THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Reflect Thoughtfully on Personal Triumphs and Professional Achievements

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The excellent choices we have made throughout our lives can, during periods of wariness or indecision, give us the confidence we need to trust ourselves enough to face difficult decisions.



When we reflect thoughtfully upon our personal triumphs and professional achievements, we soon realize that for all of the missteps we have taken, our lives have been defined by our successes.
 

We have accomplished much and these accomplishments were likely no simpler in nature than those challenges we must face in the present. The range of our capability becomes clear to us as we examine the choices we have made in the past and the positive effects those decisions had on our existence as a whole.

You will be moved to courageousness today by the triumphs you courted in your individual history. DailyOM

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Life Challenges - Expect a Miracle from Humble St Nicholas

Call to ACTION - It’s time for your letter to Santa.

Do you have an idea or problem that you or the world needs to work on today?  

Write a letter detailing your heartfelt concern to Santa - either personal or global- and request the gift of a solution from this humble St. Nicholas. As you state the problem, be aware of potential ideas and

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perhaps solutions that come to mind. Whether fantasy or reality, write them down as they occur.  

As you brainstorm within your letter, consider how by composing your letter you are setting up the expectation for an answer. Give yourself freedom to be a seeker of a positive outcome even if your reality is currently negative. Write your “Dear Santa” letter on your best stationery, in your best hand-writing, and place it in an envelope.  

Remember to date and sign it too.

Now, put it right where you know Santa will find it, and listen in your heart to hear his response. When the time is right, once again put pen to paper and allow Santa to dictate his response to you.  

Expect a miracle. Santa always delivers on schedule!

Action Assignment 49 from NapoleonHill.org

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The Olympics of Life

There I was reflecting on life's injustices, if you can call it that just to situate my thoughts, when my on again, off again man friend that I sometimes like told me that I cannot be trusted. To quote him "all you women can't be fucking trusted" simply because I told him to stay out of my business when I found out he intended to hassle a man who owed me money.

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.  ~Dr. Seuss

This fella is brutal in words and bristles with violence when he drinks and that is not my way of handling conflict because approaches like that only aggravate the situation.

I was nonplussed and felt hurt really, like a punch to the chest because the underlying message was about his insecurity as a 49-year old male in a relationship in which he feels inadequate. We got the platonic thing going on and he's a very virile male.

So as I mulled over my life and my connection to this man I went from hurt to anger and decided to cut him off and go cold turkey. He has helped me a lot, has taught me about this Trinidad and Tobago which is a new country to me and he gives me a bill or two every so often to enable me to buy necessities. One hand washes the other and that's fine.  Then I went to bed.

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.  Bernard M. Baruch

It was on waking the words Olympics of life came to mind. It was linked to a dream just ended when someone held up a Russian newspaper with a blaring headline (which I understood) and photos of the games in progress and participants and spectators.

So fascinating!

That was my message from the ether, the universal mind - as all dreams are - that my life and how I live  it make me a world class athlete and I/we have to, like all great sportsmen and sportswomen stay focused with absolute commitment and do our best to make the grade into that elite group of Olympians.

Eat right, sleep well, practice, practice, practice, focus on winning to be able to make the grade and be selected into the most elite club to perform in front of the world. That's what we non-sporting types do as well. Life is like that and once we're there as I am and no doubt you are as well, we gotta just do it.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I live in a shelter for homeless people and I've been wondering lately what have I achieved, if anything in this life of 54 years here since living here for 18 months and still jobless.

I suppose when you go from where I was living a very good  life, secure in yourself working and seeing the world, putting up with the usual shite, you have money and don't feel the need to focus on it, when exploring the spiritual side of life is your passion and seeing the world is really all that interests you, you have a handful of really good friends, you meaning me, don't ever contemplate that you would lose your financial wherewithal to end up homeless.


Thankfully, I don't relate to that German billionaire who a few years ago lost 3 or was it 4 of his 7 billion dollars and committed suicide because he defined himself by his money. Mine was just a few million and thank you again Bernie Madoff.

Comfort matters to me and beauty is essential to my well-being. You wouldn't think that beauty can be found in a homeless shelter with former street people, drug addicts, prostitutes, mental outpatients and the dispossessed like myself, would you.

But I have been pleasantly surprised by the stunning sunsets from our third floor balcony to the sometimes caring gestures from some of the most brutal men and women I never considered ever speaking to.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. ~Oscar Wilde

The message from the ether about the Olympics of life takes on a special significance previously unthought of.

