Be your own hero.

We grow up either with comic books or cartoons and movies about superheros and the stories of them saving mankind. Sometimes we get a bit to caught up in the stories and fantasies and forget to find a real life hero, or even, be our own hero.

It is all too easy to become complacent, and accept the every day normality of life. But when you think about who you admire, be it a business person, a celebrity, a family member - think of why you do. Is it because they sat around and accepted life to be what comes to them or because they made the best out of each day, pushed to make life better, and created their own circumstances?

Being brave and ambitious sometimes means getting out of our comfort zones and being forced to be away from the ones we love, and away from the places we have long called home.

Sometimes you don't leave the place you call home, but you stay up for an extra hour to do work, or get up an hour earlier to get some exercise in. Even something as simple as connecting with those people who you admire and love during a typically boring car ride can be beneficial to your life, your happiness, and perhaps theirs. Take your time with life, for it passes all to quickly. Spend extra moments on self improvement and chasing your dreams. Let's not let life pass us by- let's grab the bull by the horn and create our own happiness, and push towards our own victories. Although sometimes we think, "why am I doing this?", try to remember the bigger picture of our goals.

Maintain your relationships and while you may want to be home sooner than you are able, if you put also put effort towards the people that are important to you, they will be there when you do make it home. Ambition isn't just a work or paycheck driven characteristic, it should also be applied to relationships. Or whatever you find most important. To identify those I often think about all the things in my life and then imagine losing them. When just the thought of losing the ones I love brings tears to my eyes, I know that's where I cannot ever let myself slip.

I find all parts of life are better when you make more of an effort towards the most important ones. Not one aspect of life is mutually exclusive. Every aspect is affected by how we feel, and if we feel we are doing are best in one area, we begin to do our best in all the others. And remember- doing our best doesn't mean you did something perfectly, it means you learned from what you failed to do perfectly. Be your own hero, and if you are lucky, you will be someone else's- even if you don't know it. And every once in a while throw on the cape just for fun.

Land Fish.

This is something I wrote about 3 years ago.

land fish.
Sometimes I wonder about the possibility of a personality being hypocritical.
Torn between the earth and it's shores, forever reaching for the clouds, with many hopes of sitting upon them, I push my heels further into the ground I find myself standing on.
How I got to be standing, this I do not know.

Addictive and unstable, compulsive and forgetful. Give me a fucking cigarette and I'll either smoke it to the filter or toss it to the ground, wishing it didn't pollute me or this earth.

Torn between indecision and constant confusion, anxiety takes it's place where a heart used to be. It beats like a heart, only faster and nervously. Not slowly, rhythmically, romantically....

There is no yearning for such things of importance. And yet, in the darkness of the night, or under the suffocating sun, the ice melts around my feet threatening to expose me and my body's warmth to the cold water underneath.

The fish in their homes would not be fooled. For they have been watching all along, through the layers of ice. Only they can breath under water. They watch while I can't.

luck of the irish

I've never been one to believe in luck- I think life is more about the choices you make and that everything happens for a reason. Maybe because it is hard for me to accept that one person should deserve more good fortune than another. Anyway, with Saint Patrick's Day just around the corner I am seeing green, shamrocks, and dark stout everywhere. I can't help but think about luck and the "luck of the Irish"- which coincidentally, means to have bad luck as the tale goes that Irish folk have unfortunate luck.
Create your own good fortune! Take action in your life. But wear green and drink a Guinness anyway, and celebrate your heritage, or the heritage of your peers.

Success, love and other drugs.

Success.

How do you measure success? Be it in others or yourself, what are the qualifications to be deemed a success?
Just for fun, google "success". Below are my findings..

suc·cess

1. favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.

2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.

3. obsolete.

Number One. By far the closest definition to my personal thought on success. Attempt and endeavor what you dream of. Take your goals (if you don't have any then first establish some) and focus them. Focus on attaining those goals and reaching them. What is most important in your life? Often times we evaluate our life choices and goals in time of desperation and difficulty. Try to stay focused regardless of your current circumstance or happiness. Goals are ever changing, some easy, some seemingly impossible. I don't know if I would even classify reaching all of your goals a success. It is more the attempt and dedication to your commitments to yourself and others that dictates success.

Number Two. Bullshit. I mean, in some cases, yes. Wealth, status, and honors can be viewed as successes. But is that all it is to be a success? Hardly.

Number Three. Obsolete? Perhaps.

For many things in life, there are qualifications or criteria that must be met. Whether it is to be accepted into a school or program, get a job, apply for a loan, or live in an apartment. It also extends to aesthetic qualifications- are they attractive enough to date, do I qualify to wear this dress based on how it looks on me?
More importantly, we have to set criteria for ourselves and keep our standards high. These are all by personal definition or interpretation, but in a world that revolves around money, qualifications and credentials, it is hard to not define our success by the amount of money in our wallet, job status, or how nice of a car we drive.

I aim to define my success in different terms-

• Make my own happiness
• Improve other people's happiness
• Work as hard as I can
  
• Be kind to strangers
• Make others laugh
• Stay in touch with the ones I love
• Strive to be better today than I was yesterday
• Don't sweat the small stuff
  
• Laugh REALLY hard at least once a day
• Keep my commitments
• Explore
• Stay in good health
• Learn something new as often as possible

Of course, this list is a work in progress, but when I sat down to identify what was most important to me and what would make me feel like a success, I noticed that none of the things on my list had anything to do with the money in my pocket, how nice my car is, or how many designer pieces of clothing are hanging in my closet. Granted, I stress about having enough money to be comfortable in my life, I want a nice car, and I am addicted to beautiful clothes. But if I think about what I would do if I lost those things, I feel indifferent. When I think about never laughing again, never making someone else laugh or smile, not talking to those I love ever again, losing the ability to learn or explore, it devastates me. I can handle losing the things I have become accustomed to and I would rather die than lose the things I take for granted. Funny how that works. Success will be if I fully appreciate, and express my appreciation for all the things and people that I take for granted. I think life is more about making an impact on others - we are all here for a reason. I don't think my reason is to acquire all the beautiful clothes I possibly can...

Don't take anything for granted, search for your happiness, and cherish the things you tend to take for granted. Don't look in the mirror and feel disappointed in what you see- those things are all fleeting and editable. Look inside yourself and your mind, that is the reflection that matters. Focus on it, and success will follow.