My wish for you is for you to have a Happy Monday.
It is not easy to stay focused and not get distracted by events, circumstances and a host of incidentals, occasions and things which are outside of our control.
There was a time when my father gambled on racehorses. On many Friday evenings whether he was at home or not I had to sit by the old transistor radio, listen and write down the tipsters take on which racehorse would win each race and also the racehorse that could likely cause an upset.
In those days the avenues for entertainment was very limited. The old transistor radio broadcasted on the AM band and there were only two radio stations. On Saturdays between 12:00 noon and 5:00 pm there was live horse racing commentary from the race track. On the hour and every half hour there were live commentary from the race track. (Just in case you are wondering. The closest that I have been to a race horse is when I am walking on the streets and one passes that is being transported in a truck). There was no getting away from listening to live racehorse commentary on a Saturday afternoon.
There are two terms that comes to mind when I reflect on those days and these terms are non starters and blinkers. There were many other terms that were used but these two terms stand out and it took me some time to understand the meaning of the two terms. The two terms are non-starters and blinkers.
The non-starter is the horse that was listed to start in the race but for some reason did not run in the race. It is only now that I understand that there were a number of reasons why a horse did not start as scheduled in a race.
The other term which I remember is that the racehorse would be wearing blinkers. The dictionary describes this as a piece of horse tack that prevent the horse from seeing to the rear and sometimes to the sides. This allowed the racehorse to only see to the front.
You could easily ask me what has racehorses, blinkers and non-starters has to do with my life and my answer will be that they serve as analogies. I encounter so many persons in life that should have been far ahead in life but for some reason they failed to start. There are those persons who are waiting on the ideal conditions to begin and those persons who allowed others to hinder their ever making a start.
Recently I had two chapters to write to complete the first draft of a book and I was overcome by a feeling of wanting to throw away the manuscript and not bother. It was the first time that I was experiencing such a feeling and I wondered what was happening to me. The feeling was so intense that it took the years of discipline that I had cultivated to overcome it.
I have often come across persons who had spent many years studying at university and in the final term quit. I could not understand why. I also have come across many persons who during their course of study keep changing their area of study and are unable to decide what exactly they want to be. This I realize comes about because they lost focus along the way.
When I was in my early twenties I easily grasped a goal or idea and used passion and determination to create opportunities in order to get things done. Now I keep asking what have become of that passion and ardency. Why is it so difficult for me to get things done now?
The reality is that in my twenties I set big goals but they were also short term goals. Now I more often than not set long term goals. I am no longer free to be who I want to be but I must fit into the mold that society shapes for me.Society is empowered to use the forces of arms against me if I do not conform to its norms. I know that society's norm is not the best but it is designed to exploit me. Those who have never seen anything else swallow society's lies and take being exploited as the norm.
There is also the constant temptation to want to look around me and behind me and to lose focus on what is in front of me. This is one reason why I may need blinkers as is done to racehorses. I may need blinkers but I am certainly not a non-starter.
This page is evidence enough for me that I am not a non-starter. I began this page with the hope of encouraging others to act on their thoughts and ideas. In so doing it provided for me the impetus to act on my own thoughts and ideas. These thoughts and ideas are spawning other thoughts and ideas but I am not losing focus but rather I am creating and acting on opportunities.
If you are a non-starter it is never too late to begin because your raw material is your thoughts and ideas. Some racehorses race without blinkers and you may be able to stay focused on the course but if you find that you may get distracted then get some blinkers.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Friday, October 16, 2015
My Thoughts Take Flight
When I issued the challenge to pursue your ideas, dreams and passions I did not sit by idle. I wrote and among what I wrote was prose and poetry. The idea came that I could put some poems that I wrote on CD and add music. I pursued this idea and now I want to present "My Thoughts take Flight"
A CD of poems and music that is ready for download on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Thoughts-Take-Flight-Prince-Bradford/dp/B01648XEE0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1444505624&sr=8-2&keywords=my+thoughts+take+flight
A CD of poems and music that is ready for download on Amazon.
Monday, October 12, 2015
So little time
My wish for you is for you to have and to be enjoying a Happy Monday.
It may take years to become the best but we live in a world that demands the best from the unlearned, the untried and the immature. We are living in a world where imperfect people who are seeking to highlight, epitomize and display perfection. Perfection is presented as a quality that can be achieved with the same speed that one can walk into a fast food store and be served.
There are persons who recruit successful persons in order to boast of their own successes but will not invest in recruiting and training. Their mandate is to have under their umbrella the best at all times and have no desire to run the risk of investing in prospects and then see the prospect recruited by someone else when trained.
