Our deepest fears.

            Sometimes when I think of the giants who walked this earth, I wonder what was going through their minds. I think of Marie Curie and I wonder if she always knew she was an exceptional woman. Wasn’t there any source of doubt as she entered the "man's" field? I think of Michael Faraday and I wonder how despite being a smith’s son he appeared in our textbooks. Wasn’t he at some point afraid that he was too inadequate to speak to the most intelligent people of the time? I wonder, but then I remember they didn’t live in isolated bubbles. They were humans, who lived in societies of ordinary people, Of course they had fears.

                       

Isaac Newton; he is the guy without whom Physics textbooks are incomplete. He is the man who would write about gravitation, head the Royal Mint, and sit in the parliament simultaneously. Those are just details of his achievements, what I haven’t told you is that he once asked the Parliament windows be closed so that no one would hear his stutter. The incredible Sir Isaac Newton was afraid? That’s an unlikely scenario, but he was human of course he had this pre-installed software.

            When Miss Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, I’m assuming a trail of thoughts went through her mind. The judicial consequences of her actions on not only herself but also her family, the financial consequences and everything everyone else feared of. But she did it anyway, she spoke her mind despite the fear she humanly had.

            Biologically, Fear is the brain’s reaction to a stimulus where chemicals are released that raise the heart rate. This definition is incomplete without mentioning the fact that it has the effect of causing pulling away/ hiding. Fear, it is the most inhibiting and negative feeling you will ever have. It’s the reason why people take their dreams to the grave. It is the source of regrets and the sad part is it is a requirement for every human being. That being said, It is totally fine to have fear.

            I’m a good fan of the phrase “Everything is possible” and how naive that sounds because in the real world some (if not many) things are not possible. But I still believe, well, because if you look around, the world is modeled by people who said “Screw fear, I’m going to do it anyway” and miracles happened. So I guess I’m right to believe that everything you are willing to commit is possible.

            “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” That’s a popular quote by Nelson Mandela and summarizes 1000 words. Most people say you shouldn’t fear; it doesn’t sound natural, I think what they mean to say is; be afraid but do it anyway.

The world’s biggest failures

            They say stories speak louder essays (well I said so). So, I just want to enumerate the biggest ‘failures’ to ever happen in history.

1.       Abraham Lincoln, I know he is cliché’  but Lincoln’s life story is practically told in terms of his losses. His mother died while young, he failed in business, lost several jobs, his fiancee’ died before marriage. Not only was his personal life a mess but also his political endeavors. He ran for congress 4 times and lost, he ran for senate twice and lost as well. It takes lots of strength and determination to endure all that and not quit. Well, he eventually became the President of United States, not bad for a happy ending.

2.       Albert Einstein didn’t speak until the age of four, he didn’t read until he was seven. He suffered the embarrassing torture of unemployment too! It turns out he was actually a genius.

3.       Thomas Edison’s teachers remarked that he was too dumb to learn anything. Turns he didn’t need to learn. The world had to learn from him.

4.       Walt Disney( the guy who built the Disney empire) was fired from his newspaper editing job because he wasn’t creative enough. Well Disney World is creative by all definitions.

5.       Eden Full, (www.edenfull.ca ) claims that only 3 of 50 applications were successful. I find it hard to believe but she is the girl that makes panels salute to the sun.

Need I say more? Life is amazing, right? Yes it is. Here is to all the ‘failures’ in the world. The next time you think you are a failure, think again, ‘failures’  run this world :) .

It depends

So you want money,

Getting it has no guarantee,

You can get millions or just a penny,

It all depends on opportunities you choose to see,

So you want happiness,

Who said it’s something you can’t attain?

 You can be extremely happy or worse,

It depends on how you deal with your pain,

So you want fruitful relationships,

To be surrounded by people who actually care,

You may get acquaintances or close kinships,

It depends on your choice and flair,

So you want to shine in your work,

Like a candle in the dark,

You may stand out or suck,

It depends on your effort not luck,

You may want everything in the world,

Good news is there’s no absolute formula to use,

Forget all that has been said,

For it all depends on the path you choose,

It's called a brain.

