fear
There are three fears that nearly everyone deals with to some degree or other. These fears do more to stop us from being who and what we want to be than any other
The fear of poverty
The first fear is the fear of poverty. Now I don’t necessarily mean Read the rest of this entry »
Gift of Love
Are you wondering what to get that special someone for Valentines Day? You have thought and thought and there just done not seem to be the right gift. Here is a suggestion. Let those we love be perfectly themselves.
That’s not much of a gift!
You may not think that letting some one be Read the rest of this entry »
Stand out from the crowd
Is it alright to be yourself? Is it acceptable to feel free to stand out from the crowd? Not only is it alright, it seems it is mandatory. If you refuse to be yourself, you cheat the world of who and what you are.
At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
You were born an original. Don’t die a copy. ~John Mason
What if I don’t know who I am?
In some sense, that could be good, but I don’t think it is true for most people. Most of us have some sort of inclination as to who we are, what we stand for, what makes us unique from the crowd. We know, we are just too unsure of ourselves to stand out from that crowd. It takes courage to do so, but when you find that courage, it can be so freeing.
I said that it might be good to not know who you are. The reason I said that is, if you are truly not sure, then the discovery can be a wonderful journey and there is opportunity to build the you that you desire.
You must have control of the authorship of your own destiny. The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand. ~Irene C. Kassorla
Many people are not satisfied with who they believe themselves to be. They desire to be more like someone else. Now I am not advocating that you be other than you are, what I am saying is that you have the opportunity to build the characteristics that you desire. You can be more assertive, more productive, happier, whatever it is you like.
Why do I want to risk standing out in the crowd?
Why?
Is life not a hundred times too short for us to stifle ourselves? ~Friedrich Nietzsche
Does that not say it all? Would you prefer to go to the grave regretting an unfulfilled life or knowing that you did all you could, that you were true to your own nature? I know the answer for myself. What is yours?
Certainly there are risks. Some may not accept who you are. Some may criticize you for what you stand for. Do you really care that much? Do you care so much that you would rather be a slave to their wishes than be free in yourself?
Life is short. There are only so many chances to give the world the gift, that’s right, the gift of who and what you are. Why waste a single moment of that time? Why lose sight of the dreams you have, the dreams inspired by Spirit? Why not be yourself and feel free to stand out from the crowd?
Here’s to You!
P.S. Here are a couple of other posts you might find interesting!
Infinite life infinite possibilities
Positive Thinking: is it real?
Kindle
I got a Kindle for my birthday from my kids. I have the thing for a couple of days now I have to say that I absolutely love the thing!
I’m quite a reader as it is, but I think I will be reading much more now. Why? For one thing it is so easy to pick up and read a page or even a few lines. When you turn it back on again, it comes right back to where you left off. That’s a big plus for someone like me who is always losing my bookmarks.
Another plus is that you can add notes as you go. I read a lot of non-fiction and I like to remember passages that are important to me.
Most book are around ten dollars but so far I have not paid that much. If you figure the cost of a regular book plus shipping, that is quite a savings! You can also get magazines and newspapers delivered right to your Kindle before they ever hit the stands!
I tried the voice reader and I will admit that it is a little robot sounding, especially in the female voice, but not enough to make it irritating.
If you are a person who loves to read and you have ever lost your place in a book or been uncomfortable carrying a book or two with you on vacation or just our to coffee, I recommend you get this thing as fast as you can!
Here is my link to the Kindle at Amazon. Know that this is an affiliate link and should you be smart enough to buy this great little device, I will make a small commission which does not effect your price at all. It just helps me pay for my next book!
Here’s to You!
Losing Inhibitions
Tonight is the night when a lot of people do a fair amount of drinking. People lose their inhibitions and do all sorts of things; some of them good, some not so. Most of those people like the feeling of losing those inhibitions, at least for a little while. They feel free from the life that binds them. How is your quality of life? Could it be better if you lost a few inhibitions?
Now I don’t want you to think that I am suggesting that you go around drunk all the time. I’m not even suggesting that you use alcohol or any substance to make your life better, more fun. What I am suggesting is that there is a way to lose some of those inhibitions and improve the quality, and yes the fun, in our lives. How?
When I was a kid, there were a few times when a bunch of us got together and would “party”. Some would be able to obtain booze and some of us couldn’t. I was often one who couldn’t. I learned that I could fake it and no one would really know the difference. I even found that I could lose my inhibitions if I acted drunk. How could I do that?
It was easy. We have our inhibitions because they are our defense against criticism when we do something others think foolish. We are inhibited from speaking our mind so someone doesn’t’ disagree with us. We are inhibited from acting a certain way in case someone doesn’t like it. Now a few inhibitions are reasonable, we should feel inhibited against walking naked down a city street, we could get arrested. Most inhibitions, however, keep us from being the person we really want to be.
