CARMEL

Dear world,

I realize at this moment that it has been almost three years since my last blog post. A lot has happened in this time and a lot of personal growth as well... (I hope, haha). I typically get into these blog writing moods as I approach the time to sleep, where it is quiet at the end of the day and my mind begins to process everything that happened from that day. Today, a lot happened, including getting a job offer at my current organization and finishing my taxes, but probably just as important is reconnecting with my passion for empowering others. I had a conversation today with a good friend and then later saw a different friend post a blog that he had just started. These two instances inspired me to go back and look at what I last wrote about in my blogs, which really tells me the mindset that I had almost three years ago.

I noticed a lot of it was from the heart. I am a pretty genuine "from the heart" guy. I like to hear other people's stories, be kind to them, and help them if I am able to. I would say one thing that has changed is that I am able to translate my thoughts into writing more precisely. I'm not sure if this is a product of my undergraduate education or just experience with age. Quite possibly, this may also be attributed to reading more. I have found reading to be one of my "down time" pleasures, especially reading in foreign languages.

My contribution for this piece would be a new set of goals that I created for the new year. This year, I developed the acronym CARMEL. I will now go into detail about what each of these letters means.

C: Create or compose something everyday. This can include art, music, or something physical. We should always be contributing to the world since we are each beings with unique capabilities and specialties to bring into this world.

A: Appreciate each day. Even if the whole day was not the best you had... (remember, we only have bad moments, not bad days. Once you decide the day is over, you just wait and see what happens to you...) there are plenty of things in life to appreciate, especially the simple things.

R: Read each day. Reading has so many benefits to one's intelligence and can inspire new thoughts and ideas. I often read before I write in my journals for inspiration.

M: Meditate each day. Meditation has lately become a more important part of my life. As responsibilities at work become more demanding, it has become increasingly important to meditate to relieve stress and recenter myself. Ways I meditate include drinking tea, watching the waves by the beach, going to church or for a drive/bike ride.

E: Exercise each day. Being a physical being, our bodies are in constant need of attention to stay in shape and perform well. Exercise is also excellent for relieving stress.

L: Learn everyday. Find something that you are interested in and start learning more about it. For me, I am interested in learning new languages, so I am always pushing myself to learn about another language. New learning will come to serve you some way in the future. It also gives you something new to talk about with others.

I will leave it at this for now. Don't want to burn myself out too quick... haha.

Until next time world. Keep those flames burning.

Best,

Christian "The Furnace"

Follow the Leader

Dear Followers,

I know it has been a long time since my last post. I have been busy, just like all of you, following what matters most. But there is one thing to learn from following: You can never get ahead if you are always one step behind. You have to lead, and lead yourself in particular if you want to get anything or anywhere.

So, if you have to lead yourself, where do you start? Well, you have to figure out what you want and go after it. You will never get it unless you really want it, and I guess that is one of the lessons that has to be learned by experience. There's wanting something and there is really wanting something. To explain the difference, the first one you see as kind of a dream and makes you feel good in the moment when you think about it. You might get it, and if you do, you were probably lucky or didn't have to kill yourself to get it, but most of the time you don't get it; it's just a big wish. The second one literally creates a burning feeling within you each morning when you wake up that rips at your insides all day long because you don't have that which you want, and you are willing to drive yourself to whatever ends to get it in order to relieve this burning itch inside you. Once you find something that you want that bad, you will understand that there is nothing that can stop you from getting there... Not one chance.

Once you really want something, you will never hear yourself ask yourself this question: when do I start? There is no starting flag. In fact, the race has already started, long ago. The nanosecond that your heart was set on full-heartedly achieving a certain goal, you had already started... You have no time to waste. Life is short. And how you decide to use your time is going to determine what you get out of your time here on this earth. Are you going to have lived a life for yourself or wish you had?

My advice to the leader: do your best. You are going to thank yourself tomorrow for the effort you put in today. There is nothing more true to being you than giving your true effort. Understand that just because you aren't where you want to be now doesn't mean that you should pity yourself. You should respect yourself for committing yourself to get to that level of where you feel you should be. It all comes a day at a time, and no matter what, never never never give up!

This will be it for now, as I allow for my thoughts to process further. I wish you all the best of success with your lives and achieving what you want out of your lives because there is no more enchanting and rewarding a journey that than of creating your own life.

-The Furnace

What is our purpose?

