Life Lessons

Think On These Things

Garth Beyer

Don’t you hate when questions are answered with questions? They are often confusing and even more aggravating unless it’s Krishnamurti asking the questions.

This was my second time picking up “Think On These Things” and reading it all the way through. I mentioned that I read it all the way through because it’s actually a hard book to read start to finish because you are constantly asked to do exactly what the title says, to think on the things that are talked about. I’m not sure about you, but thinking can get exhausting especially when what you are thinking about is breaking boundaries, challenges status-quo and punching tradition in the face.

The reason I tried reading it a second time is because the last time I read it, I was 16 years old and I wanted to see if 1. It is really worth reading a book twice and 2. If I had a different outlook on the philosophies that Krishnamurti spoke about 3.5 years later.

Before I write a short book regurgitation, let me riff on reading books over again. This isn’t my first time trying it, and I’m going to give it one more shot with another book that I am going to read again soon. During New Years I was reading dozens of posts about the best books to read and the fact that this year is supposed to be about reading the best books over again and applying the lessons to your life.

What I have come to learn is the little things which you would catch in reading a book over again, are rain dropped throughout a similar book by a different author. The books are similar, so these small repetitive lessons are also similar. You have already taken the most important pieces of the first book; there is no point in reading it again to catch the small points when you can just read another book with new big important pieces and the same small points.

The thing about the many books based on the same subject or field of interest is that they are all plagiarized. The author read nearly a hundred books on the subject, used the small points from them and created the larger, new, more important ones and the next author did the same. Because this is the way books are written, it seems ill-fitting to reread a book over again.

Book Regurgitation

“To find out what you love to do demands a great deal of intelligence; because, if you are afraid of not being able to earn a livelihood, or of not fitting into this rotten society, then you will never find out”

The real reason I picked Think On These Things up to read it again was because I wanted to revisit his concepts of the function of education which is the title of the first chapter. Throughout the entire book the way education is taught is challenged and ideas are given to improve it. Being straightforward, everything that is mentioned in the book is supposed to also be mentioned in school, to be thought on, to be philosophized on – something that will also appear in my first 30,000 word eBook that will be released at the beginning of August.

Freedom is the next subject that is focused on as most people are not free; they are dead or near death. “We all want to be famous people – and the moment we want to be something, we are no longer free.” (pg 10) At the same time of freedom, intelligence is thought on. Intelligence is to find out, but to find out is not to make a conclusion. Once a conclusion is made, the mind is bordered and dies much quicker. See, the whole concept of freedom is to free the mind, not in the sense of it being empty but in the sense of it being aware with love and experience.

Love is mentioned very few times throughout the book because love is simple.

“Have you noticed how few of us have deep feeling about anything? Do you ever rebel against your teachers, against your parents, not just because you don’t like something, but because you have a deep, ardent feeling that you don’t want to do certain things? If you feel deeply and ardently about something, you will find that this very feeling in a curious way brings a new order into your life” (pg 61)

Another quick note to make about the book is that aside from the opening of each chapter, the chapter is comprised of answers to questions. One particular question is “However much I may want to be an engineer, if my father is against it and won’t help me, how can I study engineering?”

Krishnamurti’s answer, “If you persist in wanting to be an engineer even though your father turns you out of the house, do you mean to say that you won’t find ways and means to study engineering? You will beg, go to friends. Sir, life is very strange. The moment you are very clear about what you want to do, things happen. Life comes to your aid – a friend, a relation, a teacher, a grandmother, somebody helps you… But you see, we don’t want to invite life, we want to play a safe game; and those who play a safe game die very safely is that not so?” (pg 126)

Other great questions which are issued and responded to:

To revolt, to learn, to love – are these three separate processes, or are they simultaneous?

How can we be free of dependence as long as we are living in society?

What is self-knowledge, and how can we get it?

Why do we want to be famous?

I am full of hate. Will you please teach me how to love?

