Seize the Day

 You grow every time you get rejected.

You need stress and urgency to express more of your potential. It’s only too common for people to spend weeks and months not getting much done at all.

Oh yes! You will see many waking up every morning rushing to and fro - making calls, making plans, talking big. But the truth and the glaring reality is that very very few people actually contribute to the big things that change and influence the trajectory of our lives; economically, politically, industrially, etc. At least in my country.

Another fact to observe is that of poor time management — office workers do not spend 8 hours doing meaningful work. The fact is that you can finish your work is less than two hours, if you do not multi-task. The question is what do you do with the rest of the time you have in the day.

The average, ordinary, uninspired person will take out their phone and distract themselves, or they will get up and look for people to distract, or they will eat away their anxiety and frustrations, or they will take out their phone after putting it away to distract themselves some more.

I propose to you, my dear, that life and time are exceedingly precious raw materials — a blank page waiting for you to paint and draw your whole life plan. If you don’t pick up the pen and the paint — the blank page will not complain and shout at you. It will sit there and wait, sometimes forever, until your dissolution back into eternal darkness.

Yet while you sit and postpone your life — the politicians you criticize are out there getting things done, the entrepreneurs who sell you products are out there getting rejected and fighting for their vision, the athletes are out there sweating and recovering from defeats, the writers are out there learning about the history and the future of the human kind — enriching their minds and souls. Appreciating and recognizing the magnanimity and grandeur of the Universe, of God the creator.

Good people are busy getting better and getting things done for others, they aren’t living in their mind, they aren’t overthinking everything, they aren’t victimizing themselves.

It’s a beautiful and exciting universe for the optimists and the hard workers. A heaven on earth.

Cancelo Alvarez

The Other Side of Hardship

 “Difficulty is what wakes up the genius.” — Nassim N. Taleb

Maybe we should begin with a lesser term than genius — How is maturity developed?

It is developed through a prolonged lack of comfort and privilege — which, depending on the stuff the individual is made of — can either break or build his spirit. By spirit I refer to hope for better things, the will to overcome bitter times, and the courage to absorb reality as it is — without running away or crying for mercy.

All the people I know who enjoy a pleasant life as a result of bold, unusual choices, had a lonely, painful, difficult past, where they had to learn how to quickly get smarter, wiser, mentally stronger. You naturally become self-driven once you realize no one is coming to help. People often assume you are cheerful and positive because you had a comfortable past. It’s precisely the opposite. You had to deal with the worst, and now understand the wiser way to handle the difficulties of life.

Difficulty is what wakes up the genius — yes indeed. But it is also difficulty that wakes up the worst in us — which leads us to crime, addiction, and suicide.

Constant and unwavering self-awareness and the curiosity to understand this large and mysterious world — accompanied by a slow burning fire within our hearts which just refuses to die regardless of the storms and winds that attack it from every side, a mind that realizes the glory of human kind - the intelligence and willpower bestowed into every child of the universe.

These are the requirements to turn problems into opportunity, pain into lessons, defeat into strength.

Cancelo Alvarez

Emotional Awareness: The Key to Resilience

 Every great story happened when someone decided not to give up.

From personal experience, giving up often stems from negative emotions. These emotions not only go untrained but are also given room to grow until they’ve eroded the will and drive needed to pursue something meaningful, courageous, or impactful with one’s life and resources — both internal and external, physical and mental.

Why emotions? Because we experience them continuously. Every waking hour, we encounter a range of emotions, which we label differently as moods, excitement, annoyance, hope, doubt, poise, confusion, and so on.

Our choices and actions largely depend on the emotions currently influencing us. The longer and more frequently we feel a certain emotion, the more it shapes our decisions. For instance:

A moody person — often linked with negative traits — may find every reason to withdraw from others, building walls at the slightest hint of misunderstanding or disagreement. Similarly, a doubtful person might consistently look for evidence of their inadequacy. While they may start by challenging these thoughts, trying new things here and there, repeated disappointment can strengthen the habit of doubt until it becomes second nature.

In the end, persisting through life’s inevitable defeats and disappointments requires continuous self-awareness. By recognizing and curbing negative emotions, we can create space to cultivate positive ones.

Positive emotions help us see opportunities in problems, growth in losses, self-discovery in disappointments, and joy in small wins.

“It’s a learning process, and mistakes made in one year often contribute to competence and success in succeeding years.” — Warren Buffett

Remember, “Until death, all defeat is psychological.”

Negative emotions distort setbacks, isolating us from the way the world actually works — for everyone.

Strength Revealed: The Trials that Shape Us

 Until death, all defeat is psychological.

