Just do it

Human beings have a way of stealing time from themselves for various reasons, mostly absurd, but it happens anyway. Usual end results - opportunities lost, inspirations lost, time lost - notice the pattern indicated by the key word 'lost'.

It is something we all know about. Chances are, the saying 'procrastination is the thief of time' is one you've heard over and over, even recited yourself, yet somehow we are still horribly prone to it. There's no way to remind you enough, you always lose. Don't be a victim of your lazy self.

Whatever it is you always put away, push back for a few days - just do it. Instead of saying 'I cam always do it tommorrow', try 'if I do it now I can always do something else tommorrow'. It works.
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Do you live a legacy?

From the moments in infantry when we cry to our mothers with our arms stretched out to them, sometimes for no clear reason - fast-forward to daily adulthood, to those moments when a mere posistive comment about ourselves from another person make us feel good even in the slightest way. One thing you may find common is that we thrive on recognition. Employees perfom better with incentive and praise. Students respond better with encouragement. Lovers love more with compliments and reassurance, amongst other things. On a very primitve level, is it not accurate to say we are a species of attention seekers in one way or another? How is it that you claim the attention and recognition you seek? Do you deserve it?

So we all want recognition in our lives. But there are those who want their lives to be recognised. There are those who strive for meaning and purpose in their lives, they want to be remembered for something. Amongst these is a division. One group merely wants to be remembered for anything at all. The next group purposely live what they want to be remembered for. Each day of their lives is an extra brick laid on what they are out to build, what they will leave behind as a product of their lives. They literally live their legacies.

The day you cease to be a part of this world, what will you be remembered for? Are you living a legacy?
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Well driven, well played

Each morning you get up, is there a particular reason why you do excepting that biology dictates you do? Is there something out there you are chasing and constantly thinking about? And for what reason do you persist? What is it that you are driven to achieve? Do you have such a drive for anything at?

In Shona culture, amongst tribes scattered all over Zimbabwe a popular saying goes 'kurara hope rugare'. Directly translated into english this means 'peaceful sleep is a luxury'. This is not to say one must not sleep in peace, by all means do. However the value in this 'motto', if you will, is in the drive it relfects in those that use it in the way I imagine. The driven person will not rest until they get what they want, they recognise the fact that mostly for high value goals, high risks are part and parcel; that it is mostly a case of 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. But nothing stops them, they just go in with only one direction available as an option in their vision, similar to a horse on a race track.

But what really sets apart the well driven from the driven person is that they know every particular detail about what it is they are in pursuit of. They obsess about it. Nothing they do in their regular being is unrelated to their crystal-clear ultimate goal. They do not dream about the future, their mind is already there and only awaits the chronological procession of time to allow their bodies to arrive.

It is from knowing every gory detail about what they chase after in life that gives them the extra drive. Here's an example: Tom wants coffee but has not quite decided around what type he wants. John wants coffee too, only he knows which type, the size of the cup he wants, the type of lid he wants for the cup, the nutrient composition of the milk he takes, how much milk he will take and the exact measurements of the type of sugar he wants to take down to the grain. John might just be a weird guy with a lot of time on his hands, but if there was a question of who has better visualized the satisfaction they will get from drinking the coffee, who would be your guess? Who would you reckon would arrive at the coffee shop first? If there was some kind of distraction from getting coffee who would it most likely deter from seeking coffee? Try work out how this analogy would apply to the various pursuits we often take up in our lives.

Having a mindset placed already in the environment you wish to create for yourself only drives you more and will often spawn off various traits as by-products that are not at all unfavourable.

So... Are you well driven?
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Are you the best you can be?

Are you the best you can be according to you and what you have set out to be? Often we find ourselves caught up in comparison tangles with other people.. 'i can do better than you in this', 'i have a bigger this than yours'... so much that we forget what we are made of. What is it about your very existence that you can perfect by your own standards and call yourself the best at it?