“The little dissatisfaction which every artist feels at the completion of a work forms the germ of a new work.”~ Berthold Auerbach

Never be satisfied with what you’ve got. Be happy with it, but never satisfied.

Dissatisfaction is a very powerful engine that pushes you to to continuously accomplish more. Without it, you’re stuck with what you’ve got in your life at a certain point.

Think about what would have happened if Edison would have been satisfied with the light that a candle provided. He would not have invented the light bulb. How many of the things that you see today could have been done at the light of a candle? Not too many… Without the light bulb I couldn’t be able to write this and share my ideas with the whole world.

Think about how the world would look today if Nicolaus August Otto would have been satisfied with walking or cycling when traveling from point A to point B. If he would have been satisfied with walking, he would not have invented the gas motor engine in 1876 and today’s cars probably wouldn’t exist. How many of you have a job? How many of you drive for 30 minutes or so every day to get to your job? How many of you go shopping with your car? We take the cars – as many other things – for granted, but it was the dissatisfaction of an individual that created them.

Think about how would your life be without airplanes. If it wasn’t for the dissatisfaction of traveling at low speeds on the surface of the Earth, the revolutionary idea of Sir George Cayley’s in 1799 would not have been born and today’s planes wouldn’t exist. Thanks to that, now we’re not at a great distance away from anything, we’re just a small time away.

Just try to imagine how today’s world would look like without only these three inventions. Very different world, right?

Dissatisfaction is vital if we want any advancements – evolutions – to occur.

You see, when you were a small child and your mother or grandmother or anyone else would have told you to be satisfied with what you’ve got, they were planting a very bad idea into your head. And the effect of that is very dramatic at smaller ages because the subconscious mind is more open and what it sucks in is easily turned into a lifetime paradigm.

Instead of being satisfied with something, be happy with it! If you have kids, don’t teach them to be satisfied with what they’ve got because it’s killing their evolution.

Who wants more of what we have more than enough?

If right now I would be satisfied with having 1-200 readers every day on this blog, I wouldn’t write posts anymore. But I’m not satisfied with those results and I’m constantly working towards improving them.

If you earn $100k a year, don’t be satisfied with that. If you drive a brand new car, don’t be satisfied with that. If you have a beautiful villa in a serene mountain region, don’t be satisfied with it. I see satisfaction as a great enemy of advancement. Once you’re settled with something, it’s natural that you don’t want more. And if you don’t want more, you don’t ask for more and life won’t offer you more.

This goes all the way back to the Law of Attraction. Like energy attracts like energy, and when you’re satisfied you’re not attracting better things. And there is a basic law that states that everything in this Universe is either growing or dying. With a satisfied thinking you don’t grow – that’s obvious, so according to this law there is only one other way for you to go, and that’s an unhappy one.

When satisfied, you’re on your way to lose even the things that you’re satisfied with.

The big corporations have got this concept and added a little twist to it. They try to take away the user’s power to be happy with their products. But that is a different story so I won’t get into too much detail about it.

What I really want you to be able to understand now is that no achievement is great enough to be satisfied with it. Just be happy with everything you’ve got right now, but always strive for more.

Grow, evolve and be happy! :)

In the next 10 posts I’ll bring you some of the best motivational videos that are available online. I’ve spent quite some time looking for and picking only the best ones and I’m sure they will help you grow more than anything else!

The first motivational video that I’m gonna present you is “The Science of Getting Rich” by Bob Proctor.

It is a two hour long movie that is worth millions. Literally millions. If you understand the principles that he talks about in the movie, you have the knowledge to achieve anything you want in life (happiness, health, wealth).

Before getting to the see the movie, think about the following questions for a little bit.

• How much free time would you have if you were to completely stop thinking about money? I believe that it would be a lot…
• How often do you study the subjects and topics that interest you? If you’re not doing this on a daily basis, you should make the conscious decision to start doing it. It’s the only way to become proficient and valuable at what you enjoy doing. Never stop studying. “In times of change the learners will inherit the Earth, while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
• Do you allow your present results control your thoughts? If you do, stop immediately! Letting the present results control you is the losing track. The winning track requires you to fantasize about your future and to let those feeling influence how you think in the present.
• Do you believe in the “right place at the right time” success formula? Well, I must admit that I did believe in it for a while, until my eyes were opened and I realized that there isn’t such a thing as being in “the right place at the right time”. Believing in that concept would mean to believe that there is shortage of opportunities. And let me tell you this, there are opportunities everywhere you look! The problem is within us, because we don’t see them, we’re not aware of them. How often do you find yourself thinking about the past and you are aware of the opportunities that you missed at some point or another? You are aware of them now, but you weren’t back then. By increasing your level of awareness, you’ll start to see the opportunities in the present, because all the power is in the present.
• How often do you picture yourself living the life you want, as opposed to seeing yourself living the life you don’t want? If the positive fantasies represent the majority of your fantasies, then keep up at it and try to make them the only fantasies that you think about. Keep in mind that you are what you think, it’s a law of the Universe – the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction states that like energy attracts like energy. And if you agree to the fact that we live in an ordered Universe that is governed by laws – such as the Law of Gravity, then you should be completely aware that the Law of Attraction is pure science, not myth.

