By Melissa
Have you ever looked at something and thought, “That’s crazy!”?
Maybe someone paid exorbitant amounts of money to buy a jacket when you could have gotten something similar for a fraction of the price. Or a company launched a product that seemed so strange, so unlike anything you had seen before, that you wondered what they were thinking. To you, it seemed illogical, maybe even stupid.
But to them, it made perfect sense.
By Melissa
Does it ever feel like you’re waiting?
Waiting for something to happen. Waiting for the fog to clear, so you can see what lies ahead. Waiting for the moment the pieces come together, culminating in the perfection you spent your entire life waiting for.
If you’re still waiting, here’s news: you’re wasting your time.
Waiting is dangerous. It gives the false illusion that if you’re patient enough, time will reward you with everything you hoped for. It causes you to sit there and let things fall into place rather than doing something yourself.
By Melissa
Picture this: It’s the year 10,000 B.C. The sun is just rising.
You wake up to the sounds of rustling nearby. A few people sharpen their spears as they discuss the upcoming hunt. After downing a few gulps of water and some dried meat, you collect your supplies in a bag for the day.
You go out hiking with a few close relatives and friends to a berry patch. As you pick the ripest berries and place them in your basket, you overhear a funny story that your cousin shares about a conversation that morning. Laughter erupts.
The day carries on, dragging the sun along the sky. Beads of sweat accumulate on your forehead while your basket grows heavier. Finally, you hear a call from a fellow forager. It’s time to head back.
By Melissa
The older we get, the more our dreams fade away.
It’s a sad fact of life, if not a very real one. Early on, you have an entire slew of things you want to accomplish. Enthusiasm, energy and excitement pump through your veins as you picture yourself reaching those achievements.
Yet those feelings gradually die down with time. For some aspirations, you might have set the benchmark incredibly high and then failed to get where you thought you’d be. Maybe you talked yourself out of even trying.
And when you did accomplish something, it didn’t live up to your expectations. Reaching a goal wasn’t the be-all-end-all you anticipated. Afterward, there was a void as you thought, “What next?”
Eventually, it becomes exhausting to keep trying (and often failing). You stop resisting to the pressures of everyday life and succumb to the routine. It’s comfortable. It’s safe.
But it’s also dangerous.
By Melissa
A strong social network is important to our well-being.
But what if components of that network fail us? What if instead of uplifting us, supporting us, and making us better, they make us feel worse and drag us down?
The obvious answer would be to cut those people out. Stop talking to them altogether. But sometimes the answer isn’t so obvious. There are gray areas.
Maybe a friend pushes you into doing things you’re uncomfortable with, but has a great sense of humor and is fun to be around. Or a partner is thoughtful and means well, but simply isn’t relatable. It’s hard to cut the cord for a number of reasons.
So when is it time to say goodbye?
By Melissa
Imagine two scenarios:
In the first one, you make a $10 bet with a friend. You lose. The next day, fortune smiles on you as you walk down the street. You see a $10 bill lying on the sidewalk.
In the second scenario, nothing happens. You neither enter into any bet with anyone, nor do you find any money lying on the street.
In both scenarios, your net gain is $0.
Would both of these scenarios affect you the same psychologically? Or would one have a greater emotional impact than the other? Which scenario would you choose?
If you picked the second scenario, you made the right choice.
By Melissa
Making YouTube videos for a living is nice, isn’t it?
You hear about it all the time. Ads showing YouTube stars’ multi-million dollar mansions. Viral videos exploding with millions of views. People making full-time incomes from the comforts of their home.
Top YouTubers can make upwards of $10 million in a year. When you add up the advertising revenue, sponsorships, and endorsement deals, those figures go up even higher. Being a professional YouTuber sounds lucrative, doesn’t it?
[Read more…]By Melissa
“My life is over.”
Have those words ever crossed your mind? That moment when something so catastrophic, disastrous, and damage-inducing occurred that you never thought you would recover? That moment when there were no other roads, when you had run out of options?
And yet, here you are.
[Read more…]By Melissa
“If only…”
Any sentence that starts with these words never ends well. It’s filled with pain, loss, and the feeling of unfulfilled potential. We believe that if only things happened differently, then the rest would fall into place.
Like heavy snow on a rooftop, fixating on the negatives will weigh you down. When the burden is too great, the foundations weaken. Then, they collapse.
In the face of disappointment, it’s easy to lie down and not want to get back up.
But things are not always what they seem. What seems bad may not be so bad after all. It may even turn out to be good.
By Melissa
We’re always told by other people to think positive. The key to success is life is to believe, because once you do, you can achieve your goals. Anything is possible when you rely on the power of positive thinking.
At least, that’s what they say.
But experience shows that that’s not necessarily the case.
A few friends I knew wanted to partner up and start an advertising business. People supported their idea and doled out encouraging advice.
In usual fashion, the partners reveled in the high of embarking on a new venture. They talked excitedly about the possibilities their new business would bring. Together, they spent evenings discussing how to set up the business.
First, they set up a corporation and decided on a tax structure. Then, they looked up a few potential customers and brainstormed what kind of help they could offer. Business was going to be big.