Imagination- the faculty or action of forming new ideas or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses.
The human mind is a powerful tool. It can recall information and perform intricate calculations while still managing to keep a physical body functioning appropriately. A mind can create imaginary situations and scenarios that allow us to create new things and unique events in our lives.
The mind has an imagination that can go to places that have never existed or might only exist in the future. Unfortunately, this creative imagination can sometimes work against us. Fear creeps into our lives and starts to use our imaginations against us. You are creating worst-case scenarios that raise our anxiety levels about things that never have and probably never will happen. If you are experiencing this misuse of imagination, it is time to control your thoughts and use the power of your vision for you and not against you. It is all up to the ideas you choose to entertain, the corresponding emotions you will deal with because of your choice—the words you use to describe things. And the actions you take to enhance or diminish the power of your imagination.
What Can Go Right?
Too often, we spend our thoughts worrying about what might go wrong. This fear is a thing that develops over time. As we experience suffering in life, we try to create a safety zone in our minds where nothing unexpected ever happens. The working theory is that if we can imagine the worst, it won’t take us by surprise, and we can handle it if it happens. So we weave tales of terror and woe and play out our imaginary reactions to the situations. Although they are in our minds, the stress they create is felt by us. It is hard to experience happiness if you only imagine the most painful things your life can bring.
Rather than spend your time worrying about what might go wrong, how about switching your focus to what can go right? One of the more powerful tools of creation we have is our imagination. Used to imagine a successful result, it can move you down the path to creating that very thing in your life. Think of a goal achieved and how that is going to feel for you. Put it aside and start taking action toward making that thing a reality. Your imagination can help keep you motivated and show you how good life can be when your goals come into existence. Also, there is the added benefit. When your mind is creating positive thoughts, the negative thought train shuts down. Focus on what can go right rather than what might go wrong.
Overcoming Anxiety
It seems like we feel we have to know all the answers. Well, nobody has this ability. Since our youngest days, we have been conditioned to be “smart” and never look “stupid” and always have the answer. This mindset is a fixed way of thinking where people seem to believe either we have a talent or not. Some lucky people start to realize that we are not born with all the answers or abilities. Those things are developed through the learning process and become whatever version of ourselves we want.
The larger group would rather pretend to know the answer rather than reveal a lack of knowledge. The fear that people might find out this “weakness” is one of the causes of anxiety. They fear that they will reveal as less of a person or a person of less value. It is an illusion of perfection our society demands, but it is just an illusion.
Nobody is perfect, and nobody knows everything. When we start to look at all situations as opportunities for growth, rather than tests our current knowledge and base our value on it, anxiety will lessen in our lives. So what if you don’t know everything? That is called learning. Having a growth mindset sets you free to learn, improve, and become your best at whatever you want to excel at in your life. Your only limits of accomplishment are then the limits of your imagination. Rather than using your imagination to conjure up how other people see you negatively, use it, creating a real-world, achieving what you want.
Only So Much Room
Finally, remember worry is a misuse of your imagination, and it will only fill your head with fear and anxiety. These are forces that can destroy your health and make you unhappy. Thoughts develop in patterns, and if you are in a mode of worry, it is all you can think of, and there isn’t any room in your head for anything else. It makes sense to take logical steps for your safety and well-being, but to obsess about negative things happening to you and those you love is a negative chute. It is hard to come out of and change direction. There is only so much room in your head, just like in your house. Why fill it with junk? It costs you the delight of space and positivity. Look at your thoughts and how they affect your imagination today. Use your imagination wisely.
“Worry is a misuse of your imagination.”- Dan Zadra
“Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”- A.S. Roche
Life is a journey from where we are in this moment to where and what we want to be in the future. Some people listen to the things others tell them in regards to how their lives should look. What job to have, where to live, how to live, what to like, how to spend your leisure time. The opinions of others will guide all of our activities and thoughts if you let them, like sleepwalking through your life. Then some people start to notice living like this, doing what someone tells you to do. Despite the fact it feels empty and unfulfilling, is no way to live. It is for these people I am writing this. We are all on a spiritual journey, whether we choose to realize it or not. The movement of growth in our lives is happening, and We are all moving forward into our development or hiding in the safety of our past. That is the choice you are making every day. Here are a few simple thoughts and tools to help you move into a more aware life of your journey.
Develop a mindset of Growth
Since growth involves moving forward, it seems our development mindset will be a vital tool to develop. Carol Dweck wrote a whole book about it, but to me, merely understanding we can move our lives in any direction we want. The first step is not to let our patterns of thinking stop us. I know many talented and potentially great people stop themselves from success by their fixed mindsets. Look at your thoughts and evaluate where they land. I am not telling you what is good or bad for you. That is a choice we all make for ourselves. The way forward is growth, and you are the determining factor about what you learn and what you don’t, just as I am the determining factor for me.
