I was reading a great article the other day, which stated that we all have a list. This list contains people who need us or has needed us at some point, in some way in their lives. Our personal assignments will help us achieve, get through, or overcome something. Or perhaps to help make their lives a little bit better and brighter. When you look at life like this, each interaction you have throughout the day can put a new person on your list if you want it to.
How many times can you choose to do something for someone else that will make their day a little happier? Quite a few, I bet. Each conversation, chance meeting, or interaction provides the opportunity. Those people just made your list. I encourage you to start looking for the times you were a gift to others and for those who were a gift to you.
You, Will, Look at People Differently
The good is there when you look for it.
Start making a list for yourself right now. Think about just the last 24 hours and the interactions with people that you have had. I guarantee that each provided some energy to the participants, from the most intense to the most distant. Whether that energy was positive or negative is the question you have to answer.
In these interactions, most provided something that you needed, someone else needed, or both. You are the catalyst in these situations that dictate what energy surrounds you. Make this list, see what you are contributing to the lives of others, and, almost as significantly, what they are contributing to you.
Be Positive with your List
People will become more interesting, and you will view each interaction under a different scope. I often feel like my interactions with people are beneficial for both parties. However,
Kindness is a simple thing
; I also notice things I want to avoid.
When I am conscious of what I am contributing to others and they to me, negative things seem to stand out. When a person engages in gossip about someone else, I know nothing I want to be involved with. I always say something positive about the person or situation being discussed. After a while, people give up talking about other people around them. This makes your conversation with them more favorable for both parties involved. They are definitely on your list.
Value those who lift you up
Noticing the tenor and tone of interactions will also allow you to appreciate the positive energy that people bring to your life because you are clear on their list. When you recognize the positive energy, you are left with after encountering someone, it is common sense to seek them out more often. All people want to feel good, and those who make us feel a great need to be in our lives more and more. Make sure you allow yourself to be added to their list. Conversely, those who leave us feeling tired, angry, or just plain old negative about things, need to be avoided. Life is too short to be miserable. Eventually, you have to shorten your list by avoiding the habitually negative.
Look for more people to add to your list.
Each person that you come in contact with is a potential member of your list. Add them freely and look for the moments that you can add a little positive momentum to others’ lives. It can be as simple as smiling, holding a door open, or giving a compliment. These things happen all the time and should be appreciated by all parties involved. It is simple to make a living a little bit more positive for all involved, and it all begins with a conscious effort to be kind, considerate, understanding, or giving. Look for the people who are your personal assignments today. They are there waiting for you.
You Can’t Have a Positive Life with a Negative Mind – Unknown.
Our thoughts are the most important thing that we create. Every day there is a non-stop production of views from our minds, and we are subject to the powers of those we pay attention to. In life, if we are truly looking to live positively, we have to learn to pay attention to the positive thoughts and let all the negative ones go.
What is a Positive Thought?
In the mass of thoughts, it can be easy to pick out positive reviews, especially if you are not sure what you are looking for. Positive thoughts are based on the positive emotions that you have each day. Joy, interest, love, kindness, acceptance, gratitude, cheerfulness, happiness, confidence, etc., these thoughts are the ones that you should latch onto and focus your thoughts on.
A negative mind is a result of focusing on the negative thoughts that are produced. Ideas that focus on hate, sadness, uninterest, meanness, judgment, ingratitude, gloom, and lack of confidence will create a negative mindset. When you focus on thoughts with this tenor, you will not find life a satisfying process.
Simple Ways to Build a Positive Mind
Spend time with positive people. Like attracts like, and if you are spending time with people who have a healthy, optimistic outlook, it will rub off on you. Conversely, if you spend time with negative-thinking people, move away from them, and you will see the difference this makes in your life.
Avoid being a victim by taking responsibility for your actions. We all make choices that aren’t so good but accept our part in them, learn what we can, and move on with our life. Accepting the victim mentality will lead to not taking our power in life. You are in control of how you experience life.
Give to others regularly, and you will have a more positive outlook. Giving naturally makes you happy, and what you offer can improve your perspective on the world. Giving will always open your life up to receiving.
