On Creativity

Creativity is essential in creating the life of your dreams. If you go through life following instructions, conforming to the status quo, and stifling your creative instincts in favor of safety, then you will lead a mediocre life, at best. If you really want to accomplish your dreams, then you must be creative in your pursuit of them.

Don't tell me, "Tim, I am not creative at all." That is because you don't PRACTICE it! Creativity is a skill! You must practice creativity to become creative. Robert Frost did not write "The Road Not Taken" the first time he ever decided to write a poem. He likely has hundreds of poems that he created which he finds terrible -and are terrible.

I am not saying you must write poetry, paint canvasses, or create ice sculptures. There are plenty of opportunities in your daily life to express creativity! What is your work place like? How can you make it different? What can you do creatively in your room? Your garden? Your voicemail?

Times have changed. It is no longer better to be safe than sorry. Allow your creativity to flow. Every person is naturally creative. I cannot tell you one kid who doesn't enjoy drawing. Let it flow. When you are creative, you are yourself.

On My Current Growth

Since I am currently running an office, I am learning SO much about myself. I am only beginning to really grab a footing on the basic operations of the business and really setting my office up for success. Most importantly, I am discovering things about myself that I didn't realize I truly had before. I can be very tough on somebody if I have to be, for example. Also, I am realizing key weaknesses. Not just weaknesses that somebody else can really make up for me. I mean weaknesses in my core character. I am developing these every day. I am trying to gain more integrity and honesty on a daily basis. 

It isn't until you leave your comfort zone until you truly learn about yourself. That is where you can truly grow into a better person. I am extremely excited because I know at the end of this year, I will have grown more than I ever had in previous years. And the goal is to grow more and more every single year.

Side Note: I am so thankful to all those who message me about my blog and thanking me for it. It really inspires me to keep going!

On Mental Strength

Whenever one approaches an endeavor, they must develop the mental strength to overcome the inevitable obstacles and things that go wrong. When overwhelmed with the tremors of adversity, you must remain calm. When thrown into the thrones of success, you must remain humble. These are basic aspects of leadership and how to truly succeed.

When adversity strikes, as we all know it will, if you react through panic then you will never regain your feet. The worst thing you can do is run away from the bear or swim away from the shark. Adversity can sense panic and that is when it clenches its jaws. You must stand your ground with the calmness and certainty that you will pull through, even when staring into the eyes of a tiger in the wide open meadow. You must make yourself bigger. You must make yourself grow. Push yourself past your natural limits and make some noise! Let the world know you are here and you are ready to conquer it. Even if you may think it as improbable as traveling the speed of light. Our mission is not merely to survive, but it is to thrive.

And finally, when success comes in tidal waves, we need not stand on top to show the world how we overcame the mighty wave... or we will fall and fall hard. Remember to be humble. There is nothing wrong with celebrating successes. The thrill is too good not to celebrate. However, it is another to attribute that success wholly to yourself. Nobody succeeds alone. Remember all those that helped you and even attribute your success to them. Then you will not merely attain a quick rise and hard fall story, but you will have your house built on a rock, ready to hold you up through the harshest waves.

How REMARKABLE do you want to be? How far do you want to push yourself to attain that? How much will you grow? How much mental strength will you attain? Will you build your house on sand or a rock? Will you panic or will you strike?

On The Journey

It is proven by positive psychology that achieving a goal provides life satisfaction for an individual. However, it is not the actual success providing the satisfaction. It is the journey of getting there. We are happiest when we are pushing for a goal and stretching our comfort zone to get there. Many people lose sight of this. They settle for mediocrity because they write off a goal before they even start. Yes, a goal creates a struggle to get there (if it doesn't, you're goal is not big enough)... and with any struggle comes frustration and disappointment but overcoming these obstacles and not giving up on something we dream of really makes us feel special. It makes us feel like we have a purpose (other than filing papers).

I encourage you to go for it. What have you been dreaming of?

My friend, Conor Spellane, has been dreaming of becoming a guitarist all his life and he is a phenomenal one at that. He wants to do it for a living. He started a band called Panic In Eden and they are just great. The best part is they are beginning to make some headway in LA! I am not saying they are big yet. They are not close yet. But I am sure Conor is truly feeling a wellbeing in his life despite the struggles and frustrations that come with being a rising musician.

