LEARNING FROM YOUR MISTAKES

I’m leaving all philosophical questions about mistakes up to you. One person’s pleasure is another person’s mistake: decide for yourself. Maybe you enjoy stabbing your neighbor’s cat with a banana, who knows. We all do things we know are bad in the long term, but are oh so good in the short term. So regardless of where you stand, I’m working with you. However mistakes are defined in your personal philosophy this essay should help you learn from them.
Learning from mistakes that fall into the first two categories (Stupid & Simple) is easy, but shallow. Once you recognize the problem and know the better way, you should be able to avoid similar mistakes. Or in some cases you’ll realize that no matter what you do once in a while you’ll do stupid things (e.g. even Einstein stubbed his toes).
But these kinds of mistakes are not interesting. The lessons aren’t deep and it’s unlikely they lead you to learn much about yourself or anything else. For example compare these two mistakes

1. My use of dual part harmony for the 2nd trumpets in my orchestral composition for the homeless children’s shelter benefit concert overpowered the intended narrative of the violins.
2. I got an Oreo stuck in my underwear.

The kind of mistakes you make define you. The more interesting the mistakes, the more interesting the life. If your biggest mistakes are missing reruns of tv-shows or buying the wrong lottery ticket you’re not challenging yourself enough to earn more interesting mistakes.
And since there isn’t much to learn from simple and stupid mistakes, most people try to minimize their frequency and how much time we spend recovering from them. Their time is better spent learning from bigger mistakes. But if we habitually or compulsively make stupid mistakes, then what we really have is an involved mistake.
 Watch out for INVOLVED MISTAKES.
By: Scot Berkun

The four kinds of mistakes

One way to categorize mistakes is into these categories:

• Stupid: Absurdly dumb things that just happen. Stubbing your toe, dropping your pizza on your neighbor’s fat cat or poking yourself in the eye with a banana.
• Simple: Mistakes that are avoidable but your sequence of decisions made inevitable. Having the power go out in the middle of your party because you forgot to pay the rent, or running out of beer at said party because you didn’t anticipate the number of guests.
• Involved: Mistakes that are understood but require effort to prevent. Regularly arriving late to work/friends, eating fast food for lunch every day, or going bankrupt at your start-up company because of your complete ignorance of basic accounting.
• Complex: Mistakes that have complicated causes and no obvious way to avoid next time. Examples include making tough decisions that have bad results, relationships that fail, or other unpleasant or unsatisfying outcomes to important things.

HOW TO LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES

You can only learn from a mistake after you admit you’ve made it. As soon as you start blaming other people (or the universe itself) you distance yourself from any possible lesson. But if you courageously stand up and honestly say “This is my mistake and I am responsible” the possibilities for learning will move towards you. Admission of a mistake, even if only privately to yourself, makes learning possible by moving the focus away from blame assignment and towards understanding. Wise people admit their mistakes easily. They know progress accelerates when they do.
This advice runs counter to the cultural assumptions we have about mistakes and failure, namely that they are shameful things. We’re taught in school, in our families, or at work to feel guilty about failure and to do whatever we can to avoid mistakes. This sense of shame combined with the inevitability of setbacks when attempting difficult things explains why many people give up on their goals: they’re not prepared for the mistakes and failures they’ll face on their way to what they want. What’s missing in many people’s beliefs about success is the fact that the more challenging the goal, the more frequent and difficult setbacks will be. The larger your ambitions, the more dependent you will be on your ability to overcome and learn from your mistakes.
But for many reasons admitting mistakes is difficult. An implied value in many cultures is that our work represents us: if you fail a test, then you are a failure. If you make a mistake then you are a mistake (You may never have felt this way, but many people do. It explains the behavior of some of your high school or college friends). Like eggs, steak and other tasty things we are given letter grades (A, B, C, D and F) organizing us for someone else’s consumption: universities and employers evaluate young candidates on their grades, numbers based on scores from tests unforgiving to mistakes.
For anyone than never discovers a deeper self-identity, based not on lack of mistakes but on courage, compassionate intelligence, commitment and creativity, life is a scary place made safe only by never getting into trouble, never breaking rules and never taking the risks that their hearts tell them they need to take.
Learning from mistakes requires three things:

