Daily Inspiration 5-31-18

"For it is in giving 

that we receive." 

-- Francis of Assisi 

[Classic post from 6-11-14]

I was caught over tipping the other day. I don't think most usually notice, except, of course, the waiter or waitress and me. So, to answer curiosity, I explained a little why I did that.

It's a little hard to explain, only because I have a lot of reasons for doing it and I became a good tipper in my early twenties because my first wife worked for a number of inexpensive restaurants where tips were usually in coins. We would count them each night and put them in rolls.

It wasn't much of a job when it comes to compensation and the work was hard and required a lot of patience and endurance too. Back then, if someone tipped 10% that was special and anything more was quite remarkable. I learned how to become at least a 20 percenter because I remember those days very well.

The over tipping began later, several years ago. I think my main motivation was to bring joy to the waiter or waitress. The other thing was that it caused me to feel generous and richer than I was in reality.

I remember a funny movie called, My Blue Heaven, where Vinny, the lead character played by Steve Martin over tipped everyone and even tipped people that normally don't get tips--like FBI agents. He said that he had this whole philosophy on over tipping and was going to write a book about that and his life. The movie is a bit of a romp, but I loved that philosophy about tipping.

The other day getting caught, it was an $18 bill and I tipped $10. But, you know, the food was excellent, the service was excellent, and it was a stupid bargain with all of that, and besides, I love to spread joy. Do you think the waitress was joyous about that tip? I'm certain of it, but it might be true that it brought me more joy to give it and for her to receive it.

When I see a check, I take the total times two so that I know what the absolute minimum is, then I give what is in my heart to give. Who knows? It could be anything because I have developed a wonderful habit of over tipping.


"The Wise Man Does Not Lay Up His Own Treasures. The More He Gives To Others, The More He Has For His Own." -- Lao Tzu 

Spread Some Joy Today--Follow your heart, not your head.

Daily Inspiration 5-30-18

"How people treat you is their karma; 

how you react is yours." 

-- Wayne Dyer 

[Classic post from 6-8-14]

When people do something that isn't to your liking, there are many times an immediate reaction that may involve words and/or actions. There are so many ways that someone can push our buttons and create a reaction and sometimes people may even do it on purpose for a variety of reasons.

I have focused many years on reducing anger and especially reactive anger, and in many situations, I have succeeded very well. As each situation comes up, I notice how I am feeling, and then I make a conscious decision to let it go. Other people can be angry or have issues and that is on them and I don't have to go along. I have the power to choose for myself.

Today was a glorious day and I didn't do a bit of work and just went on a nice ride with little Charlie the dog, taking him on walks, getting a breve latte, enjoying the weather. You know, having a good time. As I'm coming over the hill from Napa back home, there are so many people in such a hurry and several of them were just riding my tail. They must watch too much NASCAR racing because being that close is dangerous, to say the least, and on a windy road to boot.

As each of the several that did that came upon me, I felt such pressure to get out of their way, but there just wasn't much opportunity based on the road. I could see in the rearview mirror that they were extremely impatient and visually upset that I was in their way even though I was going the speed limit or better.

I had several thoughts. . . How about I slam on the brakes and have you buy me a new car? Maybe I should show you how I feel with one finger! I felt my body tense up and noticing what I was feeling and thinking, I chose to let go, pull over when I could and not give it much thought.

When people are pushing you--and we all know there are lots of ways to do that--it is almost an instinctive reaction to push back. A while back I wrote about some Judo training I took as a teenager and how Judo is more the art of using your opponent's energy to foil their attacks. In other words, go with the flow, let it flow past you, only control it, don't fight it or push against the forces.

The only decision that made any sense to me now was to release the tension in my body by changing my reactive thoughts and allow them to go by when it was safe. This I did. It is only my willingness to practice that helps me to grow beyond instinctive reaction and dissolve provocation.


Awareness And A Willingness To Practice Are Key Ingredients.

Spread Some Joy Today--by showing your gratitude in some way today. You have so much to be thankful for.

Daily Inspiration 5-29-18

"As long as I have a want, 

I have a reason for living. 

