“Happily Ever After” is Overrated

What about the happy now?

Forget dying and going to some blissful heaven.

Forget retiring and finally enjoying your life.

Forget about when you are enlightened and how good it will supposedly feel.

This moment is special. This is it.

Yet we often wait for some special occasion or reason to celebrate.

We often spend our lives striving to get to some destination that we think will make us happy.

Even when you get there is it all that it was promised to be?

What are you waiting for to be different in your life?

via “Happily Ever After” is Overrated « Positively Positive.

Shouting In Anger!

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” ~ Buddha

Go to the source: Shouting In Anger!.

…on One Day at a Time

“Arc you always this happy?” I asked my favorite clerk at the grocery store.

“I am today,” he said.

Doing anything forever – even being happy – can seem like too much. The good news is that we don’t have to do anything forever. Just today.

Challenge: The hardest part about taking life one day at a time is remembering that the present moment is all we have.” via May 10.

…on One Day at a Time

“One day at a time” isn’t a value I acquired because I wanted to. I had to. Now I apply it because I want to.

Application: Sailing through life? Falling in love? Plenty of money? Or maybe things aren’t going that well. Lonely? Dealing with relationship issues? Not sure how the relationship will work out?Your boss is driving you nuts, but you don’t want to quit? Concerned about your child? Whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, taking each day as it comes is a good idea.” via May 9.

Dont Wait 7

Good thoughts from Nicholas Bate on procrastination…

  1. For creativity. Start producing. Produce wildly. Write, paint, draw, construct, think, innovate, team, brainstorm, project. Something worthwhile, something creative will be produced.
  2. For the right time. Start now. Now is the perfect time. Things can only, things will only, get tougher. Start.
  3. For love. Start looking. Love is always out there. In the most surprising places.
  4. For a lucky break. Work hard, very hard. Then luck will come a-tumbling your way.
  5. For motivation. Haha. Start and then you will get motivated.
  6. For his/her call. They are either keen or they are not. Give them another chance, then move on.
  7. For productivity. Decide what needs to be done: now. Start.”

via Dont Wait 7.

…on Taking One Day at a Time

More Melody Beattie…

“My best friend was going through some tough situations in her life. I was in the midst of a hard stretch too. We didn’t particularly like the things we had to do in our lives. We talked about our feelings and decided that what we were going through was necessary and important, even though we didn’t like it.We expressed gratitude for our lives.

“It’s still a dreadful time,” I said.

“Brutal,” she said. “I guess we’re back to the old one­ day-at-a-time approach. We’re so lucky. What do people do that haven’t learned that gem?”

There are times when we can look at the stretch ahead and like what we see. Taking life one day at a time is still a good idea, even when things are going well.

Taking life one day at a time can be particularly use­ful when the road ahead looks dreadful. We may not even know where to start with some challenges. That’s when taking life one day at a time is essential.

“I’ve been using alcohol and other drugs every day since I’ve been twelve years old,” I said to my counselor years ago in treatment. “Now you’re telling me I need to stay sober the rest of my life. Plus get a job. And a life. How am I going to do that?”

“One day at a time,” she said. She was right. Sometimes I had to take life one minute at a time or one hour at a time. And all these years later, it still works.

Value: Taking life one day at a time is the gem we’ll focus on this week.” via May 8.

It’s a beautiful day to be alive

“Today is a beautiful day to be alive, to be the person you are. A beautiful day, simply, to be. Don’t waste energy trying to possess or control. Don’t let yourself be burdened by things that have happened in the past. Don’t worry about being “right,” or about impressing anyone. Focus instead on creating things that have never before existed. On adding value to the lives of others. On finding ways to express the unique person that you are. Feel good by simply deciding to, rather than by abusing yourself or others. Look at everything that happens as an opportunity for growth.

Accept and be thankful for the abundance that is yours. Dust off your dreams and find a way to follow them. Life is precious and beautiful. Every breath you take is an opportunity to live life to the fullest.” ~ Ralph S. Marston, Jr. via RecoveryApp: Recovery Readings May 8. Photo Bill Pevlor

Fear & Codependency

“Fear is at the core of codependency. It can motivate us to control situations or neglect ourselves. Many of us have been afraid for so long that we don’t label our feelings fear. We’re used to feeling upset and anxious. It feels normal. Peace and serenity may be uncomfortable. At one time, fear may have been appropriate and useful. We may have relied on fear to protect ourselves, much the way soldiers in a war rely on fear to help them survive. But now, in recovery, we’re living life differently. It’s time to thank our old fears for helping us survive, then wave good-bye to them. Welcome peace, trust, acceptance, and safety. We don’t need that much fear anymore. We can listen to our healthy fears, and let go of the rest. We can create a feeling of safety for ourselves, now. We are safe, now. We’ve made a commitment to take care of ourselves. We can trust and love ourselves.