Read positive books and articles. Avoid the negative stories the media is known for and focus on the positive things. Life has its dark side, but you don’t have to wallow in it. Look at the positive in books that teach you something about life. Learning new things expands your mind and naturally makes you more positive.
Avoid watching movies or television shows with malicious content. Negative messages about women diminish the value of a human being, and viewing these messages will bring you down. Make positive choices to move on and build your positive frame of mind.
Remember that you are powerful beyond measure. We are often getting so used to fitting in and being what others expect, and we forget that we have tremendous power. All people can become great.
Forgive yourself for any perceived or actual wrongdoing. It doesn’t do any good to carry the blame, and it will only lead to a negative outlook and a negative mind. It doesn’t mean that you do no wrong, but you take responsibility for your actions and move forward in a positive direction. To do anything else is to let a situation define you, and if it is a negative situation, well…………..there you go.
Ultimately, it is your choice if you have a positive or negative outlook on life. It is essential to think about it because having a happy life with a negative mindset is impossible. It is impossible to have an unhappy experience with a positive outlook.
You must decide, but you can’t Have a Positive Life with a Negative Mind.
” Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” – John Wooden
” We become what we think about.” – Earl Nightingale
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” –Alice Walker
” Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.” – Dennis P. Kimbro
” But you will admit that it is a very good thing to be alive.” – L. Frank Baum
We are all looking to be happier in life. There are some simple steps that you can take each moment to improve your happiness, and they are all easy to master. You need to have a consciousness of your life and take action toward a more fulfilling result.
Being generally happier about things in your life is a choice, and if you look at things and genuinely aren’t excited about the way they are going, then changes need to be made with a few simple changes. You can turn things around right now, today, just by changing your focus. From the negative life throws at you to the positive surrounding you everywhere.
See The Good In Your Life
The Optimist
Is the glass half empty, or is it half full? This perspective is how you can start evaluating your mental state in your life. If your thoughts are frequently about what is missing in your life, what you don’t have, or what you need to acquire to be happy, you, my friend, are a glass-half-empty kind of person. And I can pretty much guarantee that if you honestly ask yourself the question, am I happy? The answer would be no. How can you be satisfied when continually looking at what you don’t have or are lacking?
One of the most straightforward steps towards happiness is recognizing and appreciating any good thing you have in your life. Show your gratitude by writing it down and talking about it during the day. I have walked on the pessimist’s side of the street before. I know from my own experience that negative thinking only leads to more negative behavior, and you can NOT be happy if you are thinking about how much you are missing in life. So make the simple choice to think positively about what is
The Pessimist
good in your life. Perhaps the fifteen minutes of silent contemplation you get on your ride to and from work every day allows you to stay organized and be more productive. No matter who you are, there are always things that you can think about that are good, and when you start to do this, you will find that a look toward more positive things will lead to many more positive emotions, experiences, and circumstances occurring in your life.
It can all start with a simple list of things you are grateful for in your life and a sincere appreciation for them, and you will start turning things from negative to positive.
Do Something Nice Just because you can…
It is not a difficult concept to understand that people like it when others do something nice for them. It is even more appreciated when it comes from an unexpected source. It is less understood that doing something nice for someone else will make you feel good about yourself. When you do something to make someone else feel better, there is an almost automatic rise in your self-esteem and the way you think about yourself. It is unstoppable and undeniable. This feeling inside you is happiness because, as people, we all want to be more accepted and appreciated. If you can comfort or help another feel good or experience joy, your happiness will rise even if the act was anonymous. As impressive as this sounds, you will become happier by making someone else more comfortable. There is no way around it and no debating this point. Do something nice for someone else just because you can, and you will be happier.
Smile more often and Mean It!
Another simple way to be happier is to smile more often. You can fake it at first if you are so pessimistic and angry that you don’t have an authentic smile in you. There is a physiological response inside us that if we put on a smile, it is only natural that our entire demeanor, both inside and outside, will try to match that happy look. If you don’t believe me, try it. Focus on smiling more every day, even when there is nobody around.
