If you can't fix it, why worry?

   The key is to be a plant.         You can build any size building if you lay ten bricks a day for a long enough time. It's really easy to get lost in the idea of instant gratification, and it's even easier to lose sight of the benefits of consistently putting in work. Whether it's a guilty meal, a drug, or an impulsive purchase we always find it easier to sacrifice our longterm comfortability for short term joy. This idea is in everyone's head, some more than others, but we all need to practice recognizing the value of longer term projects and ignoring the allure of quick pleasure. It's easier said than done of course, I still get a Reese's peanut butter cup every time I go to a convenience store and I ALWAYS snooze my alarm at least once in the morning. But there are things that you can do to teach your brain to recognize the value of a potentially gratifying long term activity. Eventually your brain will release serotonin and reward you just for m...

 People love to talk about the idea of failing all the time. It's one of the scariest concepts that looms over our heads as we try to achieve anything in life. The idea of failure in most people's eyes is not succeeding in doing something they were hoping to do. The thing is, when do you decide that you haven't succeeded? Sure there might be a deadline you missed or a goal you didn't hit, but you're still living and breathing to keep trying another day. If you made any progress towards your goal or learned anything at all during the process, then you've already done something worth being proud of. The only point that you've ever really failed at something is when you are no longer trying to make it happen. That's the point where all progress actually stops, where your effort goes somewhere else, and where you stop learning anything about the subject.  What all that means is that if you want to succeed then you just have to persevere. No matter what kind ...

      I decided to title this blog "If you can't fix it, why worry?" Because it's a mantra that I've been doing my best to embody over the last couple of years. I feel like we (me in particular) spend so much time in our lives worrying about all kinds of issues that we could either spend solving said issues or doing something that we actually enjoy. I firmly believe that any problem can be solved and any goal can be met with enough motivation, so the only real failure is when we give up and feel sorry for ourselves. I had a huge lesson in this idea when my car, my bright red 1987 BMW three series that is my pride and joy, decided to punch a hole in the engine and throw up some of its vital organs. This was a car that I had idolized since before I had my license, seeing them in issues of Speedhunters  Magazine and on the racetrack I would visit on Wednesday nights. I was stuck with the option of either sitting around and feeling bad about the fact that I no ...