Regrets

"Regrets I've had a few, But then again too few to mention.  I did what I had to do, And saw it through without exemption." No better way to start a blog on regrets then with a line from Frank Sinatra's song "My Way".  So, do you have regrets?  If you could go back 10 years or 20 years, would you change things?

It seems like a nice thing to think about: "If I went back 10 years ago I would do this different & my life would be better." Sound all to familiar?  Well, the problem with this is that there's no way we can go back.  As I mentioned in the blog about leaving the past in the past, I always liked the idea of Merlin in the King Arthur legend.  Merlin aged backwards so he had all the knowledge of his life (the future) as he aged.  Nice thought but not possible for us to do, at least yet.

So what's wrong with thinking about going back & changing things?  Remember that all thoughts have energy & if you're wasting your time on what could have been you're not living in the moment & you're not creating intentions of what you want in your life now.  Instead you're focusing on a negative moment & disconnecting from the energy of God/universe.  This actually can cause you to move backwards in your journey to joy.

I like the Sinatra song because that's the way I've always tried to live my life.  I have a few regrets in my life, we all make mistakes, but I've never focused on them.  I believe we are an accumulation of all of our experiences.  So, if you were able to go back & change something you'd be a different person.  I'm very happy with who I am.  It's taken me a longtime to get here but I'm very happy with who I am.  It's only through my experiences, good & bad, that have gotten me to the point that I've learned as much as I learned so I wouldn't change anything.

So, let go of regrets, heal the past & move onward to live in this moment of this day.  The past, including regrets have no power over you except the power & energy you give them.  Find joy in today & move past regrets!

Till Monday, have a great weekend.

Bill

Quote of the day: "Regrets are only thoughts that hold us back from living in the now.  Let go of your regrets & live a more joyful life!"

Self Deception

The only way to grow through the processes I have mentioned before in this blog is to be honest with yourself.  I touched on this subject briefly in my blog about honestly but I believe we should examine it more closely today.

There's a lot wrapped up in this issue.  Sometimes it's because of your self worth, sometimes it's because of EGO & sometimes it's because you've lied so much to everyone else you actually believe the lies.  The truth is that whatever the reason the first step to leading a more joyful life & reconnecting with your soul is to be honest with yourself.

I don't believe that this means being hard on yourself, part of being honest is forgiving yourself for your mistakes.  This can be a difficult thing to do but it's the first step of being honest with yourself.  Accept what you've done, forgive yourself and move forward.  Sometimes it sounds so easy to do but in life it's very difficult.  I've written before that once anything is in the past you can't change it.  You can try to make amends for your mistakes if it's appropriate but you can't change the past.  So forgive yourself, we all make mistakes & move on.

After forgiveness, to continue the process of being honest with yourself, you need to accept responsibility for all of your actions in your life.  Even those that weren't harmful to others, recognize the choices you made, don't make excuses, & accept responsibility for all of them.

Understand who you are right now & know that taking the first step is the hardest.  Moving forward will become easier with each step you take but you need to accept yourself for who you truly are & be honest with yourself before you can continue on the path to a more joyful life.  You are a divine being & there's always a way back to your divine connection.  Trust in your ability to change & become the person you know you can be.  Everything is possible & it all starts with you.

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "To deceive one's self leaves you disconnected from everything.  Open your heart forgive yourself & move on to a more joyful life!"

Personal Responsibility

I had a nice discussion with @ponet on twitter yesterday regarding yesterday's blog on "Power".  During the discussion we talked about Personal Responsibility & the need in the world to shift towards reclaiming it, so I thought I'd write a blog about it today.

What are your thoughts about Personal Responsibility?  Do you think it's a problem?  Do you think it has anything to do with finding joy?  I believe there is a crisis in the world in regards to Personal Responsibility.  I think many people look to blame someone else for anything that happens to them.  They try to, in a lot of cases, profit off of a misfortune by blaming this other person.  Our society, at least in the U.S., is based on suing first & asking questions later.  I believe this is an unhealthy way to live because in many cases you're truly lying to yourself.

So what is Personal Responsibility?  To me it means accepting responsibility for your life.  We all make mistakes, it's part of bring human.  We need to accept that we made a mistake, forgive ourselves for making the mistake & move forward into a better life.

Taking responsibility for my actions was never an issue with me because I've always been honest.  But, forgiving myself for the mistakes I made took me a longtime to understand.  As I've noted in this blog before I had some issues with my Dad & I never felt like anything I did was good enough.  Therefore when I made a mistake it just played into the not being good enough feeling so I was always very hard on myself about mistakes.  

The solution to this issue has to be both parts because the only way you can move forward to a more joyful life is to accept Personal Responsibility for your actions & to forgive yourself for your mistakes. The joy you're looking for in your life comes from being true to yourself & reconnecting with your soul.  The only way to do this is to be honest to yourself & accept responsibility for your actions.

Move forward today & stop the blame game, accept responsibility for everything in your life & lead a more joyful life!

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the Day: "Accept responsibility for everything in your life & forgive yourself for your mistakes.  By doing this you'll lead a more joyful life!" 

Power

I've noticed over the past few days that it seems like I've been on a "P" kick (Patience, Peace & now Power), oh well.  I've also noticed that I have been starting most blogs lately with questions.  These questions are my thoughts as I think through a subject.  Let me know if you like the idea or not.  I'm trying to be as open as I can about my thought process and how I feel about each subject I write on.  Finally, if there's questions or other topics you'd like me to write about feel free to leave me a message here or on twitter.

On to Power; do you crave power?  What is authentic power? Is power something you can create?  I find power to be something difficult to write about because many people feel that they need to be in charge & have power.