1. Putting yourself in situations where you can make interesting mistakes
2. Having the self-confidence to admit to them
3. Being courageous about making changes

NB : TO BE CONTINUED . WATCH OUT FOR THE NEXT ADVICE

FAKE FRIEND

She Slept With Her Snake And Then The Vet Told Her Something Shocking

This is a true story about a woman from India who lived in the Middle Ages and had a pet snake, python, which she loved so much. The snake was 4 meters long and looked healthy. However, one day her unusual pet just stopped eating.

This lack of appetite in the snake continued over a few weeks. The desperate woman tried everything she could and offered anything that a snake would like to strangle and eat. Nothing worked, and finally the woman took her loving pet to the veterinarian as a last resort.

The vet listened to the woman carefully and asked, ?Does your snake sleep with you at night, wrap around you closely and spread out throughout its length??

The woman was surprised and with a lot of hope she said, ?Yes! Yes! It does it every day and it makes me so sad because I see something asking of me, and I cannot help it feel better.?

Then, the vet said something shocking and most unexpected. ?Madam, your pet is not sick; it is just preparing to eat you.? Yes, the python wasn?t sick but it has been preparing to eat her instead!

?Every time, it is creeping and ?hugging? you, wrapping around your body, it is checking size to weigh how a great meal you are and how it must be prepared before the attack. And yes, it does not eat, in order to have enough space to digest you more easily,? the vet said.

This story comes with a moral ? Even people close to you, whom you are very affectionate with, can, have mean intentions. You need to identify the snake around you and their true intent. Hugs and kisses are not always honest.

Don?t fear the enemy that attacks you, but the fake friend that hugs you.

LAW OF LIFE

When a newspaper reporter interviewed a farmer who grew award-winning corn each year he entered his corn in the state fair, it was revealed that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbours.

Perplexed, the reporter asked, ?How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbours when they are entering their corn in competition with yours each year??

The farmer smiled knowingly and explained, ?The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbours grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbours grow good corn.?

So it is with our lives. Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others. For the value of a life, is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find  happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all. Call it power of collectivity. Call it a principle of success. Call it a law of life.

The fact remains, ?None of us truly wins, until we all win.? In life, when you help the people around you to be good, you surely become the best. Always bear in mind that "Real happiness is helping others.
live and let's live.
Good day !!!

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by

default: by the moral failure of those who

evade the fact that there can be no

compromise on basic principles

.

SUCCESS STARTS FROM THE MIND

The power of can’t: The word ‘can’t’ makes strong people weak, blinds people who can see, saddens happy people, turns brave people into cowards, robs a genius of their brilliance, causes rich people to think poorly, and limits the achievements of that great person living inside us all.”

SUCCESSFUL LIFE IS A POLISHED LIFE

Life is a gift that has been given to you. It is in your hands to make the best out of it--dare to believe that you can. Through the ups and downs, you'll find a lesson to learn that will make you a better person. Each experience--good and bad--makes you grow. Get along with life and surely, things will become easier for you. Live for today and enjoy every moment. Capture the best that life has to offer you. SHALOM TO YOU ALL

Critical Steps to Improve and Inspire Your Life As A Youth

Clark heard Brian Tracy once say “Your life gets better when you get better.” He took that to heart years ago and came up with these critical steps that I personally use to kick his butt into high gear. He has achieved great success following these steps. Everyone will have a different meaning of what success is to them, so make it personal to you. For some, it might be financial, for others it is significance.
 I have achieved great success in both definitions and I know that you can too. It takes courage and commitment.

