The true nature of small.

 So we look at skyscrapers then we get the impression that our world is big; then we look at mountains , islands and we get even more convinced that of the illusion. We then see the vast  bodies of the oceans and the sky and we conclude that Earth is a big planet and  perhaps consider the possibility that the sun is revolving around us. Well, we all know that its not true. Infact in 1990 as the Voyager I space probe was leaving the solar system, it was made to turn back and take a picture. On that photograph (above) our 'big' earth appeared as a tiny , pale blue dot. Yes, Everything we know of is stuffed on that 0.12 pixels dot. However, the most intelligent, most inquisitive and intuitive creatures the universe has had are not found giant Jupiter or Neptune but on that blue dot . This only means one thing; small is not the same as insignificant. 
We all want great things in life, we have big dreams and sometimes they just seem too big to be realistic. When this crosses your mind just remember that everything big started small. Every great ending has a humble beginning. Bill Gates started Microsoft in his college room, same story with Mark Zuckerberg and all the big names that we hear of today. They all  convey one message; there is no shame in small. Everything starts small, a book starts with a paragraph, a dollar starts with a penny, we are born small and grow older with every sunrise. Small may appear insignificant, but it has potential, lots of potential. 
Henri Frederic Amiel, a wise Swiss poet once wrote, "What we call little things are merely the causes of great things; they are the beginning, the embryo, and it is the point of departure which, generally speaking, decides the whole future of an existence. One single black speck may be the beginning of a gangrene, of a storm, of a revolution." I can't add onto that but all I can say is value what you do no matter how small it seems, because the truth is every second and every step of the way counts. 

Moving.

  Today am going tell you the story of John. In his mid 20's John lost his job, he ran bankrupt over the next month. After a few days later he bought a lotto ticket and won the lottery. He got so much money that he bought a house, a car and could afford not to work for the next 50 years.At least that's what happens in movies and God knows we love to be in John's shoes.We love drama, that's a fact. We do want results in the shortest amount of time. Unfortunately, in the real world, different rules apply.Big change happens not in a day or week but in years. 

Change is always happening. We see it as we grow up, flowers blossom, rivers dry up and rejuvenate, we see change everyday of our lives. Some changes are rapid while for others, we are less likely to notice they happen; but they do. For instance, the petroleum we use today originates from fossils of organisms that lived hundreds of millions years ago before the time of dinosaurs. Even slower is our universe which has evolved to this stage in 13.7 billion years ago there was no plan for life in the universe.

So yes we are changing, and most of the time we don't notice it. We are moving, whether that means rotating with the earth every 24 hours or revolving around the sun but point is life is dynamic. We are always headed towards a direction, either up or down, but we don't stay the same. Anyone who has been on a weight loss journey can relate to this. You always have your focus or else you dwindle to the 'down' direction.

We have goals and are probably working towards them. We obviously have plans but when plan A and B and C don't work it can be hard to know the direction we are headed. That is not the time to quit but to make plan D and E and F until something happens.  When we give up, we don't just stay stationary but we start heading to the 'down' direction. What matters is we keep the goal in mind and trust the process. Believe, there is nothing wrong with wanting things you can't see. Drama happens, the romantic happy ending happens, it will take a little longer but it will happen,  all we have to do is believe. 

Simply proactive.

As we move through life we pick up certain skills, independence, communication, personal management and of course the conniving skill of making excuses.  We naturally learn to conjure up explanation so that everything looks good. A project fails and we blame it on the weather, someone dies and we blame it on sorcery. Somehow the blame game has become part of being human.  With this cycle we end up being reactive creatures. We wait for something to happen before we actually do something.  There is a term for creatures that live this lifestyle, its animals. Naturally, we too are reactive; after all we evolved from chimpanzees.

But we are not animals; we can do better than that. Given the size of our brains, nature raises expectations on us. We are expected to be proactive. Abraham DeMoivre’ clearly portrays what proactive means. De Moivre could have easily lived like any other tutor, live for the next penny. He was poor, he couldn’t get a reasonable job at universities due to his French origin and yet he didn’t give up on mathematics. . He even played chess to supplement his income. He read from giants like Isaac Newton and he eventually derived the infamous deMoivre’s theorem.  Here is the difference between DeMoivre and ordinary people. DeMoivre had something to blame, poverty, but he didn’t use this excuse, he worked his way around it. If you are wondering what proactive means then you got your answer.

