My philosophy for a Happy life | Sam Bearn - video Dailymotion

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### Description   Join Sam Bearn as he shares his insightful philosophy for a happy life in this inspiring talk. Drawing from personal experiences and timeless wisdom, Sam explores the key elements that contribute to lasting happiness and fulfillment. From cultivating gratitude and meaningful relationships to embracing challenges and staying true to oneself, this thought-provoking presentation offers practical advice and profound reflections. Discover the secrets to living a joyful and content life with Sam Bearn's philosophy for happiness.   ### Viral Tags   philosophy for a happy life, Sam Bearn, inspiring talk, happiness and fulfillment, personal growth, life wisdom, gratitude, meaningful relationships, embracing challenges, self-discovery, practical advice, thought-provoking, joyful living, contentment, life philosophy, motivational speech, happiness secrets, positive mindset, life lessons, viral inspiration, self-improvement, well-being

Transcript

00:00Okay, so hello everyone, I'm Sam, and I just turned 17.

00:24A few years ago, before my freshman year in high school, I wanted to play snare drum in

00:29the Foxborough High School Marching Band. However, and it was a dream that I just

00:34had to accomplish, but each snare drum and harness weighed about 40 pounds each,

00:39and I have a disease called progeria, so just to give you an idea, I weigh about

00:44only 50 pounds. So logistically, I really couldn't carry a regular-sized snare

00:50drum, and because of this, the band director assigned me to play pit

00:55percussion during the halftime show. Now, pit percussion was fun. It involved some

01:02really cool auxiliary percussion instruments, like the bongos, timpani, and

01:09timbales and cowbell, so it was fun, but it involved no marching, and I was just

01:16so devastated. However, nothing was going to stop me from playing snare drum with

01:22the marching band in the halftime show, so my family and I worked with an

01:27engineer to design a snare drum harness that would be lighter and easier for me

01:34to carry, and so after continuous work, we made a snare drum apparatus that weighs

01:41only about six pounds.

01:46I'm just going to give you some more information about progeria. It affects

01:53only about 350 kids today worldwide, so it's pretty rare, and effects of progeria

02:02include tight skin, lack of weight gain, stinted growth, and heart disease. Last

02:09year, my mom and her team of scientists published the first successful progeria

02:15treatment study, and because of this, I was interviewed on NPR, and John Hamilton

02:20asked me the question, what is the most important thing that people should know

02:25about you? And my answer was simply that I have a very happy life.

02:35So even though there are many obstacles in my life, with a lot of them being

02:40created by progeria, I don't want people to feel bad for me. I don't think about

02:45these obstacles all the time, and I'm able to overcome most of them anyway. So

02:51I'm here today to share with you my philosophy for a happy life. So for me,

02:57there are three aspects to this philosophy. So this is a quote from the

03:02famous Ferris Bueller. The first aspect to my philosophy is that I'm okay with

03:09what I ultimately can't do, because there's so much that I can do. Now people

03:14sometimes ask me questions like, isn't it hard living with progeria? Or what daily

03:20challenges of progeria do you face? And I'd like to say that even though I have

03:25progeria, most of my time is spent thinking about things that have nothing

03:29to do with progeria at all. Now this doesn't mean that I ignore the negative

03:34aspects of these obstacles. When I can't do something, like run a long distance, or

03:40go on an intense roller coaster, you know, I know what I'm missing out on. But

03:45instead, I choose to focus on the activities that I can do through things

03:50that I'm passionate about, like scouting, or music, or comic books, or any of my

03:56favorite Boston sports teams. Yeah. So however, sometimes I need to find a

04:04different way to do something by making adjustments, and I want to put those

04:09things in the can-do category, kind of like you saw with the drum earlier. So

04:15here's a clip with me playing Spider-Man with the Foxboro High School marching

04:21band at halftime a couple years ago.

04:26["Spider-Man Theme"]

04:56["Spider-Man Theme"]

05:03Yeah!

05:04["Applause"]

05:10Thank you.

05:11["Applause"]

05:12Alright, alright. So that was pretty cool. And so I was able to accomplish my dream of

05:19playing scenario drum with the marching band, as I believe I can do for all of my

05:24dreams. So hopefully you can accomplish your dreams as well with this outlook.