There are persons scout for those with potential then coach and train these hopefuls only do so for the benefit of those who recruit the successful and the best. These are the the persons with the eyes to spot abilities and talents while remaining unselfish but releases those that they have recruited and trained.
There is no shortcut to growth although the natural process to growing can be cheated and/or enhanced. It may take years to become the best and even more time and efforts are required to remain the best.
This is the world where the inexperienced, the untrained and the novice must enter. The world that give no quarters and initially demand the best. It is a world that demands hundred of percent on what it invests and is unwilling to enter into risky investments.
Into this world must enter the hopeful, the risk taker, the entrepreneur and those who hope to rise above mediocrity in this life. Many persons enter with big dreams and begin crying after the first attempt when their dreams and expectations are shattered. The immediate dream of success is not realized and the expected support of friends and family is instead ridicule.
These are some of the reality that stand in the way of launching out. There are many persons who grew with the wise words 'A bird in hand is worth two in the bushes." or "Don't give up what is sure in order to pursue a dream that may never be realized." There are many who know however that if a person desire to catch big fishes then he must abandon the shore and sail into the deep sea.
You and I have approximately 22,000 days that we can regard as the most productive days of our lives. We will be asleep for approximately 1/3 of this time which will leaves us with approximately 14,700 days. If we work for five day each week that will leave us with approximately 10,500 days. If we were to work 8 hours each day then we are left with approximately 3500 days in which to achieve our dreams and aspirations..
So then if the most productive days of our lives fall between the ages of 15 and 75 years of age we have approximately 3500 days or 84,000 hours in which to make the best use of our lives working eight hours per day for five days each week .
A forty hour work week and eight hours sleep per day only accounts for half our productive work years. That leaves approximately 11,000 days (not counting sleep time) that is available to utilize and still make an impact. There is still one half of our productive years to pursue our dreams and ideas.
We can sit back and relax and allow the days to pass by or we can look at life and realize that there is so little time and there is so much that can get done. Have fun pursuing your dream and ideas this week.
© Prince Bradford 2015
It may take years to become the best but we live in a world that demands the best from the unlearned, the untried and the immature. We are living in a world where imperfect people who are seeking to highlight, epitomize and display perfection. Perfection is presented as a quality that can be achieved with the same speed that one can walk into a fast food store and be served.
There are persons who recruit successful persons in order to boast of their own successes but will not invest in recruiting and training. Their mandate is to have under their umbrella the best at all times and have no desire to run the risk of investing in prospects and then see the prospect recruited by someone else when trained.
There are persons scout for those with potential then coach and train these hopefuls only do so for the benefit of those who recruit the successful and the best. These are the the persons with the eyes to spot abilities and talents while remaining unselfish but releases those that they have recruited and trained.
There is no shortcut to growth although the natural process to growing can be cheated and/or enhanced. It may take years to become the best and even more time and efforts are required to remain the best.
This is the world where the inexperienced, the untrained and the novice must enter. The world that give no quarters and initially demand the best. It is a world that demands hundred of percent on what it invests and is unwilling to enter into risky investments.
Into this world must enter the hopeful, the risk taker, the entrepreneur and those who hope to rise above mediocrity in this life. Many persons enter with big dreams and begin crying after the first attempt when their dreams and expectations are shattered. The immediate dream of success is not realized and the expected support of friends and family is instead ridicule.
These are some of the reality that stand in the way of launching out. There are many persons who grew with the wise words 'A bird in hand is worth two in the bushes." or "Don't give up what is sure in order to pursue a dream that may never be realized." There are many who know however that if a person desire to catch big fishes then he must abandon the shore and sail into the deep sea.
You and I have approximately 22,000 days that we can regard as the most productive days of our lives. We will be asleep for approximately 1/3 of this time which will leaves us with approximately 14,700 days. If we work for five day each week that will leave us with approximately 10,500 days. If we were to work 8 hours each day then we are left with approximately 3500 days in which to achieve our dreams and aspirations..
So then if the most productive days of our lives fall between the ages of 15 and 75 years of age we have approximately 3500 days or 84,000 hours in which to make the best use of our lives working eight hours per day for five days each week .
A forty hour work week and eight hours sleep per day only accounts for half our productive work years. That leaves approximately 11,000 days (not counting sleep time) that is available to utilize and still make an impact. There is still one half of our productive years to pursue our dreams and ideas.
We can sit back and relax and allow the days to pass by or we can look at life and realize that there is so little time and there is so much that can get done. Have fun pursuing your dream and ideas this week.
© Prince Bradford 2015
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