Chicago Skyline At Night – source: Bala

I’ve always been fascinated with skyscrapers. It’s one of the reasons I appreciate living near Chicago’s beautiful skyline. Every time I get a glimpse at the skyline or a skyscraper I usually pause and indulge in the eye candy. What really fascinates me about skyscrapers or a city’s skyline is all the work, effort, technology, time, resources, security and testing measures that go into their construction process. The office of my last employer was located in the top floor of a skyscraper. I remember when I’d arrive in the morning, taking a look out the glass wall, and seeing Chicago’s skyline always got my juices flowing. I remember a lot of my limiting beliefs and discouragements would be quickly shattered with the affirmation that human beings are capable of erecting such beautiful skyscrapers creating a magnificent skyline.

Some images for your viewing pleasures or in case you don’t live in a big city with a skyline, click any image to zoom in…

Hong Kong Skyline – source:huipiiing

Singapore Skyline – source:jo.in.pink

source: jalex

I’m building my empire. No I’m not talking about a business empire like the Fords, Hiltons or the Trumps. No disrespect, one can learn all sorts of things from them. I’m talking about a new kind of empire. One built on freedom, responsibility, craziness, randomness, and hard work. My empire will look like no other. My empire isn’t about the money or the wealth, those come and go. My empire is about what I truly love in life. My empire will consist of living in some of the world best cities including Vegas, LA, NYC and Cancun. My empire will shatter through the social bounds, it will consist of awesome friendships, connections, and lovers. My empire will shatter through limiting beliefs, who says you can’t be a computer geek, a club head, a dancer, a romantic, a player, a good guy, a bad guy, a stage performer, a skydiver, a writer, and a world traveler? Those are just a few of my passions/hobbies or whatever you want to call them, they are all different identities mixed together and poof you have me.

My empire isn’t based on perfection, or always being right. I’m just another average Joe, while I have many dreams and ambitions, I also have bad habits, self defeating tendencies that I gotta work on like everyone else. Rather, my empire is based on persistence, perseverance, pushing through failure and setbacks. The defining moments of my empire aren’t so much the successes or the wins. I’m grateful for those. However what really defines my empire are those really tough times, when everything is going south, lots of failure, disappoint, pain, hurt, even light depression. What my empire thrives on is pushing through those tough defining moments.

My empire isn’t based on ego or self glorification. Like why am I writing this? It’s for my own encouragement and motivation, do I really care if anyone reads it or judges it? It would be nice if others read it and get something out of it, but overall I don’t really care much. Not to say that I don’t appreciate feedback, I really do, I love getting comments on my posts, however this post is a little different. These words I’m using are so real to me. I’m not just day dreaming, this vision of an empire is already part of my reality. I’m sharing this in hopes that it will inspire you to build your own empire. Whether you think this is the coolest thing ever since the rainbow colored skittles came out or simply retarded, that’s up to you, it’s none of my business.

My empire isn’t a totally futuristic one. My empire is also in the present. It’s is here and now. While I might not move to Vegas tomorrow, I did visit it last month, and it was a great time. I’m planning on doing a lot of traveling in the next couple of years. While I’m not the hottest home skillet to hit the social scene I still go out and get to meet lots of new cool people, have made many awesome friends, and will continue growing my social skills. A big part of my empire is being happy in the present moment and accepting everything the way it is. Desire without attachment to outcome. Lets face it, there are no guarantees, this moment, day, week, month or year could be my last. Some use this line of thinking to justify living a very careless, destructive, dangerous lifestyle. While that can be fun, it’s not what I’m going after. See I’ve tried that lifestyle, while it was fun at first, it was almost like getting a high off drugs, feels great, but always ends in a crash, a bad hang over. I’ve realized one of my biggest personal values is working hard, and therefore I wouldn’t have any regrets if I was to die working 10, 12, 14, or 16 hour days. Believe me, I still cherish and make the best of my free time.

For me a person’s life is this random shaped rock they are born with that they get to shape and sculpt however they please. Many times it will feel very tough, imagine trying to sculpt and shape a rock with your bare fingers, using only your fingernails. Other times it will be like a piece of cake, like when all of the right circumstances line up, and you got all the right tools to sculpt and shape that rock. Regardless of the circumstances, what matters is your perseverance and persistence. It’s funny how overrated talent is in our culture. When people see a person who’s considered a genius at what they do, they are amazed and might even feel a little jealous. Fortunately I’ve had the chance to interact with such talented people in the past, and get to know the real them. I found out that while their talent is nice, like everyone else they have to work hard with a lot of determination to achieve any kind of success. Additionally I found out that most of the time people wrongly label success as natural talent so that they don’t feel bad about being lazy or mindlessly cruising through life. I’m not trying to judge, I’m guilty of this myself.

Do you dare to build an empire? Maybe try closing your eyes, take a few moments, and picture your empire. It’s good to have futuristic goals and be ambitions however it’s also important to live in the present. Think of small actions steps you can take today or even now to start making your empire a reality. Dream big, be overly ambitious, it’s your reality, you are the pilot, and everyone else is a passenger.

Take a few moments to answer the following questions by reflecting on your current lifestyle and circumstance

• Are you successful financially or do you have credit card debt and are living from paycheck to paycheck?
• How do you rate your love life? What about your sex life? Is it fulfilling?
• What about your social life, are you the life of the party or the outsider trying to sneak in?
• How much do you like your body shape? Is it satisfying when you look in the mirror or are you feeling a little ashamed of the extra pounds you have put on over the past weeks, months, or years?
• Do you have a really exciting life? Do you often jump out of bed and can’t wait to start a new day?

Success or Failure is Usually a Pattern in One’s Life

I love writing about personal development mainly for two reason. First it allows me to reflect on myself. Secondly it forces me to constantly work on growing, improving and developing myself, otherwise I would have nothing new to write about.

Each time I meet a person who’s very successful in one area of his (or her) life, I keep noticing a reoccurring pattern. Usually he is successful in several other areas of his life. Here is a related article about how to become great and successful in any field.

Similarly, each time I meet a person who’s a failure in one area of his life, generally that failure seems to be a pattern throughout other areas of his life. Now I must clarify, by failure I’m talking about a reoccurring failure over at least months and years where there isn’t any progress, instead a lot of disappointment and even setbacks. I’m a big believer of trying and failing until one succeeds however this isn’t the kind of failure I’m talking about in this article. A good example of what I mean by failure is someone who’s constantly getting a new job for 6 months and then quitting it and repeating this for 3-4 years instead of maybe thinking he needs to switch his career choice in the first place. Another good example is someone who’s trying to lose weight who has been trying one diet after the other for 2-3 years now, losing the pounds and putting them back on, instead of starting to question if diets work in the first place. I can certainly relate to this last example which is why I started my Project Weight Loss where I’m working on implementing healthy eating and exercising habits for a lifetime and losing the weight slowly instead of just following a fad diet.

7 Common Roadblocks to Success

1. Caring What Everyone Thinks of You and Your Actions
2. Always Looking for a Shortcut Instead of Putting in the Hard Work
3. Giving Up Too Quickly
4. Living a Crappy Life
5. Always Choosing Instant Gratification Over the Long Term Payoff
6. Letting Fear Take Over Your Life
7. Surrounding Yourself with the Wrong Crowd