“If my hands are fully occupied in holding on to something, I can neither give nor receive.”
Dorothee Solle
What are you holding onto? Perhaps it is a cherished idea, your idea about something you feel very strongly about. Perhaps it is a cherished hope or even expectation of what the future should be like.
Perhaps it is a cherished possession, that reminds you of someone you used to know, or even of wonderful days gone by. We are all holding onto everything we can find that gives us a sense of who we are. Our ego demands all these things because they give it life.
But if we are fully occupied with these things, we can’t give. We can’t give another person those cherished possessions no matter how much he needs them. We can’t give another person reassurance that his belief about the world or the future is valid even though it disagrees with ours. To give those things away is to give away a part of us. And that our ego would never allow. To our ego, there is never enough validation of who we are, and any loss of that is a disaster.
If we are fully occupied with these things, we can’t receive either. If our attention is fully on what we already beleive about the future or the world around us, we can’t learn anything new. If our attention is fully occupied with having those cherished possessions of ours, there is no room to discover new desires and even better possessions. If we are fully occupied with who we beleive we are, then we prevent ourselves from learning new and exciting possibilities about who we really are.
Always keep your hands unoccupied as much as possible so that you can give and receive; so that you can really grow and really make the world a better place.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Criticism
“If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.”
Donald H. Rumsfeld
We all want to avoid criticism. Criticism hurts. In fact, criticism can even kill. We need everyone to approve of us. We want them to like what we are saying and what we are doing. Our ego thrives on that. Some people even get to the point where they will do whatever other people tell them to do, whether they want to or not, just to avoid their criticism. They lose their sense of the boundary between who they are and who those other people are. That’s a heavy price to pay.
The truth is that everyone has their own unique view of the world based on their own experiences. So everyone will have their own unique view of what you should be doing. That might depend on what they have learned about what is appropriate for people, or men, or women, or children etc to be doing in particular situations. It might also depend on what they want or need that they think they can get from you. Everyone has got their own opinion about what you should be doing or saying at any given time. But you can’t possibly be everything that everyone wants.
This means that whatever you are doing is going to be criticized by someone. The only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing. And if you do nothing, you don’t have much of a life. The truth is that the more you grow, the closer you get to reaching your potential, the more success you have, the more you will be criticised. If you are successful, you will be criticized simply for being better or doing something better than the other person. If you fail, you will be criticized for not doing a good enough job at something. Learn to embrace criticism. What it really means is that you are moving forward and accomplishing things.
Donald H. Rumsfeld
We all want to avoid criticism. Criticism hurts. In fact, criticism can even kill. We need everyone to approve of us. We want them to like what we are saying and what we are doing. Our ego thrives on that. Some people even get to the point where they will do whatever other people tell them to do, whether they want to or not, just to avoid their criticism. They lose their sense of the boundary between who they are and who those other people are. That’s a heavy price to pay.
The truth is that everyone has their own unique view of the world based on their own experiences. So everyone will have their own unique view of what you should be doing. That might depend on what they have learned about what is appropriate for people, or men, or women, or children etc to be doing in particular situations. It might also depend on what they want or need that they think they can get from you. Everyone has got their own opinion about what you should be doing or saying at any given time. But you can’t possibly be everything that everyone wants.
This means that whatever you are doing is going to be criticized by someone. The only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing. And if you do nothing, you don’t have much of a life. The truth is that the more you grow, the closer you get to reaching your potential, the more success you have, the more you will be criticised. If you are successful, you will be criticized simply for being better or doing something better than the other person. If you fail, you will be criticized for not doing a good enough job at something. Learn to embrace criticism. What it really means is that you are moving forward and accomplishing things.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Editing
At church on Sunday, our pastor gave a sermon that spoke to me. He pointed out that finding and telling a story are difficult work. He pointed out that sometimes you can't find the story because there's too much material and you are too attached to the good beautiful stuff to determine what belongs to the story and what doesn't. Your story gets thicker and thicker but never actually takes on or conveys any meaning. This principle works with our lives too.
If the meaning and purpose of life elude us now, it's because we have refused to make choices about what activities and what people are most important to us, and which ones are less important. He said that every one of us are living a story. And every one of us will have a better story if we recognize that the story will benefit from editing.
He went on to suggest that that should be the function of the church, that if you stick close to Jesus then he will help you find your story. I would also argue that it should also be the goal of a good parent. So often parents are bad editors, prefering to try to mold the child to fit their story instead of helping him to find his own. And I know, from experience, just how much of an impact that can have on a child.
He points out that in the Bible there is a connection between letting Jesus be a good editor and the commandment to love one another. He speculates that part of the work of loving one another is being willing to become good editors for each other's lives.
"Even as members of the same body, God has given none of us either the responsibility or the right to tell someone else what story they ought to be making with their lives. But God does give each of us a story to discover, and we can help each other discover that story if we can be, as Williams advises, disinterested in ourselves and attentive to the heart of the neighbor. If we can be, in other words, good editors rather than bad editors. "
I think that in order to be truly successful, we need to first of all recognize that our lives would benefit from editing. We need to make those choices about what and who is most important to us and discard those good but irrelevant things in our lives. And if we can find someone else (or even God) who we can trust to help us do that, it would be an ideal situation.
If the meaning and purpose of life elude us now, it's because we have refused to make choices about what activities and what people are most important to us, and which ones are less important. He said that every one of us are living a story. And every one of us will have a better story if we recognize that the story will benefit from editing.
