Month: November 2012

Ask for Help

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Self-sufficiency causes us to believe we can do everything in our strength. We were not placed on this Earth to go at it alone. Life revolves around helping one another.

We often hesitate to ask others for help because we’re afraid to approach them out of embarrassment or the fear of rejection.

There are also times when we wait so long to ask for help that the problem magnifies and become more challenging to solve.

For example, imagine the amount of time you could save by asking for directions at the first sign of being misdirected in your travels. By not doing so, you increase the amount of time it would typically take to reach your destination.

When you demonstrate the humility to ask for help, you often earn the respect of others.

Weighing the Good in a Bad Situation

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There is a lesson to be learned from every bad situation you encounter.

If you consider the lesson alone, you will have already identified the good from which it came.

We become fearful and immobile when we focus on the negative aspects of a situation. How much better it is to focus on the positive while trusting the negatives will work itself out.

A positive response transforms every setback into a step forward.

When life seems uncertain and at times uncontrollable, remember that the worse situations can help us become better people.

Acknowledge Your Blessings

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Blessings come in many disguises ranging from financial relief to internal healing.

Understanding that what you receive doesn’t come from you alone is the first step in acknowledging your blessings.

A blessing may not always appear in the desired fashion.

A blessing could be eliminating someone from your life to take you to the next level.

The blessing may not appear in the form of another individual. The gift may be in gaining clarity in your decision making.

Although you may experience pain from the absence of this person, other doors may open to better opportunities.

Whether you have acquired much then lost it all, identify what went wrong so the next time it’s presented, you understand how to retain it.

Regardless of how the blessings show up, don’t discredit what’s gained from it.

Spirituality

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Spirituality is troublesome for many people because of the different belief systems and religions available.

The human spirit is something we all possess.

The lack of spiritual insight blinds us to truth and robs us of hope.

Life is interconnected and guided by a higher intelligence.

We have free will to love or not love, to be open-minded or close-minded, to hold on to pain or release it, and acknowledge the presence of this higher intelligence.

When you face overwhelming difficulties, remember that spiritual resources are there.

Look through eyes of faith.

Our personal choices are far more effective when they are spiritually inspired.

Follow Your Dreams

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Take time to think about your dreams and goals and how they correlate with your life.

Be careful not to let other people’s opinions dictate what you should be doing.

What works for one person may not be meant for you.

Speak up for what you believe in or dislike.

In doing so, a person can only respect your wishes.

That’s not to say that what you choose to do will always be favorable and in your best interest, but you have to travel down your path.

Crying Relieves the Heart

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Going through rivers of difficulty will either cause you to drown or force you to grow stronger.

Some people consider expressing emotions as a sign of weakness, but the failure to express these emotions results in tension stored within our bodies.

We need a relief valve for the heart, and one of the purest suppressants is tears.

Rarely do we hear someone say they are more stressed or upset after crying.

Emotional tears are a response which only humans have, and these tears are a part of the miracle of the human body that we often take for granted.

Crying provides a healthy release when done in moderation and helps us recover and go on with life.

There is a connection between the tears we shed and the priorities in our lives.

When our souls cry out to the heart of the Creator, we are sending up silent prayers to bring balance into our lives and provide strength for the journey ahead.

It is through these heartfelt tears that we discover the answer to our prayers.

Forgiving

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Forgiving people is a challenge.

It is tempting, especially in an argument, to bring up what one has done in the past. But, to truly forgive, you must lay to rest what is not relative today.

Retaining anger, resentment, or bitterness stunts your growth by blurring you to the realities around you and ultimately causing others to suffer behind the emotions you are harboring.

Extract the lesson from the event and understand that it is no longer destiny but history.

Forgiveness is more powerful than anger and will allow you to grow in a place that cannot be measured.

Reason, Season or Lifetime

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Throughout our lives, we encounter people that play an instrumental role in our development.

Our reason people serve a specific purpose. Once they fulfill that purpose, they will depart.

Our season people complement you during a certain period of your life. After you grow out of this period, they no longer enrich you.

Our lifetime people are there for the long haul, and you ride it out until the end.

When we think of someone being there for a lifetime, our parents, siblings, and relatives quickly come to mind.

Our friends, acquaintances, and companions develop later in our journey.

At some point, all of these individuals will depart and leave us with nothing but memories.

We must strive to understand the role each person plays and the lessons to be gained from it.

Trust Intuition

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Intuition is one of the greatest and unexplainable gifts you have.

You can choose to ignore it or understand that a spirit works through you, often in mysterious ways, but always to your benefit in the long run.

There are four levels of the human experience that intuition feeds off of: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.

It comes as no surprise that your intuitive mind has access to an infinite supply of information that is continually being processed.

