I know Everything....and I am

Last week, I flew to Phoenix, Arizona to meet with a coaching-mastermind group I belong to. We’re a bunch of mission-driven people from all over the world, passionately trying to make a positive impact on the world.

We all paid over $12K dollars to be part of this mastermind group. Some of the members flew all the way from countries like Japan, Germany, Australia and Zimbabwe to attend. None of us needed to be there; we attended voluntarily.

Everyone was excited to be there. Everyone stopped their busy business schedules, family life and entertainment… all to be there.

Why?

There was no big show to make the event more attractive. Why pay so much money to be there? Why pay airplane tickets and fly dozens of hours away from home?

Because of one reason: we’re all hungry to learn.

We’re all there to grow, to learn and to help one another. There’s no room for arrogant people in this room. We’re there to grow, no matter how much success some people have.

So what’s the mindset? Humility.

Humility is the key to keep growing. Knowing that you’re NOT superman, not even that you’re expected to be superman or act like superman, will lead to happiness.

Arrogance hinders success. Arrogant people think they know it all and think they deserve success. These people end up frustrated in life.

Stay humble and never stop learning. This leads to happiness and success.

   -Hector Quintanilla

Which Major Should I Choose? Computer Science or Computer Engineering or other?

The one you enjoy more.

Companies don’t hire degrees; they hire people. They don’t look for specific degrees; they look for specific skills and interests.

If you major in something you actually like, you are more likely to invest the effort to master the material, which means you will develop the skills that the major teaches better. And as a bonus, you’ll develop skills that you actually enjoy using, which means you’re better prepared for jobs that you actually like!

(There’s an inexhaustible market for both computer scientists and computer engineers. There isn’t a wrong choice; at most, there is a wrong choice for you.)

 -Jeff Erickson

Every minute is chance....

“Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around.” - Vanilla Sky

The clock reads 22:50 here in Germany as I’m writing this.

Today has been a long day and I have not gotten nearly as much done as I wanted to.

It was not a good day and I went to bed 15 minutes ago, feeling frustrated and wanting to run away from the stress I felt.

With the option to fight or flee I chose to flee.

That being said, right now I am sitting in bed, laptop out and writing this answer.

And it still sucks!

It doesn’t feel any different than it did now 18 minutes ago.

I’m still stressed, still feel regret that I didn’t do that much and still wish I could have changed how much I worked today.

But I cannot change it anymore.

Instead I can choose to do something now against my desire to run away and sleep because I know this matters.

And I know it may not seem like much to you, but that’s not what matters!

It’s not about how easy or difficult the decision is but that you take the chance and do what is right for you!

Be it a major life decision or just the decision to not go to bed just yet and keep grinding.

It’s not in the big decisions that you will find everything turns around but in the many small decisions!

Every choice you make is another chance for you to change your future.

It’s one more step in the right direction, one more step into the future you envision and one more act to get what you want!

And that one chance, that moment where you stand up and fight once more, can turn it all around.

It is now 23:10 as I’m sharing this.

I have taken another step towards what I want even though I’m still stressed.

I will fight for what I want, I will take every chance I can get to turn things around.

 

What about you?

            -Lukas Schwekendiek

Why people are lazy.......

Because they are comfortable.

No one does something they do not think is worth it.

Yes, some people may still act and receive consequences that are not in their best interest, but they do not do this purposefully.

People are never trying to harm themselves!

We are all on our side!

Yet people still choose things that do not seem to be good for them because being lazy is so much more comfortable and so much easier!

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We all choose the decisions we think are best at that current time in that current circumstance.

We pick what we want most or what we think will give us the most.

When you consume Television, video games or series you are allowing yourself to sit back and relax.

There is no pressure. There is no strain. It’s just easy.

This is what being unproductive gives us in that moment.

Because of this a lot of us decide to procrastinate a lot.

We consume and let the world around us just fall away.

But we do that only because we think it is the best thing to do, given what we know at the time.

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When we were children we act the same way.

We do what is fun in the moment with no regard to the possible consequences.

The world around us falls away and we are solely focused on ourselves.

But at least we could say we didn’t know any better!

In adulthood, things changed.

