Create Your Own Luck

There are two kinds of people in this world. The first looks at others who have accomplished things and thinks: Why them? Why not me? The other looks at those same people and thinks: If they can do it, why can’t I?
I've always believed that there's a bit of luck involved in most people's success; especially my own, but that's because I believe luck can be created. Everything in life is precious and the most precious things in life are usually earned through countless trials of both success and failure. These trials allow us to gain a better understanding of our own resolve and what we can create with it. We all have the power to change things, these changes we desire can be physical, mental, or spiritual and will require some form of work on our part.

Diligence is the mother of good luck, accept responsibility for your own life and self-respect is bound to spring from within.

The discipline to execute the necessary steps to manifest our reality is a chore, it will test what we believe to be our limits. These limits just like all other things in life can and will change, the increase or decrease is totally up to you.

While living in a 3rd world country to learn a new skill, my discipline and ability to execute were constantly challenged. Thankfully my desire fueled my diligence which led me to overcome the many obstacles that lied ahead of me. Like many of my peers, I faced some common obstacles, procrastination, fear, laziness, distractions, basically life in general.

The 3rd world had much more to show me though, never before had I dealt with things like unreliable power, WiFi, and even heating and cooling; for the first time in my life, the things that were once basic necessities were now luxuries, and I had to learn to work with what room was left. By that I mean even in the most uncomfortable situations I had to be actionable, I had to relinquish the victim mentality and just start where I was. My environment was not going to accommodate me the way I was accustomed to. It might not seem like it makes a big difference to see life as something you have to do versus get to do, but there is a huge, magnificent difference. I became a man of action instead of reaction holding myself accountable for making the most of my time and life.

There is success all around us, and if that is not the case for you, change your surroundings or better yet change your mindset. We see those who do and wonder why they are so lucky, I'm here to tell you that they aren't. This thing we see as luck is a manifestation of an individual's decision to stop passively discovering who they are, and instead actively creating who they want to be. Often this will not happen overnight, it may take thousands of days to know who you are, but it only takes one day to quit asking, never let that day come. Your expectations are a bigger enemy to your happiness than your circumstances, start where you need to and don't stop until you get where you want to be.

Sustained execution, bears more fruit than shapeless epiphanies

It’s far better that we become pragmatic and adaptable— able to do what we need to do anywhere, anytime. The place to do your work, to live a good life, is here.

8:47 AM

I woke up today with a deep deep sense of peace, I was up all night filled with an almost limitless energy. I'm not sure of it's source but I know now that it’s there, it is wide and it is deep. I feel like its a well that was always there, I’ve just never tapped into it before. I could feel the words that my instructor imparted to me come up through my gut and out of my mouth “Your dreams are not what you see while you’re sleeping, Dreams are what keep you up at night", I truly felt those words.

I was surfing on a high from all of the positive feedback I was getting from my latest post on my new blog, a blog that was 2 years in the making. I have tried and failed to start my website many times, I even had one completely done on another web builder, but I never let it see the light of day. As most people like to say, I just didn't feel right, but this, right now, feels right.

While I sit here in my favorite tea shop in India, the only things open are it and the fruit and vegetable vendors on the streets of the market, I'm still trying to figure out why I'm up right now since I did not go to sleep until 4 am and it’s now 8:47, but I feel full of life as if I got a full nights rest.

I'm thankful for this feeling, I woke up and told myself I was going to have some "me" time, I woke up and said my prayers, I woke up and thanked God, I woke up.

Just being alive and in this place and space both mentally and physically is a beautiful gift from God. I know now more than ever that I have a purpose, that I have a calling, and that I have found a passion.

I'm currently reading a book called The Daily Stoic, and it gifted me with some words that feel so aligned with my path that I must rewrite them just to make sure they are ingrained in my being and consciousness, "Be in control of your passions, rather than being controlled by them". I asked God countless times to help me to find mine, and have been presented with them many many times, but it feels like it hasn't been until now, right now, that I truly understand what I must do.

I finally feel like I am in the right frame of mind to write like a used to years ago, I am filled with words, they pour out of me like water out of a fountain, words that I know will fill others up with life's water.

These words are my water and the people whom come to my page are vessels, I feel it is my duty to fill them with something positive, because that is my gift. I wake up almost every single morning happy, but not happy because of what I have or what Ive done, but because of who I am, I am me, and that has been and always will be enough.

I am me when things are going good, I am me when things are going bad, and through every magnitude of measurement in and between those two states of being I am thankful.

Gratitude is a powerful word, and as I wrote yesterday, words are powerful. I spent an entire year focused on my understanding of this one word gratitude, I meditated on it, I wrote about it and now I have gathered the information, studied the knowledge, and attained the wisdom to truly understand its meaning.

The very wise GZA wrote in his book The Tao of Wu "knowledge is knowing, but wisdom is doing" and that’s what I plan to manifest.

The mantra on my page before yesterday was "I am not my thoughts, I am what I do", but I was wrong, this revelation was given to me by my cousin not by blood, but my cousin all the same. If I may, I would like to think of him more like a big brother, in the two weeks I spent in Nairobi, Kenya he poured so much knowledge into me. We stayed up almost every night talking about the origins of man, stoicism, philosophy, manifestation, and what wisdom truly means, we talked of religion, spirituality, and science. We talked of business, family and friends, we talked of life and we talked of love.

God will give you a the same message countless times, he will put you through things over and over again, and bring you around the same type of person or situation until you finally get "it". The message I received from all our talks is the same message my father has always given to me , the same message I see in the friends I admire and look up to, the same message I will leave you with here.

"BE INTENTIONAL"

If you are intentional with your words and your actions, there is nothing that you cannot manifest. Time is just a construct, it will move whether you do a lot or a little, but the purpose and vigor with which you do things is what gives time its true value. Be intentional, and watch how "fast" things change.