The vegetable seller

He brings fresh vegetables every morning from his village and sells it to people running their early morning errands with a big smile on his face.

So many people pass him on the streets and think of him as the poor vegetable seller, some even feel sorry for him, but he is content and proud of his life.

He is my mentor, someone I look up to. He has found what he loves to do, has surrounded his lifestyle around it, is feeding himself and his family with it, and is making others happy and healthy. Now I can see the happiness behind his smile.

Run

Treat each day as a new beginning
Treat each heartbeat as it is your last
Treat every downfall as an opportunity

I fell down, I'm back up
And I am ready to run again
Bring it on

Don't hold on
Run freely
Life is waiting
The journey is going to be thrilling

Reality

Is this really happening?
Yes it is, she said.
Why? he cried.
For reasons we don't know.
Who knows? he questioned.
Someone we can always trust.

Let it sink in and embrace the pain.
Reality is in front of you, there is no use in questioning it.

Trust

Why are you in tears? 

It will be alright. 

Don't cry dear. 

Have faith and trust.

Keep moving forward.

Time

Does it drive you crazy when you hear a clock tick? If time is a made up concept by humans as a means to effectively interact with each other. A common unit of measurement that everyone understands and that everyone gets a limited amount of. Some say that time is money. Some say that pleasure derived from materialistic things leads to unhappiness. But time is a material quantity too, no different than money. Everyone would like more of it, and it can be exchanged with other materialistic things. For instance, I can add a few hours to my day by paying someone to do my chores. In essence, I am buying time. I am exchanging one materialistic quantity for another.

So that being said, is procrastination no different than poor management of finances. Waiting for better times in the future, no different than wanting to be rich. Thinking about the past no different than buying something with a no-returns policy.

A common advice given for spiritual growth is to live in the present. Does that work for money and other materialistic things? If I only think about how much money I have at this moment and not worry about how much money I have in the past and how much money I will have in the future, would that bring peace into my life? My answer would be yes. I think it is easy to see that the live in the present rule would work for all materialistic things, including time.

Believe

The first person you need to convince to believe in yourself and your dreams is you. If you don't live and breathe your values and your vision, then people will sway you, difficulties will diverge you and problems will overwhelm you. You are working towards your goals for a reason, a reason that you understand more than anyone else in this world and at the moment when you set these goals for yourself, there was no room for compromise.

Yes, some days are brighter than others, and you may feel like you have finally made it, but the truth is you will never make it. Life is too short to make it to where you want to be if you keep thinking and working the way you do. Each day you wake up with a new beginning, a chance to make things right, a chance to move a step closer to where you want to be. If your vision of where you want to be is not clear in your mind, then it is just a matter of time before someone starts making decisions for you. You are giving your life away to fulfill someone else's dreams.

Believe in yourself and your dreams with the utmost confidence. There will always be someone better than you, but only you have the power to make your dreams come true and you are the best person to know what you need to do to get there. I hope we make this a life worth living, a story worth telling. 

Life is fragile

We read the news everyday about unfortunate incidents happening all over the world, they disturb us, but we move on feeling comfortable in the fact that we are safe and our loved ones are safe. As we move on taking things for granted it is a matter of time before such a situation attacks our lives and it is a whole different experience. This is when we start to feel helpless while the rest of the world just moves on. Each moment of the present should be cherished, life is fragile, live it without regrets. 

Observe the ordinary and create the extraordinary

Around 70% of the population is living 'average' lives, where they seem to just do enough to satisfy their needs and a little bit more. If you want to live a life where you don't get stuck in this viscous cycle of mediocrity, then observe what these 70% do and do things differently from them. If they brush their teeth with their right hands, try your left hand. If they drive a car, try a bike. If they buy their coffee at Starbucks, try Second cup. If they spend an hour in the gym everyday, try yoga at 6am for 30 minutes. Observe a life that is different from the mass population by making these small efforts of uniqueness which slowly lead you to form your own lifestyle that is different from what everyone is doing. If you don't make efforts to live your life the way you dream, somebody else will force you to live your life in a way that makes their dreams come true.

Observing niceness

When someone is being nice to you, they MIGHT have a deeper intent. Instead of feeling like you owe something to them because of their niceness towards you, you should observe their real intent. Usually this becomes clearer with time, if they seem to start expecting something back from you in return for their niceness, it is a sign to step away or proceed with caution. 

Sacrifice

Your loved ones made sacrifices for you, most of which you are unaware of, for you to be standing where you are today. Before turning towards self pity to try and convince yourself how much your life sucks, use that time to give back love and affection and show them that you really care, because now is the time when they need you the most.

Change

That which you don't have control over
Is not for you to change
'Cos in that effort, you lose things that
You do have control over

I've talked about change before, but I've never expressed my liking for it. I do like change and sometimes I even force it by doing small things like moving around the furniture in my room. Change can be unfavorable sometimes, and looking back at it is always easier than going through it. Many things that happen to you are not under your control, which is why you need to learn to sit in the back seat sometimes and enjoy the ride. Stick your head out of the window, feel the cold air that rushes past you, close your eyes, breathe deeply and you will soon start to realize that you are headed towards something better.

Time Is Running Out

Following society's standards, does that make you too boring as an individual? Pushing the limits, rebellion, does that make you different, unique? How much do you fight for what you want, what weight do you give to your happiness over someone elses?

Every now and then I feel like I did everything too right. That does not mean that I am living in regret. I wouldn't change the past; it made me who I am today and I love who I am today. I feel so in control of myself, I feel powerful, I feel confident and I feel incredibly grateful for who I am. Through the test of time, I have learned to stand up for myself instead of trying to live my life to please others. 

The world doesn't run with your rules. It has its own rules and YOU have to follow them, not the other way around. You must be thinking.. no way! I pave my own path to the future. If you are the only one paving this path, how do you know its straight? Are you looking to the person on your right and paving your path parallel to his/hers?

You can't pave a straight path to the future, and you can't make it shorter or longer. But what you can do is to build some mountains every now and then so that you can see the world around you from a higher perspective. But remember, every hill you climb requires more effort than the people around you who are following a straight path. And also remember that once you are on top of the hill, falling down is almost inevitable. So enjoy the ride, it will be over before you know it.

Success

Success. A word full of awe. Everyone wants a piece of it.

 

Success is relative. Relative in the sense that its definition keeps getting bigger as we achieve it, and also relative in the sense that it means different things to people.

 

What if our brains were pre-wired to a certain definition of success. What if the purpose of our existence was merely to achieve a certain goal that we were set out to do since birth. What if we knew that we would live as long as we do not achieve that goal. Would people work towards it more diligently?

 

No one really has the answer to what a successful life is. Maybe it is because no one has the authority to judge what success means to other people. There is one thing that defines the rewarding feeling of success and it is the same for all of us; the more struggles we go through before achieving our goal, the more deserving we feel of the reward once that goal is achieved.