Christ Lewis's Blog

There are talents that give people an edge over others. Examples vary depending on the field they can be intellectually gifted, they can have stamina to run a marathon or fast-twitch muscle that helps them to outrun their competition on the 100 meters. This describes gifted people and we were not all that lucky, but it is not always a blessing, sometimes it stops us from becoming the best we can be as we rely heavily on that edge to defeat others. Bottom-line, hard work beats talent every time. That is the secret wealth we all have and we can take advantage of.

Hard work means that when others are slacking, you are busy building yourself and your skills. It makes sense that for every minute you go a bit further than your competition and it accumulates over time to become a sizeable advantage. Successful people were not always the fittest for the post, what they lacked in talent, they made up on effort. A good example is FDR, even though he was disabled by poliomyelitis, he still ran and won the race for president. He carefully studied the audience, never let anyone see his crippled walking and was prepared for the smallest of contingencies. He knew that it would take all of him to defeat the opposition and he was ready to make the sacrifice.

It is sometimes better known as work ethics, focusing on diligence and hard work. It is mostly taught at home since an early age but it can also be a habit acquired in adulthood. It is just a matter of setting clear goals, working towards them and not making excuses for our shortfalls. It is normal in society to make excuses, but they can stop us from reaching our goals. Ultimately, hard work yields better results, even if we fail on the first time, if we trust the process and have a robust work ethics we will eventually come up on top and reach our goals.

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This might sound like a simple topic and if we were to hop on the hectic train of what modern life is, we would find ourselves studying the ones that made the most money or that hold the most power. Instead, if we take a minute and contemplate the title we can see that some are appraised as successful by society but might not be healthy, as in psychologically healthy. The combination of both factors becomes hard to find. Furthermore, when we think of what each means it becomes an even harder topic.

Success has to be measured subjectively, depending on each of our values and our circumstances. As a religious person, someone might value being pious and then look up to some saint or enlightened being such as Lord Buddha. As a money savvy person, one can look up to Jordan Belfort, the protagonist and writer of “The Wolf of Wall Street”. For the first person, Jordan will look as a shallow, overly ambitious person. For the second, it will not look up to Buddha or saints as they are not aligned with their interests and are not ambitious enough for them. So, it has to be kept in mind that most of the judgement is done from a personal point of view.

When we talk about healthy, it can also be interpreted in different ways. On this point, the second type should be inclined toward as it is more holistic and reaches further into our personal life. It is a thing to have a six pack, have cuts, and get ripped, but to what are you willing to sacrifice for it? if it takes to have steroid injections or other harmful substances. The reigning question is, is it worth it? it is something for one to answer, as we do not believe in one size fit all. What we do believe though, is that having a healthy lifestyle means to take care of oneself, to eat healthy, and to prevent or alleviate chronic diseases.

If we have both in mind, success and health might be closer home than what you might imagine. If what you look after is to have a healthy lifestyle that does not focus on “gains” but value someone that is family oriented, it might be your mother or some other family member. Do not be swayed away by what most people say, the successful and healthy depend on what you stress in life. When you realize you are stressing on the important things, you will become a healthy and successful person as well.

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A good runner has certain qualities that make him stand out of the crowd; be it having longer legs, larger lungs or faster twitching muscles. In part is their anatomy that sets them apart and they know it, they exploit to have an edge over the rest. If your goal is to be happier, then a way to reach that goal is to know what to focus on and what are the qualities that make you a happier, more spiritual person.

A great first step is to understand that hatred is not a constructive force. Most religions and philosophies base their creeds on love as opposite of hatred, this comes from the understanding that to change what we dislike in a situation, we have to act carefully and not care about our individual outcome, but how it affects others. If we were to base our actions on hatred we would end up further alienating our enemies, polarizing our community and creating a situation under which everyone is worse off. Treating friends and foes kindly is the way to go.