When you're at the peak of your game which is what life is really, the dance of life, and I don't feel that I am but I must be eh, you have to perform in your chosen field and everybody's watching not to hinder but to cheer you on.

At the Olympics games, people willingly pay to see the best and that is who you are  in the Olympics of life. You  might feel low at times like oh what's the use when what you try doesn't bring the results expected but hear what, doing your best is what you do even then it doesn't appear to make the grade.

Performing any less than your best would not have brought you to peak conditioning to face the challenges life throws at you with the guts, grit and determination that is intrinsic in your makeup.

Always keep in mind that every situation you encounter is meant to teach you something - that was the hardest lesson I have ever had to learn - and when you "get it" you naturally move on because you have stopped re-acting, stopped resisting what is, accepted your role in the game and took the necessary intuitive action.

You are all you have and right now is all you've got. You are in it to win it, whatever that may be. Start now and cross those hurdles effortlessly in the Olympics of life!

Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to "die before you die" --- and find that there is no death. ~Eckhart Tolle

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A Tsunami of Pain and Rage Reconnects Me to My Self

A fabulous thing happened to me on the road to my new life. I got angry, very very angry at the most unjust act I have ever witnessed being inflicted upon a mentally ill woman that I have come to love and admire.

A tsunami of pain and rage reconnected me to my Self.

I wasn't there when other abusive actions were inflicted on Janice but my anger was simmering from the accounts I head and man, when I let loose it was like oxygen feeding a brush fire.

Awareness is the greatest agent for change. Eckhart Tolle

I raged, I sang, I screamed, I shouted, I talked loud, all day long to express the pain I felt. People must have thought I was going mad. I told her abusers who were supposed to be helping her exactly what I thought about them - blunt and raw - and what they should do to themselves about it.

My rage felt murderous and I swore if I had a gun... yeah, it was that bad!

The next day, the senior supervisor of the hostel where it all occurred tried to threaten and intimidate me because you see, he allowed it to happen and his girlfriend was one of those involved.

As the responsible officer he turned a blind eye to what was taking place and hoped (I'm guessing) that all would work out for the best - over three damn weeks - without his having to take any action.

The attendants at the shelter showed no empathy or compassion and they were actually 'fed up' because she was 'forcing' them to do something. That's horrible and sad at the same time isn't it.

I continued my protest the second day then went looking for my friend - after she was evicted from the hostel, a small, defenceless woman in a crime-ridden part of town, at night - but she wasn't to be found.

She was picked up and taken to the mental hospital on the third day after ransacking a man's house in the neighbourhood.


Because I couldn't find her, I reported the abuse of the four staff members to their boss at the St Vincent Society's office.

When I heard myself speaking to the officer I realised that something had changed. In hindsight, it's the sheer clarity with which I spoke and the silence all around was startling. I was as if "everyone" was listening - as if for that short period all was at a standstill.


For two successive mornings after my ranting and wailing, I woke with headaches which I never get, yet I was so lucid in thought and felt so refreshed. I felt great, weird but true.

True life is lived when little changes occur. ~Leo Tolstoy

On probing my feelings, words unbidden came to mind "I am back" and that made me pause in shock. It was like... WOW! I had found my Self again after almost one year of low-level depression from ending up in a homeless shelter with the roaches, no job, no money, living with homeless psychiatric outpatients and so on.
 
The third day I felt so fab I wondered then wished the feeling would last forever but right after I had that thought, another followed saying "this is normal". That too made me pause then on reflection, I understood, just go with the flow.

That pumping adrenaline that had swept over me for almost an entire day seemed to have swept away the debris that was blocking me, preventing me from seeing, feeling, making decisions and taking action. Basically, I had stopped living which I didn't grasp at the time.

Imagine a gusting, roaring wind that can lift you off your feet and blow you away but instead of doing that, it enters you and changes to a powerful, sweeping spring breeze, refreshing and full of vigor making you think of budding trees, bushes and flowers, dew on early morning grass reflecting jewelled colours under the still cool sunshine, birds tweeting and chattering, all reminding you of the world waking up to a marvelous early spring morning with blindingly bright blue skies and white puffy clouds.

That's how it felt, my waking up! Yeah, wowee!

