Growing Young

Chronologically, with the passing of every second, our physical bodies grow older. But I have good news – no matter what is happening without, you can grow young within.

This will happen if you are:

1) Willing To Never Cease Learning

2) Willing To Reach Beyond Your Current Capacity

3) Willing To Dream Big Dreams

4) Willing To Never Retire, But Rather Re-fire

So let’s take a closer look at these four areas that will keep you growing younger, no matter how old you are.

1) Willing To Never Cease Learning

Someone once said to me that we will be where we are in the next five years as a direct result of the people we associate with and the books we read. That is why I choose to hang around people who are younger, and those of any age who are smarter than myself. I simply choose to keep the company of those who have a much higher IQ than myself and ask lots of questions while taking plenty of notes. I don’t need to know everything. I just need to have access to those who know more than I do.

In addition, I spend the bulk of my reading time reading ‘wisdom’ literature, starting with the Glorious Quran and then working my way through books written by brilliant men and women who have lived throughout the ages and into this present time. They inspire me, teach me, and cause me to think beyond my current thought patterns. They in fact mess with my head – and yet out of that mess comes great clarity.

2) Willing To Reach Beyond Your Current Capacity

Some people are ‘toe dippers’ while others are ‘plungers’. I have to admit it – I’m a plunger. I go where angels fear to tread as it were. It’s either sink or swim. But I’m pleased to report that I have to date never come close to drowning. Oh sure, I’ve probably gasped and spluttered along the way, but have finally, because I had no choice but to survive, learnt very quickly how to put together the necessary strokes that were required for me to reach the other side.

By stretching beyond our current capacity we suddenly become a bigger person who can handle more stress, pressure and responsibility, because we have dared to grow beyond the status quo.

3) Willing To Dream Big Dreams

I dream more while I’m awake than when I’m fast asleep. I dream ‘impossible’ dreams. I dream ‘ridiculous’ dreams. But the crazy thing is this – I have watched many  of these dreams come true, because I dared to dream.

To be a dreamer is to be someone who looks forward with anticipation towards a promising future. It fills you with hope. It packs your brain with plans. It forces you to become creative. It brings you into the company of other dreamers. This is the place where life must be lived if you are to continue to grow younger with every breath that you take.

4) Willing To Never Retire, But Rather Re-fire

Man was never created to retire. We were created to re-fire. With the addition of years the wisdom , the experience, the insight that you have obtained needs to be imparted to the generations that follow. Retirement in fact is a selfish word. If you simply settle into retirement you are robbing future generations of the riches that are yours, and which have always been given to you to share with others.

Every time I’m given the opportunity to mentor someone younger  (Specially my younger brother) than myself, I feel that I have become richer because of it – and often learn much more about myself. I find that I’m actually smarter than I first thought, and am amazed as to how much I’ve actually learnt throughout the years. The law is true – the more you keep giving, the more you keep receiving.

So shelve your plans for retirement, and reposition yourself by finding someone younger to help, and burn with a fresh zeal in your re-firement.That way – until the day you leave this earth – you’ll continue to always grow young.

The Law Of Kindness

I have to pinch myself sometimes to be reminded that I just could be the luckiest man alive on planet earth.

I live in a democratically run country. I have freedom of religion. I have an abundance of food, the ability to earn as much money as I want, and plenty of opportunity at my disposal.

I can drive what I want and where I want. I can travel freely throughout the world. There are no limitations placed upon me and my dreams. I am loved by my family and my friends – even when I make mistakes.

I can set goals. I can make plans. I can sip lattes, read books, listen to music, watch films,  swim in the ocean, paddle up a river, climb a mountain, and breathe in the fresh air. To do these I don’t ever have to ask anyone’s permission.

I can tap into the latest technology available and communicate with my friends in an instant – whether they live in Peru, Panama, Paris or Portugal.

But with all that freedom I am ruled by one law – the law of kindness. And that law states that the more that I get the more responsible I need to be when it comes to giving.

Get more? Give more!

For I have walked the streets of poverty. I have visited the corridors of leprosy colonies. I have smelt the stench of lack and I have heard need’s cry.

So I am fully aware that as a citizen of planet earth I have a responsibility to reach out to those around me and to  share what I have, as directed by the one who created kindness, with those I am divinely brought in contact with all the days of my life – demonstrating the spirit of the law called kindness.

Dream Stealer

Original Author - Peter G. James

I have recently been embroiled in an ugly legal threat devised by men who have nothing better to do than to lure their prey into a net, and even before both myself and two other parties knew it, we were the victims of some vicious personal attacks aimed at destroying both ourselves and our businesses, and even some dear relationships that had been reforged between the time I first met these men until when the attacks began.

