hope – Wandering with a purpose

Recipe for success

January 17, 2020January 17, 2020 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Story

Sorting out your relationship with God can actually sort out other things.

Starting a career can be challenging. You have reached that stage where you are mature enough to think with substantial intellect as well as live an independent life. For some it may be more difficult than others, so the age varies.

What I have realised as an adolescent is that your time is devoted to many things that was once not previously assigned to you, such as doing your laundry or washing the dishes. With so much less time to relax and socialise one needs to make the most of their day. Sometimes your day is just not long enough.

My focus as my first year as an independent man was on my career. My friends, family, leisure and adventure was important to me but I certainly put work over everything. The first few months was tough: Most nights I would go to bed and wake up after and before the rest
of my housemates. If I wasn’t at work I was programming at home, public holidays were my days where I could optimise my day to just programming. The only rest I would really get is Sunday mornings if I didn’t have to be at church early. So it was tough and I struggled to see growth. It felt as though I was in some sort of stagnation mode.

Fast forward to the start of the year and things were different (I mean obviously, you can’t blame me for making new resolutions and sticking to it for at least a few days ;). I received a word of guidance from my dad stating that at this stage of time in my life I need to be careful where I cast my rod out, to keep it to those who can accept it rather than any person I come across. My rod at this point of time should stay in clear waters, in the church.

My focus shifted.

From being completely focused on work it has now been completely the opposite. It has been focusing on being a disciple of Christ, reading the word and most importantly spending time with Him.

Regardless of the way things are going at work, home or my sorroundings I have been grounded due to the fact that I am with Him. Things look brighter than what they may appear to most.

It has been a few months though that I have been waiting for growth in my life, for acceleration, going to the next level. Now it hasn’t been my current aspirations,

Then when listening from Travis and waiting for it, boom.(I don’t blame you if you have no idea who Travis is, neither do I.)

A job offer.

An opportunity to go the next level at work. A promotion if you may. It has been something I was waiting for so long and now it is here.

Even though my mandate for the current season is not about work,I have received opportunities to grow and to gain responsibility. As soon as I shifted my focus to Him things changed for the better.

Yes there has been a lot of growth over the months and I am certainly ready for promotion I still feel that it has more to do with my posture. Putting God as your ultimate will always make your end result the most blissful outcome you can fathom.

At the end of the day it is not about what you accomplished in your career but rather what difference you made and who came with you.

How long does it take to be a professional?

December 6, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Advice

There was a math teacher in my school that said: ‘Don’t practice a sum until you get it right, practice until you can’t get it wrong.’

A professional is someone who is engaged or qualified in a certain profession. Someone who is confident in what they do. Looking at professional sportsman such as Cristiano Ronaldo shows us how hard work and talent can distinguish himself from other sportsmen, even other athletes on his level.

They are just on another level. But what stands out to me is their confidence. You can’t have the talent without believing in yourself. Sometimes it’s a cocky arrogance while other times it’s because they believe in themselves that they can.

In my last two years of playing hockey I played wing for my team at High school. The first year I scored about 3 or 4 goals. The next year I scored more than 10! It was about 15 games more or less I played each year. So what was the difference? Did I train much harder? Was my diet better?

Well to be honest I might have trained even less and I might have snacked more. The only thing that improved was my experience, but most importantly, my mentality.

I told myself when I get into the area where one may shoot to score a goal(which we called a ‘D’, because the area was shaped like the letter) I would take ownership of the ball and believe I could score. Know that what I have been training for the past week will go into that shot and I won’t let anyone take that ball away from me.

And I believe that is what separates the pro’s from the amateurs. They may have the talent, they might be fitter, faster and stronger, but if you aren’t in the right head space you won’t perform to your utmost.

But how long did it take for me to get there? To a place where I felt at my best. well I guess I could say 12 years because that’s how long it took to reach that stage. A few hundred hours of practice, maybe even thousands. Then hours going into watching games, studying techniques.

So quite a while.

But what if I told you it takes just one moment to become a pro. Almost like a light switch, you just need to turn it on and be a pro.

Last Saturday a couple of my friends went to a waterfall just outside of town. There is a rock in which you can jump off of, one that is 6 meters(20 feet). Another which is over 12 meters(40 feet). If it doesn’t sound much then take a look at the drop and tell me that it isn’t high.

Anyways, so on our way we were talking about why people do things such as marathons, iron man’s and just things that push people to their limits. The reason why I think is that we do it because we would like to challenge ourselves, see if we are capable. of reaching our weakest point and moving forward. And once we actually finish what seemed to be an insurmountable obstacle becomes something a little less frightening, our limits are expanded, our capacity has just grown enormously.

So now we get to the waterfall. My one friend says he is going to do the 12 meter jump. Now for the past year it has been my goal to do that jump but I never had the confidence, the jump is just so incredibly high. But this time I decide to follow him and jump after he does.

