Quotes From Aristotle: Part Seven

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”

Work is inevitable.

Okay okay, I might sound a bit like Thanos when I say that, but the point still stands. Work is something that you need to do in order to take care of yourself. Alternatively you’ll be homeless, hungry, probably lonely, and although it doesn’t sound bad, bored. Boredom kills. 

Aristotle knew that enjoying your task is what drives perfection. Perfection is achieved when you tinker with the outcome of something over and over and over again until it’s exactly the way it’s meant to be. Although you could probably do this once or twice with most things, it’s almost impossible to do it constantly… unless you enjoy doing it. 

In order to constantly do something, you almost have to be obsessed with it. You can’t really truly be the best at something or even be mediocre unless you’re willing to do it all the time, every day, for the rest of your life. 

This is why it’s important to enjoy the work you do. Some people simply like working because it gives their mind something to do or they have people to see. Some people dislike those things but they enjoy the task they’re assigned. Whatever the reason, these people are often the most successful at their tasks. This of course allows for them to dedicate time into their work without tiring out as quickly as others. As a result, their work ends up better than others.

The same logic applies to real, genuine self improvement. This is whatever you feel helps you to become the best version of yourself. If you don’t really truly enjoy what you’re doing, you won’t improve yourself. Choose wisely.

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You’ve read this far, why not share this article with a friend? I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too. By the way, feel free to let me know in the comment section what you want to hear about next. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and followed my blog -- it’s totally free, and you can always unfollow me later if you change your mind. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today :) 


Quotes From Aristotle: Part Six

“Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god.”

I’ve noticed there seems to be a tendency for influencers to encourage people to be alone more.

Admittedly, this is true sometimes. It’s good for people to learn to be okay with being alone, because sometimes we’re forced to do so. If we never learn this skill, we become codependent and unreliable towards ourselves. Of course, these are traits that we always want to be working towards getting rid of. The idea is to be fully conscious of the things that are happening in the moment without being led by our ego.

That being said, solitude isn’t necessarily something we should actively be working towards. As much as we need to be okay with being alone, we need to have people to be around -- it’s a human need. 

Those that seek solitude and delight in it are either a wild beast or a god, at least according to Aristotle. What exactly does this mean? 

It means that when we actively seek out being alone, we’re either close to being less than human or close to being more than human. In other words, those who actively seek out being alone are replacing their mind for something else.

If we enjoy being alone because it’s an excuse to get away from others, we’re like animals who are trying to keep everything they get for themselves. We become greedy, angry, selfish, closed off, and sometimes narcissistic. Of course, these are oftentimes the very things that make people dislike others. This is the process of turning people into the things they dislike about the world.

However, if we enjoy being alone because it gives us time to think about things, we often end up trying to play god. We start thinking about things that we have no control over, like other individuals thoughts and ideas, the future, the past, what things could happen and what things might happen… we drive ourselves crazy trying to manipulate our reality. This drives us to anxiety, stress, depression, and unfortunately in extreme cases it can even lead to suicide.

The key to stop both extremes from happening is to seek balance.

Of course, we aren’t wild animals. Or maybe we are, but we can think like a god. And of course, we aren’t gods. Or maybe we are, but we can think like a wild animal… 

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You’ve read this far, why not share this article with a friend? I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too. By the way, feel free to let me know in the comment section what you want to hear about next. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and followed my blog -- it’s totally free, and you can always unfollow me later if you change your mind. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today :)


Quotes From Aristotle: Part Five

“The whole is more than the sum of its parts.”

We often have a tendency to dislike ourselves.

By this I mean we look at ourselves in the mirror too often. At first we might be okay with what we see, but then we begin looking deeper. A somewhat symmetrical face and beautiful skin become unbalanced eyes, a weirdly shaped nose, a chin that juts out too much, an overbite, and skin that’s damp with oils and filled with acne.

My point in this is that we often look at ourselves too much and we start to pay too close attention to detail. We might see things about ourselves that we like at first but then we search for things we dislike and we decide to think of ourselves as ugly as a result of it. The same thing happens with our psyche, our ego, our soul, mind, spirit, whatever you want to call it.

We look at ourselves and we’re satisfied. We might have a few things we feel like we need to change but we know we’ll get there eventually and we aren’t too worried about it. Then after thinking about it for too long we start to think about our insecurities, our fears, the things that stress us out, and the things we choose to hate about ourselves. After that we suddenly dislike ourselves. We start to define ourselves based off of what we see, and we choose to see negative things if we look too long. It’s just how human minds work.

