This I Believe...

Through strength my chains are broken

          Its six o’clock in the morning, darkness surrounds me; it’s the dead of winter, well below freezing. One by one, figures start to emerge from the darkness as we gather around the gymnasium doors, standing under a flickering flood light, waiting for our custodian to relieve us from our suffering. There is only one reason for us to be in a gym at six in the am; it was because we believed, and I still believe that keeping your mind and body strong is the ultimate and basic key to success in life. Discipline is the only way to control your body and mind, having control has helped me to enjoy life to the fullest. For me that form of discipline was lifting weights twice a day, five days a week. For me it was the smell of the iron as I pulled it in towards my face and then away with the same ferocity. It was the surreal feeling of my muscles contracting and expanding, the rap blaring in my ears, and the constant drum of my heart pounding. Lifting weights is the very definition of joy in my life, and to me discipline is lifting weights. The desire to see myself become better than anybody thought possible was what gave me the drive to push myself like that.
          Imagine for a moment, you are Vladimir Putin, the leader of Russia. Every morning you wake up with the weight of a hundred million souls resting upon your shoulders. The only thing that will be the same for you every morning is the physical exercise. The most successful people in the world have strict workout regimens every day. Vladimir Putin practices Judo every morning as he gets up to lead Russia into the future, and Barack Obama had a basketball court installed in the backyard of the White House. If world leaders are exercising every day, then there must be a good reason for it all. There’s more to a little exercise every morning than meets the eye. It’s the basic building block to success in life. It’s the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do at night. Without doing it I would feel fake, like I was living a lie, and I believe that people do it to maintain some kind of control over their life.
          Athletes are who they are because they are in shape; they did not get to that position in sports by being out of shape. Adrian Gonzalez grew up in Tijuana, one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Underprivileged and impoverished he was still able to become one of the greatest baseball players their ever was, or will ever be. It is discipline that carries us through life. Discipline carried Gonzales through danger to fame, and I believe that discipline will carry me, and anyone else who practices it, to success.
          Life is about making something happen, not waiting for them to happen. I believe the easiest way to get your life started on the right track is to give yourself a disciplined pattern of exercise to repeat everyday; something that is easily accomplished. I started by just banging out push-ups and sit-ups in my room every morning and again before I went to bed. Every little thing you do counts. If I had not started doing the basics in my room when I was just barely a teenager at fourteen years old, then I never would have started. You have to work your way up the ladder before you can reach the top, and that’s what I did, and have been doing since I started high school. Every challenge I completed gives me the energy needed to complete any task in life head-on.
          When I accomplish the small easy tasks it gives me the boost I need to tackle life’s bigger challenges. I believe when you deprive yourself of completing these little challenges you weaken your body. I know that feeling, it is a painful a lasting emotion, its called failure. Failure kills you; it kills your chances of leading a successful life. You cannot let failure ruin your life; you have got to give yourself a method to overcome failure. I believe that for me that method is self-discipline. I contribute most of my success to the self-discipline that I maintain in my lifestyle, and I know that all of my success in the future will be controlled by pushing my body and mind to its limits.

comments week 3

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http://nathanefuller.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/morality-in-the-maze-runner-albys-descent/#comment-17

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The Moral Compass: Guide to the Decision Making of Mankind.

            My moral compass is broken down into four parts, or headings, North, South, East, and West. All the points carry me on my path through life. The compass contains the guidelines that I try to live my life by every day.

North: Ever since I can remember my father has been telling me to never let anyone tell me I cannot do something. Today, I have taken what he has said and I use it as my motivation in life. This advice has led me to try many new things, and I have learned that you cannot hope to succeed, or fail spectacularly until you have tried. I think this direction will allow me to try many, many more new positive things in my life.

South: Another thing my father used to tell me when I was a boy, and still does today, was to judge people by the their character, not by the color of their skin. As a soon to be adult, I try to treat everyone I meet as my equal. I want to be able to make positive connections with people so that I build solid relationships with my friends. This gives me peace at mind knowing I will have friends to call on in the future. Every day I strive to treat people with respect so that I in turn can receive the respect I deserve.

West: The best advice that I would tell someone to live their life by would be to be honest in life. I know firsthand the kind of positive effects that being honest can have. They can get you out of the most potent of situations. At times dishonesty can seem like a more approachable path, but the end is never visible; a lie has the potential to turn into anything. When I reflect on the struggles that I have been through I find it comforting to know that the truth and nothing but the truth came from my mouth.

East: My last point, but by no means the least important, is to stand up for myself and others. I live my life by the truth that if you want people to help you then you have to help them. I think this is the moral that the whole world relies on to continue functioning properly. If the majority of the world did not live by this rule then our humanity would be stained with the evilness of selfish desires. In standing up for others I pray that others will stand with me when I need them too.

            To me my compass is a guide for the everyday, and a manual to get me through points of crisis in my life. I have learned that when I do not follow it every day I find myself in more times of crisis that I care to be in. Though, I admit, there are some situations where my compass never falls into play.

A Definition of Morality.

Everyone has an idea of what a moral is; we all know the familiar moral to the story expression, but what will the morals of our life story be. Morality is your ability to decipher between the wrong choices and the right decisions in life. Most people refer to moral men and women as persons of good character with mainstream American and Christian values. To be a moral person you have to make the decision that society will agree with most. Even with the best intentions a choice can still be viewed as immoral. Is it morally safe to take one life to spare a thousand; society can't answer that question, only god and history can be the judge of that. For me choosing the right decision is always simple, but making the wrong choice involves a little more desire, there has to be a proper incentive and little risk. I have never been in the situation, but I can imagine that after having his morality questioned a man would interpret morality differently. He would see it as something that has to be steadfast, and automatic. If every moral man said he had never committed an immoral action then we would all be liars. A life spent never being immoral is a life wasted. Many immoral actions are minor nuisances at best; if every action was to be morally scrutinized then everyone would be guilty of making the wrong choice. Fortunately making immoral decisions is a part of everyone's life story. It grants us the experience we need to strengthen our morals for more powerful tests. I would be a liar if I said there wasn't a thrill that came from committing immoral deeds. Morality is usually preached as a universal path to a religiously healthy life, the Old Testament defines morality very well, “Many people hold to the idea that the conscience is a matter of our hearts, that concepts of right, wrong, and fairness are “programmed” in each of us. This is in keeping with the writings of Paul the Apostle, who points out that even those who do not believe in God frequently obey God's laws as given in the Ten Commandments: "for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them" (Romans 2:14-15 (NKJV).” Humanity’s sense of morality was not founded within the beginnings of any organized religion. It was embedded into us as instinct and influenced by our own experience and desire. Morality, to me, means knowing that I will make the right decision when it comes down to it.

"Morality." Philosophy - AllAboutPhilosophy.org. Web. 08 Sept. 2011.