What is happiness in life?

Why do we find pleasure in our games and not in our studies?

Why do we hate the poor?

Why do we like to be lazy?

How is one to become intelligent?

Why do birds fly away when I come near?

As always, I have to give the one chapter to read to see if you are interested in getting the book. “The energy to life” is the fourth to last chapter in the book and basically answers how to be full of energy all of the time rather than lethargic and lazy each day. All in all, was it worth the read a second time? No. Was it worth a read the first time? Yes.

Free Library

Krishnamurti is the far right one, had to be different and put the pages facing out

Since I moved to Madison, I have noticed something peculiar popping up as I ride my bike on the bike paths. Bird houses. Not just your typical bird house, but a huge bird house, with an actual door instead of a hole. Above the door the words “Little Free Library” are written. Inside this giant bird house are random books that people have put inside. I think it is an absolutely brilliant idea and as you can see, I have deposited my Krishnamurti book in one. At first I was worried that there are only bad, terrible books being tossed into the free library because people don’t want to hold on to them. Then I realized the books inside are probably the best books anyone can read because they are so valuable that people have to share them, have to let someone else experience them and have to feel that inspiring power of knowing that you contributed to someone’s experience in reading a fresh, positive, great book. To the person who will pick this book out, enjoy. To the readers who will check this  book out at a public library or view the recommended chapter at a book store, enjoy.

Stay Positive & You Get The Most Thoughts For Your 4 Bucks With This Book

Garth E. Beyer

Have You Forgotten

Garth Beyer

Have you forgotten that you are capable of figuring things out for yourself?

Have you forgotten how easy it is to outlearn and outsmart any competitor or non-believer?

Have you forgotten that you have the power to create, to innovate, to invent something to better the world?

Have you forgotten that you are one of a kind already and you just need to filter it through your work?

Have you forgotten that everything remarkable was a risk?

Have you forgotten that the more risks you take, the easier it gets?

Have you forgotten?

 

Stay Positive & This Is Me Telling You That You Haven’t

Garth E. Beyer

25 Life Lessons You Need To Know To Succeed

Garth Beyer
  • Begin taking responsiblity for everything in your life, even if you had nothing to do with it.
  • Implement an everyday attitude check: Are you believing in yourself?
  • Just do it… yourself. Don’t waste time telling others to do it. Do it yourself, take responsiblity. The more adapt you get to taking responsibilities, the more successfully you can handle your dream job.
  • Mistakes teach you what you should have prepared for. Learn them and appreciate them.
  • Invest in yourself.
  • Write a plan even if you never look at it again.
  • Stick with it until you win.
  • ^ Quit quitting. Finish. Ship. Just freaking complete it!
  • Do as much self teaching as you would learn from others.
  • The world doesn’t just give luck to anyone. Only to those with a positive attitude and who work hard.
  • You are the best, take people’s time, you deserve it.
  • Until we change what school is for, no one is going to stop and make sure you get your daily dose of inspiration.
  • Don’t wait for someone to come to you.
  • ^ People die standing still.
  • Procrastination is more expensive than the resources it would cost to achieve your goal.
  • Everyone believes they deserve better. At some point in your life, the only way to receive better is to quite complaining and do better.
  • The things you give for nothing can never be replaced.
  • The goal is new ideas and approaches, not consensus.
  • It will always be “the best time in all of history”.
  • Everything is dynamic.
  • If someone isn’t willing to buy, it’s not a loss, it’s a chance to improve.
  • Success is relative to the quality of the process.
  • Always seek to be surprised.
  • Trying gives you the right to try again.

 

Stay Positive & Share Your 25 Life Lessons In The Comments Section

Garth E. Beyer

Lessons From The Cat In The Box

Garth Beyer

Clover is my cat. Although, I feel it may be more accurate to call her a little kitty despite the fact she is nearly 4 years old and after being with me, has only 3 out of 9 of her lives left. She’s small, cute, has half a tail (rescue kitty), and if you don’t remember, she has a big impact on my writing:( A Writer’s Crashing “Train of Thought” and Why It’s Excellent )

I have a cat story for you.