There’s two main solutions to this, ideally both can be done. The first is to completely and wholly accept yourself, your flaws, and your downfalls, and learn to love those parts of yourself. No matter who you are, you’re flawed. This isn’t me making some bold accusation -- it’s me pointing out what everybody already knows. Knowing that everybody is flawed is knowing that you’re just as human as everybody else, and without that we shame ourselves into being closed off and emotionally dead. 

The second solution is to look at yourself as a whole. When you think about it, this is really just a tool to help you accept and love yourself. Seeing yourself as a whole is the difference between seeing the texture of the paint and then backing up and seeing the whole painting, appreciating it’s beauty and imagery and seeing it’s flaws as characteristics that strengthen it’s radiating beauty instead of weakening it. Once you can see yourself as a whole, you can learn to love the things you have. Sure, you might be insecure about public speaking, but the fact that you’ll still do it on occasion shows bravery. You might think you’re a loser and never succeed, but the fact that you still try shows determination. Things cancel out -- and positivity almost always comes out on top. On the rare occasions when it doesn’t, it’s important to look inward and try to find out why negativity is beating you. Acknowledging negativity is important, because otherwise we’re hopeless romantics or stupidly optimistic. Despite this, we can’t let it rule our lives.

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You’ve read this far, why not share this article with a friend? I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too. By the way, feel free to let me know in the comment section what you want to hear about next. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and followed my blog -- it’s totally free, and you can always unfollow me later if you change your mind. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today :) 


Quotes From Aristotle: Part Four

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

-- Aristotle

I think everybody can take a bit of wisdom from this quote.

Educated people are educated because they open up their mind to possibilities of education. The stubborn person never learns because they never close their mouth and listen to something other than their own voice. It sounds harsh, but it’s a good way of thinking about it: you can’t hear what others are saying if you’re drowning out the noise.

Educated people can do this within their own minds, with their own ideas, and with their own opinions. They can also take the thoughts and ideas of others, ponder them, and make a decision after careful thought and consideration of what they think the right thing to do would be. They’re exponentially educated, because eventually they teach themselves just by thinking about things for long enough. 

Aristotle knows that educated people have subtle things they say or do or think that reveal that they’re educated. Oftentimes education doesn’t just mean they know a lot about numbers or literature. Education can also mean they understand what to say and how to speak to others. Education spans far beyond what we call it. Marks of education are visible to the trained eye -- look out for somebody who is calm in most situations, thinks about solutions before acting on them, doesn’t let others bring them down, and is always willing to accept when they’re wrong. Chances are if they have those traits, they have some kind of education behind them.

Furthermore, educated people are constantly looking for information and knowledge. They’re constantly wondering and hoping to come across someone who can teach them things. They’re always ready to learn something, and the only times they aren’t are the times when they’re recovering and processing information… so that they can repeat the same process over and over again. 

I recommend you go out and try to find someone who genuinely enjoys learning. An enthusiastic student in any subject is somebody who probably knows a thing or two about how to enjoy learning. Some of the best places to look are places where nobody has to be, such as an art class or a martial arts gym. These are full of people who are going out of their way to gain knowledge, and you can learn a lot from them. You might even end up being interested in the same thing…

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You’ve read this far, why not share this article with a friend? I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too. By the way, feel free to let me know in the comment section what you want to hear about next. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and followed my blog -- it’s totally free, and you can always unfollow me later if you change your mind. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today :) 


Quotes From Aristotle: Part Three

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

-- Aristotle

I wonder how many times we’ve discussed habits on this blog.

As you should know by now, habits are everything. You can’t succeed without strong habits, and you can’t continue succeeding without a habit of that. Because of this, it’s important to stick to your habits, and if you don’t have good habits, to change them.

Habits are everything. We have thousands, if not millions, of habits that we engage in every day. We have a habit for the way we walk, talk, act, eat, sleep, move, think, decide, choose, predict, so on and so forth. Because of this, habits must be thought of as a necessary force to help us achieve our goals. 

We need to go out of our way to repeatedly do things that we know are going to be good for us. Aristotle knows that those who succeed do so repeatedly, and therefore success is a habit and not an act.

Same goes for excellence. You aren’t excellent at something every once in a while. If you’re really and truly excellent at something, you can do it at any time and any place. People will know you as the person to go to for help on the subject, and your reputation will reflect your actions and personality. This is important because then you can open up possibilities to become more excellent, and if you’re really lucky you’ll end up in a room where you’re excellent is everybody else’s average. This might seem like a downgrade at first, but then you realize that it gives you opportunities for learning, and if not that, competition.

