Don’t let anything get in your way. Don’t let any obstacle stop you. Things will come and go in life and they will try to block your path. Even if they slow you down, don’t stop pushing forward. Don’t let it distract you from reaching your finish line. Dodge the bullets and keep running. Obstacles are not dead ends. When something is trying to create a dead end on your path, make a detour. Just don’t let yourself believe that you can give up and feel sorry for yourself when shit goes bad. That’s no excuse. Shit’s going to happen. You have to be prepared to fight any and every obstacle that comes your way if you really want to chase your dreams. 

When something bad does happen, stop and remind yourself that you can move past it. Think about everything you’ve struggled through in your life that you thought would be the end of you. Now look at yourself. You’re still here. In fact, you’re even stronger than you were then. You’ve taken some hits but you’re not on the ground. You’re not dead. You’ve still got the strength to win.

Just keep pushing yourself. You’d be absolutely amazed at how much you are really capable of if you would just push your limits and find out for yourself. Your body can handle so much more than you know. The only way to find out is to push yourself. Do more than you think you can. You can be so much more than you think you can be. Just don’t let anything get in your way.

Be Impressive.

Do something impressive.

Going out and getting drunk all of the time is not impressive.

Eating an entire pack of chips in one day is not impressive.

Being loud and obnoxious is not impressive.

Talking about how much you hate someone behind their back is not impressive.

Giving excuses as to why you can’t do something is not impressive.

• Writing a blog is impressive.
• Having self-control and taking care of yourself is impressive.
• Being respectful and courteous to others is impressive.
• Respectfully rejecting other people’s opinions and paying no mind to their comments is impressive.
• Staying up till 2am in order to get something done is impressive.

Be impressive. Work hard and don’t take shit from nobody. Earn respect. Don’t demand respect until you earn it. If you’ve earned respect and are still not given it, walk away. Respect yourself. Don’t wait for someone to offer respect to you. Work your ass off and don’t settle for less than you deserve. Go out and get what you want. Always push yourself harder. Don’t get comfortable just getting by. Keep leveling up. Don’t stop growing. Go learn new things and meet new people and read more books. Go to new places and try new things. Keep an open mind. Earn the good life. 

Be impressive.

I'm so done with my own self-destruction.

I'm done filling my head with doubt and telling myself that I'm not good enough to do something, I don't deserve it, and I shouldn't even try.

I'm done destroying myself with my own mind. I'm done blowing things out of proportion and creating problems that don't even exist. I'm done holding myself back and wasting my time feeling like shit when I could be out doing things before my life ends.

I'm going to go out and get what I want. I'm going to fight for myself.

I'm going to live my life before I die.

Where There's A Will...

It's not about what you can do...

It's about what you will do.

You can go to school and get a nice job and put money in savings and go to the gym every day and be vegetarian.

But will you?

Where there's a will there's a way.

Being willing to do something, as opposed to wishing for it, is what makes all the difference.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you will.

You must be willing.

You must be willing to do what it takes in order to get what you wish for. You must look beyond the surface - know that you don't just simply decide to "live healthy" and bam. You're healthy.

To be healthy, you must be willing to get up early, plan your meals ahead of time, portion your meals, force yourself to eat foods you may not like, be picked on and stared at like you're eating some kind of foreign alien food, leave your comfortable bed to go workout, sweat, bleed, cry, and be exhausted.

Are you willing to do this?

If not, do you really want to be healthy?

No. You just want to indulge in the effects of being healthy - tons of energy, a clearer mind, a bangin' body - you don't actually want to be healthy. You don't want to do the things that cause the effects you claim to want.

If you tell yourself you want something, yet are not willing to put the time, money, blood sweat and tears into making it happen, you don't really want it.

If you're not willing to work for it, you really don't value it like you claim to.

And that, my dear friends, means you're full of it.

If you want to get anywhere in life - you MUST work.

No if and's or but's.

Work for it.

Sometimes it's so hard to maintain motivation.

It seems like there's nothing special you have to offer the world and like you have nothing to say.

But it's not true.

Don't listen to that voice. Fight it. Prove it wrong.

Be someone with something to say.

Do something. Something other's can't do.

Create. Make something no one's made before.

Don't just consume.

Create.

Emotions: There's Not Always a Place for Them

Emotions: There's Not Always a Place for Them

 Being emotional is something I've always been taught to be. Growing up in a religious household I was always told to be compassionate and caring about, well... everyone and everything. As I've grown up I've come to realize how much this doesn't work in a world filled with prejudice, conflict and malevolence.

One of the biggest problems I have with emotions is injecting emotions into situations in which they have no place. You know, when you subjectively blow up with emotion and accuse someone of something that they did not by any means do?

