spinning wheels …

In Colorado the roads are snow filled and icy and this is still October.   Cars and trucks are slip sliding their way around town.   Snow hovers in the air as a cold blast of wind drives the little flakes deeply into exposed flesh.   The whirring of tires can be heard as cars try to move from a standstill.    It’s a mess!

That can be true of our lives as well.     We can be stuck just spinning our wheels and going nowhere.   Objects of all shapes are flying at us as we retreat into the safety of our well worn cocoon waiting for the threats to hopefully pass by us.

Are you spinning your wheels and going nowhere?

Are you letting the obstacles of life run over you?

Are you retreating to safety waiting out the storms of life?

“The future lies before you, like paths of pure white snow. Be careful how you tread it, for every step will show.”  Anonymous

Two wolves … attitude

Attitude is something you own and have control over.   In many life situations people demand control over the outcome.  Most of the time they realize that control is an illusion.   In fact we have very little control or perceived control of our lives.   There is one thing we do control and that is our attitude.

We own 100% of our attitude.   Attitude is a choice we make in every circumstance good or bad.   It is our choice to be mad, sad or glad.  We can be angry at the driver who is driving what looks like inches off of our back bumper.   We can be angry that the day didn’t work out the way we wanted.

Attitude has power.

This story is a great example of what we can do with attitude.

 

Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, “My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

 

~author unknown

i dare you

I dare you to be happy!

I dare you to be fully alive!

I dare you to thank someone today!

I dare you to learn something new!

I dare you to have a good attitude!

I dare you to smile!

I dare you to laugh!

I dare you to laugh again!

I dare you to exercise!

I dare you to read!

I dare you to feel good about yourself?

I dare you to dream?

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
Goethe

 

the game

What games do you play?

Football?

Something else?

In football the goal of the game is to advance an oblong object down the 100 yard field and cross the goal line.   As the teams of eleven members each face each other with an equal intensity and belief that one team is to stop the advance of the ball and the other is to move it forward the ball is moved.   Sometimes it advances well and the team is given more chances to try again and at other times the team with the ball has to give up the ball and give it to the other team.

Of course there are rules for playing the game of football.   Some infractions of the rule cause one of the teams to be penalized.   When the team is penalized they often are pushing themselves further from their goal (stopping or advancing the ball).

Life is somewhat like the game of football.   Your goal is to advance through life.  There are rules that have to be obeyed in order to advance.   There is also a force pushing back (resistance) on you as you try to advance.   Those forces might be family, finances, spirituality, career, health, relationships or recreation and are slowing you down from making the progress you desire.

When the there are forces pushing you back from the intended goal what happens to you?   Do you readjust your strategy?   Do you get angry?  Do you give up and quit?  Do you push forward?

“It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not a winner. “
Vince Lombardi

Is your life partly cloudy?

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be.
If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing,
it is possible that I my end by really becoming incapable of doing it.
On the contrary, if I shall have the belief that I can do it,
I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it,
even if I may not have it at the beginning.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Maybe life isn’t exactly what you want it to be.   Life could be like a soft drink that has lost its fizz.   Life  could be  like a river that has lost its way.   Life could be driving on an empty tank of gas.  Life could be like standing in the fog.  Life could be like being a bird unable to fly.   Life could be singing a song without a voice.  Life could be like walking in the  mud.

Life could feel like something is missing and maybe it is, but it doesn’t have to be that way.   What does your life feel like?

It is too quiet, is it too loud, is it too hard, is it too heavy, is it too dark, or  is it missing something?   What is your life missing?

Is your life mostly cloudy, partly cloudy, cloudy or sunny?

Would you like more sunshine in your life?

What are you doing to bring sunshine into your life?

an attitude worth catching …

Not every day is going to be filled will blessings, joy and peace.  There are going to be days where something is going to drain you emotionally and physically.   It is how we respond during those draining days that are vitally important.   It is the attitude that we keep within and the attitude we display externally that will determine our direction.

Our problems and challenges will change us.   How we respond to the challenges and problems will reveal our character.  That doesn’t mean that we won’t struggle for a time or that we won’t feel upset about something because more than likely we will suffer a dip in the road.   Instead of falling into the dip the resolve should be to move out of the dip as quickly as possible.

How?   How do you get out of a dip before it turns into a rut?

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.”  William James

We can alter our lives by altering our attitude.   We can think of what can be rather than what was.   We can think forward to something better or we can sink into the regret of yesterday.    We can choose to be thankful for today and hopeful for a better tomorrow.    We have the ability to choose our attitude in any circumstance.

Attitude is yours worth catching?

What do you want your attitude to be?

I could have done that …

I could have done that!

It’s a pretty familiar phrase.   People know they have the abilities to do something just like someone else but they didn’t.   Someone else had the courage to take that first step and that leaves the one that was watching with only the words “I could have done that!”, and you could have.    What stopped you?

