Category: Life

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Life Quotes

The secret of happiness is not doing what we like but in liking what we do.
— J.M. Coetzee

Look at me if you wish, you won’t find anything I haven’t discovered for myself and come to terms with. I’ve probed my depths: you’re free to try too if you want to. Provided you do not expect it to give you any claim on me.
— Andre Brink

Perhaps it does us good…to have a fall every now and then. As long as we don’t break.
— J.M. Coetzee

In my experience poetry speaks to you either at first sight or not at all. A flash of revelation and a flash of response. Like lightning. Like falling in love.
— J.M. Coetzee

The best thing a father can do is die when his son is in his teens. This is apparently the case with many world leaders and happened to my own father. The process ensured that he grew up extremely quickly into a responsible, hard-working adult.
— Geraint Anderson

 

Photo by Faye Cornish

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Looking into the Jaws of a Great White Shark – The Story of Shannon Ainslie

This story blew me right off my chair coughing up my coffee, and had me reconsider today's regular Sunday Surf Trip. Everybody knows there are no sharks around Lisbon,  but my next dip into the cold ocean was no doubt gonna be tense and edgy.

What you are about to read is one amazing testimonial in faith, and the most unbelievable true story of survival that side of the Vatican. It is the only clip in the world of two sharks  simoultaneously attacking a surfer. You don't even have to take my word for it - You can watch it.

The story was published on October 7th, 2013 in The Surf Channel.

At just 15 years of age, Shannon Ainslie was mauled by two 15 ft (4.5 meter) great white sharks while surfing Nahoon Reef in East London, South Africa.

About an hour into his surf, Shannon was riding a wave when two sharks attacked him. The shark on the left struck the surfboard underneath launching him into the air. Upon plunging  back into the sea under the surface - the shark bit Shannon's right hand dragging him deeper. During this time, the shark on the right went for his head and shoulders, but it missed him, because the shark on the left got in the way.

In his own words: "I remember staring the shark face-to-face underwater with its mouth wide open. I could see its one eye just staring into my face… It was super close. I could’ve reached to touch it or stick my hand in its mouth. Then, it swam past me, slowly turned around and then shoved me forward deeper under the water from behind"

Read the entire story published in Surf Channel on October 7th, 2013 here

Watch two great white sharks attack Shannon Ainslie in the below clip

 

Photo by Nathaniel Shuman

 

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Do What You Do Best – Don’t Jump at Every Opportunity

Why don't 99% of people have what they want in life?

Well, because 99% of people DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY WANT! Sounds incredible doesn't it!? But if the majority would know what they want right here and now, there would be nothing to discuss, right?

Accepting yourself has got to be one of the biggest secrets to happiness and discovering your true purpose in life. But coming to terms with the truth about yourself and what you want - may require difficult situations struggle, and sacrifices. See, not all people might like it because your strength highlights the weakness of insecure people in doubt. And many of these people might be very close. So there might be people and conditions not necessarily favouring your transition. Change is needed, and change almost always brings stress and a feeling of insecurity.

It could mean:
-Pursuing a new career based on what you really want to do
-Leaving behind a relationship or person - or a well paid but meaningless job

Bear in mind:

  1. Not all opportunities are to be taken.
  2. Be aware and know your limits, we all have them.
  3. Determine your natural environment? (For a bird it is the air; for a fish it's water). What happens when a dog in water tries to attack a shark :-)?
  4. Some opportunities are traps.
  5. Usually the best response to provocation is not to fight.
  6. Only focus on the battles you can win.
  7. You fight best in your natural element and environment.
  8. Don't procrastinate over things you can't control.
  9. Occasionally to accomplish something, you need team work - you will not always win alone.
  10. If you want to go fast, go alone - If you want to go far - go together.
  11. Stick to what you do best and FOCUS ON THAT.

Let me ask you: do you want to dedicate your life to pleasing and do you want to be universally popular? Then you should not find out about your talents nor take any risks. It could be comfy. But will it have meaning when you are 80 years old thinking back on your life?

But if you are ready to commit, and pay the price for you wishes becoming reality, I salute you and respect you – because your rewards will be much higher than for those who settle to live the life of others in safety, boredom and dissatisfaction. Blessed are you, because as your final moment approaches, and approach it will - you will know that you had the courage to follow the path that was you, despite the sacrifices and hardships endured along the way.

 

Photo by Lubo Minar
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Grabbing Lisbon with My Grubby Mitts

To call Lisbon a great place is to insult the beauty of this marvellous sunny city almost to an libellous degree. As soon as I arrived here, I knew that it was here that I was going to fulfill my God-given mission. Not only was it free from that punishing northern darkness that had been numbing my mind for so long-the city was close to the beaches where Europe's best waves for surfing splashed ashore.

I felt alive for the first time in along time. All my senses that had been numbed by the monotony of a grey city existence life burst violently into life.
I was blind, but now I could see. I felt reborn.

The next month was one the happiest of my life. Life was simple and life was great. Occasionally, I'd have another beer, and order some wonderful seafood with crabs, or have a surf in those cold wawes.

Why for God's sake was I and everyone else in Northern-Europe putting up with another hideous winter rabbiting about unimportant shit and getting stressed?

We spend our lives working in jobs that we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. No more of that.