Tag: Shopping

Prayer doesn’t work

Scan of a Valentine greeting card dated 1909.
Image via Wikipedia

One of my favorite Christian writers, Jon Swanson, reposted some very pithy content a few days ago…

I’d like to return this Valentine’s Day card.”

I can help you with that. … Um, you know that this has writing on it, right?

“Yep. I wrote that.”

You can’t return cards that have been used.

“Two weeks ago, I was in here. I bought a sweater. The first time I wore it, the sleeve started to unravel. You took that back.”

Yep. The sweater was defective. How’s the new one?

“Great. Thanks. Now, about that card?”

But you can’t return cards that have been used.

“The other month, I was in here. I had a toaster. It didn’t heat up. You took that back.”

Yep. The toaster was defective. Were you able to find another one?

“I went to another store and they were able to give me what I wanted. Now, about that card.”

But you can’t return cards that have been used.

“I wore the sweater. You took it back. I used the toaster. You took it back. Why are you making a scene about the card?”

It’s different. You can’t return cards that have been used.

“But it didn’t work. I wrote in it. I gave it to my wife. And it didn’t work. So I would like a refund.”

What do you mean, exactly, that it didn’t work?

“Isn’t that a little personal? I mean, you have pictures of men handing women cards and the women smiling.  And pictures of men handing women chocolate and the women smiling. And I won’t even start to tell you what happened when other stores showed pictures of men handing women diamond bracelets. But it didn’t work.”

You mean your wife didn’t smile when you handed her the card?

“It was more of a snort.”

When was this?

“On the 16th. I got it when they were marked down.”

Source: Prayer doesn’t work (a repost) | 300 words a day

Ponder that for awhile…

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How You Can Use Negative Emotions To Create Massive Positive Change!

We are heading straight into the New Year! 2012 is almost here. If you’re like me and a lot of folks, this time of year can bring up all different types of emotions. The space away from work and the normal routine may put you in touch with emotions you may not feel the rest of the year.

So, if those emotions are there – it’s up to YOU to choose what to do with them. You see, emotions are like fuel. They push us to act – or not act. Many times the emotions we feel influence us to do things, either consciously or unconsciously. Today is a great day to get in touch with the emotions you are feeling. Take a second, breathe, stop what you are doing, try to stop thinking and just feel. Notice what emotions you are feeling. What are you feeling right below the surface? Anxiety? Worry? Joy? Happiness? Fear? Worry? Doubt? Elation? Positive Expectation? Negative Expectation? Whatever it is, notice it.

Now, take a moment and write down what you are feeling. Then ask yourself, why am I feeling this way? If an answer doesn’t come right away, that’s ok. Just sit with the question for a moment.

Now comes the critical choice that up until now you may not have been making consciously. I know that until I discovered I could use the fuel of emotion for good or for bad, I wasn’t consciously deciding to use it for good.

Source: How You Can Use Negative Emotions To Create Massive Positive Change!

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Seek the gifts!

“There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.”

– Richard Bach, is a best-selling author. Source; Today’s Quotes: Problems Bring Gifts! See The Gifts!

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You Know What To Do

You Know What to Do

You’re fat. You know what to do. There’s not really a new book that will change it. It’s you who will change it.

You’re unemployed. That’s temporary, even if temporary is stretching into 14 months. You know what you need, even if that means education, a move, a change of circumstances. But I promise you that you know.

You’re broke. Money exchanges hands every day. More money than we’ll ever earn in a lifetime flows all around you. You can find ways to have some of it. You know some of those ways. Very few books or speeches will amaze you and set you on a path to claim them all.

Then Why Do We Read and Overstudy?

Because we’re afraid, because we’re procrastinating, because we feel many emotions that “seem” like uncertainty, but are more often good old fashioned lack of self-esteem. Because we’ve tried and failed one too many times and we’re upset with ourselves for this. Because we listen to our Inner Critic and we believe that He or She is right (is yours a male or female?).

via chrisbrogan.com

Why do I read and overstudy? Because I’m not confident I’m good enough yet the things I read resonate with what I already believe. How short a distance would it be from consuming to producing with what I already know?

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How to Be Your Own Therapist and Solve the More Manageable Problems in Your Life

Starting in the 1950s Carl Rogers brought Pers...
Image via Wikipedia

Therapy is no doubt a helpful tool when you have problems to overcome, and one of the primary strategies therapists use to uncover and solve your issues involves identifying common behavioral patterns. But you don’t always need a therapist to recognize and correct an unhealthy pattern in your life. Here’s a primer for how you can solve the problems that don’t require professional help.

The world is good at creating patterns and we have an innate ability for picking them up. As we grow, our experience becomes a giant database of information and we make associations between similar events and occurrences as a way of understanding the world. While recognizing these patterns can be an incredibly helpful tool for solving our own issues, we’re much better at recognizing them in others than we are in ourselves. We also have a tendency to see patterns where we want to see them, even when they aren’t really there. We enlist the help of therapists because they’re trained to connect the behavioral dots, but with a little work we can hone our pattern recognition skills and solve many of our own problems. In this post we’ll give you a basic introduction to how pattern recognition works, how you can use it to investigate your issues, and what you need to watch our for so you don’t identify any patterns incorrectly.

via lifehacker.com

Follow the ‘via’ link above if you’re interested in the rest of the story…

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Be Humble or Be Humbled!