A step that will further improve your life is to focus on the now. The previous point will give you some karma extra credit but this tip will help you appreciate how life is being good to you. By focusing on the present, you enjoy the sweet and the sour, you rejoice on the rewards and you learn from mistakes and problems that life throws at you. If we are stuck in the past, we will not be aware of what is occurring now and furthermore, we cannot change what has happened already. When we think of the future and plan ahead, we will not have time to appreciate the present and furthermore, when the future, that we have planned for, becomes the present, we will also be too busy to focus on the now.

When both steps are combined, we grow to be better people, on one hand, we come from the moral high ground and make decisions that are better for everyone and secondly, we focus on the present and do not cling to either past event or future plans. The combination makes for a powerful experience, where we make better choices and we experience them with better awareness.

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Success comes in different ways. It is hard to achieve and sometimes even harder to hold on to. An example is Christopher Reeves. Unluckily, his rise to stardom was short lived because of a horse riding accident that left him tetraplegic and wheel-chair ridden.

Let us first focus on his career as an actor, the one that caught our attention and gave life to Superman on its 1978 rendition. He was better known for this job but he had a long career on drama. He started early on his life as an apprentice in Williamstown Theatre Festival. He built his career with charisma and work ethics. It seemed as if everything came easy to him, with a seductive look and an always-ready hair style, but his debut as an actor was a flop. “Somewhere in Time” was first aired on 1980 and received crude reviews that described it as too sentimental. Even though it was the first of a series of disappointments, he kept going, minding his business and doing his best as an actor. The road to success is rocky and it cannot be measured upon third parties opinion, when there is a clear goal and the source of sincere criticism comes from within you are unstoppable.

When he reached fame, his luck turned its back on him. He suffered a serious spinal injury that left him paraplegic. But he reinvented himself as an activist to better the life of people suffering what he was going through. He died on October, 2014 but left a world where society is more aware of the affliction that disabled people have and with an institute that furthers the agenda of quadriplegic victims.

On both sides of his life one can see that he had an internal drive that made his dreams come true and that even when he was dealt a bad hand, he did not isolate himself but instead became an activist for a worthy cause.

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What does it take to change yourself for a better? Actually, a better question should be “when do you realize that you have to change?” Sometimes, you are walking on the street and see some attractive people, then you tell yourself that you will be like them one day. In this case, the reason you are changing is that you want yourself to be as what people in the society think attractive, but maybe not what you want.

People have different tastes but those are usually from social trends or what the society tries to make you think that they are yours, what you like, your personal tastes. Trends also changes all the time and it might be hard to keep following all of them to keep yourself looking good. You can change your look by wearing new clothes, making up new way, or even walking more straight. However, you might get tired of it eventually and then come back to the way you were. Therefore, choosing your own styles and ways of being that you are comfortable with might be a better idea.

There are no certain principles on how people usually persuade themselves to change. You might want to ask yourself what can you get from each particular change or if the end results are attractive enough for you. It always depends on how you really want or like yourself to be. Therefore, you should follow the way that you believe or the way that can last long enough to keep you motivated to change.

For example, you are an employee who is always invisible because you are against many of your company traditions and you have no belief in them. You do what you have to do to keep your position in the company. No matter how good you do, people can see that it is not who you really are, and so ignore you. Then, you become invisible again. However, if you know that you will always get a higher bonus by always having good performance, you will be motivated and do whatever it takes regularly to change, as having much money is the goal that you are trying to achieve.

To conclude, people have different goals in life and the goal is one of the things that can persuade people to change for a better. If you set goals that really come from your mind and are attractive enough, you will keep doing everything to accomplish, and that is how you change.

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The anxiety can be both your worst and best enemy at the same time when working. The full load of work makes you worried and unsure of what to do to finish everything. However, the scientists found that the more you are worried, the better you work. So how does that work?

When you are worried, you seem to work faster and more efficiently. It is because you are pushing yourself more as you know the deadline is coming right after you. You are able to see what is unnecessary and not helping as the problems can easily be exposed since the beginning. Eventually, the work can be more simple as you know what can be cut out to limit the amount of your work. Also, you can reduce your anxiety and make the best out of it by doing the following suggestions.