If your a cat owner, you have put a cat in a box. If you’re not, you now share the same curiosity as those who have as to what will the cat do if put it in a box? Let’s make the box a tall box, and the cat Clover.

Clover got put into a tall box and wouldn’t jump out. Contrary to belief, cats do have fear and it is this fear of the unknown and inability to prepare for the landing that Clover wouldn’t jump out. Cat’s, being very smart, choose not to take the risk. Admiringly, nor do they choose to just stay in the box. They will, just as Clover, put their paws on the rim of the box to try and peer over it to calculate the jump out of the box. It just so happened, as Clover had her paws on the edge, the box began to tip and it is almost as if the box was trying to push her out. Clover chose to try and prepare for the jump, only to find in that preparation that everything fell into place. (Pardon the pun)

See, we can learn many things from life, from each other and even from animals if we only observe.

Lessons Learned:

  • It’s okay to fear, just don’t let it immobilize you.
  • The unknown is not something to jump into, but to fall forward into.
  • If you prepare to try, you gain a forward leaning posture that tips the box, coincidentally pushing you forward.
  • Nothing is impossible, it’s just the angle at which you look at things.
  • Determination is unstoppable.
  • Fear of remaining in the box is worse than the fear of what’s out of it.
  • Freedom of any kind is worth losing 1 of 9 lives for.

Stay Positive & Luck Will Always Be On Your Side, As Long As You Try

Garth E. Beyer

Other posts about preparation (non-cat related): Prep To Destroy, Preparation and Expectation Reversed, Safety First: The Art Of Preparation

Perks To Staying Busy

Garth Beyer
Staying Positive & Productive

When you aren’t busy, you complain about being bored or lonely. When you are busy, you just can’t wait to have some free time. It’s a never ending cycle and the worst (or best) paradox life has.

There are a few different perks to staying busy.

  • It’s good to be really busy because then you know you will always have a legit reason not to help out or do any favors for the unreliable, untrustworthy and undependable people. In other words, you avoid negative influences because you don’t have time for them.
  • You’re too busy to feel any negative feelings. You can’t engage in self-indulgent over-thinking. Any negative situations that have come to pass recently are shoved out of your mental frame by that which is keeping you busy.
  • The more you have to do, the more you can add to it. When you have  list of items that you need to do and you don’t feel like you can add anything more to them, once you start actually crossing things off the to-do list, you find that you actually have more time for other activities. The more you do, the quicker things get done and the more time you have to do extra and go the extra mile. Take time, make time, while time lasts. All time is no time if time is past.
  • Most importantly staying busy teaches you how to prioritize, delegate, compartmentalize, forget perfection, make the most of the opportunities, and establish a “do it now” principle. Staying busy forces you to take risks, to fail, to recover quickly, to learn the important factors and to do your best and forget the rest. It teaches you management, both time management and a productive management for each situation. Staying busy calls on you to be your best self, to perform emotional labor and to bring your art into everything that you have to do.

Despite that the perks to staying busy are probably as long as your list of to-do’s, some may agree that there is only one perk to staying busy. And that’s to say

You’re doing something.

 

Stay Positive & Look Around, Everyone Else Is Dormant

Garth E. Beyer

Simple Ways

Garth Beyer

The saddest sum of life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have. It is for that exact reason that I have compiled a list of simple ways, or proverbs if you will, that if you at least focus on a new one each day, you will undoubtedly reach a higher potential, gain greater insight of the depth of success and overall make a life lasting ruckus.

