I can fit in everything that I want to do in the time given.  However, that has become such a non-conscious process that it causes problems for some people.

Generally, we have lists of priorities in our heads.  Those lists generally fall under the categories of “life essentials,” “very important,” or “beneficial.”  Everything else falls under “do if I have free time.”

“Life essentials” include eating, putting on clothes, hygienic stuff, and sleep; basically, those things on the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid.  Most things fall under “very important” : going to school, going to work, doing homework, cleaning, practicing, etc.  “Beneficial” are things that, despite having a very busy day already, they provide enough  benefits to you that you would take time away from the other more important things to do them.  These things might be talking to/hanging out with friends, Facebook/Stumbleupon/the internet, exercise, snacking, etc.  The point is that there are only a few things that are <b>essential</b> to everyday life; there are many, many things that we do because they are of high importance and would probably be not in our best favor to ignore them; and there are many things that we can do  that might or might not contribute to our productivity, but we might not do much of them because of time constraints.

The problem occurs because some people have trouble prioritizing.  The truth is that no matter what happens, all 24 hours of your day will be spent doing something.  Usually, things that are necessary will get done without second thought.  When people have many, many things to do that are of high importance, they get stressed out and complain about not having enough time.  However, things that are of high importance will get done — they are usually our work or deadlines that we must meet.  Whether or not those things are actually of high importance or not is the problem.  Many times, we are doing stuff that does not actually matter to us but takes up time.

You will never have enough time.  If there is something you want to do,  you have to make time for it.  It will be difficult to do until you realize that.  After that, you will very easily see that the concept of, “I don’t have enough time,” is subjective.

A good way to tell how important something is to you (or someone else) is to see how much time you/they are willing to make for that.  Someone might say that something is of high important to them, but if they are unwilling to make time for it in their busy schedule, then they probably only feel as though that thing would only be beneficial but could be done without.  Hopefully, if it is not even beneficial, they would stop holding on to it.  If they are willing to make time for it, you can probably tell that 1) it is probably of high importance to them and, from how much time they make for it, 2) how high of importance it is to them.

The example I always give is when we were told to two runs on a particular Monday: a 14 mile run, then an 8 mile run later in the day.  Mondays were usually filled with classes for me, so I responded with, “I don’t have time for that,” to which I got back a negative response.  When I ended up doing was taking a nap and running late Friday night/Monday morning (I got back at 1 am), then running my 8 miles later in the day.  It was after that day that and talking to someone else that I realized, “You just have to make time for it.”   (Whatever ‘it’ may be).

The ability to choose what is important to you is useful.  Many people just go along with their lives unaware of how they are prioritizing their days.  They lie to themselves, telling themselves that they <b>should</b> be doing this or that; all the while, other things that are more important and probably more beneficial are being ignored and put aside so that there would be time.

Think about everything you do.  Think about everything you do not do.  When you are taking a break from working, what are you doing?  Maybe there is something more beneficial that could be done during that time.  There might even be something of higher importance that could be done during that time.

(Minor digression) Someone once said, “Think about what you are doing when you are procrastinating.  Find a way to make a living off of that.”