Learn to control money but do not allow it to control you

Firewalker

Tonight I will be very brief – or this is my intention but will see how this turns out. I have been thinking today – while discussing science funding and selection, excellence and breath-taking science – about the last ingredient necessary for success and abundance. This is character!

I mentioned before that I believe that everyone has talents and most people have passion. Why are we not all wealthy and prosperous (in all possible senses of the words)? I think this is explain by the fact that the combination of character features that constitute the last ingredient is absolutely essential if the talent and the passion are to be ‘actualised’, to be translated into actions and effects. So what are the traits of character that distinguish people who have achieved the heights of their chosen path from the rest of us? I managed to come with several traits – they seem really straight forward but most of us do the opposite.

First, people who have achieved success and abundance in their chosen path have very strong conviction that this is THE PATH. Interestingly most of us spend most of our time messing about without committing firmly to anything. I, for one, do it all the time – I want to do this, and that and the other…so very soon I realise that there is not enough time to get anywhere in all this. But instead of sitting down and figuring out ways to chose, commit and maintain this commitment I end up doing more and more things to an increasingly lower standard. It is time to decide what I really want to be when I grow up – and go for it with all I have.

Second people who achieve their dreams are brave – not reckless just brave enough to go after their dreams. I don’t know about you but I spend quite a lot of time and energy being afraid and/or being cautious. This paralyses – and in fact fear is the foundation of ‘analysis paralysis’. Because fear can stop us from acting but it cannot stop us thinking, dreaming, striving. For success each and every one of us has to confront her/his fears.

Third, success requires persistence. There are different aspects to persistence: to keep going even when the going is boring; to keep going even when the going gets tough; to keep going when everyone tells you to stop; to keep going when your own reason tells you to stop. But persistence doesn’t mean to keep doing the same thing over and over again – this is insanity. Persistence is to keep moving towards your goal and continuously trying to find different ways to get there.

Fourth, they don’t see failure as a bad thing or a shameful thing – in fact failure is the only way to ensure success (remember to increase your chances of success double your failures). Fear of failure paralyses – seeing failure and a way to grow and develop liberates one from the fear and permits action.

And fifth, people who achieve their goals strive to be the best – which actually means the best they can be. These people always compete with themselves and their internal quality standards, not with others. This allows them to grow more.

During the weekend I’ll try to think about ways to figure out how present these traits are in me and also how to develop them. Is this too ambitious?

This turned out to be too long – good night.

Firewalker

InaPickle

Firewalker, what you wrote above is soooo true. I need to apply it to my life. x

Firewalker

This is an example of positive thinking and good writing, of course (from Paolo Coelho's blog).
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The cracked jar

An Indian legend tells of a man who carried water to his village every day, in two large jars tied to the ends of a wooden pole, which he balanced on his back.
One of the jars was older than the other, and had some small cracks; every time the man covered the distance to his house, half of the water was lost.
For two years, the man made the same journey. The younger jar was always very proud of its performance, safe in the knowledge that it was up to the mission it had been made for, while the other jar was mortified with shame at only fulfilling half of its allotted task, even though it knew that those cracks were the result of many years hard work.
It was so ashamed that one day, while the man got ready to fetch water from the well, it decided to speak to him:
– I want to apologize, but because of the many years of service, you are only able to deliver half of my load, and quench half of the thirst which awaits you at your home.
The man smiled, and said:
– When we return, observe carefully the path.
And so it did. And the jar noticed that, on its side, many flowers and plants grew.
– See how nature is more lovely on your side? – commented the man. – I always knew you were cracked, and decided to make use of this fact. I planted flowers and vegetables, and you have always watered them. I have picked many roses to decorate my house with, I have fed my children with lettuce, cabbage and onions. If you were not as you are, how could I have done that?
“All of us, at some point, grow old and start to acquire other qualities. We can always make the most of each one of these new qualities and obtain a good result.”
Firewalker

Firewalker

Entertaining tonight - dinner for seven (including us) and possibly a Little Boy. The menu for tonight is:

Starters

Home made hommus (sp?)
Homa made pita wholemeal bread
Not home made stuffed vine leaves

Main

Stifado
Mash potato

Dessert

Chocolate mousse
Strawberries

Not costed the menu yet - suspect it will be over £1.50 per person but not over £2 per person. And, yes, tonight is Greek theme.

Talk later
Firewalker

savingwannabe

Firewalker, I cant ever seem to make hummus properly, mine is always so bland, a proper recipe is much appreciated. Good luck it sounds fab.

Firewalker

What has happened to my text? Why are there numbers and exclamation marks in it?

FW

Craftyscholar

Firewalker wrote: »

What has happened to my text? Why are there numbers and exclamation marks in it?

FW

No idea, but they were not there last night.

Aesop

This has happened to quite a few posts on the forums. They must have changed the bad word checker and it is picking up inoccous (sp) words.

Firewalker

Interestingly, I just noticed that the numbers and exclamation marks have appeared where the inverted commas are. What does this tell us? Don't use punctuation? And it makes everything very annoying to read. Anyway...

Last night was very pleasant, indeed. All my cooking worked, all was cooked from ingredients (except the stuffer vine leaves which I can make but are very fiddly), the whole thing took about 2 hours to prepare and my best etimate is that the dinner can be costed at about £2 per person (plus-minus 20 pence). The only thing that was not very good was the chocolate mousse - for some reason it was not very smooth but being chocolate it went down well. Also we are left with two more meals of stifado (in the freezer) - and I did cook slightly less that 2 kg of beef.

But the main thing is that there was loads of laughter, discussion, talk about movies and generally good humour. It has been a long time since I talked to somebody about one of Woody Allen's best movies - which I believe is 'The purple rose of Cairo'.

Today is my Finish friend's birthday - so a walk in the Water Park, a pub lunch and possibly a movie tonight is in order. We are all feeling slughtly under the weather but nothing to write home about.

Have a very good Saturday all and will write tonight - had weird dreams about check lists.

Firewalker

Firewalker

savingwannabe wrote: »

Firewalker, I cant ever seem to make hummus properly, mine is always so bland, a proper recipe is much appreciated. Good luck it sounds fab.

Savingwannabe,

making hummus is easy and it takes about 15 minutes (with the right gadgets, this is). Here it comes:

1) Soak the chick peas over night;
2) next morning put in a pressure cooker (in this they take 15-20 min to boil; in a normal one will take longer);
3) when the chick peas are soft drain them but keep the water in which they boiled;
4) put in a food processor with: tahini, garlic, freshly squeesed lemon juice and salt and mix (make sure that you put the ingredients so that you can add more)
5) after that start trying it - and decide what is needed (a wise middle eastern friend told me that usually it is either more garlic or more lemon).
6) you can leave it at the consistency you like - but might need to add some of the water you kept.

It is always delicious - because one makes it to one's own taste. It would have been nice it all could be done like that.

Firewalker