Fixed mindsets believe you have the talent to do something, or you don’t. If you can’t do something on the first try, you shouldn’t even try. A growth mindset sees life as a process. You may not be able to master something in one attempt, but if you keep trying, you will eventually find success. Fixed mindset people are so afraid of being wrong and judged as faulty, they never even try anything new. A life of fear is a life of safety, but you won’t become what you want to be. A growth mindset embraces the new, tries for the experience, not for the result. All ends will bring you a lesson and valuable information so that the next try will be different and more successful. What is your mindset today?
How Do You Move?
Is your choice taking you towards or away from the best version of yourself?
Each of us has an image of the ideal person we want to be. It may be how you physically want to look, or how much money you want to have in the bank, or the relationship you want to share your life. All of our choices are either moving us toward this ideal or away from it. Think about that, you make thousands of small decisions every day, and each one is pushing you in a direction and toward a result. Being aware of your choices and what they mean for your desired results gives you the power to move closer to being the best version of yourself.
Where do you move to today? If you desire a great body, what food you choose to put into your mouth, the exercises you do, and the sleep you decide to get will determine your health — moving you closer or farther away from that idea. It is most important to take responsibility for our movement. It is our decisions that impact us in one direction or another. If I choose to be in a relationship with a self-centered narcissist, am I moving closer or further away from my ideal relationship? I have to take responsibility for my choice, which has driven me further away from where I want to be. All of our decisions have power and direction. Keep this in mind as you make your thousands of choices today. Are you moving toward or away?
The Point of Choice
Let’s start looking at those choices we make in more detail. In all instances, even the most snap decisions we make, there is a moment where two or more roads are available and open to us. This location is the point of choice, and it is from here we form and create our lives. I know I have allowed the subconscious autopilot of my mind to make too many choices for me. There is comfort in choosing the things you have
always done. You can clearly understand the results. But it is essential to realize just because you always choose one thing. There are a host of other possibilities out there waiting for you in the world. You can always choose a different path.
Take time in your day and look at the decisions you make consciously. Why are you choosing the coffee you drink? The route to work? What do you wear? How do you speak to others? How do you think about other people? Is it the result you want to allow you to grow? Or are these things the choices you have always made? Safe and sound moments that hold you solidly in the past and place. You will not become something else if you cling to the mold of what you currently are. So often, it isn’t the decisions we make but our judgments about them that determine how they affect our lives. We think something is terrible. After all, our mothers told us it was good because we saw a commercial in the media telling us exactly how to think and feel about things. Your choice is to be a sheep or to make your path.
In the End, You Make Your Life
It is a result of your choices of the substance of your life springs. Complain if you want. Be angry about how much money you have and the career you are experiencing. Be disappointed with your relationships in life. Then understand that you have been the creator of it all and the choices you have made. Now you have the chance to move in a different direction, in a movement of positive growth. Have the understanding of yourself and your journey and know a step into the uncertain abyss of life is a step into development, and hiding where you are in the safety of the simple, is a trap. Get out of the web. Life is a journey from where we are right now in this moment to where and what we want to be in the future.
“Don’t go through life; grow through life.” – Eric Butterworth
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” – Abraham Maslow
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall
“Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it, and eventually, the confidence will follow.” – Carrie Fisher.
We should all be this excited by the prospect each day brings!
No matter what they do, every person has to find things that get him excited about life. They do not have to be complicated or expensive things. They get you going and allow you to feel happy about just living on the face of the Earth every day.
I would never presume to speak for anyone but myself, but here are the things that I enjoy and make my existence a much more enjoyable experience.
1. Learning and Reading
When I was a young person, I did not care all that much for learning. It was something that you had to do to get to the next step in life. This is the wrong way to present education in my mind. All of us can learn and expand our minds into whichever areas interest us and strike our fancy.
In the past few years, I have learned more than at any time of my life, and it was all done by my desire to expand my mind.
It was not because of what anyone else thought or because I took a class to get a degree. Learning was taking place because I wanted to be a better person and live a more meaningful life. Learning gets me excited about living life today and looking forward to the future.
2. People Are Just Awesome
Few things get me more excited about life than the people I have met. Each person is a unique mixture of personality and intelligence that allows them to contribute to the world in their own unique and powerful way.
Knowing these kinds of people are out there in the world, looking for the best way to live or just making the best of what life has given them, gets me excited about life. I know that if the good people I have come in contact with are in charge of the world, the future is in good hands. The people I know get me excited about life.
3. Change Is Always Happening
There is one thing that I am sure of about life, and change will occur no matter what you do.
Some of the changes you experience are going to flow smoothly, and some are going to rattle your cage a little bit more.
There is only one choice to make though, either you can fight against the inevitable change, which will lead to pain, grief, and sorrow. Or you can choose to roll with the changes that come your way.
I am choosing to ride with the winds of change because they are blowing whether I like it or not. That is why I have decided to let the life changes excite me about living rather than force me into a depression about what I used to be. Sometimes the things that change are precious to me, but some seasons come and go, and there are unique and beautiful experiences in those seasons.