Allow me to say only one more thing before letting you enjoy the movie.

It is very important that once you find a good motivational material – book, film, cassette, etc – you take some time every day to read, listen or watch it. The power of suggestion is one of the most powerful forces in the whole Universe, and if you hear a positive and powerful suggestion again, and again, and again, it will enter your subconscious and form new and positive thinking habits. And that’s what’s gonna make your dreams come true.

After I watched this seminar three times my thinking habits have evolved dramatically in the right direction and so did my awareness. Those are very important achievements that resulted in me making a few very wise moves and decisions in the past few days! For the next two months I will watch this video every single day, until I become saturated with good information – as Mr. Bob Proctor suggests.

Enjoy the movie and don’t forget to watch it daily – or at least every other day – if it resonates with you! It would be the wisest investment of time.

Because I’ve recently turned 20, I think it may be a good idea to write a post about the most important things that I’ve learned in my two decades of existence on this earth.

1. Great love involves great risk. Because love is the definition of freedom. Love offers the loved one the liberty to either embrace or reject it, without asking for anything in return. Love means giving all you’ve got without expecting something in return. And that can make it risky.
2. Success is much like love; a risk game. Successful people are not necessarily those with more talent. They often are simply those who are willing to take new ideas and not just think about them, but rather risk failure by trying to do something with those new ideas. “No pain, no gain”. No risk, no success.
3. Respect yourself and the people around. “Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.” ~ Abraham J. Heschel. “Learning to respect others’ differences, comes in time. As Helen Keller said “the highest result of education is tolerance.” By learning more about others we begin to realize that being tolerant is not about compromising our own beliefs, but rather, as John Kennedy said, it’s about “condemning the oppression or persecution of other’s [beliefs].” Continued education is the only root to a truly tolerant society ” ~ Gregory R. Snow.
4. Take full responsibility for all your actions. Do you believe in luck? I don’t. I believe in taking full responsibility for our actions, and what “luck” is doing is a shifting of responsibilities from us to something unknown and uncontrollable. Being responsible means that we should be aware that we are in complete control over our own life. Accepting “luck” and other unknown factors means that we give up a part of that power. With accepting full responsibility comes a better understanding of life.
5. Getting what you [deeply] want doesn’t necessarily mean getting what you want. We often don’t really know what we want, and we forge false dreams that we force ourselves to believe in. That kind of dream is better left unfulfilled, because there are dreams that don’t help you, and then there are dreams that get in your way. The “user-created” dreams are often in the latter category.
6. Rules are made to be broken. They are made to be followed only to the extent that they serve their purpose. After that, they are made to be changed through means comenserate to the extent which they fail to serve. Who decides if rules serve their purpose? Those who must live with the consequences of the rules. That’s me and you.
7. Listen to your thoughts. Listen to your thoughts and learn to love the inner process that is unfolding. You have the stuff of heroes in there, but you must believe that. You must believe that it is worth it to stay alive – that it is possible to live with confusion. This is still a good life, even with some of the occasional pain.
8. Be flexible. Flexibility means being open to change. You consider others ideas and feelings and don’t insist on your own. Flexibility gives you creative new ways to get things done. You get rid of bad habits and learn new ones. Flexibility helps you to keep changing for the better.
9. In an argument, never bring up the past. Rules for a fair argument should start with “don’t bring up the past”. When something is resolved and it rests in the past, let it be. The past doesn’t exist, it’s only in our minds. Too many times in an argument people get way off the subject and fight about past fights – about things that don’t exist. The correct way to solve an argument is to talk out the differences and to be polite. You accomplish more this way than by arguing about the unreal things of the past.
10. “Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.” ~ Dalai Lama.
11. “Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it” ~ Dalai Lama. Everything has a price. What’s the point of gaining the world if you’ve lost yourself in the process. Success depends on what you’re giving up for it. If you’re giving up too much – your values – for too little – power, respect, a huge villa – , then you’re not successful. Success means giving little and creating much.
12. “Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon” ~ Dalai Lama. What this means is that you should throw everything you can into them without caring about the consequences. If it ends the way you wanted to, be happy, if not, be happy.