What an unrestrained giant our emotions can become when they are poorly trained to obey our resolutions and values. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve came across super inspiring anecdotes of daring courage, infinite patience, and god-like humility from role models who encountered testing and crushing obstacles but who just maintained their self-control and did not allow emotions to take the driving seat.

Yes, these examples have never failed to inspire me to such levels of self-control until the moment of challenge — particularly when my self-image or ego is challenged and opposed, or completely disregarded.

One can never be sure of one’s strength until numerous difficulties have appeared on every side, or indeed until the moment when they have come quite close. — Seneca

It is when we are exposed that we should thoroughly evaluate our perceived progress — and this opportunity happens every day.

What annoys you masters you.

We all have countless examples of little and big, significant and insignificant worries and challenges that annoy and vex on our internal peace. I propose these are precisely invented to help us tame that emotional giant, which is imbedded within us from generations of human history, and become a little bit stronger and better prepared against it’s incessant attacks — which can truly break us if we’re weak and careless.

Fortune tests the spirits mettle. A boxer who has never suffered a beating cannot bring bold spirits to the match. It is the one who has seen his own blood — who has heard his teeth crunch under the first — the one who, though forced to yield, has never yielded in spirit, who after falling rises fiercer every time: that is the one who goes to the contest with vigorous hope. — Seneca

Written by:

Cancelo Alvarez

The Purpose of Knowledge

 The purpose of knowledge is not knowledge, but action.

Books, mentorship, school, and any kind of knowledge out there that is true and factual, is actually there to open your eyes — to see things not as you want them but as they are, and then you use what you see (and learn) to improve yourself, and your lifestyle.

This is why it’s crucially important and advantageous to learn from well-researched, well-informed schools and books, because it’s only too easy for the student to accumulate biased and distorted information, passed down from a different time and age, that has once evolved into something new and widely different.

Parenting may be the leading cause of distorted and biased mentorship. This is because parents and relatives can only preach what they themselves received and believe. And if the parents are not particularly skilled, disciplined, hard working, and mature, what they teach is most likely to be harmful.

As the child grows, they’ll encounter unique situations, and without great mentorship or genuine teachers prepared in advance, they have nowhere to go but back to their parents or worse, society, who are supposed to help the child maneuver successfully within these testing obstacles. The truth, again, is that parents will advise what they know and believe, not, in most cases, what is true and progressive. Because most likely what’s truly progressive is often uncertain, risky, and challenging.

To close, I am not shunning parents or schools — I am merely saying you have to do better than to receive information at face-value. To be a thinker, you have to appreciate the complexity and abundance of opinions in the world — and research, and then earn, what’s true and valuable for you — for your spirit.

A thinker is like a filter, in which truths as they pass through leave their best substance behind. — The Intellectual Life

College vs Work Ethic

 “You don’t need college - in fact you don’t even need High School.” — Elon Musk

It boils down to work ethic.

If College hasn’t taught you to think on your feet, than it hasn’t taught you much.

To think on your feet is:

• To see opportunity in problems,
• To find strength in pain,
• To celebrate smalls wins in the midst of crushing losses,

You see, you get success, you don’t claim nor wait for it - it’s not given, it is worked for — in short, earned.

Earned through ceaseless effort, effort after effort — bursts of energy and drive — childlike excitement - self-belief.

What truly matters is not what or where you’ve studied but what you can do—and how much you’re willing to learn.

Cancelo Alvarez 

The Test of a Student

 “The test of a student is not how much he knows, but how much he wants to know.”

The extent of his will to embrace embarrassment by openly acknowledging his ignorance when he has detected it — to truly embrace the ordinary lessons and discoveries that connect the pieces to the extraordinary. For life is so designed that unless we have understood the basics, we cannot appreciate, comprehend, and realize the complex. Indeed, it is similar to opportunities. Which, like information, will imperceptibly pass you by in broad daylight simply because you are not trained nor equipped with the resources to realize it.

When we know something, we feel valuable, if not superior, and there is nothing wrong with this. What is wrong is when our superiority is threatened by the detection of ignorance along the path. 

When we’re well informed, we are useful, and even life-changing to those who do not know. When we refuse to acknowledge our ignorance, however, we are destructive to our own selves. And then we pollute our environment with our ego — which then spreads to affect everyone, including those who truly look up to us — our children and associates, which creates a society of know-it-alls. A society that perceives the detection of ignorance as weakness, not as opportunity to grow and explore further.

A student is not distinguished by age or time. We are all students of the game of life. And so, let this be your daily guide.

Modesty in your current abilities, curiosity towards this immense universe, and an acceptance of your flaws.

Cancelo Alvarez