Enjoy them while they last because they will change as surely as winter will follow autumn and summer will follow spring. These changes get me excited about life. It would be boring if nothing ever changed, ever!
4. The Boston Red Sox and Baseball
Baseball is not for everyone. It is a sport that seems to be moving at a leisurely pace but is not.
A mental aspect to the game should keep you interested and engaged throughout a game or a season. The Red Sox are a passion for me because they are the team of my family.
The love of this team had tied generations together, and even when there was a hard time finding common ground, we could all state an opinion about the Red Sox.
This love of the Red Sox gets me excited about life because it connects me with the people in my life who I have cared about who is gone. I remember when my grandfather took us to Fenway for the first time. It was the quintessential ballpark experience.
I walked up the stairs leading to the field, and the area was so green, the uniforms looked so white, and they’re a few feet from me was Dwight Evans, Jim Rice, and Carl Yastremski. Then I glanced over at the green monster. I was around 9 or 10 years old that day, and any question I had about loving that team was answered on that day.
It is interesting to note about my grandfather. He was born in 1920 and died in 1993, so he never saw them win a world series. I like to think he was feeling the vibe I sent to him in 2004. He would never have believed it. I sent a special prayer to him that night because the Red Sox got us both excited about life.
5. Writing from my Inner Thoughts
Finally, there is the practice that has come to take up so much of my time. For many years I fought against the urge to express myself in words and to arrange them in only the shortest and simplest patterns.
My prose expressed very little about myself or what I thought or felt. It is only recently, like the melting ice at the end of winter, that the words have started to flow.
6. Creativity, I believe, is the key to unlocking your unique talents and thoughts. If you are stuck at anything then, do something creative. Draw, write, paint, sculpt, knit, spin, whatever you can do to be creative will lead you to the answer you are looking for. Writing for me is the way I answer the questions that life has thrown at me.
I once worried about the quality of my words and the judgment they might render from others, but I have learned to let that go. My words are mine. They express what I think, and anyone reading them can like them, hate them or ignore them completely. That is their prerogative. I can’t write anything for the sake of pleasing someone else, and it would be a waste of time.
Writing allows my inner thought to have an outer expression, the voice that can’t speak, speaks through the written word, and that is why writing gets me excited about life!
Life is full of questions. One of the best ways to gain information is to ask others who already have the knowledge you want to get. If you want to make changes in your life’s experience, learning to ask questions is essential. Being willing to show you don’t know something to learn something is following the growth mindset. Why is this the case? How do questions work? That is what I hope to answer here, today.
How do Questions work?
Asking a question immediately changes your focus. The tone of the question will guide a person to investigate more of the same. What am I happy about? This is a question that is going to lead you to focus on what you are pleased about. You have no choice if you answer it. It will lead to a list of positive things, and it is challenging to feel poorly after that. If you ask, am I disappointed with you? Then you will open up that negative path for you.
This focus can work in conversations with other people as well. Guice them on a more positive path by asking them the right questions. Others have to be willing to go down that path, but if they take a few steps and start answering the question, the rest will take care of themselves. Questions dictate your focus, so ……….What could I be happy about? What is excellent in my life right now? What are you truly grateful for?
Thoughts We Want from Questions
In establishing that focus on questions, you are allowed to determine precisely what you delete from your consciousness at this moment. Focusing on what you want to have will allow you to eliminate all oppositional thoughts. The human mind can only hold one idea at a time, and if you are focusing your thoughts on what you want or need to do to get it, the seeds of doubt have no room even to be planted, let alone an opportunity to grow.
Challenges are going to occur in life. Rather than spending your time complaining about the challenge and giving away all your power, spend some time asking good questions about the challenge and determine how to eliminate it from your life for good. Learn to focus on your desires and delete all oppositional and negative thinking. What can I learn from this challenge? How can I grow from this?
What is Available to You?
Everyone has a list of resources available to them. These are the people and things we can count on to help us achieve our goals. Learning to ask meaningful questions can lead you to contact new people or develop a new skill. How can I turn this around? What is here that I am not seeing? What action can I take right now that will move me closer to my goal?
As you ask questions, the mind has no choice but to seek an answer. That is how we work if we are sober and thinking straight. How can my performance and production be improved? Learn to be curious toward positive achievement, and positive achievement is what you will experience. Questions will open doors, not only for outside opportunities but more importantly for inner growth and personal empowerment through action.
Hear. Listen well, take manageable actions and do the best you can.
How can asking questions change your life today?
“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” – Eugene Ionesco
“The key to wisdom is this – constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question, by questioning we arrive at the truth.” – Peter Abelard
“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.” – Bruce Lee
How I often approach change. It can be scary! I need to perfect the art of laughing!
There is little in life as frustrating as change. Whether we want it or not, it comes along in life and forces us to do something other than what we have been doing, whether we are ready to stop doing it.
Most people, if not all people, have at least a passing disdain for change, and I think there are good reasons for this, yet I think we also all are well aware that change provides positives we need. How to deal with this mystery of inevitable and painful movement from one phase of life to another? That is the inevitable question.