First, you should list down all things you have to do every day. However, keep in mind that you do not have to finish every single list by the end of the day. The list is just to help you know exactly what actions you will have to take to finish each list, and what is left to do. Once you have everything on your paper, you should prioritize your list and try to put it in order, so that you can see what is the most important one and so on.

Moreover, you should try to set the estimated processing time for each list. It can really help you in prioritizing and solving the problems you have. These two easy approaches might help you to rank your list easier and come up with great solutions to finish your backlog; first, shortest processing time, and second, earliest due date.

As for the first approach, you choose to do the work that, you know for sure, requires least time and does not need much of your skills, such as house chores. The second approach is what most people choose to use as they want to make sure that they will finish within the deadline, such as homework and assignments from workplace.

All in all, you should know when to let things go and to stop being a perfectionist. Once you learn to eliminate the inessential tasks, the work can be done easier. However, if one day, you feel like you cannot keep doing this much work load anymore, remind yourself of the goals you are trying to accomplish and that will give you courage to endure everything that is crashing down on you.

If you want to read more, please visit www.christlewisbooks.com

Many people know the benefits of having self-esteem, but only a few know how important it is to have it. Self-esteem is the way you value and believe in yourself. You do not need to have it much, but should be enough to make others value and respect you as the way you want them to. Having low self-esteem can give you many disadvantages. Two obvious disadvantages are stagnancy and social avoidance.

First, when you are not confident with yourself, you do not trust your own efficiency. You will not think that you are capable of completing any challenging jobs assigned. You only choose to do what makes you feel safe and eventually lack of enthusiasm. Everything in your life keeps going like a movie that you open again and again, nothing new, nothing exciting. Then one day, you wake up and find yourself in the same point you were 10 years ago. Your career never grows. You earn a bit more every year, but you are doing the same things every single day. This is sad. Your career is safe while others’ might not, but they are already in tons of movies of their own. Therefore, stop opening the same movie and start making your own fabulous ones that no one would refuse to watch.

Second, if you do not think of yourself as someone important, others will not think so as well. Sometimes, the society you live in might let you down or make you tired. Then, you become a person who always avoids having interaction with strangers or people you do not know well. It is because you do not show your own advantages or beautiful things hidden inside you. People are, therefore, not sure if they should come and get to know you as they have no clue about you. You might feel uncomfortable in start talking with others because you always think that people might not want to know you. When they come to talk to you first, you feel great as you believe that someone actually wants to talk to you. However, they also try to get outside their comfort zone. It is a risk that we all take. Remember that others do not try to avoid you; they just do not know if they can get along with you. So it is your job to always let people know that.

As pointed earlier, a healthy self-esteem goes a long way and affects two of the most important needs of Maslow’s hierarchy. By having self-esteem you are confident enough to move out of your comfort zone and ultimately self-actualize. Secondly, when having a positive self-image, others are more likely to want to know you and then a positive cycle begins where there is a sense of belongingness which impacts one’s self image.

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When I think of artists the first names are Warhol and Van Gogh. “the Starry Nights” to “Campbell soup cans”are all praised as works of art, but the question is what about them that is exceptional. I believe that most of it comes from their creative character, who would have thought that a portrait of a pop icon, such as canned food, can create such a response. Pushing the barriers of conventional use gave them the upper hand, the creative thinking and unapologetic work.

I also believe that having a creative mind is not proprietary of artists. Being creative is an asset that is valued in most jobs. A marketeer needs to come up with a creative and appealing scheme to capture customers as well as a scientist, who needs to be creative enough to connect the dots and come up with a theory that explains their findings. Creative thought has to be then nourished throughout schooling and working life.

