What I Learned About Success from Albert Einstein

If only ambition is as easy to come by as poets quote it. The chances of people becoming successful would count thousands. I'm at 0001.

Half of those successes are driven by hard work; the other half driven by luck. But none without constant or occasional prayer. 

If the road to success is put into words, I can summarize it into two: "The most successful people are those who didn't give up on themselves" and "Success is not just about what you know but who you know".

Decent jobs alone are hard to get these days. We're in the era where CV is no longer the only thing to gamble, money is required of us before we can earn it, and "backer" is a stronger qualification than having Latin honors.

The world is more competitive. And investments barely return.

While some people have the ready option for easy success, most of us learn by trial and error. We tolerate daily hardships in the hope that our sacrifices can mean a good change one day. But the hardest part sometimes is in not knowing when that day will arrive, or whether our actions always lean towards that success. We don't know. But haven't you ever wished life came with a detailed instruction manual?

How I wish there's a crash course for it with no demands for an average score to pass. On a second thought, the point of success, I guess, is that it is never equal to mediocrity. We cannot really call ourselves successful by simply aiming for the "good enough". We should settle not to be the best but to be better.

I realize that only now do I truly understand what Albert Einstein meant: Imagination is more important than knowledge. It is essential that we do not only know, but that we apply what we know and we do not intend on stopping.

Einstein deserves the moniker, genius. With emphasis.

30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself

English writer Aldous Huxley once said, "There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's yourself". What power does it to develop ourselves and cut whatever negativity that holds us back from realizing it? 

When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you.

It is easier to believe when we are at our best position. But we are all meant to live a happy and successful life, except for the fact that the very things that keep us from experiencing it is neither our lack to start doing the right things nor our failure to stop doing those that are wrong.

Marc and Angel of Marc and Angel Hack Life has a brilliant take on the 30 things we can stop doing to ourselves. They have explained in details the benefits of dismissing all these things that, we might have subconsciously been missing to notice, are ruining the happy and successful life we deserve. They have covered far and wide between facing problems, to making decisions and handling relationships. I suggest you NOT  to skip a single sentence. It will be all worth it.

Here are my favorite tidbits:

1. Stop spending time with the wrong people.

Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you. If someone wants you in their life, they'll make room for you. You shouldn't have to fight for a spot. Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth.

4. Stop putting your own needs on the back burner.

The painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too. Yes, help others; but help yourself too. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.

5. Stop trying to be someone you're not.

One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that's trying to make you like everyone else. Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you. Don't change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.

7. Stop being scared to make a mistake.

Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing. Every success has a trail of failure behind it, and every failure is leading towards success. You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.

8. Stop berating yourself for old mistakes.

We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, on thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us. We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are NOT your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future. Every single thing that has ever happened to your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.

9. Stop trying to buy happiness.

Many of the things we desire are expensive. But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free-- love, laughter, and working on our passions.

10. Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness.

If you'e not happy with who you are on the inside, you won't be happy in a long- term relationship with anyone else either. You have to create stability in your own life first before you can share it with someone else. Read Stumbling on Happiness. 

11. Stop being idle.

Don't think too much or you'll create a problem that wasn't even there in the first place. Evaluate situations and take decisive action. You cannot change what you refuse to confront. Making progress involves risk. Period! You can't make it to second base with your foot on first.

12. Stop thinking you're not ready.

Nobody ever feels 100 % ready when an opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won't feel totally comfortable at first.

13. Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons. 

Relationships must be chosen wisely. It's better to be alone than to be in bad company. There's no need to rush. If something is meant to be, it will happen-- in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason. Fall in love when you're ready, not when you're lonely.

15. Stop trying to compete against everyone else.

Don't about what others are doing better than you. Concentrate on beating your own records everyday. Success is a battle between YOU and YOURSELF only.

17. Stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself.

Life's curveballs are thrown for a reason-- to shift your path in a direction that is meant for you. You may not see or understand everything the moment it happens to you, and it may be tough. But reflect back on those negative curveballs thrown at you in the past. You'll often see that eventually they led you to a better place, person, state of mind, or situation. 

18. Stop holding grudges.

Don't live your life with hate in your heart. Forgiveness is not saying, "What you did to me is okay." It is saying, "I'm not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever". Forgiveness is the answer...let go, find peace, liberate yourself!

19. Stop letting others bring you down to their level.

Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.

20. Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others.

Your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe it anyway. Just do what you know in your heart is right.

22. Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. 

Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things. The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.

23. Stop trying to make things perfect.

The real world doesn't reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done. Read Getting Things Done. 

24. Stop following the path of least resistance.

Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile. Don't take the easy way out. Do something extraordinary.

26. Stop blaming others for your troubles.

The extent to which you can achieve your dreams depends on the extent to which you take responsibility for your life. When you blame others for what you're going through, you deny responsibility-- you give others power over that part of your life.

29. Stop focusing on what you don't want to happen.

Focus on what you do want to happen. Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story. If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you'll often find that you're right.

30. Stop being ungrateful.

No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs. Instead of thinking about what you're missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

You can also read Marc and Angel's sequence to this post, the 30 Things to Start Doing for Yourself.

I hope it inspired you too. Share it to your friends and loved ones. Doing so might unexpectedly turn a negative situation into something positive. 

God bless you!

Photo Credits:

Rob Brucker

Blessed John Paul II: Seeking for His Intercession

The calendar flipped another page and began the first of May yesterday. I am due to take an off from hospital duty so I thought for activities to fill in the hours while I am away from pressure and stress. 

Some of my latest obsessions I looked forward to comforting me include buying the latest collection of clothes from a favorite online store and watching the brand-new episode from a favorite TV show. But none of them of course ensconced that something inside was bothering me.

To my mind co-oped the thought that being a nurse is never at all easy. Unsolicited challenges come that test a nurse's ability to handle every situation well without losing the strength to go ahead no matter how hard life gets.

I ran into a serious challenge on work. I would rather not tell the story except for the truth that it affected me so much. 

I swear have never been this negative since but when a situation hits me hard, it's never easy to stand back up and continue the walking. I know how my spiritual side went downhill since the time I forgot when. 

Enough for the cliffhangers. 

What happened to me recently proves again that no earthly things, tangible or intangible could ever make a peaceful heart. 

I just reached the point where I am so desperate to recollect myself and be whole again. But I am forgetting where exactly to start. 

I never expected to catch the first day of May so bad. My eyes were so fluffy. My heart-felt so heavy. 

I had no immediate person to talk to so I simply reached for the rosary without saying a single prayer and my mind remaining cluttered.

It was last year when the Roman Catholic faithful like me dedicated this same day to Mother Mary. It was also the feast of St.Joseph the Worker, the Divine Mercy Sunday, and the day of Beatification of now Blessed John Paul II. Having all these remembered made me I grasp that prayer is always the last and best weapon left. Regardless of why painful things have to happen and never knowing when and how they get solved, it is important to always hold to our faith to the Lord.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe He exists, and rewards those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6) 

The life of Blessed John Paul II portrayed a good example of faith to God. 

I would like to share this beautiful prayer I used, imploring favor through the divine intercession of Blessed John Paul II:

When God's Answer Doesn't Make Sense

I have been knuckling down myself, volunteering in a hospital for almost eight weeks. That’s nearly two months. And until now I really wonder how I was able to hold down close to months of physical and emotional burnout of working 40 hours every week without pay, and a slight amount of ill-humor from few random people around.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Honestly, that is even far from other people’s experience. But one of the hardest parts of getting through bad situations is when you reach the point where you can no longer balance yourself well. It happened to me in the past few weeks.

I belong to an entire generation of Nurses who after graduating and getting the license hardly gets a paying job in the same profession. Or when we get a chance we have to start from scratch and become a “volunteer”. It’s one of the trending professional misplace these days. Even supposing, I still find it okay. Sometimes we really have to start from the bottom to get to where we want (the top).

There only came a point when I could no longer find my passion in what I was doing. At times I become so ambivalent of whether my motivations for entering into nursing were really right. Or if I ever had a wrong notion about it. 

Going on duty always seemed like a struggle each day. And often times I think of quitting and never coming back to the hospital again.

When my co-trainees ask me what my plans are after the training or if I’d still ever want to work in the hospital, I stutter and trip over my words hoping to find an answer I would not regret. But even I. Even I was racking to find my own answer to the question. 

I didn’t know what to do. I cried each night and found myself always praying that I would never do any harm to my patients despite the inner struggles I was having for weeks.

I’ve never been this negative in the several years past. But adequate enough to say that losing hopes amidst too much negative circumstance shots no one in exemption.