Why Change is Hard
As humans, I think it is natural that we find comfort in routine. It is always safe to get up at the same time, follow the same patterns of life. Depart for work at about the same time each morning and throughout whatever you do during the day.
We do this because it is safe, we do this because it represents order, we do this because it is reassuring. If you don’t think so, disrupt someone’s routine, even for one day, and watch their reaction. It is all a perception and illusion of control. We control so little in reality that seeming in control of our routine gives us comfort.
Our minds are constantly seeking safety and the ability to know where our place in the world is. The world will not end if you do something different, but sometimes it may just feel like it.
Choosing to Change
If you are choosing to change, then something must be significantly amiss. In my life, these choices of change have been around wanting to get into shape or a different job, but deep down, they were because I was not happy with life as it was, and the only chance to find happiness was to change.
It could be a new workout routine, a new job, or a new relationship. New is a nice word for change and makes you feel better about what you are doing. It also gives confidence to the outcome, which is always unknown.
One of the great things about choosing to change is that you feel like you have some sort of power in the decision-making process. It may be an illusion, but it still provides you with a great chance to feel empowered. Enjoy that kind of change because the other type isn’t so very nice.
The Other Kind of Change
This is the change that comes on you from nowhere and doesn’t give you an option. It simply gives you change. Death of a loved one, an accident, an illness, a spouse leaves you, or you are laid off from a job.
There are many examples of this, and these are the changes that can kick your teeth in and jump up and down on you until you don’t think you can take it another second. The great unwanted moments of life upsetting your nicely ordered life.
Unwanted change is like the tide, inevitably pouring in no matter how you try to stop it, and it leaves behind a clean landscape. Often the changes required of us are so significant we get swallowed up by them for a time. There is an almost numb feeling like life is happening and you are there, but you are more observer than a participant. This is a temporary feeling. Until you get your bearings back and can navigate through the new circumstances, be brave in times of change, and eventually, you will gain your bearings.
Hope of Change
Even though this change can be pretty awful to experience, it is not the end of the world. It just seems like it.
When you can look at change from the experience of surviving it, you can start to appreciate the growth you have had. The pain of loss or suffering has become a part of your history, faded a bit, and now is replaced with wisdom. This is the learning that life will give you one way or another.
It is a frightening proposition. If things are going great, you should appreciate them for all of their nuances and uniqueness. The hope in change is that it will always bring us closer to where we should be, meaning to me, closer to our authentic selves. We have to be aware of what lesson is being taught.
In my journey, there were times I was satisfied yet unaware that I was many, many miles away from where I needed to get. To be the best version of myself. Whether I am any closer to that is yet to be determined, but I am hopeful.
My Choice of Change
I promise myself that I will go easy on my fear of change and realize that it is just a natural reaction and emotion. People often will stick with a job, relationship, or life that isn’t working because even though they may not be ideal, they are known and therefore less scary than the unknown coming down the road even though the unknown may be perfect.
Cast off your line and let your ship move into change seamlessly. There is no avoiding the specter of change, and your only choice is to fight and resist it or to ride the wave like a surfer.
If there were no change, nothing terrible would ever get better!
“If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t go anywhere.” –Unknown
Like everybody else in life, there have been times when I have been faced with circumstances that were not the most pleasant to deal with. There are really only two choices as to how you decide to face these moments in life. One is to act out of fear, that you may lose what you have worked for or be hurt irreparably by whatever misstep has come your way. Or you can face the challenge of the situation head-on and with courage that you will not be conquered by the events of your life and you will not shrink from them. You will come out on the other end a stronger, better person. Courage is defined as mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty
Quotes of Courage from the Cowardly Lion
I have always liked the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz, how he realizes that if he would just face his life with more courage he would be more happy and successful. The best part is, that just like all of us, all of the courage that he ever needed was inside him all the time just waiting for him to have the confidence to use it. He just needs to get beyond the limiting belief that he is a coward and always will be.
The ability to summon up courage from inside yourself does not have to be done with a formal ritual, or a special process. It has to be done by believing in yourself, and your value as a human being. I know that is all well and good, but how do you really do that? Get by the catchphrase and summon up the courage that you need.
“Courage. What makes a King out of a slave? Courage.
What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage.
What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage.
What makes the Sphinx the 7th Wonder? Courage.
What makes the dawn come up like THUNDER?! Courage.
What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the “ape” in ape-ricot? Whatta they got that I ain’t got? Dorothy & Friends: Courage!
Cowardly Lion: You can say that again.
I Can And I Will-Quotes of Courage
One of the best frames of mind you can build to bring the courage out from inside you is to have the “I can and I will” mentality about life.
When you are faced with a difficult task, that you think you may struggle with, repeat this phrase to yourself, “I can and I will”. At first, you may not quite believe it, as you try to fight through your own insecurities and fears.