He went on to suggest that that should be the function of the church, that if you stick close to Jesus then he will help you find your story. I would also argue that it should also be the goal of a good parent. So often parents are bad editors, prefering to try to mold the child to fit their story instead of helping him to find his own. And I know, from experience, just how much of an impact that can have on a child.
He points out that in the Bible there is a connection between letting Jesus be a good editor and the commandment to love one another. He speculates that part of the work of loving one another is being willing to become good editors for each other's lives.
"Even as members of the same body, God has given none of us either the responsibility or the right to tell someone else what story they ought to be making with their lives. But God does give each of us a story to discover, and we can help each other discover that story if we can be, as Williams advises, disinterested in ourselves and attentive to the heart of the neighbor. If we can be, in other words, good editors rather than bad editors. "
I think that in order to be truly successful, we need to first of all recognize that our lives would benefit from editing. We need to make those choices about what and who is most important to us and discard those good but irrelevant things in our lives. And if we can find someone else (or even God) who we can trust to help us do that, it would be an ideal situation.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Slow
To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.
Shakespeare
For most of us, the more we want something, the more we want it yesterday. In our society, we have learned to expect to get everything right now. They say that we have turned into a nation of people with ADD. We are not willing to wait for anything, and very often we are not willing to put in much effort to get anything either. We would rather get a 5 minute clip about an important news event on the TV than to read the full story about it actually involves. But that is a way of thinking that sets us up for disappointment because the world really doesn't work that way.
Nothing comes to us without some work, whether it is mental work or physical work, or usually a combination of both. There is no free lunch. And, of course, it takes time to do any work. As "Abraham" points out, that extra time between you deciding what you want and you actually getting it is a good thing because it allows you to make sure that you really do want it enough to do what you need to do to get it. We've all heard "Be careful what you wish for because you might actually get it".
"To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first." When we desire something that is far removed from what we have now, we will be moving slowly in the beginning. We will start with just a single step. We can't rush at a steep hill and expect to get very far without losing momentum and falling back down it. But if we consistently keep taking what seems like slow baby steps, our momentum keeps building. We will find ourselves climbing the hill faster and faster. And when we get to a certain point, we will start to get exponential growth. And at that point reaching our goals will seem to take no time at all.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Shakespeare
For most of us, the more we want something, the more we want it yesterday. In our society, we have learned to expect to get everything right now. They say that we have turned into a nation of people with ADD. We are not willing to wait for anything, and very often we are not willing to put in much effort to get anything either. We would rather get a 5 minute clip about an important news event on the TV than to read the full story about it actually involves. But that is a way of thinking that sets us up for disappointment because the world really doesn't work that way.
Nothing comes to us without some work, whether it is mental work or physical work, or usually a combination of both. There is no free lunch. And, of course, it takes time to do any work. As "Abraham" points out, that extra time between you deciding what you want and you actually getting it is a good thing because it allows you to make sure that you really do want it enough to do what you need to do to get it. We've all heard "Be careful what you wish for because you might actually get it".
"To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first." When we desire something that is far removed from what we have now, we will be moving slowly in the beginning. We will start with just a single step. We can't rush at a steep hill and expect to get very far without losing momentum and falling back down it. But if we consistently keep taking what seems like slow baby steps, our momentum keeps building. We will find ourselves climbing the hill faster and faster. And when we get to a certain point, we will start to get exponential growth. And at that point reaching our goals will seem to take no time at all.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Circumstances
Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him."
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
What do your circumstances reveal about you? We tend to beleive that we are controled by our circumstances, instead of beleiving that we, in fact, control them to a large extent. And even when we don't control them, we can change the outcome by changing the way we react to them. We beleive that circumstances make the man, that he is who he is because of the circumstances he finds around him.
Your circumstances are typically the result of your thoughts. Therefore, to a large extent, they reveal what you have been thinking. If your life is impoverished, that is because you have been thinking impoverished thoughts. You have been expecting to not get much, and so you take the kind of actions that will lead to your poverty. If there is violence in your life, it is because you have been thinking violent thoughts, which make you do things that lead to violence. But you can always change the thoughts you have. Let your circumstances reveal that you've been thinking about good things.
A person's character is revealed by the way he reacts to circumstances. Some people react to winning by going around and boasting about how great they are. Others appreciate that it's only a game and next time someone else may win. They may even console the loser by reassuring him that he played a good game and maybe will win next time. Some people react to unfortunate circumstances by assuming the world is out to get them, and look around for someone to blame. Others look for the opportunity and the lesson in those difficulties.
A wise person understands that success isn't permanent and failure isn't fatal. They also understand that they can control a large part of their circumstances by expecting things to be good. And even when things don't turn out to be the way they wanted, they look for the lesson and the gift in their problems.
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
What do your circumstances reveal about you? We tend to beleive that we are controled by our circumstances, instead of beleiving that we, in fact, control them to a large extent. And even when we don't control them, we can change the outcome by changing the way we react to them. We beleive that circumstances make the man, that he is who he is because of the circumstances he finds around him.
Your circumstances are typically the result of your thoughts. Therefore, to a large extent, they reveal what you have been thinking. If your life is impoverished, that is because you have been thinking impoverished thoughts. You have been expecting to not get much, and so you take the kind of actions that will lead to your poverty. If there is violence in your life, it is because you have been thinking violent thoughts, which make you do things that lead to violence. But you can always change the thoughts you have. Let your circumstances reveal that you've been thinking about good things.
A person's character is revealed by the way he reacts to circumstances. Some people react to winning by going around and boasting about how great they are. Others appreciate that it's only a game and next time someone else may win. They may even console the loser by reassuring him that he played a good game and maybe will win next time. Some people react to unfortunate circumstances by assuming the world is out to get them, and look around for someone to blame. Others look for the opportunity and the lesson in those difficulties.
