Staying Persistent

To stay successful, requires perseverance. Always stay determined to complete your goals, dreams, and life. Being optimistic in this regard will allow the gates to open in a more harmonic manner. Not only will it allow more openings, but it will make the journey easier, and more rewarding. Perseverance. Always have it, always use it, always recognize it.

Always a Winner

Becoming a winner isn't always about victory. It could be about what you gained from the experience. It could be meeting a goal, or finishing a task before a deadline. A winner is a person who sees their own positive results and gains, and embraces them in a humble spirit.

Staying positive and having great humility requires a great deal of discipline, patience, and diligence. It is without a doubt a strong attribute to have in a person's personality, as with experience, it has allowed me to become acquainted with many great individuals.

Looking at a loss is only what you make of it. Whether it be a chess game, a huge tournament in the finals, or a MMA Titlebout, if you learn nothing from the loss, then consider it a true defeat. This in turn is a result of thinking negatively, and getting the negative energy reciprocated from the occurrence of this thought process. Deal with the idea that if you lose, it is only because you feel that you lost. Stay positive and try to find something you can improve on.

A victory can be looked as something to learn from for the future. Seeing this mindset, you're always a viable champion. There are times of frustration in a loss, but as long as you're able to take that anger away and focus on what you can do to do better next time, that alone can change you into a victor of the event. Everyone makes mistakes, its important to recognize these mistakes though to follow up on them and correct those mistakes.

While a winner can be defined victorious, a winner can also be a loser as well. Someone that wins without learning anything or by being arrogant is nothing short of defeat. Always be wary of your surroundings, environment, and attitude towards victories. It is never positive to become arrogant, and this will prove to show that you've only been defeated in the long run.

I delayed this post until after UFC 134 to reflect on some of the fights that happened tonight and how they reacted after winning. While some overreacted and had the need to backflip from the cage (really? was that necessary?), some took the wins as a great goal achieved and are now able to move even further in their paths. Another aspect to pay attention to are the people who lost their fights tonight. While some just walked off in anger (defeat), some shook hands and congratulated the victors, being wholly humble and you can bet they will be studying what they learned from the event.

Stay humble people! It can help us all become winners if we look at the situations in our lives optimistically! 

The Right Advantage

In a previous post, I outlined how taking the advantage whenever possible can be directly beneficial to anybody. In my mistake, I forgot to disclose a different form of advantages.

First off, taking advantage of something causes disadvantages for anyone else. It's a natural balance of life, whether anyone likes it or not. However, there are disadvantages to people that can prove truly harmful to them; whether it be relationships, finances, or emotionally. These are important to notice, because they show that you care. Try to be weary of these situations because they really will effect you in the future.

Advantages to look for are ones that will prove useful to you, and won't harm anyone that you know. Unless you enjoy that sort of thing, I wouldn't advise anyone taking advantage of family, close friends, or work partners. Those are the people that make you who you are, there isn't many reasons to disrupt that. Playful advantages are fine though, of course.

In the end it is just about being aware of which advantages you're taking, and whether or not they are worth taking. Some advantages are worth less than others, and some of course are worth more. Find what's right for you, and don't partake advantages just because someone else did it. Make the advantages your own! And remember to be wary of the advantages, there will always be another opportunity, it is whether you find it or not.

For more information on Advantages, refer to my previous post Advantageous Knowledge. Thanks guys for the continued support!

----------------------------------------------------------

Sorry for no recent updates. I've been on the road all week and some family members in Oregon that I haven't seen in over a decade dropped by (I'm in Southern California, it is a really long drive). I'll provide more posts again though, and as always will comment/'click' on your blogs for those who follow. It has been absolutely hectic with school around the corner, but figured I'd post at least some sort of an update! I haven't given up!

Reacting Upon Conflict

Arguing with another being is bound to happen with someone over a given time frame. The important focus is how to deal with the conflict without harm. Sure there are times in frustration where you want to just fight and get it over with, however think about if it is really worth it. Is that conflict really worth your blood, sweat, and tears? Knowing when to fight and not to fight is a big step in becoming a better person.