‘This is it!’, I tell myself.

Then I look down to the water: ‘Was it this high? Thought it was a bit shorter.’

The nerves start to kick in, fear surrounds me. My confidence has faded and I’m left contemplating if I should do it at all, if I should just wait till next time.

‘But was I not just talking about pushing myself to my limits, knowing that doing this will just make the possibilities of doing something even more daunting more achievable? The irony.’

My rational mind was telling me it was a bad idea. But my adventurous spirit was calling, pushing me to just go for it. When has it ever failed me?

My heart starts to beat faster, everyone around me was now watching. The collywobbles started to rise and I just couldn’t do it. The jump was so big.

I waited. Thought about it, then turned to say that my friends need to clap for me, slow clap style. They started to go. The faster they clapped, the more I wanted to quit until there was just a moment of peace, the moment where the slow clap became a fast one and I believed.

And I jumped.

The fear was gone. It was just free-falling from there. I did start to think: ‘Okay when am I actually going to hit the water because goodness this actually takes a while, till finally I hit the water.

I sunk for about 2 seconds and when I got up I was a new man. I felt different. Honestly. It may be small for you but it was as if a weight off my shoulders fell to the ground and had no grip on me anymore.

So the next time I get to that rock I won’t be as scared, I’ll definitely jump again because I know I can do it. There just needs to be water at the bottom.

So does it take years to be a pro? No. You just need to get it right once, and above all: Believe in yourself.

Believing in Miracles

November 6, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Advice

There are some radical stories of miracles. Some which have happened thousands of years ago and then there are those which are happening in our lifetime. If anything, more are recurring today.

But what is a miracle? – An extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore attributed to a divine agency. It comes from the Greek thaumasion and the Latin miraculum—as that which causes wonder and astonishment .

To witness a miracle is extremely special and sometimes we are the miracles: Being swept away from death, cured from imminent death or simply saved from harm. I have heard countless stories of people being raised from the dead. Some incredible stories have jumped to life.

So one would think that there is no obstacle that cannot be overcome. No sickness that can’t be cured for He has done it all am I right?

In my honest opinion I say yes. Yes he can save you even when your heart stops beating or any other terrible disease. I have faith in any situation. Regardless of the scientific probability of there being a transformation in a person’s situation, see what I did there 😉

But then there comes a task my way. A task that seems rather difficult, way out of my comfort, a task I will need to dedicate hours on to get done for weeks on end. It’s more like many tasks culminating to one big task. I can do it on my own though. I just need to eat right. Get the required sleep when I can and not spend a second procrastinating or getting distracted.

It is a big task. And right now I feel that I have fell short. Right now I’m rather sick, according to the doctor I have bronchitis. Thankfully it hasn’t reached the harmful stage and I am getting better by the day. My guess is I have been eating rather unhealthy and working rather hard. So once I’m fully recovered I’ll go back at it, this time still working as hard as I can but I won’t be eating so much junk, maybe just a little.

That way I’ll know for sure if I’m actually working too hard and need to reassess my timetable.

Sometimes He wants us to grow in our capacity while other times He wants us to learn saying no and get into His rest.

You might be wondering, now how on earth does this have to do with miracles or is this two different blog posts I accidentally added together?

So going back to miracles. I am able to succeed and complete my task on my own with the gifts and talents already given to me. But that’s not how our relationship with God should be. It should be a constant friendship, a constant relationship of guidance, wisdom and revelation. He can assist you to your goals in a swifter fashion, in a way that will leave you in a better state than you were.

I came off the phone with my mother today and she reminded me of something we tend to forget. God works outside of time. So seeing that time for Him is irrelevant He can take us out of the world where time is irrelevant while still keeping us here on earth. Something that may take 2 hours in our world can take just a few seconds if we are in God’s timing!

It may sound ridiculous to some, but try it, ask for that much needed time you need to get done what is needed to get done. I always wished that I could pause time, study for days for a test and when I have learned what I need to learn time will start again, I can write the test and I’ll receive great marks. As much as that can happen He will probably not do it if you leave your study time for the last few minutes before a test and then start to learn.

What I’m trying to portray though is that we can sometimes have faith for the impossible. Believe that anything is possible. But then comes something small. Something we don’t really need help from God, but then we believe we can do it ourselves or is something that doesn’t need the hand of God to help us. In fact, He wants to be there for us daily. For every single task regardless of the size or difficulty.

If we have faith the size of a mustard seed we can move mountains, but that also means we can move rocks.

Who to spend your time with

September 30, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Advice

You Are The Average Of The Five People You Spend The Most Time With.

I’m sure you have heard that saying before at least a few times.

Because it’s so true!