You will not be able to stop yourself from thinking of things that have made you smile in the past or that make you smile today, or that would make you smile and feel happy tomorrow. You won’t be able to stop it. You will be just as comfortable as you choose to be. It is as simple as learning to smile more and meaning it!
Find Happy People and Do What They Do
Birds of a feather flock together. It is an old saying, but in most cases, it is true. If you intend to be an unhappy, negative, and generally miserable person, you are going to seek out people and invest time in people who are going to promote that point of view for you. You will find “friends” who are cynical about everything in their life and will get confirmation that they are right about how crappy the world is from you. These people will avoid relationships with happy people because they will have to confront whatever makes them so damn miserable to maintain the relationship. It is much easier for them to attack the happier person and try to minimize them as a person, usually by saying something negative about them behind their back. If you want to be happy, getting rid of this behavior has to happen. Here’s how.
You should find the positive people in your life and look to attach yourself to them. You will start to see how they look at life and, more importantly, how they think about life. These thought patterns are what you are looking to emulate because as you feel, so you are.
When you have relationships with people who don’t think life sucks and everyone is out to screw them, you will feel happier. I can picture negative associations and make it easy to embrace negative thoughts about everything and everybody. If you have ever worked in a place where this mentality is dominant, then you can understand how difficult it can be to be happy around that black cloud of misery, “this sucks,” “the boss is mean,” “they are trying to waste my time.”
Compare that to the work atmosphere infused with positive energy, which makes what you are doing seem to count and that you are an essential part of that process. You won’t be able to stop loving your job and doing it to the best of your ability. In most work environments, you will have the opportunity to experience either kind of person, be positive and try to be happy, and like a moth to a flame, you will draw people looking for that attitude. Please don’t allow the negative into your life. It is all up to your choices.
Let Go Of Bad Experiences and Anger Towards Others
One of the more helpful things that I have learned is that what has happened in the past affects your life today as you let it have. Think about that for a moment. We all have experiences that have not been pleasant to experience in our history. We have all made bad decisions, and we have all made mistakes. We have all done wrong things. That is life, and that is the way of it. However, how we choose to live with these decisions or mistakes is totally up to us as people and directly leads to the amount of happiness you can experience.
I read a book about letting go, and it advised that when you think of a person or a situation, and you get an instant kind of burning feeling inside, there is something that you haven’t let go of. Perhaps an experience you had from circumstances in your childhood, or it could be someone you feel has done something wrong to you. There were both people and events that I was holding bad feelings against because I thought they had mistreated me and weren’t the people I thought they were.
I was holding on to the anger, hoping for some payback, and silently wishing bad things would happen to them so that they could feel as badly as I did. When I started to release these feelings, I realized that I had the problem and not them. I really began to look at things from other people’s perspectives, and by letting go of the anger, I found peace and even love.
Letting go of bad experiences is pretty a simple concept, but that doesn’t mean it is easy to do. You think of the situation that brings up the negative emotions and asks yourself, can I let this go? Then answer yourself honestly. If the answer is yes, you will feel the difference almost immediately, and all of the negative will leave.
If honestly, the answer is no, you will still feel better about dealing with it. All you have to do to release it is to keep asking yourself, for me, eventually, anything that harmed me, I could let go. This process is more complicated than it sounds because, as people, we sometimes have allowed negative experiences to define our lives. If not for the long-term, for the short-term. Letting go of these events and the people surrounding them can be scary. But more dangerous still is the prospect of carrying the anger, guilt, shame, fear, etc., around you and being miserable for the rest of your life. Practice letting goes, release the negative, and be much happier.
Happiness and joy are a choice, and the magnitude and measure of your life experiences these positives are based on your thinking. Focus on gratitude, caring, kindness, and giving, and you will find a lot of happy moments. Choose to focus on things you don’t have or the negative actions of others. Life is a tune that is meant to be played with positive notes. Any other music is played out of fear. Put the fear behind you.
Joyous- a good, affirmative, or constructive quality or attribute.
