This evening, I’d like to speak a little bit about Determination. What does this mean? I had an experience recently that I’d like to share with you.
You know, as you age, a lot of people become embittered.
Perhaps their body causes them problems, or perhaps their career hasn’t achieved what they thought it was going to achieve, their marriage hasn’t been successful, their children, perhaps their failures. I mean, whatever, it just goes on.
And they kind of lose the will to live, in a sense. They’re kind of, I guess, the walking dead, in a way. I mean, you see them all the time.
All you have to do is take a walk down any street, look at the eyes, especially with the old ones, waiting to die. But I think that those that aren’t waiting to die are truly determined to live out a decent and productive life.
And it’s really up to me. I mean, the body, yes, the body for sure will age. And you try to keep it healthy, you try to get to a gym, you get enough sleep if you can, exercise, all those things, right?
But it’s still going to age, and it’s still going to come to a point in the future that it’s going to stop functioning. And then in this reality, you’ll be dead. Now, I think a wonderful idea, of course, is the concept of some form of transcendence.
You know, another life, whatever that means, this is psychologically very positive, and I believe this, this is necessary, I think, to be a healthy, constructive human being.
But what’s going to get me through this life is my deep desire to succeed at the gifts that I’ve been given, the cards I’ve been dealt to bring them to fruition. I’m determined to live out a fulfilling life.
This is what I try to say to people all the time. I mean, whatever your ethnicity, whatever your gender, your sex, gosh, whatever it is, right? Your birthright, money, no money, fat, thin, grand, small, it just goes on, right?
Who cares? Those are the givens. I cannot change those things.
I just can’t. I mean, people do try. There’s a movement at the moment trying to alter biologically, try to change my biological sex, but I think in the end, for the most part, it will fail.
There are people, I’m sure, that will succeed, but I don’t think many. Truly, I don’t.
You know, and I do think that people suffer, because if you change things too early, if you’re forced into decisions before you’re a mature adult, then perhaps you learn that this is a mistake too late in life to alter, right?
I was listening to a psychiatrist today, Carl Rogers, and he was saying very much, we need to be nurtured at an early age. And I think that’s true until we’re probably finished university.
We need our parents or our friends or our loved ones to nurture us. And come on, Leon, you can do it. Not to criticize you unduly when you fail that exam, which you will, you will fail an exam.
Yes, you will. Sad as it seems, you will. And you’re going to fail on asking the most beautiful girl in the world out on a date.
And you’re going to fail to attract the most magnificent men, the most handsome boy in the class. All those things occur. They just do.
But that does not mean I’m not going to meet a partner in life, a soulmate, if you will. Not at all. But I have to believe that these things will occur.
One of my very lovely students sent me a piece on how luck now can be actually analyzed. So it’s not really luck in an arbitrary sense, it can actually be analyzed in the universe.
There are certain precepts that if you follow those precepts, you will be lucky. And I think way too packed. We need free will, and I think we need chance.
Now there are people who believe there’s no such thing as chance. God has predetermined everything. From the time I’m born to the time I die, but I don’t believe this.
I believe that my own will, my determination was going to carry me a very, very long way. And in my life, I’ve realized a couple of things. You know, I’m a very shy individual, and I’m also afraid many times.
And I know that whenever I’ve challenged myself to overcome that fear, be it may the fear of living alone, or going off to university alone, or gosh, moving to another country alone, or all those things, right?
Starting a business alone, all those things. They can all be achieved. And you’re going to be fearful.
You are, but you will succeed. So how do I nurture my determination? Well, I think the very first thing you must realize is that you are your best friend, your most important teacher, and your most important student.
Got to put that in perspective immediately, without vanity. Because there will always be someone more intelligent than me. Always someone more handsome than me.
But nobody like me. I’m my own gift to me, if you will. The gift from God and the universe.
But, at the beginning, it’s just raw clay, isn’t it? And I have to knead that into a magnificent sculptor. I’ve got to polish that gem into a shiny ring.
Whichever analogy you want to draw, right? Because without the work, nothing occurs. I mean, this is Aristotle, isn’t it?
That we can achieve great happiness in life, but I have to work on it. It’s not going to come to me. It’s not a natural phenomenon.
I’ve got to work on me. Part of the gift of age is that you are free in many ways, but you need projects. You need to be working on something all the time.
I mean, you’ve got to harness your time, literally, because your time is getting shorter, baby. That’s just the truth. So you better be focused on your projects.
Make your life interesting to you, of course. And we obviously can never change anyone, but people can respond to the changes that we’re trying to make with the self.
And they can say, well, maybe I should be emulating this person, copying this person, because they seem to be relatively content with their lot in life. So I think all of us deserve success, but we must give it to ourselves. Mustn’t we?
It’s not gonna just fall out of the sky. And luck, we make our own luck through circumstances, don’t we? We afford the opportunity for luck to come in to our lives, but it might not, of course.
I mean, there are people who are good looking, smart, all of those things, but good luck seems to evade them, and they die terrible lives. So obviously luck does not come arbitrarily to everyone. Right?
Predestination, some people believe this, that when I’m born, I’m already determined, fate. But if you believe that, then every chance that occurs, well, it’s just fate. My bad luck, oh, just fate.
But I don’t believe this is correct at all, at all. I think we can live magnificent, joy-filled lives by believing in free will, that I can have a relationship with myself and with God to guide me.
And this will bring me to where I want to go in my life. So, determination, never, never, never give up on you and your plans, your goals, your dreams, your missions, whatever they may be. And you know what they say, you know what they say.
Critical thinking is everything, especially when it comes to determination, determination of the self and my mission. And critical thinking is great, absolutely great. You take care.
God bless. Bye bye.