Other people can show us how to do better at what we’re already good at, meaning other people are simply reflections of our true selves. Make a habit of doing excellent, and soon enough excellence will reflect in your own life.

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You’ve read this far, why not share this article with a friend? I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too. By the way, feel free to let me know in the comment section what you want to hear about next. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and followed my blog -- it’s totally free, and you can always unfollow me later if you change your mind. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today :) 


Quotes From Aristotle: Part Two

“A friend to all is a friend to none.”

-- Aristotle

To those who have watched a movie called The Incredibles, this quote might seem oddly familiar. 

Syndrome says something similar when he has Mr. Incredible confined with these big heavy weights on his hands and feet, which are attached to a ring around him using some kind of technology that we haven’t developed yet. It’s a scene where Mr. Incredible is angry (or rather, incredibly angry), and Syndrome tells him that he’s going to use his technology to give everybody powers, because “when everybody is super, nobody is.”

The same logic applies to our friendships. When one person is friends with everyone, the quality of their relationships takes a nosedive. The reason for this isn’t necessarily because the person doesn’t care, but it’s more because they literally can’t. There’s no possible way that they can be friends with everybody they come across and truly care about all of them. They can’t check on everyone they meet and they can’t be there for everybody. This is an extreme case of course, but extreme cases allow us to imagine and perceive what things can look like. 

In our day to day live, a person who has too many friends most likely seems like they’re a nice person, but it’s fake. Again, they might genuinely care, but no matter how hard they try it will seem like it’s fake.

We can take this back to an evolutionary standpoint. Our ancestors would have flourished in reasonably sized groups, with some to hunt, some to gather, and some to find shelter. The smart thing to do then would be get a lot of friends so that you have less work to do.

I could be wrong, but I think something prevented us from doing that -- that’s why society has so many problems nowadays. We crave division because we don’t want to have to care for others, whether we like it or not.

The solution to this isn’t to divide -- the solution is to take care of ourselves, our family, and our close friends. Of course, I encourage you to have some kind of… well, drive. Have something you fight for and stand up for, because it’s important to stand up for what you think is right.

Aristotle reminds us that you simply can not befriend everyone -- and to try to do otherwise would be unwise. CHoose your friends wisely.

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You’ve read this far, why not share this article with a friend? I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too. By the way, feel free to let me know in the comment section what you want to hear about next. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and followed my blog -- it’s totally free, and you can always unfollow me later if you change your mind. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today :) 


Quotes from Aristotle: Part One

“Happiness depends upon ourselves.” -- Aristotle

According to psychologists, most of our responses are learned.

This goes back to Pavlov’s experiments with dogs. He conditioned them to salivate at the sound of a bell by ringing it and then giving them food. This opened up a whole new set of ideas revolving around the central idea of conditioned response.

Funnily enough, these ideas weren’t exactly thought up when stoicism was founded. Despite this, they were still practiced. The reason this is possible is because observations for actions are easier to acknowledge and predict than actions in thought. In other words: you can read someone’s actions, but not their minds.

The ancient Stoics knew this. However, they also knew that although they can’t read or truly change the minds of others, they can do so for themselves.

Aristotle’s quote reminds us that happiness is a choice, and it’s one we can choose to put on ourselves. Now this doesn’t mean to always look on the bright side -- obviously there are bad times and to pretend like they’re good things would be foolish. It is however saying that we should pursue happiness even when we’re not in a happy place. You can’t always be outside of a tunnel, but you can always look towards the light at the end of it. 

Happiness is a choice, and at the end of the day it’s up to us to choose it.

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You’ve read this far, why not share this article with a friend? I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too. By the way, feel free to let me know in the comment section what you want to hear about next. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and followed my blog -- it’s totally free, and you can always unfollow me later if you change your mind. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today :) 


A Kind Reputation: Part Three

“Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do.” -- Mencius

We often get caught up in what to do.

We get nervous about whether or not we’re making the right moves, and it makes us freeze up.

But what would you do if there was a bull coming at you at it’s top speed? Take a minute to really think about it. Would you freeze up? Would you jump out of the way? Would you worry about which way to jump? Or would you try and dodge the horns like a professional?

Those are some tricky questions to answer. It’s difficult to think about something that’s never happened, and even if you could it might still be confusing.

So since it would be difficult to imagine what TO do, why don’t you imagine what NOT to do? It brings the number of questions down to none, and replaces it with an answer -- don’t get hit by the horns.