Today can be a good day, or this can be a bad day. Positive thinking will make sure it is a good day. The decision is yours to make. A pretty simple choice, isn’t it? You have total control over what kind of experiences you will have only by how you look at the circumstances you find yourself in at the moment. Positive thinking allows you to be hopeful through all sorts of situations. It sees the long game of benefits in a short set of experiences. It is choosing to be a force that helps others in the world. Positive thinking is a chance to be a positive change in the world. It starts with a conscious awareness of how your thoughts move you today toward the positive or the negative and how your corresponding emotions, words, and actions stem from that. I have experienced many images over the past year, betrayal, loss, lies, and selfishness. My conscious choice is to look ahead and leave the past in the past. That is what I was supposed to do all along.
Positive Thinking Determines What you Will Accomplish
It is said that “your attitude will determine your altitude in life.” What this implies is that what you get from life is what you put into it. When it comes to your career, if you expect to find the work you love and develop the knowledge and skillsets required, you are well on your way to achieving that goal. The next step is action. It would help if you took action; without it, you would not reach your destination.
I was once told that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent of how you react to it. The ratio may be wrong, but the general idea is correct in its meaning. Many things in life happen to us that we have no control over, but we always do have control over how we react to them. Positive thinking allows those reactions to be helpful and productive rather than unhelpful and destructive.
How do you put this into practice? Well, it is as simple as making a decision. It can be anything from losing a job to getting a flat tire. There can often be things in our lives that are not pleasant to experience. Still, they allow us challenges that would enable growth and increased self-awareness that we would never have had if these unfortunate events had never occurred. If you can manage your anger and the urge to indulge in self-pity, you will be able to find a bit of good in anything. That is positive thinking.
This is How Positive Thinking Works
How can the loss of a job possibly be a good thing? Because when the injury occurred, you were forced to branch out and explore options you would never have explored or looked at had you never lost the previous job. You would never know if you have the strength or will to survive something until you do. That is positive. All of life is a constant movement of change. It is difficult to see the long-term benefits until you are looking backward. But they are there. Your choice is to be optimistic about the future or be cynical about past experiences. One will lead to growth, and one will not.
How can getting a flat tire be a good thing? You never know what is waiting for you down the road. You might have gotten into a horrible accident if an annoying flat tire hadn’t waylaid you. It could have saved you from destroying your vehicle or even protected you from significant bodily harm. It is all a matter of perspective and outlook. Often we see the problem and focus on that because of the stress of the immediate situation. How you deal with issues in life determines the experience you have in life.
Being Positive doesn’t Ignore the Negative
I hear many people look at the prospect of being positive and seeing the bright side as being unrealistic. All events happen, death, crime, accidents, and they can happen at any time. Each brings with it a set of challenges to every human that faces them. Our thoughts and emotions are intertwined. So we need to grieve, and that is not a “good” thing, but it is a necessary part of living and enjoying life. No matter what or who has left your life, life is still moving forward. What will you do with your time remaining?
Some will choose to sit and look at what is lost and never move past it. Others will see the loss as a change in life, but life still has a lot of good things to give to your experience. Many times it is up to our consciousness to notice the good things that are remaining. We only have a finite amount of time to have this human experience. Each of us decides for ourselves if it is spent in fear of what life may bring or in love with what life is giving us. Always your choice and nobody else’s.
Positive Challenge
So I challenge you to put this into practice and choose to make today the best day that you possibly can. Enjoy the good things in your life, from the cup of coffee at the beginning of the day to the caring thoughts that others send your way throughout the day. This day you have a thousand choices of what you think, feel, and do. Be conscious of your reaction to all things. Is it positive or negative? Why is it that way? Then take it into the next day.
Make someone else’s day a little better, compliment them, or be kind. It’s free! Practice positive thinking and make your reality a little bit sweeter and gentler today. If you are thinking in a positive direction, don’t let someone else’s negative thoughts influence you toward the negative. Use them as a springboard to become more positive. Only a positive frame of mind will allow you to enjoy life and all it has to offer. A negative mindset will let you fear life. It is your choice, and it starts with a greater awareness of the thoughts you entertain. The emotions they bring to the surface. The words you speak to others because of your dreams—your actions because of your positive or negative mentality.
