Daily Positive Thought

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.

- John Maxwell, author and public speaker

I posted not too long ago about personal responsibility and how important I think it is for us to basically man up and accept the responsibility for what goes on in our lives.   I’ve been thinking about that  a lot lately – and I still believe it, but then, I found this quote that clarifies things a lot more for me.  We all have things that happen in our lives that are out of our control.  The economy is really bad right now and people are losing their jobs not because of their performance, but because the company may be downsizing or going out of business.

How are you supposed to accept personal responsibility for that?  You really can’t.  Just like you can’t accept personal responsibility for weather catastrophes and illnesses.  What you can, and SHOULD accept responsibility for is your attitude.  How do you deal with these setbacks that are out of your control?  It’s normal (and healthy) to have feelings of anger, resentment and hopelessness etc.  Acknowledge those feelings, they are your feelings and they are valid.  What you do next is what’s important.  Do you continue to wallow in the negative feelings, or do you find a way to move forward?  Don’t dwell, don’t wallow, find a way to move forward.  Craft that attitude of gratitude, look for the positives and find a way to move forward.  Open your eyes to the possibilities and who knows what you will find.  Remember you are what your attitude makes you!

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. – Nelson Mandela

Are you perfect?  Do you succeed at everything you attempt?  If you do, you probably don’t need to continue reading – but please take a minute and email me your secrets.  If you are like me and you don’t succeed every time you try something, and things don’t ALWAYS work out perfectly, read on.

CONGRATULATIONS!  You are a HERO to me.  Things don’t always work out for people the way they planned, and sometimes things fail – epically.  What happens next is what makes you so amazing.  You dust yourself off, and try again.  You don’t give up, and that is amazing.  Be proud of yourself for having the strength and fortitude to soldier on when things aren’t going according to plan.

That’s not to say that sometimes you need to reevaluate and choose another course of action, and there is a certain strength and recognizing that sometimes you have to change your plan completely.  There is a certain glory in that as well.  To me, that’s not giving up, that’s more taking a look at what is happening and making different choices.  Giving up is just that- walking away without any reflection.

Revel in the glory that is you, whether you succeed, keep trying, or choose to travel a different path.   Whatever choice you make, you are amazing.

The greatest things ever done on Earth have been done little by little.- William Jennings Bryan

Now THIS is a quote that totally works for me.  It’s a quote that makes sense, and I think it’s something everybody can stand to remember.  We all have goals and dreams, and we can see what we want.  We want something so bad, we can practically taste it.  Then it happens, we get overwhelmed.  Well I do anyhow.  And when I get overwhelmed, I get very unmotivated and very negative and pretty much give up.

This is NOT very productive way to do things, and I’ll be the first to admit it.  While it’s good to have a goal, and focus on it, it’s also smart to break it down into manageable chunks.  Sure your ultimate goal may be to take over the world.  Break it up into smaller chunks.  Start with your home town

Okay, taking over the world is probably not your immediate goal.  Take a look at a goal you have.  I, for example, want to lose an extremely large amount of weight.  Every time I look at that number I get depressed and pretty much give up.  Now, I’m working on breaking that number up into smaller chunks.  I want to lose 5 pounds in two weeks.  It’s much more manageable and easier to deal with.

Try it yourself and see.  Look at your goals and break them down into smaller, more obtainable goals and see what happens.

The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence. – Norman Vincent Peale

So in the interest of always being completely honest, I have to say this quote kind of made me epically angry.  I’m certainly not disagreeing with what it says.  I mean really, how could you?  It’s 100% true.  Inner peace is the goal and if you have it, your life is pretty darn great.  It’s the achieving inner peace that I’m having a problem.  HOW?  How does one attain inner peace?  I want to have a life that is harmonious and without stress, but I’m darned if I can figure out how to do it.  If anybody finds an answer to this one, let me know – please.  In the mean time, I think I’ll just continue to focus on being positive and happy and being the best possible person I can be.  Who knows, maybe if I do that, inner peace will just fall in to place, and if it doesn’t, I have the benefit of being happy and positive, those are two pretty cool things.

 

The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.~ Brian Tracy

 

Focus on the things we desire, not the things we fear.  How utterly simple and to the point.  If we spend our time focusing on what we don’t want, and what we’re afraid of, chances are we’ll end up getting the things we don’t want and getting hit smack dab in the face by the things that bother us the most. It makes sense, and it sounds so simple, but I think a lot of us find it to be very challenging.