Life's challenges got me so down that I had lost myself, completely disconnected from who I was and I didn't know it. Those around me are strangers so there was no one to grasp me and say "Catherine what's wrong with you" and if I hadn't felt that tsunami of pain in particular and rage about my friend's predicament the reconnection could not have been made.

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. ~Anais Nin

Let this be a lesson to you folks. That nonsense about politically correct will kill you if you don't find a way to not just express your feelings but also act out as necessary and release those tensions.

Stress kills, you know that.

I rediscovered my self respect and love of self which I only afterward knew had been sorely missed. I had even stopped my daily meditation and energy work. I am so grateful for that cleaning up.

Mahatma Gandhi said be the change you want to see in the world and I intend to continue being just that. It's great to be me!

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You Need to become More to Have More

Port of Spain, Trinidad

Jim Rohn's essay below The Great Challenge of Life smacked me on the forehead when it came in the mail from Bob Proctor's Insight of the Day. It was like 'well, duhh kinda obvious'.

I mean so many of us are struggling hopefully upward. We want more are always demanding more of everything and everyone but... here's the kicker if we don't do the work on ourselves we (you and me both) are not going to get anywhere.

Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless. Jamie Paolinetti

Each one of us must be the change we want to see in our lives. That is how we change the world by extension.

You want riches, feel rich inside. You want respect, respect yourself first. You want others to do what's right, YOU be first in line, no preaching. Others will follow by example.

So when you feel that life is shitting on you, seemingly endless challenges getting you down, look at yourself. Focus on the crappy thoughts you think about yourself and look at your resulting actions.

I am slowly and painfully learning what the great man said, you do need to become more in order to have more (of whatever it is you want). It all starts with you (and me).

The Great Challenge of Life


Here's the great challenge of life - You can have more than you've got because you can become more than you are.

I have found that income seldom will exceed your own personal development. Once in a while income takes a lucky jump, but unless you grow out to where it is, it will go back to where you are.

Somebody once said if you took all the money in the world and divided it among everyone equally; it would soon be back in the same pockets.

However, you can have more because you can become more. You see, here is how the other side of the coin reads - unless you change how you are, you will always have what you've got.

The marketing plan won't do it. It's a good plan but it won't work without you. You've got to work it. It is the human effort that counts. If you could send a sales manual out to recruit - wouldn't that be lovely?

The major thing that makes the difference is what YOU do.

In order to have more, you need to become more. The guy says "If I had a good job I would really pour it on, but I have this lousy job so I just goof off." If that is your philosophy, you are destined to stay there.

Some people say if I had a lot of money I would be really generous, but I don't have much so I'm not generous. See, you've got to change that philosophy or you will never have "the lots of money." Unless YOU change, IT won't change.

Amazingly, however, when we throw out our blame list and start becoming more ourselves - the difference is everything else will begin to change around us.

Jim Rohn
1930-2009, Author and Speaker 

Followup reading

Meditate to boost your self-esteem, Ed & Deb Shapiro
Be the change guide, Ed & Deb Shapiro
Soul Talk: Are you suffering unnecessarily, Russell Bishop
When hope is under attack, finding guidance from soul's beauty, Cara Barker

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LIFE CHALLENGES - Friction in Human Relations

Friction in machinery costs money. Friction in human relationships impoverishes both the spirit and the bank account.

Discord in any relationship often has unpleasant financial implications, but it is far costlier in human terms. When you are involved in a fractious relationship, physical and mental energy that could be directed toward positive achievements is dissipated needlessly, squandered upon stressful, unproductive activities.

Unfortunately, whatever the cause of friction between individuals, it adversely affects each person involved.

When you find yourself in a contentious relationship, there are few acceptable alternatives. You can work out your problems or leave the team. Only you know which is the best solution for you, but if you objectively evaluate your reasons for becoming involved and find that they are still valid, your best course of action may be to swallow your pride and find a solution that is acceptable to everyone involved.

If you cannot do this, perhaps it’s time to get out of the partnership and find another course toward your objective. Napoleon Hill

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What Nitty-Gritty reasons do You have Waiting to Challenge and Provoke You

What life challenges do you have facing you that will give you the impetus to get up and get moving. And listen here even if you do not feel you know or cannot see where or how, it is essential to take the first step no matter how nervous or fearful you may feel.

Ask yourself what do I have to lose? If there is something holding you back, ask yourself this question Is it better than not trying for something more and better?