The sad thing is that these men are not what I would call stupid men.  They are seemingly gifted with great talent, but have allowed themselves, because of past challenges faced, to seek devious ways to get ahead.  And one of their greatest ploys seems to be that if their dreams are seemingly unachievable, that they will seek to steal or destroy the dreams of others in the process.  How childish!

So how do you guard yourself against these dream stealers?

Here are just a few ways that I have, through experience, not only kept my dream in tact, but at the same time ever-expanded my dreams.

1. Find Your Dream – The first thing is to have a dream.  This can only be acquired if you ask yourself some serious questions.  Have a conversation with yourself and ask yourself this question:  ‘If time and money were not restricted in any way, what would I do, have or be?’  Answer that and you will begin to unwrap not only your past, but your future and your present.

2. Hold On To Your Dream – Never ever let another human being take away your dream.  They may take your house, your car, your business, your bank account – but as long as you hold onto your dream all those things are replaceable.

3. Share Your Dream – Be selective in your sharing. For no matter what happens in your life,  you need to surround yourself with a company of people who will cheer you on.  By sharing your dream openly you are crystallizing it in your own mind while at the same time positioning yourself as one who is held accountable while in pursuit of your dream.

4. Secure Your Dream – Unfortunately the world is full of doubters who question anyone who calls themselves a dreamer.  You will hear the following: ‘How dare you think that you can do that? What right have you to think that you can have that?  You’re not qualified.  You don’t have the ability.  You’re not sufficiently skilled or educated’, and on it goes.

5. Pursue Your Dream – The great thing about doing business for myself is that I don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to succeed.  I simply get an idea and then follow it.  Now there have been times that I have hit roadblocks.  But some of those stoppages have taught me the best lessons.  So I simply get up, dust myself off and go again on the highway of successful dream fulfillment.

So be alert.  There are dream stealers all around you and I.  They may even be in your family.  But do not allow them to steal the dream that, once achieved, will even bless the thieves who endeavoured to rob you of your life’s destiny.

Create An Explosive Existence

At dawn on July 4, 1934, Marie Sklodowska Curie, at the age of 66, finally died. Her death was caused by 30 years of exposure to her greatest scientific discovery – radium and its dangerous radioactivity.

Otherwise known as Mrs Pierre Curie, Professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, Nobel Prize Winner in Physics and Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry, the words she had written when she was only 26 rang true in her life, “We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.”

And as Abraham Lincoln expressed so eloquently when he was inaugurated as President of his nation for the second time, “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, let us strive on to finish the work that we are in…”

Both GIANTS, one in the world of science and the other in the world of politics, impressed upon themselves and others the importance of attaining what must be attained and of striving for what needed to be striven for.

What passion? What courage? And yet each and every one of us have a mission which we have been born to complete.

My challenge to you is this: Is your train(life) on the tracks that will carry you towards your mission’s fulfilment?

Maybe you’ve been derailed. Maybe you haven’t even got on board and haven’t really thought about it. Maybe you think that you’re not important enough. Maybe you fail to recognise your own very personal giftings.

Stop right now and consider this!

YOU ARE SPECIAL! That’s right…S-P-E-C-I-A-L! And that is why I want to stir you into action so that you can create an explosive existence.

Don’t just cruise through another year. Don’t do the slipstream thing, sliding yet through another BOOOORING year.

EXPLODE!

Get yourself packed so full of DYNAMITE that you will literally blow-up. When tomorrow hits, the wick will be lit and you will be ignited; ready to shoot like a skyrocket whizzing off and into space.

Higher than a kite, you’ll be leaving your own personal jetstream where you can start to write your own messages in the sky for everyone else to see.

You’re not going to be the one anymore standing on the shore craning your neck to see what letter of the alphabet is coming as the skywriter breaks the blue background with his white grafitti.

You are in charge. You are the composer of the music of your life. You are the designer of your destiny. You have the power of choice within your heart and your hands. You are the master of the masterpiece that is YOUR LIFE.

Let me inspire you to make this year a year that will be remembered as your year of beginnings and your year of never endings.

MAKE YOUR LIFE A LIFE OF BEGINNINGS AND A LIFE OF NEVER ENDINGS

But how do you do that?

Here are five simple steps to guide you in your pursuit of an EXPLOSIVE LIFE that will keep exploding all the way into eternity.

1. BURY THE PAST

There are two types of past that we all experience and must bury.

One is the NEGATIVE PAST. Now the best thing to do with that, and we all have some part of our past lying in negative soil, is to bury it.

