The Meaning of Life

by | May 11, 2018 | Follow Your Dream, Love & Meaning

The Meaning of Life

As a scientist who has spent most of his life in the aerospace industry, studying at NASA and working in space programs around the world, I understand the value of science in our lives. Science has extended our lifespan, brought benefits to our health, opened the skies for us to travel further and faster. But science can only go so far. Science cannot offer fulfillment to our hearts, cannot fill the spiritual emptiness people struggle with, cannot heal our souls, and cannot give meaning to our life.

There are three important periods in your life. When you enter into your twenties, you chase a career that other people have suggested, recommended, or even imposed on you. You are doing other people’s will. Before you enter into your thirties, frustration, anxiety, and depression – sometimes illnesses – begin to set in because you feel you have no purpose in life. If you find the courage to break the bondage and leave, you go to find your own road in life. You discover your passion, and you follow your dreams for a while. You feel enthusiasm because it seems that you have found freedom. You are doing your will. This period is enjoyable, but this too doesn’t last long because, while it gives you excitement, it is not the true meaning of life. And one day, when God touches your heart and you put all your dreams at His feet, when you lift your hands and say: “Jesus, here I am. I am yours. Everything I am, everything I have, use it,” you begin to do God’s will. When you get here, you are finally free. You have found the true meaning of life.

There are three questions that guide your life, and the answer to these questions is the foundation for everything we are, and for everything we do in life. Early in our exploration of life, we are guided by the “what”: What can I do, what can I get, what can I achieve? Very soon we learn that the “what” is void of life, dead of purpose, and empty of any joy.

Later, as we let go of the “what,” we begin to be guided by the “why.” We ask ourselves questions such as “Why am I here?” or “Why am I doing what it is that I’m doing?” The common trend nowadays is to start with the “why.” But persist long enough, and you realize that the “why” will not get you far. The third question, and the one that opens a new dimension of abundant living is the “who”: “Who am I doing this for?” or “Who am I living for?” The only answer that will make you unstoppable in the pursuit of your dreams is “God.” When you surrender your life to Christ, when you honor the dreams He put in your heart, and you do everything in your power to honor Him, you discover a new dimension of glory, inner power, and peace unshakable by this world. When you become a child of God, in spirit and in truth, you discover the true meaning of life.

Dr. Dragos

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The Myth of Overnight Success

by | Feb 21, 2017 | Follow Your Dream

The Myth of Overnight Success

After studying more than 500 successful tech companies, Vivek Wadhwa, Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University, concluded that the common belief that young entrepreneurs can turn ideas into billion-dollar companies overnight is nothing more than a myth. The media promotes the few rare outliers, but the reality is very different: the average age of successful entrepreneurs is 40 years old . “Twice as many successful entrepreneurs are over 50 as under 25. The vast majority—75 percent—have more than six years of industry experience, and half have more than ten years when they create their startup” wrote Wadhwa. Most entrepreneurs are between 55 and 64 years old, and they are twice as likely to build successful startups than those between 20 and 35.

Building something that matters is a marathon, not a sprint , and even the rare exceptions must obey the rules of nature.

Think about this when you work on your dreams and lose your patience or wonder why nothing is working.

Your friend,
Dr. Dragos

 

DR DRAGOS

Live in truth and make your dreams a reality.

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The average age of successful entrepreneurs is 40 years old.

 

Building something that matters is a marathon, not a sprint.

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Do Think Do

by | Jan 18, 2017 | Follow Your Dream, Science & Spirituality

The Silicon Valley Way of Thinking

One evening after lights had been turned off at the NASA center in Silicon Valley where Singularity University is located, my colleagues and I sat on bean bags in a circle in the classroom, and talked about the predictions for the future. Rebecca, one of Google’s leading innovators, grabbed a coke, and joined our conversation.

“Thinking about the future is the worst way of thinking about the future. Working on your future is the best way of thinking about your future . You learn only by doing, but herein lies the problem” said Rebecca. “Let’s say you’re in a job. You want to make a change in your life. What do you do?”

“You get another job” someone said. We all laughed, because we’ve all done the same in the past.

“Exactly. You know why?” said Rebecca. “Doing always precedes knowing. You do what you know, and you only know what you have done before. Because you had a job for years, you know how to do that. Because you never had your own startup, you don’t know how to do that. Doing what you don’t know brings fear. Your brain thinks fear is danger—which, by the way, are two different things because you can be afraid for no reason, and you can be in danger without knowing it—and prevents you from stepping into the unknown. You go about doing what you know, because the known gives you a sense of security. So you find another job, and begin the process all over again. You drag the past into the future. Makes sense, right? If you want to create a different future – the one you actually want – you have to do what you haven’t done before.