I am a MASTER at doing exactly the opposite.  My mantra all my life was hope for the best but plan for the worst – and when I say all my life, I seriously mean ALL. MY. LIFE.  Even as a child I was this way.  I had all these grandiose plans and dreams – and back up plans for when they didn’t happen.  I would spend so much time, effort and energy focusing on my back up plan, that was usually what came into being.

Even now, with my kids planning for college, I am encouraging them to apply to their dream schools, and at the same time saying they need to have back up schools.  Don’t get me wrong, they absolutely DO need back up schools, but they have them, now we need to not focus on them – just focus on getting into the dream schools (fully funded of course).

If you are like me and find yourself focusing on the not so good more often than the good, try and find something – ANYTHING that will help distract you from those negative thoughts.  Do whatever it takes to focus on the good and the positive and the things you want.  Set your sights on the target and aim for the bullseye.

We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do. – Dale Carnegie

When we are young, we are told that the world is our oyster and other such phrases that are supposed to make us realize that we have all the opportunities in the world.  As we get older, we seldom here phrases like that.  It’s assumed that we are settled into our lives and into our careers and on our set in stone path.  Guess what?  It’s so NOT true.  Every day is a new opportunity and every day is filled with limitless potentials and possibilities.

The world is ALWAYS our oyster, and we have so many possibilities every day.  We just have to open our eyes and open our minds to see them.  I say open our minds because I think sometimes we become so focused on what IS that we forget to look for what MAY BE. Open your eyes and your mind to the possibilities.  Explore the potential of what may be.  Who knows, you may start off on a wonderful new adventure.

What we think, we become. All that we are arises with out thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. – The Buddha

I’ll be the first to admit that the first time I watched The Secret movie I was more than skeptical.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED the message, but I didn’t quite buy into it.  I didn’t see how it could be possible.  Then I read the book.  I still loved the message, but I also still wasn’t totally and completely buying into the message.  Me being me, I did more research, and I found that this wasn’t some new age theory being spouted by Rhonda Byrne and the others.  Yes, I know they that in the book, but I’m a figure it out on my own kind of person.

The whole concept of you get back what you put out there has been around, well, forever.  It’s not a new teaching.  I think, in fact, it’s pretty instinctual with us as kids, but as we grow and mature, we tend to push this natural instinct aside and assume the eat or be eaten persona of the animal kingdom.

I think, too, some people feel that this is a teaching of a particular religion.  “Oh I can’t believe that, because Buddha said that quote and I’m Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu etc.”  I think though, if you look you’ll find a similar message in the teachings of most, if not all major religions.  More than that though, it’s a teaching of common sense, in my opinion.  You get back what you put out.  Put out positive thoughts and energy, you get back positive thoughts and energy.  Why not try it for a while.  You have nothing to lose and so much to win.  Think yourself the greatest world you can imagine!

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself – Jim Rohn

The school where I work is BIG on personal responsibility and in fact, one of the principals frequently makes personal responsibility messages.  I wish there could be personal responsibility directed to the world.  So often people will blame all the things that are going wrong in their lives on others.  “I don’t have this because he did that,” or “If she would stop doing this, then I wouldn’t do that.”

Sure the things people do will impact us, but it’s up to us to work though it, past it and around it.  We have to do whatever it takes to get OUR stuff done.  Don’t get caught up on what others are doing.  Their choices are just that, THEIR CHOICES.  They are NOT yours, or they shouldn’t be yours.  It’s up to you to do what you need to do and get done what you need to get done.  Focus on you and what you need to do.  Accept responsibility for you and don’t get caught up in the drama of anybody else.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. – Steve Jobs

Life is short.  We come with an expiration date, and there isn’t any way to get around it.  It’s a given, but it isn’t something you should live your life worrying about and dreading.  However, since we DO come come with that expiration date, it’s important to live the life of your dreams.

Do the things that make you happy.  Find out what fills you with joy and do it, have it live it.  Whatever it takes.  Why get caught up  in trying to be what other people think you should be or do what they want you to do.  If what you want to do is within the law and isn’t hurting anybody then you should do it.  Don’t try to force yourself into the mold somebody else has created for you.  Live your life and find your joy.

If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, you’ll often find that you’re right.—Nancy Sathre-Vogel

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this, and it’s something I do every morning.  When I wake up, I don’t jump right out of bed for a variety of reasons.  The first one being morning comes way to early lol, but I also use that time to prepare myself for the day.  I focus on all the great things that I just KNOW are going to happen to me.

I also use those few minutes to repeat my affirmations and just take a mental inventory of  my day.  It’s an incredible way to start your day, but more than that, you’re practically guaranteeing yourself a great day.  It takes very little time and practically no effort, and the rewards you reap are amazing.  Why not give it a try and see what happens.