Home of Dustin Taylor

Sick & Tired of Being Sick & Tired

// October 1st, 2009 // Comments // Motivation

Have you ever had one of those days where you just want everything to go away?  Wondering why life isn’t better for you?  Wondering if it’s something that you did wrong or if it’s just because that white corolla didn’t signal when he cut you off on the way home from work?  I mean, whose fault is it really?  The guy driving 30 down the highway on a scooter or you for being in such a hurry?

I’m talking about one of those days (or weeks, or years) where you just can’t do anything right.  Where you may be trying to please everyone, but end up pleasing no one.  What then?  You’ve wasted your life hoping, even expecting, to please others so that one day you will be happy, but it all ends up backfiring.  Can you really please everyone around you?  Is it possible?

Have you ever woken up to the same routine that you told yourself last week that you were going to leave behind?  The same thing for breakfast, the same to-do list, the same way to work, the same time for lunch and then you try and add some spice to your life by driving home a different way just because?  Yup, I know you have.  I have too.

So how have I decided to get out of this?  I’ve decided to stop tricking myself into believing that I’ll change if I keep trying to do the same thing over and over.  The definition of insanity is to repeat the same thing over and over and expect a different result.  Are we really naive to believe that hoping for change will actually effect the change?  Gandhi may have said it best, yet so simple,

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

It’s true.  You have to change before you can see the change in others.  You have to give more for others to be able to give more.  You have to be who you say you want to become for others to be who they want to become.  The cold, hard truth, is that it starts with YOU.  And you are the only one that can do it…not only that, but the only one that should do it.

Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?

If you gotta start somewhere, why not here?  If you gotta start sometime, why not now?  If we gotta start somewhere, I’ll say here.  If we gotta start sometime, I’ll say now. – Toby Mac, City On Our Knees

Man up.  Stop whining.  And please don’t wait for someone else to fix themselves or fix you.  Do something different.  Do something different today.

You Are Self-Employed

// September 24th, 2009 // Comments // Motivation

WELCOME TO THE NEW DUSTINGTAYLOR.COM – New re-design, new blog, new future.

I recently heard an interesting quote…so simple, yet struck a chord near to my heart.  It went something like this:

“Whether you realize it or not, you’re self-employed.”

Isn’t it true?  Aren’t we all self-employed?  Aren’t we all interested in ourselves?  We may think that our employer will actually look out for us when the hard times come.  They probably won’t.  In the roller-coaster like economy of today, you don’t know where you will be in a year, in a month, or even in a day.  So why put your entire life in the hands of others, continuously believing that somebody else will do what you can’t seem to do for yourself?

Why not jump ship from those around you telling you that you can’t do any better.  That you must wait until the economy gets better because “it’s just hard right now,” and “when the economy returns back to normal, I’ll be ok?”  Why not choose for yourself TODAY that you will stop waiting to be acted on, and act for yourself?

That’s the question I keep asking myself.  We are all self-employed, whether we realize it or not.  We are self-employed in developing the skills, talents, relationships, connections, and rights that will put us in a position to succeed no matter what happens around us.  Most people would call this freedom.  A freedom for which they deeply yearn.  At the same time, a freedom they think is impossible to achieve.

This is a freedom, like any other thing of worth in this life, that takes work to obtain.  This is a freedom that requires effort, stability of mind, and a determination from the heart, coupled with a motivation with roots that go beyond the surface.  This is a freedom that for some could be a free weekend every seven days.  For others, it could mean being wealthy enough to travel.  Still, for others, it could mean being able to just get rid of the stresses of trying to please someone else every day of their lives for something of little worth in the long-run: money.  The opposite of freedom is fear!

“Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.”  – Dwight D. Eisenhower

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar

This is a freedom that must be renewed every single day.  Don’t let another day pass you by without finding what makes you free.  Finding what sets you apart from everybody else.  Finding what makes you happy.  That, in turn, will make those around you increase their freedom.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” – Marianne Williamson

What are you afraid of?  You truly are self-employed in your own future.  Step up to the plate today!

Living a Life of Ends

// April 27th, 2009 // Comments // Motivation

Below is an excerpt from an article I was reading today.  I loved it and thought I would share this excerpt along with a link to the full article if you wanted to read it yourself.  Plus, it can’t hurt that the author has my name!    Take a look and let me know what you think below!