The same logic applies to life. You can spend time worrying about how to get rich and how to choose the right bank… or you could just not get into debt in the first place. This would not only save you time and energy in the moment, but it would also keep you from reading through a bunch of books and spending a ton of time learning about what to avoid.

Once we know what NOT to do, it becomes much easier to start moving. When we know NOT to sit down at work, it becomes easy to fill our time with something else. As functioning members of society we have such a tendency to focus on making the right decision that we forget there isn’t one. Well, there is, but it’s simply to not make the wrong decision. You already know what you should be doing, and if you don’t then you know what you shouldn’t be doing. When you flip the script it becomes a lot easier to think of solutions to your problems -- because you’ll have less problems in the first place!

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You’ve read this far, why not share this article with a friend? I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too. By the way, feel free to let me know in the comment section what you want to hear about next. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and followed my blog -- it’s totally free, and you can always unfollow me later if you change your mind. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today :) 


A Kind Reputation: Part Two

“The great man is he who does not lose his child's-heart.” -- Mencius

Hatred is taught, not learned.

By this I mean that hatred is something we aren’t born with, and it’s other people that teach us to hate instead. 

This is why having the heart of a child is important. A child’s heart, or psyche, is pure. It isn’t ruined by hate for others, and doesn’t put itself higher up than others. Unfortunately, some people are taught to hate. Perhaps even more unfortunately, it’s a normal and natural part of development for people to form an ego. I couldn’t tell you why this is, but it’s true.

Later on in life, if we’re fortunate enough, we stumble across something or someone that teaches us to be humble. This teacher reminds us that everybody is made of the same things, and everybody is capable of things that others do. One tidbit of wisdom I heard somewhere is that the people you look up to are manifestations of one's' self -- I am you, you are me, and together we rise. This also goes both ways; the people you look down on are just like you, and you look down on them because they highlight something you don’t like about yourself.

Mencius tells us that great men have the heart of a child. We now understand why; these men have forgotten hate and they find joy in everything. They recognize good and evil and know what to avoid, but they only take things at face value. They don’t read between the lines when there’s nothing to see, and as a result they become much happier.

Think about areas where you can apply this knowledge. What parts of your life do you tend to overthink? Do you place titles onto things that don’t hold them? By that I’m asking if you think of things as worse than they really are. Take some time today to step back and recognize where you might be doing this.

On top of lacking hatred and finding joy in everything, children are kind to others. If they aren’t taught to do otherwise, they share. They check on their friends. They’re considerate of others and kind, and they don’t even recognize it! 

Think about where you can apply some childlike wisdom. It’s more important than you might understand.

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You’ve read this far, why not share this article with a friend? I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too. By the way, feel free to let me know in the comment section what you want to hear about next. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and followed my blog -- it’s totally free, and you can always unfollow me later if you change your mind. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today :)


A Kind Reputation: Part One

“Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.” -- Mencius

Mencius is another Chinese philosopher from around 300 B.C. He contributed to the traditions of Confucianism, and is the equivalent of a St.

I’ve said it more times than I can count: kindness matters, and unfortunately we live in a world where it’s uncommon to be kind.

Using this knowledge, we can manipulate others. We can get whatever we want, whenever we want it, as long as we use kindness. Although this seems grim, it’s true. People use kindness for unkind things. Because of this, it’s important to prioritize being genuinely kind and truly caring. It’s important for us to go out of our way to help others and be kind to them, because we never know just how much they need it. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy tells us this when Batman is speaking to Commissioner Gordon if my memory serves me right. Let me know in the comments if I’m wrong. 

This is good to know. Kindness matters. Being kind to others is important and heavily impacts others. You know what impacts them even more though? A reputation for kindness. Think about an evil villain telling someone that they can have whatever they want and they can do as they please. Chances are, you would assume that there’s a hidden meaning, and that the person isn’t really free to do as they please. Now imagine someone like Mr. Rogers telling you that you can have anything you want and do as you please. I don’t know about you, but one of those things seems a lot more genuine. This is because Mr. Rogers has a reputation for kindness -- the guy was literally known for checking on people who interviewed him for years afterwards.

We can apply this knowledge to our lives today. If we so choose, we can positively contribute to the world by building up our reputations for kindness, and as a result we’ll feel happier as well.

Be kind. You never know who needs it, and you never know when it’ll come back to you.