Satisfaction is death." 

-- George Bernard Shaw 

[Classic post from 6-5-14]

I don't remember the website, but one site had some interesting security questions. One question was, 'What was your favorite activity in high school?' My answer was learning. Then a few days ago I was talking with some friends and I said, 'my favorite thing in life is learning.' So my major want in life is to learn and grow and expand and share, then do it some more.

I also have a tendency to be what I call a binge learner, where I go, go, go, then pause for a bit and then go again. It mirrors life in that there are waking and activity and then also a rest period.

I'm driven by a desire to know, and after all these years of learning and growing, I find as many answers within as from other teachers. Sometimes I think that maybe I know enough and just stop and enjoy the fruits, but I enjoy life more as I learn more, so that keeps me going.

So early this morning I was thinking about what it is that keeps me wanting to be alive and it is wanting. Esther Hicks says over and over that, 'you never get it done.' I find peace in that. There's no rush, nor is there an end other than one that we may choose. John Dewey says it nicely: "Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another."

Some people might think that we shouldn't want so much, and we should just be satisfied with what we have. Well, I agree with appreciating what we have, but without wanting more, there would be no life. Wanting is good.

The argument I heard when I was young was not to be greedy as an omen of squashing desire. I agree with the idea that being greedy is not a positive thing. Greed is fear and very limited thinking. A greedy person has a need to take from others thinking there is only so much, but the truth is that there is plenty, so wanting whatever we want is okay as long as it is not harming others.

Next time you're thinking that maybe you want too much, remember that without wanting, there would be no life. So, wanting is life-giving.


Want Away! There Is No Limit. There Is No End. 

Spread Some Joy Today--by just being yourself. You are perfect just the way you are.

Daily Inspiration 5-28-18

"Change is not a destination, 

just as hope is not a strategy." 

-- Rudy Giuliani 

[Classic post from 7-1-14]

Wow. What a great quote. It seems to me that this describes the political process, or at least what seems like the majority's idea of a new life and moving away from the reality of what is.

But, I was thinking of this in a different way as I was thinking about people in new jobs that they are wanting to do well in, people looking for a job, and generally moving through life. I guess I have plenty of experience in all of that and know others going through it too.

Let's start with the first part of the quote: "Change is not a destination." Although we might think many times that change is the destination, it is more often than not, something that refuses to be managed. I think the best we could say about change is that it is a given. Physical things in us and around us are in a constant flux of change. Our thoughts too are constantly in motion and thereby constantly in a state of change.

Change may be the sea we sail on, but it is neither the port we left or the potential port we eventually arrive in. How we set our sail on this sea of change, meaning our 'attitude' toward it and in response to it, has everything to do with the destination.

The second part: "hope is not a strategy." I know a lot of people who use hope as a strategy, and the sea of change buffets them about as if they were crossing the Pacific ocean in a dingy during a storm. We might think of hope as wishing, which is not a strategy either. For results to come on purpose with purpose, we need a strategy, decisions, plans, goals, design, activity, seeking, learning.

In the commercial truck world which I play around with some, I see a lot of dealers without a strategy for everything from inventory to managing the department. That's okay. They can do it as they desire, and they will get the results they get, but what if they had a strategy? What could they do then?

The same is true for all of us in everything that we do. We can hope to have a better relationship, or we can have a strategy. We can hope to do better financially, or we can develop or borrow a strategy. We can hope to grow our business or we can employ a strategy and make better decisions. We can hope our body was thinner, or we can adopt a strategy that has proven results.

Whatever we want, and whatever we want to be good at, better at, excel in, we need to remember that there are two ways: hope or strategy, and knowing the difference is critical. Then with that strategy, sailing on the sea of change will be with a gentle breeze.


Live On Purpose With Purpose. 

Spread Some Joy Today--This is a glorious time to be on this earth! Loving every day of it makes it even more glorious.

Daily Inspiration 5-27-18

"There is nothing more galling to angry people 

than the coolness of those on whom 

they wish to vent their spleen." 