1) Don’t Just Rely On Your Brain, Listen To Your Intuition Too – It’s the great voice of your spirit. It will lead you to your “Why”. Once you have listened, then you must follow your “why”. It all starts with a goal and believing in yourself. Believe that you can do it and believe that you are worth it. Give yourself permission right now to make your life matter. So many people don’t believe that they can achieve much in life. Give yourself the gift of goals. I write down my goals so that I can map out the means of getting there. It doesn’t matter if it’s a financial, physical, intellectual, or spiritual goal. Start to imagine what it feels like to have already achieved your goal. Feel it and get into commitment mode. How bad do you want to achieve the goal? What resources will you utilize to go after it? What sacrifices are you willing to make? If I am writing it down on paper, I am also writing it down in my head and imprinting it on my soul. I know I am fully committed. I will do whatever it takes to make the dream a reality.

2) Own It! – Define your goals very clearly and precisely. It helps you map out and anticipate obstacles. It also helps you break the big goal down into smaller goals. Short-range goals are the stepping-stones on the way to achieving big things. Big goals don’t get achieved overnight, but the little goals add up quickly, and when the big victory finally happens, it will feel like it happened overnight. My overnight success took almost sixteen years to accomplish, so I was not surprised when it happened. I’d spent every day of my life working towards it. It took action. I created niches and got in the trenches with the mindset of persistence, determination, integrity, enthusiasm, optimism and having a can win attitude.

3) Just Suck It Up! No Complaining – If you complain, that is the mindset you will remain in…a prisoner of your pain. Your attitude can be your best friend or your worst enemy. You have complete freedom to choose how you will act and react every second of the day. There’s 86,400 seconds in a day. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it. Obstacles will come, oh yes they will. For me, working hard and overcoming struggles is a daily business. I have found that from the birth of a dream to eventual reality has been a marathon and not a sprint. It takes time. “Success is not a result of luck. It is a result of how you spend your free time.” I always have a few different goals, so that when I need a break from one I can focus on another. Very few painters work only on one piece at a time – they work on many. Put passion into all of your actions, and have many actions devoted to different passions.

4) Self Talk is Powerful – Tell yourself that you are going to have a life that counts. You are going to make an effort to never give up. You are full of enthusiasm and determination. You are ready to work hard and play hard. You will be the master of your time. Let go of your mistakes; today is a new day. Don’t let your past infect your future. I believe that your best days are still ahead of you. Optimism is power. Be ground zero for an epidemic of positivity. You are going to be a doer and not a procrastinator. You are going to be a dream activator and not a dream-denier. You are going to hang out with others who lift you up and encourage your self-actualization. Shed your bad habits, and let good habits take root through repetition.


5) Stay Away From Life Suckers – Life is about making progress. People are going to try and talk you out of your dreams. They will suck up your time with nay-saying, or criticize you and pick you apart. But you tell them that Derek said to back off. Stay away from those people who are imprisoned by negativity. They’re not even doing good for themselves, so how can they possibly be doing good for you? Get around high achievers, mirror their good habits because greatness is contagious!

6) Don’t Worry About Failing – Try, try and try! Failure and rejection are absolutely nothing to fear. With each failure, I became one step closer to success. Seriously, after each failure, change your approach. Don’t keep banging your head against the wall over and over again trying the same dang thing. You have to change your approach, period. Look at it through a 360 degree lens. There is always a way. Just look at the technology and medical advances the past 50 years. It is unbelievable. Remember the old Disney cartoons; now look at what Pixar and Disney create. It’s incredible. They have failed many times and yet they kept persevering and trying a different way until it worked. Impossible is not a fact but really an opinion. Keep pushing through.
Failure can sneak in your mind and leave you with negative feelings about your self worth. Don’t let your mind play tricks with you. Don’t let a failure keep you down or allow the voice of other people’s opinions ring inside of your head. When was the last time someone’s opinion paid your bills? Ignore them. Failure is a great teacher and in a way has been my friend all along. Remember Thomas Edison’s quote: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Failure is also a test. Failure might be telling us that we need to change direction and execute a different plan of attack or a new strategy. Your mindset has to have the right perspective in order to push through the negative self talk, the uncertainty, the fear and the discomfort.

