To know and taste life is to live life. We are given the innate power to shape our lives...but we cannot just speak change, we have to live change. Our intent combined with action builds the bridge to success. We cannot just want it; we have to do it, live it...be it! Success is not something we have, it is something we do!

When I was a young kid, I had a set of ideals, standards, criteria, plans, outlooks, and I thought that I just had to sit around and wait for them to happen to me and then life would work.

But I learned later that life was not like that for anybody; we cannot fall in love with a standard, we have to fall in love with a person. We cannot live in a criteria, we have to live our lives. We cannot wait for our plans to materialize, because they may never materialize the way we think they will. We cannot wait to watch our ideals and standards walk up to us, because we do not know what's ours until we have it.

I always take the first chance in case we never get a second one, but growing up I learned to take even one step further, that we have to hold on to what we have, when we have it, because whatever we have are ours but all the ideals and criteria we have set in our minds are not ours since those have not happened to us. We must first live life.

There was a story of a young man who before he began his studies, he wanted assurance from the Master.

"Can you teach me the goal of human life?"

"I cannot," replied the Master.

"Or at least its meaning?"

"I cannot."

"Can you indicate to me the nature of death and of life beyond the grave?"

"I cannot."

The young man walked away in scorn. The disciples were dismayed that their Master had been shown up in a poor light.

The Master soothingly said, "Of what is it to comprehend life's nature and life's meaning if you have never tasted it? I'd rather you ate your pudding than speculated on it."

Most successful people are patient towards all that are not answered in their hearts and try to love the questions themselves... They may not find the answers at the moment because they have not lived them yet. The point is for us to live everything. Live the questions at this time and perhaps we will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answers.

We also learn in life that before we ever receive the wonderful treasures of a happy life, we must first give.. Give of ourselves. Be of service to others in whatever we could without expecting any return. Only what we give can be multiplied back into our own lives. That is the law of the harvest, the law of the ten-fold return. If we give nothing, even if it is multiplied, we receive nothing.

As we continue our journey, we learn that our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results.

 By Tim Pedrosa

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