“Each day, I come in with a positive attitude, trying to get better.”- Stefon Diggs
“Your positive action, combined with positive thinking, results in success.” Shiv Khera
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Everything- all things, all the things of a group or class.
I have found this one fact pervasive throughout my life, EVERYTHING we do matters when it comes to our happiness and enjoyment of life.
Every decision that you make every day of your life contributes to the essence of your existence. Each choice you make to support someone or knock them down will be reflected in your own experience. Through my young adulthood, I never realized this. I was too worried about my existence to put much concern into the lives of others. That was a mistake and one I don’t want you to make. It all starts with a constant awareness of the thoughts you are entertaining, the corresponding emotions they cause you to experience, the words you use, and the actions you take because of them. Everything you think, feel, say, and do matters to your existence. So choose them wisely.
Choice consists of the mental process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them.
Your Choices Count All The Time
Every day, you are faced with a thousand choices, from what you eat to where you go or your thoughts about them. One of the most important decisions is how you treat other people and how you treat yourself. Many of these decisions happen with little thought at all, but you should be aware that each choice you make defines the substance that is you.
Your energy is a compilation of these decisions, you can keep them to yourself and not tell anyone else about them, and they will still be a part of you as clearly as if you wore a scarlet letter on your forehead. Due to this fact, it is significant that you understand there are no small choices; they are all big choices and will help determine what types of things you will attract to your life.
Decisions On the Job
What do you do at the fork in the road?
When you go to work at whatever job you are performing, you will always have choices, which will help determine how much you will enjoy that experience. And, more importantly, what kind of person you are going to be.
It doesn’t matter if you are digging ditches or splitting atoms. The choices you make will determine your success and value at that job and in life. Everything all starts with your attitude. Your attitude is the most significant decision you make about your work and, more importantly, your life.
If you continuously focus on how much you hate your job, it only stands to reason that you will struggle with it. That is your choice. If you approach the crappiest job in the world like it is the sweetest thing you have ever done, then you are not accepting that job as your end-all. You are displaying that you are a trustworthy person with unlimited potential. If you knew someone digging ditches for a living, and they approached it with responsibility and a positive attitude, wouldn’t any boss anywhere want that person around all the time?
Wouldn’t they actively look for places that would use that individual’s talent to the best of their ability? The answer is, of course, they would. But more importantly, wouldn’t that person be looking for situations that would use their talents better and provide more satisfaction. Only you control your attitude at work or anywhere else — everything you do matters.
Choices about Your Friends
Choose Them Wisely
The people that you spend the most time with will have a significant influence on you. If you crave adventure, find adventurous friends. If you enjoy thought-provoking debate, seek out friends that enjoy that as well. Decide what you want to experience in life and spend time with people who have a similar disposition. Building a positive network of friends will increase your enjoyment of life. The friends who have the same values as me, like honesty, integrity, and doing what is right, even if it isn’t always easy, are valued and appreciated. They give you strength and make your life much more enjoyable.
Conversely, if you spend your time with negative people, gossip all the time, and are miserable about their lives and others, what do you think your outlook will be? The transference from one person to another is a fact of life. The choices of association in this area significantly matter to your happiness.
Think about the people you know. Aren’t there some people who just put a smile on your face only by being around? Unfortunately, some people make you depressed just by saying hello. I know I have met plenty of both. You need to choose to steer towards the positive people when you can and leave the negative folks to their misery. You will make enjoy life a whole lot more.
Be The Toxic Avenger
If you have friends in your life who have a toxic effect on those around them, then you have two choices. You can either totally avoid them and the poisonous foolishness that comes with them. Or if that is not possible, the more fun method is to challenge them on every negative thought and action constantly. After a while, they will either change their perspective or start to avoid you. Either way, you win a more positive life.
When they say something negative about someone, disagree and say something you know that is positive. Most of these toxic people are not evil. They have just gotten into the bad habit of feeling that unless they make someone else feel bad, they can’t feel right. By choosing to counteract them at every turn, you will either make them so mad they will leave on their own accord or, more often than not, they will fall in line and agree with you. Be consistent with this, and you may turn a negative toxic person into a positive, happy person. That decision will be a happy one for you.
