Tag Archives: ideas

22

Know Your Focus

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What do you think and talk about Expands

Do you want to know what is important to someone?  Anyone at all? Look at their lives, and you will see the things in them that describe what they are thinking and talking about.  It never fails. This process means listening and observing below the surface of the conversation.  If you are living from your ego, then you are a fixed mindset person, which will dictate your focus on making sure your image is protected rather than nurturing who you are.  What you think and talk about expands, and what you ignore and keep to yourself does not.  Where is your focus today? Choose it wisely.

Focus on Growth through Change

I hope to develop a continual focus on growth as a person, which means embracing changes.  This philosophy is not straightforward because sometimes change hurts emotionally.  To face a difference in your life may require you to leave all you know and move to a new location. You may have to leave a loved one behind.   It may require you to abandon some beliefs you have held on to.  Growth is a process that embraces change, and change can only be accepted and influential if you focus on it as a benefit.  Attitude is everything, and when push comes to shove, most people don’t want to change a thing in their lives. Either they like something in their lives and fear losing it. Or, if things are bad, they might worsen if change happens. Dislike of change can be an instinctual reaction.

Every day there are changes from the day before. Sometimes the changes are subtle and almost invisible. Other times they are monumental and life-altering. Change is inevitable and constant; learn to embrace the changes coming to you.  Focus on accepting the changes happening in your life. See them become better and speak about them that way.  Focus on the growth you see in your life as a good thing, and it will be. Look at difference as a painful loss, and that experience will be yours just as easy.  Your focus will determine the growth of an idea in this genre.

Challenges Are Great

The same mental attitude applies to the challenges we face. Focus on the positive things a problem brings. Learn to embrace them. An issue will pop up all the time, and some people try to avoid them at all costs.  It is much easier to drift down a river unencumbered. But no matter how much you try, eventually, rocks will be in your way, and either you learn to navigate around them or get crushed on them.  That is a matter of mindset.

Look at successful businesses but never look at the terrain ahead.  What works today may not work tomorrow.  Embracing the challenge of the effects of new technology or a societal shift in purchasing will be the difference between failure and thrive moving forward. How you focus your mind will determine the fate of your business. There is little chance to grow if your focus is where you are. Focus where you want to go, allowing you to handle what rocks are in your way.

Do you Think People can Learn things, or are they born with the talent?

Ego tells us talent is everything. But is it?  Where is your focus? There will be cases where a person is just gifted with a God-given ability to do something, but to be great, you can’t have a fixed mindset. A limited perspective will lead you to make attachments in your mind to a particular outcome of any activity, limiting the number of experiences. There is a near unlimited list of possible issues that exist, some you may never have thought of and would enjoy the best. Limiting your experience is also a sign that you live through your ego.  Challenges are avoided, and if you would instead give up than be proven wrong,  you are anchoring your experiences to a fixed point.

 

Most people, including me, have a narrow focus when we approach some things with a fixed mindset. I catch myself all the time having thoughts that could come from growth.  Noticing these thoughts for what they are will allow you to make a different choice and grow from an experience. Skills can be learned, developed, and mastered over time.  Decide what you want to do, and then pursue it. Ask questions, and learn from all sources that make sense.  Do not be afraid not to know something because you will find the answers once you know you don’t know.  Other people will help you become better, which is not bad.

The first sentence of this writing tells a story about what you think about and talk about as life expands. If you focus on your problems, guess what you will have more of?  If you focus on the good things in life, imagine what you will have more of?  It is all up to you and your focus.  Look long and hard at the decisions you are making that direct your attention. Then look at your life and what you are getting out of it and see the connection between them. If you don’t like it, change your focus to something more growth-oriented, making a difference.

“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it because once you get there, you can move mountains.”- Steve Jobs.

“The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire, not things we fear.”- Brian Tracy.

“The successful man is the average man, focused.”

 

22

Spiritual But Not Religious

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People define themselves in many different ways, spiritual but not religious is a way I have thought of my relationship with God for about half my life. Nobody has ever asked me what the definition of this statement means to me until today, and it was astonishing to me I had never really written it down. I am stating my views in this way to define spirituality and why it has little to do with religion for me. The tableau of results depicts my path, and like most trials in life, I am on it due to my choices.

Being Conscious of Choices

The first thing I will explain about myself is that I have become more conscious of my choices in life over the years and the subsequent repercussions each decision will bring to your life. We are all programmed from the time we are born to the actions and beliefs which will help us become accepted in our culture and to belong. If you are not aware of your choices, then this programming will make the choices for you.

I was raised by my parents and family religiously, and I went to church every Sunday for my entire childhood. I believed what people told me wholly and blindly. As I grew in life, I noticed inconsistencies between what they told me and the life I experienced. When I started to question these things, the answers I found moved me away from my upbringing. But not away from God. We are all gifted with the ability to ask and choose for ourselves, and I think that is a skill that makes us uniquely human.

Nobody Excluded

One of the teachings I found most incorrect was that if someone didn’t believe as you did, they were wrong and probably going to be denied a trip to heaven in the afterlife and sent to an eternity of punishment in hell. As a child with a pure heart, I never understood how a God, who is love, would ever make anything like that happen. The conclusion I came to was that they wouldn’t.