Keep thinking it, “I can and I will”, soon as your past failures and personal limitations fall off to the side you will begin to feel the confidence of this statement, “I can and I will”, your own well of courage which is inside each of us will start to bubble to the surface. At first like a few small bubbles but as you continue to think and believe, “I can and I will”, more and more will come to you.
Each challenge you face will be faced more and more easily with the courage you have inside you. You will not always be successful, but you will start to realize that failure will not permanently define you, but your courage will. You will start to reach higher for things you once never dreamed you had the ability to reach. And if you fail? So what, “I can and I will” , what you are looking for will happen for you.
Courage is better than fear
F**k It You Can Do It
Why then is it so hard to reach inside and summon up the courage that is in each of us just waiting to be used?
Most often it is our own limiting beliefs that stop us from reaching for what we want. Limiting beliefs are thoughts that have been said so much by ourselves or others that we have finally just stopped questioning them and accept them as true, regardless of what they do to us.
Examples, “I’m not smart enough”, “I don’t have the talent”, “I am too ugly”, “Good things only happen to other people”, “I can’t”, there are many more.
As you can see if you allow yourself to be boxed into your life by believing statements that are limiting you, you will never be able to reach your potential. And the bad part is that these limiting beliefs become, in ways, very comforting to us. They explain why other people are happy and we are not.
If you are hearing that little voice inside your head that is repeating any of these types of limiting beliefs, there is one thing you can do today that will start to erode them away. Just say, “To heck with that, I’m awesome.” This phrase carries with it the appropriate emotional emphasis to get you through whatever limits you have placed on yourself and/or your abilities. Try it when your limiting thoughts come up, “I’m too fat.” Reply with, “To heck with that, I’m awesome, I am not defined by my weight.”
You will find that once you start to overcome these limiting beliefs, there isn’t really a lot of things that can stand in your way. Another example is, “Success in business is for other people, not me.”To heck with that, I am as smart and deserving as anyone else in the world. I can be successful, all I need to do is try.” Try this with one of your own limiting beliefs and you will see that you have the courage to fight for yourself and to get what you deserve to be happy. Because the bottom line is that we all deserve to be happy, even you! Our minds need to be reminded of this continually. If you don’t control your mind, someone else will.
I could rattle on all day, but the essence of this article can be boiled down into one sentence that I hope you will read and remember:
We all have courage inside us that will allow us to achieve all of the great things we want to achieve if we will just use it.
That is it, put aside the fear, and limiting beliefs that have held you down for years and summon up the courage that we all have to strive for a dream, or to reach for the goal. You may or may not get there, but courage allows the journey, and the journey is what life is all about.
Quotes of Courage
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” – Ambrose Redmoon
Courage is not living without fear. Courage is being scared to death and doing the right thing anyway. – Chae Richardson
Courage is looking fear right in the eye and saying, “Get the hell out of my way, I’ve got things to do.” -Author unknown
Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.—Thoreau
It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition, to stand up for it. –A.A. Hodge
It is curious—curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.– Mark Twain
Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences. —Susan B. Anthony
Following the path of least resistance is what makes rivers and men crooked.–Unknown
Silence is evil’s closest ally. –Gary Amirault
Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.—Mark Twain
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.—Gandhi
New paradigms put everyone practicing the old paradigm at risk. The higher one’s position, the greater the risk. The better you are at your paradigm, the more you have invested in it, the more you have to lose by changing paradigms. –Joel Arthur Barker
True courage is not the absence of fear—but the willingness to proceed in spite of it.–Unknown
Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt. –William Shakespeare
A certain amount of opposition is great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with the wind. – John Neal
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.– E. F. Schumacher
In the end, they wanted security more than they wanted freedom. –Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)
Everyday courage has few witnesses. But yours is no less noble because no drum beats for you and no crowds shout your name. –Robert Louis Stevenson
One man with courage makes a majority.– Andrew Jackson
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. – Plato
To know how to say what other people only think, is what makes men poets and sages; and to dare to say what others only dare to think, makes men martyrs or reformers. –Elizabeth Rundle
Fear comes from the Adamic nature—faith comes from the Christ nature– Jacquelyn K. Heasley
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.–Robert Frost
People tend to want to follow the beaten path. The difficulty is that the beaten path doesn’t seem to be leading anywhere.–Charles M. Mathias
If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t go anywhere. –Unknown
But the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them,glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it. –Thucydides
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is -try to please everybody.–Herbert Bayard Swope
Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.–James Bryant Conant –
The greatest mistake is life is to be continually fearing that you will make one. –Elbert Hubbard
All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.–Adlai E. Stevenson
Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. –Edmund Burke
I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom. –Bob Dylan
Except a person be part coward, it is not a compliment to say he is brave. –Mark Twain
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. — Henry David Thoreau
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. –Martin Luther King Jr
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. –Anais Nin
We reflect on taking the lessons and providing value to our experiences.