How You Think About Yourself Counts
Often, it is confusing to people who focus and make positive decisions about how they think about others. They will be doing well, but they ignore how hard they are on themselves. And the truth of the matter is that if you don’t love yourself and treat yourself like you deserve great things in your life, you can’t be too surprised when you don’t get them.
How you decide to view yourself is probably the most critical decision you can make in life. If you look at yourself and point out the flaws, real or imagined, you are beating up your self-esteem for no reason. How can you expect that great things will happen for you if you don’t even think you deserve them.
The great thing is that changing this pattern of thought is as simple as changing your mind. Really? Don’t believe me? Then do this. Honestly, make a list of all the things you don’t like about yourself. Hopefully, it won’t be too long, but I know some of us are hard on ourselves. For every negative thing about yourself, rewrite the statement as a positive.
You can change the complete statement, or more likely, replace it with something you do like. For example, an idea like, “my butt is too big” can be changed into “I have stunning eyes.” or “My butt looks great!” In the end,(no pun intended), I don’t think it matters how you change the statement because as smart as we think we are, our brains can only remember one thing at a time. If you are considering the same positive thought repeatedly, then there is no room for the negative version.
You can choose to make it a negative thing or decide to make it a positive thing. If you think positive thoughts about yourself and your abilities consistently, you will automatically permeate success, and others will be able to sense it. All I can ask is that you try it. Give yourself a break. You are a good person, and there are beautiful things about you that are so attractive. Focus on them. What you think about yourself is all that matters anyway.
Every decision you make, from the minute you wake up to the time you lay your head back down to go to sleep, will affect everything about you and your life. Ask yourself when you are making a choice, “Does this choice honor me.” If you can honestly answer, “YES.” Then the decision will be simple, indeed.
I leave you with one thought, and it is the one I had initially — all you do matters in life. The choices you make are yours, and you are responsible for them. Everything will come from your thoughts, feelings, words, and the actions that result from them. If you don’t like the way the music sounds, change the arrangement. Everything you do will allow this to happen.
In a minute, there is time for decisions and revisions, which a minute will reverse. ~T.S. Eliot
Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions. ~Author Unknown
Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
The inability to make a decision has often been passed off as patience. ~Author Unknown
Everything is something you decide to do, and there is nothing you have to do. ~Denis Waitley
I developed a post about my core beliefs a few years ago. Since then, I have experienced a lot, but, remarkably, so much of what I believed has stood up to the test of time.
These personal beliefs are ever-evolving, but this is where they stand right now.
All People are Connected
Call it God, the Universe, or whatever your religion dictates, but to me, we are all connected through a divine order. All people contain the same abilities for great love and an equal capacity for evil. I believe that the perceived separateness of the world leads to many of the problems we face in religion, race, age, sexuality, or any other label we can apply to each other. Just as many drops fall together to make the ocean, we are all unique pieces of the whole. The more we recognize the same, the more understanding and kindness we can show each other, and the better the world will be.
Practice kindness with all people because you are a few circumstances away from being exactly in their shoes.
Your Actions Define Who YOU Are
Talk is cheap. What you do is the definition of your character. I have heard the soft and sympathetic words that were worth absolutely nothing but have been blessed by the actions of many great people. Saying you are something means nothing. Being that thing means everything.
Taking action is the catalyst to all achievements, great and small. Having the courage to go, stay, jump, start, stop, begin again, love, share, understand, give, etc. It is the beginning of anything and will lead you to understand who you are and find your place in the world.
Live in the Moment, and it is all you have
It seems like I have wasted a lot of time, feeling wrong about the past and the things I can never change or worrying about the future and the things that most likely will never come. When I can live in the moment, I find peace, motivation, enjoyment, love, etc.
Being in the moment and being grateful for all that exists with you at that time is a great recipe for happiness. Plan the best you can through goal setting and dreams but understand that you can’t control everything, and sometimes the things that happen, which seem unwanted, provide unforeseen growth and understanding. They catapult us into places we wouldn’t have thought to go.