05:29Next aspect to my philosophy is that I surround myself with people that I want

05:35to be with, people of high quality. I'm extremely lucky to have an amazing

05:41family who have always supported me throughout my entire life and I'm also

05:46really fortunate to have a really close group of friends at school. Now we're

05:52kind of goofy. A lot of us are band geeks but we really enjoy each other's

05:56company and we help each other out when we need to. We see each other for who we

06:02are on the inside. So this is us goofing off a little bit and so we're juniors in

06:08high school now and we can now mentor younger band members as a single

06:16collective unit. What I love about being in a group like the band is that the

06:20music that we make together is true, it's genuine, and it supersedes progeria.

06:27So I don't have to worry about that when I'm feeling so good about making music.

06:33But even having made a documentary, going on TV a couple times, I feel like I'm at

06:40my highest point when I'm with the people that surround me every day. They

06:46provide the real positive influences in my life as I hope that I can provide a

06:50positive influence in theirs as well.

06:57Thank you. So the bottom line here is that I hope that you appreciate and love

07:03your family, love your friends for you guys, love your bros, and acknowledge

07:10your mentors and your community because they are very real aspects of everyday

07:16life that can make a truly significant positive impact. So the third aspect to

07:22the philosophy is keep moving forward. Here's a quote by a man you may know named

07:29Walt Disney and it's one of my favorite quotes. I always try to have something to

07:33look forward to, something to strive for to make my life richer. It doesn't have

07:38to be big. It could be anything from looking forward to the next comic book

07:43to come out or going on a large family vacation or hanging out with my friends

07:48to going to the next high school football game. However, all of these

07:53things keep me focused and know that there's a bright future ahead and may get me

07:58through some difficult times that I may be having. Now this mentality includes

08:04staying in a forward-thinking state of mind. I try hard not to waste energy

08:09feeling badly for myself because when I do I get stuck in a paradox where

08:15there's no room for any happiness or any other emotion. Now it's not that I ignore

08:21what I'm feeling badly. I kind of accept it. I let it in so that I can acknowledge

08:27it and do what I need to do to move past it. When I was younger I wanted to be

08:34an engineer. I wanted to be an inventor who would catapult the world into a

08:38better future. Maybe this came from my love of Legos and the freedom of

08:43expression that I felt when I was building with them. And these was also

08:49derived from my family and my mentors who always make me feel whole and good

08:55about myself. Now today my ambitions have changed a little bit. I'd like to go into

09:02the field of biology, maybe cell biology or genetics or biochemistry or really

09:10anything. And this is a friend of mine who I look up to, Francis Collins, the

09:17director of the NIH. And this is us at TEDMED last year chatting away. I feel

09:23that no matter what I choose to become I believe that I can change the world. And

09:29as I'm striving to change the world I will be happy. About four years ago HBO

09:37began to film a documentary about my family and me called Life According to

09:41Sam. Now it was a pretty great experience but it was also four years ago. And like

09:47anyone my views on many things have changed and hopefully matured like my

09:52potential career choice. However some things have stayed the same throughout

09:58that time like my mentality and philosophy towards life. So I would like

10:03to show you a clip of my younger self from the film that I feel embodies that

10:09philosophy. I know more about it genetically so it's less of an

10:17embodiment now. It used to be like this thing that prevents me from doing all

10:22this stuff that causes other kids to die, that causes everybody to be stressed.

10:28And now it's you know a protein that is abnormal that weakens the structure of

10:37cells. And it takes a burden off of me because now I don't have to think about

10:48progeria as an entity.

10:55Okay pretty good huh? Yeah. Thank you. So as you can see I've been thinking this

11:04way for many years but I'd never really had to apply all of these aspects of my

11:09philosophy to the test at one time until last January. I was pretty sick. I had a

11:15chest cold and I was in the hospital for a few days but and I was secluded

11:20from all of the aspects of my life that I felt made me me that kind of gave me

11:26my identity. But knowing that I was going to get better and looking forward to a

11:32time that I would feel good again helped me to keep moving forward. And sometimes

11:37I had to be brave and it wasn't always easy. Sometimes I faltered. I had bad days

11:43but I realized that being brave isn't supposed to be easy and for me I feel

11:49it's the key way to keep moving forward. So all in all I don't waste energy

11:55feeling bad for myself. I surround myself with people that I want to be with and I

12:01keep moving forward. So with this philosophy I hope that all of you

12:06regardless of your obstacles can have a very happy life as well. Oh wait hang on

12:12a sec. One more piece of advice. Never miss a party if you can help it. My

12:20school's homecoming dance is tomorrow night and I will be there. Thank you very

12:24much.

12:42you

My philosophy for a Happy life | Sam Bearn

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