While we understood that our actions have consequences we still tried our best to avoid looking at the consequences.

The problem was that we still knew, so we began to blind ourselves through procrastination.

We deafened ourselves to the consequences by drowning out the world around us.

What we do not understand is that this is also the best we knew how to do at that moment!

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Understand that there is a difference between knowing something and truly understanding it.

Children know they cannot be mean to others, but they sometimes do not understand why, and so they do not act that way.

Adults are the same!

We know that we should be productive and not be lazy, but we do not truly understand the consequences of those actions so we’re not being productive.

Each and every one of us only does what they understand is best, not what they know is best.

We are not lazy because we want to harm ourselves. We are lazy because we do not understand.

    -Lukas Schwekendiek

Saving at 23....?

I still use a crappy Xiaomi phone bought a few years ago when it was newly launched.

Most of my friends who make less money than me have Iphones and the latest Galaxy S8s and the S9s and they make sure to update their phones every 6–12 months.

I can go ahead and buy the top tier Iphone or the latest Galaxy S10 today without giving it s single thought but I don’t do it because I know the happiness of that wont last for long.

When you spend money on something like a gadget or maybe on something you always wanted, you will obviously get some sort of joy out of it.

However, the joy of buying a new toy or spending money on things you like wont last for long. If I buy an Iphone, I will probably feel good about it for a few hours, some might have that feel good feeling for a few days while some might have it for a few weeks.

Once you start associating happiness with spending money you fell into a trap for spending more and more money and would never be satisfied.

For example, let’s suppose you spend some money on an Iphone, after about a month, you might feel an urge to upgrade your laptop as well.

Let’s suppose you also upgrade your laptop and get a better one, after about a month you will think about upgrading something else and this cycle is never ending.

I am a human to and I have desires as well, however I am aware that if I don’t keep them in check, it may be disastrous.

Forget about buying an Iphone, I can go out today and buy a brand new BMW however I know that it is stupid to buy something which just makes you happy.

If I upgrade my car to a BMW then I also have to upgrade other things as well.

I cannot drive a BMW and use a Xiaomi phone, I need to upgrade to a better one.

I cannot wear cheap clothes to office driving in a BMW, I need to upgrade my clothing as well.

I cannot wear a cheap watch driving a BMW, I need to upgrade that as well.

You see what just happened there? Making just a single large purchase also influenced my other things as well.

Now I will be stuck in an endless loop of upgrading everything instead of being focused on my work and being happy.

If you are a young person and have started earning then my only advice to you would be to not spend money on things which depreciate in value.

Don’t buy the latest phone, it will only be latest for the next 6 months and after then you will have an urge to buy another one.

Human desires have no end, learn to control them or else you will spend all your time and energy in running behind fulfilling them.

 -Saurav Sharma

Attrition

Begin Tomorrow.....

You get up in the morning, drag yourself to your work.
You come back home mentally and physically exhausted. You fume and complain.
But you eat, go to sleep, get up next morning and again drag yourself to work. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month….. There is nothing wrong with the world around you. Either you have to change or your work needs to be changed.

You buy a treadmill and work on it for two hours a day for a week. And then you stop.
 A month passes. You look at the treadmill everyday after you return from work. You pity yourself that you are too tired and promise to start the next day.

 The next day never comes….. You need to get your motivation back before a scalpel or pills become the only option.

You get up in the morning and have a look at your mobile phone before you brush your teeth. You are browsing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…. in your bed at night.
You are on them when your mother is calling you to have dinner.

You do not want to visit your friend in the neighbourhood because you want to see what your one thousand virtual friends are commenting about your last post…. You need to return to the real world.

You keep on saying, ‘When I was your age, I did this,’ ‘When I was young, I could do that,’ ‘I did this’ and ‘I did that’….. You need to shift your focus to your goals in future.

You keep saying to yourself, ‘When I am thirty five, all my financial issues will have been resolved,’ ‘I will change my eating habits when I am thirty.’ ‘I will start losing weight when the new year begins’….. That day will never come.
    If you need to begin something, you have to begin it today.

                                                                             -Rahul Shrivastava

Is Purpose Overrated?