Food for thought is to come up with your own list of reasons to make you take a step into an abundant life. It is time to be the change people. Jim Rohn, master teacher, talks about his nitty-gritty reasons that pushed him to excel.

Nitty-Gritty Reasons (from his June 4, 2012 Newsletter)

Wouldn't it be wonderful to be motivated to achievement by such a lofty goal as benevolence? I must confess, however, that in the early years of my struggle to succeed, my motivation was a lot more down to earth.

My reason for succeeding was more basic. In fact, it fell into the category of what I like to call "nitty-gritty reasons." A nitty-gritty reason is the kind that any one of us can have—at any time, on any day—and it can cause our lives to change. Let me tell you what happened to me.

Shortly before I met Mr. Shoaff, I was lounging at home one day when I heard a knock at the door. It was a timid, hesitant knock. When I opened the door I looked down to see a pair of big brown eyes staring up at me.

There stood a frail little girl of about 10. She told me, with all the courage and determination her little heart could muster, that she was selling Girl Scout cookies. It was a masterful presentation—several flavors, a special deal, and only two dollars per box.

How could anyone refuse? Finally, with a big smile and ever so politely, she asked me to buy. And I wanted to. Oh, how I wanted to!

Except for one thing. I didn't have two dollars! Boy, was I embarrassed! Here I was—a father, had been to college, was gainfully employed—and yet I didn't have two dollars to my name.

Naturally I couldn't tell this to the little girl with the big brown eyes. So I did the next best thing. I lied to her. I said, "Thanks, but I've already bought Girl Scout cookies this year. And I've still got plenty stacked in the house."

Now that simply wasn't true. But it was the only thing I could think of to get me off the hook. And it did. The little girl said, "That's okay, sir. Thank you very much." And with that she turned around and went on her way.

I stared after her for what seemed a very long time. Finally, I closed the door behind me and, leaning my back to it, cried out, "I don't want to live like this anymore. I've had it with being broke, and I've had it with lying. I'll never be embarrassed again by not having any money in my pocket." That day I promised myself to earn enough to always have several hundred dollars in my pocket at all times.

This is what I mean by a nitty-gritty reason. It may not win me any prize for greatness, but it was enough to have a permanent effect on the rest of my life.

My Girl-Scout-cookie story does have a happy ending. Several years later, as I was walking out of my bank where I had just made a hefty deposit and was crossing the street to get into my car, I saw two little girls who were selling candy for some girls' organization. One of them approached me, saying, "Mister, would you like to buy some candy?"

"I probably would," I said playfully. "What kind of candy do you have?" "It's almond roca." "Almond roca. That's my favorite. How much is it?" "It's only two dollars." Two dollars. It couldn't be! I was excited. "How many boxes of candy have you got?" "I've got five."

Looking at her friend, I said, "And how many boxes do you have left?"
"I've got four." "That's nine. Okay, I'll take them all." At this, both girls' mouths fell open as they exclaimed in unison, "Really?"

"Sure," I said. "I've got some friends that I'll pass some around to."

Excitedly, they scurried to stack all the boxes together. I reached into my pocket and gave them eighteen dollars. As I was about to leave, the boxes tucked under my arm, one of the girls looked up and said, "Mister, you're really something!"

How about that! Can you imagine spending only eighteen dollars and having someone look you in the face and say, "You're really something!"

Now you know why I always carry a few hundred dollars on me. I'm not about to miss chances like that ever again.

And to think it all resulted from my own embarrassment, which when properly channeled, acted as a powerful motivator to help me achieve.

How about you?

What nitty-gritty reasons do you have waiting to challenge and provoke you into change for the better? Look for them, they are there. Sometimes it can be as simple as a brown-eyed girl selling Girl Scout cookies.

       Jim Rohn
        

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Five Things to keep in mind when searching for Paradise

Judith Rich's superbly lyrical Finding Paradise in the Exotic and the Ordinary is a truly beautiful article that must be savoured.

It is about being present, facing life challenges head on and we evolve while we're at it. The dance of life is made up of many steps and missteps and it takes us somewhere, usually unknown, which is the scary part of many of us.

Just remember FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. Nothing and no one can hurt us except ourselves.

“If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake - Aye, what then?” Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Five things to keep in mind when searching for paradise right where you are.

1) Being present is not optional. It's mandatory. If you want to access all the glory and magnificence of each and every moment, it will require that you show up fully, totally and completely. Wake up, show up and situp. Then watch what happens.