One of the greatest forces that stops you from achieving your true potential is the fear of failure. The fear of failure is related to the fear of criticism and fear of rejection.

One of the main differences between successful and unsuccessful people is that the successful people fight and overcome their fear of failure. Unsuccessful people are incapacitated by it.

There is one important law that the successful people know about and follow, and that is the Law of Feedback.

The Law of Feedback: there is no failure; there is only feedback.

Today’s question is closely related to the fear of failure.

It requires you to look deep within yourself and analyze the things that make you happy and bring you satisfactions.

What would you attempt to do
if you knew you could not fail?

Take your time to answer this one, because the answer is very valuable – to you. If the answer comes from inside of you, from your heart, and you feel like you are meant to do that thing and it could represent you, then don’t be afraid of failure and start working towards it. Remember the Law of Feedback: there is no failure; there is only feedback. What reason do you have to be afraid of feedback? Everyone wants to receive feedback!

Having this fresh perspective, look deep within and think of what would you like to attempt if “failure” wouldn’t exist in this universe.

It takes a long time to become young. ~ Pablo Picasso

I’ll go a bit off-topic with this post and announce you that yesterday (August 18, 2007) I celebrated my 20′th birthday! Entering a new age group, with huge plans, enormous dreams and an astonishing amount of hope.

Life is already good and I’m working on making it better! Better for everyone.

I’ve achieved a lot of things until now, but the most important one is that I’ve created a circle of good friends around me.

On a technological note I can say that now that I’m 20 years old I am fully compatible with the web 2.0 standard! That should make this blog go through the roof. :)

And because this doesn’t have to be a complete filler and non-informative post, I’ll present you some events that took place on August 18 in various dates in history – and respond to an Ugly Mailbox meme.

Events

• 293 BC – The oldest known Roman temple to Venus was founded, starting the institution of Vinalia Rustica.
• 1201 – The city of Riga is founded.
• 1541 – A Portuguese ship drifts ashore in the ancient Japanese province of Higo (modern day Kumamoto Prefecture). (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1541)
• 1572 – Wedding in Paris of the Huguenot King Henry IV of Navarre with Marguerite de Valois, in a supposed attempt to reconcile Protestants and Catholics.
• 1587 – Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Gov. John White of the Colony of Roanoke, becomes the first English child born in the Americas.
• 1590 – John White, the governor of the Colony of Roanoke, returns from a supply-trip to England and finds his settlement deserted.
• 1634 – Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, burned alive in Loudun, France.

Births

• 1414 – Jami, Persian poet (d. 1492)
• 1450 – Marko Marulić, Croatian poet (d. 1524)
• 1579 – Charlotte Flandrina of Nassau, Roman Catholic nun (died 1640)
• 1587 – Virginia Dare, first English child born in North America (d. 1588)
• 1596 – Jean Bolland, Flemish Jesuit writer (d. 1665)
• 1605 – Henry Hammond, English churchman (d. 1660)
• 1657 – Ferdinando Galli Bibiena, Italian architect/designer (d. 1743)
• 1685 – Brook Taylor, English mathematician (d. 1731)
• 1692 – Louis Henri, Duc de Bourbon, Prime Minister of France (d. 1740)
• 1720 – Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, English murderer (d. 1760)
• 1750 – Antonio Salieri, Italian composer (d. 1825)
• 1754 – François, marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat, French general (d. 1833)
• 1774 – Meriwether Lewis, American explorer (d. 1809)
• 1792 – John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1878)
• 1822 – Isaac P. Rodman, American Union general (d. 1862)
• 1830 – Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria (d. 1916)
• 1983 – Mica Penniman (Mika), Lebanese-born musician
• 1983 – Kris Boyd,Scottish footballer
• 1984 – Robert Huth, German footballer
• 1987 – Mika Boorem, American actress
• 1992 – Frances Bean Cobain, daughter Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love

Holidays and observances

• International Lighthouse Day
• Australia – Long Tan Day (also called Vietnam Veterans’ Day) named after the Battle of Long Tan
• Roman Catholic Saints – Saint Helena of Constantinople, and Saint Alberto Hurtado
• Buhe in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

Thanks go to my family and all my friends (you’re included) for sticking by me in all these years! In the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson, “I am a part of all that I have met”, and I like what I am!

If you are a blogger and you want to make me a sweet birthday present, you could give me a link back from your blog – to a post of your choice. That would truly make a wonderful and appreciated gift!

The most important lessons that I’ve learned in all these years is… coming up in a future post. Until then, be happy!