-- Alexandre Dumas 

[Classic post from 6-2-14]

I had an interesting phone call today from a customer whom I have never talked to before. He had another party with him and they caught me at the grocery store in my car and were so angry and upset that it was sounding more like rage. One was more restrained than the other, but I wouldn't want to live on the difference.

I was very surprised by the call and very calmly tried to ascertain exactly what the issues were and after a couple of minutes, I simply hung up. It was a Sunday, and I don't need to be beaten up like that, and I couldn't seem to have them listen, so I just let it go.

Afterward, still surprised by the whole thing, I had the thought that I can't reason with anger, and especially rage. About the best possible scenario facing anger like that is finding some way to diffuse it. You just can't talk to anger and have it work out very well.

First of all, that kind of anger is not MY problem. It is theirs. Elizabeth Kenny said it so well that, "he who angers you conquers you." Calm heads prevail. Second, losing my own joy is not an option. I get to choose how I want to feel and I want joy. The other party gets to choose also. Their choice has nothing to do with me. It's all about their own interpretation.

Another thing I learned about anger, in this case, is that they were creating more anger among themselves by virtue of their openly sharing and agreeing with each other. They were trying to express how they felt I'm sure, but it just wasn't a great way to achieve the objective of convincing me to help them. They wanted something from me and found I wasn't open to their type of persuasion.

And last, if I were as enlightened as I want to be, I would have been sending these two gentlemen love thoughts while they were talking. It is easy to think about that hours later, and I would rather learn to remember it at the time that it would be beneficial. Of course, any time is a good time. Even now!


"Anger Blows Out The Lamp Of The Mind." -- Robert G Ingersoll 

Spread Some Joy Today--by letting joy rule your day.

Daily Inspiration 5-26-18

"Quit trying to make 

what's not it, "it," 

and "it" will 

 reveal itself plainly." 

 -- Alan Cohen 

[Classic post from 4-3-14]

A client and friend called me today and was out of sorts, off-kilter, overwhelmed with things, and wondering what to do about some things. He wanted some advice. And, although I love such an opportunity, I'm not sure people really, really want to hear what I might say.

I listened. It's best to try to understand what is going on. It was obvious that he was not feeling very good today and seemed to me to be out of alignment. Chiropractors talk that way too. Alignment is everything in Chiropractic. And, it is everything in the rest of our lives too, except we just don't think of it that way usually.

Some might say that under these conditions, we should forge ahead and just work through it and it will all be okay in the morning. But, I didn't say that. My advice was to chill and find some things to be thankful for and to focus on those things exclusively for a while. In other words, get your mind off the problem and get to work (or play) on the alignment. Alignment is always our job.

So, how does one get back into alignment? First of all, though almost no one ever wants to hear it, our thoughts about the problems or the situation is the culprit, not the problems or situations. If you were to take the thinking away, everything would be neutral. There would be no overwhelment, no disappointment, no concerns at all because those are all thoughts and interpretations of data.

Make no mistake. The thoughts are the problem, so the only thing to do to get on the track of alignment is to choose better feeling thoughts. Too simple? Not. It's really the way back. Finding things to be thankful for is a purposeful way to get on the alignment trail. It's like the Chiropractor making an adjustment, then another, and another, and in time, it is all back in alignment. A better feeling thought, then another, and another, and pretty soon you're feeling good again.

What is necessary here is the desire to feel good and knowing that we all have the ultimate power of our own alignment, and also, our own misalignment. We know where we are by how we feel, then we can choose to want to feel good, and begin the process of adjustment.

It's the only thing that really works and I now know to practice it all the time. Here's how Abraham said it with Esther Hicks in 2003: "Since nothing matters to you other than your personal alignment with your individual goals or desires, then that is where our work is. . . your life can be as wonderful or as horrible as you allow it to be. It all depends upon the thoughts that you practice. And therein lies the basis of anyone's success: How much do I practice thoughts that bring me joy, and how much do I practice thoughts that bring me pain?"


Emotion Is A Response To Your Alignment. Paying Attention Puts Us In Charge And Control. 

Spread Some Joy Today--Feeling good is extremely important. Spreading that joy is a natural response.

Daily Inspiration 5-25-18

"Resentment is personal: 

 Personal mental punishment." 

