Category Archives: 21

21

Consequence

Leave a comment

Every action has a reaction and a consequence.

All you experience in life is a result of the actions that you have taken. It is a bad habit we develop excuses to justify unfortunate situations faced in our experience and the circumstances we are in. Apologies are only going to hold you back. Accepting responsibility is always the best answer.  Even if you honestly feel that things are out of your control, taking responsibility for where you are is the best mindset to adopt.

Otherwise, you are always looking to accept the mentality of the victim.  We all have choices every day, and each decision we make in thought, word, or action will affect our lives.  Better to be favorable than unfavorable. In a nutshell, it is essential to understand that all actions we take will affect our experience.  Always without exception.

The Energy of Life

All things are energy. Energy can’t be created nor destroyed; it is only transformed.  In your life, the actions you choose to take will influence the power around you.  All of the decisions that we make in our thoughts become our words and our actions.  The ability associated with these things is dictated by the tenor and tone of our dreams.  Positive reviews create positive words and actions. This process leads to positive energy. The same is true for negative energy as well. Your thoughts dictate it.

There is energy all around you all the time. If you want to test this cause and effect law on point, spend time with an intensely negative person.  Someone who spends their time complaining and gossiping about other people will bring an opposing force to their lives that will diffuse into yours if you spend a lot of time with them.   The same is true of someone positive in thought and action; they will create positive, good energy around you that you will take with you.  The moral of this cause and effect moment is to look for the positive people in life, choose to spend time with them and avoid negative people.

Leave Excuses Behind

As children, we face many situations where we are trying to avoid punishment for our actions.  Not doing homework, doing something a little dangerous, or doing anything against our parent’s wishes could lead to trouble and punishment. We learn to manipulate with excuses from an early age.  Once we find the most plausible explanation that everyone accepts, we use it again and again.  It could be about our health, a mental issue, or just a lack of talent.  Once you agree with an excuse, you have pushed responsibility off.  So as you might have gained the momentary reward of not being punished or manipulating a situation in your favor, the effect of that is you will start to create and accept excuses in all areas of your life.

The effects of excuse-making take away your power.  You will now be looking for reasons outside of yourself for everything that happens rather than looking at yourself and accepting responsibility for where you are and taking actions to get you where you want to be.  The effect of taking responsibility is a personal power that will help propel you toward whatever you want to accomplish. You can take actions that will affect your life and the world, which can happen every second of every day. Leave the excuses behind and accept responsibility whenever you can in life, and be empowered with what you can accomplish.

Be a Positive Effect

In your own choices in life, be a positive force in the world.  Focus on what you think, say, and do, in particular when it comes to how you deal with other people. Be accepting of those with different views and forgive those you have perceived to have wronged you. Give to those less fortunate than you.  Be a cause that has a positive effect on the world.  Be grateful for what you have and accepting of all good things entering your life. This, to me, is the best way to understand the law of cause and effect and make it a positive thing for your life and the world. 

“Shallow men believe in luck or circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“The sower may mistake and sow his peas crookedly: the peas make no mistake, but come up and show his line.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“Nobody ever did, or ever will escape the consequences of his choices.” – Alfred A. Montapert.

 

21

To Forgive

Leave a comment

forgiveness 99To live life is to be let down. Disappointment seems to come with the territory. We then have a few simple choices when things go wrong, and we can carry around the anger of being hurt or practice forgiveness and move on. Sometimes other people’s actions are so painful that it seems impossible to forgive like you will be letting the person who wronged you off the hook. That is the same attitude that keeps you suffering and under the control of an event or the actions of others for your entire life.  There are many benefits of forgiveness the will make your life a more enjoyable experience.  Freedom is one, and there are many benefits of forgiveness.

Your Health Will Be Better.

When you look around the internet for benefits of forgiveness, the Mayo Clinic offers a great many

Greater health and energy from forgiveness
More excellent health and energy from forgiveness

physical benefits the process of forgiving can provide. Letting go of the negative emotions surrounding any grudge-holding or hurt is not debatable. They include lower blood pressure, a lower risk of depression, decreased anxiety, improved relationships, better heart health, and a more robust immune system.

All of these were coming from the rational choice to forgive someone. The alternative is to hang on to the grudge and have all of the material things above become a problem, as in increased anxiety, higher blood pressure, more mediocre relationships, worse heart health, and weaker immune system. It seems like a no-brainer for your health to forgive others or yourself and let go of the negative emotions surrounding an event in your life. Your health will be better for it.