I have found there is the ability to be a great person and the ability to be the opposite of that inside each of us. You have to fight to be the best person you can be because it is far too easy to drift into the negative. Since we all have goodness inside them, all people deserve redemption. I think a person’s actions demonstrate how they are living life right now. Most people are doing the best they can at this moment, and they deserve our encouragement, not our condemnation.

I Am Responsible

So to be spiritual means to me that I am responsible for my choices and the reactions I have in life. If I fight to continually act in kindness, understanding, empathy, sympathy, joy, and love in dealing with all people, then I feel I am on the right path in life, doing what I can to make things better.

On the other hand, should I choose not to live that way and give in to the easy decisions of being hateful of others who think differently from me, judging others, indifferent to the difficulties of others, acting from a place of fear, then the harm I cause is my responsibility in life. I have found that which choice I make leads directly to my experiences in life.

In Conclusion

To sum it up, I believe being spiritual is my relationship with God and what that means. Seeing that all people are connected, even those we may not like. Through our common humanity, we are here in this life together. To judge someone negatively because of their religion, nationality, ethnic heritage, skin color, or other factors is not Godly.

On the sunny side of Sunday, I have met many people who preach love, but in the shade of the rest of the week speak hate about those who are different from them. To be exclusionary, judgmental, and hateful are not positive traits of any Godly organization or people I want to be associated with within my life.

We all can choose which road we take. Acceptance or judgment? Kindness or meanness? Giving or taking? Love or fear? You will decide for yourself as I have and continue doing for yourself. That is what defines spirituality to me.

“Spirituality is not running away from the battlefield of life. Spirituality is blossoming every dimension of life with love, responsibility, equanimity, creativity and compassion.” – Amit Ray

 

 

Life Lessons

49 Thoughts on Turning 49

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49 thoughts for 49 years
49 thoughts on 49 years

It is time to mark another year of existing on this planet and a trip around the sun. (Song at the bottom) I am excited to have made it this far and am encouraged and looking forward to the adventures that the next year is going to bring. Each year in retrospect, I am always kind of stunned by the number of people that have entered my life and affected me in a positive, compelling way. Some who don’t even realize it. Here are my top 49 thoughts on my 49th year.

  • It is great to be here still!

  • Conversations with people are some of the most critical moments in life.

  • I wonder why the world hates the New England Patriots, whom  I love so dearly.

  • People are kind and giving for the most part, and it is beautiful to watch.

  • You can’t hurry love. It just has to wait.

  • Old friends are the best ones because there is no bullshitting each other.

  • People criticize others only about weaknesses or fears that they possess themselves.

  • Love is my religion

  • The world, through nature, is all connected. If you look at the sky from anywhere on the planet and breathe deeply, you can find peace within.

  • Gratitude for all that you have brings peace and happiness to your life.

  • Gossip is the lowest form of communication.

  • My experience this year has been sponsored by Panera Bread and Planet Fitness

  • I learn something new every day

  • I can like you and not like your opinions

  • I want to know who put the old guy in the mirror

  • Working out and taking care of ourselves is vital to happiness.

  • Kindness counts and is a choice

  • Attitude is everything. Create or destroy, how you approach life will determine your influence.

  • The right question can change your life

  • People will astound you and confound you.

  • Everybody has a unique value

  • I am not 21 years old anymore, or 31, or 41. But I feel the same on the inside.

  • Even when you do things right, pain can be the result.

  • Consciousness is not something you achieve, and it is a constant evolution of expanding unique possibilities.

  • People can only criticize those weaknesses they see in themselves; otherwise, they don’t notice them

  • Enjoy all the people in your life. If they are not enjoyable, get them out of your life

  • Life is too short to waste time, not being who you are.

  • Our thoughts lead to words. Our words lead to feelings. Our feelings lead to actions. It all starts with thoughts.

  • Curiosity is a good thing.

  • Forgiveness is vital to being happy. You can never be satisfied if you carry a grudge against someone else or yourself.

  • Worry is wasting today’s energy on something that may never happen. Fear has no power to stop it.

  • What would life look like if people weren’t afraid?

  • Pain or pleasure- all decisions in life are made based on this ratio. Does the joy of doing something outweigh the pain of not doing it?

  • Whatever you focus on in life increases.

  •  There is a difference between being interested in something and being committed to it.

  • The obstacles in life generally teach you how to hurdle well.

  • The subconscious mind runs the show of life. Make sure it is running a good one.

  • All people have energy, and the frequency of that energy reflects the beliefs of that person.

  • Actions will destroy fear, always. Take significant, bold, forceful action.

  • Magic does happen when you believe in the results.

  • Our past is prolog to the story of our lives we write right now.

  • Nothing in life should be taken personally.

  • We all have a personal legend, and we write that every day.

– Be honest, transparent, and impeccable with your words, misunderstandings, and false expectations disappear.

  • You can’t assume anything about someone else, their actions, or thoughts. Ask questions, and be sure.

  • Thinking about something and doing it are two very different things! Take Action!

  • If you don’t like the situation you are in, then change it, accept it, or leave it.

  • Being yourself ultimately should be the focus of life, if you never let anyone see who you are, how can you attract people you need, and who need you?

    • There it is for this year, 49 thoughts on turning 49. I remember when I thought 25 was ancient, now I don’t think I am all that old. Life is a short journey whose ending is already known. It is the actions we take and the experiences we affect positively along the way that matter.

    I look forward to the next trip around the sun.