A wise person understands that success isn't permanent and failure isn't fatal. They also understand that they can control a large part of their circumstances by expecting things to be good. And even when things don't turn out to be the way they wanted, they look for the lesson and the gift in their problems.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Given Up
Anger, tears and sadness are only for those who have given up
Katie Gill
Have you given up on your goals? Do you even have goals that inspire you? Few people actually have inspiring, motivating, long-range goals. For many of us, our goal is simply to get through the day without any disasters happening. No wonder so many of us lead lives of quiet desperation. We live our lives full of fear that something will go wrong in our lives, not knowing how to prevent that. We feel like we are victims of circumstances we can't control so there is no point having any real goals since we probably won't acheive them anyway.
Those of us who do have goals often have goals that are about acquiring things that we think we want, such as a fancy car or a maid. But goals like this tend to just be idle wishes, not inspiring enough to motivate us to do the work we need to do to acheive that goal. But that doesn't stop us from being jealous of people who do have those things and angry about life's unfairness. We don't see that those people had a inspiring goal that they beleived in, and because of that they kept going until they acheived it. They were successful because they didn't give up despite many obstacles and setbacks.
Anger, tears and sadness are only for those who have given up. Those people who are really happy with their lives have inspiring goals; goals to make the world a better place, not just for themselves but for others too. We were created to improve, not just ourselves but the world around us. We were created to continually grow, and everything that happens to us is intended to support our growth. But in order to truly grow, and to be truly happy, we need goals that inspire us enough to motivate us to do whatever is necessary to acheive them. We need to never givie up on our goals; even if they seem far away, what our soul really needs is to know that we are steadily working towards them. That's really all that matters.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Katie Gill
Have you given up on your goals? Do you even have goals that inspire you? Few people actually have inspiring, motivating, long-range goals. For many of us, our goal is simply to get through the day without any disasters happening. No wonder so many of us lead lives of quiet desperation. We live our lives full of fear that something will go wrong in our lives, not knowing how to prevent that. We feel like we are victims of circumstances we can't control so there is no point having any real goals since we probably won't acheive them anyway.
Those of us who do have goals often have goals that are about acquiring things that we think we want, such as a fancy car or a maid. But goals like this tend to just be idle wishes, not inspiring enough to motivate us to do the work we need to do to acheive that goal. But that doesn't stop us from being jealous of people who do have those things and angry about life's unfairness. We don't see that those people had a inspiring goal that they beleived in, and because of that they kept going until they acheived it. They were successful because they didn't give up despite many obstacles and setbacks.
Anger, tears and sadness are only for those who have given up. Those people who are really happy with their lives have inspiring goals; goals to make the world a better place, not just for themselves but for others too. We were created to improve, not just ourselves but the world around us. We were created to continually grow, and everything that happens to us is intended to support our growth. But in order to truly grow, and to be truly happy, we need goals that inspire us enough to motivate us to do whatever is necessary to acheive them. We need to never givie up on our goals; even if they seem far away, what our soul really needs is to know that we are steadily working towards them. That's really all that matters.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Glory
Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.
Betty Smith
Most of the time, we look at things and don't really see them. We figure" well, that's not interesting because it's just the same as it was last time" or "well, if I really needed to see it, I could do it later when I have time". We don't expect change; in fact some of us are actually afraid of change, we want things to stay the same way forever. But the only thing that we can really depend on in this life is that there will be change. It may seem like a change for the better, or a change for the worse. But there will always be change.
Try looking at everything as if you were seeing it for the first time. Everything would seem new and fresh. We wouldn't be expecting it to be a certain way so we would never be dissapointed. We would not bring any emotional baggage to it. We would not be prejudging it; and this would allow us to notice all the good things about it.
Try looking at everything as if you were seeing it for the last time. If you thought you'd never be seeing it again, you'd pay much more attention to it. You would appreciate all it's finer qualities and forget it's worse ones. You wouldn't take it for granted. You would be very grateful for the time that you had it. And you would be expecting change, even though you wouldn't know what change would bring.
In order for our time on earth to be filled with glory, it is essential that we be always aware of the blessings surrounding us. We can only really appreciate the wonder of the things around us when we see them with a new viewpoint. We can only be truly grateful for them when we appreciate that they won't last forever, and that something new will soon come to take their place.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Betty Smith
Most of the time, we look at things and don't really see them. We figure" well, that's not interesting because it's just the same as it was last time" or "well, if I really needed to see it, I could do it later when I have time". We don't expect change; in fact some of us are actually afraid of change, we want things to stay the same way forever. But the only thing that we can really depend on in this life is that there will be change. It may seem like a change for the better, or a change for the worse. But there will always be change.
Try looking at everything as if you were seeing it for the first time. Everything would seem new and fresh. We wouldn't be expecting it to be a certain way so we would never be dissapointed. We would not bring any emotional baggage to it. We would not be prejudging it; and this would allow us to notice all the good things about it.
Try looking at everything as if you were seeing it for the last time. If you thought you'd never be seeing it again, you'd pay much more attention to it. You would appreciate all it's finer qualities and forget it's worse ones. You wouldn't take it for granted. You would be very grateful for the time that you had it. And you would be expecting change, even though you wouldn't know what change would bring.