“I don’t want to wake up!”

I would hit the snooze button.

Ring! Ring! The torture would increase.

Hit the snooze button again!

I remember how depressing my thoughts were. I had to drag myself out of my bed every morning, uninspired, tired, and worn out.

Have you ever seen a dead fish floating down a river?

That was me!

My life was boring. My life lacked direction. I didn’t have anywhere to go — I was going with the ‘flow’ to wherever the ‘river’ of life, took me.

The ‘river’ controlled me. I didn’t swim, I didn’t have the energy or even make an effort to fight against its strong currents.

“Why swim if there’s no reason to…”

I was dead on the inside.

That was my life without a purpose. Life was happening to me; I wasn’t directing or shaping my life.

Today, in contrast, I don’t want the day to end. I feel like a salmon swimming upstream.

I jump out of my bed every morning. I know exactly what I’m doing. I’m so passionate about my life that I struggle sleeping at night. I feel unstoppable.

What happened to me?

I found purpose.

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Why do people seem to have a crisis of purpose these days?

This is not a crisis of purpose —this is a crisis of character.

Millions are pursuing the “Instagram life.” Everyone’s living in a ‘virtual reality’ that doesn’t exist. Everyone is tremendously unsatisfied with their lives and their reality

.

We’re all exposed to a wild ‘river’ of unreasonable expectations, expectations so out of reach that no rational mind is willing to ‘swim’ to get it. Those who try, sooner or later, burn out and give up.

It’s irrational! So why fight for it?

Social media is now like a ‘river’ full of dead fish going downstream. A river of broken dreams.

Character is like the backbone of who we are. Character is knowing what you stand for. Character is differentiating your dreams from others.

Purpose is having the character and the FREEDOM to be yourself and find the courage to ‘swim’ to that destination.

Can you identify your destination?

You need to step out of the ‘river’ and watch it from a new perspective. Can you see all the dead fish flowing downstream?

Forget about the river and focus on you!

What do you want?

Again, it’s NOT what they want… I asked what do YOU want?

If you can’t answer this question; most likely you’re lacking the freedom to accept who you are.

You need freedom to be yourself. It’s impossible to find purpose without freedom.

              -Hector Quintanilla

Different from Others

The most important thing is to be different from others.  Do something better than anyone else in the world that's useful to others (even if what you do best has a very tiny niche).

Being able to do something that 100 million other people can do, while potentially important, is likely not nearly as valuable as having a skill that is unique. 

Of course, certain unique skills will have more value than others.  But it is hard to know which skills will and will not have long-term value since the world will change. 

One easy way to create a unique skill is to combine two seemingly unrelated skills into one skill.  Being the best computer scientist in the world is really hard.  Being the person who knows the most about dolphins is really hard.  But being the person who best knows about the intersection of software and dolphins is accomplishable.  You might end up writing the best software that tracks dolphins.  Or you might use your knowledge of how dolphins communicate over long distances to change the way humans communicate.
                                                                       -Auren Hoffman

Do you need to be charged up all the time?

Just a little more.

Last night I stayed up until 3 in the morning, having had 4 hours of sleep the night before and waking up at 7 again, giving me a grand total of 8 hours in the last two days.

I do not recommend it.

That’s why, in this moment, the only way I can motivate myself is to look at the one thing in front of me.

The day is still long, and just thinking about that fills me with nervousness and I want to breathe a heavy sigh.

I have nowhere near the energy to make it through all of it, at least not today.

But I can make it through this answer, right here, right now.

And, that is what I have thought since this morning: “Just a little more.”

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Motivation is always rather fleeting.

There is always a general sense of it, as we all have to be motivated for anything we do, but it’s not very strong, and it doesn’t need to be.

If you can simply put your attention on what is in front of you at the moment and forget the rest it seems incredibly easy.

It’s just this task. It’s just this moment. It’s just this one thing.

And while this won’t make you incredibly productive on its own, for me, right now, it is definitely the best way to tackle this day.

That being said, knowing how to become motivated, I’m also trying my best to combine it with my absolute goals in front of me, which is a very thin line to walk.

