Category Archives: 21

21

HOW’S YOUR CAREER

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How do you handle the demands of your career?

One of the things we all must navigate in life is our work/life balance.  We live in a society where work is a must to live because we all need money.  But work doesn’t have to be a boring, difficult task that we hate.   Confucius advised,  choose a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life. The Secret is to find what you are passionate about and do that to earn money.

Many people will argue that this can’t happen because you can’t make money following your dream.  However, those people never looked for or found their passion, so they see it as impossible.  It isn’t, and if you set your goal for finding that type of job, right for you. You will.  It begins by honestly looking at your thoughts, words, and actions and identifying what makes you come alive on the inside. Then find a way to make money incorporating that into your life.  Or you can work at something mind-numbing, life-ending, boring, and defeating.  It is your choice.

Finding Passion

Finding our passion seems like a daunting task, but it really isn’t when you pay attention to how you feel. Most men are taught to keep their feelings at arm’s length and act.  The problems arise when you realize that you are a human and have emotions that need to be dealt with actively or deal with them passively.  This means that what your feeling will get

your attention eventually, you can pay attention and acknowledge emotional responses or be the victim of them through uncontrollable outbursts or even physical illness.

A passion is something that you do that makes you lose track of time.  You find a focus, and all other things drift away, and you are creating something new.  Creativity is the fuel for all human activity. When you are creating, you are unique, growing, and being vital to the world.  Creativity brings passion to things and allows your personality to show through.  Work at something like this, and it will be amazing. Work at something opposite of this, and it will feel like a prison sentence.

Attitude is the Key

When we look at any job we choose to do, success or failure will be determined by the attitude we have when performing this task.  Your ability will certainly allow you to perform adequately or not. But your attitude will allow those skills to rise to the surface.  Being positive is the only attitude to real success.  Nothing good was ever created through negativity. That is a fact. If you are spending all your time complaining, you allow the victim mentality to take control.  You give all your power to the problem.

Whereas being positive about things will allow growth to be possible, and your choices will give you power. There are always three choices to every situation, accept it, change it, or leave it.  A positive attitude will allow you to see all of these options more clearly.  Enjoy the little things that your job entails. There must be something that you like, or you should really be doing something else.  Focus on these positives and ignore all of the negatives.  Positive attitudes at work allow you to be your best and others to be their best as well.

Work and Grow

Work is an inevitable part of life. It provides a purpose, develops skills, and can be of value to society. We should all look for jobs that resonate with us. Not just for the money we make, but for the enjoyment they bring to our soul.  If this is a foreign concept to you, then you need to seek a new job.  To work at something you despise is a version of torture nobody should endure.  When you see your situation as limited with no other options, you are trapped. No human works at their best in this situation.  Seek the freedom of doing what you have a passion for and see what a life of enjoyment is like.  It is possible to be financially secure and enjoy what you do.  It all begins with a focus on your thoughts, words, and actions when it comes to work today.

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

“We rise by lifting others.”

This song by Huey Lewis reminds me of being in high school and college and the many jobs I had back then. Work is an interesting part of life.  I’m taking what their giving ’cause I’m Working for a livin’.

 

21

Wounds

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Time Heals All Wounds by Kalyn LeBlanc
Artwork by KDL

To be human is to experience situations that are painful and will leave their mark on you. It is an inevitable part of life. It is largely a matter of choosing what we choose to do about these wounds. Because there is no avoiding them, to live and breathe and experience life will lead us to be wounded in more ways than we can imagine. There will be physical challenges, mental difficulties, and emotional pains all inflicted upon us as we travel through the many paths life will propel us down. You can train, prepare and put out all the warnings we can, but wounds will always find us.  Some are huge, massively life-changing and others are small and seemingly insignificant. Still, the truth of the matter is that the only thing that will apply the right salve onto the injury is time, and it works magic on all types of pains and injuries.  Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid the scars they leave behind, and it’s how you wear them that counts. It all begins with the thoughts we entertain about our wounds, the emotions attached to those thoughts. The words we use to express our situation to the outside world and the actions we take because of all this. They will define us and decide finally if time does, in fact, heal all wounds.

Physical Scars

We all sustain injuries as a part of living. Bones get broken, ligaments snap, we sustain cuts, we are burned, and just about any other thing you can imagine.  These incidents happen by accident, and they challenge our physical abilities. Each instance marks us with a scar on our bodies, and whatever happens becomes a part.

‘Your knee wound is infected. I can provide an antibiotic. If you don’t have a drug plan, I can prescribe ‘time’ which I understand heals all wounds.’

Of our history and our story.  The physical wounds can be traumatic for sure, but they are not intentional and happen in life. They don’t tell the world anything about your personality, self-esteem, honesty, integrity, or kindness. They tell of something that happened to you from the outside.