 

Many people face this question and struggle to answer it. We were created into this world with no definite mission. What are we to do in this world between the time of our birth and the time of our death? It appears that this is the only time that can be guaranteed to us, so what are we going to make of it?

As I see it, we are all beings of free-will, and therefore, to have free-will, we cannot have our destinies determined for us. Thus, what is our purpose?- Whatever we determine it to be.

What makes the world such a fascinating place of interaction is that we are all different people and unique in so many ways. With such a variety of backgrounds, personalities, and perspectives, it is no wonder how everyone can have different goals and values in this world.

So what is our mission as individuals?- To pursue something that we are passionate about and that is important to us. To make our own mission and to do our best to accomplish it. And what is our  mission as one people?- I believe this to be us helping each other reach our dreams.

So why Furnace Level?- Because Furnace Level sees that getting motivated and inspired for what you want to do can be difficult, especially considering that the world is not going to give you anything easy. Furnace Level is here to tell you we believe in you and that we want to see you succeed and be the best you can be. This is our effort to fulfill our purpose. What’s yours?

 

A Blog on Inspiring People

It is not every day that you get the chance to meet someone that will change your life. It is also not every day that you get to plan on meeting someone that will have a huge impact on you. Sometimes people just run into your lives and from that moment, your life wasn’t the same as it was before. Life is full of these wondrous unexpected moments that make the connections between people so rich and beautiful. Where one person shares her life to inspire the life of another. Today was one of those inspiring moments. Inspiring to me because I got to see someone do what I have always wanted to do my whole life: make a change. Make a difference. Use my talents to help benefit those living in the rest of the world. Today I saw that! And I wasn’t expecting it either. When you meet an individual like that, that has such a powerful effect on you that it stirs the embers within you, that makes you gaze out at that individual like nothing else in the world matters because what you see before your eyes is exactly what you want to be doing. And what you see before your eyes is having the effect you want to be causing. And that effect is happening right in front of you and you are being affected by it too. You look at this person and you say, why aren’t there more people like you? Why aren’t there more people seeing what I am seeing? Why can’t the world be ruled by people like this individual? Where has this individual been hiding from me in this society and why are they so rare to find? Why haven’t we met earlier?

Erin Gruwell came to my school campus this evening. An event that I had no idea of the significance behind it. I had no knowledge of this person. No idea of her past, what she has done, and how her story is going to be the one that is going to give me an extra boost and a vision to be more and do more than I can do because I am capable of doing more. Because nothing is impossible. Because when people see other people with a dream, and when they see them crying about that dream because they want it so much and because it matters so much to them. Because they want to do something that no one else will do or believe they can do. I met someone tonight who possesses the utmost internal strength and direction. That makes the driving fire within me burn so hard and forcefully that I am burning my insides to black charcoal because I am so filled with inspiration and the willingness to succeed. To make my vision true and to go after everything I have ever wanted in life. She gave individuals the chance to change, that wouldn’t have believed that they could do it. She showed them the way and has changed their lives permanently. Even though I don’t come from the ghetto or have experienced situations as hard as the Freedom Writers that she has inspired and many others, she has inspired me because this type of life, to be driven from within and accomplish your dreams is everything I’ve wanted to promote through Furnace Level. And this inspiration and this fire that she has sparked in everyone that she has ever met, has carried on to give the individuals she has been in contact with to change their lives and change the world. What we can learn from her applies to everyone because it is a force of life, that we are capable of anything we want to do. That the source of making change in our lives and with ourselves comes from within. And I hope you are all fired up because I am over-venting with fiery drive! I am here to spread the fire to all of you. To get you all to realize your full potential and to make that incredible individual that exists inside of you to come out. To change the world. Thank you Erin Gruwell. Thank you world. Thank you life and everyone who has inspired me on this mission. The Furnace isn’t done yet… Keep the heat going and spread the fire!

 

The Furnace

Modern Morality... a Question of Confidence?

It has always been difficult for mankind to face the dictator, face disease, famine, and at times even themselves. But why has it always been even more difficult for us to do what is good? For the good. Why is it that the best actions aren't always the ones that are taken? Does this mean that humanity has lost an essential part of its morality or is it mearly a selfish trend? Also, is it possible for us to get this trend to change?