Peaceful
Image by Joewong038 via Flickr

“Humility is recognition of truth. Your worldly accomplishments are a gift bestowed upon you by the Uni-verse, nothing is possible without the support of the invisible realm of the Infinite Mystery. When you know that you actually do nothing and are simply a channel for the Good, Abundance, Joy and Peace that already existed before your birth to be rearranged to your preference you will be in harmony with Life. The minute you buy into being the doer of anything you have taken yourself out of the flow and stepped back into Ego thinking. All things have been created by the Joyful will of the Infinite Mystery, Life is an experience of making choices about how you want to arrange things in your life. You can choose to arrange things in a Fearful, Egoic way, or you can choose to arrange things in a Loving and Joyful way. When you choose Love and Joy you align with the greatest and highest Good and begin to express your unique creative perspective while at the same time feeling a oneness with everyone else. This will leave you with a feeling of wholeness, joy, peace and gratitude.”

– Jackson Kiddard, author & polymath.

via thedailylove.com
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Say it Like it is

Pain
Image by Michelle Brea via Flickr

Acknowledge your pain. Then you can begin to identify the source of it, and in identifying, you can begin to heal. When we open ourselves to emotions, we don’t just get the good ones, like happiness or relief. Feelings are a package deal. We get the entire emotional range.

Pain and suffering are part of the experience of being alive. Things go wrong. Lovers leave us, parents and sometimes children die. We fall, we fail. Don’t hide from your pain.

Don’t bury it under a shell of drugs, alcohol, or shallow achievement. If you hurt, then hurt. Recognize what you’re going through. Then learn to tell it like it is.

God, help me acknowledge the pain in my life instead of trying to mask it with mood-altering substances or mindless busywork. Teach me to say what hurts. Show me what it is that I need to do to heal; then give me the strength to do that.

via melodybeattie.com
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The Half Step That Will Change Your Life

Leo Babauta
Image by wmrice via Flickr
Good stuff from Leo Babauta this morning…

You’d be surprised to know how many emails I get where people are stuck in their lives.

They’re broke, or unmotivated, or in a job they hate, or they can’t find their passion, or they can’t get motivated to get healthy.

And they don’t know where to start.

It hurts to read these emails. It brings back to life the pain I lived through not too many years ago, when I too was stuck.

I know the feeling of despair when you are unhappy with your life and don’t know how to change. When you’ve tried lots of changes, but couldn’t find the discipline to make them stick. When you feel crappy about yourself because you know you should get off your butt and start improving your life, but you’d rather put it off for another day.

Problems go away when you ignore them, right?

I also know that there is really only one way out of this mire of despair.

It’s to take an action, no matter how tiny.

You don’t need to fix everything in your life right now. You don’t even need to fix one thing.

You just need to do one little, miniscule, almost nothing thing.

Make a list. Go outside and take a walk. Get rid of some of your junk food. Clear off your kitchen table. Cancel something tomorrow so you can make time to create something, no matter how small.

Don’t do all of these. Do one. Or half of one, or one thousandth. It doesn’t matter how small — the smaller, the better.

Take that first step. Celebrate that first step. Love the step, not the destination. That step, even the motion of taking the first foot off the ground and moving it forward — that’s everything.

That’s the truth, and you’ll not read it in many self-help books: put every microparticle of your existence into that half step, and be nothing but that half step, and love it with all you have … and your life has changed.

With this half step, everything is different. You haven’t achieved any goals … but you’ve moved. You haven’t created something amazing … and yet, more than ever before, you have.

You’ve created beauty and joy and movement where none existed before, where previously only constriction and paralysis and confusion lived. You have changed the world.

via zenhabits.net

h/t my buddy Steve…

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Don’t Make Yourself Small – Contemplate Your Success!!

This morning, I curated Mastin Kipp’s entire post because it was all so good…

How do you make yourself small?

Do you always come up with reasons why things can’t happen? Do you always seem to be arguing for your limitations rather than you strengths?

Well, me too. And so did my friend the other night. We had dinner and they were talking to me about all these things they wanted to do, but they couldn’t make it happen. And since I’m always in coach/mentor mode, I couldn’t help but chime in and help. I was shocked to see how every idea I had to help this person was shot down by an excuse.

I’ve heard all of the excuses out there, and given myself plenty, too. You know the normal ones like:

I’m too old. I don’t have enough money. I don’t have enough time. Success doesn’t happen to people like me. It’s too hard. I’m not smart enough. No one will like it anyway. It’s too complicated. I don’t have the proper qualifications, etc, etc, etc.

What I’m suggesting is this… Be aware of these limiting thoughts, but don’t let them stop you. Be aware of the challenges in your life (cuz we ALL have them), but don’t let them stop you.