As we age, these scars change. Sometimes they fade, sometimes they deepen and become more prominent, but they always reveal to the world one thing which has happened to us, never what is within us.  If you have survived the incident and lived to grow, care, love, and dream again, then you did quite well. The scars remind us of the strength we have within to bear the pain, overcome it and learn to live again.  Time allows this to happen, as even the deepest wound will heal if proven not to be fatal. We will recover, and time is all we need. It isn’t a perfect system, but it is the only one we have. I choose to wear the scars proudly and know I have earned every one. Time heals all wounds and leaves us a little bit wiser. But never the same.

Emotional Scars

These are tricky marks to see. Not only in others but also in ourselves. The damage is done on our insides, and the world will never know how deep or vital that wound has been. These are painful experiences we have to bear ourselves, and only those select few we choose to share them with will ever know the pain inside. But time works on these as well. The key is to deal with them, face the wounds and not let them grow and harm you on the inside.  It is a funny thing that ignoring these internal injuries doesn’t make them go away. It makes them a lasting part of your life.

When you face the things that have harmed you, then time can do its magic dance on them and allow you to move on. Like physical injuries, emotional damage always leaves a scar, and though invisible to others by sight, they are very noticeable to the feelings of others.  Sometimes the scars close us off and make other people out of bounds completely. Whatever has happened to us in the past, no matter how we were wounded, to live life, we need to move past the hurt in one way or another. If another has harmed you, then it is through forgiving those who have harmed you in the past.  Forgiveness allows you the power to heal and to take away any of the power that another person might have over you because of their behavior.

Most importantly is the act of forgiving yourself. Emotional pain will leave you a changed person, provide you with more depth, understanding, and empathy for the suffering of others. It will also leave you a vastly different person who is either destroyed by the challenges faced or learns to overcome them. It is a hell of a way to learn, but the lessons do last. They have to because when you doubt them, there are always the scars from your past to remind you. You have survived, but you are never the same.

Time Heals

When you are looking for the answers to life’s challenges and asking whatever higher power, you believe in, “Why is this happening to me?” Then you will understand yourself a little better. Often, we are sailing along in a pattern that we seem to have mastered, and life gives us these calm, serene moments, but the price is there will be moments of challenge that exist to push us to our limits and see just what exactly we are capable of.  Being pushed can be no gentle process sometimes. It will often hurt, it will leave a scar, and you will often be wounded by the acts of others and the careless, thoughtless, self-centered things they do.  Understand that the one thing life always seems to give you as a cure for wounds is time.

It is easy to understand why people today don’t like this solution to their woes and misfortune.  We live in a world of instant gratification. It would be much easier if we were like computers, and you could just run a program, and all of your pain would be taken away. But it is in the experiencing of the process of being hurt that we learn about who we are and what we are made of.  It will also lead us to the next best version of ourselves if we let it. Looking back at a painful experience can tell you where you went wrong, how to be better for it and how to avoid it in the future as well. You will be wiser but never the same.

Look at your own life and evaluate the things that have wounded you in all ways. Were there any benefits resulting from these experiences, which of course, you would much rather have avoided? The pain of loss, injury, betrayal, physical pain, and other forms of suffering leave their mark on you and cause you to change. Hopefully, it is into a better version of yourself.  That possibility always exists for you.  It begins with the thoughts you entertain, the emotions that are naturally attached to our thoughts, the words we speak to the world expressing these things, and of course, our actions that define us to the world.  Time heals all wounds, but it changes us forever as well. Who we are today will be a very different thing under the passing of time. I realize that I have been wounded and am never the same, but that is a good thing because sometimes it takes a trauma to motivate us to take the action we have to reach the destinations we are after. And time heals all wounds.

“One cannot tell when he is going to be healed, so do not try to set an exact time limit. Faith, not time, will determine when the cure will be affected.”–Paramahansa Yogananda

“Time heals many wounds, but this loss becomes the defining sadness of your life.”–Claire Cook

“Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.”  Hippocrates

“Time heals almost everything. But when you are healed, you are too old to enjoy.” —Paulo Coelho

“Time not only heals, but time also reveals.”–Karen Salmansohn

21

Questioning It

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Curiosity-Quotes-21Children have a natural sense of wonder and curiosity about all things. How does that work? Why is that color? Who is the tallest?  The smartest?  There are no limits to the questions and the knowledge that children seek. We were all like that at one point, and to return to that kind of mentality could only be a positive for more experienced people.

Curious Again Like A Child

As an adult, I have found that this curiosity and wonder are discouraged and seen almost as a weakness.  You are expected to become an expert in your field, and experts don’t make inquiries.  There should be no need for questions, no learning of new things. You understand life and how it works. You surely must be a failure if you don’t understand life and all of its intricate moves by the time you are 40.

