Author Archives: afirmin
About afirmin
Founder & CEO of Sqrall.com
Regional Creative & Digital Director at VML
Married to a beautiful woman
We have two amazing children
Writer, poet and sports fanatic.
Life can be difficult at the best of times. But what often makes it worse are the excuses we give ourselves for not doing the things we want to, not achieving the goals we dream of and not making the most of every opportunity we have in this world. If you think that it matters where you are from, what education you have or where you are now then you may as well lie down where you are right now and just give up. In fact you may well be digging your own grave with every excuse another inch deeper into the ground, making the chance of moving forward even more difficult in the future, if you have one. I know I have dug many a hole myself.
Many of the greatest people in the world were not born wit ha silver spoon in their mouths or had things made easy for them. Take Steven Hawkings, Steve Jobs, Helen Keller, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and the list goes on. You probably don’t have many of the ailments or issues in front of you at the moment, but still you think achieving any goal is out of your reach. Why? Because the media says you have to go to a certain school? Because so called popular opinion believes you have to be a certain type of person, born on a certain day with stars aligned in the right way? Okay maybe a wild exaggeration, but don’t you see how small the excuses you are placing in front of you seems in comparison? Don’t you see that people all over the world have overcome difficulties, disabilities and hardships most people could never understand to achieve great things?
Not every one has to change the technology world in the way school drop out Steve Jobs did, or created music history like Ray Charles long after going blind as a child. You see every single excuse you make is another inch deeper in your grave or another brick in the wall in front of you. With every challenge and difficulty you will face in the world today you must believe you can achieve dreams or goals that will improve your life or at the very least make you happy.
Everyone on this planet deserves to be happy and has the skills within them to achieve something in their life. Because it doesn’t matter where you are from, who you are or what you have done so far in your life so far. It only matters where you are going and that journey, that amazing next step in your life is whatever you decide you want it to be, so decide today where you are going and live the life you deserve.
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Tags: brick in the wall, digging your own grave, helen keller, journey, life, live a life you deserve, plan your life, popular opinion, silver spoon, steve jobs, Steven Hawkings, Where are you going?
Do you know that person inside you? You know the real one, not the one we all pretend to be that fits with every forced stereotype that our world has forced us to chase throughout our lives? The one that is different, quirky, unusual and likes things that you rarely tell anyone about like the song that your friends don’t like or something you have always wanted to do like sing in a choir. You are not alone in the secrecy of hiding things, unfortunately this is how the majority of the world lives, hiding behind masks. So what about the few that don’t?
What is remarkable about the few that don’t conform, that celebrate their uniqueness, that embrace the fact they are different are the people we champion as great. Apple’s Think Different advertising campaign wasn’t only about how they create products. Apple was telling you as an individual to be different, to try things, be creative and have fun. Apple was telling you to be you.
Let’s look at another industry. Let’s take singers. There are millions of people who are technically brilliant when it comes to singing. They can hit a note perfectly every single time and have been doing this for years. But if you looked at the people who become famous for singing it is because there is something different about their voice, often not technically great but they sing with a passion and extenuates that difference. Kurt Cobain, Lead singer of Nirvana fame, was once described by Dave Grohl, Drummer of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame, as singing like he had ‘A pack of gravel in his throat’ and this by the way was Dave paying Kurt the ultimate compliment. He understood the need to be different as this made Nirvana such a stand out band when they started.
If you want to really do something that makes you happy then you should embrace every quirk, difference and individual aspect of who you are and run with it. Forget the glossy magazine stereotypes, forget what your friends think you are, forget about what people may think about you and start focusing on what you want from this life. You have everything you need to be happy and you have everything you need to be successful. You just have to believe it, understand who you are, what you want and go for it with every ounce of your soul. Part of being a success or being happy remember, is seeing yourself in that place before you set off. You may not make the top of whatever mountain you are aiming for but in life it is about the journey to discover who you are, not the final destination.