Recently I had a birthday, which means many years ago, I entered this game of life and am still trying to figure out how the swirl of thoughts, emotions, and corresponding actions connect to build our lives. I always thought I would have all the answers by now, but life is a tricky experience. You move past one veil, answering some questions only to find there are five more waiting for you there. On your birthday, I think it is your obligation to yourself and the experience of life to look at the lessons you struggled with, overcame, mastered, or are still working on over the past year. By assessing your experiences and taking the lessons, they teach with gratitude. It is possible to make even outwardly negative things favorable for you. So here is my look back at the last year, a reflection of gratitude. Also though this was not an easy year, easy life is not necessarily a good life.
How has my year been?
I think it is best to reflect on the year in lessons learned, and here are a few of the valuable things I have learned. There have been many challenges, a ton of new information as well. So with all that a great year, I also managed to make it to the gym every day of the year.
Enjoy every moment because life will change, and those things you love may be gone, and there is no way to bring them back. We are only really guaranteed this moment, and that is it. If you share it with someone else, that makes it a memory. I am grateful for all the moments I have shared with others over the past year.
I am responsible for my level of happiness and enjoyment of life. It isn’t anyone else’s fault if I am not happy with my life, job, or choices. There are going to be times which are easier to be pleased with than others. It is up to us in our experience to choose to enjoy them or not. Not everything is pleasant, and there has been plenty of difficulty and pain in my year, but I prefer to focus on the good rather than the bad. There is always some glimmer of good behind a cloud of sadness. Seek it.
Deal with your emotions, or they will deal with you. We all have feelings, and they are attached to every thought we produce in our minds. To ignore them is to ignore a message from your heart. We often get a negative feeling, and we don’t like it, so we move away from it as quickly as possible. I hope I have learned to move toward it, look at it, and understand it a little bit more. Sadness, anger, fear, and emotional cousins are not favorable to experience, but they are a natural part of being human and not so scary to handle.
Embrace them, see the thoughts that brought them to you. Usually, it is some residual memory of the experience, and always understanding takes away the fear and allows you to heal. I have recovered a lot this year. There is minimal teaching provided to us, helping a person learn how to develop emotional health. We are at the mercy of intellect and experience.
Enemies and Friends. This year I have learned how our thoughts can be our greatest enemies. How we choose to think about ourselves, our abilities and other people control much of our reality. A change in perspective and the way you feel about things can make your whole life seem different. The human mind, both complex and pleasant, can only focus on one thought at a time, and you control where that focus lies if you want to. Where your attention goes, energy flows, and if you are spending time on the negative, you will find more negative. If you spend time on the positive, then you will find more positive. This focus will determine how you see yourself and control what you can accomplish in life. Your thoughts always and drive you towards a direction you would like your life to take.
Learning is power. I have increased the things I learn about by merely using my commute time for knowledge rather than just mindlessly listening to music. Music is excellent, and I love it, but all the thoughts tied to it are from the past. I have started filling that time with podcasts, TED Talks, philosophy, audiobooks, and anything else to teach me something positive. Of course, it has helped me learn and put me in an intensely positive mood entering any day. Which has helped me, and I think it helped others as well. Learn wherever you can, new ideas, how someone else did what you want to do. All knowledge makes you better and drives you to new creations and accomplishments. Learn, grow, be better. Our growth is never complete, no matter how old we are.
My year was good, like any, I think. There were high highs and low lows. Sometimes I was very good at dealing with things and others. I was a work in progress, and that is OK. People have loved me, and some have hated me for whatever reason. In the logbook of my life, I think it has been a watershed year and one I will continue to learn.
Am I Satisfied With My Choices?
We make a thousand decisions every day. One of the things I learned about this year is that we make 95% of our choices subconsciously every day, which means our programming is running our life most of the time. If that programming is faulty, you will be continually making the same mistakes, doing the same things which may not be so good for you. So I have made several small changes I hope will have lasting effects on my success and enjoyment of life.
Time of reflection- I have tried to add short moments during the day to take inventory of what is happening during the day. One is at lunchtime. I try
Look into the sky tonight and know I am here today, in a year, in ten thousand years.
to take just five minutes during the day to enjoy the moment. Wherever it is. If the weather is beautiful and I am outside, then to be experience happiness about being alive at that moment, looking at a blue sky, or seeing a bird fly by. These things can affect my thoughts and make me happier and feel a connection to the positive in life. Another moment I have taken is no matter how busy, hectic, or long a workday has been, I take five minutes at night to sit outside and look up at the night sky and be grateful. I look at the stars each night for just a few minutes, and it reminds me of all the people I have known who are gone. I often wonder how many others are looking at the same sky and having similar thoughts. Maybe there are none. I hope that after reading this, there will be just one more. These moments have brought a little balance and daily gratitude to my experience of life this year. I am delighted with this choice.
Forgiveness- I think it is human nature to look at situations that hurt us, be angry at the people involved, and cast blame in their direction. I have made a choice not to do this. I am responsible for my emotions and the situations I have put myself in. I forgive anyone who hurt me and ask for their forgiveness for anything I have done. That is a choice that makes me happy. Life is too short to waste being angry with past events. Especially when the future may be the story you choose to write today. I wish to focus on the road I am on and what might be ahead because the best days are just around the corner.