Shoot for your dreams. A college degree is nice but do not just follow the rules of society. Do not just get a job that you hate so you can continue hating your job. Break the status quo. Do what you were designed to do! Do what you dream to do! Do it with passion! You can truly become remarkable. Just be yourself. Shoot for your own goals to find true wellbeing. It is about the journey of getting there.

Do you want a journey to a cubicle or a journey to your life's ambitions?

On A Powerful Sentence

I recently lost some motivation and struggled to get up in the morning for a job that I know I love to do. However, everybody has days where they feel like quitting. Everybody has days where they feel like they are not making progress. Finding an office was one of the most frustrating times in my life.

However, I have since turned it around this week. The way I turned it around was really rooted from my demotivation and asking "why?" Why wasn't everything working properly? Why aren't people coming into training? Why have a couple of my reps gone missing? It came down to the question, "Am I helping others?" My answer was no. I thought I was not truly helping anybody. I even felt like I lost the respect of my friends and family. And I spent hours searching for the answers at night with no ability to fall asleep.

Finally, it came down to this: "If I were to die tonight, what would people remember me for tomorrow?" This is pretty powerful. It induced me into extremely deep feelings as far as who I truly felt I could become and how I should get there, and get there as soon as possible. I started reading again after this question, writing, and continuing this blog now.

I began to tell people my thoughts about life again and what I feel motivates people. I am giving speeches to nobody as I walk around alone at times just envisioning myself preaching to a full arena. Now I realize the sentence that truly motivates me when I feel down.

"Live life as if every day is your last day and influencing people is your purpose."

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I laid out my thought process behind this sentence in the hopes that maybe one of you can utilize that process and find your purpose and incite action today.

Make a sentence:

"Live life as if every day is your last day and __________________________ is your purpose."
Read it out loud WITH PASSION every morning.

On Shortcuts

It is rare that shortcuts are a good idea. Shortcuts are usually taken with the mentality of, this will get me to my end destination quicker. However, nobody ever picked up a guitar and started playing Stairway To Heaven. Usually they start with something like Smoke On The Water. You need to learn each step as you go along. Even if you tried to learn Stairway To Heaven and that is all you did until you mastered it, you still have not learned the fundamentals like chords, proper finger technique, or scales. After learning Stairway, you will fall because you do not yet know how to create songs. You do not know how to learn songs. And you probably do not even play Stairway To Heaven correctly.

Apply this to other aspects of life. Creating a business: if you try to grow too fast, you will fall since you do not have the people in the organization capable of holding up your company. Being a student: If you do not study throughout the year, your grades will hurt at the end.

Always remember, if a path feels like it will be hard, but it is the correct way of doing it, then do it every time. It is easier in the long run.

On Life Changes

Many times people find themselves in a position where their life will change drastically. Right now many people, including myself, are graduating from college. This is a pivotal time but when you form your life, you have to remember a few fundamentals that apply to every change and you can become successful in whatever you do.

First, whatever you do in your free time defines who you will become. Do not waste time doing nothing or watching too much television. Spend your free time active and doing things. Life will become far more enjoyable and if you do something consistently, like play in your room with physics like Einstein or start a new business or read personal growth books or write poetry or read this blog, you can become a master of that task over time. Do you want to master watching tv or writing poetry?

Second, embrace change. Without change, nothing gets better. You need life to change to move somewhere in life. Always remember to embrace change, even if it is bad, because every change is an opportunity to do something great!

And finally, have a plan. If life is changing, make a plan to handle that change. Many times a plan does not work for the little details but making one helps you achieve the final destination since you already know how to get there.

Good luck in life people! Be REMARKABLE!

On Crunch Time

During a time period in which you have to really push yourself to get results, it is important to step up to the challenge and face it head on. I have to admit, I have not done this during many opportunities to do so, but it unleashes your full potential and pushes you through a period of rapid growth. Once you realize you are capable of doing more than you give yourself credit for, you begin to truly excel at a higher level.

We see this many times in sports where a player breaks out during the playoffs and elevates their performance to another level. What typically happens is this performance allows them to raise themselves to a higher level in the following season because they have unlocked a new potential for themselves.

Accept crunch times or push weeks as a growth period and you can grow faster than most people around you. Challenge yourself to become truly REMARKABLE!