To me power is something, as with most things, that comes from within.  It can be created through a title or a job.  This creation of power isn't true power, it's only created for the workplace or for the country/government that the title pertains to.  It's very easy to abuse this power because it's not given necessarily to a person with true leadership & authentic power.  This type of power tends to corrupt the person in the role because once they have the power given to them they don't want to lose it.  Most people believe that in order to hold on to power you need to control everything.  They feel the need to know what's going on so they can prevent someone from taking their power away.

The Tao says just the opposite.  It says the way to "rule" (have power) is to let go of everything & do nothing.  People will do the right thing because basically people are good.  I truly believe in this, I have always managed the people under me through empowerment.  What this means to me is that I help them learn & trust & believe in them to do their best job.  This doesn't mean they don't make mistakes, mistakes are part of the learning process, but instead of focusing on the mistakes.  I focus on what we've learned through the process.  Through this process everyone learns & grows.

So what is authentic power?  I believe there are natural born leaders.  They are the people that everyone is naturally drawn to.  The reason why we're are drawn to these people is because they have authenic power.  They have learned to tap into the soul & connect to the true power of God/universe.  In the Tao it says when we release everything we will be given everything we can imagine.  It is through no effort that everything is accomplished.  Learn to tap into the soul & find the deep fulfilling energy of God/universe & you will never lack anything!

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Be gentle with power for true power comes from within."

Peace

I noticed in the paper today that it's the International day of peace.  I wondered what we all think about peace?  Not only world peace but the peace we have inside of us.  The peace in the way we deal with others in our life.  Have you given any thought to peace?

Like everything else in order to truly be able give or project peace we need to have it inside of us.  Every journey we begin must start with us.  So take a moment and think about peace. What are your thoughts? Can you find the quiet inside yourself? 

The soul is as deep as the ocean & by connecting with our soul we can find true peace within us.  Once we begin to know peace for ourselves we can then begin to spread peace throughout all of our life.  Deal with everyone in your life from a place of love & peace.

World peace is within our grasp if we all can bring peace into our own life.  When each of us as individuals become more loving & peaceful the world will begin to shift towards a more peaceful place. 

Most people believe the only way for large issues to be resolved is by large actions.  I believe instead that it's in the smallest steps that each of us take that truly make the difference.  All it takes is making that first step & the journey will be under way.  Join me in bringing more peace to the world.

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Together we can change the world all it takes is a small step from each us to begin the journey of change.  Start today!" 

Perfection

Are you a perfectionist?  Are you hard on yourself because you can't live up to your own expectations?  Wow, this is a tough subject matter for me because this is the way I always use to be.  As I have explained in previously, growing up I had a difficult relationship with my Dad & no matter what I accomplished in my life, it never seemed to be good enough for him.  What happened with this "not being good enough" is that it caused me to to strive to be perfect & expect that others will be perfect as well.

This is a very difficult & very damaging way to be.  Not only does it close you off but it puts you into a cycle of negative behavior that's very difficult to get out of.  Your expectations of yourself leads you to feel badly because you can't find perfection in your daily life. Then you are lead to anger because everyone else in your life can't live up to the perfection you expect from them.

How do you get out of this vicious cycle.  The way I was able to find my way out was by starting with forgiveness of myself.  Why is this important?  The truth is that none of as human beings will ever be perfect.  We make mistakes, we say & do things that we later regret.  So by forgiving yourself first and understanding that you are going to make mistakes you can start to move past this toxic behavior. 

The finally part of getting past this behavior is to love yourself & to find the good in everyone else in your life.  Remember that everyone in their core is a divine being & no matter what they do or have done in their life they are just trying to do the best they can for themselves.  There's always something you can find about them that's good.  Forgive them for making mistakes, as you forgive yourself & love them for the good that they do.

Tomorrow, I have some family stuff to take care of so I won't have time to write.  I'll be back on Monday morning.  I hope you all have a great weekend.

Bill

Quote of the day: "Release the need to be perfect. Forgive & love yourself through any mistakes you make. Live a joyful life!"

Dealing with fallow times

I've always liked the word fallow when talking about "bad' or "unproductive" times.  To me fallow is connected with nature & as I discussed in the blog on "Time" everything has it's natural time.  Today I wanted to discuss what we do during this fallow time.

I think the first thing to remember is that no matter how connected you are to God/universe there are going to be "fallow times".  Many people believe that we need these "fallow times"  to grow because it's only through struggle that we can change.  I know for me I have truly grown through my struggles but I've also grown through my daily life.  I've always tried to learn & grow in each & every day! 

I do know that if you are not connected to God/universe or if you're ignoring the messages that are coming your way.  God/universe has a way of making sure you get the message.  Sometimes that means going through "fallow times".

Once you understand that these "fallow times" are a normal part of life.  The next thing I do is try to look at what the message is that's being shown to me.  This can be difficult because you're trying to deal with the issues you have right in front of you.  What I've tried to do, just like during my daily life, is to take some quiet time & reflect on what the message is.

Once you understand the message you can deal with the things you need to learn & grow through.  Changing can be difficult for many people but God/universe will always try to give you the information you need to change.  The rest is truly up to you.

Remember that once anything happens in your life it's in the past & it can't be changed.  You may be able to make amends but you can't change what's happened.  Learn from the fallow times, let go of the past & move forward to a more joyful/positive life.

Remember that these times will pass, as in nature no storm lasts forever.  Believe in yourself & your ability to change & grow through these fallow times.

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Even in the darkest times if you look inside you can always find the light.  Grow through the challenges & lead a more joyful life"