While intuition sometimes offers a better solution than logic or reason, we are apprehensive about following our inner guide because we fear the end result.

Learning to trust and act upon your intuition is a function of trusting yourself and moving forward in the right direction.

Laughter

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Laughter is a natural adrenaline rush. It increases our energy and generally lifts the spirits of all involved.

We often hear that laughter is the best medicine, but can it be prescribed to anyone?

Although most drugs affect people differently, laughter remains the same. It provides many benefits, from strengthening our immune systems to bringing joy into our lives.

Having a sense of humor will turn a lot of dull moments into memorable ones. That’s one of the reasons we are attracted to funny people.

Humor goes beyond telling jokes. It’s how we view the world.

Situations don’t generate our stress. The meaning we place on them causes stress.

Have you ever wondered how some people can laugh in the face of danger and adversity?

Laughter fuels personal empowerment and provides a sense of control.

Laughter and humor are a release, an expression, a new perspective, and a reminder that life isn’t that bad.

To quote Mark Twain, “The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.”

Don’t Overthink

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How easy life would be if we had a blueprint of everything expected of us during our lifetime.

We would know what decisions to make, failures to avoid, and successes assured.

If we could predict the future, imagine the life lessons we would miss out on by doing so.

There are many events we will never understand, while other events seem to fall in place as we reflect on them.

Although we experience periods of misunderstanding, there is a greater purpose for our lives.

When you find yourself faced with a matter of great concern and don’t have an immediate solution at hand, take your mind off of the problem for a while.

There are more options available than you think.

Overthinking a problem can cause you to overlook a possible solution because your mind hasn’t had an opportunity to refresh.

Heroism

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Heroes are easier to admire than define. The quality of a hero is their tendency to think of others before thinking of themselves.

Heroes do the right thing at the right time, unaware of the impact their actions may have.

Heroes are seldom conscious of their moments of heroism, and many may not recognize their acts as heroic.

It can be heroic to do what needs to be done and to do it right.

Whether raising a family, volunteering, teaching others, sacrificing your wants for someone else’s needs, etc., these are all acts of heroism.

Option vs. Priority

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You can spend your life putting others first, but giving more of yourself to someone who treats you as an afterthought is wasted energy.

It’s not uncommon to look for our happiness through other people. But depending on others for your merriment increases the opportunity for disappointment.

You can’t make a person love you or cooperate in the manner you see fit, no matter how much of yourself you give.

However, you can become a priority in your own life.

It is imperative to put yourself first, not in the sense of selfishness, but in a way that affirms who you are. When you love, respect, and honor who you are, you’ll be able to see situations more clearly and remove yourself from people who diminish your value.

Remember, options are flexible and viewed as easy come, easy go. Priorities, on the other hand, often involve a sacrifice of some sort.

Never lose sight of who you are in your pursuit of happiness.

Patience

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Patience is the hardest when we need it the most, but it is the key to achieving our goals.

Living in a world where instant gratification has become the norm, we’ve lost touch with the benefits of waiting.

  • We’re quick to become physically intimate with a person before really knowing who they are.
  • Quick to speak without fully hearing and understanding.
  • Quick to give up on our goals when we’re close to attaining them.
  • Quick to blame others for our troubles instead of identifying where we may have gone wrong.
  • Quick to move on to someone or something else because we believe the grass is greener on the other side, etc.

In our age of instant everything, we’ve lost our ability to wait.

We expect to learn patience instantly, and in our hurry, we miss the contradiction.

Often, what we so desperately want at the moment, is soon forgotten.

Consuming today and forgetting about tomorrow limits us to an even greater reward in our future.

We often expect quick changes in our lives, but our journey is a lifelong process. Changes and successes happen over time.

When we are close to a situation, it can be hard to see progress, but when you take time to reflect, you’ll find that things have been working according to plan all along.

Knowledge

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Knowledge builds self-confidence and is the key to cracking life’s code. The more you learn, the more options you have in life.

Even if you never expand your formal education, there are opportunities to learn all around you.

There isn’t a day that goes by that you should not have learned at least one new thing, regardless of how insignificant it may seem.

When you reject learning, years of schooling will teach you little.

If you want to be enlightened, there is no end to what you can learn.

For knowledge to have real significance in your life, you must do something with what you’ve learned – teach others.

Holding on to knowledge for dear life defeats the purpose of why you learned something in the first place. Whether it’s teaching a child right from wrong or showing someone how to perform a specific task, you have a great gift that doesn’t cost you anything to share.

Love

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Love is one of the most desirable things in life, the most natural and readily available. Everyone wants love, but many don’t know how to give it.

To love others, you must first love yourself. Not loving yourself makes it difficult for others to love you.

Our ability to love is often shaped by our experience of love and dictates how we live.