2) Listen to the silence. When we are truly connected to what is, words are not necessary. In fact, they often get in the way. So stop the chatter and become still. Paradise speaks in a language all its own. It requires our full focus and attention. In the silence, we can hear the song that beauty sings.

3) Love what is before you with all your heart, mind, and soul. It's all there, it's always there, bathing you in its glory. Yes, even in those moments that appear to be scary or filled with conflict, in their very midst, if you open your heart to it, Paradise is serenely waiting for you to come to your right mind and receive its blessing.

4) Gratitude is the great turbocharger. Life is always showering us with abundance and goodness. It is we who erect the barriers that make us unavailable to it. When we're in gratitude, the doors open, the barriers fall and we avail ourselves to even more of what we're grateful for. Spend time in gratitude and I dare you to be unhappy.

5) Go for the gusto. Life is a coat of many colors. Some of them you'll have to seek out beyond the edges of your comfort zone. Take that helicopter ride, trek down to the bottom of that valley, eat that strange thing you've never eaten, take a leap of faith into the unknown and discover what awaits you. Learning, growth and joy lie beyond the realm of what is known. Or as Julia Cameron wrote: "Leap and the net will appear."

It's easy to recognize paradise in the exotic, like Hawaii. It's a bit trickier, but also very doable, to recognize it right under your nose. But you have to have the eyes to see, the ears to hear and the heart to feel it. Oh, and the soul to let you know you've hit pay dirt!

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Spend Time Giving Aid and Support to People in Need

         Image by A......M......A We quickly realize how fortunate we have been in our lives when we choose to devote a portion of our energy and assets to those whose advantages in life have been few and far between. 

It is easy to feel deprived or unlucky when we only have individuals who share our relative levels of prosperity to look to for comparison. 

Spending time giving aid and support to people in need provides us with a wonderful opportunity to both help others prosper as we have and gain a deeper insight into the blessings we have been afforded during our time on earth.

As we share our resources with people who will ostensibly benefit from them more so than we ourselves will, we realize that our lives are more bountiful than we ever imagined. You will feel you have reached a place of unlimited abundance today as you do your part to lift others into the light. —DailyOM

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Making Friends With Illness And Live For All You Are Worth!

Ed and Deb Shapiro wrote a stunning post Making friends with illness in 2010.

Accept it, embrace it, own it because you cannot reject what is already happening. It is a fact!

Making friends with your illness makes living so much easier for yourself, and your friends and family. You hate it, you want to reject it, how could this happen to me, and on and on it goes. 

But you must know that you cannot push it away because it is in your body. Therefore, all of your negative reactions are futile and you are only hurting yourself.

In that vein, one of the "connected" folks in the HuffPost Living community, Arithrianos, said this:

Comment from Arithrianos

making friends with illness is the only wise move, any other strategy will just produce more sickness, sick of being sick of being sick, etc etc that keeps the old ball of suffering rolling, there is no victory that way, only stale-mate, not good for anything, the live wire connection that illness presents so wonderfully and painfully is lost by separating from it, regarding it as other.

this is your bodies wisdom talking, it is out of balance already so any rocking of the boat will just capsize the whole experience, then you really have no control, you are in that ocean tossed about by the vicissitudes of whatever illness you have appointed king of your life, and this goes for all the mental illnesses as well, greed, hatred, ignorance and all the derivations.

the same taste is all i have ever experienced, it is like something wonka would make, you taste what you expect to taste, my nickname is same after all, dz. ponlop r. knew what he was doing when he called me same.

radiate is really not something that is a step on it's own to me though, it is simply what happens when you connect, there is no way to keep that tsumani to yourself, if you are connected then you will radiate, so opening is a safety measure, trying to keep cosmic love is a dangerous path, just ask any reformed black magician, trying to keep the sun in your pocket burns.

If you have an illness, make friends with it and live! No excuses. This is the dance of life you are living so give it your best shot and never give up!

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Feel The Confidence Already Established In Your Soul

Galeries Lafayette, Paris via Wikipedia

We can surmount almost any obstacle the universe chooses to put in our paths when we believe in our ability to cope with and adapt to changing circumstances. 

Because we have faith in the value of our innate cleverness, we are more apt to make use of our intellectual resources when faced with challenges that seem impossibly difficult. 

Situations in which there is no chance of traversing a straight path energize us because we relish the opportunity to make use of our creativity in the discovery of offbeat solutions. 