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Tags: advertising campaign, Apple, beauty, Dave Grohl, foo fighters, glossy magazine, journey, Kurt Cobain, motivation, nirvana, quirk, secrecy, stereotypes, think different, unique
There is a battle that resides inside you no matter what you are trying to do. Start a business, Go for a run, keep to a diet, fix the broken door or any number of the things we tend to procrastinate or delay in our busy schedules. Let’s take jogging to stay fit as an example of how this defines every decision you make in your life.
You wake up knowing that if you go for a run you will feel great for the whole day, not only on a physical level but on a psychological one as well. But as soon as you put the thought in motion a negative force is immediately jumps into action. Why today? Maybe later, It looks like rain, you’ve just got over a cold so should you go now? The list of excuses comes at you like a flood. It really is relentless and you have to just take one step at a time to overcome this. The initial step will undoubtedly be the hardest.
So you go and get changed. Then the excuses from within continue to come. Go later, just do a small run today, don’t you have work you need to do? But you have to focus on one thing and one thing only…get out of the house. The walk down the path to the gate is not as difficult as getting changed, but it still is a monumental effort. Out of the gate the mind games continue, but you feel a slight change in how you are dealing with them.
As you start to run you leave behind the majority of the negative thoughts that pray on you, but beware they will still sit on your shoulder waiting for you to start feeling tired, but you will have the momentum and the confidence at this point to know you are going to complete your run, beat your negative thoughts and be closer to your goals. This example could be about anything as everything we do in our lives is faced with the same doubts and negativity, and this is from us!
We can be our own worst enemies. But understand one thing no doubts and fears from anyone else will ever be as damaging or powerful as the ones that come from within. If you can overcome this then you can overcome anything in your life. As I have mentioned before focus on the little goals to help you keep building momentum and very soon you will be taking on bigger challenges that you have always dreamed you could do.
Keep in mind that everyone has excuses why they shouldn’t, couldn’t or dare not do the difference between those that don’t and those that do, is only in the fact that they tried. Never be afraid to fail, out of failure always comes lessons that help us in the future, but at least give yourself the chance to succeed by trying.
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Tags: challenge, excuses, fail, initial step, life, mind games, monumental effort, negative thoughts, negativity, step at a time, succeed, try
Sometimes when you look at what you achieve in life the distance is so great that it is quite deflating. Many people are put of chasing their dreams purely because the goal they set is so big and so far away that they lose sight of it after a short time. Having a big goal is fantastic and everyone should have goals in their life if they want to live a life regret free. So go ahead set the big goals, but here is an idea that will help your journey be more enjoyable and achievable.
No matter what you big goal may be, a new job, a new life, an adventure getting rid of a debt that is weighing you down like an anchor in the sea, set some smaller goals that will help you focus on what you need to do to achieve the big goal. Think of it this way, if an olympic hurdler set off on a race and only focused on the finish line they may not get over each hurdle the way they have trained to do for years. But if every focus is 100% on the next hurdle they will nail every single hurdle perfectly and before they realizes it will be at the finish line with a great chance of winning. That is how you need to plan your big goals, with smaller and closer hurdles that you can focus on along the way.
The important thing to do when you do reach these smaller, closer goals is to celebrate them. Give yourself a small reward that will motivate you to keep going or start moving towards the next hurdle or goal. It doesn’t need to be big but the acknowledgement that you are getting closer to your bigger goals will do absolute wonders for your self esteem and confidence in what you are trying to achieve.I have found that no matter what your end goal is that you can set smaller goals, write a list or plan of things you need or need to do if you are to reach your goals, it will help you more than you could imagine. Good luck!
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Tags: achieve, acknowledgement, dreams, goals, help, hurdle, idea, journey, motivation, new job
Has anything you have ever achieved in life been easy? Did you have to work, learn and sweat to make it happen? If not you are very lucky and I salute you. But if you are like most of us anything worth doing in life comes with real dedication and passion. Will it be easy, probably not. The path ahead will be full of twists and turns, potholes and dead ends. But once you reach your destination you will realize that every single bump and stumble you faced was all part and parcel of becoming the person you now are, A different person who grew without you even noticing, a person who looks at the world differently and who values the journey now more than the destination.
