Don't Wait to be Happy.

Wednesday, when I walked into my MCOM class, my teacher was dropping some life wisdom on us. She told the few students that were there early that life doesn't really get any easier after college. I find myself thinking that after I graduate life will just magically become easier. She squashed this notion. 

After graduation comes a real job - and unlike school, you can't just skip class if you want to. Add in family and children, things definitely won't be easier. 

So her advice? Don't wait to be happy. As I write this, I am listening to "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and watching these minions laugh. Happiness is a choice. I'm not suggesting to ignore true feelings, or feelings of depression, but rather I can choose to enjoy my life while experiencing those feelings. 

The happiness that my Professor was talking about - I think it is more about feeling fulfilled. That's important because if you wait for tomorrow to be happy/fulfilled, a few years down the line you will look back and realize you missed out on a lot. That was my experience in High School.

So, what am I going to do? Don't worry...don't wait to be happy...choose to enjoy life now...continue to take steps to be more in control of my life.  

You Can Learn if You Want to!

I have had "Safety Dance," by Men Without Hats, stuck in my head this week, and it is because of the title of this post. You can learn if you want to. This week, I was preparing for an Econ exam with a friend of mine. He asked me to help him study and I took that opportunity to help him, and at the same time study so I can do well in the class too. 

We ended up spending about 8 hours studying for this test together and it paid off. I took the exam today, and I got a perfect score. 100%. I was blown away! I forgot how important preparation was. A lesson I learned on my mission was this - "Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance."

If you put your mind to it, you can learn it. And actually enjoy it. So I am going to try to change my study habits and start preparing for exams a few days before I take the test. 

Priorities.

Ever since I can remember, my dad has been in love with cars - specifically BMWs. He served his mission in Germany in the early 70s and has had a special place in his heart for these automobiles. And I can thank him for passing the bug onto me. 

Give me an old, semi-beat up, drivable BMW and my heart would melt with joy.

At this point in my life, I can't afford a car - but I often find myself planning, scheming, hoping, and wishing that soon, I can buy one of my dream cars. Sometimes these thoughts distract me from what is going on in the moment.

That leads me to what I have learned this week. It's all about priorities and sticking to them. 

What are my priorities? How much of my life should I devote to each different priority? 

Should I be longing and obsessing over old cars that I can't have right now? Should I be focused on martial arts and spending time away from home and school work? Should I sacrifice time to work at a job instead of doing school work? 

I want there to be a constant percentage of my life that I know I need to devote to church, and to schooling, and to family, and to martial arts, and to work. But there isn't. Life isn't easily segmented. And it definitely isn't held together perfectly all the time. Sometimes schooling is most important, and other days martial arts. Church activities may need my full attention at times. And that's okay. 

As long as I know what I stand for and what my priorities are, and act in such a way that leads me to fulfill my goals, life's alright. So, I am going to strive to live in the moment and be open to adjusting my focus to address the things that need my full attention at that time. As I do that, I can live a more fulfilling life - and maybe, one day, drive my dream car. 

Of Things That Matter Most.

Big things are big things. Small things are small things. Small things can become big things if you let them. 

It's easy to let little issues or stressors begin to take control of your life. It can start out as having a lot of homework that is due. You begin to work on it. Next you realize that you have been working on your assignments consistently for the past 4 hours! Wonderful! Then you notice a familiar feeling start to make its way into your chest - the all too powerful "anxiety storm." How can this happen?? I have been doing everything I needed to for the past 4 hours! I shouldn't be stressed!

Well, sir, there is the issue right there! Stop. Breathe. Take a rest. And realize that life is good. Enjoy it! You don't need to frantically do ALL THE THINGS right this instant in order to be relatively stress free. Rather, slow down, and take time to focus on the things that matter most and recognize that there needs to be time to recover. For me, that includes a time for decompression and rest, otherwise I'll lose it. 

One of my professors semi-joked with our class that we need to lighten up and have some fun! He said he is going to assign a quiz that makes us have fun for 2 hours...or watch The Three Amigos. 

I am going to try to make time for decompression to balance out my workload and keep my sanity with me.

This has helped me a lot.

Doc Holliday

I love the movie Tombstone. It depicts the story of Wyatt Earp, his family and friends, and the gunfight behind the O.K. Corral. My favorite character of all is Val Kilmer's depiction of Doc Holliday. He is a no-nonsense, arrogant person dying of tuberculosis who is extremely loyal to his friends and truly cares about them.

Not only is it really entertaining, plays into all men's cowboy, gun-slinging dreams, but there is one scene that really stands out to me. Doc Holliday is on his death bed and his friend, Wyatt Earp, comes to visit him. The following is their conversation from the movie.

There is no normal life, Wyatt, it's just life. Get on with it.

I worry a lot about whether or not things are perfect in my life. They never are. According to Doc Holliday, there is no normal life. My need for this idea of perfection is my need to feel normal, balanced, and like I have myself together 100% of the time. It always leaves me distressed.

It is important to embrace life AS IT IS, and seek to improve from there. Our full effort determines our success, and whatever happens after that is going to happen anyway, so why worry?

Check out these posts from fellow class members:

Enjoy The Moment

Lesson on Following Through

If You're Going to Worry, Worry Right.

Stuck in a Moment

Sometimes Bono makes me laugh.

I love U2. The Edge is one of my heroes. He knows his style and sticks with it (the fact that he rocks the bald look and makes it who he is just compounds his awesome status).

But I especially love this song.

There are a few lines that really apply to me this week. The idea of feeling stuck and feeling like "later will be better" to take care of my business (which also goes along with last week's post).

But, there is hope! "It's just a moment" and "this time shall pass."

Everyone at some point in their life can relate to the feeling of being stuck in a moment. It is necessary to recognize it and then do something about it.

This week I am going to continue to do the things that will help me feel as if I am moving forward and making personal progress.

Cultivate a Do it Now Attitude

So, I totally failed to keep my commitment from last week. I didn't ponder about where I want to be in 5 years. I didn't write down my 2020 Vision. But I had something on my mind this week that helped me to seek to improve. It was another concept that drove me on my mission. The idea of cultivating a do it now attitude.

I am prone to stress out about things - especially getting things done. I am also really good at procrastinating - which doesn't help with stress levels. While on my mission, I realized this and did my best to take time everyday to do the little things I needed to do, whether it was write down a thought, or make a simple phone call.

This week there were a lot of little things that I needed to do, and also some bigger ones. For some reason the do it now attitude idea was in my head. As I tried to adhere to my conscience and "do it now," I found that life went a little smoother and I didn't get behind on my homework and readings.

Here I am at the end of the week nearly done with all of my assignments, relatively stress free, and have more time to relax this weekend.

I am going to continue this next week to "do it now" and not let little things pass to tomorrow and add up to bigger things down the road.