In light of my recent post, I will add this. Although, objectively, one may not seem important, keep this in mind:

A smart man once said, "Live everyday as if it is your last and eventually you will be right".

Life is short. One of the most powerful intellectual tools is to know that you will absolutely die. You have no option. It is the only destination that we all share. Death will come with certainly and will seem to have arrived much more quickly than you can imagine now. I have had plenty of discomfort in realizing this fact, but it has also helped me greatly. Steve Jobs spoke about this in a speech of his and I couldn't agree more. Realizing that you are going to die certainly and relatively soon will help you greatly in life. Because, once you realize this almost everything -- all external expectations, pride, and fear of failure and embarrassment disappear in the face of death leaving only what is important.

Steve Jobs says, "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose. You are already naked, there is no reason not to follow your heart."

He goes on to say, "No one has ever escaped death and that is as it should be. Because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Someday very soon you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your inner voice. Most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you want to become. Everything else is secondary."

To the journey,
Soccer-tease

You Are Not That Important

From the time we were born, we have been told that we are special. We have been told we can be whatever we want. The truth is that there are 6.7 billion people in this world. In 1988, when I was born, there were 5.1 billion people in the world. A 20 percent increase in the world population since I was born. Now, I've never seen 7 billion of anything so it is hard to conceive that many unique individuals in existence. People live and people pass away. Most people won't even know when you pass away.

Where am I going with this? Well, in today's society we are obsessed with things that make us feel important. For instance, many people are now using twitter, but why? Perhaps for a good laugh. Maybe to keep up with old friends. I would like to propose that the fascination with twitter and other social media sites is it forces others to take notice of your thoughts and daily activities. Status updates, tweets, and wall posts are just a way of getting your opinion or thoughts out to your social circle. You would never hear anyone say directly to you half of the things they tweet or put on their status. In all honesty, no one gives a damn if you "raged last night" or if you are studying or your opinion on anything. It's those that are close to you that really care.

This seems pretty drab, but my point is coming around. In 1776, there were about 2.5 million Americans and 800 million in the world. You have less of an opportunity to matter to society now than ever before. The odds are, you will never be important. Here is the catch. No one's opinion alone is important. After all, opinions have no clout unless others agree and exchange the information. It is all about the small interactions you have everyday with the people that are important in your life. This chain of interactions is what causes the real movements in the world. There must always be a leader, someone that seems to be the important one. Truly, it is everyone of us in this huge network of nobodies. Throw your conceit out the window and make the changes you seek through the people you meet everyday. You don't have to be a Martin Luther King Jr. or an Albert Einstein to take part in changing the world.

And when you look back on life, like looking back after you climbed a mountain. You will remember each step you took along the way, not the fact that you actually made it to the top.

Soccer-tease

Real recognize Real

"The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created--created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating.”- John Schaar

Some people just get it.

There is such a bigger picture out there.... if you can take a step back you can really appreciate how beautiful and great it is. So great and so vivid in fact, that you don't want to waste any time with people who can't see what you see; or you want to use all your time helping them catch up.

Consciousness or the way we think flows down a one way river. It can only grow. Its like learning to read. As a child before you could read you would see words and they would be merely symbols to you, but now when we look at words we can't help but perceive and read them, and more so understand them. When a person reaches a new level of awareness you can feel it as divinely as a cold swig of water feels running all the way down your esophagus after exercise on a hot summer day. You look at the trees differently, a sunset maybe....as though somehow you never noticed quite how beautiful it actually is, and continues to be every single day. You say yes more....because the more you do, the more you learn. We are always learning. You have more patience because you realize nothing is perfect. You learn that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing right. You dream to pretend that we can actually even imagine a place where we are whole and care free and our thoughts align with our actions. You listen to others more because you realize they are the same as you....

Lost

I don't really have the answers. I just know what I know. The best part of all of this, is that the bigger your conscious gets, the more aware you become. In return, the less you realize we actually know, and this hunger grows even more. That's life...there's always a kicker. Always a balance. Every action, a reaction. Cause & effect. Ying fuckin' Yang.

This hunger, these realizations will take you somewhere. I promise you that. Not even just physically. I've come to realize that the places it takes you are very rarely ever about the destination, but almost always about the journey, the ride.

I can tell you that we are young enough and probably stupid enough to put in a passionate effort into anything we do. I know that if we don't try, than we will never be satisfied. So keep looking, keep searching, you may not find what you are looking for, but you might find something else.