Buddha once said, “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”

Forgiveness Nurtures Growth

It doesn’t seem to matter if it is a relatively small event you can’t forgive someone or yourself for or a choose to growhuge mistake when you maintain the grudge. You are remaining stuck where you are.  Think about it, an event that has happened in the past exists in the past, and as long as your focus is on the past, that is where you will stay.  To forgive and let go of the anger will allow you to move forward with your life. The only way to become unstuck and start to grow is to forgive those we are angry with.

Events in the past are not going to change, and they are what they are. Only your attitude about them can change, and you have total control over them. The person who gets the benefit of your forgiveness is going to be you. You will find that you can create, be optimistic about the future, and leave the weight of the past behind you. You will be surprised how much you can do without all that extra weight of blame, anger, hatred, and lack of forgiveness weighing you down. You can begin to grow again. Without growth, life ceases to exist.

Nobody is Off The Hook

Forgiveness is not weighted. That is, there are no levels of forgiveness, depending on the wrong forgive1committed. You will still be weighed down, trapped by an event or person, and unable to grow until you decide to forgive.  Many people I talk to say that what was done to them was too awful, too terrible to be forgiven. When you forgive, you do not condone or make anything morally right. You permit yourself to leave the experience of the event behind you and to move forward. Nobody is let off the hook by your forgiveness except for you.  You never have to talk to a person to forgive them.

Forgiveness is a rational choice that you make, allowing you to direct your thoughts more positively. It will enable a person to create positive new memories and a life full of happiness and joy, rather than to be weighed down by the negative memory of an event or person from the path. All of the control in your life will move you and away from an adverse event.  You will become a more reliable, more powerful person when you practice forgiveness because forgiveness is proactive. Anger, resentment, grudges, and hate are all reactive.

“Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.”— Desmond Tutu

“There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.”— Bryant H. McGill

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”— Mark Twain

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”— Lewis B. Smedes

21

Better

Leave a comment

I believe that all challenges in life bring with them the opportunity to grow and become better.  The pandemic times of today get an excellent chance to become better people. In the way, we think, act, and in the amount of compassion we show others.  One of the things I am working on today is understanding my mind to bring my best to the table, should this isolation ever end, and I am allowed to venture freely out into the world again.  I want to share four habits I am trying to practice in all areas of life to become a better person and to have the sacrifices we have all made have some intrinsic value.

I read about these habits as they apply to Navy SEALs training, which is some of the most difficult mental and physical challenges any person can face.  Looking at those that passed and those that dropped out, there are four mental habits that you can apply to your life and become mentally and physically more demanding.

  1. Focus on the Now

When you are doing a task, painful or not, focus on completing that as best you can and don’t time looking to the past, thinking of past failures.  It is also defeating to look at the 52 other things you have to do once this task is complete. Focus on the right now. If you are on a three-mile run with a full pack, focus on this one step, then the next, not the distance you still have to cover.

You can apply this idea to tasks in your life by focusing solidly on what you are doing right now and giving it your best effort.  I work in production right now, and it doesn’t do any good to complain about how long the day is when you are just getting started. It does do good to focus on completing the task at hand, one thing at a time.  Our focus is powerful when you do this. It can be challenging as others place demands on you but move methodically through your tasks one at a time, and soon you will have everything done and done well. Focus on the right now.

2. Imagine Joy

Challenges are complicated, and to complete them and maintain your positive attitude. It will help you remember accomplishments from your past and how good it felt when you finished them.  Just as you focus on the now, break your immense task down into smaller steps on a list and have an inner celebration as you check them off your list. Learning to transfer feelings of success from our experiences onto today will allow you to move with vitality and purpose through the functions of the day.

Each accomplishment gives your brain a hit of positivity, and this will fuel you through your day. Rather than look at the tasks you are facing and diminishing them or yourself, which will only bring you a negative attitude and a bad day along with it.  The more you practice the mental exercise of putting joy, success, and accomplishment in all things you do, the easier it will be for you in all areas of your life.

3.  Breathe

Breath in for 6, hold for two, out for 6, two between

When everything seems to be falling apart, and the pressure is getting to you, and you feel overwhelmed, take a moment and breathe.  Breath deeply for a count of six.  Then pause for a count of two and then exhale for a count of six. Pause for two seconds and do it again.  Do this three or four times.  Each in-breath will increase the oxygen to your brain and give you a chance to catch your breath.