In a nutshell, I am pretty happy with the overall choices I made this year because they have placed me here at this moment, and that is a pretty great moment to be experiencing.
I did My Best
I have been nowhere near perfect, but perfect is overrated. In the seams of mistakes, we learn the lessons that allow us to develop our knowledge, skills, and authentic personalities. I hope I have done my best to treat others well, take the lessons of the past, and apply them positively to my life. I did my best to be healthier both mentally and physically to be fully present in the current moments I have. In that way, I can enjoy things like writing this or going to the gym later and then just having time to contemplate, read, learn, or enjoy whatever is happening at that moment. In the final analysis, faced with positive and negative experiences, I have endeavored to be true to myself and remain on the positive side of things. I have tried my best. It hasn’t always been easy, but that makes it valuable. My heart is at peace.
In the words of Rob Thomas…….. I am not afraid of getting older. I am one less day from dying young………….
Knowing what you want can be the most challenging thing to become aware of for many people. Knowing what you want is a big thing. It sounds like it would be easy to state what you want, like enjoying a lot of money, love in your life, or freedom to do what you want. All of these are great but very vague and lack purpose. The why of any goal is going to provide the fuel to the achievement of any kind.
Every goal and desire will come with a series of steps that need to be accomplished to reach the great purpose. This is the journey. As with any trip, it is going to take perseverance to run a successful conclusion. That is the ability to keep moving forward despite obstacles and setbacks you encounter on your way. Developing a solid case of perseverance is the key to most successful adventures because you can keep your eye on the prize and overcome whatever gets in your way.
Nothing Is Perfect
Many times, we start a journey, and we have expectations built up in our minds about what a successful conclusion will look like. We become so attached to that vision that any other decision, regardless of value, makes us suffer. Allowing things to come to us in their way and time makes the most sense.
It is often easier to do nothing at all and take no steps toward your goals because you are worried that you will fail. And then what will happen to your grand plans? Rather than worrying about failure, think of how you can turn a perceived setback into a positive in your life. All goals and accomplishments are completed in a process, and there are lessons to learn on the journey. Nothing is going to go perfectly as you see it in your mind all the time. There may be valuable nuggets of information that you need to find before ultimate success is yours. Often, the hurdles you have to jump and the rocks you navigate around provide the best memories.
Set an Intention and Stick To It
One of the best ways to maintain your momentum in pursuit of your goals is to develop a positive and powerful intention that is easy to understand and easy to stick with. The power of intention is to allow your energy to be directed toward a goal in a concentrated way. It will also act as a compass for you when you get a little bit off track. Writing down your intentions gives you a chance to feel if it is something you want to accomplish.
Intentions are the key to starting the ignition of accomplishment and knowing exactly what we want. As I said before, many people drift around different things, never committing to what they want. That leads to a life of floating around, fluttering from one thing to another. Choose an intention, make it a goal, follow it to its conclusion, and evaluate it. Just because you think you might want something doesn’t mean you do. And that is just fine. It is called learning, and that is what life is all about. Set an intention and stick to it until it comes into reality. Then choose another one and do the same thing again. How else can you live the life you live.
Attention Please
Along with thinking about where you would like to go is paying attention to daily focus. Are you distracted by work? Other projects? Fears? Lack of confidence? Or is your attention focused on the things in your day that will lead you toward your goals and intentions? Where your attention goes, that thing will grow. If your attention is removed from it, then that thing will dwindle into nothingness.
Focus your attention on the positive things you want in your life. No matter what you want, make a plan, follow it through, focus on your goals, intentions, attention, and stick to it no matter what.
Take These Steps
Determine what you want to achieve.
Break down how you will get there.
Write it down.
Make it stick.
Do one thing every day that brings you closer to your goals.
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”-Albert Einstein.
“I will persist until I succeed. Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail, I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult. I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.”- Og Mandino.
“A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.”-B.F. Skinner.
How much of your time is spent being an authentic you? How much is spent acting like you feel our culture determines you to be? How is that identity even established? What difference does it make? So much of our time is spent developing this persona, which, when examined closely, isn’t very real at all. We create this imposter ourselves by trying to fit into the roles our culture demands. Go to college, get married, have a career for thirty years, retire and wait to die. If it isn’t time to let go of that false now, then it never will be.
False Self
Each day there is an image of myself that I imagine the world sees. What precisely the idea entails is a mystery. I certainly hope that intelligence, kindness, and caring are a part of the picture. It is not the substance that concerns me, and it is the inability to ask for help or even appear vulnerable that is bothersome. There are times when people get lost, down, and dangerously sad, but still put on a convincing smile and hide the pain and suffering you are feeling.
