The Value Of Providing Assistance

Over the weekend, I met a couple who had just gotten off of their plane, and had had someone drop their vehicle at the airport for them. Unfortunately, they were not informed of the location of their vehicle. Not having any other tasks at hand I decided to help find their vehicle and once found I offered to help them with their baggage, which they graciously allowed me to do. After, we had finished packing the luggage into the vehicle we talked for a few minutes and I waved them off as if they were my friends. I guess, technically, we were and we had created a relationship, in under 15 minutes, just by me offering to help. You read that correctly, “We had created a relationship in under 15 minutes.

How often can you manage to meet nice people and forge a relationship with them in so short a time? It’s rarely happened to me that it has occurred in the same way as it did in that situation. Normally, if I attempt to help people they get offended or are just genuinely unappreciative of the effort that I put into their happiness and satisfaction. No matter what their response I’m going to feel good for assisting.

I guess the value that I get is a good feeling and occasionally some single-serving friends, even if you didn’t meet them on a plane it’s a great term.

So have your ever assisted somebody and formed a relationship or just felt good about what you had done for them? Leave me some comments on what you think the value of providing assistance would be to both parties. Hope you enjoyed the post.

Collection of Twinspiration Nov. 11 – Dec. 10

For anyone who doesn’t know what this is, it is a set of inspirational quotes that I deliver every day on Twitter.  I have been doing it for a few months and it’s my way of adding value to my followers. If you would like to read the others you can find a Collection of Twinspiration Oct. 10 – Nov. 10 and you can also  follow me @jimminy.

“A true gentleman is calm and at ease; the Small man is fretful and ill at ease.” ~ Confucius, The Analects Book VII, Verse 36

“What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” ~ Albert Pine

“One’s gratitude is a far greater judge of character than one’s attitude.”

“We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

“With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon.” ~ Albert Einstein

“Measure not the work until the day’s out and the labor done.” ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“Think to yourself that every day is your last; the hour to which you do not look forward will come as a welcome surprise.” ~ Horace

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?” ~ George Bernard Shaw

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” ~ Mark Twain

“We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever. The goal is to create something that will.” ~ Chuck Palahniuk

“There is no formula for success, except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.” ~ Arthur Rubinstein

“In order to learn the important lessons in life, one must, each day, surmount a fear.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The world doesn’t revolve around me (or you), but by people caring for others.” ~ A Life Defined By Death

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” ~ Hellen Keller

“Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver, but less daring.” ~ Herman Melville

“In giving, a man receives more than he gives; and the more is in proportion to the worth of the thing given.” ~ George Macdonald

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut

“If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Today is not the time to be thankful for what we have accomplished and have individually, but what we can accomplish and share together.”

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” ~ Voltaire

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ~ Leo Tolstoy

“We haven’t got the power to destroy the planet or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.” ~ Ian Malcolm

“Be not afraid of greatness: some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.” ~ Shakespeare

“Little things you take for granted may be something huge and astounding to someone who doesn’t experience them every day.”

“Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” ~ Albert Einstein

“Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.” ~ Confucius

“Apologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself.” ~ Randy Pausch

“The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.” ~ Bertrand Russell

“Our wise acts accompany us through life to please us and help us. Just as surely our unwise acts follow us to plaque and torment us.” ~ George Clason

“We were making the future,” he said, “and hardly any of us troubled to think what future we were making. And here it is!” ~ H.G. Wells

Walking Through Darkness To Find Life

As I begin my decent down the side of the winding mountain road, the air is frigid and the world silent. This night is young and shall welcome emotion all along the way; let it be fear, love, the search for something more, or just serenity. I have left my home on a voyage seeking something unknown for an unknown reason, but tonight my feet shall carry me.

As I walk through this frigid world, I have nothing to distract me from what is inside. I open myself up to everything that enters my mind. I am only on this journey for the pleasure that may wait on the other end. As I reach the bottom of the mountain, the lights begin to grow dim from the world above. I have a strong sense of fear growing over me as I don’t know what awaits around the next turn, could be nothing, could be pain. I hear a river rippling off in the distance and walk towards it, because I know it will be my guide through the night. My only friend, the only sound in the dark, it leads me along yet never fails me. This shall go on for multiple hours, tonight.

After about two hours, my mind begins to wander, “What have I done?”, “Why are you doing this?”, “What do you seek that is this important?” My answer to the first is a triviality, because there is no turning back from here, not now. I can only assume that I have to do this for my fear or for the fact of my own humanity. ” What do you seek that is this important,” how do you answer, so many possible things. This is when I come to realize I have lost myself in society. We have no knowledge of what it is to be free from everything, no one to bother you, nothing to distract you, just the open mind that you find filling your body with brash feelings.