Make sure to remain calm at all costs. Not only does this make you the more mature being, but also shows you have more self-control. Who cares what last word he/she says? Will you see him/her again if he's a stranger? Probably not.

Never look into their eyes. This can only fuel more anger, however it can backfire if they find not looking at their eyes is disrespectful, so I'd advise to be careful on this.

Be the smarter being. Stay focused and analyze the person while they're rambling about how you look bad, how you are weak, or something else irrelevant to the situation (usually).

Stay off to an angle of the person. Never stand directly in front of them. This exerts all of their frustration and maddening energy directly towards you. Angling off allows the energy to flow away. This falls directly in line with keeping a distance from the person at all costs. If they come in, assert that they need to keep their distance, or slightly back up, but don't back up too much, as this will portray weakness to the other person.

While some may read this and think of the person doing this is the lesser man, think of it optimistically and realize the bigger man is one who does an action that results in no harm to either party. This might be slightly embarrassing, but it is definitely more worthwhile as the next day you won't be feeling the soreness from the actions dealt. Myself, training in certain Martial Arts, I definitely lean towards not fighting. If what you're striving for is efficiency, this is one of those principles. What slows you down tomorrow because of today will not benefit you, but only slow you down.

If the person starts coming to you in a forceful attack manner in any way, counter immediately and be the first to finish. Efficiency is key, there is no point in dragging on a fight. However, be verbal to always try and stop the fight first after the first blow. If it continues, then finish it and walk away.

Now while I'm not trying to tell people how to deal with conflicts, I feel this is the best approach in advice towards those specific situations. Always be forgiving, and never let the conflict get out of hand. To stay in control is to stay in power, and that is most important in these types of conflicts.

----------------------------------------------------------
I bring this post up because it is an event that recently happened to me this weekend. I knew the person was not going to do anything just by analyzing, but always stayed in control of the outcome. In the end I will probably never see the person again, and am not feeling the consequences of that event now. I'll bring in some experiences like this occasionally to fuel some posts, but I thought it was a good idea to touch on. Anyway, hope everyone's weekend was a blast! Stay positive.

Advantageous Knowledge

Ever been in a situation where you knew you had the advantage in a given situation but didn't take it? Many people experience this all the time, whether it's a relationship opportunity, a promotion, or even just being in a spot at the right time but not pushing forward. Our everyday lives are surrounded by these moments all of the time. It is being able to recognize where these advantages are and when to utilize them.

Advantages are around no matter what situation you are in. The key is to focus diligently on what you're doing, and the advantages will show themselves. This helps illustrate the post from Attentive Focus to a realistic situation. Knowing what an advantage is, is basically thought of as a moment in which there is something to be gained beneficially. With this in mind, think of all the moments that you may have have missed or taken and realize it was an advantage at one time.

There are an infinite amount of examples to be displayed about this, but a couple wouldn't hurt to show the effectiveness of it. One example would be a competitive atmosphere in which two men are fighting in a kickboxing match. If fighter A is fully focused but fighter B is half distracted, fighter A will find more advantages than fighter B will. Let's say fighter A doesn't block a kick properly, and fighter B drops his hands when kicking. Fighter A will notice the advantage of the hands dropping while fighter B may not notice the hole of fighter A not blocking the kick properly.

Let's look at another more civil example. Walking down the street can be one. The average person may not realize the advantages he/she has, but there are too many to name. The disadvantages are easy, but the advantages can be some of these: saving money on gas, enjoying the outside air, getting exercise from walking, not having to deal with traffic, don't have to park.

As you can see, this also goes hand-in-hand with the Attitude Perspective post as well. I try to correlate all of my posts together so they work in unison with each other, and this is another example of this. Always take each beneficial information you receive and use it as an advantage for any given situation. It is definitely difficult at first, but in practice can become outstanding.