I heard the word "awesome" more than I usually do today. The expression is thrown around quite casually in our daily dialogue, just like the words "I love you" these days; losing their power with each empty breath. The actual word 'awesome' means so much more though. Defined as: to inspire awe, so much so, that it can cause fear, or apprehension. When something is awesome it is so powerful and so extraordinary that it causes us to be uneasy and apprehensive.

I think this feeling we have is awesome.

Its entirely ambiguous; For I am both: scared at how real this life is, and I am also as deeply in reverie at its potential.

Let's at least give the crowd what they paid for eh?

Dorian

Is Bono really human?

Whatever poisons in this bottle will leave me broken, sore, and stiff. But, its the genie at the bottom who I'm sucking at -- he owes me one last wish.

The peak of the mountain always seems better before you reach it. I have realized, quite recently, that no matter how many achievements one may have under his/her belt, the fact is happiness comes from deep down inside. Pulling oneself closer to the person that you wish to be brings happiness. The vehicle for this is not always big achievements. In fact, it's almost always the smallest details in life. Why am I in pursuit of happiness using the wrong vehicle? I must redefine success. One of the hardest things to do is understand yourself and what makes you feel happy or complete. It seems a lot easier to inundate ourselves with material possessions until those possessions grow old and then aspire for more possessions. I, personally, would rather figure out the real secret to satisfaction and fulfillment. I guess where I'm going with this random stream of consciousness is: I want to rid myself of any vices I may have (I'm not sure this goal is attainable, as I have a beer in hand and am sharply craving a cigarette) and seek a pure existence. So, cheers to the nearly impossible; true happiness.

IM BACK,
Soccer-Tease

ARMED TO THE TEETH

The human body is simple. Our bodies adapt quickly to new environments and stressors. If something is too heavy you get stronger. But what if something is emotionally too heavy. How does one strengthen their mind? For most death is one of the most traumatic experiences of their lives. Death can cause extreme shifts in personal perspective. Although the angst of death can be overcome. A soldier can condition oneself into justifying the act. Possibly so many repetitions of the action take away from the severity. How does one get physically stronger? So many repetitions of heavy weight makes lifting that weight easier. But does one need to feel the sorrow of death over and over again in order for the blow to be lessened. There are certain deaths that no one can truly recover from. A soldier can watch comrade after comrade fall on the battlefield, but still continue with the mission. But if that person was say a sibling or a parent, the soldier would be an emotional wreck. It could be years or longer before they ever recover. Not all soldiers come out unscathed from the horror that is war. Many suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome. Maybe it just the moment that allows them to overcome death. Motivated by fear and a desire to live these soldiers can overcome death momentarily to survive. So the question still remains, How does one strengthen their mind? With Facts and Figures? With Experiences? Our minds are strengthened by living. One will only truly be able accept the harsh reality that is death when he comes a knockin’ at our own doors. So until that day LIVE.

LUCID LIVING

different than we've ever been

Look back one year from today. Forget the fact that you probably haven't the slightest inkling of what actually occurred and try to focus more along the lines of what you thought you knew.

Worlds apart.

How is this so?

How can we feel the way we feel right now and know it will change?

How come in one year from now, we will look back on this day in awe of how little we knew and how far we have come?

I don't have the answer. I just know that it's happening.

From around the age of seven to twelve years old, our minds are more malleable than play-dough. In this precious time frame we can learn skills at an accelerated pace, and are more likely to retain and produce them more efficiently than in any other window of our lives.

Too bad we never learned how to cope with time.

It's crazy to think how different things would have been if we would get to do life over just once. I wish that I knew what I knew now.... or maybe I don't. Things would have been different, maybe too different. I might of been more careful, when I needed to learn. I might of been more distant, when I needed to feel. I might of been more restrained, when I needed to let go. All that I am is because of the decisions I made, at the time I made them, and we need to find peace in that or we cannot progress.

We are different than we've ever been. We know this. Young, and dumb enough to put our whole heart into something, and mature enough to know the difference.

Our whole childhood we are in a rush to grow up and be taken seriously, and the rest of our lives we try to bring back that feeling when we had nothing to worry about.

Well we've arrived.

There might not be fireworks and a welcome party but that doesn't mean anythings changed. Our whole life we have been preparing ourselves for the next step that we have been too distracted to enjoy the one we are on. Elementary preparing you for middle, middle for high, high school for college, college for the work force. Stop preparing.

This is your life, and the way you feel right now is how you are going to remember it.

Gray