How Dr. Seuss Quotes Inspire Me

“If things start happening, don’t worry, don’t stew, just go right along and you’ll start happening too.” Everyday I witness gargantuan changes, such as WhatsApp bought by Facebook for $19 billion. It is amazing how we have evolved as humans to a degree that people can write code from their keyboards and build empires. Developments such as this have been happening since the early 1990's. I dramatically changed my life by getting involved with internet help desk support, web development, and affiliate marketing in 2003. Once I traded my research habits of scrolling through newspaper microfilm and dewey decimal systems at the library for a Google search and using About.com to learn about computers, I haven’t had much of a professional worry since. I have learned to use tools like this very Medium (pun intended) to communicate with other humans and make my way through life.

So if you see something new, get involved, and people will start getting involved with you.

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…” Knowing that you pretty much have the free will to do what you want and be who you want to be is kind of cliche, but I always find that even things that I already know should be repeated, so I could better apply it to my existing conditions. Sometimes people think that they are locked in a certain position, like a job or relationship that has them feeling uncomfortably. With your mind and your ability, realize that only you have the power that can put you in a more desired position in life.

When Richard Branson’s flight to the Virgin Islands was cancelled, he put up a sign on a private plane, labeled, “Virgin Airlines,” and charged everybody else who was to fly on that cancelled trip $29 to join him, so he could afford to pay the charter. You are always ready to do what you want. Just point yourself in that direction and move. Sound’s oversimplistic? Well the best ideas always are.

“Oh, the things you can find if you don’t stay behind!” This hits on laziness, which is something I think many of us fight daily. It feels good to be lazy for the moment. But sometimes I feel like a glutton, if all I did was watch the entire season of House of Cards on a Saturday until the next day. Don’t get me wrong, take some time off. But if you’re wasting time browsing the web, watching TV, oversleeping, or failing to do something that improves yourself, you will never discover anything new. You will never discover what you can become, and what you can do.

Learn something new, and do it for personal or professional improvement. Otherwise, you will find, you’ll be left behind by people who are probably not half as smart as you. However, you were the one who decided to watch TV for four hours a day, everyday. So the slow turtle left your quick bunny feet in the dust.

“I’m afraid that sometimes you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.” There are a few ways you could make a case for working alone. There are certainly a number of tasks that I have been able to perform singlhandedly when no one else could. Nonetheless, rarely do you find an individual who can outperform a solid team effort at most tasks. I think its accurate for Dr. Seuss to say you will “play against you” because you will fight your own exhaustion and lack of focus by attempting to complete a project utterly on your own. I have fallen victim to trying to do everything my self, and sometimes paid dearly for it. Even some efforts that you perceive as being single-handed are aided and abetted by a team of supporters.

Today I saw how a girl who became a mother at 17 is now a 27-year old woman who earned a collegiate Masters degree. She admits that although she made the decision to pursue the degree and perform the coursework to earn it, her parents gave her financial and physical support, without which the accomplishment would have been a lot harder or impossible to accomplish.

So build your team and embrace them. The hands you have on deck the better chance you have of getting what you want.

“With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.” To continue to do the same thing and expect a different result is insane. I’m not sure who coined the phrase, but I’ve never heard anything more accurate. Your mind will tell you when something you are doing is clearly not working for you. Does it mean you utterly stop? Of course not, but there are some specific steps that you could perform differently or not perform at all to be more efficient and achieving your goals. Your mind is equipped with the ability to perceive variables that should be removed, or tactics that should be added to achieve your desired result. You have to act, and correct what you’re doing wrong. Trust yourself.