Thinking Positively Leads to a Happier Life
“Bad” stuff happens to everyone at some point in life. How you deal with it is essential. Life is full of things that you define as good or bad. Describing them as positives allows you to enjoy life more, be healthier, and support those you love. At the same time, negative thinking is defeatist and will supply you with the exact opposite.
How you choose to perceive anything will determine the overall value it provides to your experience of life. All things have the potential to work for good. Your mental state will determine how much interest they provide your life if any.
Positive thinking does not ignore the negative, and it should put it into a perspective of positive, as best that you can. It also doesn’t mean that you accept the poor behavior of others. It means that you do not choose to let poor behavior negatively influence you. I can’t control the behavior and choices of others, only the choices that I make. That is it. I try to do better than I did yesterday. That is all I can do.
All People Have Value
Sometimes, this is difficult to remember when I am angry or hurt, but that doesn’t change my belief. People live differently, make poor decisions, and look differently, but inside they are all valuable. Every person that you meet knows something that you don’t, and that is the thing that is one of the many values of meeting new people.
All that separates any of us from the circumstances of another is mere chance. At our core, we are all beings of love. Keep this in mind and be patient with others. There are always thousands of unseen reasons that lead to behavior. Don’t be quick to judge a story by the one short chapter you see. Read the whole book so that you can understand things in context.
Dreaming is Vitally Important
Every person that has ever been born has had a dream of some kind. There are no exceptions. Life has a way of making many of us forget these dreams as we are swept up in living from day to day and the years drift past us.
Dreams of being a musician, a painter, a doctor, an astronaut, a professional athlete, or any other dream you might have had are a good thing. Dreams help us to set our intentions for our actions. It is never too late to pursue a dream, and whether the dream is completed or not, the journey will be the valuable part that makes you who you are.
When a person takes action, they can make their dream come true. That action will lead to a result of success or failure. Failure is not an ending, and it is the roadmap to finding another way to find success. Action toward your dream is the only way that you will know what works.
Gratitude is the Right Attitude
Being grateful for what you have in life leads to appreciation. Rather than looking for something else you don’t have for comfort or happiness, look at what you do have and be grateful for it.
There are many benefits that gratitude will bring to life, but happiness and enjoyment are two of the best. Remember that those you love and who love you are the greatest gifts and should never be taken for granted, be grateful for them.
Forgiveness is Necessary to Move Forward
Who hasn’t been hurt? Let down? We all have issues with others, and we all have a choice, be angry or forgive them. Forgiveness is a tonic that will allow you to be free. It isn’t condoning or approving of the behavior of others, but it is an acceptance of what has happened and making a choice not to let the power of that event rule you.
To forgive someone for something they did that harmed you is very difficult. It can’t just be lip service of saying that they are ignored. It has to be inside your heart. The only one who can give forgiveness is you, and the sooner you give it, the sooner you can move on. Letting go of pain, sadness, anger, or any other negative emotion is key to enjoying life.
I read somewhere that you know that someone is forgiven when you think of them, and there is no subtle searing inside your heart. It can take a conscious effort, but with forgiveness comes freedom and strength.
Embrace Love, Avoid Fear
All people carry this choice inside of them. The one you pay attention to will determine the experience of your life. Focus on the love-based emotions of kindness, understanding, generosity, acceptance, patience, and love while avoiding the fear-based emotions and thoughts of anger, hate, separation, jealousy, stereotyping, and judgment. It can be harder to do than it sounds, but the effort is well worth it. Our experience is primarily the result of this continual decision. Fear or love?
No matter what life brings you, each person can either be grateful and appreciative of the experience, or they can be angry and disillusioned. The choice is always in your hands. Always.
Things Go Wrong Sometimes, Be Grateful
This is an easy idea to cope with when things are going well. There is plenty of money to do whatever you want, all of those you love are healthy and happy, and the most significant decision you need to make is what form of entertainment is in store for you this evening. Of course, you can be grateful and appreciative of this situation. Yet, I know many people in just such a predicament, and there is very little gratitude or appreciation.
It seems like so many are focused on what they don’t have rather than what they do have in their life. They have a house, but the problems with that house seem to stand out to them, and they only see the lack rather than the bounty.