God, help me let go of my need to be afraid. Replace it with a need to be at peace. Help me listen to my healthy fears and relinquish the rest.Beattie, Melody (2009-12-15). The Language of Letting Go (Hazelden Meditation Series) (p. 127). Hazelden. Kindle Edition.

Wilde Advice on Self-Esteem

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ~ Oscar Wilde via Quote: Wilde Advice on Self-Esteem | Greatist.com.

Who You Spend Time With Is Who You Become

This post from Mastin Kipp is so compelling I curated it in its entirety…

Community is everything. If you want to see a preview of your future, look to who you are hanging out with. This isn’t some moral statement about your peer group, it’s more of a vibrational or elevational statement.

You see, we live in a literal Uni-verse. That means that we become what we think and what we think is greatly determined by who we spend the most amount of time with.

Do you spend time with people who are constantly trashing your dreams? If so, then after time, you begin to believe their doubt and their fear; not because their doubt and fear are true, but because we are creatures of habit and our subconscious mind begins to absorb what we hear, especially the feedback from people we love and spend a lot of time with. And if you start to believe their doubt, then soon you will begin to take action from that belief in doubt and BAM – the manifestation of the belief of doubt becomes real. Not because it’s true, but because the belief of doubt became your dominate thought pattern and that thought pattern influenced your actions and your actions produced the outcome.

The outcome of our lives begins within us. If we water our dreams with doubt, then we think doubtful thoughts; take doubtful action and our lives become a living testament and proof of our belief. Then, what many people do is take this “proof” and use it to further justify their initial belief. But you see, what they’re missing this whole time is the fact that their initial thoughts of doubt is what created the outcome of doubt. They unknowingly participate in their own demise.

But, this can be prevented by hanging with the proper community of people. Let us hang with people who uplift us, who encourage us towards our dreams and who challenge our thought patterns. Let us not surround ourselves with people who always agree with us, but rather people who support our growth by challenging our beliefs and helping us break through to new mental and spiritual ground so that our lives may be enriched as a by-product.

Look around. Who are you spending time with? And more importantly, who are you believing? If you have a dream, do you believe people who are living their dreams and thus know the TRUTH about what’s possible, or do you take advice from people who aren’t living their dreams and thus will tell you it’s not possible.

Who you spend time with and who you believe is a major factor that will determine whether you are successful or not. Our aim should be to hang with people who are loving, who believe in us, who challenge us to go to the next level and who inspire us. Life is far too short to hang with people who are always negative and who want you to stay bitter and pissed off like them. It takes a lot of humility to admit when we’re wrong and to grow past our limiting beliefs. Let’s surround ourselves with people who support our growth, not necessarily the way we want, but most certainly the way we need.

Source: Who You Spend Time With Is Who You Become

Now, aren’t you glad you found this? I am!

:-D

…on 12 of life’s most important lessons

David Kanigan knocks it out of the part with this one…

“The more we know about ourselves, the more power we have to behave better. Humility is underrated. We each have an infinite capacity for self-deception — countless unconscious ways we protect ourselves from pain, uncertainty, and responsibility — often at the expense of others and of ourselves. Endless introspection can turn into self-indulgence, but deepening self-awareness is essential to freeing ourselves from our reactive, habitual behaviors.” Go to the source for 11 more: Twelve of life’s most important lessons… – Lead.Learn.Live..

…on feeling good

Todd Lohenry, e1evation, llc, Personal Digital Coaching, 'personal news aggregation'“Make yourself feel good. It’s our job to first make ourselves feel better and then make ourselves feel good. Recovery is not only about stopping painful feelings; it is about creating a good life for ourselves. We don’t have to deny ourselves activities that help us feel good. Going to meetings, basking in the sun, exercising, taking a walk, or spending time with a friend are activities that may help us feel good. We each have our list. If we don’t, we’re now free to explore, experiment, and develop that list. When we find a behavior or activity that produces a good feeling, put it on the list. Then, do it frequently. Let’s stop denying ourselves good feelings and start doing things that make us feel good. Today, I will do one activity or behavior that I know will create a good feeling for me. If I’m uncertain about what I like, I will experiment with one behavior today.” via Beattie, Melody (2009-12-15). The Language of Letting Go (Hazelden Meditation Series) (p. 126). Hazelden. Kindle Edition.

Today I’ll be working hard on making myself feel good even though my wife is far away and I miss her terribly. What ‘feel good challenge will you over come today?

Create your day!

Mastin Kipp shares this today…

“The quality of your life is DIRECTLY related to the amount of uncomfortable conversations you are willing to have.

Authentic expression means telling the truth. Your truth. What you think. How you feel. What you make up about what something means. What you see. What you don’t see. What you want to understand. This is authentic expression.

Sometimes it means admitting when you are wrong. Sometimes it means saying no. Sometimes it means opening your heart; sometimes it means setting a boundary and walking away.

We know inside. We always know.

