Silver Lining

A loving community finding the silver lining.

Category Archives: Success/Failure

It matters who we become…

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“It matters not what someone is born as, but what they grow to be” – Albus Dumbledore

I wanted to share this quote with you guys 🙂 It really resonates with me since it reminds me that I create myself. I sometimes feel that I have to just “work with what I got”. I forget that us, humans, are adaptable. We do great with change. In fact, we have been adapting since forever! I feel like it is important to remind ourselves that we CAN change if we put in the effort. We aren’t stuck with what we were born with. NO baby is born knowing calculus! We all learn the different subjects in school. Similarly, we can all learn to change the way we behave. Our whole lives we are learning and becoming better people. Our experience and knowledge shape who we are not what we were born with. Granted we are born with things that we keep with us as we age but there are certain things that we can change, such as our personality, and our knowledge. Remember you aren’t stuck with what you are born with… you can always change. All you need it the want to do so 🙂 –Pizza

 

 

Time to take Action

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The sad thing about life is: “The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.”

Credit: http://www.rogerknapp.com/inspire/highschool.htm

So, in the end, it is our job to motivate ourselves. I have a friend how is being really hard on herself about her grade in a class. She is starting to give up and she cries every day. I feel helpless… I can’t help her in that class. Me, not being her, can’t help her bring her self-esteem up. I can encourage her… which is what I have been doing but in the end, it is her thoughts that are making her feel that way. This experience has taught me that… everyone can encourage you and motivate you but it is YOU who has to take actions to make the changes necessary to do what you have to do. I am trying to motivate and encourage my friend as much as I can.. But I am also telling her that she has to take action too and make the difference in her grade.

-Pizza

Think Positive

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Positivity

“Positive people will never let their fears keep them away from reaching their goals and dreams. They always try new things and realize that failures are also important on the road towards success. They realize that there are time for sadness and pain, but they still see lightness and beauty of life.”

Credit: http://www.inspirationalstories.eu

This is very true. I have seen it in myself actually whenever I am positive with myself. But to be honest with you, I often am not so positive with myself. It is hard to think on the bright side. It is easier, for me, to think that I will fail. This is partially why I joined Silver Lining 🙂 I thought, if I help other see the bright side of things maybe I will start to see it myself. It has helped 🙂 I am still a work in progress. Like the quote says, even for this adversity, I have to remember to not lose hope! So do you! Life is hard… but in the end it is how you look at it that makes it so. -Pizza

Change is needed…

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“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” – Gail Sheehy

 

I am personally someone who loves stability. I like to know what my schedule is hour-by-hour, what events are coming up at least a week beforehand, and that I will not have to be scrambling through the day with lots of changes that will mess up my routine. Though stability isn’t a bad thing, it’s even more important that we come to accept change and how beneficial it is to our being. Think about it: We wouldn’t live in the world we live in today if we did not embrace change.
Gradually, I’ve come to accept change based on Sheehy’s reasoning. If we don’t change, we never really learn how to live. We end up just walking around as human beings, going through monotony and trying to live on the safe side. But change is all about taking risks, and the biggest risks pay off. One particular example in my life pertains to the dance duet style I chose last year. Though it was clearly out of my comfort zone (my friends and teachers admitted that it definitely was not a style they expected me to compete with), I flew with it. I experimented with it and had the most fun making that change and seeing how it would work out. That experience left me feeling more empowered and matured as a dancer and a person. Life cannot exist without change.

Carbon Copy

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Walking my dog through the neighborhood, every day blends together as if each day is an exact same carbon copy. It’s bland and unoriginal, but it’s the closest I feel to safety. I know exactly which route I will walk, I know exactly when the sun will set, and I know exactly which neighbors I can avoid if my dog decides to lose her mind and disobey.

 

One day, as I’m walking through my neighborhood, my dog slips off of her collar! It’s a whirlwind trying to find her, as I run up and down the rows of houses. I’m looking through bushes, ravaging through leaf piles, and confronting confused neighbors about my lost dog.
At last, I found my dog safe and sound eating some sausage by a dumpster. Although my routine was more wild than usual today, I realized that it made my day more spontaneous and exciting. The strive for constant perfection that I always had went out the window, and I realized that learning and growing requires trying new things and making mistakes. 