The pain and suffering are what they are. Each person has found their own story of this anguish. Although nobody would call pain and suffering good companions, they can supply a sufficient education and help develop a depth of character that didn’t exist before. Kindness is no longer a word but an action. Understanding someone’s actions comes far before judgment because of my education in this area. Recognizing the false self isn’t who you are but who you think you should be to fit in. Put all the thoughts of others aside and start to listen to your intuition about what will make you happy.
I Let It Go
It has become time for me to let go of what others think and what I feel about myself because of the fear that others might contemplate my choices, decisions, and thoughts. For the first time in my life, I have to embrace who I am, faults and shortcomings included.
I feel that only by doing this can I move forward, away from the falseness of the past and toward a future that includes an honest reckoning of what I want to accomplish in life. Time to let go of the expectations that I feel others have built up in my life, embracing the contribution that I can make that matters is only as myself. Not a prefabricated idea of a person that is only an illusion of living.
The True X Marks the Spot
In all of the greatest stories about treasure, there is
What glory is located at your X?
Always a map, and at the location of the great treasure, there is a giant X. There are many twists and turns on the path to get to this place, and often danger exists. I think that my true self is a lot like that. There is a valuable treasure of gold if you can reach the X, but getting there has been a tough road, sometimes fraught with danger and difficulty. Inside there were more profound struggles than anyone on the outside could know. I feel like slowly, but surely the X is coming into view for me.
Would you rather have less work or more work you enjoy doing?
In my life, there has always been a peculiar relationship with work. There were years where I immersed myself in it and built much of my own identity around what I did for a job.
This is comforting because it is socially acceptable, and it provides you with a sense of accomplishment. Yet, in the end, this sense of accomplishment is a facade.
Work is something that you do to get paid or to accomplish a goal. It is simply a means to an end, the motivations for work can be different, but the fact is that no matter how much you enjoy it, work should only be a part of your life.
When Work Feels Good
To me, work means forcing yourself to do something for a reward that you wouldn’t normally do for fun. A person much wiser than me once said if you find something you love and do that for a living, you will never work a day in your life.
That is a philosophy I believe in. There are so many things that I have done as a part of a job that was just enjoyable. Getting paid for them was pleasant but inconsequential to the effort exerted or the passion shared.
Any time I have been working with and encouraging others has been that way for me. If you feel that way, I think your actions around this activity immerse you in what you are doing.
Time flies. You don’t mind spending extra time to perform them to the best of your ability. Most often, these have engaged me with a creative approach to a challenge. To make a plan, prepare, implement and follow it through until the successful conclusion.
When Work is Hard
If your attitude about the work you perform is harmful in any way, then you are probably going to be miserable doing whatever that job is. The ominous signs are complaining, gossip, worry, or a constant watching of the clock. If you are doing these at work, you are most likely not going to be happy in that vocation.
You can be skilled at your duties and make lots of money, but you will most likely not be happy, and that has to factor into your plan for life somewhere. Life should be more than a continual struggle surrounding a job you despise.
Money will not give you a second more of life or make the life you do have more enjoyable. Only your mind can do that.
When we meet people for the first time, it has become a custom to immediately give our resume to identify our value to the world. This is no more an indication of who you are than the sneakers you chose to wear that day. Work is not an identity. It is a job, and that is all it is.
You are a great human soul with unlimited potential and if your job doesn’t make you feel that way, find something else to do.
Work Less Enjoy More
With all that being said, if I was paid to do what I love to do, then I don’t believe that is work at all. That is following your passion. Therefore I would believe in working less and being passionate more, regardless of what I am producing or how much I am being paid.
Since we were young, people have been conditioned that we should be looking for a job that will provide a career. What we should be focused on is finding the passion that makes your activities enjoyable. That way, you will never work at all.
I would rather never work and enjoy life all the time, not to be unproductive but to be happy and not to work a day. I remember the words, do what you are passionate about, and you will never work a day in your life.
Don’t Be Afraid To Leave.
If you happen to find yourself in an unhealthy situation, don’t be afraid to leave. Life is too short to go to a job that makes you feel inadequate, unprofessional, or hopeless. No amount of money is worth being miserable each day. The Universe is trying to tell you something. Listen. Moving on is a part of life, and learning experiences come in all shapes and sizes. Don’t be afraid. If you are unhappy, move on.
Would you rather have less work or more work you enjoy doing?
The human mind is a powerful tool. It can recall information and perform intricate calculations while still managing to keep a physical body functioning appropriately. A mind can create imaginary situations and scenarios that allow us to create new things and unique events in our lives.
is hard to experience happiness if you only imagine the most painful things your life can bring.
thinking where people seem to believe either we have a talent or not. Some lucky people start to realize that we are not born with all the answers or abilities. Those things are developed through the learning process and become whatever version of ourselves we want.
knowledge and base our value on it, anxiety will lessen in our lives. So what if you don’t know everything? That is called learning. Having a growth mindset sets you free to learn, improve, and become your best at whatever you want to excel at in your life. Your only limits of accomplishment are then the limits of your imagination. Rather than using your imagination to conjure up how other people see you negatively, use it, creating a real-world, achieving what you want.