Proactive means going for our goals and working situations around them. It means moving towards our goals even when its’ not feasible to do so. It means taking charge of our lives and learning to adapt to whatever obstacles comes our way because reality is always made of obstacles. Reiterate that goal in your head so that nothing you do will jeopardize it. It’s by far the most direct way to being proactive.

There will always some kind of obstacle, something to keep you from reaching that goal. If excuses is all we are looking for then we have nothing to worry about. But if we live for excuses, then what is the point in living. Be proactive, it’s the only way forward, no great man became great accidentally. They had a mission, and when obstacles came like De Moivre they worked their way around them.  So here’s the moral of my 400 word essay, be proactive, life’s amazing that way.

                

Extraordinary.

Today, I will tell you a story; an ordinary story of an ordinary boy who lived an almost ordinary life.  He was born smart and exuded it even more in school. Curiosity and support drove him to read, read and read that at 16 he managed to pass Physics and Mathematics University entrance examinations.  This is the part where the story gets ordinary. Reality hit hard after he graduated from college, he couldn’t get a job.  All he wanted was a teaching post at a university. Well, every dream job is hard to find. It must have been a turn down considering he was THE genius since childhood.  After 2 years of unemployment, he got a job, not the dream job but still a job. He worked at the local patent office in Switzerland. He used this opportunity to play around with stuff. That is how he got to unveil the secrets of the universe. This ordinary boy was Albert Einstein.

“Have ambition but not too much, it’ll cost you” We hear this voice of mediocrity from almost all corners of life.  If the boy was not Einstein, this story would have a slightly quieter ending. Some other boy would simply listen to voice of mediocrity, live an ordinary life and leave an ordinary legacy.  Einstein, on the other hand, had passion and ambition.

We look at people like Einstein and think they were either superhuman of some sort or they were more talented. We look at legends like Dr. Ben Carson, Barrack Obama , Bill Gates  and immediately assume these people were born to succeed. They weren’t, they simply realized the power of the human brain and were confident enough to explore it. In short they had ambition and guts to ignore the voice of mediocrity.

I think there is nothing with a little ambition, nothing wrong shooting for the stars. Many will kill your ambition to ‘protect’ you from disappointment. Here’s the somewhat good news, everyone fails at some point and its’ no reason to quit. We might be fragile physically but mentally, we are stronger than we think.  Bring intention to your actions and everything will fall into place. As you keep with 2014 resolutions, hold onto that ambition no matter the circumstance, that’s you make change happen. 

Making magic.

They say a New Year is supposed to bring some sort of magic. They say you get one wish on this day, a wish we want granted in the next year. Scientifically this doesn’t make the minutest of sense simply because nothing is expected to come out of nothing. But then again, as credible as science is, it can’t explain a lot of things, especially when the human mind is involved.
Truth is there’s nothing special about beginning a New Year. Technically, its’ just a day we change a digit of the date on a calendar conventionally made for our convenience. A new year could begin in February, June or even December; any day could mark the beginning of a new year. It is that moment when you make the decision to make life amazing and explore its magic.That is what makes it special.
I remember this day Tuesday 1^st January 2013; I was sitting with a blank page trying to come up with realistic resolutions, so I wrote a list of everything I wanted to do. Excel academically, Build my character, make better lifestyle choices, oh yes and start a blog. I had an idea of a silent blog, fun, progressive, a blog that draws inspiration from science, blocks the noise we constantly we listen to and believes in humanity.  Now that I look back I think I did just fine. This blog has over 4500 pageviews, something I never expected. Yes, I've had accomplishments and disappointments too. But that’s life, failure is never the end but merely means to the end. The journey continues in 2014.

So, here’s 2014, am still staring at a blank page, just like 365 days ago. This time it’s not the same. This time, I actually believe in New Years’ resolutions, I’m not afraid to fail or take chances; I actually believe that life is amazing. There’s a common phrase that everyone uses on New Year, ‘New Year, New me’.  Well, I think I’m still the same old me, only bolder.