Relax

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Too often, we feel that we can only relax when we have time. When there’s a billion tasks on our to-do list, we think that we can’t stop or take a break. However, as Sydney J. Harris states, “The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” When you’re stressing out and your schedule is maxed out, remember to take a break.

 

Do something you enjoy and take it easy. Take a walk outside, watch some television, eat some cake, take a nap, play your favorite song, or dance. Without breaks, you can easily get stressed out and that’s never good.

 

When I have 3 hours to do 6 hours worth of work, I get really stressed out. I start feeling overwhelmed and I hate not being in control. I feel the need to squeeze the life out of my stress ball and type out gibberish in some soon-to-be-deleted documents. I’m sure many people have felt stressed like this before.

Instead of quickly running back into my pile of essays and tasks, I should take a quick breather. The break I spend eating some food, taking a walk outside, or listening to music will recharge me and help me function normally again. If I just keep trying to work, I would only stress myself out more and end up in a bad state. Breaks are needed!

“Success Is Counted Sweetest”

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Success is counted sweetest

By those who ne’er succeed.

To comprehend a nectar

Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple Host

Who took the Flag today

Can tell the definition

So clear of Victory

As he defeated–dying–

On whose forbidden ear

The distant strains of triumph

Burst agonized and clear

– Emily Dickinson

Description: This poem describes how the one soldier who has been defeated understands success better than the whole army that was victorious.


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Vanderlei de Lima

In light of the 2016 Rio Olympics, I wanted to share the truly inspiring story of Vanderlei de Lima from Brazil. As some of you may know, during the 2004 Athens Olympics, Vanderlei de Lima was pushed off the race while he was leading in the men’s marathon. Because of this, he lost his stamina and ended up getting third place. Although, he never was sad about it. He showed great sportsmanship and accepted the bronze like it was gold.

Here is a clip that talks more about him: https://www.facebook.com/olympics/videos/10154460504554216/e3bf586c-6d07-477e-95a8-84dfefb1f814.png

He is an example of what you should do when life throws adversity at you. Instead of feeling bad about what could have happened or what didn’t happen… he was happy about what did. By being grateful for what you have and by not letting life’s downs get you down, you will be a happier person 🙂

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday! And keep smiling NO MATTER WHAT!

Image: https://www.iaaf.org/news/news/vanderlei-de-lima-the-story-of-a-man-that-g

August :)

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Welcome to August! The month of fresh beginnings, transitions, and friendships. What are you looking forward to this month?


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Stopping the worry pendulum

During hard times we all shrink or fall back a little… here is some motivation for when you go through such a thing… and remember there is always someone there for you… I am there for you!

Where is my river of life leading to?  It’s not just my river as it has got tributaries in the form of kith and kin.   All the more the fears and anxieties soar up just at the dawn looking at the newspapers.  The screaming headlines in the front pages of our newspapers are enough to put any optimist in to a worry spiral.

The mind oscillates like a pendulum to the worries of the past and anxieties of the future and therefore quite restless in the present moment.  What is the way out to stop this pendulum effect and focus on the job at hand?  Especially when we do not wish to think of something that is unfavourable, the same scene occupies the center stage in our mind.  As we are busy seeing this picture, we are also unconsciously postponing our happiness which is present right at this moment.  Just look at this:

The science of problem says ‘while, problems go backwards we go forward’

Yes, it is so!  Do a timeline check from let’s say 2000 till now.  We can easily track many negative events, – the Y2K, 9/11, the Tsunami, the financial Tsunami of 2008,  26/11 and so on. We have weathered it all and still going on to face the fall out of the Brexit!  The same timeline holds good in our personal lives too where we have won against several odds. Therefore, the science of the problem says ‘we go forward’.

Welcome to the weekstarter that gives us a tip to stop the oscillating ‘worry pendulum.’

Credit: Weekstarter