In order for our time on earth to be filled with glory, it is essential that we be always aware of the blessings surrounding us. We can only really appreciate the wonder of the things around us when we see them with a new viewpoint. We can only be truly grateful for them when we appreciate that they won't last forever, and that something new will soon come to take their place.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Saturday, October 24, 2009
What We Can Do
"If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do."
Samuel Butler
Most of us get into trouble because we don't realize exactly what we can do. Some of us think that we should be able to do anything and so we claim responsibility for things that we have no control over. We get frustrated and angry when those things happen that we didn't plan on, and we blame them for not cooperating with us. We feel like victims. We feel depressed because we can't control all those things. We begin to feel like things happen just to spite us. It rains on our parade.
Some of us think that we can't do anything and so we claim responsibility for nothing. Nothing is our fault. Whatever happens to us has nothing to do with anything we might have done or not done. But this also leads to a feeling of lack of control. If what happens to us has nothing to do with anything we do, then we have no way of influencing what happens to us. And when we feel like we have no control, depression is the inevitable result. Once again we feel like victims.
It is those people who realize that there are some, but not all, things that they can control by their own actions that gain a sense of control and therefore joy. They are then motivated to focus on the things that they know they have control over and exersise the control over those things that they really have. And like a muscle, the more their power of control is used, the stronger it gets. The more they practise it, the more control they gain over things that they previously had no control over. And soon there is a surprisingly small number of things that they can't control.
Samuel Butler
Most of us get into trouble because we don't realize exactly what we can do. Some of us think that we should be able to do anything and so we claim responsibility for things that we have no control over. We get frustrated and angry when those things happen that we didn't plan on, and we blame them for not cooperating with us. We feel like victims. We feel depressed because we can't control all those things. We begin to feel like things happen just to spite us. It rains on our parade.
Some of us think that we can't do anything and so we claim responsibility for nothing. Nothing is our fault. Whatever happens to us has nothing to do with anything we might have done or not done. But this also leads to a feeling of lack of control. If what happens to us has nothing to do with anything we do, then we have no way of influencing what happens to us. And when we feel like we have no control, depression is the inevitable result. Once again we feel like victims.
It is those people who realize that there are some, but not all, things that they can control by their own actions that gain a sense of control and therefore joy. They are then motivated to focus on the things that they know they have control over and exersise the control over those things that they really have. And like a muscle, the more their power of control is used, the stronger it gets. The more they practise it, the more control they gain over things that they previously had no control over. And soon there is a surprisingly small number of things that they can't control.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Priorities
You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage, pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically, to say no to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger yes burning inside. The enemy of the best is often the good.
Stephen Covey
Have you decided what your highest priorities are. Most of us act as if our highest priorites are to do whatever is the most urgent, or whatever other people are in a hurry for us to do. We often forget that what other people want for us is not always what we really want for ourselves. We seldom take the time to sit down and really think about what we want our lives to be like; about what is really important and valuable to us.
Once you have decided what your highest priorities are, it is a whole other task to actually act on them. You have to have the courage to disappoint the people around you by not giving in to their expectations and requests all the time. You have to be pleasant yet unapologetic. You have to be able to not automatically jump to deal with whatever seems urgent at the time, to stop and think about whether it is really important or whether it can wait until the more important things get taken care of.
Whenever you make a choice as to whether you should do something, you are comparing it against other things that you could possibly be doing at that time. You will choose whatever seems most important. If nothing is more important than watching TV, then you will watch TV. You have to have a burning yes, something that is really important to you, before you can say no to the television or any other of the things which seem attractive but leave you with a feeling of having wasted your time. You need to spend your valuable time doing not just a good thing but the best thing you could be doing, so you need to say no to things that are just good.
For ideas about how to be truly successful, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Stephen Covey
Have you decided what your highest priorities are. Most of us act as if our highest priorites are to do whatever is the most urgent, or whatever other people are in a hurry for us to do. We often forget that what other people want for us is not always what we really want for ourselves. We seldom take the time to sit down and really think about what we want our lives to be like; about what is really important and valuable to us.
Once you have decided what your highest priorities are, it is a whole other task to actually act on them. You have to have the courage to disappoint the people around you by not giving in to their expectations and requests all the time. You have to be pleasant yet unapologetic. You have to be able to not automatically jump to deal with whatever seems urgent at the time, to stop and think about whether it is really important or whether it can wait until the more important things get taken care of.
Whenever you make a choice as to whether you should do something, you are comparing it against other things that you could possibly be doing at that time. You will choose whatever seems most important. If nothing is more important than watching TV, then you will watch TV. You have to have a burning yes, something that is really important to you, before you can say no to the television or any other of the things which seem attractive but leave you with a feeling of having wasted your time. You need to spend your valuable time doing not just a good thing but the best thing you could be doing, so you need to say no to things that are just good.
For ideas about how to be truly successful, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Who We Are
We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us.
Jean-Paul Sartre
What have other people made of you? Chances are the picture they have created of you is like a crazy quilt. One person thinks you're fat. Another thinks you're thin. So which are you? You can't be both. This is why you can't rely on someone else's opinion. It is colored by their own experiences and their own comparisons with what they like and don't like. It has nothing to do with who you really are.
The only person who knows who you really are is you. And who you really are has nothing to do with comparisons with other people and value judgements about what you like and don't like about them. But we are all very social creatures. What other people say is extremely important to us, even when it is someone who we don't particularly care about. It takes a lot of diligent effort to ignore their opinions of us.
But the hardest thing of all is to ignore the opinions of our families, who have known us our whole lives. Yet their opinions are often the most faulty. It is our families who have the most to lose if we are not the way they think we should be or expect us to be. And it is them who have been telling us who we are all our lives since "We know you better than anyone else does". But they do not know us better than we know ourselves, however much they may claim to the contrary.