It is a fact that deep, controlled breathing is a powerful method of improving your mood, thoughts, and attitude in just a short amount of time.  Try it right now and see what it does for you.  Too often, we are so wrapped up in our thoughts we forget to take the control we have in our breathing and focus our minds on the things we can do right now to become better.

4. Be Your #1 Fan

Too often, people let their negative thoughts about themselves and their abilities rise to the top of their thinking. Rather than allowing your thoughts to go into a negative spiral about life, thinking every aspect of your existence is terrible or boring, you can actively work from your greatness.   Instead of doubting yourself or the path life is taking you, have confidence it is taking you in a direction needed for growth. If you make a mistake, you will learn from it and be even more remarkable because of it.

Instead of listing all of your problems and challenges, make a mental list of everything that feels good in your day.  There are always things that feel good if you look for them.  It could be enjoying the people you work with, being better than you were the day before, doing something new, or just going home at the end of the day. Find the positives and think about them. It will improve your attitude and allow you to accomplish more than you ever believed you could.

The next time you face a difficult challenge in your mind, give these four habits a try, focus on the moment, Imagine how good you will feel, breathe deeply and be your own best cheerleader.  It is easy to dismiss these practices as so dull they will never work, but you have to decide if you want to struggle continually in life or take proactive steps to be more confident and find success in all that you do.

“Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do.” ―Sean Covey

“It is “easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.” ―Benjamin Franklin

“Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.” ―Ste “hen Covey

 “I have learned that champions aren’t born; champions can be made when they embrace and commit to life-changing positive habits.” ―Lewis Howes.

“You leave old habits bd by starting out with the thought; I release the need for this in my life.'” ―Wayne Dyer

 

21

Emotional

Leave a comment

 

Through this human experience, we are inundated daily with all sorts of emotions.  Emotions are defined as: “a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others.” They are our feelings, and unless you learn how to deal with them, they will deal with you.

These are things we face every moment of every day, but very few people look at what their emotions mean or, more importantly, what they are trying to communicate to us.  Emotions control much of what we do and how we relate to others in our lives. Take a moment and investigate how your feelings are affecting your daily existence.  Why are they so important? Where do they come from? How can we deal with them more helpfully? These answers will help you function more truly and honestly in your life.  You will cease to be at the mercy of the seemingly random appearance of your emotions because you will know where they come from.   You are not your emotions of love or anger or fear; how you react to them makes you who you are.

Why Emotions Are Important

Our emotions come from our thoughts, and most often, our thoughts are a reaction to the experience we are having or, more often, to experiences we had in the past. As we experience our daily lives, situations arise which stimulate thoughts. We have a complete memory bank of skills. When something happening now reminds us of something from the past, emotions are triggered, like a warning about suffering or pleasure from history that we might repeat shortly.  Anger, for example, is the face of fear. We get angry when thoughts that might not meet our needs are front and center in our minds. Many people get into the habit of using anger as a default to getting what they want, getting mad any time anyone challenges them, or not going exactly the way they want. These emotional responses are not healthy because, over time, anger takes its toll on your body, and more significantly, your relationships. Nobody wants to spend quality time with a ticking time bomb.

Our emotions tell us things that words can’t articulate, and learning to decipher these feelings rather than react mindlessly to them gives us a chance to be better and create healthier relationships. Start to look at your emotions pragmatically, from the perspective of, where did this come from? What is it you are feeling, and why do you feel this way right now? Every thought comes complete with a corresponding emotional response. Emotions are important because they are away. We communicate with the world and ourselves.  To ignore or suppress your feelings is a good recipe for poor mental and physical health. What is inside of you and how you feel will eventually come to the surface. You can decide if it is through a gentle investigation of how you think or an explosion of emotional steam after weeks, months, or years of psychological repression. Take care of your emotions, and they will take care of you. Listen to them, and they will provide you with a direction of where you need to go.

Watching Emotions

Rather than let your emotions dictate your words, actions, and life experience, the moment you feel them, take a minute and allow yourself to feel what you are feeling. Our bodies are excellent because they think the stimulus from outside is like hot and cold, but also feel an incentive that comes from inside, like happy or sad. Rather than being controlled by your emotions, take a second and let it be there. The sentiment is a feeling or response, and you can sit back and observe it. What is causing it? What is the stimulus of this thing? It could be a link to some experience from your childhood, which is irrelevant today. When you can observe the emotion, you are no longer part of that response. You are separate from it.