Don’t only find resources, but share them – Treasure your time – Find the silver lining – Wake up early – Be informed – Define your goals – Critique yourself – Remember, what you don’t understand, you can make mean anything – Stay prepared – Shut out the debbie-downers and naysayers – Learn from others – Laugh as much as you breathe – Be focused and intense, push your effort – Live substantially below your means – Only keep items that can have a permanent place – Nothing worth having comes easy – You can make a wish, or you can make it happen – Passion is credibility

Now, each one of these reminders, mottos and life improvement laws can make a direct and subjective impact to critical parts of your life. Though, notice them as a whole because it does well to understand that it is the tiny, but direct, actions and attitudes that add up, eventually inventing the life you truly want. Every little detail adds up into something incredible, so long as each detail is brought to its fullest potential.

The time you enjoy wasting, is not wasted – Where there is a will, there is more than one way – Life is only easy to those who accept that it is not – Standing still will kill you – It is never too late – Nor is it ever too early – Open your mind before your mouth – Life doesn’t stop for anything. Why should you? – The brain makes no difference between visualizing and doing – Defeat your enemies with success – Everything beautiful has been through pain – If you go over a speed bump fast enough, you can actually fly for a bit – Scratch your own itch – Follow dreams, not orders – Sometimes we just need to take a step back from everything to launch ourselves forward

Collectively, these are reminders that were learned the hard way and that is why I want to share them with you. However, I do not share these life lessons so that you do not fail. I share them so that you can fail smartly, so that you can fail the best anyone has ever failed and in failing large, you do not fail as often which creates longer time periods for you to bask in your success.

90% of any physical battle, is a mental one – Success is not the next exit, it is the next entrance – You know what they say about worrying? Don’t. – You better not tell me that you are going to live today without trying to beat yesterday; Life is a competition, our days are our competitors – The benefits always outweigh the costs – Let’s make better mistakes tomorrow – Finish each day and be done with it – The world is only as flat as you make it out to be – I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain coils – Willpower is a muscle that can be trained – Make it as clear who you are, as who you aren’t –

Feel free to share these with friends, email them to a relative, tweet a few or share on facebook. However, I must warn you that now that you have read these, if only a few, you are held accountable to implement them into your life. Knowing what can make your life full of valuable animation, you have the responsibility of making it so. To know how to reach your goals, find balance and attain more happiness but not following through is a great injustice. Remember, there are magnificent benefits to being selfless and helping others, but there are endless benefits to setting an example for all to follow. Growing through self-improvement benefits others, far more than it does yourself.

Determine your best time of day – Change comes through hard work – Take all responsibility even if you are only slightly involved – Know and remember your “why” – Participate with questions and actions – Take time for yourself – Talk about your goals, get accountable – Don’t just prepare, research every detail, even if it’s against you – Identify procrastinations to overcome – and of course…

 

Stay Positive & Practice, Practice, Practice

Garth E. Beyer

Writing Games w/ Life Lessons

Garth Beyer
Guess Who Is In Control: You or The Pencil?

Success is really what you call “Mastered Creativity”. What you will find below are some constructed writing challenges and exercises to push your creativity.  They are formed in a way to apply practice to parts of writing (and thinking) you have rarely practiced before. The goal is to get your creative mind to push limits, stretch its imagination and to give it a game to play.

To have an open and expanded mind that is capable of using objects, sounds, movements, etc., and turn them into something solid and applicable is exactly what the most successful creators do. So why not start with the basics – Creative Writing. You might just realize that there are some life lessons to be learned from the writing exercises.

1. Newspaper Headline: I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of reading all the negativity in the newspaper. Old Zig Ziglar always said that the reason foreigners can come to America and become millionaires within a year is that they can’t read all the negativity in the newspaper. For this challenge, write your own headline article for the newspaper and share what you think is important enough for all to know. Lesson: Make sure the positive is what remains on the front page. Focus on the good, the happy, the love and remember to share it with everyone. Put all of the negativity in the obituary section.