We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us. It takes courage to reject completely what other people say about us and determine for ourselves who we are. We may not always like what we see. But then we may also discover strengths and capabilities we never knew we had.
Knowing who we are means knowing what we can really do, and when we know what we can really do, we can more fully reach for what we really want.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Jean-Paul Sartre
What have other people made of you? Chances are the picture they have created of you is like a crazy quilt. One person thinks you're fat. Another thinks you're thin. So which are you? You can't be both. This is why you can't rely on someone else's opinion. It is colored by their own experiences and their own comparisons with what they like and don't like. It has nothing to do with who you really are.
The only person who knows who you really are is you. And who you really are has nothing to do with comparisons with other people and value judgements about what you like and don't like about them. But we are all very social creatures. What other people say is extremely important to us, even when it is someone who we don't particularly care about. It takes a lot of diligent effort to ignore their opinions of us.
But the hardest thing of all is to ignore the opinions of our families, who have known us our whole lives. Yet their opinions are often the most faulty. It is our families who have the most to lose if we are not the way they think we should be or expect us to be. And it is them who have been telling us who we are all our lives since "We know you better than anyone else does". But they do not know us better than we know ourselves, however much they may claim to the contrary.
We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us. It takes courage to reject completely what other people say about us and determine for ourselves who we are. We may not always like what we see. But then we may also discover strengths and capabilities we never knew we had.
Knowing who we are means knowing what we can really do, and when we know what we can really do, we can more fully reach for what we really want.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Happiest
The happiest life is that which constantly exercises and educates what is best in us.
Hamerton
The purpose of our life is to learn and grow. It seems that our lives are a kind of field trip that our souls go on in order to learn how to learn about themselves and improve, in the same way that we take courses about things we are interested in at school, and then go on field trips to learn more about those subjects than we could in the classroom. So it stands to reason that the thing that makes our souls happiest is when we are learning and practising how we can improve ourselves.
A good question is "What is my soul learning about myself based on the life situation I am experiencing right now?"? Are you educating your soul about what is best in you, or about what is worst in you? Are you practising meanness, pettiness, jealousy, guilt, and anger? Or are you practising love, caring, empathy, and joy? One can always argue that someone else is making you feel jealous or angry but it is really your own choice, and one that you can learn to change. Perhaps it is the process of making that change that is the most effective way to learn to improve yourself.
The times that you feel most happy are those times in which you are practising love and caring. The times that you feel most miserable are those times in which you practise meanness, anger, or jealosy. It is a simple choice to decide which you prefer. If only it was as easy as it is simple. It requires a change of beleifs that have probably built up over a lifetime. It takes constant vigilance to make it into a habit. It requires faith and motivation. But it can be done.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Hamerton
The purpose of our life is to learn and grow. It seems that our lives are a kind of field trip that our souls go on in order to learn how to learn about themselves and improve, in the same way that we take courses about things we are interested in at school, and then go on field trips to learn more about those subjects than we could in the classroom. So it stands to reason that the thing that makes our souls happiest is when we are learning and practising how we can improve ourselves.
A good question is "What is my soul learning about myself based on the life situation I am experiencing right now?"? Are you educating your soul about what is best in you, or about what is worst in you? Are you practising meanness, pettiness, jealousy, guilt, and anger? Or are you practising love, caring, empathy, and joy? One can always argue that someone else is making you feel jealous or angry but it is really your own choice, and one that you can learn to change. Perhaps it is the process of making that change that is the most effective way to learn to improve yourself.
The times that you feel most happy are those times in which you are practising love and caring. The times that you feel most miserable are those times in which you practise meanness, anger, or jealosy. It is a simple choice to decide which you prefer. If only it was as easy as it is simple. It requires a change of beleifs that have probably built up over a lifetime. It takes constant vigilance to make it into a habit. It requires faith and motivation. But it can be done.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Friday, October 16, 2009
Experiment
Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life.
Herbert Otto
Are you bored or fed up with your life? Do you want to change and grow? Many of us are but we are afraid of what changes will happen and what we will grow into. We are stuck with a negative expectation. We think that we will either fail and be laughed at, or succeed and have to do things we don't want to do in order to keep up. We doubt that we will be able to deal with any changes in our life. Our life may be upsetting but it is the life we know.
It is time for us to risk ourselves. The only way that our lives can change is if we do something differently. And the only way to find out whether we can cope with it is to have it happen. Most people who have had to go through really difficult changes are surprised at how well they were able to cope with it. And at how it made them grow into a better person. You never know what your limits are until you get up close to them.
It is time for us to experiment with our lives. We need to choose, even if we might find out later that our choice was a mistake. If you've read "the Giver" by Louis Lowry, you will know how horrible a life without choices would be, even if it meant there was no mistakes and no suffering. Sometimes it is only by making the wrong choice that you discover what the right choice is. It may even be that suffering is good for us because it gives us time to reflect on what we really want.
We can only find out what we really want if we are willing to experiment with our lives. We must take risks and not be afraid of failures. This is the only way that real change and growth can take place. And growth is the real purpose of our lives. It's what our souls long for.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Herbert Otto
Are you bored or fed up with your life? Do you want to change and grow? Many of us are but we are afraid of what changes will happen and what we will grow into. We are stuck with a negative expectation. We think that we will either fail and be laughed at, or succeed and have to do things we don't want to do in order to keep up. We doubt that we will be able to deal with any changes in our life. Our life may be upsetting but it is the life we know.