The truth is that nobody knows all there is to learn about life because there is always going to be some aspect of this journey that can be expanded upon. Physically, emotionally, or spiritually.  Choose something and pursue a childlike curiosity about it and feel the wonder that will result from it.  Children don’t worry about what someone else thinks about their actions; and they are just thinking.

Question Everything

curiosity ffffLearning to ask the right questions can change your life.  A question will determine your thoughts and your words as you work out the answer.  These will lead to the actions that you take and determine the success that you experience. Ask the right questions: What should I focus on to make a lot of money today? What action can I take to be successful right now? What million-dollar idea do I see? What talent should I focus on today?  Once the question is asked, your mind will begin to work on it, even when you are not consciously considering it. Your subconscious will help you work on it.

Never be afraid to get clarity about the information that you are looking for. Be clear about the goal by curiosity-quotes-images-3-0d425dd3asking the right questions. Not asking questions due to a fear of looking less than intelligent is acting less than intelligent. Form your questions wisely because the thoughts in your mind today will determine the reality you experience tomorrow.

21

Who Are You?

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who are youThere can be no more daunting question to answer than to ask yourself, who am I? Then to answer it honestly.  Many people automatically list their job and family situation, but those outside influences on who you really are, not who you are.  Just in case you need to know who you are, I think you can start by recognizing who you are not. What are the factors that make you a unique individual living on this Earth?

Your Name is Not You

name is not youOne of the first answers to this question is going to be our name. In reality, your name is a label that was randomly assigned to you by the fate of your birth.

Wouldn’t you be essentially the same person inside if you were born in another part of the country? Or another side of the world?  Your name doesn’t dictate your honesty, integrity, or kindness. Your name is just a label that you call yourself, yet it is not you. So Who are you?

Your Job is Not You

not your jobThe second answer most people give to this question is a rundown of their current resume.

I am a physicist, and I work on quantum equations and string theory. This is another label that describes how you make money but not who you are.

In our society today, our identity is so closely related to what we do that often some people never get around this label to discover what is lying just behind it, waiting there to show the world who is there.  Who are you?

Where You Live is Definitely not You.

Another identification people often associate with is the roots of their existence.  I am from Greenville, Maine, and I went to geographycollege at the University of Maine at Farmington.

The mind designs these labels to give some glamorization to people and place them into convenient categories.

People will even fight people from another region. In fact, the bloodiest war in US History was fought largely due to geographical differences. Were those souls who fought and died in the Civil War really different because of where they happened to be born?

I think not.  Where you are from is a random aspect of your life due to your birth. Like your name, wouldn’t you still be the sensitive, caring, and kind person you are today regardless of where you were born or lived your life? Who are you?

Religion is not Identity.

religionMany people will identify themselves with their religion. I am a Catholic, a Buddhist, a Muslim, and so on.  How you relate to God is important for every person, whether they know it or not.

Yet your identity is not wrapped up in the label of religion either.  These are just different ways of looking at the same thing—the relationship between human and divine.

Yet this relationship still won’t tell anyone anything about you. People within the same religion are as different as each star in the sky.  Who are you?

Your Possessions are Not You

In this day of materialism, it seems to be bordering on religion. How much you can accumulate seems to be the most important thing to identify yourself with.  When you chase material self-esteem, no matter how much you accumulate, you will not be happy in the long run. Your possessions may be the envy of the world, and still, they will not fill up space inside of you. Because what you own is not who you are.  So who are you?

So Decide Who You Are

There is a significant mystery here to decide exactly who we are if you remove all of the labels and societal influences what is left inside of you.  What do you think? What do you feel? How do you love? How do you give?  Many questions may help you find your identity, or they may not.  I can only tell you for sure what you are not, and it is up to you to decide who you are.

poem

Who are you?

 

 

21

Today

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best day of the year
A possibility is waiting in the light of the morning.

It is easy to get down on certain days of the year. Sometimes it’s best to remember every day has the potential to be the absolute best day of your life. Regardless of what has happened yesterday, last week, or for the last 100 days, today has the potential to become one of the most fun-filled, action-packed days in your life. A day where you achieve everything you set out to do. A day where love comes into your life and changes everything. A day that is nothing but total and complete possibility, and the starting point will be the intention you set for your attitude today to be willing to experience it all. The field of possibility is open.

Ask A Question, Receive Adventure

best day of the yearIt can begin with a simple question that you ask yourself to open up the field of possibilities for yourself. Dain Heer, the author of the book Being You, Changing the World, asks,

“Who am I today, and what grand and glorious adventures am I going to have and RECEIVE today?”

