Follow your heart!

You can't go wrong if you follow your heart.  Many people I know and have known are lost, trying to find themselves, or simply don't know what they would like to do with their lives.  I truly believe that they know what they want to do to, they are just scared to do it.  I believe that their hearts want to lead them in a certain direction, but are too scared to try.  If you do something with all your heart, you will be able to get up every morning and do it.  Most people have jobs they can't tolerate, but they do it for the money or for the stability.  These people literally rip themselves from their bed every morning.  Just the idea of going to work makes them ill.  I am here to tell you, it is not worth it!  I have been there and done that.  You will only become more miserable every day.  This is not good for you, physically or mentally.  Do something that you truly love to do, at any level.  If you want to be a news anchor one day, work for the news at any level, i.e. runner, mail room, camera guy, anything.  You will be soooooo much happier, you will actually learn something in the field you love and you will have the potential to move up to a better position.  Of course, with hopes that you will accomplish your ultimate goal. 

If what your heart wants won't pay the bills, then don't quit your day job until it does, but keep working on your goal as much as possible when you are able too.  Don't give up!  Make yourself a happier and successful person.  That's worth it!

Limbo

I can't think of a worst state of being for me than being in limbo.  I can't stand it!  I am neither here nor there.  It eats me up inside.  I feel like I have emotional, mental and physical turmoil when I don't know where I should stand.  When I hit limbo, which I noticed at least in my life, that I hit it every once in a while, I do anything in my power to get out of it.  I will work hard to find where I need to be.  Sometimes, you just need to wait for something to happen that is completely out of your control or the state of limbo is actually caused by someone else in your life.  Regardless, if you can find your place, do it as quickly as possible.  If you need to wait, be patient and hope that the end is near.  But if you can control it, by all means, please do not sit there and wait for something to happen to you.  You have to go after what you want.  Things don't just happen to people.  People make things happen for themselves.  Maybe you are a very complacent person.  Maybe you are not a go getter.  Maybe you have not one once of ambition.  Then I am speaking to the wrong person and this blog is not meant for you.  But if there is a gleamer of ambition or hope in you, please go outside and do anything that is at the very least respectable and do it well.  You will get yourself out of limbo immediately and into a soon to be better future.

Think before you speak!

I think I get most frustrated when people just talk to talk.  Speaking should be reserved for people who think before they open their mouth.  If you think of what to say before you say it, you are giving yourself the opportunity to perfect what you are going to say.  This is not an easy task.  It is so much easier to think out loud.  It takes patience to actually have thoughts prior to saying words.  This is particularly important because you can do so much damage to yourself and others with few words.  Sometimes you will say such thoughtless things that will only in turn fill you with regret.  Why put yourself through this in the first place.  Listen, stop, think and just when you think you heard and thought enough, listen and think some more and then speak.

Never, never, ever assume anything!

My number one rule of life, never, never, ever assume anything, at all, ever!!!  I cannot stress this rule enough.  I believe that assumption is man's worst enemy.  It doesn't matter how big or small.  What you think is not a big deal, will always turn around and bite you right in the ass.  Take the time to always, confirm, confirm, confirm.  You can assume that your husband paid the electric bill and deal with getting that additional fee to get your electric turned back on.  You can assume that your child is buckled in the car seat and end up thanking the heavens that nothing went wrong when you got home and noticed he wasn't buckled at all.  You can assume that someone knows something because everybody does, and they really don't.  It truly costs you all but seconds to know for sure or so much more to assume.

Dedicated to my very good friend in life-Y.G.

Do it right the first time!

Every time I think to take the shortcut, I always go back to one of my teenage experiences.  Something so simple as washing my car made me learn so much about life.  Here is the story.  I wanted to wash my car, my first car, and I did't want to bother getting the long garden hose from the back of the home and pull it up to the front where my car was, so I decided to park my car in the grass next to the short garden hose.  Well, I spent hours washing the outside and cleaning the inside of this car, it was white, by the way, and it was so clean, shiny and dry.  I got in the car to move it back to the driveway and all of sudden the car wasn't going anywhere.  The tires were just spinning and spinning.  After washing the car for hours, I managed to turn my lawn into mud.  I ended up getting the car completely muddy.  I had to get help to get the car out and I left tire holes (yes, literally holes) in the grass and ruined the lawn.  If only I had not been so lazy and just had gotten the long hose from out back.  Not to mention, I had to rewash the entire car.  This time I got the long hose and washed the car on the driveway.    Eventually, I had to make the effort to get the long hose anyway and if I would have done it right the first time, I would have saved myself a whole lot of trouble and a lawn.  I have taken this experience and truly thought of it every time I think of skipping a step, because I know that eventually I will probably have to redo all the work the right way anyway.  Basically, doing the work twice.  So now I do the one extra step every time and I end up saving myself many extra steps.  Do it right the first time!

Go with your gut!

There are moments in your life that I am sure you have come across where you felt a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.  That feeling is your gut feeling.  And in that moment you knew you should have walked away, but didn't.  I have learned in my life, that if I would have listened to my gut I would have saved myself a lot of grief and trouble.  I don't know what it is.  There is no science to it.  There are no known explanations for it.  It is just there.  I think it's there for a reason.  It could be a way for the world to maintain some sort of order, or simply to make sure people don't get into too much trouble.  I am not going to say that everyone has this gut feeling, but for those of you who do, and you know who you are, listen to it.  It rarely is wrong, if ever.