What He Said

I send out via email what I call the ‘Words of Wisdom’ Monday through Friday mornings. These emails have a quote that has to do with personal development and a nice picture to encourage reflection/meditation of the quote, and I usually put these together two weeks in advance. Why am I telling you this? Because some of you read this blog and receive the Words of Wisdom so you will have two opportunities to reflect on this quote-hmmmmm.. maybe the universe is trying to tell you something-lol.

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.” Marcus Aurelius

For me that is a seriously deep thought and very true on all levels so when I came across it I just had to share it with everyone. And now, if you will excuse me I believe I will go and give that quote some thought. Hope you do the same.

Another Simple Question

Along the same lines as my last post  I asked a friend of mine to name three things that she would like to be. She said she would like to be successful so I asked her if she was able to dress, feed and care for herself. Can she nurture/support herself, does she have friends and can she learn anything she needs to learn. She said yes to all of my questions so I said then you are already successful so you must mean that you want to be more successful. Why did I say that? Because people are often too hard on themselves and they fail to acknowledge the successes that they do have. When you minimize the things that you have mastered your confidence suffers and you start to focus on the things that you haven’t done or mastered. But everything in life is an acquired skill, almost nothing is perfect or even super good without practice or mastery.

So yes, today’s lesson is to take a look in the mirror and pat yourself on the back. You may have goals you haven’t yet reached but as you know from your past experiences, those are just a matter of time and practice because you can do, be and have whatever you choose. You can and you know you can.

Who Are You?

I am currently reading a book by Dr. Wayne Dyer (and loving it I might add) called Excuses Begone!

I share this with you because he asks a question that I think everyone should ask themselves; If no one told me who I was, who would I be?

Even before you are born you acquire a label, a station, a role, a whatever you want to call it so when you are born there are expectations as to who and what you should be; from family, from society, from peers and even from yourself. Then as you age more and more of these labels are added.

The reality though is that your expectations for yourself are often not from yourself but from around you so you can see that to spend a bit of time reflecting on the question is a very good idea and your answer, if given after careful deliberation, might just surprise you.

So if no one told you who you are, who would you be?

In The Moment

I was out in the yard the other day, tending my butterfly garden and I happened to notice one of the dozens of butterflies looked like it had been mauled by something. In spite of its battered condition, that butterfly was flitting about, going from flower to flower and occasionally ‘interacting’ with other butterflies.

That butterfly seemed to be enjoying itself, living in the moment and loving life. In no way did that butterfly act as if it was less than perfect in form.

Now you could say that butterflies' have butterfly brains and it probably didn’t know or couldn’t process that sort of information but you can see the same sort of thing everywhere in nature if you just take a look. An example of this for me, was when I noticed two of the local feral kittens playing with each other; one of them was obviously injured-it looked as if something had tried to take the poor things head off. A cat may not have a brain that is as advanced as the human brain however cats do express feelings. One might have expected this one to be displaying feelings of fear, pain and/or ‘depression’ but no, this little guy was happy living in the moment. Happy to have the opportunity to play and cavort. Whatever happened happened, and the kitten could stay in that moment or move forward into a better moment and that is what it did. Just about everything in nature is happy in the moment, treasuring every second of life, knowing that tomorrow might not come and enjoying what is right here right now. How about you? Are you happy in this moment?

On The Other Hand……

Last post I wrote about the expression; it’s not what happens, it’s what you do about what happens. Today I want to elaborate on that post for a bit, starting by sharing a quote;

“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis'. One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger-but recognize the opportunity.” John F. Kennedy

Every challenge presents opportunity and that opportunity is to grow and move forward or to stop and shut down. I don’t believe that many people shut down because they are afraid of the opportunity, I think they do it because they don’t see the opportunity because they are too caught up in the trees to see any forest.

But what if you could catch yourself and remember to look for the opportunity? All it would take is for you to develop the habit of ‘looking for the treasure amongst all the trash.’ So just learn to issue yourself a bolo (be on the lookout) whenever a challenge crops up. You can do it and you know you can.

It’s Not What Happens…..

Today for no particular reason the phrase ‘it’s not what happens, it’s what you do about what happens’ popped into my mind and I thought it a very worthy expression to contemplate and certainly worth sharing with you.

At the heart of this statement is the idea that a person is focused on solutions or else focused on problems. Everyone experiences challenges, tragedies, transgressions and problems. Some people let those occurrences shut them down or even ruin their lives and some people use them to move forward. And it really is in how you respond to things; are you all about how bad it is or do you look for the silver lining?

Uell S. Anderson

Recently I shared an excerpt from a Jim Rohn article and today I am sharing a small part of an eBook by U. S. Anderson that is well worth the read;

THE FORGING OF THE LOCK

Somewhere, in some city, town or hamlet, there is a child being born. Somewhere pure spirit is inspired into form. And even now the Lock takes shape. Mighty is the anvil that forges this Lock, for it is the memory of the Subconscious Mind. Light, sound, discomfort, pain, roughness, dampness, hunger, smells—all impinge on subconscious memory, forging the Lock that bars the door to the infinite.

There is something both sad and beautiful about this—sad because it seems sad to see spirit deny itself—beautiful because self-determination is beautiful. For this infant, wherever it is being born at this moment, is free, even as each member of the entire human race is born free—free to determine his destiny—free to discover the source of his being and the immensity of his power.

FALSE THOUGHT HABITS

Why is it, you may well ask yourself, that the great mass of humanity lead drab and colorless lives, concerned only with fear, frustration, and insecurity? What, you may well wonder, is the point of this scheme into which you have been drawn through no volition of your own and from which you will soon depart, a microbe in a microcosm, a pinpoint on a pinpoint, a flicker in a flash of light? These thoughts are products of your Conscious Mind, and it could not be otherwise. For only the Conscious Mind remembers its beginning and looks forward to its end.

You can read the rest of this at http://self-improvement-ebooks.com/books/tktpapp.php and like I said well worth the read. Enjoy!

For Your Consideration

Martin Luther King Jr said two things that I wanted to share today;

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

Both are profound statements and are worthy of your consideration and I hope that you do take some time to really think about both of these quotes.