A question that will open up your whole experience to every possibility there is. Do you want grand and glorious adventures in your life? Then be ready to accept it. People get into routines each day because routines are safe, and we always know what results in they are most likely to produce. There are few surprises and very little growth that come from the journey through your routine. You will be safe, but often you will not grow, and adventure is out of the question because it is difficult to schedule adventure.

The cure is to set your mind open to all the possibilities that your life has contained within each moment. You could write something, think something, do something at any given moment and the only thing stopping you from doing it is your intention for the day.  Be willing to receive the possibilities of today and accept what they bring with them.

The heart of adventure is the unknown that comes along with it. Will it be scary? Will it be hard? Will it be fantastic? Will it be unbelievable?  The answer is most likely yes to all of these things at once. How exciting is that?  What could make today the best day of the year like an adventure that allows you to grow? Open up your field of possibility.

Let the Love In

Each day is a choice between love and fear. You decide to create the attitude you share with the Best Day of the yearworld, and that attitude is an energy that will pervade your very being. Fear is present in each moment because all people are concerned about what might be taken from them, safety, love, family, money, possessions, or anything else that is momentary. Yet fear is just a thought, and 99.9% of the time, it is a negative figment of your imagination that controls your life.  Those who are successful in enjoying the journey of life can put aside the fear and choose the loving thought or action in their day. The field of possibility will provide what you constantly think of.

How can today be the best day of the year if you are afraid of the consequences it MIGHT bring to you that are negative. There is a risk in everything worthwhile, love, life, or crossing the street.  You cannot have great value without risk. That is the secret of things that are precious in the world. You cannot have one without the other. There is no need to fear anything, and you can handle it all. Choose the thought of love, laughter, creating, perseverance, praise of others, healing, giving, taking action, growing, praying, and most of all, living over their fear-based counterparts, and today will indeed be the best day of your life! At least until tomorrow when the field of possibility is new.

“Write in your heart that every day is the best day of the year.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMAAADhEkoc

21

Favorite Things

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I have learned a few things throughout my life to assist me in navigating the sometimes stormy waters I have encountered. They aren’t tricky in concept and have proven useful when the challenges of existence come my way.  As we all know, there are always two-sided to life. It will bring you decisive, secure, happy moments, but along with each of those will come challenges that will bring you growth. These things we feel we could do without, but these things have a purpose. They allow us to grow beyond where we are right now in this moment.  “What is this trying to teach me?” 

I am sure we can all do without the suffering moments, loss, and sadness in life. The bitter provides value to the sweet.  You can try to prepare yourself to handle the tough times and persevere in life and not have the unexpected challenges of life bury you alive when they hit. You lose a job, a relationship ends, someone passes away, or even a natural disaster hits.  You will either grow from these things or be beaten by them. Don’t be beaten. Use these little weapons to help you win.

Foul Weather Gear

Foul weather gear is a term I picked up from some friends of mine many years ago. They raced a boat on the ocean for fun and took me out for a sail quite often. The experience was excellent, and I enjoyed the gentle waves on the sea on a bright, warm summer day.  It was relaxing and utterly enjoyable. Life is often like this. But……Sometimes though, the weather will turn, and it isn’t so lovely, and it rains hard, and the winds are no longer favorable but merciless, which can be quite dangerous. When the storm hits is when you break out your foul weather gear, and it will help you make it through the storm and enjoy the ride as much as possible. It is a measure we should all take in life. Life often seems like a sunny day with beautiful weather, but a storm can arise out of nowhere. It is always good to have foul weather gear at hand, just in case.

Some people are so attached to the sunny day and calm sail they will never see the joy and excitement that comes from the harsher weather heading your way — this chance to use your wits and develop your skill on the boat. You can grow as an individual and with the crew as well. There may be some danger, but life is full of uncertainty. It allows us to learn to deal with it.

Life Gives What We Need

In a perfect world, we would always find an immediate reward for good behavior and positive actions. And those who treat people poorly and make decisions that harm others would be immediately punished. But that is not how things work. If you look at the short game, life will never seem fair.  But when you look at the extended play, it appears that all things work out exactly as they should. Those who live their lives based on fear have little joy and happiness, and those who live in love are happy and enjoy life. Never expect life to give you everything you ever wanted on a silver platter, it won’t, and you will spend your time wallowing in self-pity if that is what you expect. But life will allow you the chance to grow and become the best person you can be in all areas.  Never worry about the fairness of life, worry about your ability to deal with what you face, and making positive decisions based on kindness, caring, understanding, acceptance, and love. This ability will allow you to see the long game of your life because that is all that matters.  Life gives us all an equal opportunity to become our best, so it is the ultimate level of fairness.

