The Big Dig

• Every person should take time to assess their life. Our personal success can only be properly measured against the yardstick of our own desires. What is paradise for one man may be hell to another. To accept somebody else’s standards is to embrace mediocrity. For what one man can do, so may another. Instead of following the herd to slaughter, let’s make our own path.
  
• We live in a society where mediocrity is encouraged and applauded. While the average person reminds themselves that things could be worse, the extraordinary person contemplates how to make things better. Complacency is for corpses, fulfillment is for bodies in motion. When it comes to realizing our full potential, most of us come up short, but by understanding a rudimentary law, humanity could redeem itself and climb out of the depths of despair to once again stand on the shoulders of giants.
  
• The world is full of victims. I was born on the wrong side of the tracks. Her father is a drunk. His family is rich but yours is poor. This mode of thinking attaches our existence to chance. It illustrates us as unsuspecting peasants struggling from day to day under the rule of misfortune while fighting off attacks of suicidal thoughts with sticks made of distant hopes. Many of us reject God yet expect miracles. We wish things will happen instead of creating our own opportunities by acting on our beliefs. We grip onto a false sense of entitlement while contributing nothing to society save a few gripes while occupying the posts of mindless labor. We are always the exception; the lone soul that will defy every law of nature to re-mold the universe into our own private utopia. We are the chosen one, everyone else be damned!
  
• We look at ourselves and determine our faults are because of our parents, a rigid teacher, an unreasonable supervisor, a nagging spouse, a betraying friend or a numb society. We become mere play-dough molded by the hands of external elements. By thinking this way, we surrender control of our lives. We reserve ourselves to float with the winds as our lives degenerate into some silly dance where we sway with the opinions of others before bowing to a crowd of hecklers and darting off stage to cower in fear behind a curtain of delusion.
  
• We are the result of actions. What we hope for is an abstraction, what we do is reality. Every action has an equal reaction. Say something stupid and people will think you’re stupid. Have an intelligent conversation and people will think you’re smart. Save money, and you’ll have more money. Do more and you’ll get more done. The sooner we realize this, the easier life becomes for us.
  
• The law of cause and effect is so obvious we often over look it. In our failure to recognize this phenomenon, we convince ourselves that are lives are dictated by the roll of dice. We become inept at identifying the correlation between our actions and the reactions they generate. As a result, we become reckless and fall into a form of dementia where we think doing the same things with the same attitude and the same expectations will produce different results. Two plus two will always equal four. Yet, we remain stubborn on our path to failure. Like primitive animals we chase our tails in circles and refuse to change our ways. No wonder we never break free from our bondage. Suffering is born out of ignorance. Ignorance will only die at the hands of wisdom.
  
• Any cause or effect is but a link on a chain of events. We are what we do. We are not products of our environment. The environment is but a factor, our overall value is determined by our actions, yet our actions are linked to our thoughts. Think positive, do good deeds, and good things will happen. Think negative, do bad deeds, and bad things will happen. Circumstances and events are the effects of our thoughts: As within, so without. Control your thoughts and you will control your life.
  
• In order to get the results in life you desire, identify people that have the lifestyle or results you want. Study what they did to achieve those results. If you can determine what caused their success, you can duplicate it if you apply those same causes. It’s a law as reliable as the law of gravity. With the same causes the same results will follow! For what one man can do so may another. Doesn’t it have a different ring to it now?
  
• In a blind stupor we often follow the masses into mediocrity, why not follow a few into greatness? It’s our choice. Instead of just getting by, we should demand more of ourselves. Instead of working hard just to accrue the bare necessities of life, we should challenge ourselves to be more prosperous. Forget trying to grasp the top rung of the ladder, reach for the stars. We must emerge from the abyss of futility and remember the more we dig, the deeper the hole. Are we digging our own graves, or trying to uncover our hidden treasures? The decision is ours.