Doing this successfully will allow you to investigate what is going on inside of you at that moment.  Watch the thoughts you are thinking, which have the emotion attached.  Watch your inner world unfold and ask questions about the genesis of your emotional responses. Doing this will allow you to understand yourself better and relate to the world and those in it.  Being effective at this will allow you the chance to become more in charge of your emotional health. Although you will never be able to control your emotions, you can understand how to work with them healthily and use the information they are sending you. Rather than just reacting in a mindless, subconscious way.  It takes time and effort to do this, but it will give you a better understanding of yourself and others when you become better at this.

Documenting Your Emotions

To start to practice this, you need to take some simple action. Start by documenting your emotions. Look back at your day and write down when you had an intense emotional response. Notice these feelings and how they affected you. Then follow it to its roots. What was the situation? What was said? Who was there? What were you thinking? Which of your thoughts are tied to which emotional response? All of this information is available to you every day and in all situations. You have to be willing to investigate, document, and get to know yourself in the emotional realm.  Each time you put your emotions down on paper, you will build a more reliable connection with yourself, where you came from, and what it is that you need to deal with. Negative emotions are dangerous to your health, and of course, your relationships, and to be at their mercy makes you a reactor to life.

When you know which situations or thoughts lead you to love, fear, sadness, happiness, or any other emotion, then you are in control of things. Isn’t anxiety a response to thoughts that create fear? Look for the ideas that put you in a negative emotional state and shine a light on them. Explore them. Understand them. Like a monster under the bed, a little light will reveal that you are spending your time entertaining unnecessary thoughts of fear. There is a freedom that comes from understanding yourself in all facets because understanding and knowledge are always the keys to power, and in this case, it is your power.

“The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.”-Horace Walpole.

“Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.”-Elizabeth Gilbert.

“We all live at the mercy of our emotions. Our emotions influence and shape our desires, thoughts, and behaviors and above all our destiny.”-Dr. T.P.Chia

 

21

You Deserve It

Leave a comment

you deserve to be happyDo you deserve happiness? This thought is a question most of us ask either on the conscious or subconscious level, and the honest answer we give too often is NO.  This limiting belief comes with us through the experiences that have taught us to expect less than the best. There is no reason to look at yourself and believe that you don’t deserve happiness. The only thing stopping you from living a happy life is own negative stories that you tell yourself in your mind. You always have the choice to look at yourself with softer eyes and admit that you deserve to be happy.

Your Mind is the Key on How to Feel Happy in Life

Your mind is a beautiful tool, but sometimes the wiring is off, and we 0b13574e717dd8cedbe9d364b21885a6listen to everything it tells us. Your ego has the job of making sense of the world and finding out why you are where you are.  Your ego evaluates all of your actions and most often uses negative stories to do so. These stories in your mind are the negative limiting beliefs we carry throughout life until we consciously choose to change them. Most of them come to light to keep you safe.  Your ego remembers that you tried and failed, loved once, and were hurt or trusted and disappointed.  That is where the negative stories come from, fear.

If your stories are telling you in any way you don’t deserve to be happy because of an action in the past or an event that happened to you, you have two choices, believe it and allow the limitations of that thought to destroy any happiness you have. Or you can choose to realize that you deserve to be happy, no matter what has happened in the past.

Keep in mind that no matter who you are and what you are going through, you are doing the best you can with what you have to work with at the time. That is a simple truth. You may not like the results of the situation, but learn from it, develop and grow and see what happens in the future. Your positive feelings will guide you on the path to feeling happy in life. 

Everyone Can Feel Happy in Life

Happiness truly comes from within oneself. If you need an outside stimulus to how to be happy in lifebring happiness, it will be challenging to find constant joy in your life. Every day you are given a group of opportunities to experience. Whether they make you happy or not is a choice. You decide your attitude toward them and how it makes you feel.

“A great attitude becomes a great mood, which becomes a great day, which becomes a great year, which becomes a great life. “~ Zig Zigler

If you are looking for a stimulus to bring you happiness, your moments will be short-lived and sporadic. When that thing that supplies satisfaction, material possessions, money, drugs, sex, or anything else is removed, where are you?

You deserve to be happy as often as you decide you should be because you are a  unique person, the only one that has ever existed. Each of us has an originality that allows us to contribute our special gift to the world.