They say New Year is supposed to bring some sort of magic.  They forget that magic is all around us. We make magic in the choices and commitments we make. Here is a perfect moment to make that wish and make it come true, you got the magic. On this first day of the rest of your life, I would like to wish you an amazing new year. 

Ho ho ho!

It’s that time of the year again; Time for the big guy in red who comes every December. He makes some sort of annual report cards and uses them to determine the present each of us gets, if at all we deserve it. Some call him Santa, some call him Father Christmas, others name him Saint Nicholas and others choose to call him anything that stands for hope. I don't know how he comes into the picture but here’s the logic; Jesus was born 2000 years ago, ever since Santa brings all children presents to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. That was the original intent of Christmas; Somehow Santa is part and parcel of the season and funny thing is he doesn't even exist. A bitter reality we have to face as we grow up.

What’s exactly makes this date special? I would like the magic behind everyone going home in December, behind the spirit of giving, anticipation and rejuvenation, hoping for a present from a jolly fat man who not even in dreams exists. Norman Vincent Peale, my inspirational author of all times, once wrote, “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” I guess there lays my answer. Hope, I like to think is the English term for Christmas. I have seen no other season where this spirit is shared all over the world.

 I have a feeling there’s a reason Christmas comes exactly a week before New Year. Strategically it’s that time of the year to analyze our goals and resolutions before jumping onto new ones, spend time with people who really care and give. Life can be a rough road sometimes, in most cases it is, the holiday season is like that full stop at the end of a long sentence. It is a break to really reflect and read between the lines, and grab a second chance at life.

 So, whether Santa exists or not, presents or no present, I would to like to wish you a Merry Christmas/ Happy Holidays whichever applies to you. Let’s use this opportunity to make life even more amazing. You deserve it.

The Missing Link

Think of a rock, a heavy rock that you will never be able to lift; Its 99% empty, no matter how much you compress it. Actually, everything is 99% emptiness. Everything you can touch; yourself, your possessions, your pet, the screen you are looking at, its 99% nothingness. As wrong as it may sound, physics provides no counter evidence. 

The fundamental building blocks of everything are atoms and atoms are 99% vacuum, as electrons revolve about the tiny nucleus as far away from each other as possible. Quarks and leptons make protons, neutrons and electrons. These make atoms, which make molecules which make materials which make humans, other organisms and the rest of the universe. Strictly speaking, our universe is essentially empty. Maybe it is just nothing but there is just so much borne out of it.

         Today the world buried one of the greatest men in history. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. The man who stood for what he believed in and did the impossible, even if it meant 27 years of torture and humiliation, and many more years of conflicts thereafter. I could attribute this to the royalty lineage that ran in his family, or the education he received from the University of  Fort Hare . I could, but I won’t. Nelson was a boy who tended herds like other cattle-boys, spent much time outside with other boys , like everyone else he was 99% empty. He wasn’t superhuman by any standards, he simply made the right choices.

            Here is a story of another nobody to whom we owe the pleasure of the modern day decent life. You've probably heard a million times before that Thomas Edison made the light bulb and Faraday gave us electricity. Here’s another name you’ve probably never heard of; Nikola Tesla. Tesla made the first hydroelectric power plant, he played a major role in developing alternating current and on top of that we owe him for advances in wireless communication, lasers, x-rays, radio and a lot more. In his lifetime, Tesla registered more than 111 American patents and around 300 patents worldwide. I would also attribute this to his abnormally large memory or his mother’s genetics but Nikola Tesla was, as ordinary as any university student who messes the final exam and doesn’t graduate, made of the same elements that make the rest of us.

            What then is the missing link between ‘99% emptiness’ and a world record? There has to be one, otherwise this blog would be totally pointless. That invisible link is choice. We make choices every single day of our life, we decide what we have for breakfast, what we wear, we make plans for the week, the month and the next 5 years. Choices make the missing link that scientists will never be explain. Science can explain why lack of protein leads to kwashiorkor or how water lights up our houses but it will never explain how one man can fight for the freedom of a million others or how one geek can change the course of civilization.

We are all just nothing after all we are born with nothing.  What we do with this life, the legacy we leave behind is entirely upon us to decide. We do not have control over our circumstances but it is what we do about it that matters. Not even science can predict our future with absolute certainty.  Whatever it is you want, a good career, wealth, a world record an amazing life. It’s your choice, your call.