2. Oddvertisement: You have seen great advertisements that may have even gotten you to buy something, but you have also seen terrible ads that feel like a continuous prod in the ribs. Advertisements are only fun when you see an advertisement for something odd. That’s why I call it an Oddvertisement. Open up your pantry or closet and dig for something in the far back that never gets used. Now it’s time to sell it. Write an oddvertisement that is creative and encouraging enough for someone to consider buying it. Lesson: Anyone can make a sale, but only the creative make a living off of it. There is always a different way to look at things, you just have to have the right mindset.

3. MadLib Promotion: While MadLibs are extremely fun. The joy can be even more fruitful when you are the one who created the MadLib for someone else to complete. Lesson: Challenge others by giving them the authority to choose what word goes in a certain spot.

4. Word Of The Day Stories: Dictionary.com has a Word of The Day every day. For a beginner writer, try freewriting and using the words from the last seven days. For a more expert writer, create a story using all of last months words. To take it a step further, you can even start your story by using the time and setting of  the actual month that you are using the new words from. Lesson: Time really does go by quickly, yet it’s still possible to learn something new everyday and apply it to your life.

5. Improv Writing: Improv, Improv Character Building, Improv-ing Writing Skills  Lesson: People-observation skills and the ability to make a correct judgement can be critical in some situations. In others, it’s necessary to keep an open mind about a person since truly, you don’t know where they come from, what they are thinking or where they want to go in life.

6. Who’s Quote Is It Anyway?: Have a list of famous quotes you absolutely love? Create a story that implements them word by word, as the theme, or by using your own derivative of the meaning. Give the quote an all new definition and background. Who knows, if you switch it up enough, you just might be quoted for it. Lesson: Emulating The Successful Through Quotes.

7. Poetry Walk Or Meditation. While walking and becoming aware of all that is around you, carry a journal and write down notes and ideas to create a poem from. Lesson: Living in the moment and remaining aware.

8.  Connect-The-Sentences: Either pull random sentences from different books or use sentences you have recently heard someone say. Make three columns and in the first and third, write down the sentences that you gathered. The middle column is for you to write your own sentence that can connect the first and third sentences. The more challenging you want it, the more columns you can add, making every other column blank. Lesson: To achieve anything in life from where you are, you have to create a bridge. There is never skipping steps. You can’t just skip the middle column of this writing game or skip the work you need to do to get to where you want to be in life. It’s also great to realize that you can make the bridge as interesting and be as creative as possible.

9. Word Jump. While freewriting, start every sentence with the word that you blindly land your finger on in a book or newspaper. Lesson: You never know what’s going to pop up in your life to knock you off track. Are you creative enough to adapt and overcome?

10. Guest Post: Instead of getting a guest to write a blog post for you, you write it. Open up the post like you normally would on a  subject of your choice (preferably controversial, but it doesn’t need to be). Then introduce your guest that will be writing a post on the subject (Create an alias for yourself). Now begin writing from a different perspective, as the guest blogger. Lesson: Getting different perspectives.

11. Word Play: Write a poem with word play… wait, weight, waste, waist, hole, whole. Lesson: Simply just fun!

12. I Write Dead People: Open up a newspaper to the Obituary section and write a story about how a person died. Lesson: Makes you happy to be alive doesn’t it? Life’s too short to not be creative.

13. Telephone Book Tale: Open to a random page of your yellow book, placing your finger on a part of the page and using what is written in that ad, put it in your story. Did your finger lie on a Muffler shop? Has there been a recent murder there? Was all that was left at the scene a piece of paper and the phone number which has been disconnected? Big yellow phone books don’t do any good unless you can write a story from them. Lesson: Nothing is ever as it seems.

14. Where Do You WANT To See Yourself In 5 Years?: Simple as that. Write every detail, every dream come true, every aspect of the life you want. Get crazy with it! So many people will ask you this throughout your life. Create an answer that will blow them away.

 

Stay Positive & Then Follow Through To Make That 5th Year Come True

Garth E. Beyer