Every resource available to us, whether physical or cerebral, is put into play as we explore the possibilities open to us, no matter how oblique or fantastic they may seem at first. 

No single challenge will interfere with your resolve today because you know that you are capable of besting anything. —DailyOM

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Perseverence Day: Never Give Up, No Matter What!

Isn't this a fabulous day today?! Today is Perseverance Day with a mega dose of compassion for yourself first and foremost. That's the subject of my food for thought.

When you think love - the caring and sharing, the gentle nagging, the corrections, the acceptance - you become love.

Do you know that? Lots of things do not flow as smoothly as you would like, but so what!

Your Mettle

It is in the doing that you test your mettle; you get to know who you really are. It is through the difficult encounters that you get to meet your worst enemy, yourself. 

When you accept that no one can do anything to you against your will, THAT is when you grow.

The Journey

It took me a long time to understand and accept that the end-game is the least important. It is the journey itself that grows us strong and true.

Sure, the goal you set yourself will eventually be achieved after you fall down and get up and get knocked down and rise up again, and again and again. 

As the great Muhammad Ali says, it is when you're knocked down and stay down, that is when you lose.

Never do that! When you get knocked on your ass and you think you cannot fight anymore, that is exactly when you must find the strength to pull yourself back on your feet.

Persevere through challenges

I grew up with the lesson that giving up was normal. It was pounded into my head day in, day out for years, in addition to the physical abuse. It is quite amazing how humans – parents and caregivers in particular – find effective ways of anchoring a negative message they want to teach.

You must persevere through all difficulties and challenges. Never give up, no matter what! 

You have no choice in the matter if you want a good life for yourself because sure as hell nobody is going to give it to you on a silver platter.

In Your Moment of Need

If there is something that you want, set your mind on it to the exclusion of all else, decide what you are going to do to get it, put yourself in gear, and go for it. 

Some might say "that's easy for you to say but you don't know my situation". That is a cop out plain and simple and a bunch of bull. There is always a way and someone to hold your hand – open up, reach out and I guarantee you there will be someone there to touch.

The incredible Helen Keller was born deaf and blind in the 1900s  and she did not let that or the nay-sayers stop her from achieving her goals which included earning her bachelor degree.

And there ends my food for thought for today peeps, have a grateful day and as Mahatma Gandhi said BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD!

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Do You Have A Life or Are You Just Drifting By Without Purpose?

Image by Aristocrats-hat via Flickr

This issue comes up time and time again – every day actually in some form – and so food for thought is about purpose. 

Do you have a life or are you just drifting by without purpose? Do you even know what you want? What are your soul's needs?

If you already have at least an inkling, how do you plan to get there from here? My only answer for you is you have to start by taking action.

Because not a damn thing is going to happen if you don't make it happen. You know that don't you?! I have lived this and you may be living this right now. Have a look at the links at the bottom of this post; you may find a signpost or two.

Napoleon Hill said, there will never be a right time and his namesake Foundation put it like this:

LIVING WITHOUT A DEFINITE MAJOR PURPOSE PROMISES NOTHING BUT A SCANT LIVING

You may get by in life without a Definite Major Purpose, but you will never get ahead. Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. 

Financial goals in particular should be specific, definite, and measurable. You should know what you plan to earn, by when, and how you plan to do so. 

The greatest advantage of financial security is the peace of mind that comes from knowing that, whatever challenges life brings, you are equipped to deal with them. 

You will be better at whatever you choose to do because you can focus on opportunities instead of struggling to eke out a living.

  

As far as I am concerned, it is all about loving what you do because when you are in that space of joy, you work and attract all that you need to succeed. You think, plan and execute in a natural flow because you become in sync with what you want to achieve.

Related articles by Zemanta:

• Finding Meaning & Purpose - Step 1 (everydaygyaan.com)
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• Do It Yourself Life Coach (DoItYourselfLifeCoach.com) 
• Happiness Is Overrated (Huffingtonpost.com)

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Acceptance IS Self-Love: Try It and See What You See

Image via Wikipedia

Thought for today – acceptance is love – it is important to remember that love comes in myriad forms and we often forget to have compassion for ourselves; I certainly never did. 

I was taught self-hate, self-denigration and deliberate deprivation from early o'clock so that I would conform to the accepted generational family dysfunction.