If you take a look over your shoulder and see the path you have taken until now you will notice many things. Life moments that defined who you are today, walls of which when you were on the other side seemed like mountains that couldn’t be climbed, but you did and you even broke through a few of them once you gained momentum. Every single one of those moments were hard and took every ounce of the person you are to overcome, but the important thing is you did overcome them and that is what you must take with you on the next part of your journey.
A new year spreads out before you. You know how quickly time passes so where do you see yourself this time next year? Do you see a year that you continued to worry about the ‘what if’s?’ Or, was it a year that you took your life by the scruff of the neck and said this will be my year, this will be the year I change my life, this will be the year that even if the destination I want to reach is beyond my current capabilities I will start moving one step at a time, because nothing worth doing is easy and nothing anyone ever accomplished was ever achieved without the decision to try. Happy New Year, I hope it is one you look back on with a smile.
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Tags: challenges, happy new year, journey, life moments, look over your shoulder, motivation, motivational, smile gallery, twists and turns, worries
If you want to live the life you’ve always wanted it will never happen unless you push yourself into areas that are out of your comfort zone. We all get stuck in moments in our life where we are faced with a fork in the road. The fork has two directions which are made up of a) Continuing on the same path that we can see clearly ahead as being much the same as we have right now. And then there is b) A road that is less assured and will mean you pushing yourself into doing things that are not comfortable to you now. But you have to ask, “What is it in life that you want?”
For anyone who says they are happy and content where they are I applaud you and think you are very lucky. I honestly couldn’t be happier for you. If however, you have ambition, dreams and desires to have a different life then you have to make the changes that will create that new reality. I do not mean the dream where everyone is rich, as I honestly don’t think that is a true test of happiness anyway. I mean if there is something in your life you have always wanted to do like traveling, learn a language, learn an instrument, a new skill or a change in career you have to ask yourself when are you going to make it happen?
Unfortunately life rarely comes knocking on our door with a gift-wrapped life where you will have all you have ever wanted. You have to get dressed and forge out into the world, where things are uncertain and will not always go your way. In order to make those dreams a reality you have to push yourself in places that make you uncomfortable. It is in these moments, the difficult ones, where we truly find out who we are and what we truly do want out of life. Maybe once you start something you will realize that this is not what you wanted anyway.
That’s good, as it means you will not sit awake at night and wonder that horrible ‘what if?’ It means you are now ahead of the curve on knowing what you do not want. You are now in a different place in your life, a self confidence growing within you and the knowledge knowing you are closer to doing what it is in life you want, even if you don’t know what that is yet. Leave the comfort zone for sleeping and enjoy exploring the amazing person you are by realizing your potential. You at least owe it yourself to try.
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Tags: comfort zone, different life, dreams, dreams and desires, happy, journey, life, new reality, potential, self confidence, true test
So you are different, so what? So growing up you felt alienated from people around you, a square peg in a round hole, a misfit and a weirdo. These feelings growing up are the main cause of people becoming introverts, hermits and shy shells of the promise youth once held. So it’s time to turn back the clocks.
You see, if it wasn’t for the misfits, the weirdo’s or the square pegs in our world we would live in a boring, grey and uninteresting place that didn’t illuminate the imagination, encourage people to be better and keep pushing the world to be more creative, inspiring and entertaining. So celebrate your differences!
Take a long hard look at your differences. Things you think make you different, because it is those that make you unique. It is those aspects that are not hurdles, but springboards to be whatever you want to be. Because the world is full of people with insecurities about the way they feel, look and act. But if the world doesn’t accept you for the way you are, move and start another world where you can be a silly, funny, odd, interesting and as happy as you were when you were a child.
As a child it was a time when you thought everything was possible, because it still is, it is only you listening to the wrong opinions. Close your mind from every stereotype you have ever heard about beauty, education, creativity and life so that you can start living the life you were destined to live. The world tries to make you ‘normal’ when the people we celebrate are the ones that said NO! I will not conform, I will not accept that preconception, and I will change the world because I am different, I am unique and nothing will change that unless I decide to change it myself. Stop listening to what the world says about you and start listening to what you want to do, to be and to achieve.