On one side thinking about the big goals too much causes anxiety and stress, but on the other, thinking about it too little disconnects me from the purpose of what I am doing at the moment.

I keep my goals in front of me, seeing the overarching picture, and then ignore everything until I get to what it is I can do in this moment.

In that delicate balance is where motivation truly grows.

Knowing that what I do in this moment, knowing that a little more right now gets me closer to the overarching picture, is enough to keep me working hard today. (Also Coffee helps).

                                                                                           -

                                                              -Lukas Schwekendiek

Adult Life......

Here are 20 things nobody tells you about adult life, but I will.

#1. You have to promote yourself to CEO status. Not demote yourself to be a victim of life.

#2. You have to be in the driver’s seat. Not let other people make decisions for you and take you on a detour any time they feel like it.

#3. You have to do all the work. Not sit back and expect others to pick up the slack.

#4. You have to have a strategy for where you’re going. Not act impulsively.

#5. You have to make plans. Not live your life day by day.

#6. You have to keep your emotions in check. Not let them run your life.

#7. You have to grow your mindset. Not be rigid, inflexible, and set in your ways so much that it paralyzes you.

 

#8. You have to value your time. Not waste it on trivial things, pointless activities, gossip, and envy.

#9. You have to respect other people’s time as well. Not act as if every conversation is all about you — what happened to you, who is treating you poorly, and how the world is out to get you.

#10. You have to learn how to invest in the right people. Not seek attention just for attention’s sake, feed your ego because you feel you’re better or smarter than your “friends,” or ignore red flags like superficiality and weak character.

#11. You have to embrace being an adult. Not be stuck in childhood (and everything that went wrong in it) for the rest of your life.

#12. You have to adhere to a value system. Not reinvent what’s important (or not) every single day, depending on your mood or the situation you’re in.

#13. You have to learn how to be disciplined. Not lead an unhealthy lifestyle of binging on fast food, drinking uncontrollably, smoking like there’s no tomorrow, and sitting at your desk without moving a muscle.

#14. You have to roll up your sleeves and do the work. Not only because nobody else will, but also because you need to feel proud of your accomplishments.

#15. You have to take ownership and be held accountable for your actions. Not imagine that you will get by unnoticed for bad behavior — because believe me, people are watching.

#16. You have to be kind to others. You were not given the gift of life to waste it on being rude, disrespectful, and taking people for granted.

#17. You also have to learn how to play well with others. Not act like you don’t need anyone or you are better than everyone — because the quality of your life is directly proportional to the quality of the relationships you nurture.

#18. You have to say thank you. Not act entitled like the world owes you something.

#19. You have to keep learning new things. Not let down your wonderful, amazing brain by refusing to feed it continuously — which you can do by reading books, solving problems, and developing new skills.

#20. You have to maintain a good sense of humor. Because it will change the way you see your life, even the challenges you face, and most of all the opportunities you have in each moment of the day to do just one thing successfully and effortlessly— laugh           

                                                                   -

                                                                                                  -Nela Canovic

Tag for you LIfe

Level up.

I’m not sure when I started doing this, but a couple of years ago I started gamifying my life.

Every task, every problem, and every new thing I learned I saw as a chance to “level up”, to get better.

Arguments used to terrify me. They gave me so much anxiety because I was afraid of destroying that relationship. But now, I think “If I can have this argument successfully, I’ll level up and be able to have my next argument even more productively.” It made it not so scary, it made my conflict a challenge for improvement instead of a mistake not to be made.

When I went scuba diving and embarrassingly floated to the top because I got caught in an upward current and panicked too much to let my air out, I did not feel embarrassed. Rather, I thought, “Now I leveled up and I’ll know how to handle that situation next time, unlike everyone who didn’t make that mistake.”

If I have to work with or spend time with someone I dislike, I think about how I’ll level up if I can learn how to not let my emotions get the better of me. In the future perhaps those around me won’t be able to persuade my mood.

Everything in my life is a challenge. I’m working towards this future, mystical me with incredible conflict resolution skills, knowledge, and awesome life experiences. That’s at level 1,000. I’m maybe at level 73 right now.

So I’ll just keep leveling up.

                                               -Charissa Enget