As we should learn from our day to day interaction with the world, life isn't a Walt Disney film. We do not trust anyone we don't know, (even asking someone to take your picture can make some people a little nervous...), happily ever after endings are really rare if existent, and the line between good people and bad people isn't really that clear. In this world, there is lots of inequality both socially and economically and people taking advantage of other people for their own benefit. Knowing these sad facts, it can be hard at times to see the good in people or the good in mankind. But how can we change this outlook that we put on our race, so that we don't suspect each other of all being greedy antagonists?

What I think humanity is facing now is a war of external pressures. Human beings, on the whole, would like to contribute more acts of goodness or act more piously to their people, however, the problem is that we aren't confident enough in our own security to stand out against the temptations of cheating and taking advantage of others (1st part of the cycle). We also aren't confident enough in others to feel that they will stand up against the same temptations of cheating and taking advantage over us (2nd part of the cycle). Therefore, the problem that this creates is a cycle of distrust that traps everyone in this cycle since everyone is too scared of the consequences if he or she is screwed over. Unfortunately, there is no immediate solution to this cycle of distrust, and it will only change after enough individuals are confident enough to break out of this cycle and start an upward trend.

Now what do I mean by confidence? For me, I see confidence as a sense of security within oneself and with others. Mankind is becoming a more insecure race due to the interdependence that we share with each other. Almost no one who is living in today's modern world is truly self-sufficient and therefore we are dependent upon others for our needs. This necessity to interact with others to provide for our needs is what is helping support the cheating in the first part of the distrust cycle because the more resources one has, the more confident he or she feels and the less he or she has to worry about them. Unfortunately, the easiest way to reach this result for most people is to take advantage of other people, which is why a lot of people have been doing it this way. The dilemma with the second part of the cycle comes from more of a prisoner's dilemma game if you are familiar what that is about, which is basically a logic game considering that all parties involved in the deal have the ability to cheat and take advantage of the others. In this type of scenario, it makes it hard to trust in others for fear that they are going to steal from us, which therefore prolongs the second part of the distrust cycle.

Now, how do we get this to change? I think there are many ways to improve the morality situation that mankind is facing. One of the most important ways I believe is through role models and education. Truly good people are really valued in our society, just as are good actions. If we have enough of these leaders that others can look up to, I believe the distrust cycle will start to change and people will start to become more confident, leading to a more just society. Also, through school education and films, children of the upcoming generations will be able to not as easily add on to this distrust cycle that is currently making times very difficult for much of mankind. The unfortunate reality of these ideas are that if they happen, it will take a very long time for society to make these change since, with  the world being set up as it is, we are living in a society where a few major priorities aren't right, especially with money, and these priorities aren't leaving any time soon.


I would like to finish off by saying that I like to hold an optimistic view on the world, probably more optimistic than probable. However, I like to really believe in the goodness of mankind, wherever it hides. Morality is not dead, even though, of course, it is not as present as it should be. In order for someone to accomplish a good act, someone has to first believe that he or she is capable of doing good in the world around them, which is why the goodness in humanity still exists, and why the optimists are able to do more good than the pessimists. Does this mean that the optimists are more confident than the pessimists? Possibly... at least in some ways. But if we were all to become optimistic individuals, imagine the type of world we would be living in...really think about it... though of course, this may be an overly optimistic view too. My hope through this blog entry is just to try to make sense of the dark times our society is facing and to be able to show you all the importance of optimism in the world. In order to drive this bruised world to get better, especially on a societal level, we have to do something about it. Even if one person by reading this blog takes a more optimistic view on the world and believes that he or she has the ability to improve the world, the world will be that much better off than it was before and this blog would have made a difference. Thanks for reading.



Til the next time,

The Furnace

The Power of the Wait

It has been a long time since I was introduced to the Power of the Wait and it has become a very valuable tool to my life many times since when I first learned this lesson. The Power of the Wait is a tool almost no one truly takes advantage of, but that appears to us in many situations even if we can't see it with our eyes. It comes from a source of energy very covert, that will actually really surprise you when you first use it because it is almost like the vein of this abundant energy is coming from nowhere. It will make you wonder how this energy could have been there this whole time, hidden away from sight, and since no one can see it, not many people have discovered how to use it. By learning this lesson, as I am about to present to you, and how to harness its power, you will be able to turn weakness into strength, insecurity into confidence, and failure into success. Intrigued yet...?! I'm excited to tell you!

