The right approach to the future

Forget the past and build the present towards reaching your future

I bet that all of you have heard about Steve Jobs. He is one of the people that I really admire. Often times when I feel trapped or challenged to take an important decision I think about him and some of the things he says in his presentations. Actually right now I am reading a book about him called The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a new generation. Eventhough the book is about his life, the obstacles he was challenged to overcome and the way he coped with the hand that life dealed at him, it is also a book that will make you think a lot about the way your life turns out to be. About the decisions you make, the dreams you chase and the risks you take.

In the book Steve says that great inventors create products that are the result or the fruit of their imagination, that let them build a world, in which they'd love to live. And that is a totally different approach to life, from the one where we just try to make the past better. I know it sounds kind of fancy and probably you feel confused but I am gonna try and make it clear.

Think about something in your past. A situation that you feel like you took the wrong decision...the time when somebody cheated on you, when somebody did something wrong and hurt you! How do you feel about it? DO you wish you could change it? Have you promised yourself that you won't ever let it happen again? And when challenged to face a similar situation in the present, you rewind the time back to the past, feeling scared that you will be hurt again or make the wrong decision, and thus considering your actions towards avoiding the repetition of this past situation. 

Use your imagination

Well that is the wrong approach! What you should do instead is when a situation is challenging you, the better thing to do is stop for a while. Look at everything that is happening and ask yourself: Where do I wanna be? What do I want to happen in the future? Where do I wanna go?...Then when you find the answers to those questions you will have the destination that your hearts wants to take you to! From there on, you should use that drive, all your abilities and your imagination to build your presents towards reaching the desired future. Someone once said that when you look at the past, you may trip in the present and fall in the future! Is this what you wnat your life to look like?

Many of us belittle the voice of our hearts. Many of us think that some dreams are way too impossible, so they are not worth fighting for. And thus the defeat is  forced out of the mouth of victory! As Steve Jobs says "Every opportunity starts with an unmet need." So find the answer to the question of what is your desired future...and strive for it!

Be the change...

The soul of an athlete can change the game...the heart of an athlete can change the world...

It is not the final destination...its the JOURNEY

Today after my favorite walk in the park, I went to visit my sister. We watched some TV and as I was surfing through the channels I saw one movie I watched a couple years ago- The Peaceful Warrior.It is a film adapted to the biography book of Dan Millman- "Way of the peaceful warrior". Ever heard of Dan Millman? If you haven't, I assure you that you've missed a lot!Dan Millman  is a former Trampolining world champion athlete, university coach, martial arts instructor and college professor, and an author of fourteen self help books. At the age of 17, he won the United States Gymnastics Federation (USGF)'s Trampoline Championship and competed in gymnastics at John Marshall High School in Los Angeles. While a freshman at  Berkley, he won the 1964 TrampolineWorld Championships inLondon.In 1968 he crashed with a motorcycle. The doctors told him he might never be able to walk. But with the determination and never ending will that Dan had...led by his love for the sport he returned ten months later.

But what I want to talk about is not his life in particular, but a scene from the movie that captures my attention and reaches my soul everytime I see it. When Dan returned from the injury the coach told him that he won't be allowed to compete in a competition for the Olympics because this way he threatened his health and even his life.  Dan was devestated. At a car-service station, he encounters an old man  who seems to know more about Dan's problem than Dan himself knows, whom Dan later nicknames "Socrates." So Dan went to Socrates and told him that he tried his best to give up gymnastics but that is the only thing he knew he loved for real. Socrate told him that no matter if they let him or not, he could still do it for himself and enjoy the sport. He said that not the gold medal is what makes it all worth it. It is not the award that gives meaning to the sport. Dan seemed like he couldn't understand it.

So, Socrate decided to take Dan for a walk in the mountain. They walked for three hours till they reached the top. During the journey Dan was really excited, he was eager to find out what was on the top. When they reached their final destination there was nothing there but a little stone. Dan was disappointed. He couldn't believe he walked so much just to find a stone!

Socrate looked at him, laughed and said " I never know what I am gonna find at the top. You looked like a child before Christmas, while we were walking and now where did all that joy go?"That was the moment when Dan actually understood the meaning behind it. It is not the final destination that makes it all worth. It is the journey itself! The journey with all the failours and the success. The pain and the joy. The expectation and disappointment. The moments of pride and shame. That is what makes the destination interesting and exciting. That is what gives meaning even to the worthless.



During your life, you shouldn't focus only on the last step- the final destination you are headed. What is more important is NOW. It is the journey. It is what you do, how you act and what you overcome on your way there! The movie ends with the words :

Where are you?

Here?

What time is it?

Now?

Who are you?

This moment!

Make sure you live in the present. Make sure you enjoy the moment right now! Focus on every detail in the present, in what you do at the moment. Do not think about what is going to happen next. How other people will react to your actions...rather live the moment! Fell it and enjoy it!


Here are some nice videos related to the movie:

The more is your potential...the more they will try to break you

"All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity. But the Dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible." ~ T.E. Lawrence

The past weekend I went to watch the Bulgarian National Swimming Championship. During competitions like this you can see everything. It is strange how competitions and life are so much alike. You could experience the whole palette of feelings in just three days of competeing-the triumph and the failure; the pride and the shame; the satisfaction and disappointment; the happiness and the pain... some people need a lifetime to experience all these feelings...and an athlete needs just an opportunity to compete...

