Fear

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." - Rosa Parks


Why do we fear though? I mean ... What good comes out of limiting oneself? Of choosing not to act?
I guess some would say it's a characteristic granted to us through evolution that enables the future survival of the race. Or it could be that we're genetically programmed to avoid failure. ... Maybe fear is an internal challenge, one that opens many other possibilities.

So what to do with fear? I've been told - channel it (No, not TVJ and not the cologne) but use to to empower your actions. Courage I believe they call it. Taking a chance in spite of the odds, whether real or imagined.

The daily challenge is to rise above fearful situations, while never allowing them to get the better of us. Why? Because we rule our destinies. We ultimately choose the path we take.
Therefore, no one but you is responsible for you successes, failures, or anything else that happens to you (going to do a post on blame soon).

Finally. On the topic of fears, face them. Nothing has ever been gained by shying away from challenges.

Writing

The act of putting pen to paper and letting inspiration lead from the front, in the hope that what you write is worth reading, legible. The more noble of us hope that what we write will stand the test of time, a feat reserved for the greats.

The consensus among poets is that they can't write unless they're sad or otherwise emotionally disturbed, and I've always pondered it. Is it that misery needs company? I think we're all selfish, really. We want to burden people with our sadness while keeping the happy to ourselves.

Although in all actuality, what more can be written about happiness? Everything written now almost sounds cliché; simple because so many people have said it before. Sadness though? So many shades of it that new words to describe it will never cease to be found. The 'Infatuation with Sadness' I call it.

Or is it that our vocabularies are skewed to the negative? "Can't", "Doubt", "Unlikely", "Impossible"? Way easier to bring to mind than "Joy" or "Carefree". The world is a serious place after all.

Still, writing is arguably the best way to secretly express yourself. After all, everyone* hates reading. So to keep it private, put it in a book. It also allows reflection, there are very few lies when you 'put it on paper', especially when it's written to yourself.

So what do you write about?

*Not EVERYONE. But approximately 95%** of people

**Statistic completely made up

The 'Now' Generation

"We live in a generation of ... not being in love, and not being together. But we sure make it feel like we're together, cause we're scared to see each other with somebody else ..." Drake - Doing it wrong

The NOW generation. We have EVERYTHING at our fingertips. Was that how it was meant to be though? Certain things take time to build: success, skill, relationships. All things that can't be rushed. The process is just as important as the fulfilment of whatever the process leads to. Us being in the now generation means that this is subject to some conditionalities:
1. The entire process being rushed. You ever heard somebody say 'if mi did know', chances are that they had the chance to learn it, but ignored it with a view to achieving 'bigger' goals.
2. People not trying at all. Trying is work, and most people have a block to working. Remember, 'Now' generation. We have it all, why work for it?

On relationships though ... I'm sure we've all had one person we wouldn't want to see with anyone else YET we fail to give them more than a 'wait and see'. What are we really waiting on? Better to come along? Or does it go back to the fear of trying?

Questions upon questions. With no immediate answers.

Anyways, back pan di trod. Understanding and taking it slow is the pree.

Second Chances

"Change your nature, you're a dead man" - Jude Law [Alfie]

"You can't repeat the past" - Nick Carraway; The Great Gatsby

So as the title said, today's post is about *drumroll* second chances.

Ever made a mistake that you'd do anything in your power to fix? My advice, go for it.You never know what you'll learn. You may never be able to fix it, but so what? You get an 'A' for effort in your life's report card. Better to have tried and failed, than to not have tried at all.

But seriously though; a second chance will never be as good as the first one was. The remnants of whatever mistake you made will still be there leading to either: unresolved feelings, hidden hate, or overall destruction of whatever the second chance was to represent. Consider it the ultimate gamble, high risk, high reward. You lose, you learn... You win, then we won't need to have this conversation.

Best advice. Make the people in your life know what they're worth to you everyday, that way you're less likely to lose them. Trust me, I've lost a lot, losing friends/family/people closer than that hurts. Especially when you were a big part of it.

Till next time.
JKav