“To spend your life living in fear, never exploring your dreams, is cruel. To work hard for money, thinking that it will buy you things that will make you happy is also cruel. To wake up in the middle of the night terrified about paying bills is a horrible way to live. To live a life dictated by the size of a paycheck is not really living a life. Thinking that a job makes you secure is lying to yourself. That’s cruel, and that’s the trap I want you to avoid. I’ve seen how money runs people’s lives. Don’t let that happen to you. Please don’t let money run your life.” — Rich Dad Poor Dad
(via kushandwizdom)
Our elders have told us to go to school and get a college education so we don’t end up like our high school dropout cousin ray-ray. That has been the motivation for a lot of people to get a degree, because we don’t wanna end up as the high school dropout/no job/minimum wage job having ray-rays in our families and environment. But what if ray-ray gets his shit together and goes to a vocational school while you go to college, even then folks will think going to college is better because of the aura it creates and the ego boost of saying “I’m in college/a college student” as opposed to “I’m in vocational school”. Unfortunately there are some pompous folks who would say to go to a vocational school, which is usually one to two years, means you don’t have the intellectual capacity to handle a four yr program. Hell, even within the college community, community college is looked down upon by others because it’s a two year, mostly cheaper, program.
But how foolish to assume a four yr degree gives you a competitive advantage over someone who learned a trade. On the contrary, being specific with knowledge or skill leads to more opportunity for success. Take, for example, two people who want to become engineer mechanics (or choose any profession) one goes to college for it the other goes to trade school. While the one in college is doing all the pointless prerequisite courses (such as biology, history, music) before getting to his major of engineering, the other who went to trade school went directly into courses that specifically deal with his trade ( im guessing for the example of engineer mechanic subjects such as math and physics apply). The college kid will have a wealth of generalized knowledge which I guarantee he won’t remember 95.2% of the time, whereas the other kid won’t have a choice but to remember those courses cause they are so closely linked to each other in a specialized area. Most college majors don’t get started until you reach your junior year, maybe end of sophomore year, so that’s about two years of doing prerequisites before starting your major. While time was wasted doing prerequisites, the trade school kid is done and ready for the work force and by the time college kid graduates, trade school kid has two years of specialized work experience under his belt. Who do you think an employer is most likely to hire? The college kid with lil to no experience but academic knowledge or the trade school get with specific knowledge and two yrs experience?
Some may argue that a college degree/experience gives you diverse career opportunities and not just specific area i.e an IT graduate could have a business career cause of possible business courses he took. Not true. Even if that was the case, specialized business knowledge will be needed to have a business career. Just because I took a history prerequisite means I could be a historian? One biology class now makes me biologist? Whatever career you want, you must have specialized knowledge for it. Trade school is the one physical place we can point to acquire the specialized knowledge/skill we seek but that’s not the end all be all.
What if a person cannot afford to go to college or trade school, how can they acquire specialized knowledge or skills? Simple. Self education. The library is free, to the best of my knowledge library cards are free. Wanna be a lawyer? Read law books. Want a career in marketing? Read marketing books. Internships/apprenticeships are great ways to learn skills. Do it for free. The knowledge you’ll get will be more valuable than a paycheck.
Written by a grad school student.
“The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch” — Jim Rohn
God said “plant the seed, I’ll make the tree”.
I heard someone say that once and it blew my mind. Such a simple phrase but it powerfully impacted me. You may see it different but I interpreted it as God saying “do what you can, and TRUST me to handle the rest”. Do what you can to the very best of your ability, don’t short change yourself, and He’ll handle the rest. Whatever circumstance you find yourself in, or whatever goal you try to pursue, do what you can and leave the rest to Him. WOW! Looking back at past endeavors, past and current struggles, past accomplishments, I really did/do the best I could/can but I also realized something…….what I could do, no matter how tough it may have been, was actually the easy part. The “rest” I couldn’t do was always the difficult part, and He handled it, and is currently handling it. Even when I did the best i could and that situation didn’t work out, something better took it’s place. Imagine if God had said “I’ll plant the seed, you make the tree”, I would have been lost, not knowing how or where to start. I think the key to this is to TRUST Him to grow tree.
Just me and my thoughts tho.
“Failure is a few errors in judgement repeated everyday. Success is a few simple disciplines practiced everyday” — Jim Rohn
It is nothing of the sort!!! Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action, and directed to a definite end. What good is knowledge to acquire it then do nothing? That alone is not power. Knowledge PLUS action to achieve the results you want IS power.
Fire. Let’s just say you are a 25 yr old person who doesn’t know that fire burns ( hypothetically speaking). You put your hand through fire, it burns and gives you that quick reflex action to pull your hand back. Now you know. This is where common sense SHOULD kick in and say “umm don’t do that again, that hurts”. But what if you do it again……and again…….and again, KNOWING that it burns (insert definition of insanity here), you deserve it right? How would you look if after fire burns you 3, 4, 5 times you get mad at fire for burning you? Does that make sense? When will you hold yourself accountable and recognize your faults (cause it is your fault you keep putting your hand through fire, no body is forcing you) and walk away from the fire?
