Posted by Ryan
November 15, 2007
Believe in the victory before you even begin fighting. The opposite of this is called “WHY TRY Fatalism,” meaning why on earth would you try if you’re just going to fail? The problem with believing you’ll fail is that you’ll probably fail. Sneaky little bugger that whole brain power thing is.
I observe that there are far too many times, where far too many people who, knowing that they alone cannot do all that needs to be done, accept defeat before they even begin to fight, and instead of doing what they can…do nothing. The cumulative effective of these people with their premature sense of fatalism is a society in an unnecessary and accelerated state of decline and disrepair.
- Kirk Weisler
Reading that reminded me of this:
Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.
- James Allen, As A Man Thinketh
Believe before you act and continue believing while you act. The result will be unbelievable. ha!
Posted by Ryan
November 2, 2007
I have often felt as though I were on a teeter totter of which I had no control. A drawn representation of such a feeling might look like something like this:
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Posted by Ryan
June 22, 2007
You’ve probably noticed that sometimes, it’s really hard to want to work. You may really struggle with wanting to work on Fridays and Mondays. But then once you start to work you find that work really is, in fact, as painful as you thought it was going to be so you go to the water cooler to drink more water (or just to stand around). Because, if you drink lots of water you’ll eventually have another excuse to postpone working! Whoo hoo!
Why is it hard to start working? Actually, it’s hard to start just about anything.
For example, it’s really hard to start an automobile these days with a hand crank.
Stopping things, on the other hand, is often easier. But it depends on what you’re stopping. I’m told that it’s really easy to stop mowing the lawn to go watch some sports game. Stopping a bad habit though, is hard.
So why are some things hard, and others really easy?
Because continuing what we start is what makes it easy or hard. It’s really easy to stop mowing the lawn to go watch a game because watching the game is easy. If watching the game was hard, we’d keep mowing the lawn.
I wasn’t kidding at all when I said “once you start to work you find that work really is, in fact, as painful as you thought it was going to be.” It’s funny, yes, but it’s funny because it’s true.
It’s easier to change when you have a realistic view of what it actually means to do it; which is to understand that it’s going to be hard and that you’re in it for the long run.
The tasks themselves never become easier, it’s only our ability to perform the tasks that gets better. That sounds like a quote I’ve heard.
So let’s say, for fun, that you’re the Colorado River (see? you can tell this is going to be fun already!). The above picture isn’t of the Colorado River, but it is a river! Anyway, let’s pretend you’re the Colorado River before the Grand Canyon existed. You are looking ahead at your life, not wanting to try to carve out the Grand Canyon because, really, that would be really hard. But, you eventually start and your suspicions are confirmed. It is really hard, but you keep at it. You keep at it for about 6 million years. Is it still hard to carve out the Grand Canyon? Yes. Has your ability to complete the task improved? Yep, you really have no other choice at this point.
So understand that, no matter who you are or where you live, life is going to be hard. Don’t let that hold you back. Who knows, maybe 6 million years from now you’ll be famous too!
Oh one other thing, rivers tend to take the path of least resistance, which means they go off cliffs. And for some reason they are okay with that. But cliffs are not okay for people. Unless of, course, you’re attached to something like this.