-- Albert K. Strong 

[Classic post from 9-27-15]

Resentment is an interesting emotion. It is an attempt to punish someone else for something that they did or did not do that was not in alignment with what we wanted. In other words, we didn't get our way. In other words, it's my way or the resentment highway--the highway of shame, disgust, disappointment.

But, who does it punish? Resentment punishes us. Nelson Mandela said it so well when he said that, "Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping it will kill your enemies." Malachy McCourt phrased it a bit differently, and I think in a way that expresses it about most of us very well: "Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die." I love that line, "waiting for the other person to die." One might think that will help create patience, but because resentment feeds on resentment, it maintains its own momentum.

I saw this quote from Bell Hooks yesterday: "The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others." I know that the answer to resentment is love. In fact, love is the answer to all things because that is what we essentially are. Yet in this quote, though it made its point with me that we need to choose love, I dislike the word 'against' in there. Love is never against anything. Love is not against oppression or domination. Love is not against anything. It allows. There is a world of difference.

So, resentment is blaming others, it is disappointment with an attitude, but resentment doesn't attack. It doesn't close others off but closes us off to others. It is a self-defeating response to our own misalignment. Resentment is a tug-o-war against ourselves. The way to move away from this poisonous emotion is to first let go of the rope. Once the rope is on the ground, we have released most of the tension in our body, and now we can find relief in choosing a thought that feels just a little bit better. Then another that feels just a little bit better, and as we move in these little steps, we can eventually get back to our true selves--love.

What we all want is unconditional love. All of us. Even the meanest looking, meanest acting, meanest spirited of us wants unconditional love. That is the love of God, The Universe, All-That-Is. And yet, love is a gift we give to ourselves. Once we do this; once we experience the unconditional love of ourselves, we then attract it to ourselves. When we fail to love ourselves, even the all-powerful love of God is blocked by us. It is there and ready to flow over us as soon as we allow it in ourselves.

The answer is always, always, always, always love. Getting there from a dark place is done by letting go of the resistance within by ceasing to pull on the rope and instead, just lay it down, then turning toward relief bit by bit until we return to love from which we came.


Allowing Is The Art Of Finding Our True Selves, Which Is Love. 

Spread Some Joy Today--by allowing yourself to move toward expressing more joy in your life.

Daily Inspiration 5-24-18

"Changing the world is easy.

Anyone can do it.

All we need to do is

change the world within us."

-- Albert K. Strong

[Classic post from 6-26-17]

Yesterday, I was looking on the bottom shelf of my bookcase and saw two very thick binders of old writings from the '70s and '80s. I've tried to keep a diary in bits and spurts, and not many of them, and yet there are many hundreds of pages in those binders. Most of it is dribble I think, but even the dribble has moments that shine. I read one lengthy bit from early 1987, more than 30 years ago now, and I found it interesting enough to keep reading.

Mostly it was just thoughts that I was thinking, trying to understand myself and the world around me. Some of the shining moments were expressing my desire to love others without conditions, and loving myself as part of that. Of course back then it was mostly thoughts and not so much action, but first, comes the thought then comes the action.

Translating what I was going through then, what I was learning from then to now, the biggest difference I see is not the thinking, but the action. Back then, I was still hoping for the world to change, waiting for circumstances to change so that I could step in and enjoy the fruits of that new world. Didn't happen. Still hasn't if I were thinking and acting like I was then. But, I live in a very different world now.

The world has changed. The external world around me has changed. It is a far better world from my point of view now, and that change came only by changing my own inner world.

Here's the interesting part to me about that: I didn't get here by gaining, but by losing. I didn't get here by gathering, but by letting go. I didn't get here by finding answers, but by answering questions. I didn't get here by finding new beliefs, but by releasing beliefs. I didn't get here by strengthening my will, but by softening my heart.

Questions are key. One of the questions that I have asked myself that is very important is this: How do I want to feel?

