Kindness

I've talked in the past about love & being of service to others but I believe it all starts with kindness.  In this day & age I believe there is a movement throughout the world to be kind to one another.  We all hear about all the "bad" stuff that happens in the world. It's reported more often then ever.  I believe these imagines are of small extreme groups & doesn't speak for most of the world.  The NBC nightly news asked a few months ago for "good" stories to have on their broadcast & they ended up with enough "stories" to fill several years.  We all need to take the "bad" news with a grain of salt & believe in the best in everyone.

The movement towards more kindness in the world really gained steam with the 2000 movie "Pay it Forward".  This movie showed us all the impact of a Random Act of Kindness (RAOK) on people from all walks of life.  I believe strongly in the premise of this movie and I have seen firsthand how a simple act can make all the difference in a person day & sometimes even in their life.

I realize in this tough economy that we all have to watch the amount of money we give away & to a large extend everyone seems to need a little bit of help from Non-profits to our neighbors.  That's why the principal of RAOK rings so true to me because this simple act can be anything & doesn't have to cost you a penny or even much of your time.

Think about the next time your in a grocery store & you see a mother with 3 kids trying to get that bag of dog food......how hard is to take a minute & lift it up for her & put into under her cart.  By doing this you may make her day & by continuing to do these random acts we together can change the world.  The more positive energy we give out into the world, the positive energy the world will give back.  

Many people believe that major changes need to happen to make the world a better place. I believe instead that all it takes is for everyone of us to start being more kind.  I realize sometimes we all run into a "difficult" person & it's hard to be kind to that person.  But if you realize that everyone is a divine being trying to rediscover the love in their soul & their own connection with God/universe, you may even find a way to be kind to that difficult person.

Be the change in the world & discover how your life will change around you.  Start today with being kind to everyone you meet & practice a daily Random Act of Kindness.

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Kindness begins with each one of us.  Practice a RAOF daily & make the world a better place!"

Goals

One of the first blog's I wrote was about using a vision board to help focus daily on what you want in your life.  I use pictures & words on mine & I try to take some time everyday to focus on these images.  Along with this vision board you should also create goals and write them down.
 
In general, we are a goal oriented people & I truly believe that this isn't a bad thing.  The downside to this process is that you have to forgive yourself if you don't reach a goal within the time frame you've chosen & you need to make these goals fluid.  These two points are very important especially being fluid.  As you're living in the moment of everyday you may discover other things you want to add to your goals or move away from.  So don't become rigid in your goal setting instead stay fluid & flexible.
 
The way I go about setting goals is a multi-step process for me.  I start with trying to set goals for the day.  These are the things I want to accomplish throughout the current day.  I try to include practical things i.e: mowing the lawn & things that will help me expand & continue to open me up i.e: reading the next chapter in a book. Then I continue this same process for the week & for the month.  I always make sure to include things that will be for me, as well as the things that need to be done.  It's very important to write down the things you're going to do for yourself because these are the things that tend to be left out or cut out first & in fact they are usually the most important things to do.  Then I tend to make a list of long-term goals.  I am very loose on the timing of these long-term goals because I believe that all goals, especially long-term goals, need to be fluid.  Writing these long-term goals down can help you focus on what needs to be done now to achieve these long-term goals.  Every step you take today leads you to a new tomorrow. 
 
Goals are another way to focus your attention on what you want in your life.  By writing down your goals on a daily basis you can continue to lead a more joyful life.
 
Till tomorrow,
 
Bill
 
Quote of the day: "Open yourself to the discovery of your daily goals.  Focus on these daily goals & watch the world open up before you."

Hope

One of the brightest & best qualities we all can have to lead a more joyful/positive life is hope.  Hope has been ingrained into our culture, at least in the U.S. since the very start of our country.  We've talked before about trying to look at everything in your life from a different point of view.  This change in perspective is very important.  But we all need hope to help us find the positive in everday.

So what is hope and where does it come from?  According to dictionary.com Hope is: "the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best."  No matter what you're going through in your life or what you've been through in the past.  You need to keep hope.  Things will get better, everything has it's time & even the strongest storm comes to an end eventually.

So, how do we keep hope alive inside of us when things aren't going well?  As with so many things in our life, it starts with ourselves.  We need to take time everyday to think about hope.  Our true nature knows nothing but to be positive & joyful.  This true self (our soul) doesn't know what lack is or doesn't believe in anything negative.  So, if we can reconnect with this divine piece of ourselves we will always know that things will get better.  We will always have the feeling of hope because we know at our deepest level that God/universe will bring us to a better place.

The one drawback to hope is that it can lead us to living for tomorrow instead of living for today.  This is a razor thin difference because if we "hope for a better tomorrow" we may always be looking to tomorrow instead of finding the joy in each moment of today.  So, I believe we should always hope for a better today/now & if you're in the middle of something that doesn't seem like it's ever going to end.  The first step to change your life is to live in the current moment knowing that by believing/hoping that things will change that they will change.  Always keep hope in your heart!

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Keep hope in your heart & always believe things will get better!" 

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."