Each person is the only one who can decide whether they are happy or not. Nobody else can do this. You deserve it as much as anyone. Make the choice today to feel satisfied in life.

“If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap.’
If you want happiness for a day — go fishing.
If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.”—-Chinese Proverb

“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.”—–Dale Carnegie

“Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”——-Winnie the Pooh

https://youtu.be/P74YRczb84Q

 

21

Soul Benefit

Leave a comment
your soul
Listen……….in the quiet there is an answer.

All the decisions we make are for the benefit of our soul, or they exist to feed our egoic identity. Your soul is your true self; you were born to be. All the things you do and your decisions in this area will be positive, feel good, and resonate with you. Then there are the choices we make because of the ego. These are choices made in fear and generally pull us further away from who we are.

The goal is to make more decisions that benefit our souls and remind us of all the things that make us happy, productive, and whole.  The problem is that our ego has pushed us into situations to distract us from our true identity and move us in directions further from our purpose toward filling our programming. The goal is to start to recognize which of your choices are doing what. Are they moving you closer to your soul or true self, or are they pushing you further away? The best test is to ask yourself every day, “Am I becoming the person I was meant to be?” Let the proper answer guide you.

Your Soul and Why You May Not Know It

Since your soul is your true self, when you strip away all of the things you identify with, which aren’t you, job, money, possessions, what others think of you, or more accurately, what you feel about yourself, you are left with your soul. It is an accurate representation of your connection with a creator and all other people in the world. There is no fear, anger, or judgment located here. A person living from the decisions their soul makes is going to be the best version of themselves.

The restlessness you feel about life comes from not living up to that version. Knowing your best is there inside you, but not learning how to let it out or share your skills with the world.  Most people have some of these feelings and are unaware they have another choice.

We pursue things others have told us we should want and never consider what we might want ourselves. We are too worried about looking silly or disappointing a parent, peer, partner, or imaginary audience. Look inside yourself and see what appeals to you and give it a try. The key to understanding the soul comes from creativity because you can lose yourself in a drawing, a painting, a carving, or just restoring a piece of furniture. The act consumes your attention and quiets your mind, and that allows your soul to speak to you.  Positive feelings will move you in the right direction.

Know The Ego

The ego has a distinctive negative voice, as well.  It has a constant need to try to control everything and everybody out of the misguided thought that if you control everything, then nothing painful will ever happen.  This need resists change and growth and makes all involved unhappy.  There is also a need for approval from others, which stops one from stepping out and trying something bold and brand new.

If you wait for the approval of others to let your true self shine through, you will end up living your whole life falsely.  And finally, the voice of the ego loves to express itself in the judgment of others and yourself. To judge is to be unaccepting of others, their contribution, and their differences because their differences make you feel wrong.  Rather than accepting disagreements that the soul would welcome because we are all different, those differences make us glorious.

Choose The Soul

It is a magic of people that we all have within us a divine presence, and it exists in your soul. It is the thing that connects us all with all living things if you allow yourself to feel it.  Each decision is either for the soul and becoming the best version of yourself or egoic thought, which stifles healthy growth, attempts to control things, and pushes people down paths they will not be happy traveling.  Egoic change occurs subconsciously, and if you don’t examine your thoughts at all, they probably come from that area.

But conscious thought is a guide to your soul and your true, best self. Look at your thoughts honestly and see what they are telling you. Notice what they are telling the world about you.  If we all were motivated to become the best version of ourselves, imagine what the world would look like operating from that place. We are born as a soul, and the ego we develop over time. Work your way backward and find your true self.

Thinking consciously about the things which resonate with you and bring joy to your life will allow those things to become a part of your reality. Of course, there are steep hurdles to jump in this pursuit.  We have established programming which creates our beliefs and creates our intentions in what things we have in our lives.

What would your life look like if you made only choices which made you happy?

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.  – Aristotle

Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold; happiness dwells in the soul. – Democritus

 Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul. –Wayne Dyer

 Each person has an idea, a hope, a dream which represents the soul. We must give to it the warmth of love, the light of understanding, and the essence of encouragement. – Colby Dorr Dam

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

21

The Self

Leave a comment

Positive Thought Project

Self: A person’s essential being distinguishes them from others, especially considered the object of introspection or reflexive action.