What stops you from doing something far greater than you think you could?

Is it fear of failure?   It is a lack of courage to bring forth your dream?

Whatever the reason you are the only one that can turn a “could” into a result that belongs to you.   Is it writing a book?   Is it making a discovery?   Is it patching up a broken relationship?   Is it saying something kind to your neighbor?   Is it taking time out to play?   Is it taking the time to learn something new?   Whatever it is, whatever it is, you can do it if you take the first step.

If it is important, if you have the passion, if you have the dream, if you believe you can, you can if you try.

Don’t live a life filled with “I could have done that.”   Start it today – do it today – live it today!

Look for the signpost

“When we are lost in the woods the sight of s signpost is a great matter.”  C.S. Lewis

 

Sometimes we drift through life like a piece of wood floating in the sea.   The currents pull and push us about.   Our destination is to a place, anyplace, anywhere we are lost in the vastness of the sea.  

Drifting about carelessly without a purpose, without a goal, drifting about in the blue sea.

A seagull lands on the little piece of wood and asks, “Where are you going?”   The driftwood doesn’t reply, as it dances on the waves.

The drifting wood slides quietly up on a beach resting.   A wave grabs a hold of the wood and takes it back into the water.    The driftwood follows the currents to a destination unknown.

A life without direction, without clear and purposeful goals is a lot like a piece of drifting wood.  Sure the wood is going somewhere but at the same time is going nowhere.  

Where is your life taking you?   Are you going somewhere on purpose?

happiness … reflect and recover

“‘I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to
do it.”  Pablo Picasso

 

There a number of programs that are available for those who work in stressful jobs to better cope with the stress.  One program ,“The power of full engagement”, treats the workday the way an athlete would train for a competitive event.  There is a focus on eating correctly, and managing your energy so that you can maximize your effort, so that you become fully engaged all through the day on your work.

People attend training for these types of programs and get really enthralled by what they learn and then after the training, after a couple of weeks, the training material ends up underneath a pile of stuff.   A few weeks later the newly adopted thoughts are nearly drowned out by the current pressures of life.  For some reason the material doesn’t stick, it doesn’t become a new habit and a new way of life.   It is hard to change even when we know it will produce better results in our lives.

Creating a “happier” life isn’t easy either because it requires changing the way we think.   It means changing some of our most basic thoughts from the negative to the positive.   It is easier to worry and fret over an unknown future than it is to think of a solution that can be actively worked on to solve the problem.   One simple thing to do is to think of five things that went well today, simple things, like getting out of bed, seeing the sun rise, or having a meal to eat.   Those are things that most people miss in the expanse of a single day.   How many things have to go right to get through a single day?   Why not dwell on those things?  

Sometimes it takes tapping the brakes of life a bit, too slow down and reflect on the good, to share words of gratitude with someone.   Sometimes like the athlete, time must be taken off to relax, reflect and rebuild skills that have been dulled by the pressures of competition.   Life isn’t a series of sprints, nor is it a marathon that must be won in order to be happy.   Life is a race that is meant to be won, but it is also a race in which time is taken out of a day or a week to relax, reflect and relearn.   In ancient times one day of the week was used to recover, and reconnect with friends and family.   In our be busy every moment of our lives world that we live in today we may miss the recover and reconnect needs that we have.  

To increase happiness, reflect and recover each day.   Share the gratitude that you have for the things that went right and see if that doesn’t help you become a happier person.

restoring happiness

At one point in your life there was a moment, even more than one, in which you were delightfully happy.  You had a smile inside of you that was just looking for a way out.  Your face light up and you effervesced a radiant glow of happiness.

Over the years the stress of life has tarnished that glow and for some that glow has been dulled so much that no light shines forth.   The happiness, the smiles, the joy of life has somehow been pushed away so much so you don’t think you can be happy again.    You may be at the point where you believe that it isn’t right to be happy and the time for happiness is only reserved for the young, the very young.

What if …

What if you could be happy again?   What if the light that has been turned off for so many years was turned back on again?   What if you shone like you did once in the past?   What if happiness was more than just a word, or a feeling that someone else has, but not you?

The truth is happiness can be restored.  Happiness can be brought out of the cellar of your heart if you let it.  Believe that there is a reason to be happy.

Happiness isn’t what you have?  Happiness is much more than the things you have.

Happiness is having a goal worth fighting for.

Happiness is sharing your gifts and talent with others.

Happiness is giving without a claim of getting anything in return.

Happiness is wholeness in being.

Happiness is acceptance of who you are.

Happiness doesn’t grow on trees, but it does grow in your heart.

Tal Ben Shahar writes, “To lead a happy life, we must experience a sense of inherent worthiness.”   We must accept who we are and believe that what have are gifts the world is waiting for.

What is standing in the way of your happiness right now?

Marianne Williamson has written, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Think about Marianne’s statement for a minute, what does it mean to you?

You can be happy once again.