Practice Kindness

There are no situations where practicing kindness can hurt anything and always contributes to a better day for those you practice kindness. Sometimes we get wrapped up in our desires and feelings, and the fear of not getting what we want or feel we need can diminish our mood and make us less a lower version of ourselves. Negative thoughts make us move around in a bad mood, and we distribute negative energy to all folks we encounter that day.

Viewing the world from the scope of what we can do for others rather than what we can do for ourselves will benefit all involved, including the world in general.  Look at your expectations for the day, see what you seek for yourself, and then look for the simple things you can do to make someone else’s day a little brighter. Kindness is easy to practice because it feels good to be kind. Put other people first and treat the world with that attitude, and it will generally treat you that way too.

Build Your Body

Exercise is a choice, and participating in it regularly will bring you many benefits. It is suitable for the functioning of your body in heart, mind, and spirit daily, and that by itself is enough. Along with a sensible diet, it will help you maintain a healthier weight and feel better in overall health.  But there is also another benefit that many don’t contemplate.

When tragedy comes into your life, you will be mentally and physically able to handle things better.  Many people have their lives jump off the rails at the slightest bump of adversity.  Working out teaches you to reach deep inside yourself and know that there is a strength to do what you have to do, even if sometimes you don’t want to.  Without a consistent exercise regimen, I think that we tend to move to the soft side and become vulnerable. Whatever training and physical activity resonate with you, participate in it.  Lifting, jogging, biking, yoga, martial arts, or any other type of exercise will provide you strength inside and outside.

Find Moments of Quiet

It is in the moments of quiet that you can hear yourself. Take time to find the places in life where you can get your mind to stop making noise and listen to the natural inner guidance we all have. Experience provides us with many rules and expectations that teach us what society expects from us, but they don’t help our soul express itself in the way one needs. To follow this inner guidance, we need to quiet the mind and stop chasing the world’s expectations. Listen to the inner voice that exists in each of us.  The sound is your intuition, and it is much wiser than your thoughts will ever be.

Don’t ignore your intuition because of the thoughts you think about the fears and expectations of the world.  Find the quiet and ask simple questions and follow the answers you hear. It sounds simple, but it takes commitment because as soon as you get a response, your mind will kick back in with a million objections and doubts. What will people think? How can that work? Will we lose the respect of others?  Those we love will judge us harshly.  Nobody will understand. Soon the right answer seems like an impossible challenge.  It is much easier to maintain the status quo, but it isn’t very fulfilling. Life brings a growth experience and avoiding growth leads to atrophy and death.  Listen to your inner voice.

Meditation

Taking on meditation is a great way to calm your mind and stop the constant chatter. There are many misconceptions about the practice, it is not difficult, and it is not religious. It is a tool to work with your mind and the thoughts you have rather than be bowled over by it. It can also help you find a way to deal with your emotions more healthily.  Since we get very little guidance in our lives on how to do this, meditation has been a savior to me in making sense, accepting, and moving past the inevitable negative emotions which arise from life.

There are many different ways to meditate; to me, there is no wrong way. You will be able to find guided meditations easily. I use an app on my phone called Insight Timer, and there are many others.  They offer a chance to be conducted in a direction you need to work on, or you can use their timer with ambient sound and focus on your breathing.  Whatever method resonates with you and helps you live a healthier life is a good thing to do. Give it a try. You will only find positives.

These are a few little thoughts to make life a more enjoyable experience.  Keep your foul weather gear handy and ride out the storm. Understand life is a long game, it may seem unfair at the moment, but it all equals out in the end. As long as your alive, there is a chance for a comeback.  Kindness is always the right choice. If you are questioning whether or not understanding will work, practice compassion.  Find your moments of quiet, just for you, because you deserve it. We all need to contemplate the things which make us feel fulfilled, what steps to take next, and where our power lies. To that end, give practicing meditation a chance. It can allow you to tame the negative thoughts and produce a positive force of action in your life. Be physical, and take care of your body in some way. You only get one of them, and it will take you as far in life as you let it.

Keep these tools at your disposal, and they will help you overcome the hard times and answer the question: What is this trying to teach me?

 

21

Mistakes

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“You make mistakes. Mistakes don’t make you.” Maxwell Maltz

On the surface, make more mistakes may seem like the worst advice you have ever gotten. But one of the most effective learning tools we are given is trial and error. Yet, we have been raised and nurtured to fear mistakes. They are looked on as being weak, unintelligent, or revealing a character flaw of some kind. In reality, mistakes are a valuable part of the learning process. It is not the mistakes that deter us from success but rather our reaction to them, which stunts our progress and causes people to develop negative feelings about themselves and their abilities.  I encourage you to readjust your thoughts regarding the errors you make. They are powerful learning tools. Embrace them.

Why So Negative?

