9 Things i Now Know

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Dr. Didacus Jules © Didacus Jules

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Important life lessons

Transcript of 9 Things i Now Know

Page 1: 9 Things i Now Know

Dr. Didacus Jules

© Didacus Jules

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Although we are told by everyone from very early that Life is never a bed of roses, we still behave as if we expect it to be. When crisis and unexpected problems confront us, the easiest reaction is to be overwhelmed. If we take the time to analyze the crisis or the problem we will find that embedded in the root of the problem is the solution and that every crisis also presents wonderful opportunities that can take us to a different height. Like they say “when Life gives you lemons, make lemonade”

A crisis turned upside down and inside out is an opportunity

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It’s about never giving up and keeping alive a fire for change. Life was not meant to be a mindless adherence to anything. Unless you find purpose in life you will spend your entire life like a sleep walker who is just going through the motions of existence, reacting to external stimuli and a victim of circumstance. Don’t go through life like a sleep walker. Humanity is endowed with consciousness and we should seek to extend our consciousness to really experience what it is to be alive!

Maintain an unrelenting optimism of the will

We should strive in every waking minute to make deliberate choices. This means always analyzing the situations in which we find ourselves, examining our options to understand and anticipate the consequences of choice in each option. And then CHOOSE. If we do not exercise conscious choices, then choices are made for us by others or by the logic of the situation and then we become the victim of circumstances.

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There is no better lesson than failure

There have been so many occasions in my life in which I have experienced failure of all kinds. There are the things that I have failed to do; there are the things that I have failed to accomplish; there are moments when I have failed to be; and there are responsibilities and standards that I have failed to uphold. But looking back, I realize now that some of the greatest, most important and most impactful lessons of my life have been taught – not by my achievements – but by my failures. And I have learnt also that success and failure are not separate milestones but different parts of a process and a cycle. As a child we learn to walk by falling down and the fear of falling did not overcome the will to walk. If we learn the lessons of each failure, we discover the secret of the next time success

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In our adolescence we all go through a stage where we oppose our parents. We think that they will never understand us; that they are out of touch and irrelevant. When we too get older, we realize that we all become our parents. The problem with the older generation is that we too often forget the carelessness of our youth and pretend that we never committed any of the sins of youth. The problem with the younger generation is that they think that their parents were always old and never did the crazy things that they don’t want them to do. The reality is that when you are young you are inexperienced and invincible but when you are old, you have learnt the hard way and know the dangers of the road ahead of the youth.

Later, if not sooner, we all become our parents

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The most pathetic spectacle is to see people bending opportunistically in every wind. I learnt from an early student protest experience that when you take a stand on anything, do so on the principle of the position and not the popularity of the cause. And before you take a stand on principle be sure you can keep standing inspite of the consequences. “If you can’t take the heat don’t enter the kitchen”. You lose a little bit of your self-respect every time you give in to fear and intimidation and your spine gets weaker every time you genuflect to expediency

If you don’t stand for something, you represent nothing

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Life is a coin tottering on its edge

Human life is sooo fragile. Death walks our shoulder every day and we know not the hour. If we were to be more conscious of the ever-present possibility of our death, we would live better and more fulfilling lives. As I write this, I have lived for 20,455 days – that in hindsight is A LOT of days!... but I must treat every future day with which I am privileged not as just another day but as a gift of the Universe. The more we realize that tomorrow is never promised, the better we live today. And when I think back on these 20,455 days, I regret how much of it has been wasted in all kinds of negativity – inspite of all that I have accomplished. But I have also learnt that an attitude of gratitude for all that life has brought is the foundation of peace of mind and growth of spirit.

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It’s the only way to be really sure in your conviction. The entire chronicle of human progress is written by those who have questioned things. It is those who question everything, who challenge every dogma, who look twice at what is taken for granted who have enabled and hastened human progress. I have learned that to question things is not to be disrespectful even if we have been taught that you should be respectful of authority. Respect can be demanded but it has to be earned; and what is disrespectful is to require anyone to display blind adherence without the conviction of conscience.

Always question everything

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Always question everything…

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

- THINK DIFFERENT, Apple Computers 1997

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We are all HUMAN

I was taught and socialized at home and in school to respect others because we are all the same. In spite of these teachings the expressions of prejudice in our language, our social attitudes and the reality of our social structure made us treat difference as if it were abnormal. I have come to learn that disrespect for difference is the product of fear and ignorance. We demonize other religions because we force God to wear the clothes of our culture; we find other cultures weird because we are too locked in the confines of our own conceit. The prison of perception prevents us from seeing the Other just as we see ourselves and to understand that no matter how different another human being is from us, we are fundamentally the same.

We all share a common humanity and the more I travel all around the world (having now seen 62 countries or 26% of the world), the more I appreciate the wonder and beauty of the diversity of humanity. We are brothers and sisters all, loving and working, dreaming and constructing, our fear and our courage stem from the same human heart. Take time to understand and to celebrate the rainbow of humanity.

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We are all HUMAN… perspectives 2

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Wealth creation is not what we have been taught

We are never taught the real secret of wealth creation. If I had known then what I know now about the real world of finance, I would have structured my entire approach to wealth generation differently. The earlier that you gain a realistic understanding of the world of finance the better able you are to avoid its pitfalls. Wealth is created by accumulating assets that can generate independent income. A personal mortgage is a trap created by the banking industry to make you an indentured worker for the greater part of your working life. It is the slow painful road to asset accumulation that enriches the banks more than it enriches you. Take time to research and understand the options for investment and to understand how to use financial tools to work for YOU.

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More powerful than the will to win is the courage to begin

Anonymous

MAKE YOUR LIFE COUNT

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“but how could you live and have no story to tell?

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, White Nights