One person suggested that if you ever had anything of a negative coming back up to your mind haunting you, then the best thing is to write it on a piece of paper and then physically tear it up. Rip it into a million pieces if you wish. Really take out your aggression on that piece of paper. Burn it if you like, but once and for all bury the old baggage.

Even physically dig a hole in your backyard with a shovel and toss the torn pieces of paper in there if you wish and say a prayer or two if you like. The important thing is that you rid yourself of that negative past once and for all. Otherwise you will continue to be tripped up by your past for the rest of your days.

Second is the POSITIVE PAST. Bury this in your heart. Call up these positive events time and again for reinforcement of the fact that you are a winner and that you are possessed with the ability to overcome, no matter the circumstances.

Keep a list of these wins. Keep memorabilia in a success file if you wish and one way to keep a record of these events is to maintain a journal.

I have boxes full of old journals that I have kept in exercise books and I now keep a lot of my records on my computer.

2. DIG UP THE DREAM

Life has a bad habit of overshadowing and burying dreams. Many of our dreams were birthed in our lives when we were very young and for some reason have been put aside or allowed to have the dust of the years settle on them.

If you’ve lost it, go find your dream again.

Go on. Don’t put it off. Go get it. Write it down.

Because once you’ve got your dream in place there will be no stopping you.

YOU WILL EXPLODE.

It is the spark that will ignite your life. It will wake you in the morning. It will keep you pushing towards it throughout the day and it will keep you up late at night.

The dream will add years to your life and productivity to your years.

3. PLANT A NEW SEED

With the rediscovery, or the reignition of your dream, you must start to invest in your life and in the lives of others.

But the facts are that if you are hungry, then how are you ever going to feed others.

Invest in yourself.

Feed your dream.

Read and grow in knowledge and understanding of your chosen path. Read and inwardly digest. Gorge yourself if you like, because if you are full to overflowing then you will then be more than able to feed those who come to be fed.

Make learning your ambition and listening your habit. Listen with both your eyes and your ears for there is so much to learn.

A seed planted in your life will ultimately produce a crop that will feed so many more than you could, at first, have ever imagined.

Seeds hold an incredible power within them that will ultimately multiply. So plant a new seed.

FIRST THE SEED AND THEN THE HARVEST

4. WATER THE CROP

Planting a seed is not enough. You must spend time watering the seed through constant attention.

Read. Listen. Surround yourself with mentors. Keep the company of likeminded positive people. Teach. Share. Write. Finetune your dream. Readdress your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals from time to time and see if they still light the fire within your belly.

Track your progress and evaluate often.

Always remain teachable and correctable. Critics can at times sting and yet be some of our greatest tutors.

Stay on track. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted or pulled aside from the path you have chosen. But at the same time learn to recognize the breezes that will gently blow your sails  and guide your craft(life) in a more correct route.

Whatever you do, always follow after peace in your own heart. Utilise your strengths and open yourself up to new learning experiences.

5. REAP THE HARVEST

This is your finest hour: the ultimate fulfillment of your dream.

But don’t forget that the harvest time can at times require the greatest expenditure of effort. So don’t slacken off. Roll up your sleeves and pitch in.

Marie Curie achieved her dream. But even though it ultimately claimed her life, her discovery has positively impacted the lives of millions throughout the world.

Abraham Lincoln didn’t live much longer, after his second inauguration and the restoration of peace after the Civil War, and yet he freed millions from slavery both then and in the future.

Dreams are often paid with a high price, but a life lived without a dream is a life never lived.

Motivational Quote:  A life lived without a dream is a life never lived.

Passion

I love hanging around people who are passionate…they inspire me, they refire me, they ignite the desire within me to be the very best me that there possibly can be. And that is why I love to have friend who are visionaries and go-getters and people who are far more successful than myself in their own field of endeavour.

That’s why when I read a book that has really impacted my life I write a letter to the author or shoot off an email to them with positive comments and at times questions so that I can learn more. And in most cases I have received a personal response back and have created a brand new friendship. These are my mentors and I aspire to be as they are.

I refuse to spend a lot of time around people who are going nowhere. If I am to be led by anybody I must be following a leader who is going somewhere. They must be on a mission if I am going to submit myself to their commission and they must be passionately pursuing their vision, whatever that may be.

Passionate people don’t stay long in a rut. They kick them out. And that is why passion will carry you through until the fulfilment of your vision.

And how do you develop passion? You discover your strengths – the things that you love doing – and you do whatever it takes to use those strengths and by so doing your life will be strengthened from strength to strength.