Everything we do, every decision we make, every action we take is done in order to feel something. Generally to feel better. To feel relieved. To feel joy. To feel loved. To feel accomplishment. To feel satisfaction. To feel happy. To feel rich. To feel love. All of that resonates with us because when we are resonating, we are in alignment with who we really are, or we could say, in alignment with our inner being, our God within, our soul. The word doesn't matter, but the resonance does.

When we think, decide, act and it feels other than these, it is out of resonance, or in discordance. What is interesting about history is how often we have come to accept these feelings as reality, when they are personal choices becoming our own inner reality. We could call this separation from our Source, separation from God, out of alignment.

What I have realized in all my travels in knowledge is that the truths that we seek are not without us, but within us. We know a truth by its resonance. That's why they say that truly resonates with us. That knowledge that is found outside of us is fine if it resonates. If it doesn't resonate, if it is discordant with our inner knowing, it is good to question it. As we believe things that are in discordance within us, we move further away from the truth.

I have not arrived at a world that is airy-fairy and all good-feeling and eternally happy. I have realized that there are things that I will like and things I will not like. Positive and negative are abound in this life; however, how I interpret that is purely up to me. What I call that is purely my choice. How I feel about that is purely a personal decision.


It Is A Brave New World! It Is So To Me. 

Spread Some Joy Today--by choosing as you will and enjoy as you will because you will.

Daily Inspiration 5-23-18

"Life instructs,

regardless.

Love is all,

regardless."

-- Terry Minion

[New post]

Last night, I was laying in bed and the words above came into my mind. It is always strangely fascinating when this happens.

As I have been studying for so long now, it has become clear to me that life is instructing whether we are paying any attention to it or not. Learning is building, though we have full choice to ignore it or to open up to it. It has become equally clear that in the end there is only love, which reminds me of that early Beatles song, "love, love, love, all you need is love, do-ta-do-ta-do," except that this would be: "love, love, love, all there is is love!" Everything else is an illusion, something we simply made up either individually or collectively.

It is easy now for me to look back and see how life has always been instructing me. It is easy to look back and see that however painful something seemed at the time that I was learning what I needed to learn from that experience. There are surely many of those experiences. It is my awareness or paying attention now that allows me to celebrate those times and become so grateful for them, otherwise, I would be dragging unhappiness along with me everywhere I went. The challenge for me in my growth has not been to see the value then in my now, but to see the value as it is occurring in my present moments. I have been playing with this for some time in the last couple of years and I am making so much progress that I am celebrating that right now.

Seeing instruction and the learning that comes from experience is one thing, and learning to see that love is all there is, well, that is somewhat more challenging. Yet, I am getting this day by day and I am so grateful to Abraham, Esther Hick's work which I've studied since 2007, along with Bashar, and Paul Selig's work more recently.

It's easy to not see that love is all there is. In fact, I could even say that it seems to be the norm, but one thing to me has become clear: All that is an illusion. It merely attempts to cover love with fear. I used to think that all there is, in the end, is love and fear and our choice is between them. What I see now is that fear is simply an illusion. I think of fear as a hill blocking the sunrise or sunset and then simply walking to the top of the hill and see nothing but the sunrise or the sunset. Fear is no more unless I choose to see it or pay attention to it as being real.

I used to think that there is all this nasty stuff going on in the world and now I see that was in my head and covering up my heart. As I learn to see the instruction that life has been giving me all along and open my eyes to the love that is all around me everywhere, I am whole, renewed of mind, in peace with all including and perhaps especially within myself. Truly, that is where peace begins. It is not without, but within. As is love. To seek love without is to accept fear as real, which makes love something that is fragile, yet love is all the strength there is. It is the strongest thing. It is the only thing.


Love Is All There Is.

Spread some joy today--by opening your heart and mind to the inner knowing that we each have that love is all. As you do, you are filled with joy.

Daily Inspiration 5-22-18

"Darn the wheel of the world!

Why must it continually turn over?

Where is the reverse gear?"

-- Jack London

[Classic post from 6-15-12]

OK. So, pretend there is a reverse gear. If you could go back in time, what would you change and how would you change it? Of course, it's only fair that you go back to the knowledge base you had then with no recollection of having been in the future.