I’ve realized there are two types of ignorance. There’s one where you honestly don’t know about an issue (in this case we are all ignorant, cause everybody doesn’t know everything), get enlightened and get that “ah ha!” moment, that “you’ve seen the light” moment and you take heed to that enlightenment. Then there’s the other. This second ignorance doesn’t know about an issue, gets enlightened but STILL revert to its old ways. That’s the ignorance I loathe with a passion. I’ve also realized that people who suffer from the latter ignorance always end up crying and wanting the world to come to their pity party. Not this guy. In case you haven’t noticed, i’m all about taking responsibility and holding people accountable. So fire burns you the first time (the enlightenment) and you get that ah ha moment and don’t do it again. But you do it for a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and even 6th time and wanna cry about it? wanna blame fire for burning you? want me to feel sorry for you? NO! We are all grown folks here, take responsibility! Ain’t got time to babysit another.
There is a relation between this and the issue of change. You truly can’t change someone, it’s just impossible. You can preach change, demonstrate change, live change, exemplify change however you can but if that person you want to change doesn’t look themselves in the mirror and promise themselves to change, all that is pointless. Change comes from within and from past experiences, it starts off VERY uncomfortable cause you’re forcing yourself to get out of your comfort zone. But some people’s comfort zones are detrimental to themselves. Fire can burn you, I can tell you fire burns, I can even show you burn marks on my body but until you look yourself in the mirror and say I don’t wanna put my hand through fire again, all that is pointless.
Here’s an uncomfortable example. Love and Hip Hop ATL. We all see the drama between Stevie J, Mimi and Joseline and I see alot of women on twitter bashing Stevie J and I jokingly respond “Stevie J for president!!” Ok let’s be real, Stevie J is an asshole………and i’m not mad at him. He’s an asshole doing asshole things. In a way he’s keeping it real….a real asshole. It may not be the real you’re looking for (treating a woman as a queen and all that good stuff is real to some other dudes and being an asshole is waaaaay out of their character) but it’s still real. So why the hate towards Stevie J? He’s the fire that burns. You mad at fire for burning you? THAT’S WHAT IT’S SUPPOSED TO DO IF YOU PUT YOUR HAND THROUGH IT! He’s an asshole, that’s what assholes do, and you mad at him for being an asshole? Joseline, but more so Mimi, have had MULTIPLE experiences of him being an asshole and you mad at him for being one? Have a plethora of seats and stop playing victim. Hold yourself accountable. I know it sucks. I know, him treating you like shit over and over again is your comfort zone. But it must be done. Ever heard of that saying “if you can’t change a situation change yourself”? Well, you can’t change fire from burning, can’t change an asshole from being one, but want you CAN do is develop the self esteem, self control (yea yea yea, I know it’s hard, cry me a river) and change yourself. Walk away.
Picture this. Seeds being planted in fertile soil. You water it, the sun and air do their part to help it grow. But that plant or tree it eventually grew up to be wouldn’t have been in existence if YOU didn’t plant it. Whatever seed you plant in that fertile ground will grow, apple seed, mango seed, sunflower seeds, etc.
Your mind is the fertile soil. Your thoughts are the seeds to plant in that soil. Watering it in this sense is the repetition and invitation of such thoughts. Whatever thoughts you plant in that fertile soil will grow and seep into your unconscious self. The unconscious mind cannot differentiate positive from negative thoughts, only the conscious mind can. Think of the conscious mind as the gatekeeper to the unconscious mind. It can filter whatever comes through its way, you want positive thoughts to enter so be it, you want negative thoughts to enter so be it also. Since we are in control of our conscious mind, this gatekeeper, we have the power to let only positive thoughts enter. Surrounding ourselves with positive people, words, environments, quotes etc and evicting any slight sign of negativity that tries to creep in. The unconscious mind is very powerful. Look at yourselves. That thing you keep doing over and over again (whether positive or negative) is most likely being controlled by your unconscious mind. Whether it’s consistently working out, consistently eating bad foods, consistently helping others, consistently complaining, consistently seeking the betterment of yourselves, consistently going back to that bad relationship etc.
YOU can put yourself on the right path. YOU can choose to give and receive positive energy. YOU can start living the life you want. If negativity has dominated your life this won’t be an easy task to change all of a sudden but it can be done, it just takes a conscious effort. YOU are in control.
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the RENEWING of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”(Romans 12:2 KJV)
Having options can make you lazy. You know, if plan A doesn’t work, I still have B, C and D. Famous accomplishments didn’t have a plan B to fall on. Thomas Edison wanted to discover electricity and nothing else. The Wright brothers wanted to fly and nothing else. When you start stressing to yourself that plan A has to work, no room for failure, you tap into some unknown motivation source from within and get it done. Even if you do have opportunities to do stuff over again, approaching it like it’s your first and last chance will make you work harder.
Alexander The Great was facing an enemy whose army was larger than his and had more weapons. He set sail with his army to the enemy’s territory and once they reached the shore he ordered his men to burn the boats. In his war speech before the battle he told his men “see those burning boats? That means NO RETREAT! The only path home is THROUGH this enemy and its unknown force.” His army went into to battle and defeated the enemy because they had a BURNING DESIRE to win……to go back home to their families.
There was no plan B with Alexander. Either go home by defeating this enemy or die trying, no retreat, no surrender, no “well, if this doesn’t work we can do something else”. If only we all had a burning desire.