Whatever It Takes

“Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.”

-Alfred A. Montapert

         Things are not always as they seem and often do not go according to plan. Think about it. How many times have you created elaborate plans either on paper or in your head that didn’t end up working out? How many times were your expectations actually met in the exact way you planned? (Pshh yeah, only in dreams for that one, right?) Or more likely, how many times did circumstances either fail to meet your expectations or exceed your expectations? It seems as though this has been happening to me a lot lately. No matter how hard I try or how well thought out and detailed my plans are, things just don’t seem to fulfill my expectations. But, I have learned along the way that’s just life. When things don’t go as planned or problems arise, the best thing to do is accept things for what they are no matter how difficult that can be sometimes. I mean it isn’t always a negative experience for me; sometimes my expectations are exceeded, which is a good thing. But, I guess I’m just one of those people who prefers when things go according to plan. Its not that I don’t enjoy certain things being unpredictable, but I would not consider living spontaneously to be one of my strengths.

            Upon first hearing this quote, I was immediately reminded of lines from Disney’s Bolt. For those of you who have seen this movie before and know what I’m referring to, that’s great. For those of you who have either never seen the movie or don’t recall, here is a clip from the movie:

            The part that I’m referencing is when Rhino, the hamster, responds to Bolt saying, ”I eat danger for breakfast!” This parallels my quote for week. And reminds us that even if we are not cartoon characters, we can still expect problems or danger and face them head on. Taking care of business and avoiding getting discouraged is the best way to live.

Courage: It Lies Within

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”

– Mark Twain

Courage can ultimately be defined as taking action in spite of fear. People cannot be split up into two distinct categories, as either courageous or not. Rather being courageous relies on the conscious decision that you make in a specific moment each and every time you are faced with fear.

            Courage is such an important and interesting quality, characteristic, and value to consider or ponder sometimes.  We often recognize and praise those who show extraordinary courage in situations when it can be considered difficult to do so. We begin calling them heroes and place them on a pedestal for the purpose of setting an example for others to follow. Despite the fact that only a select few are celebrated for their outstanding courageous and heroic acts, courage can be found within all of us. Whether or not we bring it out, demonstrate it, and let it surface is entirely up to us as individuals. We all are required to make this decision for ourselves; it is not one that others can make for us. Some people consistently appear courageous and others struggle with acting in this manner.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about exhibiting courage is that it often depends on the surrounding environment and particular circumstances at a certain time and place. In other words, the specifics of the situation make all the difference in the world. Those who do not often present themselves as courageous beings can, in some cases, be completely transformed by what is going on around them at that precise moment. When given the chance or presented with the opportunity, normal people turn become heroes in the blink of an eye each and every day. We hear about these people and see them on the news all the time. They are the ones being recognized, as they deserve, for saving the lives of others by stepping up during times when most others chose to run away in the opposite direction as a result of being overcome by fear. Now some people would argue that other factors must have played a role in the way that the so-called “heroes” acted. For example, one explanation would be that their body released endorphins, which resulted in them experiencing this rush of adrenaline, allowing them to act with courage. Regardless, they still illustrated bravery and completed a courageous act. Anyone has the capability to do this as well. When you either put your mind to something or just react, anything is possible. Deep down inside of us, lies equally as much courage as there is fear. 

Triumph > Conflict

The harder the conflict,

the more glorious the triumph.

-     Thomas Paine

Complaining. I don’t think there is a single person on Earth that can honestly say that they never complain. Everyone is guilty of complaining about something or another at some point during his or her lifetime. But how often? Once a week, once a day, more than once a day? However often we happen to do this, it is most likely too often and more than we should be doing so.

What exactly are we doing when we are complaining? Think about this just for a minute or so. Come up with an answer? Okay, well if so great but regardless I’ll tell you the answer that I was hoping you would come up with. And that is plain and simply: wasting time. Complaining is not advantageous. It does not help us at all in any way. If it does anything at all, that would be holding us back and unfortunately keeping us from moving forward. This is a problem because forward is the direction that we absolutely need to be going.