So. . . let's see now. That being the case, it seems only reasonable and true that you would have made the same decisions in exactly the same way that you did before, for there would have been no reference point from which to cause a change.

It would only be with the wisdom that you've learned in living your life that could cause a change in the past. Something tells me that isn't going to happen except in a fantasy of your own doing.

Based on all of that, what point is looking backward? The only place to look at is today, this minute and what can be done right now. Anything else is a waste of valuable now time.


Dealing With Accumulated Intelligence Is All There Is To Deal With.

Spread Some Joy Today--Whomever it is that you've been meaning to call or write, today is the perfect day.

Daily Inspiration 5-21-18

Number one:

Stop all criticism.

-- Louise L. Hay

from a live talk,

How To Love Yourself

[New post]

I went for a long walk today and listened to a one hour live recorded audio titled, How To Love Yourself by Louise L. Hay. She had ten steps to discuss loving ourselves more and she said that if we only did number one, all the other steps would take care of themselves with no effort. The number one step is to stop all criticism. That begins with all self-criticism, and any criticism of others, things, circumstances, whatever.

How many times each and every day do we criticise ourselves, or others, or to be critical of circumstances and things? The worst thing is to be critical of ourselves. It is so disempowering. It's been said that there is no such thing as constructive criticism, and I agree with that; however, we do have discernment at our beckon call. Discernment is simply a choice of what we want or don't want, but it is not born of criticism. To be critical is to be judgmental. and it is such a negative thing that if we could or would simply cease this one activity of the mind, our lives would dramatically improve immediately.

Try it for yourself. Stop all criticism for one hour, then one day, then one week and watch what happens. It may take a while but it is worth the effort of practice to move toward a far more loving and fruitful life and the thing that will help us move away from being critical, and especially of ourselves, is to begin to praise ourselves and to praise others.


Praise Will Release All Criticism Very Quickly.

Spread some joy today--in your delight in yourself and those around you. Praise is a choice, criticism is a choice, and joy is a choice. We are the choosers.

Daily Inspiration 5-20-18

"Lifting weights without resistance

is completely pointless 

and without any benefit whatsoever."

-- Albert K. Strong

[New post]

I went for a walk yesterday and I was listening to an audiobook and one thing that was said at the end of the book about this very successful entrepreneur. The author said that he would continue to innovate as long as he was leading the company and able and would be equally successful, or when there was no one that was standing in his way. I thought, "Wow! That is a powerful attribute of contrast in the overall value of successful accomplishment!"

So often we may think that if no one was in our way or things were lined up perfectly so that there was no resistance to our forward momentum that all would be so much better, in fact, well. My thoughts on this walk were that this is not the case and that there is so much value, in contrast, resistance, naysayers, and the like, that we should be praising their very existence. It seemed to me that without them, there would be little of value created.

Just imagine the growth and expansion that comes from those who are resisting our progress. That resistance strengthens us. It causes us to rethink, to reimagine, to reformulate and to refocus. All of that is powerfully good and has a tendency to help us come to conclusions that would not have been available to us in any other way. These things cause us to expand, to become more, to create better ways, to expand our own knowledge as we expand our influence.

So today, I suggest that instead of thinking negatively about other people and their lack of support and participation that we thank them instead. Get excited when people are pushing against our ideas and thoughts. Get excited about people having other ideas. Begin to find value in that miraculous collaboration that comes from the Ying and the Yang. Get fired up about hearing no, or hearing the boss or whoever thinking we have a screw loose. Get jazzed about the possibilities that can come from this delightful, insightful, and empowering contrast.


It's All Good When We See With The Right Eyes!

Spread some joy today--by feeling joy instead of unhappiness when others seem to be pushing against our thoughts and ideas. Listen and learn and find the joy in what they are bringing to the table!

Daily Inspiration 5-19-18

"It takes a little courage

And a little self-control

And some grim determination,

If you want to reach the goal.

It takes a deal of striving,

And a firm and stern-set chin,

No matter what the battle,

If you really want to win.

There's no easy path to glory,

There's no rosy road to fame,

Life, however, we may view it,

Is no simple parlor game;

But its prizes call for fighting,

For endurance and for grit;

For a rugged disposition

And a don't-know-when-to-quit."