Our society has seemed to develop a perfection mentality.  Parents see their children as a representation of them, and I guess they are, but each person has to be allowed to develop into their own person.  Some are put under the pressure of perfection from the moment they are born, signed up for special programs, competitive daycare to “give them an edge,” and then all of their accomplishments are viewed as resume builders rather than just childhood. There is nothing wrong with looking to the future, but when you discourage mistakes because they may look bad on the surface, you are putting fear behind the behavior. A kid will learn to play it safe and keep in the area he is naturally good at rather than extend himself into new territories.

Each time we extend and learn, we find out valuable information. We learn what doesn’t work to take that information and apply it to the next opportunity we are presented with. That is the recipe for success; I know in my experience there was little support for mistakes, just judgment, and labels. You are “good” at this and “bad” at that. Really I think kids can do much more than we give them credit for if we allow them to go through their own process of mistakes and, rather than protect them from making them, support them and guide them through the learning process.  What worked? What didn’t? What can you do differently? You are doing well in your learning. Try again!!

Trying Again, and Again

All of our missteps provide us with the opportunity to learn how to step better.  Take a look at your life and the things you are proficient at now. Were you always great at it? The odds are you were not and had to take a special interest and develop your skills. It could be drawing, painting, writing, basketball, golf, fitness, relationships, parenting, or any other activity in life you can imagine. You are going to make mistakes because you have ideas, and you are an action taker. Sometimes our ideas are not quite right. The skill to develop is not avoiding mistakes but the ability to readjust your tack and try again without losing your motivation or enthusiasm for the thing you are pursuing.

It is natural to want to be right the first time. There are some things where success will come easy. Enjoy them and find ways to push yourself in those areas as well. But there will be many others you will have to learn before becoming proficient in them or even passable at performance.  It can be difficult to have a fixed mindset, believing you are given some talents and others we can’t develop. The growth mindset will allow you to realize you are not born talented in every area. Some of them you have to work at.  Follow your interests because that is your intuition pushing you into the areas you are supposed to go. Go there, even if it is hard at first. Keep at it, work, try, fail, try again and again if necessary. That is life, and that is learning, and greatness will become your calling card.

What Is Greatness?

We are each great in our own way, but to accomplish greatness in the things you pursue is really going to be developed to pursue what you are chasing. To be a great writer, you have to write all the time. If you want to look at life more positively, learn to look at life from all perspectives.  don’t limit yourself

Define your own greatness

in what you can accomplish, stretch yourself in activities and goals you are chasing.

I have known many people who have greatness within themselves, but they don’t see it, and in that blind spot, they don’t have enough confidence to pursue it and bring that talent to the world.  Because they feel truly great, whatever they do today should produce immediate results and rewards.  That is not the way it works, and greatness is a craft with no one recipe. Sometimes it does come quite easily, sometimes the journey is much longer, and often the longer road is more valuable and insightful. Enjoying whatever path you choose to walk is one of the keys to life. Do you enjoy your choice?

Sticking to It

Holding on to what resonates within when those without don’t support or appreciate it is one of the most difficult things you can do. We are all seeking validation of our contribution to the world. Some will see this easily, and others less so. Only you can decide for yourself what your learning curve and level of self-acceptance are going to be.  Whoever you are and whatever path you are choosing to walk, and the goal you are trying to accomplish. Keep seeking accomplishment and understand that there will be some moments of disappointment and mistakes will be made.  Mistakes are not an indictment of your talent but a calling card of your journey toward accomplishment. Learn from them, try again, and stick to it.

“Mistakes have the power to turn you into something better than you were before.” Anonymous

“Remember that life’s greatest lessons are usually learned at the worst times and from the worst mistakes.” Anonymous

“Don’t mention a person’s past mistakes when they are trying to change. That’s like throwing rocks at them while they are struggling to climb a mountain.” Anonymous

 “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” Oscar Wilde

21

Creative

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gold-fish-jumping
Sometimes you have to think outside the box (or bowl) to solve a problem.

Being creative is one of the gifts of being human. We all can look at the same situation and develop different ways of solving the puzzle and finding a solution. Problem-solving can be one of the most valuable tools we have when making money, excelling in a career, or simply just being as high as ourselves.  Sometimes it can be difficult to muster a creative answer, but there are some things that you can do to make your thought process more creative and perhaps find a solution that you are seeking. Become a monarch of creativity.

Ask the Right Question

questions 22One of the most creative things a person can do is to ask the right question. And to me, the right question leads to a new solution. All questions bring with them an unlimited level of possibility.  How can I do this differently? What would make this easier? What can I contribute to that project? How can we complete it in less time? How can it be done more efficiently?

All of the questions you can ask will allow your mind to roam freely if you let it. Our brains are a great tool, but they can only work as well as we make them. So ask a question, and then allow your mind to work on it. The answers will come in their time, and then you must treat them appropriately.