When we make the outside world, other people’s opinions or forms more important than trusting our intuition and expressing ourselves authentically, we start to get off track. If we do it long enough, we begin to believe that things will never change because we don’t trust ourselves enough to make the change.

Most people live unrealized lives because they are too afraid to express themselves authentically. It takes courage. Not everyone is going to like it. You may make some people mad, piss some people off and make others happy beyond measure.” via The Daily Love — Create your day!.

How to Live Your Dream When You’re Scared to Death

“There is a tragedy in our world today. Most people aren’t living their dreams, and the reason is simple: fear. They’re scared to be who they are.

When you endeavor to find your life’s work, there is a lot at risk:

  • You could fail.
  • You could lose the respect of your friends.
  • You could go broke.

You could mess up in a hundred different ways. But—and this is important—you could also succeed. And until you start living into your calling, you’re robbing the world of a gift.” Go to the source: How to Live Your Dream When You’re Scared to Death | Michael Hyatt.

Did you know…

…that otters hold hands while they are sleeping so they don’t drift apart from one another? Neither did I. Otters holding hands – YouTube.

Deepening your expertise

Some good thoughts for my WordPress.com community…

Deepening your expertise – YouTube.

…on Resentment

“It can be tough to stop resenting someone. It takes a delib­erate decision—an oomph—to turn our thinking around. For starters, it can be helpful to remember that those around us eventually grow weary of listening to us whine, even if we were wronged. There is a point where enough is enough.

We need to feel our emotions. We don’t want to get into repression or denial, but once we’ve felt the emotion, it’s time to let it go and turn the situation around. Envy and ill will can be a constant undercurrent in our thinking, if we don’t consciously seek to pluck out these emotions. It may feel like other people are constantly getting the good luck, that we have none, and that the good luck others are getting was somehow taken from us. It’s not true. And resenting others and spreading ill will doesn’t help us or improve our situation.

“There’s a lot of haters out there in the world,” a man said to me. “They don’t even know they’re spreading hate by the envious, bitter little thoughts they think.” via May 3 | Language of Letting Go.

Spend Time With The Best

Good stuff from Nicholas Bate…

“Ensure that you spend time with the best. The best will encourage you, have no worries about sharing their enthusiasm for life, their ideas and within reason their time to help you. The best will pull you out of the doldrums, remind you that your complaints are-with all due respect they will politely emphasise-are perfectly manageable compared to the real challenges some have. The best will be do the basics as a given: being on time, being courteous, listening to really understand rather than judge. The best will remind you that good is no longer good enough, that excellence is a nice place to be as its not at all crowded and its just a decision away. The best will remind you its just like climbing a mountain: you do it because its there. And then you feel amazing. And you may well earn well, too. The best will remind you that nothings guaranteed but more is predictable when you take responsibility for you career rather than leaving it to your CEO, take responsibility for you life rather than leaving it to a smooth-talking politician and start reading every day. Hang out with the best. Listen to the best. Read the best.” via Spend Time With The Best.

Are Monday Mornings Really That Awful?

Click image to enlarge...

Hate Mondays? It may be your fault…

“I’m writing this on a rainy day and Monday. According to song, that should always get me down. But I’m actually feeling rather upbeat, and that’s just one of the surprising facts about the most-maligned day of the week: Recent research suggests that Mondays may not be so blue after all.

Monday Morning Blues?

In one study by researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia, people were asked how they were feeling at the moment once a day for seven days. Then on the eighth day, they were asked how they remembered feeling on each day of the previous week. Although there wasn’t much difference in actual moods reported from day to day, people recalled hitting a low point on Monday. This suggests that their memories were biased by their beliefs. They expected Mondays to be lousy.” Go to the source: Are Monday Mornings Really That Awful? | Psychology Today.

I actually like Mondays! They are the days I get to go back to work and do what I’m really good at instead of shearing sheep on the hobby farm! :-)

Carpe Diem!!! [and be thankful you don’t have any sheep to shear today]…

Your Life Is the Sum of Your Choices

“We can’t always choose what happens to us, but we can always choose how we respond. Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist who survived two-and-a-half years in Nazi concentration camps, made this case in his bestselling book, Man’s Search for Meaning.

It’s easy to subscribe to this in theory, but what about your specific situation? Are you willing to own it?” via Your Life Is the Sum of Your Choices | Michael Hyatt.

Now, what choices will you make today and are you willing to own them and the power to make them?

Here’s Why It’s VITAL To Be 100% Self-Approved!

Mastin Kipp at The Daily Love has some good thoughts I’d like to amplify today…

With the uneducated approach to life, we tend to seek outward for things that are within us. Goals, intentions, desires, etc. are all well and good, but if the motive for why we want them goes unexamined, we can keep ourselves in a form of bondage.

One of the great mistakes in life is living life as an “If, then” statement. “If I get X, then I’ll be happy.” The goal is to be happy now.

So are you happy now? And if not, why not? Continue reading “Here’s Why It’s VITAL To Be 100% Self-Approved!”

Start a Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