Like when you call and text your classmate about hanging out and they don't reply for days and you think of one time when you said something embarrassing in front of them so you mournfully conclude that they think you are an awkward misfit who would drag them down the ladder to mainstream acceptance if they respond to your text.

When in reality, they skimmed through their texts while they were at work and never got a chance to reply and forgot by the time they got off.

Our assumptions of what people think and why they respond is incorrectly interpreted and blown up out of proportion, thus leading us to overreact to things and take them personally.

Things are what they are despite how you view them. Just because we project something as a big deal does not necessarily mean it's a big deal to anyone else on earth.

For us to take an objective situation, such as when you're spending time with someone and they leave the room to talk on the phone, and turn it into "they must be so sick of being around me" and "they are so rude and do not have any respect for me", is a completely ignorant and inappropriate time to warp a situation into something personal and emotional.

Emotions have no place in objective situations.

He picked up the phone when his sister called.

He did not reject you, he did not leave you, he did not want to show you how little he cares for you.

He picked up the phone, and that's it.

Don't turn something, into something emotional.

Being subjective towards someone with no logical reasoning does not make your emotions valid.

It's not fair to anyone, and you'll just end up looking petty and melodramatic. No one pities you. It's time to grow up and take charge of your own actions and emotions instead of sprinkling them all over situations where they do not belong.

How to Become Motivated to Get What You Want

How to Become Motivated to Get What You Want

Do you know anyone who says “I really need to lose weight”, after opening up a bag of chips and adamantly proceeding to consume the entire bag? Or what about someone who says they really need to finish an assignment, or do the laundry, or apply for a new job, and continues scrolling through TV channels?

The list could go on forever. The point is, we all know people like this, and most likely, you and I are some of those people. 

But why do we continue to do these things when we know we shouldn’t? Why do we do them when we know we’re going to be filled with nauseating guilt and regret as soon as we’re finished?

This, my friends, is mainly caused by one thing: lack of motivation.

Now, we obviously know to some extent that what we are doing is not only unproductive, but also harmful to ourselves. Otherwise, we wouldn’t state that we should stop. 

But why isn’t knowing what we should be doing enough to make us do it?

Because: knowledge doesn’t mean anything if you are not applying it.

What does this mean? This means that unless you are taking said knowledge and applying it to your situation, it will not be any more use to you than not knowing at all. 

Let’s look at it this way:

If you need a job, but you don’t know that you need a job, you’re not going to find a job.

If you need a job and you know you need a job, but don’t look for a job, you’re not going to get a job.

In the same way…

If you need to get more sleep, but you don’t know that you need more sleep, you are not going to try to sleep more.

If you need to get more sleep and you know need more sleep, but you aren’t changing any of your habits to make it easier to get more sleep, you are not going to get any more sleep.

On the other hand…

If you need a job and you know you need a job, and you apply for jobs every day until you find one, you will eventually find a job.

If you need to get more sleep and you know you need more sleep, and you start cutting down your caffeine intake and going to bed earlier, you will eventually get more sleep.

But what’s the difference between knowing but doing nothing, and knowing and doing something?

Motivation.

What is motivation?

Motivation is what makes you want to eat healthy badly enough to put down the bag of chips and grab an apple.

Motivation is what reminds you of how crucial it is that you work on your assignment now and it is what makes your body turn off the television and get working on it.

How do you find your motivation?

Motivation branches off of reason. In order to gain enough motivation to do something, you have to have a good enough reason to do it.

Now, finding a reason shouldn't be that hard. If you really want something, you should be able to clearly identify a reason why you want it.

If you are unable to come up with a good enough reason right off the bat, try coming up with several reasons and writing them down.

For example, a list of reasons for wanting to eat healthier may look something like this:

Reasons to Eat Healthier

• I will have more energy
• I will be able to maintain a healthy weight
• I will be treating my body with the love it deserves
• I will be able to focus better
• I will feel less sluggish at work

There may be one specific reason that is a bigger motivator than the others, but having more than one reason can be very helpful if you are having trouble maintaining motivation by just a single reason.

What you have to do next is take these reasons and blow them up. Blow them up and tower them above any conflicting thoughts you have that could cripple your motivation and distract you from your purpose. 

The key to staying motivated is being so dead-set, having such a laser-sharp focus on what you want, that any conflicting purpose that tries to snatch away some your attention is immediately tuned out into a fuzzy blur in the background.

Motivation doesn't come easy. You have to take your thoughts captive and arrange them in order of importance so that something of little importance does not dominate your thoughts, thus guiding your actions.

The mind can be a hard thing to control.

But you can control it.

It just takes a lot of time, a lot of hard work, and a lot of burning passion, or reason- to keep working on it. 

To sum it all up, gaining motivation requires:

1. Knowing your purpose.

2. Prioritizing these purposes in your mind.

3. Pursuing these purposes until you get what you want.

Take back control. Don't stop until you win.