We can never get back the time we have spent complaining in the past and continue to spend complaining presently. Time is just one of those things; once it is gone, its gone for good. You know as well as I do that this sucks, but at least it is possible for us to do something about it in this specific case. We can start accepting things for what they are, no matter how difficult they may be. The sad thing is that it is not even only when things are difficult that we complain; we then complain when things become too easy for us or for a wide variety of other reasons.

When we stop complaining, we find that we can actually achieve whatever it is we need or want to do. Besides we always feel way more accomplished and proud of others or ourselves when the task that has been completed correctly was harder than most other tasks. The majority of people throughout history that we recognize as successful or accomplished today are known for being proficient and doing great things. Thomas Paine is surely one of these people and for good reasons, so it makes perfect sense for this quote to have come from him.

Let the lesson for this week be to do whatever it takes to get where you would like to be in life. In the end, the celebration usually makes all of the hard work and pain and suffering worth it.

Make the World a Better Place

"One is not born into the world to do everything, but to do something."

-      Henry David Thoreau

Source: http://sbrownehr.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Make-a-Difference.jpg 

        “The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play,” said Arnold Toynbee. To me, this means that it is so important to choose a career that you are not only good at but will also enjoy doing every day for the rest of your life. Studying science, solving puzzles, playing the board game Clue, and watching television shows such as CSI and Criminal Minds are all ideas and activities that made me realize at an early age what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

       Being a criminal profiler and forensic psychologist is all I have ever wanted to do with my life.  I realize that recently my career choice has started to become very popular. But, I decided this not just because of the false glamour that many of today’s television shows now advertise, but because it is something that I know I would love to do and be really good at. Well some may be curious enough to ask, “How exactly do you know that?” I know this because my personality is best suited for a career in this particular field. It takes a special person to be able to deal with the tragic deaths and gruesome crime scenes seen every single day in this field of work, and I know that I could handle it.

 I also plan on choosing this career because it is a very rewarding one, in which my love of science and psychology can be applied to help solve crimes and convict criminals. It is very beneficial to public safety, public health, and the overall good of society. At the end of every day, I will be able to say that I tried to make the world a safer and better place. I truly believe that this is my “something” to do in the world. So now I encourage you to think about this and ask, what is your something?

I Think I Can, Therefore I Can

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

-      Winston Churchill

Source: positive1.jpg          

What exactly does it take to be successful? And whatever it is, do you have it? If not you, then who? The answer is surprisingly very simple. It just so happens that what it takes is inside of each and every one of us. The problem seems to be that we don’t always realize this or willingly accept it. Sometimes it just takes finding an unconventional way to bring it out of us. Everyone who wants to be someone sets goals for himself or herself to accomplish at least at some point in life. Some are willing to do whatever it takes to make things happen or make their dreams come true, others are slightly less motivated. I agree with Winston Churchill on this one, that this makes all the difference in the world.

ATTITUDE… is ultimately the key to success. It may seem like a somewhat useless, abstract idea and may not appear to be one of the most important qualities possessed, but this could not be farther from the truth. Attitude is actually amazingly powerful. Changing your attitude can easily alter an outcome of even one of the most difficult situations that you could ever find yourself in. Always try to keep a positive attitude and outlook on life. This gets tricky when things seem like they never go your way, but trust me, eventually if you stick it out things will turn around and get better.

If you think that I am just a college kid and that I am not to be trusted on this issue, then choose to trust some of the most outstanding human beings in the history of the world that continually promote this same ideology. Your attitude really counts and makes a difference. For the longest time, I too refused to believe this. I tend to be quite a pessimistic person most times, and my mom would always say to me, “Fine. Go ahead and have that attitude, but it is going to get you absolutely nowhere in life.” Finally, I put her opinion to the test during a cross-country race my junior year of high school, and it really did work. I had greatly improved my personal best time that I had ever run. From then on, I decided that I would at least make an effort to have a positive attitude, and you should too. 

Source: self_motivation1.jpg