Studies have shown that the traditional methods of schooling are to blame for the lack of creativity that alumni show. When in first grade, students are more likely to answer questions that appeal to their creativity while older students- who have been indoctrinated in a repressive system- score lower. Other schooling systems have risen to challenge the paradigm of teaching. They create a less judgmental environment where trial and error is encouraged.

If we were to look carefully, we would see that it shares many similar characteristics with an Art major, where skills and expression are achieved in a similar way. To be more creative is to not be afraid of our personal inputs, of taking on hard challenges, and to not be bound by what others might say.

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How many times have you thought of being successful? Many people, probably you as well, have thought about it a zillion times. However, if you only think about it but never seek ways to make it happen, you will only be dragged into a deep depression as you are engrossed with the thought that you are not yet successful. Actually, just thoughts can already help. So what kind of side thoughts can really lead you to the success? While some people keep thinking about themselves and their past, some are thinking about what they are doing and how they can make the best out of it. To gain success, you should at least have these two thoughts; work is not a routine, and success takes time.

First of all, when you are working, try to think of your job as something you have a passion to make it better, not only get it done. Job is not always something that you do for money but also, something that you do for improving yourself. For example, you are working as a secretary and you have to do anything that your boss tells or asks you to do. Then, you think that your job is very boring as you have to only follow your boss and might never have a chance to do other interesting jobs or come up with more creative ideas. But if you think of it as a challenge, you will see that the jobs you are given are always different, sometimes slightly, sometimes very much, but definitely come simultaneously. So how can you make it fast and differently from what others do? While you are trying to think of the solutions for this problem, you can practice your multitasking and creative thinking skills at the same time, which can help prepare you for your future opportunities.

Second, if you have been trying something for a while but have not seen the result, you should not be frustrated, and then give up. It is of course not what successful people do. Have you ever heard of this name, Walt Disney? Who has not, right? He did not just build his own fantasy kingdom in one or two years, but more than ten years. He planned. He worked hard with his team. He got rejected many times from the banks. However, he did not give up. Sometimes, it is just a matter of time. Nothing can guarantee that it will happen soon, but you can be sure that every time you try harder, you learn and earn something. The results might not be clear or appear right there in front of you, but it is in you. You sure keep improving and developing. So the reason that you have not seen your little success might be that it has become your enjoyable routines. For example, you want to get rid of your big belly and you have been working out very hard for two weeks, then you look at yourself in the mirror and see that it is still there. You feel sad as you think that what you have done is nothing. But you get stronger and the muscle is actually kept building inside of you.

In conclusion, achieving success needs positive thoughts. You should think of your work as a challenge not a chore. Then, remember that “Rome was not built in a day”. Thoughts are the important keys to your success. If you mind gives up, how can your actions follow the path you want?

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The myth of King Midas illustrates well how identifying your secret wealth is important. Because of his kindness and ambition towards a god, he was given one wish that would become true. He chose to have everything he touched turn into gold, soon after he realized that it included food and his loved ones, thus condemning him to a life of starvation and solitude. If he were to know better, he would have identified what were positive values in his life and what were negative.

On one hand, he was kind towards the god and towards his vassals. That sense of responsibility towards them and the balanced reign is not something to take for granted. There are some other values that might be seen in this story; maybe he was trying to look after his family and kingdom, that might be the reason behind his lust for gold.

On the other hand, seeing what his greed brought is a clear example of how important identifying one’s fortitudes and weak points is. The ambition brought him down in the same way that it has brought other rulers. For example, when Hitler attempted to conquest Russia. It had already taken hold of most of Europe but that was not enough to quench his thirst.

It is possible to identify one’s secret wealth by going through trial and error as history’s actors have but it is hardly productive to surrender an empire to know whether you are smart, ambitious, benevolent or tyranic. A better way to approach this is to examine every day problems we have faced, specially those where a clear-cut answer cannot be found. By doing so we can see how we weight in different values and where we stand. Those values and the skills that come with them are our ultimate secret wealth.

If you want to read more, please visit http://www.christlewisbooks.com