-- Unknown

[Classic post from 4-4-11]

Bunk!

As far as I'm concerned, this quote is the kind of crap I was taught as a young salesperson and was repeated by many of the sources I studied, and you know what? It doesn't work very well and then, only for a few in comparison. The rest have a tendency to get discouraged and go off the path seeking to get away from this train of thinking.

Why? Because I have learned that there is no good reason for it to be that tough. There's no good reason to have to fight. It's not about grit. It's not about striving. It's not about a stern-set chin, and it's for sure not about a battle. It says, there's no easy path to glory, and I think there is a very easy path to glory. It need not be about how hard it is and how only the strongest survive and all that crap.

Now, I realize I'm being so judgemental using the word crap, but it just feels good right now to throw all that stuff back at the places it came from and let them have their no-gain-without-pain, no-winning-without-fighting philosophies to themselves. They are all such limiting thoughts.

My truth is now that it is easy and ANYONE can do it. It's really more about lightening up, letting go, and being easier on ourselves. It's more about joy and enthusiasm than blood and guts. It's so much more about feeling good than sucking it up. I guess the best way I can think to describe it is something I wrote about recently about peace and how peace is not something to fight for but to relax into. Just as joy is not something that we work at, it is something we simply allow. Success is just like that to me now. It is easy.

Now, I agree that it is about choice and choosing what one wants and what to focus on. I agree with being inspired and doing what you love to do. And, I agree that what we think about determines all of this. So, that leaves the one thing that every person on the planet has ALL the power to do: think their thoughts and decide to think something else if it isn't what they want. Do that and every single one wins the prize, reaches the goal, rings the bell, achieves success. Of course, taken just a bit further, everyone is ultimately successful no matter how they think. . .

It Just Isn't About Effort And Action. . .

Spread Some Joy Today--Relax. Let go. No worries. You're covered. You're already successful.

Daily Inspiration 5-18-18

"Whatever you fight,

you strengthen,

and what you resist,

persists."

-- Eckhart Tolle

(and many others)

[Classic post from 6-25-12]

I learned the concept of the quote above quite some time ago and I believe it to be absolutely accurate, and with what seems to be human nature, it is hard to practice that belief. What I mean by that is that we seem to want to fight against things we don't want or believe in and we think in our fight against them that they have a possibility of being licked. Yet, this is not how the universal laws work.

Whatever we give attention to is increased and it doesn't matter if it is something we want or something we don't want. So fighting against a thing only creates more of it to fight against which creates more of it, and so on. The war on poverty hasn't decreased poverty, as the war on cancer hasn't decreased cancer, and the war on drugs hasn't decreased drugs. In fact, all those things have increased regardless of the fight. In fact, there is more disease in the world than at any time during the reign of mankind, yet at the same time, there is more joy than ever before as well. Our choice is a matter of where we want to focus.

I do my best and continually improve at making this kind of distinction in everything in my life. What I want more of, this I want to give my attention to. What I want less of or is not right, I do my best to be ignorant and even outright reject it. I even have a new sign on my wall: "Terry Is Blissfully Ignorant!" Yes, I am, and proud of it.

If the news (local, regional, national or world) brought me interesting things about the positive aspects or building-up aspects of life, I would pay close attention to it, but as it is almost all negatively focused or focused on what is wrong, not right, spectacular, and controversial, I have no interest in it. And, I am blissfully ignorant if someone were to ask me about a news event that I didn't hear about. I certainly don't need it in my conversation script, so even if I knew about it, I would not discuss it. What good could ever come from that?

Our business or at our job is just an extension of our personal thinking. If there is news of, talk of and focus on some kind of economic downturn, the downturn is strengthened and expanded. The way around it is to not only not discuss it, read about it or bother to listen to it, but to celebrate the abundance that we currently have in our lives. The more we celebrate our abundance, the more abundance we have.


Whatever We Celebrate, We Strengthen. Whatever We Praise Persists.

Spread Some Joy Today--Find as many things to be truly thankful for today as you can. They can be big, small or in between.