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You’ve read this far, why not share this article with a friend? I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too. By the way, feel free to let me know in the comment section what you want to hear about next. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and followed my blog -- it’s totally free, and you can always unfollow me later if you change your mind. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today :)


An Unstoppable Force: Part Three

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” -- Confucius

You know, if I didn’t know who Confucius was, I would assume he’s a character from a comic book. Hear me out -- people in comic books seem to hold a ton of wisdom that shines through whenever the plot finds it convenient. It’s a cynical approach to their storytelling methods but hey, it works. Comic books are cool, dang it.

Unfortunately, Confucius is NOT a comic book character… as far as I know. Despite this, he still holds a lot of wisdom. Perhaps one of his greatest little tidbits of said wisdom is near the top of this article. 

Think about it. Confucius is right. In your honest and genuine opinion, which is more admirable: someone who fell down and got back up, or someone who never fell? Sure, the one person never fell, but that shows that the task wasn’t that much of a challenge for them. They didn’t have to push themselves and their limits. No discipline was used. No personal records were shattered. Jordan Peterson says that we should compare ourselves to who we were yesterday, not who we are today. This coincides with our quote today. 

I think it’s important to keep this in mind next time you fail. That’s right, next time you fail. Next time you fall down and your face is in the dirt. Next time you feel like nobody cares. Next time you don’t reach a goal. Failure. To pretend it doesn’t exist is foolish, because if it truly didn’t, life would have no meaning.

Failure tells us when we’re learning. If we didn’t fail, we didn’t learn. In fact, this has been proven by psychologists if my memory serves me right. Knowledge is best gained when you take a stab at getting it right, like a test. If you get it wrong and then you’re told the right answer, it teaches you better than constantly staring at the right answer because it requires you to actively think about it. This is why flashcards work so well.

If our greatest glory lies in standing up after failure, why do we choose to not seek out failure? Why do we stay in our safe little bubbles of knowledge? Why do we choose to never try anything new?

Okay I’ll be honest. I’m on a bit of a roll again. I really should stop writing all these articles in one day. I was going to let those questions be rhetoric, but realized it would be better if I answered them -- we avoid failure because it’s uncomfortable. We get a damaged ego, and we feel like we’re incapable of success. The best way to overcome this is to fail a million times. No, a billion. No… fail until you can’t fail ever again. Oh wait, that’s impossible. Silly me. Looks like we’ll just have to keep failing over and over again until we reach our potential.

Standing up is more honorable than never falling. Don’t be afraid to fall.

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You’ve read this far, why not share this article with a friend? I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too. By the way, feel free to let me know in the comment section what you want to hear about next. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and followed my blog -- it’s totally free, and you can always unfollow me later if you change your mind. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today :)


An Unstoppable Force: Part Two

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” -- Confucius

Work is a frustrating topic for a lot of people. 

Some people hate their jobs. Others love them. Unfortunately most of the time, the people you meet don’t like their jobs. Why? Why would people actively choose to do something they dislike every day? Why would they actively choose to do something that drains them of their life and energy? It’s a question with a fairly simple answer: society is formed around jobs.

Okay, maybe the answer isn’t so simple after all. Society is formed around jobs… including those that people hate doing. Everybody who has a horrible job knows that they have a horrible job -- and yet they stay in that job because they know it benefits them. 

So. The reason for not choosing jobs we love is because we’re often forced into a bad job by society. We might also have started our job when we were younger, and now we don’t know what to do without it. What’s the solution? What’s the way out?

In this case, the solution is the cheat code. (Ooohh… I’m proud of that one :D). If people approached work with a mindset that it’s something they get to choose doing, they might actually end up in a job that’s not half bad. Furthermore, if people strived toward a job they really want, they’ll end up doing something that they enjoy -- and a job done by someone who enjoys it is much better than a job done by someone who hates it. Unfortunately this is one of those things that’s simple in theory but difficult in execution. That being said, nothing is impossible unless you give it the title of such.

Confucius was way ahead of his time. It’s almost as if he knew exactly what to say for people to listen to him over 2000 years later. He tells us to choose a job we love -- which is exactly what we should do. Ideally a job that we love is something that we enjoy, something we do better than everyone else, something we’re constantly improving upon, and/or something that nobody else has thought of.

I encourage you to open up your mind to the possibilities that await you. When one door closes, another one opens… and through that door are five more doors for you to open. Keep your eyes open for opportunities, and stay wide awake for your chance.

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You’ve read this far, why not share this article with a friend? I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too. By the way, feel free to let me know in the comment section what you want to hear about next. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and followed my blog -- it’s totally free, and you can always unfollow me later if you change your mind. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today :)