It is time for us to risk ourselves. The only way that our lives can change is if we do something differently. And the only way to find out whether we can cope with it is to have it happen. Most people who have had to go through really difficult changes are surprised at how well they were able to cope with it. And at how it made them grow into a better person. You never know what your limits are until you get up close to them.
It is time for us to experiment with our lives. We need to choose, even if we might find out later that our choice was a mistake. If you've read "the Giver" by Louis Lowry, you will know how horrible a life without choices would be, even if it meant there was no mistakes and no suffering. Sometimes it is only by making the wrong choice that you discover what the right choice is. It may even be that suffering is good for us because it gives us time to reflect on what we really want.
We can only find out what we really want if we are willing to experiment with our lives. We must take risks and not be afraid of failures. This is the only way that real change and growth can take place. And growth is the real purpose of our lives. It's what our souls long for.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Abundance
Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.
John Petit-Senn
What does abundance mean to you. Most of us have a difficult time even thinking about abundance, unless it is an abundance of things that we "should" do. We think in terms of scarcity. There never seems to be enough of the things we want. We often can't even imagine having an abundance of money or any of the things that money can buy. Imagining an abundance of time and energy seems even more difficult.
But we are looking for abundance in the wrong places. There is abundance all around us. Nature is abundant by design. Things don't stop growing unless we prevent them from growing, and even then they show enormous resourcefulness. There is an abundance of sunshine when rain is not needed, and an abundance of rain when it is. It is only our man-made things that seem to be in short supply (and that would include time) and that is because man by himself has limited resources.
Abundance is not about how much of something is there. There could be miles of forest but instead of abundance, a developer would just see a big nuisance. His idea of abundance would be plenty of land readied for building subdivisions. Abundance is about what we enjoy.
The reason that most of us don't feel abundance is that we simply don't enjoy all those things that are around us. We don't really even notice them unless they support or get in the way of our immediate goals. It is critical to our mental well-being to start being aware of all the abundance that really surrounds us and being grateful for it, even if it is irrelevant to our short-term goals.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
John Petit-Senn
What does abundance mean to you. Most of us have a difficult time even thinking about abundance, unless it is an abundance of things that we "should" do. We think in terms of scarcity. There never seems to be enough of the things we want. We often can't even imagine having an abundance of money or any of the things that money can buy. Imagining an abundance of time and energy seems even more difficult.
But we are looking for abundance in the wrong places. There is abundance all around us. Nature is abundant by design. Things don't stop growing unless we prevent them from growing, and even then they show enormous resourcefulness. There is an abundance of sunshine when rain is not needed, and an abundance of rain when it is. It is only our man-made things that seem to be in short supply (and that would include time) and that is because man by himself has limited resources.
Abundance is not about how much of something is there. There could be miles of forest but instead of abundance, a developer would just see a big nuisance. His idea of abundance would be plenty of land readied for building subdivisions. Abundance is about what we enjoy.
The reason that most of us don't feel abundance is that we simply don't enjoy all those things that are around us. We don't really even notice them unless they support or get in the way of our immediate goals. It is critical to our mental well-being to start being aware of all the abundance that really surrounds us and being grateful for it, even if it is irrelevant to our short-term goals.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Monday, October 12, 2009
Act
We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.
Swami Vivekananda
It's always difficult to hear that your own past actions are responsible for the way you are living now, unless you are living the life of our dreams. It is especially hard to hear that your past actions are the cause of your sickness, especially ones like cancer. We would rather think that we are victims of circumstance, that this is just our fate and we can't do anything about it because it's the fault of something outside us. We can't deal with the idea that we would do something willingly that would hurt us.
But we all know that sicknesses like cancer are very often the result of lifestyle choices we make, such as smoking or eating junk food. It has been said that all diseases are really dis-ease, in other words the result of stress. And stress is something that we do have some control over, although we often don't want to beleive that. We don't willingly cause our sickness; but we cause it through doing what is easiest at the time, not actively making the right choices about what we do on a daily basis.
The truth is that you caused everything in your life. If you didn't do it purposely, you did it by default; by not making a choice. If you are poor, it is because you didn't actively choose to do whatever was necessary to become rich. If you are sick, it is because you didn't actively choose to do whatever was necessary to remain healthy. This is often because we don't know what is necessary to become healthy or rich.
We need to know how to act. But if we are motivated enough, there will always be books to read and people to learn from about acheiving anything we want to acheive. Education is critical to success. We need to learn how to become successful, which will inspire us even more to take that crucial first step on our journey to success.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Swami Vivekananda
It's always difficult to hear that your own past actions are responsible for the way you are living now, unless you are living the life of our dreams. It is especially hard to hear that your past actions are the cause of your sickness, especially ones like cancer. We would rather think that we are victims of circumstance, that this is just our fate and we can't do anything about it because it's the fault of something outside us. We can't deal with the idea that we would do something willingly that would hurt us.
But we all know that sicknesses like cancer are very often the result of lifestyle choices we make, such as smoking or eating junk food. It has been said that all diseases are really dis-ease, in other words the result of stress. And stress is something that we do have some control over, although we often don't want to beleive that. We don't willingly cause our sickness; but we cause it through doing what is easiest at the time, not actively making the right choices about what we do on a daily basis.
The truth is that you caused everything in your life. If you didn't do it purposely, you did it by default; by not making a choice. If you are poor, it is because you didn't actively choose to do whatever was necessary to become rich. If you are sick, it is because you didn't actively choose to do whatever was necessary to remain healthy. This is often because we don't know what is necessary to become healthy or rich.
