The Formula

Life is a mélange of circumstances, situations and a mix of ups and downs we all have to face.

Life is like an orange, hard on the outside, soft and juicy on the inside. The key to get the juice out of this mélange is to make our way through the hard peel. Some people have discovered this formula to success.

The legendary writer Ernest Hemingway said, "There is no friend as loyal as a book."

As you know, inspiration and knowledge can often come from books. Growing up in a violent environment, my inspiration to read was totally barren. I barely read the books assigned for homework, given the fact that I also suffer from ADD and at the time this condition(attention deficit disorder) wasn't even taken into account. I was labeled as the lazy and irresponsible kid. Words are extremely powerful, especially when they are constantly repeated to somebody. As a result I had zero self esteem.

After years of struggle I was able to make it to college and that, to me, was a huge accomplishment! My choice to study journalism as a career reflected my love for writing. Taking on journalism was challenging because I always felt behind with my reading assignments,[ it took me forever to read] but paradoxically I always wanted to write.

A few years later, when I finally was officially diagnosed with Add and got treated, I started to learn techniques to manage my condition and little by little be able to read entire books more efficiently.

Once I started to immerse myself in wonderful stories, even children classics like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick, Black Beauty, The call of The Wild... or my favorite book, Sophie's World which is a novel about the history of Philosophy and many more marvelous books. I have even been reading books on finance, self help, The Percy Jackson series by the New York #1 best-selling author, Rick Riordan, and lately I finished reading The Forty Rules of Love: A novel of Rumi.

My whole outlook had changed; Now I crave reading; My imagination started to expand, my confidence started to improve and even though I still have a long way to go and many, many more books to read, I can say that the quote by Ernest Hemingway is absolutely on point.

The formula many people follow to succeed is similar to what the author Grenchen Rubin wisely wrote in her book The Happiness Project. She wrote, "To find happiness on an atmosphere of growth, by enjoying the present moment." That is the formula.

Feeling happy is to find success, doing what you love to do, and putting the work to get it done is in itself success. By no means am I putting myself on the list of the rich and famous yet, but what I mean to say is that I never felt happier, even though coming to live in New York, getting married, and having a beautiful, healthy son, have been the happiest times of my life. The feeling of satisfaction for pursuing ones dreams is a whole new level of happiness. I am still working on the part of " living the present moment" and I should stop dwelling on the past and worrying about what is to come in the future, I am still peeling the orange, but I am getting glimpses of the soft juicy parts and I am feeling supercharged to continue on this journey of growing through getting more knowledge. The most important thing to do with Knowledge is to take action and I didn't even know it until I started to get serious about learning a little something every day!

Do you agree with this take on the formula to succeed?

Thank you for stopping by!