Wayne Dyer tells a story about how they used to make ships out of wood, because wood floated and metal sank. It wasn’t until they figured out that it wasn’t the material that you used that mattered, it is how much water is dispersed that matters that they started building ships out of metal.

What was before impossible is now possible just by looking at things a little differently. Instead of contemplating how things sink, it was the contemplation of how things float that lead to that breakthrough.

So I’m curious… in your life, are you contemplating and justifying how your life can sink? And… as a result, is it? Or, are you contemplating what’s possible? Are you aware of what’s going on, but not making it worse than it is. Are you dwelling in possibility or impossibility?

Today, I want to suggest that you start contemplating how your life can float or rise to the top, instead of sinking. I want you to be aware of your limitations and the challenges of your life, but not let them stop you.

Are you up for it?!

via thedailylove.com

Me? I’ve been making excuses but I have a company to run and a book to write and people to serve. How about you?

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Be strong…

“Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel there is something special in them. Look at the sunny side of everything. Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger.”

– Christian D. Larsen, Larsen was a New Thought leader and teacher, as well as a prolific author of metaphysical and New Thought books.

via thedailylove.com
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10 Ways to Help Kids Deal with the Loss of a Loved One

Mental Health Awareness Ribbon
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Experiencing loss is a part of life that everyone has.  Losing someone is a challenge no matter what age you are.  Imagine how much harder it is for a child who has never experienced what it is like to be separated from loved ones.  Now that’s a challenge, but here is a list of things to keep in mind when talking with your children about the loss of a loved one.

via allprodad.com

Follow the ‘via’ link if you’d like to get the 10 ways…

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Joel Osteen jokes…

Alriiiiiiight…

;-)

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Hold to the vision…

“Every great work, every great accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement comes apparent failure and discouragement”

“The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy.”

– Florence Scovel Shinn, Shinn was an American artist and book illustrator

via thedailylove.com
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Live out of your Imagination, not your history…

“Live out of your imagination, not your history.”

– Stephen Covey, wrote the best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

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Judgments…

“Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is more important than the judgment we pass on ourselves.”

– Nathaniel Branden

via thedailylove.com
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Why you’re not getting what you want…

Farmer plowing in Fahrenwalde, Mecklenburg-Vor...
Image via Wikipedia

I like this perspective from Mastin Kipp at The Daily Love…

Plain and simple, we get what we ask for.

Not just with our words, but also with our actions. In fact, our actions will show us what we are asking for far more than our words. We only take action on what we truly believe, so if we want to see what we are really asking for, let us look towards our actions.

If you say you want to lose weight, but your actions are to eat high calorie food and stay inactive, you aren’t really asking for health.

If you say you have faith but your actions are actions that are faithless, then you don’t really have faith.

If you say you love someone and your actions are unloving, then you don’t really love that person.

Let us be mindful of our actions. Continue reading “Why you’re not getting what you want…” →

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Got the electric fence finished…

Electric fence. Electrical insulation. Locatio...
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We did such a good job this time that afterwards I was joking with my sons about starting an electric fence company at shockingresults.net. Get it? Electric fence? Shocking results? LOL! The domain’s available — don’t tempt me!

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Putting in fence…

I’m not always happy that my wife has a passion for hobby farming that makes me a farmhand. Playing Farmville is so much cleaner and easier…

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Taken with picplz at Home in Pierce, WI.

Every once in awhile, though, I take time to find some meaning in the task at hand. Yesterday, we were working on expanding the area enclosed by our electric fence. Putting up the original fence last year really kicked my butt! Now, I’ve learned enough that I could start an electric fence company…

In expanding the fence, I wanted to take advantage of some wooden posts that were already on our property so that I’d have some really solid corners to build on. I took this picture while waiting for one of my helpers. I paused to think about the ‘poetry’ of the post — a previous land owner put in that post God knows how many years ago. It may have been 10. It may have been 100. It was probably erected to contain dairy cattle, but who knows? This is how I entertain myself on some of these projects by thinking of the whole ‘circle of life’ thing as the land passes from one ‘farmer’ to the next…

50 years from now, someone might wonder about this hardware and who installed it. Maybe not. It intrigues me — or at least it keeps my kind of sane as I work on these projects…

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One last bike ride in Galena

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Taken with picplz at The Galena Territory in Guilford, IL.

All week long I’ve been blogging about the joys of family vacationing at Teddy Bear Place in Galena, IL. Yesterday, I went out for one more killer [almost literally!] ride around Lake Galena in the Galena Territory…

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50 Reasons to Celebrate Your Husband or Wife

Even when you are totally in love with your spouse, sometimes pressures of life get in the way and take over your interactions with each other.  It’s a little too easy to let the daily grind wear you down.  That’s why it’s important to remember what you love about each other.  You don’t have to wait for a special occasion to show your appreciation.  You can do it every day.  Here are 50 reasons to get you started…

via familyminute.com

Follow the ‘via’ link above to get the 50 reasons…

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No, I’m not talking about stealing office supplies. Swype is an awesome keyboard replacement tool for Android phones. It comes standard on some phones like the Samsung Epic and I have used it on my Evo and my Nexus S. You can get it for your phone at http://beta.swype.com…

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