It took me many years – from my thirties culminating in my mid-forties – to learn, understand, internalise, and accept that I had to right to love myself.
What a discovery that was.

I know for sure that embracing what is says "This is how much I love myself" – and accepting whatever is happening in your life is the most amazing gift you can offer to yourself. 

Acceptance is self-love. It is foolishness in the extreme to deny what you are living because that denial will keep the fear flowing for sure and will bring you more of what you are resisting! 

Understand this as well – resistance is futile because what you resist, persists. While there is no denying that life sucks sometimes, I strongly suggest that you make some lemonade and suck that up!

Acceptance brings the changes you desire and those very changes will heal you from the inside out and when you connect with others, you transmit that same healing energy; be it to a sick child or someone else in need. There nothing more inspirational to someone than that.

Gandhi said

– Be the change you want to see in the world – so go do your stuff and see you there!

How do you feel when you stop resisting the challenges on your path and decide to "roll over" them; and in fact what encourages you to let down your "guard"?

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How Do We Get Happy – By Living The Soul Journey

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How do we get happy? We become by doing what we love. We get happy through living the soul journey.

It is that simple and yet most of us have such difficulty getting there for all sorts of dumb reasons; like Yours Truly!

and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save. 

Mary Oliver, The Journey

Because I am on this soul journey, I know without a shadow of a doubt that what the soul yearns for is not happiness; although many people are actively seeking it which I do not understand.

No, what the soul desires is fulfillment of its needs and we die a slow death when they remain unfulfilled. That's a lotta zombies out there people! Do you intend to join them?

I empathise most with children, and adolescents and teens in particular who feel this yearning so deeply and so powerfully but they are stifled by the demands of adults; unable to express themselves.

Their brilliance is snuffed out through ignorance and far too many end up self-destructing because of it! We have to end this!


Feeling your soul's desires and having them fulfilled is what we are all here to do. When we follow the dictates of others and ignore our soul's yearning, the life we end up living – if you can call it that – is perfectly described in the song lyrics below. Leona Lewis does a beautiful job.

It's a poem, a dirge, a cry from the heart and a yearning from the soul. So here's to celebrating living the soul journey.

HAPPY

(lyrics by Leona Lewis et al)

Someone once told me

That you have to choose

What you win or lose

You can't have everything

Don't you take chances

You might feel the pain

Don't you love in vain

Cause love won't set you free

I could stand by the side

Watch this life pass me by

So unhappy

Safe as could be

Holding on tightly

Just can't let it go

Just trying to play my role

Slowly disappear

But all these days 

They feel like they're the same

Just different faces

Different names

Get me outta here

But I can't stand by the side

And watch this life pass me by

Pass me by

So what if it hurts me

So what if I break down

So what if this world just throws me off the edge 

My feet run out of ground

I gotta find my place

I wanna hear my sound

Don't care about all the pain in front of me

I'm trying to be... happy

 

So many turns that I can't see

Like I'm a stranger on this road

But don't say "victim"

Don't say anything

So what if it hurts me

So what if I break down

So what if this world just throws me off the edge 

My feet run out of ground

I gotta find my place

I wanna hear my sound

Don't care about all the pain in front of me

I just wanna be... happy

I just wanna be... happy

When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. -Mary Oliver

This is what we are all aiming for whether we know it or not, whether you agree with me or not. And it does not matter how long it takes either; you have to take this soul journey. It is why you are here!

Are you living a soul journey? What obstacles are you putting in your way that create challenges, and how do you handle them? I look forward to your comments.

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Your Attitude Determines How You Dance in the Rain

Continuing my good news weekend posts - this one is about facing up to life's challenges, the right way; your attitude determines how you dance in the rain. I call it dancing the dance of life.  

In one 24-hour period I encountered "dancing in the rain" three times... there is a message there for sure - and this one is the most significant of all from the marvelous (really!) Judith Rich's How to know the way of the soul

Dancing in the rain encourages us all to dance this dance when life's many challenges come our way. Sure, you can dance physically to work through your angst, anger and pain (it is fantastic) but talking out your problems, emptying your heart - because that is where the pain lies - with someone with whom you feel good is what is necessary. 

Pain, anger, sorrow, joy, laughter, peace and harmony all come from the same place. Khalil Gibran says it this way:

Joy and Sorrow

Then a woman said, "Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow." 

And he answered, "Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears."

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say "Joy is greater than sorrow" and others say "Nay, sorrow is the greater."