Your friends have a huge impact on your mindset. Imagine how inspired you would be if you were friends with Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and whoever inspiring person you could think of. There wouldn’t be a night where you wouldn’t be thinking about your future and what greatness lies ahead for you. You would be willing to take a huge leap of faith. You would do exactly what you love because your friends are doing it. They’re supporting you every step of the way.

But if your friends were not the greatest? What if they saw the world as a dark place and it’s a fight for the fittest and if you get scraps that’s fine? It’s going to affect you negatively. Your vision of life would probably also not be so great.

That’s why it is important to have positive friends.

I got to know someone through this year and we became friends but one thing I noticed about him was his negativity about life. All he would speak about would be the things that irritate him. This beautiful place that I call home was perceived dark, depressing and a place to be broken.

The friendship actually got to a point where I would start to think negatively about things that he saw as negative. It eventually came to a point that I snapped at my colleague at work because I started to see the things that irritate people instead of the things that makes him stand out and that makes him a really nice person.

Fortunately I realised what was happening before it became a problem. It made me realise the importance of who we spend our time with. It doesn’t mean I should unfriend that person; but rather speak life to him and the goodness that I can see in other people and over the places we see instead of listening to negativity.

Sorround yourself with people you admire.

But don’t let that saying constrain you. You can be the difference in your friendship group. The fresh apple in the basket (which is a stupid thing to say because the rotten apples will stay rotten, or get worse, but anyways). But what I can say is that it wouldn’t hurt to have aspiring friends.

Every good dream begins with a dreamer.

How to influence a large amount of people

June 20, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Advice

Have you ever felt like you have something to say? Do you feel that if you had the opportunity to speak to a crowd you would change many hearts to give them the determination to not give up and live life to the fullest? How can I convince an organisation to let me speak to their students/employees or whoever you feel you could have an impact on their lives?

To have that opportunity is not as simple as what you may think and I am pretty sure those who would want to do what I just said may sigh because they don’t know how to get there.

If you still have that desire in your heart for public speaking then read on for I have 2 ways that could potentially get you your first gig.

Start small

You want to speak to a thousand people, but have you spoken in front of just a few? We all have these huge dreams of going to the Olympics, becoming a lawyer, a successful businessman or whatever it may be but I’m sure you can agree that to get there one needs to put in the hard work, start small and do whatever needs to be done. Public speaking is the exact same. One needs to find an audience or a place to publish your skills.

How can I do that you ask?

The internet!

Just find a website or even websites to showcase your talents. This will not only give you a platform for what you would like to do one day but it strengthens your skills and gives you a few more. A great place to advertise yourself is You-tube. Almost 5 billion views are watched everyday on You-tube. You are not only getting better at spreading a message but your video skills, photography skills and even your marketing skills could be enhanced.

Another obvious place is WordPress. It may not be a place for all public speakers because now you rely on your writing to get you on the internet but nonetheless a great place to advertise your skills. It is in fact the most used blogging website in the world (this is not a sponsored post by the way :).

I am also one of those people who would like to share my voice and inspire others but that type of opportunity will not always fall on my lap, I need to do something about it. I decided to use WordPress for I enjoy writing as well as public speaking, which is quite funny because it was the complete opposite a few years ago.

But any dream starts with a vision on how to get there and applying it and then your dream becomes a reality.

Just ask

Honestly if you have something you want to say and you have a place in mind just ask! Email them, give them a call or walk up to the front desk and just ask them if you could go on stage and speak to an audience. You may be surprised as to what they say.

There is this one You-tube channel called YesTheory and they live off the premise of seeking discomfort by doing uncomfortable things in order to challenge themselves. They go outside their comfort zone so often I don’t even think they can have an uncomfortable zone(if that is even a word lol). One crazy thing they did which is just a speck of the crazy things they have done which was to ask the Mayor of Venice in California if I am not mistaken to meet up and they actually did.

You should really check them out if you haven’t already: https://www.youtube.com/user/PracProcrastination

If you don’t have a desire for public speaking that is also fine but hopefully I have encouraged you to chase whatever dream you would like to achieve.

You will get your opportunity as long as you are willing to put in the hard work.

Also figure out why you would like to share your voice to others, because if it is just to praise yourself or to become famous people will sense that and may not help you get to where you would like to be.

If you want to be heard you first need to speak.

Why should you forgive someone?

June 17, 2019June 17, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Story

Rekindling what was once a close friendship

Loving someone is difficult because there is a high-risk high-reward to it.
You can share the things most people will never know about you, have memories
that can never be compared to anything else, you could share your life to that
person.

But what if one day that person does something that will change the whole spectrum of your bond with that person, it will never be the same, and you will be left heartbroken and thinking why did I ever open up and should I ever be that person who puts their heart out there for one day to be broken again?