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Tags: belief, challenge, life, opinion, preconception, self confidence, stereotypes, weirdo
My seven-year-old daughter used this as the headline to her letter to Santa that she spent her evening working on yesterday. The spelling mistake of ‘magical’ was secondary to a wonderful insight into a child’s mind that became clear in the way she progressed through her letter. In an almost apologetic manner she asked for, “What ever you can bring me.” before cleverly listing ‘things I would like’ in hope more than pressure of what she wanted for Christmas. But this lovely little message was just one of many that decorated her hand written letter to Santa.
Another question brought a smile to my face as you realize the thoughts that must go through a child’s mind. The question was “How old are you?” followed beautifully by the line ‘I believe you’ (meant to be I believe in you) This letter took me back to all those wonderful memories I have of being a child that seem to grow more and more distant as I grow older. It seems to take little moments like this that transport you back to those times that were just, well, magical!
Of course the list on the back of the letter, just in case you need help Santa! Is filled with what children all over the world must be looking for, an iphone, bike, scooter and my favorite, a small doll of you Santa! Today we are mailing the letter to Santa in the North Pole, but I have a sneaky feeling that, for the most part, she will be happy with what Santa brings her this year! I wish you all a wonderful lead up to Christmas. May it bring you all you want and give you the greatest start to the year 2012, which I hope is everything you wish for and more.
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Tags: child, Children, christmas, list, Santa
Sometimes in life things can look very bleak indeed. Whether it is on the macro level of global politics, war, famine and so on; or it is on the micro level about what we are facing as individuals like financial, career and love they are all obstacles that could very easily give us an excuse to stop.
Well that would be the easy option for sure, but like the famous quote from Winston Churchill says, “Success in not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” Because, there is not a single person on this world that doesn’t have at least one, of the above issues, facing them at any one point in life. It all comes down to how we manage that horrible feeling of despair when we do.
Yes it can be a dark and frightening road when the lights suddenly go out on a relationship or your bank account seems to look like a speedometer in a car rapidly going the wrong way. But retreating back into your comfort zone is not going to change the situation. It would be nice to be able to hide from a problem so it goes away, but the truth is it is going to be waiting for you once you open your eyes as we can all vouch for in our lives.
Try not to be too hard on yourself when you face an issue in your life, most experiences in life, in the long run, will make you a better and stronger person so focus on what has happened, what this means to you in the long run and then see the way out by taking the single first step towards the answer. It may take a hundred steps to get there, but at least you will be moving and that is the ultimate difference between someone who is lost and someone who is on the journey of life, faced a bump or two and is making the best out of their life, regardless what happens along the way. Having that courage to take the fist step is what will bring you success and happiness in everything you do.
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Tags: failure, journey, life, quotes, strength, winston churchill
We’ve all been there. Standing on the edge of a decision that frightens us. Poised to leap into the unknown with fear and responsibility holding you back like an anchor on a ship rooted to the seabed. It’s easy to stay where you are, or even go backwards. But to stay where you are safe. It’s comfortable, warm and the lights are bright around you ensuring you can see everything in your near vicinity. But is that all you want in life?
It takes every effort to move that one-foot forward into the shadows of the unknown. It takes even more to leave the bright lights of certainty behind and forge a new path for others to follow. But if you are stood in that place right now, or you face a decision that is unclear, then you must ask yourself a simple question of who you are and where you see your life in the next one, two or five years. If you are happy where you are then I congratulate you on achieving something very few people have achieved. But if not, you must try.
For every accomplishment that anyone has ever made was not done because the outcome was certain or guaranteed. It was achieved because they tried and tried again if it didn’t work. Nothing in life worth achieving was ever given away free, it was always achieved by someone making a decision to try. Whether that is simply buying a lottery ticket or changing the course of your entire life it still comes down to one thing, you must try.
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Tags: achievement, decision, journey, law of attraction, life, motivation
