“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” — George Bernard Shaw
Can you relate to this?
Last night my wife and I had dinner in a nice restaurant to celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary. We had a sweet time, pleasant conversation, and loving interactions.
Back home and laying in bed, I was thinking about how much we have grown in our love of each other, and not only in love but also respect and a better understanding of our different needs.
I was also thinking about the areas we still need to grow and how to make them a part of the New Year’s resolutions. I understood that only by continuing to grow, we could count on a better future for our family as parents and each other.
And what about this one?
I also have two brothers, the eldest has a challenging personality, and communicating with him has always been difficult. I tried to avoid him, ignore him, keep minimum contact through the years, to prevent the experience of disappointments and hurts caused by his actions and personality.
Recently I had to decide to cut him out of my life or taking him as he is and love him anyway. I decided on the later, and immediately, I realized with each loving interaction with him over the last few months by phone ( He calls often), I have grown in love, patience, and understanding.
I have also grown in becoming less judgmental, less impatient, and have become more compassionate as I grew in trying to see things through his eyes and tried to walk in his shoes.
Think about it! Every difficult personality you encounter gives you a chance to grow. So it is with every situation in life, every relation, and every success as well as every failure.
Do you sometimes volunteer?
“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.”
~Oscar Wilde
Every new year my charity Foundation hosts few New Year celebrations for different groups of poor, orphans, and invalid children. One of my favorites is a party and show we organize for 60 disabled children and their parents.
They have different disabilities, physical, mental, and emotional; the ages of the kids range from 2 to 16. During the event, I have the chance to interact and talk to the parents of these kids. I am always impressed by how sweet, positive, and patient they are. They are much “taller” than me in those areas, their sample of dedication to their kids amazes me, how much they have grown as people by caring for their special kids at home. I admire them!
I read once: Question: How tall will a tree grow? Answer: As tall as it can, considering soil, sunshine, and habitat.
Next question: How much will a person grow? Answer: As much as he chooses.
Will you make the right choice?
Growth and progress is your main challenge, and what will give you real happiness and fulfillment. Maybe you feel like you are not good at something, but the good news is that you can learn!
Good, better, and best! Never let it rest, until your good becomes better and your better best!
Sometimes we settle for lives of dull comfort, and we think we have achieved success when we get married, open up a business, or have relatively good health, but is there more? YES!
Other times we are like Alexander the Great that died lamenting that there were no more worlds to conquer. Still, 20 Empires in World history were more significant and captured more territories than he did! There is always more and new worlds in our relationships, business, and personal life!
Do you want to grow?
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” ―Ernest Hemingway
You can grow and become better, no matter how well you are doing. And now, with the advent of the internet, you can learn to do anything you set your mind to. You have the possibilities to study, grow, and change, but you have to choose to do it.
We all have this mental block or limiting beliefs that shape our view of the world since we are young, but we can change it! We must strengthen our confidence in our abilities to grow and change. Life will pay us what we ask and what we have the faith to receive.
Failure causes us to grow, as we seek ways to overcome failure. If we go through life seeing each experience as a tool for growth, we can discover things we never dreamed of.
Inaction is predictable and, therefore, safe! But a healthy mind embraces uncertainty!
Some things to remember on your way up:
- In business, there are two keywords: Innovation and marketing. What is innovation? Basically, to continually seek ways to grow and make the product and services better!
- We can do the same in our personal lives, and we can continually innovate and seek new and better ways to do things.
- We need to see problems as opportunities and learn to focus on the progress we are making.
- We need to celebrate our wins no matter how small they are.
- Life is not static. Nature is always moving forward.
- In history, every time an Empire ceases to grow, it dies.
- A man that ceases to grow will also cease to exist or be of any significance on this earth.
- Make it your aim to become the best version of yourself!
“Life is a progression of becoming who we are.”– J. R. Rim
Vitin Landivar
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Thank you!