The problem with losing our inhibitions through alcohol or some other substance is that we also lose our common sense, our reasoning. We might walk down the street naked anyway forgetting that we might get arrested. If we lose our inhibitions on purpose, we are able to be freer, without losing our reasoning abilities.
Let’s say we decide to lose the inhibition of speaking our mind. We are able to speak more freely, not worried about what others think without becoming obnoxious or getting into a fight with someone. We find that we have a sense of freedom in being able to say what we want. We become more confident when we find that we can hold our own in a conversation.
I know many men who won’t dance because they think they will look foolish. What if they decided to lose that inhibition and went out there a danced away, not worrying about how others looked at them. I can tell you from experience that they will have fun!
Our quality of life is much less when we allow ourselves to be ruled by our inhibitions and our feelings about what others think about us. Why not let go of those fears and live life to the fullest?
Here’s to You!
Darren Rowse is someone that I admire and follow. He has a great blog and he helps those who are bloggers. I’m going to link to a couple of his posts here in a minute, but I wanted to comment on what he says.
On one post, Darren talks about making money fast on blogs. Now I want to say right here and now that this is not the case for me. I wish it were. I do not deny that I post affiliate links, from time to time and will soon be offering my own products to boot. I love blogging and do this because I like it, but I do it to make some income too.
“Ah!” you might say. I knew he was in it just to grab some money! Well, no I’m not. I genuinely want to help people in their journey through life. Having said that; I want to make some money too. Is that so different than a Doctor or a writer, or whatever occupation you can think of?
The point to this though is that the people selling programs and products that are about making a million dollars overnight do not have your best interest in mind. As Darren says, nobody makes big money overnight!
The same is true for life change. No one changes their lives overnight. Well, I suppose that a few, who have major crisis events can change overnight, but that’s about it. For everyone else, it takes time and it takes work. Anyone selling you a change overnight product should be suspect!
The second post has to do with the new FTC guidelines. Now I know that for most of you, this means nothing. In a nut shell, the FTC came out with new guidelines for bloggers. They are good, for the most part, but have the blogging community in a snit because no one is really sure what is required.
Darren says that we might as well use the FTC guideline that we have to have, things like disclosure statements, as a means to use our voice, be who we are.
I have been struggling a bit with this finding my voice thing. In real life, I tend to be a little acerbic, somewhat irreverent, and have a dry sense of humor. My blog often sounds like words or wisdom from some pulpit of the “guru of self enlightenment” or something. I hate that! There are plenty of folks in the self help world who do that much better than I, Deepak Chopra for instance, and do it well. Deepak is the guru. I’m just some shmuck sharing the things that have helped me change my life.
The point here is that you have to find your own voice in the world. So many people try to be who their parents, teachers, whoever wanted them to be and it makes them incredibly unhappy! Here’s my change overnight suggestion. Find your own voice! Will you change overnight? No! You won’t. You will have a chance to become a more authentic happier you!
Here’s to You!
P.S. here are some other posts of mine on the same subjects.
Truth about Life Change: Can you trust me?
True To Yourself
Self Development: use your head
Dec 10
I have been working for the last few days on some things for my
Life Long Learning
I know so many people who would rather have a root canal without anesthetic than to learn something new. Maybe Read the rest of this entry »
Sep 28
The last couple of days, I have had a few times when I started to get down. I’m not sure why, maybe the moon cycle or something. The thing I want to bring up about this though, is not my instability, (are any of us stable?) but what I did about it.
When I caught myself becoming a little morose, a little down, I simply stopped and asked my self this question.
“What are you down about, and what will it accomplish to let this go further?”
The answer, of course, was that what I was down about wasn’t all that important, and, continuing to feel that way did not accomplish anything except to bring my energy level down and make me unhappy.
What I did to remedy the problem was to simply decide to not continue. I one instance I just put the negative thoughts away, and in another, I talked the problem out with my wife.
Talking it out was by far the best. When we were done talking, not only was I no longer down, I was actually energized and couldn’t wait to get home and do some things that would remedy the situation.
Next time you find yourself getting down, try this simple little method. Ask yourself what the problem is, why are you down. When you have the answer, ask two more questions. The first is, “What will be accomplished if I continue in this way.” The second is, “What is the quickest and most effective way to release these thoughts?” Do you need to talk them out, journal about them, throw rocks at a tree? Once you know what will release the thoughts, do whatever it is as quickly as you can. Don’t wait!
Steve
P.S. Our lives seem to fly by. Why spend even one moment of them down in the dumps if you can do something simple about it?