You must walk into the unknown.”

Your friend,
Dr. Dragos

– from my book, The Pursuit of Dreams

DR DRAGOS

Live in truth and make your dreams a reality.

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Thinking about the future is the worst way of thinking about the future. Working on your future is the best way of thinking about your future.

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Decision

by | Dec 25, 2016 | Follow Your Dream, Inspirational Stories

The Importance of Decision

“You have a dream, but you will never get to live it if you keep doing this” said the Soul Mechanic. “You keep changing your mind, you think you want to do it and then an hour later you give up because you don’t see how it can happen, then you read something in a book and decide to try again but after a few days you give up and throw in the towel. There is only one way to make your dream a reality: make the decision to do the work and then not change it.”

“I do not see how it can be done” I said. “I have a rush of enthusiasm going through my body when I read stories of people who worked for years, who went through the dark times alone and then succeeded, but when I think of my dream I realize there’s no chance I can do it.”

“There is only one way to make your dream a reality: make the decision and then not change it. The means will show up along the way. When you follow your heart, you are doing the work of Love in this world. Your mind will see obstacles in the future, but by the time you get there they will have been removed for you. Jesus taught us not to worry about tomorrow and only focus on today, because tomorrow will take care of itself. He also said that if we make Love the most important thing in our life and we first seek the kingdom of Heaven – everything else will come to us. God cannot remove the obstacles that are in the future because they exist only in your mind now, but He will remove them for you by the time you get there.”

 

Your friend,
Dr. Dragos

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DR DRAGOS

Live in truth and make your dreams a reality.

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There is only one way to make your dream a reality: make the decision and then not change it.

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Neuroscience Shows How Following Your Passion Makes You Happy

by | Sep 5, 2015 | Follow Your Dream, Science & Spirituality

Neuroscience Shows How Following Your Passion Makes You Happy

The new discoveries of neuroscience now reveal that following your passion and doing what you love does in fact make you happier and stronger both mentally and emotionally, and not from a philosophical but rather a chemical point of view. This is a long article, but it is worth reading all the way.

PASSION TAKES LONG-TERM COMMITMENT

to explore, discover, experiment and grow in a specific domain of interest. When you are driven by passion, you want to expand your performance beyond your actual limits. To accomplish this, there are two important drivers:

EXPLORE – Seeking new challenges, engaging in critical and creative thinking, intense ideation sessions, problem-solving and developing new skills to make progress in a challenging environment.
CONNECT – Bonding with like-minded people who share a similar passion, developing deep and trust-based relationships with smart people who might have insights that help you with your passion.

When you set out to EXPLORE, you CONNECT with people and forge more trust-based relationships. When you CONNECT, those strong bonds empower you to EXPLORE more challenging ideas together.

Here’s where neuroscience comes in:

The brain’s two most powerful neurotransmitters – dopamine and oxytocin – are directly connected, they reward and reinforce the EXPLORATION and CONNECTION required in pursuit of passions. How it works:

DOPAMINE: When we EXPLORE and undertake difficult challenges, our brain releases dopamine which gives us a sense of pleasure and increases our motivation to pursue the anticipated reward. Dopamine drives our passion to EXPLORE, and is more associated with the anticipation of reward rather than the actual reward. Dopamine excites and keeps us going on the long road of our passion.
OXYTOCIN: When we CONNECT with other like-minded people through all sorts of social interactions, our brain releases oxytocin which gives us a calming, soothing feeling. People with higher levels of oxytocin are more trusting, empathetic and generous. In return these behaviours reinforce the release of oxytocin which strengthens the human connection even more.
Here’s the incredible circle that forms when we follow our passion in life:

Passion provides the spark for you to focus on what you love to EXPLORE
DOPAMINE rapidly kicks in to sustain your focus over long periods of time and during increasingly challenging tasks, actions and goals that are in the service of your passion.
Passion provides the spark for you to focus and look to CONNECT with other people who share your passion, and work together to reach success faster.
OXYTOCIN provides rewarding feelings of trust, generosity and deep human connection as people come together driven by a shared passion.
Neurones That Fire Together, Wire Together

The brain over time evolves its patterns. As these two neurotransmitters are released more often in your brain, the brain becomes more adapted to pursuing your passion more and more effectively. Your passion literally changes your brain and then your brain makes you more efficient to pursue your passion and get positive results faster.

Without passion to provide the sustained focus required by our dreams, and to generate the dopamine and oxytocin to drive and reward our passion, we will have an almost impossible task to be happy and draw meaning and fulfilment from our work.

 

Your friend,
Dr. Dragos

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DR DRAGOS

Live in truth and make your dreams a reality.

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