It can be overwhelming at times to be out there, with so much going on at the same time...lost somewhere between your own expectations and other people's expectations for you! Something that I witnessed made me think of the time when I was a basketball player. At the beginning of my career I was playing at position five or also cold center. After that when I became a better player and started playing for the national team I saw what other centers looked like. They were way taller and bigger than me, and I realized that if I wanted to achieve my dreams and play with the best I had no future being under the basket. I was skilled enough to be playing at position 3(small forward). I had to work a little bit on my speed(that was the only thing I lacked at that time). 


Most coaches in Bulgaria did not like the idea to work additionally with me, so I could persue the goal of being a small forward. I was fine as a center but just in my country where I was among the tallest players. So why would they care about my future? I was doing a pretty good job now, so I had to be a center. And my dreams...they are just for me. All they cared for was theyr own benefit.


After some time of wondering in different teams I found a coach that wanted to help me become a small forward. I started getting faster and better and I was starring in every game. But that was still not enough. Game after game I was tired of hearing why I couldn't be a small forward. I remember how I scored 52points, grabbed 25rebounds, had 10 steals and 10 assists. I was averaging 34points a game, 23rebounds, and 6steals for the whole season and I was never good enough. They had their own view for things. It was just that if I was a forward I was taking somebody's else position in the national team and you know how it is with mommy's and daddy's girls. They are sacred and even if you are better you can't take their place. So till my last injury that was just the usual situation. I was helping my team win a game after game, I received almost every personal award there was out there but there was always somebody to deny my abilities. Why am I telling this?


Because that is what I see happening with one of the Bulgarian swimmers. He is really hard working and talented, and he has big dreams about his swimming career. But there are still those that out of envy or something else try to belittle his ambitions  and seed thoughts of doubt in his head. He is 25 and they tell him that he is TOO OLD to achieve what he wants! ome on? Too old? Do we live in the same worl? Haven't you already seen that nothing is impossible for the one who dares to dream..who dares to fight for his dreams? Haven't you heard about storries for disabeled people, starting to walk, run,win and so on? About people braking records after their biggest failures? Why do most people always try to discourage those that dare to achieve?


Is it out of insecurity? That is what I think! If somebody tells you why you can't, it is most likely that he is seeing the potential you have. he is afraid that you will use your abilities, and you will reach the top...that will make him feel inferior! That will make him feel a failure...just because he doesn't have the strength to dare...the strength to fight and be what he can! He is afraid to reach his full potential and that is why he'd rather you stay where you are...so you won't make him look bad! 


When somebody tries to discourage you...tries to make you quit...that should motivate you to try twice as hard, because that means you are a threat! That means you have the potential to pursue what you dream for! Go ahead and don't quit. Do not let scared people to interfere with you living the life of your dreams!

Dare the unachievable

“Life is all about timing... the unreachable becomes reachable, the unavailable become available, the unattainable... attainable. Have the patience, wait it out It's all about timing.”~ Stacey Charter

Did you ever wish to be able to do something that you found challenging? Did you ever admired somebody for being able to do something you couldn't but always dreamed of? Did you actually ever try doing it? ...you didn't, did you? You constantly convinced yourself how it was way too hard for you! Instead of going ahead and give it a try, you wasted a bunch of time giving yourself reasons why you won't do it!...and instead you could have encouraged yourself with reasons why you CAN!

I am a big believer....a big dreamer! I always want to achieve the "unachievable". And what I've found out is that when you want something, when you have the vision, the desire, the drive, the motivation,dedication and you add some work to all that....all limits will break and you will surprise yourself with the things you can do!

When I started doing crossfit like eight months ago I admired Jeremey Thiel(below on the video minute 1:49) for the way he did double unders(DU). I was sure I was never gonna be able to do them like that. I could do like 2 or three double unders with like at least five singles in between. But even though I thought I couldn' I decied to give it a try and started doing DU every single day. Every WOD I did had DU. And today I am able to do them like Mr. Thiel.

I have another goal-to be able to do pull-ups without a band. ANd you know what? Today they seem unreachable...but if I start working on them within a few months a pullup without a band will be within reach...it is the same with everything you do in life. If you want it bad enough,just put some work in it and you will get it! That dream career is not going to jump in your lap just like I am not gonna magically learn how to do a pullup overnight. Show some dedication and determination! Get busy with some work! Be patient and do not rush it! Only then you will have a chance to have it!

Don't be a chicken

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.”

Yesterday I remembered a story I've read before...It goes that way...At the edge of the woods, near a small farm, a baby eagle fell out of the nest. The farmer found the eagle, and thinking it was one of his own, brought him to the chicken coop with his other chickens. As time passed, the baby eagle grew up learning to do what chickens do. He clucked, he strutted around the coop pecking at the corn and even tried his voice at the morning wake-up call. The baby eagle spent his life watching the free birds flying in the sky, dreaming to be like them. But come on! What he knew was that he is a chicken, and everybody know chickens can't fly. So he just admired the mighty birds in the sky and deep inside wished to be able to fly...the eagle spent his life, never daring to fly. What he was thaught by others limited him...and if he has only dared to try, he would have realized that he could...

Many of us die with the music still inside, just because we never dare to try...and what should always lead you in life is that whenever a desire for something is born, it is because deep down you are aware of your capabilities...your heart knows what you can be...the only thing you need to do is just try...

SO don't be an eagle, living like a chicken...Dare!