The point of this post was to surround the brain with an idea of advantages, what they are, and how they come to you. The average person commonly misses these advantages, even some that are blatantly right in front of them. Take advantage of the advantage, and be fully aware of the benefits that are to come. Again, I like my posts to unify with each other, and therefore to understand some of the content I post, I advise reading some of my past entries as well. I hope people recognize their advantages more often, they're always around no matter what you're doing!

The Opponent is What You Make It

Ever done any competition? The sense of adrenaline pumping through the veins before it's your turn to go up next. Some people cannot stand it, some people absolutely love it. Imagine taking the whole world and establishing goals as your opponents.

Firstly, setting this up requires a little bit of open mindedness. It's weird at first to see something like "finishing my 4-hour shift" as an opponent, however it is possible with a specific mindset. Creating this image allows a longer focus into what you're doing.

Evaluating the goal analytically is important to understand the most efficient and reasonable method of finishing it. This is a process in which you are finding the weaknesses of the opponent and using the weakness against it. Think of the goal as a huge brick wall. The weakness is a hole, and the only way to intrude the wall is to keep breaking through the hole. Finding these holes are critical to overcoming these opponents efficiently.

When finished with the opponent, there is no reason to be over-exaggerated in excitement. What I mean is, don't be arrogant, but humble. Not only does this promote maturity, but positivity. The last thing to do would be to promote negativity. Sure a little celebration is fine, but yelling and all that is just unnecessary.

So why is this important? Efficiency. Being able to finish a task swiftly and unharmed (whether it be emotionally, physically, psychologically, etc.) is key. This can be applied to everyday life, whether it is school, work, or even relationships. For myself I enjoy being challenged, so if the opportunity comes, I am right there and ready.

What this post helps realize is that open mindedness is useful. Taking your goals and allowing them to flourish into a challenge is what allows a better focus in the goal. Finding the holes in these goals allows for an easier time in completing them, and finishing the goals gives accomplishment but humbly, instead of arrogant. This post took some time to make, but I hope it assists with any challenges you endure.

Destiny or Choice

There are many times in the life of a human being that people must make important decisions in their time span. Decisions that lead to either success or failure to that given person. In deciding what a person wants or wants to go towards, goals bring a sense of life or hope to what a person should work for.

Always have a goal set in mind. To live with goals creates a purposeful line of work to do towards that goal. This allows for a more hopeful set of mind rather than a mind without purpose. Another reason why its important to set goals is to remember the experiences while reaching that goal. If it was a long and big goal, the reward feels so much better when reached. This same feeling exists in small goals, but probably not to the level of excitement in a big one.

 

Try to set at least one goal per day. For example, I set many goals all of the time during my life. If cleaning the room was my plan for the day, that can be a goal. A small goal can still be considered a goal. If pursuing towards a Ph.D degree with only a year in college was wanted, that should be your goal. Now I don't mean for everyone to go get Ph.D's, but I mean that if you have a large goal in mind, but only a small step towards it, continue pursuing and don't let anything stop you from reaching it. There are always obstacles and barriers blocking our paths to our goals in some way, but its finding the holes in those blocks and barriers to get through to this goal. More on holes in a future post.

There are people in the world however who feel that it is worth cheating to reach their goal. I feel this takes away from the actual experience itself and makes the endpoint less satisfying. Be legit, feel legit!

The basic mindset is to have a goal, and to pursue that goal no matter what it takes. Even if the goal feels unrealistic, the journey and experiences to that goal may create a learning experience that nobody can ever take away from you. With courage and dedication, those goals that you, I, and everyone else makes can eventually flourish. Remember to not take away from the experience, but to enjoy and live through it -- optimism will come in handy in this goal-fulfilling quest.

------------------------------------------
Some of these ideas that I post are pretty well known thoughts, but I thought I'd reinforce the concept to maybe introduce a goal to somebody that they weren't thinking of until reading this today. I do have future ideas for more analytical posts, but I hope this was a joyful one. Maybe I'll put in something about finding the holes in not just yourself, but other perceptions as well. Thanks guys for all the support!