We need to know how to act. But if we are motivated enough, there will always be books to read and people to learn from about acheiving anything we want to acheive. Education is critical to success. We need to learn how to become successful, which will inspire us even more to take that crucial first step on our journey to success.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Education
Education today means that learning is not a once in a life-time venture, but instead is a process of continuous learning and re-learning as rapid change transcends each aspect of our daily lives.
Byron Pulsifer
Some of us go through school as though it were a horrible chore. We can't wait for summer vacation. We can't wait to graduate. We feel like there is no point learning all this stuff because either it is irrelevant to the job we think we'd like to get or to our life in general. We lose interest in any aspect of the world around us that doesn't have immediate practical value. In doing that, however, we lose interest in really living life. Life is nothing more than a process of learning as much as we can about ourselves and the world around us. But we will only do that if we are motivated.
But it is not enough to just be interested in the world around us in general. In addition to general knowledge, we need specialized knowledge too. We must learn whatever we need to learn in order to do our work effectively. And what you need to learn in order to do your work effectively is almost certainly not what you learned in school. The only thing we can rely on is change, and we can't deal with new situations relying on old knowledge. We must continually learn new things to keep up with new circumstances, both at home and on the job.
Education today means that learning is a process of continuous learning and re-learning to deal with continuous and rapid change. The most successful people are the ones who are continuously learning new things. How many non-fiction books have you read in the last week? How many documentaries have you seen in the last week? How many workshops or lectures have you gone to in the last month? The best answer would be "as many as possible".
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Byron Pulsifer
Some of us go through school as though it were a horrible chore. We can't wait for summer vacation. We can't wait to graduate. We feel like there is no point learning all this stuff because either it is irrelevant to the job we think we'd like to get or to our life in general. We lose interest in any aspect of the world around us that doesn't have immediate practical value. In doing that, however, we lose interest in really living life. Life is nothing more than a process of learning as much as we can about ourselves and the world around us. But we will only do that if we are motivated.
But it is not enough to just be interested in the world around us in general. In addition to general knowledge, we need specialized knowledge too. We must learn whatever we need to learn in order to do our work effectively. And what you need to learn in order to do your work effectively is almost certainly not what you learned in school. The only thing we can rely on is change, and we can't deal with new situations relying on old knowledge. We must continually learn new things to keep up with new circumstances, both at home and on the job.
Education today means that learning is a process of continuous learning and re-learning to deal with continuous and rapid change. The most successful people are the ones who are continuously learning new things. How many non-fiction books have you read in the last week? How many documentaries have you seen in the last week? How many workshops or lectures have you gone to in the last month? The best answer would be "as many as possible".
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Weeds
Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.
Gordon B. Hinckley
It's an interesting metaphor; to think of our life as a garden. Everything in a garden grows without effort; in the same way that we grow to be adults about effort. It's part of Nature's grand design. It just happens. What we sometimes forget though, is that God, and Nature, don't discriminate. EVERYTHING grows just as easily. Everything is equally valued by God. But unfortunately we don't see things that way. We only want the things we like to be in our garden, or our life.
Sometimes we feel like God is somehow punishing us by bringing things we don't want into our lives. We think that things SHOULD be the way that we want them to be. But the truth is that if we don't like what is in our life, it is up to us to do whatever is required to change things. After all, it may be that what you don't want is what the guy down the street or in another country, really wants. Like in a garden, weeds are always going to sprout up. The issue is how do you minimize them by preventing or controling them. Your life is your garden and you can control the weeds if you do the work.
While it is true that everything grows easily in a garden, sometimes the flowers you do want require tender loving care. If they don't get it, they get overrun by the weeds that don't need any attention at all in order to thrive. So not only do we have to minimize the weeds somehow, we have to give special attention to the flowers that we really want in our garden. Any gardener will tell you this requires hard work and constant vigilance. If you leave your garden even for a few weeks, you can expect to come back to a mess.
If that is true for a garden, it is also true for our lives. It requires consistant tender loving care to plant what we want into our minds, and then our lives. It requires constant viligance to get rid of the thoughts, and later things, that we don't want in our minds and in our lives. Without hard work, nothing grows in our garden but weeds. Without hard work, nothing grows in our minds but negativity and painful emotions. Be careful to always be nurturing the garden of your mind.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Gordon B. Hinckley
It's an interesting metaphor; to think of our life as a garden. Everything in a garden grows without effort; in the same way that we grow to be adults about effort. It's part of Nature's grand design. It just happens. What we sometimes forget though, is that God, and Nature, don't discriminate. EVERYTHING grows just as easily. Everything is equally valued by God. But unfortunately we don't see things that way. We only want the things we like to be in our garden, or our life.
Sometimes we feel like God is somehow punishing us by bringing things we don't want into our lives. We think that things SHOULD be the way that we want them to be. But the truth is that if we don't like what is in our life, it is up to us to do whatever is required to change things. After all, it may be that what you don't want is what the guy down the street or in another country, really wants. Like in a garden, weeds are always going to sprout up. The issue is how do you minimize them by preventing or controling them. Your life is your garden and you can control the weeds if you do the work.
While it is true that everything grows easily in a garden, sometimes the flowers you do want require tender loving care. If they don't get it, they get overrun by the weeds that don't need any attention at all in order to thrive. So not only do we have to minimize the weeds somehow, we have to give special attention to the flowers that we really want in our garden. Any gardener will tell you this requires hard work and constant vigilance. If you leave your garden even for a few weeks, you can expect to come back to a mess.