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.  Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed. 

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Great day everyone. Now go out and dance that damn dance for all you are worth!

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Master Your Thoughts and Reap The Rewards: Your Thoughts Create the Life You Live

Food for thought today is a poem by James Allen's from his exquisite As A Man Thinketh in the chapter on Effects of Thoughts on Circumstances. This is to be sipped and savoured and reflected upon. 

I have been rereading this 5-page chapter every day for weeks now and every time I do, I gain a new understanding. It is all about mastering your thoughts and reaping the considerable rewards - a happy and prosperous life.

You will be what you will 

Let failure find its false content

In that poor word "environment"

But spirit scorns it, and is free.

It masters time, it conquers space

It cows that boastful trickster, Chance

And bids the tyrant, Circumstance

Uncrown, and fill a servant's place.

The human Will, that force unseen

The offspring of a deathless soul

Can hew a way to any goal

Though walls of granite intervene.

Be not impatient in delay

But wait as one understands

When spirit rises and commands

The gods are ready to obey.

Isn't this poem flavourful; it packs one helluva punch too!

There is no such thing as failure; learn from it and try again. You fail when you stop trying, so keep on regardless of what others may say or the way things may seem.

Because as I am learning every day, appearances and the so-called reality are deceiving; do not buy into it. Keep the faith and stay focussed on your goal, no matter what!

You make your own luck and if you want a thing bad enough nothing can stop you. Decide what you need, take action no matter how small and persevere until it's yours through the challenges you will face.

When you act on your "feelings" or intuition that is called inspired action and as Bob Proctor often says "that's the Universe talking". Follow it!

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Thought for Today: Your Reaction Determines The Outcome of A Rejection

Here's an interesting thought for today via Bob Proctor's Insight of the Day. Your reaction, as I have learned, does determine the outcome of a rejection.

It's so obvious yet it's often overlooked or ignored in the "heat of the moment". As I learned from Jack Canfield, change your reaction and you will get a different outcome. I have lived this time and time again and I'm only now getting accustomed to the difference. Boy, what years I wasted!

Rejections and Reactions

 

Rejection takes many forms. You didn't make the team. The college you want to attend turns you down. The woman you asked out said no. You didn't get the job. You were passed over for a promotion. Your husband left you.

Whatever form it takes, being rejected hurts. It is a blow to your ego and challenges your ability to cope. It makes you question yourself. It makes you angry. In its most extreme and painful forms, it generates self-destructive thoughts and behaviors - ranging from rage to drinking binges to suicide.

The tricky thing about rejection, though, is not to avoid it but to choose a positive way of reacting to it. After all, everybody suffers rejection. That is not meant to minimize anyone's pain at being let go or turned down; it is simply to say that you aren't alone. Others have lived through similar - or worse - things. The only way to avoid the risk of rejection is to fail to live, dream, or dare! And that is a far worse thing than being courageous enough to apply for the position, to accept a leadership challenge, or to invest your heart and getting turned down.

In a recent interview reported in the Wall Street Journal, Warren Buffett spoke of his rejection by Harvard Business School at 19. "The truth is, everything that has happened in my life . . . that I thought was a crushing event at the time, has turned out for the better," he said. With the exception of health problems, he continued, life's setbacks teach "lessons that carry you along. You learn that a temporary defeat is not a permanent one. In the end it can be an opportunity."

In Buffett's case, a second-choice application to Columbia put him under the tutelage of two professor-mentors who taught him the essentials he has used in a successful investment career. More important still, the disappointment he thought his father would feel over his failure turned into a positive expression of "unconditional love" and "unconditional belief in me."

Rejection is the challenge to find a new way, a better path. Rather than curse the job you didn't get or the person who didn't hire you, rethink your skills and find another venue for their use. Instead of hiding from life because a relationship has ended and your heart is broken, learn something about yourself from what has happened and know there is someone who needs what you have to give. Temporary setbacks become permanent defeats only if you allow it.

It isn't rejection that determines the outcome. It is your reaction to it.

Rubel Shelly

Rubel Shelly is a Preacher and Professor of Religion and Philosophy located in Rochester Hills, Michigan. In addition to church and academic responsibilities, he has worked actively with such community projects as Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, From Nashville With Love, Metro (Nashville) Public Schools, Faith Family Medical Clinic, and Operation Andrew Ministries. To learn more about Rubel please go to: http://www.rubelshelly.com/

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