When it comes to big questions in life, “who am I?” generally tops the list. We all have a sense of self from the time we first become aware. Our essential being is who we are inside, not the person we choose to show to others.  But what is honest about this?  Much of what we have come to identify with as our “self” is an illusion.  We carry around this sense of who we are, but it is based on many factors that are not us at all.  Our job, relationships, what we own, what others think of us, and even our thoughts about ourselves are not accurate representations of us. So how do you find out what defines your essential being?  That is a quest that will raise your consciousness, and it will start by paying attention to what you think of your “self,” the words you use speaking to your “self,” and the actions you take to show who you are.  What is your true SELF?

Mindfulness

One of the cures for the illusion of self we carry around is to begin to practice mindfulness. This is a practice of being aware of the present moment and accepting all that it brings you.  Your sense of self is revealed to you in the everyday experience of interacting with your world.  How do you see the sunrise? How do you see interactions with other people? How do you react to things? What do you believe about yourself and your abilities?  Each moment reveals the characteristics which make up our “self.” Watching them and accepting them is mindfulness.

The value of this is that you remove all of the expectations of the rest of the world.  They don’t matter who you are; they matter to who the world perceives you to be.  It is a false self that is contained in our ego.  Looking past these expectations is the first step of growth and seeking to remember who you are.  Forgiveness of those who hurt you and yourself for actions outside of your true nature is a must. Mindfulness is easy to practice but challenging as well because it can be painful to see your thoughts.  But try to stay in the moment, dwell on the past or worry about the future.  Be present and see who is there looking back at you. That is your true self.

Over 7 Billion People

It always makes me question existence when I consider that over 7 billion people in the world and a minimal number have spent any time contemplating their presence in any natural way. What you have in life and the “stuff” you can accumulate is not as important as the person you are.  The self is the one thing that belongs solely to you for the duration of your existence. Those things spring directly from your thoughts about the world and how you fit into it. Your actions and words define them.

Is your self greedy, shallow, mean, selfish, or any other negative word? Well, those things are in every person, all 7 billion. It is your choice whether they become an active force in your life or if your thoughts move toward kindness, forgiveness, peace, acceptance, or love. These are the things that define the “self” to the world.  Because you can say you are a positive person, but your conscious choices make it so or not so.

No Comparison

There is no need to compare your journey and progress to others. You are solely responsible for you as another is responsible for them. Don’t waste your valuable time comparing how you think, what you have, and how you spend your time against someone else.  The self you are has plenty of strength and talent. You just have to access it.  That will never happen if you waste your time looking over the neighbor’s fence to see where they are at in their journey.

Do the best you can.  Every day while you sift through your thoughts and deal with the situations, you are confronted with the moment to moment.  Never forget that in you is a divine creation capable, reliable, and ready to achieve anything you set your mind to doing.  Weight loss, working out, building a business, travel, relationships, or anything else you want in your life is there to touch if you have confidence in your “self.”  Be confident and love your “self.”

Be your best SELF today. It all starts with a greater awareness of your thoughts, the corresponding emotions that arise.  The words you speak to others and your actions will define you for all time.

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection”– Buddha

“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”– Mark Twain

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” – Lucille Ball

 

21

Dare To

Leave a comment

Dare to Be YOU

My goal is to establish a positive focus every morning by focusing on a positive word or phrase. There are enough negative influences in the world, and I believe we can improve our emotions, comments, and actions and make the world a better place through a conscious direction of thought.

Dare to Do

Courage is a commodity we only know we have when tested, and seeking these types of tests is a tough challenge. It is hard to put yourself out there for a new job, a new relationship, or to move to a new town. Whenever you face a unique situation, there is an opportunity to dare to achieve, accomplish, or grow. Threatening to keep going is to defy the obstacles in front of us and learn about ourselves and our lives. Life is a game of growth or atrophy. Either you dare to find out what you are made of, or you are satisfied withering away into the obscurity of what was. So today, I urge you to take a bold step and dare to do something that will allow you to become better than you were yesterday and fulfilled as a person.

Dare Against the Fear

Fear is a constant companion we all carry with us in all decisions we make. Often it is displayed in “what ifs” of life. What if I fail? What if it gets worse? What if it hurts? What if everyone thinks I am crazy? What if questions like this give the fear a place to live in your mind. Dare to take action today and try. As you make an effort to do something new, there is going to be a learning curve. There is a period when you learn the process and fine-tune the skills you need to accomplish your goals.

