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Keepin’ it REAL: a guide to hope and happiness.

Here’s another quote that I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of:

 

Those who abandon their dreams will discourage yours.

I’ve never felt comfortable following the crowd. Never wanted to follow the math steps my teacher force-fed me. Never wanted to jump right on the bandwagon with the latest trendy music. Never wanted my friends to be chosen for me. Never wanted my net worth to be a concept I could quantify on a spreadsheet.

For me, it’s not so much about being different as it is about being true.

True to myself. True to my loved ones. True to my mentors. True to my potential. True to what’s real. True to what’s just…..Fiel a mi esperanza. Fiel a mi familia. Fiel a mi corazon…..Fiel a todo.

But how can anyone on this planet reasonably expect to escape the collosal pressures of cynicism with her/his dreams intact? How in the midst of the chaos that we call society– that we call civilization– can you possibly manage to stay true?

It’s easy. Just keep it simple.

Start by asking yourself this simple question:

What kind of a person would I be proud to be?

Each one of you will have a unique approach to defining who you might hope to be, and some of you will have to dig a little deeper than others to find your true convictions. But once you’ve got your answer, the hard work is over, and every other decision becomes a no-brainer. Once you get that question answered, you are well on your way to meaningful growth. Then you start putting the other pieces together and see what fits, and what gives.

Securing a happy and healthy lifestyle won’t necessarily require a complete overhaul of your attitudes and routines….but it might.

You won’t know for sure until you simplify your life choices; until you get honest with yourself; until you get real, and stay that way.

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This entry was written by Steven Nishida and posted on March 10, 2007 at 7:55 am and filed under career, perspective, human nature, happiness, self-help, autonomous learning, life-coach, psychology, community, learning, personal, health, quotes, philosophy, teaching, rants. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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4 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

  1. it makes a great exercise to take one sheet of paper and write down who you are - what you stand for, what you want to achieve, how you want to live. It crystallises things, makes them tanglible.

    ggw

    1. ggwfung on March 10th, 2007 at 10:30 am

  2. This is something I’m looking at very hard right now… or feeling it looking at me. K

    2. Kelly on March 11th, 2007 at 3:24 pm

  3. ggwfung: Thanks so much for stopping by. Definitely agree about making a writing exercise of the soul searching. As with all internal concepts, defining your identity and ambitions on paper can really help to bring one’s queit inspirations to life.

    Kelly: Thanks for the comments. I hope you find what you are looking for….and tell it to stop staring at you! But seriously, in so many cases, the most imporant understanding we can come to is learning to be ourselves.

    3. realityonastick on March 12th, 2007 at 3:49 pm

  4. Yes, putting things on paper does clarify things,
    and then put the ‘keep it simple’ into action.
    Sometime I think it is not so much figuring out ‘who I am’ as ‘ who do I want to be’ in terms of qualities.
    I have found in the past that each time I have not been who I would like to be my words or actions have been rooted in fear, fear of failure, fear of ridicule, fear of not gettin my ‘piece of the pie’.
    Once I can understand my fears I am better able to walk away from them. Then I can try in simple
    baby steps to be not only who I am/want to be but the very highest version of that.

    “Keep it simple” says it all, truth and honesty are simple, if we can have truth and honesty when dealing with ourselves and others,at all times, we might actually be on our way.

    4. Miss Behaving on March 14th, 2007 at 9:56 pm

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