          

What’s your first morning thought? In other words, what comes to your mind just before facing the day? Well, my answer is not fixed. I could be thinking of Plato’s philosophy, or the routine of the day or may be (most likely) breakfast.   When we get busy, we don’t find the time to think, and perhaps don’t even notice that it’s a new day.  I believe morning thoughts shouldn’t be wasted, they should be channeled to make an amazing day and life eventually. Here is why:

         What is thinking anyway? Having studied for almost as long as I can remember, I’m used to thinking, at least I thought so. I once read that 33% of the world is starving.  Normally this would be regarded as a statistic to prove the higher rate of hunger in the world. I’d probably put it on an essay and get extra points for research. But that’s not thinking, not even close.  It is just reiterating what someone observed and that doesn’t do anyone any good. True thinking would occur if I contemplated on the family that can’t afford at least a meal a day and what life is like in those shoes; if I thought of the person who dies every 3.6 seconds due to hunger then do something about it. The English dictionary defines thinking as, “The process of using your mind to consider something carefully”. Well, considering is just not enough, Thinking involves a whole lot of cognitive process, empathy, patterns, point of view and eventually leads to problem solving.

         When we stop thinking, we become statistics. Let’s consider one example; When society says you won’t make it in a particular industry and you ‘believe’ it to fit in, you are becoming a statistic; increasing the percentage of people who won’t pursue it and further proving that the industry is ‘difficult’. How about a revolution instead? Prove everyone wrong, inspire more people and make an impact in the world.

         We are constantly bombarded with information that we have forgotten how to think. Somehow thinking has been reduced to following instructions.  There is nothing wrong with considering others' opinions or even adapting them. There is something totally when opinions become our go to source to make life-long decisions. People make opinions out of what they see or have been instructed to see. In most cases, they are not always right; It is that little voice in your head that is closest to the answers. Why? Because, it knows what is happening in the back end, it knows exactly why this procedure failed and that passed. Sometimes It knows exactly what will happen in the future. It would be foolish to ignore such a reliable source.

        

            Sue Grafton once said, “Thinking is hard work, which is why you don't see many people doing it “Screw reality. Who defines reality any way? Here is what I think, you make your reality.  Reality is conceived from thoughts, plans and actions. You know that voluminous part of your body that is attached to your neck. Yes, the part that has been securely protected with a thick skull, it’s called a brain; use it.

        

        

        

It never makes sense.

           

            It all made sense, mechanics, gravitation, light, they were all sorted when Isaac Newton proved all those theories. When he said that light could not bend it made sense, we believed that inertial and gravitational mass were the same, we all believed time and space were absolute. Then came  Albert Einstein who defied all that we knew and proved that light can actually bend then nothing else made sense. Life is messed up, anyone who has ever worked at something will attest to that. I mean, we pray but we don’t get answers, we put in efforts but we don’t get what we want, we try but somehow the universe doesn’t recognize that, just when we have connected with people, they leave. Life doesn’t make sense sometimes.

            So what now? After all those failures and disappointments, give up and quit. It’s the logical thing to do but it’s not exactly the right thing to do. If you agree on that, you are not alone. We all get confused, we all lose and we lose more often than we win. Dreams are not cheap; they require all the threads you can pull up.

            I have been listening to the song, Loser like me by Glee and it just says all the right words especially this part “But hey, everyone you wanna be, Probably started off like me.”   Everyone who has made it big, everyone who fulfilled their dream started small, probably where you are right now. I like using Albert Einstein not only because he was weird, but because I have recently read his biography and I have to say there is lots of free lessons to be grabbed there. Many young people give up on their career because of all those rejection letters from job applications. It is interesting to find to find Albert Einstein faced the exact same thing, his father had to take the initiative of writing letters to professors just so he could get a placement; with or without payment. Had he given up and resorted to being normal, we would be at least a century behind in science and technology. Morale of the story; hold on, learn.

            I know how naive this may sound.  Many grownups will tell you dreams are fairytales, they never come true. Most likely because they don’t know what it’s like to accomplish something. When you look back at how far you have come, it feels nice, doesn’t it? You defied the laws of gravity at some point and nothing else matters. Take the feeling and hold on to it, it’s the feeling you’ll feel when you have finally accomplished your goal. Stop listening to all that noise even if it comes from your own head.

           

            Follow your intuition no matter how wrong your brain thinks it is. Being dynamic as it is, Life is far from sorted.  Hold on to hope because it’s the only way up what have you to lose anyway? I remember an all time classic proverb “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. I don’t know who said it, but I know he mastered the art of seeing the big picture; he mastered the art of seeing the amazing aspects of life. No matter how confused it seems at the moment, there will always be that amazing end where it will all make sense.