Be You!

From The Guardian February 1, 2012 (Top 5 regrets of the dying)

Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in palliative care, caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. She recorded their dying epiphanies in a blog called Inspiration and Chai, which gathered so much attention that she put her observations into a book called "The Top Five Regrets of the Dying." Ware writes of the phenomenal clarity of vision that people gain at the end of their lives, and how we might learn from their wisdom. "When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently," she says, "common themes surfaced again and again." Here are the top five regrets of the dying, as witnessed by Ware:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me (most common regret).
2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

My Message

I could write about each one of these points, but want to focus on the most common regret "the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me". We are all born in this world with our own unique DNA, our own unique personalities, looks and of course ambitions and dreams. If this is the case why do we spend so much of our time living out other peoples desires and wishes. We are all destined for greatness and the minute we start living a life that we think others see fit, we go completely off course, which leads to future regret as mentioned above. This life is yours, its your journey and has to be lived consciously, freely and with your own choices. Live for others but not on their terms. In fulfilling your own dreams of great goals, others benefit automatically. We are the only species on this planet who can afford to live a well-planned life of choice and discretion. If you take care to do so, you will have no regrets when you live your last breaths.

May you have an awesome week.

Darren Zwiers

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Power Of Dreams

In 1938, Soichiro Honda was still in school, when he started a little workshop, developing the concept of the piston ring. His plan was to sell the idea to Toyota. He laboured night and day, even slept in the workshop, always dreaming that he could perfect his design and produce a worthy product. Finally, came the day he completed his piston ring and was able to take a working sample to Toyota, only to be told that the rings did not meet their standards! Soichiro suffered ridicule when the engineers laughed at his design, but he refused to give up. Rather than focus on his failure, he continued working towards his dream. After another two years of struggle and redesign, he won a contract with Toyota. With the contract in hand, Soichiro Honda needed to build a factory, but building materials were in short supply. Still he would not quit! He invented a new concrete-making process that enabled him to build the factory. The factory was bombed twice and steel became unavailable, too. He started collecting surplus gasoline cans discarded by US fighters – "Gifts from President Truman," he called them. Finally, an earthquake destroyed the factory. After the war, an extreme gasoline shortage forced people to walk or use bicycles. Honda built a tiny engine and attached it to his bicycle. Mr Honda wrote to 18,000 bicycles shop owners and, in an inspiring letter, asked them to help him revitalise Japan. 5,000 responded and advanced him what little money they could to build his tiny bicycle engines. He continued to develop and adapt, until finally, the small engine 'The Super Cub' became a reality and was a success. Honda began exporting his bicycle engines to Europe and America. In the 1970s there was another gas shortage, this time in America and automotive fashion turned to small cars. Honda was quick to pick up on the trend. The company started making tiny cars, smaller than anyone had seen before, and rode another wave of success. Today, Honda Corp employs over 100,000 people in the USA and Japan, and is one of the world's largest automobile companies. Honda succeeded because one man made a truly committed decision, acted upon it, and made adjustments on a continuous basis. Failure was simply not considered a possibility.

My Message

We've all heard of Honda's Slogan "The Power Of Dreams" but up until this day I never realised that the success of this Billion dollar corporation was built by one mans dream and his willingness to never be defeated. Mr Honda made his dreams a reality with a series of failures and fortunate turns of luck. Steve Kirk, Honda's Communications Manager said in an interview "Mr Honda believed that success is 99% failure; in other words, he wanted the people who worked for him to keep trying, not to fear getting something wrong because they would get in trouble with management, but to feel free to dream dreams and try the impossible. He said: "We only have one future, and it will be made of dreams if we have the courage to challenge convention.'" Soichiro Honda never ever gave up and neither should you. Don't expect overnight success.  Transformation can take years, and this story is evidence that many successful people fail many times before they get their desired results. Never

stop dreaming and never stop finding practical ways to make your dream a reality!

Enjoy this beautiful short animation of Soichiro Honda's initial inspiration for his motor company and how it became a reality.

"There is a Japanese proverb that literally goes 'Raise the sail with your stronger hand,' meaning you must go after the opportunities that arise in life that you are best equipped to do." - Soichiro Honda

"Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure." - Soichiro Honda

May you have an awesome week.

Darren Zwiers

"Living In The Moment"

Song by Jason Mraz

"If this life is one act

Why do we lay all these traps?

We put them right in our path

When we just wanna be free

I will not waste my days

Making up all kinds of ways

To worry about all the things

That will not happen to me

So I just let go of what I know I don't know

And I know I'll only do this by

Living in the moment

Living our life

Easy and breezy

With peace in my mind

With peace in my heart

Peace in my soul

Wherever I'm going, I'm already home

Living in the moment..."

> You can hear the full song here

I was lucky enough to see Jason Mraz in concert on Saturday night and the above song pulled on my heart strings as its words absorbed into my mind. These lyrics are so powerful and true. A vital ingredient to living a peaceful life is to live in the moment. My friend said to me yesterday, "I have the Sunday blues" and my response was "well that's only because you not here right now, your mind is in Monday and you trying to live the day ahead of you." We all have this unique ability to focus on things that aren't happening right now, which allows us to reflect on the past and learn from it; it allows us to anticipate and plan for the future; and of course it allows us to imagine things that might never occur. Having said this there is nothing wrong with that, the only problem is we allow this to be a driving force and it removes us from our present state and quite frankly nothing in the world exists other than right now. The past has been, the future is coming and all that is required of you is to live in the moment. Stop setting worry traps for yourself, you only making your journey uncomfortable. The moment you understand this you can live a more exuberant, more empathetic, and more secure life. You will gain a higher self-esteem and be more accepting of your own weaknesses. So, whenever you feel anxious about your future or your past, just stop, breathe and remember it only exists in your mind, let go and carry on living in the moment...Life is waiting for you right now!

May you have an awesome week.

Darren Zwiers

"What day is it?" It's today," squeaked Piglet. My favorite day," said Pooh." ― A.A. Milne