7) Stay Creative – Your imagination is powerful. Sometimes you will have to sit quiet for thirty minutes, so you can clear your mind of all the noise and open the doorway to your creativity. To be successful, we must be strategic in taking risks and utilizing our creativity. Creativity is the taxi that will take us to untamed and uncharted territory, it is in these places that we become all we can be. Your creativity has the ability to make a new reality for you. It has done it for me. I earn a great living because of my creativity. You will be amazed at what ideas or revelations come to you when you just put aside all the distractions of modern life and turn off the TV! It wastes your time and all that you are doing is watching others live out their dreams. Here is what I do…I typically will close the door to my home office and get into my zone of working towards my goal whether it was writing one of my books, working on a new song for a viral video or creating a new website. It might be for an hour or for 16 hours in a day. It might have to be in the middle of the night when the kids are asleep or it might be missing a party or hanging out with your friends. I always tell myself… You can sleep when you die. Haha I am a firm believer in investing in your goals. Everyday work on it…Every day!
Now listen… I can shout at you until I am blue in the face, but if you don’t have the inner desire to say “I am doing this for me”, then no amount of motivational speaking will light the spark, but know this… If ever you feel like giving up, just give up your bad habits. If you’ll change your bad habits, you’ll change your life.
Remember that life is all about the little steps in your journey. Don’t skip the little steps and fall for the easy way, it never lasts. You need to exercise your discipline and commitment muscles and pay life’s tuition for a while. People are always looking for the quick way, the quick fix and lose out on the building of their character when life gets tough. If you have been through great adversity, you will be able to make it through almost anything. I have personally gone through the fire of adversity in this life as I was abused and abandoned into the foster care system at age five. I would then spend the rest of my childhood and youth in the foster care system. I went through so much rejection and feeling like a failure that it held me back for a while.
One day a breakthrough happened… I decided to divorce my story of being a victim. I began to look at my negative past with the mindset and emotion that I am a warrior, a victor! With that mindset shift, my life became easier and I had more pride of what I had been through. Also, the obstacles that I faced now would not hold me back or bother me because in my mind, I told myself that I have been through worse and that nothing could destroy me. I went through great pain and sacrifice to get to where I am now. I have learned that what you focus on controls you, so if I focus on the obstacles, they will continue to hold me back…but if I focus not what I am going through but where I am going to, the obstacles fall by the wayside and I continue to keep pushing forward. So keep pushing!
It’s time for you to envision a better future. You must visualize to materialize. Live your life fully and doubt your limits. As long as you still have breath in your lungs, there is time to start over. As long as there is blood running in your veins, you have time to make your dreams happen. We have the rest of our lives from this moment on to realize our ambitions. I am a big believer in dreaming big and taking the big leap in life. You have one life, own it and live it. A lot of people ask me “Derek, what do you think the meaning of life is?” I tell them to give your life meaning. Find your passion and breathe life into it so that your life’s meaning can help transform the world. Once you are confident about your own ability to achieve, you can help create a world of achievers through your example. Always helps others and remember your ABC’s…Always Be Compassionate.
I came up with a simple acronym for H.O.P.E. so that you can easily remember and apply it in your daily life.
H.O.P.E. – Helping One Person Everyday! Be the example.
Never limit your life, and never give up!
To your success,
"Let our words bring development in our country by encouraging yourself and others" by Bismark
 MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER: Derek Clark

Stop Punishing Yourself! Let Go and Grow.

