Being a student of Life

          People often ask me in wonder, “Have you always been a self starter and this energized all your life?” and I always laugh when I hear that. The truth is that no, I have not, but that is exactly why I am the motivated and extremely driven person that I am today. I am who I am today because of the experiences that I have gone through in my life, and despite the many mistakes that I’ve made in my short time on this earth, I cannot sit here and regret any of them. One, because the past is no longer within our reach and contemplating about changing it is an impossible notion. A notion that I’m sure we human beings, are the only creatures on this earth that dwell upon the idea of changing something that we have absolutely no control over and exists only in our minds. And two, because I know that all the walls that I’ve come across, all the mistakes I’ve made and all the hard times that I’ve endured have made me who I am today, and who I am today is the best version of myself that I have ever been. I have had to struggle and contemplate my decisions over and over again before I’ve moved forward with my choices and even more after I’ve made them just to reassure myself that I had made the right choice. There are wonderful people that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, who say that they look up to me because of the person that I am today and they feel inspired by it, but at the same time feel bad about themselves for not being at my “level”. But little do they know that I was once in their shoes and the reason why I am so motivated today is because of my lack of motivation yesterday. I had to figure out most of my life decisions on my own and that is something that both motivates me and at times may hold me back as well, but the advice that I can offer to you, out of my own experience is, be a student of life. Seek people’s advice, look for answers, consider peoples knowledge but ultimately listen to your heart, because only your heart knows you best. Don’t be a follower, be a student of your own experiences.

             It is no secret that the world around us clouds our minds. Billboards, ads, social media, the expectancy or desire to be living the same way that some of the people we follow on Instagram are living. But we forget one minor detail; think back to when we were kids, the popular saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” any picture that we come across and may leave an impression in our minds has millions of different possibilities to every different person focusing their eyes on it, including the person behind the picture. Every person is facing their own struggle, writing their own story and we don’t always know the full extent or true back-story behind the picture. We only know how to portray that picture in a way that makes sense to us in our own minds, to fall into place with our own thoughts that have come from our own experiences. Two people looking at the same picture can have two very different opinions on it, and all of it is based on each persons own life journey. So remember, do not let yourself get consumed by any outside influence because everyone is different, listen to what is inside of you and be who you are. Cut out all the unnecessary noise in your life, only when you have thousands of followers, thousands of likes, the nicest cars and realize that you are still unfulfilled and surrounded by make belief happiness, you will then realize that true happiness comes from the simplest of things. Over my many mistakes, I’ve realized that love is the universal language of the world and only when we all learn how to speak, understand, and translate it, only then will we find inner peace, and acceptance for ourselves. I have been fortunate enough to find wisdom and peace within nature, let the natural world help you cut out the noises from your mind, let nature be your serenity. Still to this day there are days when I lose my direction and find myself contemplating my next steps, but I have learned that this is inevitable because I haven’t stopped growing just yet, and I am not going to stop. The day that I stop growing is that day that I give up on myself.

        Years ago, when I was working on cars for a living and building project cars of my own, I remember my despair whenever something would go wrong, every time I would break a new component in my race car I would only focus on the bad. Until one day, when I was on the passenger’s seat of my friend’s car as we drove through the winding mountain roads, his car started having some issues and immediately I thought to myself, “man, here we go”. Already being pessimistic about the situation, I was shocked by his optimism. I couldn’t believe that I was looking at a huge smile on his face, and I immediately asked him what in the world was he so happy about?!  He calmly looked over at me and said, “I’m smiling because this is an opportunity to learn something new about my car”. And his outlook on things made perfect sense, instantly as if there had been a short circuit in my mind that changed my entire world of thinking, I applied that thought to everything I did after that experience. And whether you’re dealing with cars as we were back then, or whether you apply it to life in general, every hard experience that you may face is just the perfect opportunity to learn something new and turn that experience into the energy needed to grow as a person. Let passion and balance be the forces that drive and guide you along your journey, and I guarantee that as long as you listen to your heart you will gain the wisdom to find happiness.