Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952
Our Deepest Fear
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 does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory that is within us. And as we let our 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.
Marianne Williamson
(Nelson Mandela used this passage in his 1994 Inaugural Speech)
Words of Wisdom
"Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem."
– J. Krishnamurti
"I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can’t make it through one door, I’ll go through another door - or I’ll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present."
– Tagore
"I beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves."
– Rainer Maria Rilke
"All the Buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact: Be – don’t try to become. Within these two words, be and becoming, your whole life is contained. Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance."
– Osho
Time...
Malcolm Forbes once said, "Unless you’re serving time there’s never
enough of it." It’s true! Time is the greatest commodity we have. We
may be able to make more money, but we will eventually run out of
time.
Writer Carl Sandburg advised, "Time is the coin of your life. It is
the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be
spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you."
One man must have been thinking about this when he took a time
management seminar. The instructor asked everyone in the class to
make a list of ten major time-wasters. The eager young man raised his
hand and inquired, "Is it necessary to identify the individuals by
name?"
How we use time is important, and only you can determine what is a
good use of your time. But if we are not clear about how we want to
spend our time, other people will be all too happy to spend it for us.
Those who take charge of their time have learned to say "no" to some
things that will have enough time left to say "yes" to that which is
more fulfilling. THEY decide how to fill their days up - THEY take
charge. THEY determine what an important use of their time is.
This is not to say that every minute should be used in productive
pursuits. I like Bertrand Russell’s observation: "The time you enjoy
wasting is not wasted time." Why not? Because time you spend doing
something that brings you pleasure can be an excellent way to spend
some of the day.
Only you can choose how your time will be spent. You will use it
for work as well as play; for pursuing your dreams as well as
relaxation; for self improvement, for inner growth and to give away to
others. Much of your time you will feel you spent well. Some of it you
may feel you could have used differently. But all of it ought to be
spent as YOU determine. For there are few things you will regret more
than to look back and wonder why you spent so much time doing what
others want.
For the time of your life remember ... it is YOUR life… And YOUR time
[IF]
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And--which is more--you’ll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling
Want to change your life? Become uncomfortable!
"In order for you to gain the success you desire you must leave your comfort zone.
Many people talk about their dreams, the lives they wish to lead, the income they want to attain in their lifetime, yet 95% of the people either start and quit, not getting very far and not putting forth much effort in the process or they just do not get past the talking stage.
Well one reason perhaps is that in order to create the life you wish to have, the financial freedom you desire, you must put forth a consistent sustained effort over a period of time and for many people this means putting in work after their day job is over with.
For many people this is not a problem. They do not mind putting forth the extra effort. The problem that hits everyone and this is the breaking point, is that in order for you to gain the success you desire you must leave your comfort zone.
Fear of leaving the comfort zone stops people dead in their tracks. People will just not leave their comfort zone for one reason or the other. People will just rather go back to living their daily lives than step outside of their comfort zone.
This is what separates those that truly desire change in their lives and the ones that just talk about wanting to change. It takes great will power and discipline to leave your comfort zone and it is a necessary step. It is a simple fact, in order to get things you have never had you must do things you have never done.
What people fail to realize is that they have stepped out of their comfort zones all their lives.
For example lets go back to when you were a kid riding a bike for instance. You were comfortable riding with training wheels at first, then you wanted to ride without them but were afraid of falling so your parents held it for you till you became comfortable and were able to steady the bike on your own without falling off then you were comfortable riding without their help.
Another example is going through your school years. First you were afraid or nervous about starting school for the first time but you made friends in elementary and became comfortable.
Then you were nervous graduating to junior high school but once again you became comfortable after a short time of adjustment. Same thing with high school and then on to college, each time stepping out of your comfort zone only to become comfortable every time over a short period of time.
Why are you uncomfortable? Because you are doing things for the first time and you are afraid of the uncertainty, not knowing. However, just like riding a bike, going to school or what ever else you have done over a course of your lifetime, you learned and once you learned you became comfortable.
The same thing will happen when you go after your dreams whatever they may be. You may not know exactly how you will eventually attain them but you will learn as you start to take action, things will happen that you will be amazed at and soon you will develop your comfort zone.
However, the flip side of not taking action has it consequences as well.
When you constantly fail to act on your intentions, desires and dreams, your subconscious mind is taking all this in and forming the thought pattern, a habit, that you are not serious and it will cause you to constantly act on this new habit. Your act is not taking action. Your new habit you have created over a period of time is the habit of all talk and no action.
This habit you have now created will find ways to fulfill itself by having you to make excuses to put off fulfilling your dreams every time you start to talk about it, because you have deeply rooted it into your subconscious.
If you truly want to change your life you must do uncomfortable things, you must leave your comfort zone.
What you will soon learn is that once you start leaving your comfort zone and repeatedly do those uncomfortable task you will find that these uncomfortable task are not so uncomfortable over time and you will soon have a new comfort zone and you will be amazed to find how much you will have grown as a person and how things will start to flow your way.
Another benefit of stepping outside your comfort zone is, once you step outside of it and develop a new comfort zone, your new comfort zone can never snap back to its old size. Soon you will find yourself actually wanting to continue to stretch your comfort zone by stepping outside of it, because every time you step outside your comfort zone, you grow as a person in mind, body and spirit and the financial rewards are great too!
You will reap what you sow, like attracts alike, and wealth, prosperity and abundance seek strong-minded people; history has proven that.
Want to change your life? Become uncomfortable!"
The Oyster
There once was an oyster whose story I tell,
Who found that some sand had got into his shell.
It was only a grain but it gave him great pain,
For oysters have feelings although they’re so plain.
Now, did he berate the harsh workings of fate
That had brought him to such a deplorable state?
Did he curse at the government, cry for election,
And claim that the sea should have given him protection?
No--He said to himself as he lay on a shell,
Since I cannot remove it, I shall try to improve it.
Now the years have rolled around,
as the years always do,
And he came to his ultimate destiny--stew.
And the small grain of sand that had bothered him so
Was a beautiful pearl all richly aglow.
Now the tale has a moral;
For isn’t it grand what an oyster can do
With a morsel of sand.
What couldn’t we do
If we’d only begin
With some of the things
That get under our skin.
~ David Cohen ~
Anonymous
La vie n’est pas d’echapper a la tempete mais de danser dans la pluie
Life is not to run away from the storm but to dance in the rain
Anonymous Poem
"I will not live an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible;
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit."
Jung
I am not what Happened to me, I am what I choose to become.
C.G Jung