Sometimes your purpose in life finds you when you least expect it. If somebody had told me a few years ago that I would be the author of six books and a top ranked motivational and inspirational speaker, I would have asked what mental institution did they escape from. How foolish I would have been! The river that is your life flows free, and has a way of changing direction and overflowing its banks…then surprise you. When you are motivated and doing your best, more and different opportunities come your way. When you have complete faith in your abilities and you know, I mean really know, that you are going places, you begin to understand that nothing can stop you from achieving the success you were meant to have.
I have always been a person who tries. Sure, there were times I wanted to give up, to run away from the mounting challenges that come with any effort to try something unprecedented. Yes, I have failed and failed and failed. I have gone forward, backwards, and sideways. But I never got so sidetracked I lost sight of the main thing: keep doing your thing! Keep on trucking! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you never fail until you stop trying.

BY : Derek Clark

HOW TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL AS A YOUTH

Formulate a vision. Have goals and get ready to rock. Take action now. Any action will create motion and motion means you that are moving. Make use of your time instead of being used by it. Find purpose. If you have no purpose in life, you just bounce around in mediocrity. If you look around you and cannot find a purpose, try putting yourself in a new environment. New horizons force us to look at the world in a different way, and fresh ideas come from fresh surroundings.
Have fun. What good is making money if you don’t know how to have any fun with it? Know how to laugh. A good, honest belly-laugh is more precious than gold. The days of our lives should not be filled with misery and grouchiness. A day without a laugh is a day that is wasted.
Vance Havner said it perfectly when he said, “Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.”
Think of the first steps you are going to make. Step one is always believe in yourself. But it all starts with a goal. I write down my goals so that I can map out the means of getting there. It doesn’t matter if it’s a financial, physical, intellectual, or spiritual goal. Imagine what it feels like to have already achieved your goal. Get in commitment mode. How bad do you want to achieve the goal? What resources will you bring to bear in going after it? What sacrifices are you willing to make? If I am writing it down on paper, I am also writing it down in my head and imprinting it on my soul. I know I am fully committed. I will do whatever it takes to make the dream a reality.

Define your goals very clearly and precisely. It helps you map out and anticipate obstacles. It also helps you break the big goal down into smaller goals. Short-range goals are the stepping-stones on the way to achieving big things. Big goals don’t get achieved overnight, but the little goals add up quickly, and when the big victory finally happens, it will feel like it happened overnight. My overnight success took almost sixteen years to accomplish, so I was not surprised when it happened. I’d spent every day of my life working towards it.
If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it. Obstacles will come, oh yes they will. For me, working hard is a daily business. It is a marathon, not a sprint. “Success is not a result of luck. It is a result of how you spend your free time.” I always have a few different goals, so that when I need a break from one I can focus on another. Very few painters work only on one piece at a time—they work on many. Put passion into all your actions, and have many actions devoted to different passions.
Tell yourself that you are going to have a life that counts. You are going to make an effort to never give up. You are full of determination. You are ready to work hard and play hard. You will be the master of your time. Let go of your mistakes; today is a new day. Be ground zero for an epidemic of positivity. You are going to be a doer and not a procrastinator. You are going to be a dreamer and not a dream-denier. You are going to hang out with others who lift you up and encourage your self-actualization. Shed your bad habits, and let good habits take root through repetition.
Life is about making progress. People are going to try and talk you out of your dreams. They will suck up your time with nay-saying, or criticize you and pick you apart. But you tell them that Derek said to back off. Stay away from those people who are imprisoned by negativity. They’re not even doing good for themselves, so how can they possibly be doing good for you?

Don’t worry about failing. It is nothing. It is the voice of other people ringing inside our heads. Failure is a great teacher and in a way has been my friend all along. Remember Thomas Edison’s quote: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Failure is also a test. Failure might be telling us that we need to change direction and execute a different plan of attack or a new strategy.
To be successful, we must be strategic in taking risks. Risks will take us to untamed and uncharted territory, but it is in these places that we become all we can be.

MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER: Derek Clark