The mind shall fill you full of hope, even when there is none. The mind shall fill you full of the memories of love, even if they be only memories. The mind shall fill you with dreams and delusions, even if they can never come true. Some dreams can come true; all they require is a steady will and a challenge for it. Your will can get you over the obstacles in life, if you allow it.

This is the challenge that I face, and is one I cannot do without in my life; the challenge of understanding me and what I want from life. I realized then that all I ever wanted was to take care of everyone that I care for. I cannot do this in my current state so I will have to apply everything to make this work. I have to force my way through life, ambition will get me there but only if I am wise enough to know how to control it.

An Insight Into My Life

I found this old post that I removed from the internet several months ago on a CD containing a lot of my former works that expounded on the raw emotional insights of my life. I wrote it at the end of Thanksgiving Break ’07 and I have, since, found a small sense of self motivation that helps me keep going. (Mild use of highly vulgar language within.)

During break, I took the time to understand why I’m not doing well in school. Since school began, I’ve found that I have no standard for self-motivation. This lacking sector therefore has caused quite a bit of strife in my life. So I went in search of a solution for my problem.

Quite frankly, the problem I found is I lack any reason to give a fuck about anything related to myself if another is not getting anything from it. Now I’m not saying I’m a selfless person, because that’s not true, I achieve my highest potential when acting in a selfless regard by which I normally benefit from the action itself. I find that I’m am merely a mediocre being with the potentiality to achieve above most peoples standards if I choose to. This brings forth my dilemma, I don’t give a fuck about achieving anything if I don’t feel it helps someone other than me.

It’s been this way for years I was merely mediocre in high school only achieving about a 3.0 on average. However, when it came to achieving for the chance to please another I was capable to achieve almost a 4.0, if only to prove myself to another I expressed my potential. I have adopted this methodology once again in an attempt to try and achieve more than merely mediocre. The problem in doing this is that I now have no one in which I would wish to prove myself to, no reason to achieve above mediocrity for.

I have turned to an unlikely source for motivation my ex. The reason I have chosen her is because she is the only thing that I ever wished to achieve anything for. The problem is I understand that I have about a 0% chance of ever re-achieving anything with her. I fail to want to prove to her knowing this. However, with nowhere else to turn I shall turn to the one source of past inspiration for the future inspiration of my
life fleeing from mediocrity.

The realization that everything that I seek means nothing to me in any sense. I am not worried about money, except to live from, I seek no indulgences outside my personal vices which I have begun to abstain from. I feel that everything shall fall together as it may and I really have no reason to try and influence the cosmos’ actions to affect myself. I seek no reason for life, life is what it is there shall be no reason in seeking the unseekable, I shall just live it.

The realization that one shall not try to change another’ view of life unless it would be beneficial to the other party to see life as something else. The influence one has on others should provide a more meaningful presence or essence to that persons life.

The realization that I have no reason to worry about anything no reason to wonder what could happen, just wait to see what will. I mean if you were to worry yourself with the wonder you will have wasted the time you could have been experiencing what happened or enjoying something else while waiting.

“Memories are nothing, Memories are everything, Memories are what was and will be.”

A Life Defined By Death

(I wrestled with the posting of this article, even though this is the story of one of the most defining moments in my life. I hope his wisdom will spark your ambition also.)

I’ll begin with who I used to be. I was a geeky kid who had a hard time socially, who was slowly devoured by his pain. His pain led him into a world that was self-centered and effortlessly anti-social. He desperately wanted to be like the other kids, but feared giving a bit of himself away and of rejection. So for years he stayed in his head and remained seperated from the people in the physical world that surrounded him.

This all changed with an inspirational story about someone close to me. It was the telling of my cousin’s life, he died at the age of five, yet he held the wisdom and heart of a man. He was born with a disorder that caused deformation of the majority of his organs, extreme pressure on his brain, and an enlarged tongue. Even facing such hardships, he was always filled with hope, happiness and courage. When people told him he couldn’t do something, either because they felt he wasn’t capable or just worried about his safety; he would prove them wrong by atleast attempting to accomplish that which they said he could not. The boy understood more about life than most people ever do.

