Mbaacha

Today I learned how essential it is to embrace making sacrifices. It can be easy to think that all can be done at once. It can be easy to overload oneself up with various obligations. It can be easier to put width over depth. I’ve found through that when I overload myself with various things I find myself not doing as well as I could of. Sacrificing one thing for the other requires extra thought and also a strong stomach. It’s difficult to do so I think because one is deliberately narrowing their possibilities. For creative types especially thats difficult. A lot of times sacrificing one thing for the other leads one to take it more seriously. When things are sparse it’s easier to see what is most important. Embracing sacrifices allows one to measure their desire in real time. It can be easy to say that I have a strong desire to be happy to do well in my life but until I make the sacrifices, on the daily, to actually move towards those things then I haven’t seriously committed. The desire can be measured in the sacrifice. I think this idea is really important because seeing yourself sacrifice one thing for another makes you value what you choose more and thus take better care of it.

It dawned upon that I could get my myself to operate more on a longterm basis if I give myself a reward for holding on a bit longer than I usually do. I always knew this but I never put it into practice as much as I could have. At the end of semesters when I was at community college I would get Taco Bell because it was close by, but I would get Taco Bell or McDonalds a couple times before that so it wasn’t really that special. I put this idea into practice when I was setting goals for the month of January, if I achieved all the monthly goals I would nudge myself to go see one of my favorite rappers, throughout the month I was thinking of how dope it would be to go to the concert and be in amongst that energy that a rap show has. This gave me more strength to dig deeper and accomplish the monthly goals. Rewarding Oneself for achieving one’s goals makes me more patient anymore goal oriented because the reward for behind achieving the goals is more tangible.

Today I learned I learned the importance of considering the the alternatives. This is something I Gary Vee has been a big proponent of. The idea dawned into my head one evening as I was waiting for the bus. I was upset because of how much school is demanding from me. It feels like most of my waking time is out towards school and that makes me feel uncomfortable because I fear that I’ll find myself ending up just like everybody else. As I was waiting for the bus I saw a security guard I see frequently was near where I was standing and was talking loud enough for me to here about how had plans to pursue music over the summer and how he was hopeful that things would get better. I felt a bit better seeing him so hopeful because it reminded me that I was on the right track for me. It reminded me that without a foundation one can only hope. It reminded me to concider the alternative. Doing so shows one the options on the table. There is no option of doing nothing. One has to do something eventually. I realize through considering my alternatives that I’d rather be struggling to build my foundation than start over to pursue a dream that will probably take 10 years to see a significant return.

🏆The Golden Question. (Today I Learned #226) by Della Mbaacha

For some reason i remembered this clip of I watched many years ago of Bruce Lee explaining how one should empty their mind be like water. In this clip he explains how water when put into anything can take any shape. If it is put into a cup water assumes the neccsary shape. If it is put into a teapot water assumes the necessary shape for that teapot. I think that way of seeing oneself is interesting. The way I see myself and the attitude I hold play a big hand in my results, I found it’s that way for others too. By emptying my mind of myself and my beliefs and seeing myself as an entity capable of taking the necessary shape to fulfill the goal I know I can do a bit better.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJMwBwFj5nQ

Today I learned the importance of keeping the dream alive. I’ve seen what it looks like from my own personal experience when you quit and years later you still have the same ambitions. I’ve seen what it looks like when a man has unfulfilled ambition and maybe feels like his sacrifices for his family are not being appreciated. Jim Rohn says you loose automatically when you quit. It seems it’s harder to to get something off the ground. It’s takes more energy to get something off the ground than to keep it going. Just by pursuing a dream daily I’m keeping the dream still s possibility. Sacrifices have to be made to get ahead, but sacrificing the dream for the future for a more practical present will not lead me to the most fulfilling life.

This guy Christy Brown is the physical manifestation of “Never Stop.” I found out about Christy Brown from an assignment I had to do for a Psychology class at Montgomery County Community College. From then on I’ve been amazed by this man. He was born with Cerebral Palsy resulting in him only able to use his left foot. This troubled him heavily as one could only imagine. But this did not kill his spirit. He still found ways to express himself by becoming a writer. This far from reading his autobiography I’ve learned the importance of having a support system. This man’s mother, Bridget Brown, is undoubtably a world class mother. She was more than a mother. This man family supported him and loved him and I believe that made a big difference in Browns life. I’ve also learned the built in need humans have to channel their energy towards something. Brown recounts how he felt like a prisoner in his own body, it was writing that gave him the opportunity to express himself full heartedly. Lastly I’ve also learn to cherish my independence! Just being a able to get up and go where I want is a gift. It is a gift that unfortunately some are not granted. Brown was bound to his wheel chair and had to be fed and washed. Be able bodied permits independence and that is a blessing.

👕Supreme. (Today I Learned #222) by Della Mbaacha

😇Be A Positive Vibe Generator. (Today I Learned #221) by Della Mbaacha

Today I learned what a difference it makes to write down what I’m thankful for. For a couple days I’ve been testing this idea out. I’ve always heard of gratitude journals and even tried it out a couple years ago. With my initial experience I would type out what I was grateful for on my phone. I would do this sporadically. Almost with a half hearted effort. I stopped doing it because I didn’t feel much change. But with Thanksgiving approaching I decided to give it another shot. Instead of typing it out this time I would just write it all down on a scrap of paper. This made all the difference. By writing down just three things I’m thankful for I found myself encoding those moments of fortune more into memory. By doing so more happiness and more gratitude was able to be derived from them. I also noticed how I was much more inclined to get more out of experiences. Upon realizing how so many things in life are just happenstance and that a lot of those things occur in my favor I’m able to push myself further to fully maximize on opportunities I see available. My overall mood is even better. If things don’t occur in the way I plan and I find myself getting into a negative attitude I easily retrieve the most recent things that I’m grateful for that and I’m able to avert practicing a negative attitude. There is something about writing out an idea by hand that kickstarts your brainpower. It’s even interesting to find something I wrote down that I was thankful about and then ponder on it. I’ve found that those who are grateful for what they have figure out a way to optimize and increase. I’ve also found that those who are ungrateful for what they posess, have their treasures of life slowly stripped away from them. It is very important to me grow a sense of gratitude as I climb the mountains of life. I’ve been guilty of taking things for granted. Up until recently I took for granted the strength I cultivated for standing up for myself. Now standing up for myself is almost instinctual but it use to be something I struggled with, for the majority of my life. It was realizing that I had not understood the value of this internal triumph is what led me to pick up the habit of writing down three things in grateful for. The more successful anyone gets the easier it is for them to take things for granted to become unmoved. I think that is the beginning of poor performance. It was when I realized my value as a human being is when I really began pulling myself together. Practicing gratitude is a necessity.