When we treat the things we do as simply functional steps towards some future ends, function replaces meaning, and we transform our very selves into objects for the satisfaction of some future self.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/living-a-life-of-ends.html

23 things I’ve learned in 23 years

// February 11th, 2009 // Comments // Motivation, Quotes

I’m a little behind on this considering my birthday was last month (January 14th), but I wanted to just have some fun with a little list of 23 things that I’ve learned and grown to love in my 23 years.  As you’ll be able to tell, I’ve still got lots to learn!  Considering my love for quotes in general, I have attached a quote that I’ve happened upon recently to each item.  Here we go…

• Love life and life will love you back – AKA – what goes around, comes around.  –

“Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back.” – Arthur Rubinstein

• If there are two ways to take something that a peer says or does, always choose the best one. –

“Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it.” – Anonymous

• Do what you really love, not what you’re supposed to love.  –

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”  -e.e. cummings, 1955

• Dream.  Don’t let others limitations reflect where your dreams start and stop. –

“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers.  But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, 1996

• Dreaming and wishful thinking is only the beginning, action is where dreams become reality. –

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” – Henry Ford

• The day is simply better when you take time to put the Lord first.  Reading the scriptures and praying in the morning starts the day off right. –

“At … moments of crisis and challenge, some choose to abandon faith just at the time when it most needs to be embraced.  Prayer is ignored at the very hour when it needs to be intensified.  Virtue is carelessly tossed aside when it needs to be cherished.  God is forsaken in the all-too-human yet mistaken fear that He has forsaken us.” – David S. Baxter, “Faith, Service, Constancy,” October General Conference 2006

• School and work should teach you to think, not tell you what to think.  Be careful which you choose. –

“An educated man is not one whose memory is trained to carry a few dates in history. He is one who can accomplish things. A man who cannot think is not an educated man, however many college degrees he may have acquired. Thinking is the hardest work anyone can do, which is probably the reason we have so few thinkers.” – Henry Ford

• Exercise, but do it in a way you love. –

“An hour of basketball feels like 15 minutes.  An hour on a treadmill feels like a weekend in traffic school.” – David Walters

• Stressing over inevitable things will NOT make them go away.  Simply take them as they come, one-by-one. –

“The field of consciousness is tiny.  It accepts only one problem at a time.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

• First impressions are important. –

“Everyone sees what you seem to be, but few know what you are.” – Machiavelli, The Prince

• Faith is a principle of action – nothing gets done, no matter how much you believe it, until you punch your time card and put in the work necessary. –

“Action alone is not faith in the Savior, but acting in accordance with correct principles is a central component of faith. Thus, ‘faith without works is dead’ (James 2:20).” – David A Bednar, “Ask in Faith”

• It’s easier to think, focus, and feel the Spirit when your home, car, clothes, etc. are clean. –

“Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.” – Christopher Morley

• Always serve for no other reason than because you love and want to help others. –

“You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” – John Wooden

• Plan. –

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” – Tom Landry

• When all of your plans fall through, laugh. –

“Laughter gives us distance.  It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.” – Bob Newhart

• Money is a means to an end.  There’s a difference in having money and counting your money.  Money is the means, NOT the point. –

“Men for the sake of getting a living, forget to live.” – Margaret Fuller

• Know your priorities, set specific goals to help with your highest priorities.  Achieving those goals bring joy and a sense of success no matter the size of the goal. –

“When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.” – Greg Anderson

• Always do what you say, when you say you will do it.  No exceptions. (See next point) –

“Promise only what you can deliver.  Then deliver more than you promise.” – Anonymous

• Legitimate excuses are few and far between.  Just do your best. –

“Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall.  Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day.  Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down.  And this is all life really means.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

• Whatever you do, do it with your whole heart and your best self. –

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius

• (Almost) Every bad thing starts with an attitude of laziness or desire to get something for nothing. –

“In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.” – Henry Miller, The Books in My Life

• Say it how it is in the most loving, honest way possible. –

“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” – Mark Twain

• If you don’t love life, you’re doing something wrong. –

“Life is good, if we live in such a way to make it so. [...] A ‘good life’ comes as a result of the way we do things, of the words we choose to say, and even of the kind of thoughts we choose to have. [...] ‘Wanting to’ is the determining factor which leads us to lay hold upon the word of God and be happy.  Perseverance in making correct decisions is what leads us to happiness.” – Benjamin de la Hoyas, “True Happiness: A Conscious Decision,” October 2005 General Conference, Saturday Afternoon Session