I lost a dear friend once and got my heart torn apart.

I met this person when I was only 5 years-old, or 5 years-young should I say.
We were in the same school for 7 years. Honestly we were not always the greatest
of friends, I always struggled to talk to girls due to my insecurities and shyness
until only our last year in the same school did we really have a bond. And it was strong.

From then on I truly loved her and the next two years after that I never saw her.
I had the cheapest of phones that could only do phone calls and SMS while I don’t think she had a phone for quite some time.

Those two years were tough and I could never find that same friendship with anyone else and I was left yearning to see her once again.

The year after that I moved schools which originally was about a 30 minute drive from her to just up the road from her!

Must be destiny I thought.

Eventually I did see her again and as time went by our friendship started to rekindle. Seeing her again after two years was almost like seeing a flash of heaven. I was thrilled.

Our friendship grew stronger than ever before and I was content with life.

But there came a time where our friendship took a wild turn.

Our last year in school we planned a great adventure for the 2 of us and another 2 friends as well to come and pretty much from there it all went haywire.

There were many instances where I felt betrayed and left in the dark till one day it just became the last straw. I was devastated but I felt I had to let her go.

I was left heartbroken and a lot of hurt, wanting to never trust any woman again.
The things that we shared now became difficult to even look at. At the time I was so glad that our paths took such a wild turn that we weren’t even on the same continent.

After a few months I started dealing with the pain. a large thanks goes to some of my friends that I met that year, showing such kindness and love. It gave me a fresh perspective of woman and just people in general. I also had to deal with all my emotions spiritually though. Breaking soul-ties with her, praying for forgiveness and forgiving myself and ultimately forgiving her.

So eventually I did forgive her. I still wouldn’t know if I would talk to her properly but I had no more resentment to her, no more pain.

It was only till about a month ago that I saw her again and got to deal with the past.
The real truth came out and I was finally taken out of the dark as to what actually
happened. I was not only completely okay with what she put me through but I even wanted to become friends again. And so did she.

After all the hardship and pain we both went through we were still able to deal with the past, forgive each other and actually move on.

Someone once told me when I still had a lot of resentment to her that if we could somehow push aside our differences we could build a stronger bond than ever before.

I feel that if I could forgive her after all that she has done then I can forgive anyone.

“In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself from God’s part.” – Matthew 6:14.

It is only the start of this brand new friendship but if we could go through so much pain
and still be friends surely there is more at stake for us. Surely there is a future.

How to get rid of any addiction

April 17, 2019 by jonathanbridge1407, posted in Uncategorized

The things that you own end up owning you.

Imagine what life would be like if you were not addicted to anything? What would the benefits be? If you are addicted to something you rely on it for whatever reason. Now if you don’t have that item on hand and you need it you really could be stuffed (or it could be the start of your addiction falling away, depends on how you look at it really).

Warning: this addiction hack may be very harmful to your body if you aren’t careful. It worked for me but will it doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for you.

So let’s dive in.

I’m an all or nothing type of guy. I’m also an idealist. Some of my friends call me an extremist which isn’t far from the truth. I love to push myself, go beyond the boundaries set by the world. I would like the world to be a better place and if I can be the best me possible it will definitely bring a positive atmoshpere to the world, yeah I know it sounds cliché.

Being the all or nothing type of guy what I would do with certain addictions are to just indulge in my addiction. I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous but hear me out.

Have you ever heard a song that you just instantly love and listen to it over and over…and over again. You probably listen to it about 500 times. Your friends start to tell you to just stop with that song because they can’t take it anymore. But then finally comes a time where you can’t even listen to it anymore and that’s where my theory comes into place with addiction.

I had an addiction for gaming on computers and I eventually got to a point where I was just sick of it and now I can’t really sit in front of a screen and play games for too long, it makes me sick.

What I did was simply spend all of my free time on gaming until I couldn’t anymore. I have now taken that knowledge and tried it with other things and to my amazement it worked!

I must also say being the all or nothing type of guy I would rather not tempt myself at all with a potential addiction, even with food. What I’ve noticed is that having small portions of let’s say sugar doesn’t work because I will just want more. So I rather just neglect it completely. Sometimes it’s better to just take out any potential addiction so that there is no chance of having an addiction.

What you would probably notice is that my theory would not work with drugs because you might just OD. So then what another theory of mine is to cut it off completely. I did it with coffee instantly when I found out how harmful it is to my body, even though it tastes great and gives you energy it was a sacrifice I was willing to take to live a healthier lifestyle in the long run. Life is not a race, it’s a marathon.

Being free from addictions is liberating. You feel more alive, happier and trust me you will have more time and money to do the things that will keep you happy long-term and not some quick fix. Keep your dreams and goals at the back of your mind when trying to neglect your addiction and I’m certain you will see the fruits of it.