The biggest fear we carry is the fear that we will fail. We will never be that thing we dream of in our minds. This fear has stopped many people from ever daring to get started, but when you dare to begin, everything new and excellent has the opportunity to exist. When you dare to apply for that job or talk to that person, then the possibilities of everything are on the table. Without the daring to act, none of them do, and fear wins, keeping you safely in your place, not being who you are called to be.

Dare to Be Different

Our society is structured to reward those who follow a particular path. You do what is expected, and people will applaud and tell you how wonderful you are doing. Unfortunately, all people are different, and the things that allow them to grow and thrive as individuals vary. So we can’t all follow a straightforward path to find the value we seek or enable the treasure inside us to come out. We have to follow our path and dare to be different than others might expect us to be. It is in this daring that we will find our unique voice and power in the world.

Daring to be unique will always open you up to criticism from all fronts. But to be yourself in a world continually trying to force you to be something you are not is the daring to be true to yourself. Would you rather be criticized for daring to be who you are, or would you instead be praised for living a lie? A choice we all make every day.

Create from Your Soul

Daring to create is one of the best ways to see what is inside of you. Allowing your music to come out in whatever form it exists inside of you for the world to see is one of the biggest gambles we can take. Our creativity will show precisely how we think, feel, and believe about things, allowing the world to see that. We are then open to attack, and it takes a brave person to dare to create without worry about criticism or failure.

To create something simply because you want to, not because it will manipulate someone to think this or that, but because it is the message in your soul that you want to share with the rest of the world. Daring to create your art in whatever form is excellent. Daring to share it with others is monumentally brave. Be brave today and dare to share.

Be Daring Today

Today I call for you to dare create, be yourself, and share it with the world. Don’t hide behind the veil of what-ifs and allow your best creative self to shine forward into the world. Your actions will allow you to enjoy life more because you will be authentic to yourself and make the world a better place. Daring to shine your light into the world always makes things better. Dare to be your best self today and see what happens from that.

“The only dare you ever want to take is the dare to be all that you can be.”- Catherine Pulsifer.

“Dare to be your best self, see how high you fly. Never worry how far you might fall.”

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” —Theodore Roosevelt

 

21

The Courage

Leave a comment

We all have to walk down the dark corridors of our lives, and there are moments we need to find all the courage we have inside to keep moving forward even though fear is gripping our hearts. Courage is the ingredient that allows a person to take their next step, though they are afraid of what might happen. Freedom from fear shifts a person’s energy from the negative to the positive. Courage allows you to dismiss the opposing forces of doubt and fear and replace them with hope and expectation of something positive happening in your life.

You can choose to bring your courage into your conscious thought every day by recognizing the daily fears you face and still do what you have to anyway. Here are three significant concerns we all need to overcome at some point; 1. The anxiety of the future 2. fear of rejection 3. Fear of failure. With a shift in focus and awareness, we can deal with what scares us, and it starts with noticing your thoughts of fear and answering the question: Do I have the courage to face my nightmare?

Courage for the Future

Fear about the future is what many worries are based on. Somehow people believe that if they play out every nasty, negative, and painful scenario of what might happen in their mind, they will never be hurt or disappointed. Worry is negative energy that brings negative things into your thought process, the words you use with others, and, of course, the actions you take. Fear never brings anything good to anyone, and it robs you of the good things you have in your life right now. Isn’t this what anxieties of all kinds are based on? The future may have challenges in it, and those things will help you grow. Eventually, our death will come, and the ending of everything will ultimately happen. Worry won’t stop that. It just makes your experience of today far less enjoyable.

Put your worries away and focus on the positive things in your life right now. Enjoy the good things you have at this moment. Prepare for the future, as any responsible person would. But realize that whatever is coming your way is coming. There will be loss, sadness, and pain. There will also be joy, laughter, and great experiences. Have courage that you will be able to weather the negative, and the positive will be present in much larger quantities. Have courage about the future and the positive things it will bring to your life. There are no guarantees, so embrace the joy when it comes to you.

Courage about Rejection

People may reject you or something you do for many reasons, and the truth is, most have little or nothing to do with you. It is their past experiences, choices, and consciousness making those choices. Don’t take any of this personally. It is them, not you. Put your plan in action and do it in a way that makes you happy. Even though you may have lost someone or something you treasure, look for the good in the situation. It may not be easy to recognize, but it will be there.