Knowing that someone this young and in his state had the courage and hope to take what people told him and go in the face of it, changed my life for the better. I found that trying to open up to others was better than not trying at all, that the world doesn’t revolve around me (or you), but by people caring for others. I realized I was a nobody that was currently headed to nowhere and I needed to change. i found the person I am seeking to be today, the person I wish I would have known so long ago. I found the person who is helpful to those who seek it and even those who do not. I found a person who no longer fears his emotions and rejection, but lives with what he gets. A person who knows he finds happiness by helping others. A person who lets others get know him and who he is as that person. A person who will try his best to get were he plans to be and plans to be trying his best once he gets there. Thus,  my life as it is now can be defined by my cousin’s death, an event I will never forget.

Compilation of Twinspiration Oct. 10-Nov. 10

With the depression looming I decided that everyone needs to have some positive inspiration provided daily. So I began posting aphorisms, proverbs and quotes, a few from me. I know some people aren’t on Twitter that read this blog so I felt I should aggregate, latest first, them here.

“Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence. Where there is no change and no need of change.” ~ H.G. Wells

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” ~ Plato Do what you want but, don’t let fear stop you from starting now.

“All things are possible until they are proved impossible — and even the impossible may only be so, as of now.” ~ Pearl S. Buck

“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone just remember that all the people in the world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had.” ~ Gatsby

“There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are powerless to alter our destiny.” ~ Steven Pressfield

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Don’t give up when you still have something left to give, Nothing is really over . . . till the moment you stop trying.” ~ Anonymous

“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” ~Zig Ziglar

“Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.” ~ Buddha

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic.” ~Anonymous

Its hard for many people to believe that there are extraordinary things inside themselves as well as others I hope you can keep an open mind

“An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether the community pay him for it or not.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does to survive in the future.” ~ Peter Drucker

“Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“When you reach the top, keep climbing.” Enjoy the day. Keep reaching for the elusive fruit of success even after you grasp it in hand.

“Don’t worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” ~ Alan Kay

“May I never be complete. May I never be content. May I never be perfect.” ~ Fight Club

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”~ Confucius Everyone, let’s rise from this stumble.

“The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.” ~Winston Churchill

“Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a butterfly can change the weather on the other side of the world with a beat of it’s wings; why can’t you change your neighborhood

Our nature is to surround ourselves with those that bare semblance with us and, through them we can see our imperfections.

“Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy.” ~ Robert Heinlein

“Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.” ~ Bertrand Russell

“It’s only after you’ve lost everything that your free to do anything.” ~ Tyler Durden

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.” ~ Lao Tzu

“The fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of having not lived authentically or fully.” – Frances Moore Lappe

“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible and achieve it, generation after generation.” ~ Pearl S. Buck

“When the Power of Love Overcomes the Love of Power the World Will Know Peace.” ~ Jimi Hendrix

A mans wealth comes not from what he carries in his wallet, but what he carries in his heart. Have a great day everyone!

“I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe.” ~ Dalai Lama

The world is still colorful, even though the news may be gray. Hope, everyone enjoys their day.

If you like these and would would like to get them every day add me on Twitter: @jimminy.

Constrained Systems Are Key To Innovation

A few weeks ago, I read a conversation about what innovation really is in a FriendFeed discussion started by Gregory Lent. He put the contents of the conversation up on his blog “PostLinearity“. The idea that some people think innovation is the result of strenuous work is kind of scary. So I’d like to give you all a view of what innovation truly is since I haven’t done that, yet.

Innovation (n.) That which is newly introduced; a change or, the act of innovating.

Innovating (v.) Beginning or introducing(something new); being creative.

In the conversation they discuss Innovation as being natural and being hard work. I find that it’s a natural change of thinking in order to adapt to the constraints that your facing. It is just as natural as evolution is, in fact it is real-time evolution of the mind. Anytime you grasp a new idea, your mind has innovated how you think, even if the idea came from someone else.

Innovation can’t be constrained by hard work, however, if that was the case evolution wouldn’t be possible. Look at the world, it has fauna and flora in locations where they can take the most advantage of their environs. Innovation is natural to the the universe, mathematics and sciences have reproduced constraints for this.

Imagine that you really want to get to the top of mountain with a semi-low grade, simple right, you just walk up. Now imagine that the mountain is a mesa, you can’t find a point were you could just walk up, you have to climb. That’s innovation, it’s a change from what you are used to doing with a mountain, because of the constraint of steep cliffs.

Now, many people think of innovation as changing something that is complex to make it simple. This is easily one of the most paradoxical constraints; as the solution becomes more simple, the problem gets more complex. The constraints in this case are constrained by their variability which makes it even more complicated to see the natural solution. This is why many people today see innovation as hard work, their dealing with problems that are increasingly complex.

Innovation is naturally simple and complex.