Character

Hey Guys,

Today was an interesting day simply because it is a full day of classes and I had a fair amount of homework due. The main focus of my day today was to deliver a 10 minute speech in class. But what I am going to talk about is I had a interesting discussion in my stats class where we were talking about plagiarism and the effects that it could have. I myself maybe do not look at the magnitude of 'cheating' my teacher. We had this example and maybe I am under reacting but she said that if a person would cheat on a test would also steal when they get older, then they would steal from their company, then they would be fraudulent and so on. I was thinking there for a second and that just did not make sense to me. Do you really think that if someone cheated on a small assignment today that in the future they would be fraudulent?

As the discussion went on my teacher asked about this guys situation whether his cheating was situational or just his character. The situation was this, he was rush, stressed and did not want to do the assignment. So he choose to copy it from a website and hand it in as his own work. It was extremely interesting to see what other people view this as. It was a simple black and white answer for me that this was a flaw in his character. It seem though people did not agree with me. They were saying it was situational that it was because of his circumstance that he cheated that he would not have done it otherwise. That just did not make sense to me because of what I have been taught. My mom has always taught me since the day I was born that a persons true character will come out when they are pushed, stressed and forced to make a decision. So I was in shock during the class that people would say that it was only situational. Still now that does not even make sense to me that you can justify something by the circumstances. I stand by exactly what my mom told me is that my true character will be shown when I am pushed to my extremes. 

The reason this made me think is because it is extremely easy to be a nice person when everything is peachy. When the day is good it is easy to be happy and nice to people. But it is when you are pushed, stressed, and feel like you are running out of options you will find out who you are. I was talking with a few guys friend of mind this week and we just found that everything was a little off, little more grumpy, little easier annoy and a little bit more of a jerk. But that did not stop us from still being there and talk to each other or causing our WHOLE character to break down. But that is because it is not part of our character to just break down and resort to bad habits when times get tough. That is why I believe in this example it was a character that cheating was an option. That doing that was an option. You will truly start to know someone when they get pushed to a wall. I am no where near perfect and never will be but usually when things start getting tough I stick true to my morals and values. We will see though I am still young and as my dad always tells me I do not even know what stress is yet!

Goodbye for now,

Christian Sawka

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Why I Blog?

Hey Guys,

Something that I have been thinking about lately is Why Do I Blog? What causes me to keep coming back each day and posting something new. Well, where it all started was way back when I was just coming through my depression and I felt I had to share everything with people. Not just to say look I am getting better but to show that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I started because I never wanted someone again, in life, to have to go through depression and suicide alone. I think this is something I have found and I am SURE that if you read my blog you can pick up on is that I believe we spend too much time alone. Now, what I mean about being alone, I mean spending time actually in community and sharing with people. I find that we spend so much time with people without actually getting to know them and thus feel alone. I think that is one of the reason I still blog to this day is a act of trying to show people that it is alright to be open and honest and share. I have received a fair amount of comments, jokes and even insults about my blog. As a lot of you know I post all my links of Facebook and I do actually get a fair amount of flack from them. Commenting of what I am saying, my problems, and my spelling. This is the thing I am realizing though the more I blog the more I post the less I actually care about the words of others that are negative. 

So Why Do I Still Blog? Well it is as simple as this I like to hear my own words. Joking, the truth is because I have spent my entire life is fast forward trying to move from one thing to another time after time without ever stopping. Blogging is the one time in a day that I can slow right down and relax. Yes, I do it usually before I go to sleep because I was told too. I was told to do something that would calm me down and would allow me to fall asleep. During my depression I had some wicked insomnia that really effected my daily life that I am JUST starting to get over now. In a lot of ways I blog to aide my recovery. The saying goes 'laughter is the best medicine' well I would say that the best medicine for depression, loneliness is talking. I've spent the majority of my life talking about people instead of talking too people, sharing what matters to me the most. This blog matters to me, my friends matter to me, my family matters to me and my faith matters to me (not in that order) but these things are important and beneficial to my life. Something I wrote in my goals for 2011 is that I wanted to change one persons life and I also wrote I never will know if I will. That is still fine with me though. Why I will continue to blog is because it is helping me grow up a little bit, think and understand my actions. It is teaching my to process everything, understand issue from multiple perspectives and also accept and move on. 

I tend to do more of a reflective blog on Sunday night and this was my reflective blog. There are going to be some big changes in my life upcoming and I am going to try and think them through. If I have learned anything through all my writing it is this, sometimes take a little more time on things is not a bad thing at all.

Goodbye for now,
Christian Sawka

By the way would love it if you followed on Blogspot, liked on Facebook, share this and above all comment I would love to hear what you guys think.

Warren Buffet

Hey Guys,

My dad sent me this a few days ago and said that it might be something I would enjoy. Of course being my dad he got that right. The email forward starts with a quote.

"I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted if for a minute" - Warren Buffett

The reason this email started out was because he was interview for a one hour segment for CNBC as to why he donated $31 billion to charities. Think about that for a second 31 BILLION a lot of us have trouble giving 31$ not try to give a billion times more then that. Do not fool yourself and say it would be easier to give if you have money. There are 9 points in all but I want to touch on a few that have made me think about my own life and what I want to challenge you guys to think about to. 

First, He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha that he bought 50 years ago. This is something I think our culture struggles with a ton is always buying more then we need. I struggle with this A TON which is always wanting more then I need. It could be as simple as food, or a phone or anything along those lines something I do not NEED but I want. I am getting better at this but we are pressed so often to WANT more then we NEED

Second, he talked about how he never holds a meeting with his CEO's or calls them on a regular basis. They do what they need to do and once a year he writes them a letter. The caption below said "assign the right people to the right jobs". This is a great business idea but even more then that it is a GREAT life motto. Having the right people in the right areas. I am talking about the people who surround you, the friends you have define who you are in a lot of ways. Think quickly what do you friends say about who you are? Are you surrounded by the right people?

Third, Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk. Look back at what I wrote in my social media post. We think we have to be connected at all times to everyone or else we will "miss" something. It is scary to think that the second richest man in the world does not have 90 forms of communication on his desk and around him.

It was these last quotes from him that hit home for me that made me think about who I was:

A. Money does not create a man but it is the man who created money

B. Live your life as simple as you are.

C. Do not do what others say, just listen to them, but do what you feel is good.

E. Do not waste your money on unnecessary things; just spend on them who really in need rather

F. After all it is your life then why give change to others to rule your life

These were points he gave to young people. Maybe I am extremely sensitive to information and learning from leaders now in my life but these made me think. A lot of you who have been following me for a while realize I ran a business this summer. I was thinking about how much money I wasted. How much money I spent on unnecessary things. But I quickly changed my though and took the focus off the past and started to look back at my day to day life. Now I am not saying we should kick everyone out of our life and not be ruled by ANYONE but I started thinking how much am I controlled? How much do I get peer pressured into things? How much do I try to make my own life complex? I do not have the answers to those questions yet but those are things I am thinking about. I want to encourage you to think about those too. I leave you with a quote from Warren Buffet:

"The HAPPIEST people DO NOT necessarily have the 'BEST' THINGS. They simply APPRECIATE the things they have"

Goodbye for now,

Christian Sawka

By the way feel free to follow on Blogspot, like on Facebook, share this and above all comment I would love to hear what you guys think.