If that is true for a garden, it is also true for our lives. It requires consistant tender loving care to plant what we want into our minds, and then our lives. It requires constant viligance to get rid of the thoughts, and later things, that we don't want in our minds and in our lives. Without hard work, nothing grows in our garden but weeds. Without hard work, nothing grows in our minds but negativity and painful emotions. Be careful to always be nurturing the garden of your mind.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Failure
Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
Jim Rohn
You don't fail overnight any more than you are a success overnight. Both failure and success take time. You can make a mistake suddenly enough; but mistakes, once you see them and can admit them to yourself, can be dealt with pretty quickly. Mistakes are inevitable, but they don't make you a failure. Only when you keep repeating the same mistake over and over because you didn't learn from it does making a mistake lead to failure.
It is all about habits. It is your habits that make you fail or make you succeed. It is not your single actions that really influence your future. Your actions tend to feed on themselves, turning into habits. An example is that lieing the first time makes it so much easier to lie the next time, and before you know where you are, you are lieing all the time. And if you tell the difficult truth the first time, it makes it that much easier to do it again the next time. Your actions, and thoughts, no matter what they are, get easier and easier to repeat the more that they are repeated. Your actions, and their consequences, spiral.
Failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. Over time, your errors in judgment seem to attract other errors until you find yourself in trouble, as a failure. The turning point comes when you recognize your judgment as being erroneous and take steps to correct it, not just once but every single day. It is crucial to develop and maintain good habits, and prevent and get rid of bad ones, if you want to be successful. Make sure you don't repeat your errors every day until they lead to failure.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Jim Rohn
You don't fail overnight any more than you are a success overnight. Both failure and success take time. You can make a mistake suddenly enough; but mistakes, once you see them and can admit them to yourself, can be dealt with pretty quickly. Mistakes are inevitable, but they don't make you a failure. Only when you keep repeating the same mistake over and over because you didn't learn from it does making a mistake lead to failure.
It is all about habits. It is your habits that make you fail or make you succeed. It is not your single actions that really influence your future. Your actions tend to feed on themselves, turning into habits. An example is that lieing the first time makes it so much easier to lie the next time, and before you know where you are, you are lieing all the time. And if you tell the difficult truth the first time, it makes it that much easier to do it again the next time. Your actions, and thoughts, no matter what they are, get easier and easier to repeat the more that they are repeated. Your actions, and their consequences, spiral.
Failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. Over time, your errors in judgment seem to attract other errors until you find yourself in trouble, as a failure. The turning point comes when you recognize your judgment as being erroneous and take steps to correct it, not just once but every single day. It is crucial to develop and maintain good habits, and prevent and get rid of bad ones, if you want to be successful. Make sure you don't repeat your errors every day until they lead to failure.
For ideas about how to acheive true success, visit http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Sunday, October 4, 2009
We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Do you see yourself as an inventor? Do you see yourself as creative? Many of us don't; thinking that creativity is something reserved for artists, musicians, and inventors. We have not been encouraged to use our imagination and our creativity. We are taught to solve mathematical problems using mathematical rules, but not how to solve real-life problems using our inventiveness and creativity. Consequently, we have come to find problem-solving difficult and when faced with a problem, we look for quidance from outside ourselves. We want an instruction manual to tell us what to do. But God intended us to solve our problems by ourselves so we can learn and grow.
We are all sailing on a voyage of discovery. Nobody knows where life will lead them. We can influence our future to some extent but ultimately life will surprise us at least a few times before we're through. That is what makes life fun; what makes life worth living. Because each time life surprises us and we deal with it, that teaches us about capabilities we didn't know we had and gives us a better understanding of who we are.
We are each guided by our own private chart. We can't use somebody else's chart because it would not take us where we need to go. We all have different lessons to learn in life. Just because something was good or bad for someone else doesn't mean it will be good or bad for you. Ultimately we each need to find our own way in life. We are individuals, but we are not alone. The world is full of gates and opportunities that are just right for us, if we would only be aware of them. We are meant to learn and grow, to discover what is right for us. We are all inventors, and we are all meant to discover and take advantage of the opportunities and gates that are all around us.
To learn more about how to acheive true success, visit
http://www.reachingmypotential.com
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Do you see yourself as an inventor? Do you see yourself as creative? Many of us don't; thinking that creativity is something reserved for artists, musicians, and inventors. We have not been encouraged to use our imagination and our creativity. We are taught to solve mathematical problems using mathematical rules, but not how to solve real-life problems using our inventiveness and creativity. Consequently, we have come to find problem-solving difficult and when faced with a problem, we look for quidance from outside ourselves. We want an instruction manual to tell us what to do. But God intended us to solve our problems by ourselves so we can learn and grow.
We are all sailing on a voyage of discovery. Nobody knows where life will lead them. We can influence our future to some extent but ultimately life will surprise us at least a few times before we're through. That is what makes life fun; what makes life worth living. Because each time life surprises us and we deal with it, that teaches us about capabilities we didn't know we had and gives us a better understanding of who we are.
We are each guided by our own private chart. We can't use somebody else's chart because it would not take us where we need to go. We all have different lessons to learn in life. Just because something was good or bad for someone else doesn't mean it will be good or bad for you. Ultimately we each need to find our own way in life. We are individuals, but we are not alone. The world is full of gates and opportunities that are just right for us, if we would only be aware of them. We are meant to learn and grow, to discover what is right for us. We are all inventors, and we are all meant to discover and take advantage of the opportunities and gates that are all around us.
To learn more about how to acheive true success, visit
http://www.reachingmypotential.com
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