Lately, I've been stressed. I've been on edge. I've been easily angered.
I have been trying to settle my mind in the morning and find that loving space within to tune into, but I just could not hold onto it for very long. I hung out with my kids and there was the feeling, then I diverted my attention for a moment and it was gone again. I just could not seem to carry it with me throughout my day.
This morning I woke up and hopped right out of bed, I came to the living room sat down and closed my eyes. I heard a voice say, "I choose to be happy." Guess what, I became happy.
I realized that I had been just running on autopilot and not making the conscious decision to be happy. Sure, I wanted it, but I never decided to be happy.
We as humans have a powerful gift, our ability to make a choice. Our choices can change our lives. Most of us just go around and let our unconscious run the show. We forget that we can always start making different choices and get different results.
It reminds me of George Costanza on a Seinfeld episode. He decided to do the opposite of what he would normally do. He started by ordering a completely opposite sandwich that usual. It ended up sounding somewhat bizzar, but an attractive lady overheard his order and said, "it's funny. I just ordered that exact same sandwich." He continued on this trend and ended up getting an amazing job working for the New York Yankees.
You have the power to completely transform your life by making different choices.
How empowering!
Here is a little short cut to help you. If there is something you want in life, find someone who has it and ask them about the everyday choices that they make about the thing that you want. Then, make the choice to make those choices.
If it doesn't harm anyone, or go completely against your highest values, go for it.
The thing is that it will feel uncomfortable to make these different choices, but this is part of change. If it was comfortable, you would have already made these choices and you would have what you wanted.
So begin to consciously make your choices. Choose to be happy. Choose to be grateful. Choose to be loving and lovable. Decide what you want and choose to be.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Jack Canfield's Story
From Jack Canfield's book, "Remember You Are Raising Children, Not Flowers!"...
I recently heard a story about a famous research scientist who made several important medical breakthroughs. He was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter who asked him why he thought he was able to be so much more creative than the average person. What set him so far apart from others?
He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother which occurred when he was about two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator, when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor, a veritable sea of milk!
When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture, or punishing him, she said, “Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?”
Indeed, he did. After a few minutes his mother said, “You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up, and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel or a mop. What do you prefer?” He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.
His mother then said, “You know what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let’s go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it.” The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!
This renowned scientist then remarked that it was at that moment that he knew that he didn’t need to be afraid to make mistakes. Instead he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. They are simply that - just experiments to see what happens. Even if the experiment doesn’t work, we usually learn something valuable from it.
I recently heard a story about a famous research scientist who made several important medical breakthroughs. He was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter who asked him why he thought he was able to be so much more creative than the average person. What set him so far apart from others?
He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother which occurred when he was about two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator, when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor, a veritable sea of milk!
When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture, or punishing him, she said, “Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?”
Indeed, he did. After a few minutes his mother said, “You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up, and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel or a mop. What do you prefer?” He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.
His mother then said, “You know what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let’s go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it.” The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!
This renowned scientist then remarked that it was at that moment that he knew that he didn’t need to be afraid to make mistakes. Instead he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. They are simply that - just experiments to see what happens. Even if the experiment doesn’t work, we usually learn something valuable from it.
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