Answers Lead to More Questions

The right follow up questions can lead to the most original solutions.
The right follow-up questions can lead to the most original solutions.

Each question asked represents the possibility every answer given is a dead-end. It sounds contradictory but thinks about it. Once a solution is determined, there is no more time wasted on the question. In the long run, one seemingly great solution may be only a significant first step in solving the problem, so the answers should lead to a new question.  How can we do this even better? What else can come from this that I don’t see right now? How can we make it even better?

These are just some simple examples of how to move your creativity into overdrive. Keep the mind working. Keep the solutions coming because of the next thought, maybe the one worth a million dollars.

Lose Yourself in Something

Losing yourself in a task is easy when you are young, but it is much more challenging for adults. First, you lose-find-in-lovehave to put in a little effort to find something that will take all of your attention. It can be drawing, painting, putting an engine together, building a model, knitting, sewing, or any other activity on which all your focus can be. As your focus and attention get tested, you lose track of time, and it allows your subconscious mind to work in overdrive, and you can get the answers to other questions that you have asked yourself.

As you work on a drawing or an engine and your conscious attention is captured, the limits of our minds rise, and the subconscious can create new ideas, and we are receptive to hearing them. That is where answers to problems come seemingly out of the blue.  Lose yourself to something creative, and your creativity in thought will grow.

Change things Up

All of us are creatures of habit. Our activities tend to fall into patterns that we find either safe or How-to-change-things-up-and-make-the-everydayenjoyable or both. These behaviors turn into routines that turn into a daily path. One of the most creative things you can do is change your daily activities. Take a new route to work, stop at a different food stop, take a slightly longer way, change things up.  Try something new to eat, talk with a total stranger about life. Try something you have never tried before.

By changing these simple things, you will force your mind to use different thought patterns and know what will result from that. Each new experience will expand your mind and your experience and allow your creativity to grow as well. Perhaps the answer you seek is inside of you all along, and you need the right catalyst to free it.  Changing things up might do this.

Read! Read. Read? Read…………….

The key to every kingdom is located in between the covers of a book
The key to every kingdom is located in between the covers of a book.

One of the most natural things a person can do to increase your creativity is to read quality books about topics that interest you. Reading provides a personal connection with the information in a book that is difficult to replicate in any other way. As a result, your mind can easily expand, and there are many possibilities for that growth. That is where creativity can come in large bounds.

In my experience, a mind expanded through the written word changes for the better permanently. That is why being literate is one of the greatest gifts we have. There are absolutely no limits on what you can learn if you can read. All you need is access to a library and the most exceptional thoughts in history expose to you. Read every chance you get, and your creativity will grow. Read, and you will find roads you never knew existed before. Read and grow to your true potential.

“The creative adult is the child who survived.” — Ursula LeGuin

“The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.” — Dieter F. Uchtdorf

“Creativity doesn’t wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its perfect moments out of ordinary ones.” — Bruce Garrabrandt

“Everything you can imagine is real.” — Pablo Picasso

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” — Albert Einstein

Imagine what you can create……….

 

21

Feel Happier

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This is a much more difficult concept than it appears on the surface.  You can’t just will yourself to be happy. It has to come from the focus of your daily consciousness. As you become more aware of positive things inside you, the level of happiness you experience will increase. Too often, I have allowed my thoughts to dwell on negative things I don’t have rather than positive things happening all around me. I wanted to share my 5 secrets to experience a bit more happiness every day. They are not difficult to do and will make a huge difference in your life if you really focus on them each day.

Accept your current situation.

acceptanceMany people look at their job, their family life at this moment, or any other experiences they are involved in, and they choose to be unhappy because it is not where they think they “should” be. Or even where they wish they could be. Challenges arise, people leave, relationships end. We wish they wouldn’t.

At this point, you have a choice, to spend your time living in the past of what used to be, in the future of what may or may not come, or to live exactly where you are right now. The only time you have is right now, and the only place is where you are. So take the time to experience it fully, and if you don’t like what you have, it is time to start changing. You are where you are, and your life is what it is.

This doesn’t mean you have to like where you are or have to stay there,  but it is where you are.  Until you honestly accept that reality, it won’t be easy to move on to situations that will bring more enjoyment and happiness into your life.

Gratitude is the Attitude

gratitudeLearning to be grateful for the things you do have will allow you to feel more happiness inside.  At first, it may be difficult to count the good things in your life, but when you start to be grateful, you will start to enjoy all of the little things in your life. You will start to look for things in life that you can be grateful for. It will open the door to an abundance of what you want and need in life.