When things are going badly, many people get discouraged by the pain, trouble, worry, or inconvenience. It is hard to see the positive and be grateful and appreciative when the cellar is flooded, possessions are being ruined, things need to be moved, and the plumber can’t come for two days. These situations make it difficult to appreciate, but in time the positive can be seen if you choose to look. No situation is inherently good or bad except for the label that we apply to it.
Appreciate the Good Things
Positives can be anything from being grateful for the times when the cellar isn’t flooded to the new closeness that your family has for working together getting through the problem. Being appreciative of the simple things in life is much easier when taken away for even just a short time. Today when we lose power for a day, we are lost. But you sure as heck have an appreciation when the power is back on.
Choose Appreciation and Gratitude
There is a power that comes with expressing gratitude for what you have. When you have a heartfelt appreciation for what you do have, I believe that it opens the door for more of the same to show up in your life. Be grateful for the comfort of the life we are provided each day. Enjoy the people who make your life the wonder that it is each day. The family and friends who provide all of the delightful flavors to your life.
Being grateful is always a choice to appreciate what life brings you. Not for what it is, but for what it allows you to be. All events can be positive life-altering events if you choose to make them so.
There are endless possibilities that exist in each new day. It can be difficult to remember this lesson sometimes when you see obstacles in your way. There may be reasons we can’t do what we want, go exactly where we want, or be the person right now we want to be. But these barriers exist in everyone’s life and serve as a chance first to understand what you would like to see in your life. And second, as a springboard for developing skills, talents, and toughness, you need to accomplish anything you want to in your life. Our problems are not pervasive or permanent. Change your perspective on the situation, and nobody can stop you. How do you do this? Look at the positive possibilities that exist all around you; they are there. Sometimes you have to work to find them.
Difficult Times Provide Possibilities
Perspective is a choice. To see something as insurmountable is a choice. To think that you will never have the power, strength, money, or thoughts to overcome a challenge is your decision. It is also your choice to see how things are shaping up because of what you have done so far and realize you need to make another choice. Perhaps the people you are spending time with are not positive or healthy for you. Choose differently. The possibility for happiness and fun is there in every moment of every day.
Each barrier and obstacle in your way provide an opportunity. How is that, you ask? Well, every time you face a difficult time, there is an opportunity to get over it or around it. This may take some growth on your part or stretching of your comfort zone, but it can be done. You have to be willing to try. Life is a journey from beginning to end, and it has a multitude of lessons. We are going to be continually learning and growing. Challenges come and provide the chance to be great. If you were never pushed, emotionally, mentally, or physically, then you would be happy right where you are, standing in place and leaving the goals to others.
Positive in Negative provide Possibilities
It can seem trite and simple to say that there is an opportunity for something positive in each negative situation. Tragedies happen all the time, and if we are fortunate enough to survive them, then we have a responsibility to find that positive possibility that will always exist. It needs to be looked for.
The choice, of course, is blame, bitterness, and anger. It is a valid choice, but the result will bring no positive presence to the world. It will only bring more tragedy, sadness, and fear.
Your challenges may be there to push you into becoming the best person you can be. Many dreams of having more wealth, love, and better health in their life, and the path to these things may travel through your challenges. Look at them however you want. It is a choice that you have, but recognizing the value and experience of your life will be colored by the choices you make. Just know all of the possibilities are there, just for you.
“The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.” George Bernard Shaw
“The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the buts you use today.” Les Brown
“I see possibilities in everything. For everything that’s taken away, something of greater value has been given.” Michael J. Fox
“I’m open to possibilities. I’m open to choices. I always welcome new ideas. I’m always eager to learn. I’m never going to close my mind from learning.” Cesar Millan
“Try to keep your mind open to possibilities and your mouth closed on matters that you don’t know about. Limit your ‘always’ and your ‘nevers.'” Amy Poehler
The power of gratitude
Practice Being Grateful and Reap the Benefits
Gratitude, the Gift
Manifesting Grace Through Gratitude – Day 1 The Path to Grace Begins Today
Are You Grateful Today?