Changing your perspective takes courage to do because there will always be naysayers and doubters. And often, the biggest doubter you will face will be in your head. Ignore their noise. People will come into your life who will discourage you. Make you doubt who you are and affect you negatively. If they put as much effort into pursuing their dreams as critical of others, they could accomplish anything. They are the definition of negative mediocrity. Give their opinions about all the attention they deserve. Non Have courage, try, create, do, go, find, build, and believe!

Fear of Failure

Now we come to what I think is the most common fear, and that is a failure. What is a failure but a label? We are trained in education to view breakdown as the worst result. Things are not always going to go perfectly. But it isn’t. If you are genuinely creating and reaching for something new, there is a real chance you aren’t going to get it right the first time. But each attempt at something provides information, experience, and skill. Those can work to a challenge, and the next time you will get a different result. The courage to ignore a negative view of failure and see how this situation provides an opportunity to grow, learn, and ultimately gain success. That is how it has worked throughout the history of man.

It takes real courage to face this challenge. Our society views anything but perfect results as a failure. There is little margin for error. Why is this? Could it be that if we encouraged thinking and fundamental knowledge, people would be less controllable? Individuals might develop ideas that would change things. Be brave and let your courage drive your process of learning. Not the expectations and judgments of narrow-minded small people. Give them all the regard they earn. They have no idea where you are going and what you can do. Unless you accept their narrative about you, it’s your choice to be more conscious of your courage.

Have Courage and Do It

Let your consciousness continually become aware that life is a little game. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end. We are all moving toward the inevitable, don’t waste your time in fear. Find your courage to make changes in your life that leads you toward living like your best self.

People fear change naturally, even if it is clearly for the better. Be brave and have the faith that it will work out in the end. Nobody can be sure where that end is, but having the courage and taking action will lead to a result. Find your courage today, and it all begins with a higher awareness of your thoughts, words, and activities. You can then learn, evaluate, grow, improve, and make better actions. You are eventually becoming and achieving what you want.

Courage- the ability to do something that frightens one.

We all have courage inside us that will allow us to achieve all of the great things we want to accomplish if we learn to use it.

“True courage is not the absence of fear—but the willingness to proceed despite it.”–Unknown.

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you are.”― E.E. Cummings Quotes On Courage.

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”― Coco Chanel Quotes On Courage

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”― Winston S. Churchill.

 

21

Burn or Cross

Leave a comment
Cross it or burn it? We make these decisions often in life.
Cross it or burn it? We make these decisions often in life.

Living life provides an excellent classroom for learning. It would be easier if we had a manual at the beginning giving clear and unquestionable instructions on how to proceed in life.

Each situation would be so easy to deal with as we navigated our way along our path of life if we could only tell which bridges were safe to cross and which ones we should burn and never cross back over again.

I do not kid myself and think that if I had this sort of information, it would have made any difference to my behaviors. As a young man, I thought I knew it all, and I would cross each bridge on my terms and have no fear of the consequence. I didn’t want advice or guidance, I tried to cross the bridge and get to the other side, and if it was painful, well, that was life.

There is no way to know for sure what the other side will bring, but cross it and hope for the best.
There is no way to know for sure what the other side will bring, but cross it and hope for the best.

Over the years, a strange thing started to happen. All bridges looked scary to me, and I refused to cross any of them. This phobia led to a life malaise that was stuck in the same place. Even though I looked into the mist surrounding the bridge and wondered, “What is over there?” I lacked the courage to step across it and find out for sure.

As I got older, I felt compelled toward the bridges in front of me, I would tentatively take a step onto them and then retreat to the safety of the known, but deep in the back of my mind, I would think, “Is this it? Is this all there is in life and all I can look forward to?”

As the years passed, it became clear that life was happening out there across those bridges, and I had better get moving in one direction or another, or it would be too late. Burn one bridge or cross another. That was the option but do it now, or soon all of them will be burned by time.

With little planning but immense hope, I finally took the first tentative steps onto a bridge that looked sturdy enough to carry me across the abyss of danger below. Before I crossed, I torched the other bridges around, and there was no turning back. The bridge I was crossing would define my life and how I lived it.

As I moved along the bridge, walking step by step forward, I grasped the rail for some reassurance, but the only feeling was one of excitement wrapped in fear. All the years in limbo had fooled me into a false sense of self-confidence, which now was clearly on display.

Some will tell you that it is an excellent policy never to burn bridges because you will never know when you need them. I argue that recognizing the bridges to burn and the ones to maintain is one of the significant lessons in developing wisdom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VVyakAPCPM