I also believe that once you start to feel grateful for the things you do have, then it will create that gratitude attitude and attract more desirable things to your life. You never really see all the good things you have and how fortunate you are when focusing your attention on something you don’t have.  Focus on what you do have, and that energy will increase. Soon you will find you have more great things and you will be happier. It is all about gratitude.

Be Passionate About What You Do

passionFind out what you are passionate about and do that.  It is a simple solution to being unhappy, but if your job or activities in life make you unhappy, discard them for things that do make you happier.  Find where your passion exists and do that thing, fully and completely.  We were each put here to do something unique to us, and this will be your passion.  You have to feel it.

I know that making a living is important, but at what cost does it come? Are you willing to leave your passion and love for something in the rearview for the love of money? We have only a finite portion of time to spend on this planet, and to spend it on anything other than what makes you happy and alive seems to be a waste. So when you feel unhappy about your career choice, remember this. When you revel in your job, remember this.

Kindness Counts

kindnessThere are no limits to the good that kindness can do for you. If you are spending your time feeling sorry for yourself, you will be centered only on yourself and have nothing to do but feel sorrier.  Being kind to someone else is like rolling a pebble down a hill. It will build momentum.

The secret is that by being kind to others, you are really only being kind to yourself. To encourage someone who is down, compliment someone, so they feel better, perform a random act of kindness.  Whatever you do, you will find that the flames of happiness will start to grow in your heart.

Live for Now

live for todayThis goes back to previous thought, but all you have is today, and making that the happiest time you can is about all you can do. You can’t change the past, you can feel bad about it and be devastated by it, but the past is over.

Today is all you are left with. Tomorrow may never arrive. There are no guarantees. All you have is today.  Making the best of what is with you right now is the only sensible thing to do.

Don’t sit around and wish for tomorrow or yesterday; neither is going to help you. Instead, look for today for your solace. Enjoy the little things that make it great. A cup of coffee, a talk with a friend, the beauty of nature around you.  All of these things do not cost much money or are totally free.    Much like being grateful, enjoying the moment you live in will allow you to be happier. This is mindfulness.

Be happy like a baby!
Be happy like a baby!

In the End

In the end, whether you are happy or not comes down to a simple choice, be happy or don’t. You have very little control over what is happening to you right now, and stuff will happen whether you want it or not.  You can be unhappy about it and spend your life in spiteful misery, or you can choose to accept whatever is and be happy.   It is all a matter of attitude, and changing yours will provide a difference as stark as night and day. So be happy and feel great!   

 

21

A Great Day

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 Be Great Today!

I say it all the time, “Have a great day!”  and I hear it all the time from others as well, but it

Have a Good Day
It is a choice

it seems like so many people are particularly glum and gloomy in their day they have definitely decided to ignore this kind and tender wish.  The unhappiness seems to be so prevalent  I decided to write a little this day to remind people exactly how to achieve a fantastic feeling on a wonderful day. The potential for greatness is there for the taking each sunrise. You have to look for it.

Raise Your Mood!

A great way to raise your mood to be happy is to seriously and consistently think about what you appreciate.  Many of us spend so much time thinking about the things that we don’t have that we feel a void in our lives from its absence.

In reality, if you focus on what you do have and you are truly grateful for it, you will find you will soon have what you need.   Try it, and make a list that you run over in your mind.  I am grateful for my home, and I am grateful for my family, I am grateful for my

Be Thankful
Be Thankful Every Day

car, I am grateful for the shoes that make me feel so great.  We all have a list like this, and referring to it consistently daily will help you develop the strong and vigorous day we all want every day.

You Control what You Think

Open yourself up to positive thoughts that are all around you. You have the choice to pay attention to all of the positive thoughts that were ever created, or you can focus on all of the negative thoughts that seemingly surround us every day.  This was best described to me like this. If you go to Google and enter the search phrase, “Inspirational Men and Women,” you will immediately have access to the stories and thoughts of many powerfully positive people and the positive stories that come with them. This positive energy is bound to get your day moving in a positive direction.   Conversely, if you Google the phrase “evil deeds,” you are going to be inundated with all of the most negative acts of people from history, and if you invest your

how to be happy
You make these choices every day

thoughts and efforts in those things, it is little wonder that you will be a bit negative on that day.  The same is true for our thoughts in everyday life; you can invite all positive thoughts to enter your mind and influence your day in the best of ways.

Choose Wisely

This is the basic choice that you have to make every day. Even when things are just piling up on you and making you feel overwhelmed, there is still an opportunity to make it an outstanding day.  For all things, there is a season. Some days you are going to be a little sad, mad or frustrating, but realizing that you have a conscious choice to have a great day, regardless of what is happening,  may help you to not only help yourself to a better day but to help someone else achieve this as well.

A Song to help you Have a Wonderful Day!!!!