The reason why not many have tapped this enormous source of potential energy is that the Power of the Wait, unlike the power we derive from other sources of energy, can only be received from one sense: the sense of internal energy. Internal energy is the energy felt by the soul of the person within the fire that drives the being forward. It is similar to emotional energy, as it does have a trigger to get it started, however with internal energy sources such as that which comes from the Power of the Wait, the trigger for this energy is constant, and it is constant because it is derived from the energy wavelength that drives change in the individual and in the universe due to the omnipresent flux in the dimension of time. Energy is movement, same as the energy within.


Here is my secret on how to use the Power of the Wait:

Situation: Any situation in which you feel that what is left to be done is out of your hands and it's left to the universe to determine things for you i.e. You have just had a job interview and don't know how it is going to turn out. You are waiting for a big moment in your life's near-future possibly being a bit nervous about it etc. These situations can make you feel weak, unconfident, or like a failure because you feel like there is more you could have done.
Action: Ponder over the situation at hand and think about how it makes you feel. Let all of your hidden emotions and feelings present themselves before you, and once you have extracted the maximum amount of energy from it, next imagine your body harnessing that energy and slowly compressing all those feelings into a container to be used as a reserve of energy.


Power: Immediately after you do this, you will feel that you are continuously supplied with a burst of energy or strength during this wait period before the next big moment. While you are tapped into your energy container, you feel as if the universe is supplying you with unlimited power, making you strong, confident, and successful during this uncertain period of time.

This technique is useful for a number of reasons:

1. You are able to unblock the stress that is in your body and confront it visually in your mind

2. With this power, time, which we usually consider as our fateful enemy in our battle against it, is turned in to our ally that helps us move forward with it.

3. It also helps us get into a positive state of mind because we are feeling better and can help us make decisions.

Remember, this secret power is rare and can be used at your more unsure and insecure of times. Don't be a victim of time! Let it serve you!

So what are you waiting for..? Get Fired Up!


The Furnace

Overcoming the Flux of Life

Life changes...

Life is in a constant state of change. Essentially most of life is change. Situations change, people change, and so do things that you once thought to be permanent. We are here for who knows what reason, probably on individual missions as I like to believe, and everyday is a challenge for us overcoming the changes that affect our lives. So what is there to do about it?

In order to be really successful in life, you have got to be true to yourself. You have to not care about any outside opinions and you just gotta go out there and make your reality come true. Everyday you have got to get yourself one step closer to your goal than you were the day before and keep at it.

Success doesn't come easy, in fact, you will probably work harder than you will ever have worked in your life to get there, but it is worth it! Only the truly successful make more goals than excuses because they know that change is the nature of life, and that the more that life tries to change your surroundings, the more obstacles you have to overcome. Only the truly successful finish the day dead exhausted with a smile on their face. Only the truly successful take every breath that they breath and use that to fuel that fire that is burning within them to be successful, to be where they want to be, to be what they are capable of, to be able to present themselves by what they do rather than what they say, to be able to look at themselves in the mirror and say to that person that they are proud to be that person's twin because they are friken awesome!

What people don't understand about success is that it is not a point that someone reaches one day. It is much more accessible than that. True success is a habit. It is a lifestyle that individuals put themselves into to be at their best! It is a lifestyle in which individuals don't quit and follow their heart. It is a lifestyle that is personalized to themselves that allows them to do what no one else can. If people would just know that, there would be much more successful people in the world, but why isn't this happening?

The reason is simple. There is no spark behind the individual to get fired up! Instead of going out to get what is most important to the individual, our society is setting up to have things come to us... and so what are we doing...waiting! There are too many people waiting on the rations of life to live instead of already living! The only chance you have of getting anything you want in the world is going out and getting it yourself! If you are not fired up, get that motivation going! Get it for YOU!

This is your one and only chance to live. Life threw you here in this game and now you gotta play, and not just play... play to win! Take risks! Go ALL OUT! Take your life by the horns! Confront those obstacles and overcome each and every one of them!

I am "The Furnace", with or without the quotes, a fire in this dark universe using my abilities to get the people fired up and guide them to personal success! I am about truth, perserversence, optimism, and changing the world! You can find me on Twitter or at Furnace Level, my website to motivate the world with the most inspirational content on the internet!

My hope is to go through life being me, not letting life's changes obstruct my path to success, and inspiring the fiery passion in others to go after their goals.

You will hear much more from me, but this is it for now.

Spread the fire!

The Furnace