Many people have learned how to pretend to love – how to speak kindly, avoid hurting feelings, and appear to take an interest.

Authentic love not only requires our concentration and effort, it demands our time and personal involvement.

Breaking Through Barriers

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Our society offers many barriers that divide: race, religion, education, gender, and wealth, to name a few. These are personal obstructions that hinder our growth and block us from each other. Until you care enough to confront and resolve these underlying barriers, you become less effective in fulfilling your purpose.

The strength of what we believe is measured by how much we are willing to sacrifice for those beliefs. We can’t control what others say or do, but we can control our response to it. Some people thrive off of discrediting others. You are the only one that can define who you are despite what others say or seek to influence. When you come to this realization, your life takes on new meaning.

We must resist the tendency to think about the limitations our environment creates for us and find ways to counter it. When we believe in ourselves, there is little that we cannot accomplish.

Envisioning what we want, setting goals to bring that vision to fruition, and watching how it unfolds inspires us to keep moving forward in our quest.

Ignorance is No Excuse

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Where there is ignorance, society does not advance. We are living in a state of confusion and mixed messages. Yet, there is a wealth of information at our fingertips.

Ignorance is no longer a plausible explanation. If we expect certain behaviors to change, we must first understand what reinforces it and do something about it instead of making excuses for why it exists.

We are all accountable for our actions and have been equipped with the manual of life to teach us morality. Anything outside of that becomes free will.

It only takes one person to create a domino effect of change, so take a stance and speak up. Allowing others to force you into a position of ignorance only perpetuates the problem.

Never stop the pursuit of seeking knowledge because every time you find it, wisdom will grow.

Behind the Name

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At the beginning of time, names established genealogy and also signified a person’s character, authority, and worth. Fast forward to the twenty-first century, and you come across names given because they sound interesting.

The name given to one can affect the perception of oneself and can become a hindrance throughout one’s life – whether being teased by peers or overlooked for various types of employment.

A name has more power than we may realize. Why do you think those in the entertainment industry tend to use catchy or more appealing names?

Names are also important in business. An unfavorable business name can risk potential customers. How comfortable would you be purchasing a car from Lemon’s Automotive or home from Shack Realty?

Creating a name takes careful thought and should not have implied meanings such as Anthrax, Pistol, Stud, Cowboy, Zero, etc.

While a name doesn’t necessarily represent a person’s character or business performance, it gives you cause to wonder.

Do Your Best

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You don’t need a prestigious title to perform a significant role in life.

Ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

Much of the necessary labor for any organization may be considered grunt work by many. But such work is vital for the business to run smoothly.

Engineers and millionaires may design and finance a magnificent building, but it is the bricklayers who get the work done.

We are not all designed to be the “stars” of today. Some of us are the supporting cast. There would be no star without the supporting cast, so don’t be misled into thinking your purpose is not as important.

Taking the Easy Way Out

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Some people drift through life only concerned with making the easy choice rather than making the right choice. Yet, the right choice is often evident. 

Opting for the path of least resistance may not be the best way of reaching your goals. Taking the easy way out often makes life more difficult and delays the growth process. 

It’s better to go through a process than to deal with all the shortcuts life has to offer, such as: Being Underhanded, Getting Over, Going Around It, Side Stepping a Process, etc. Imagine if your banker took these shortcuts with your bank account or your doctor with your operation.

If you have a choice between doing something the hard way or the easy way, and it results in the same outcome, work smarter, not harder. 

However, if the shortcuts you take consistently produce negative results, you may want to reconsider your method of execution.

Be Yourself

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Being ourselves no longer seems to be original, so we do everything we can to shield the true essence of who we are.

Modern science has provided us the ability to change our external appearance through cosmetic surgery, steroids, etc. Unfortunately, the side effects of these advancements can cause more harm than good, and it doesn’t change who you are internally.

The spirit of self always prevails over camouflages of self. Sometimes we don’t allow people to get to know us completely because we’re afraid they’ll discover something they won’t like. Your true self eventually surfaces – discarding any mask you attempt to hide behind.

Be secure in who you are, and you will attract people who appreciate what you represent.

Periods of Uncertainty

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Periods of uncertainty often reflect an urging to progress in some area of your life. Whenever you feel strongly about something, you’re on your way to manifesting the improvements your uncertainty is pleading you to make. By understanding what frustrates you, you’ll better understand what fulfills you.

Change is a contributing factor to experiencing periods of uncertainty. Since there is no timeline as to when you should have everything in life figured out, don’t get discouraged in believing your situation will remain unchanged. You need these transitional periods to reflect and put a new plan of action together.

Whenever you are at a crossroads, take inventory of your resources. You become far more effective by analyzing what’s available to you than plunging into the unknown. Uncertainty is priming you to create new and meaningful value in your life.