Heroes

Do you have any heroes in your life? I think in the world today we often get confused about about what a true hero is. Many of us pin that label on Entertainers, Sports stars or politicians. The problem is that we build these people up to be even more then they are. I've personally never gotten into all the gossip surrounding all the personalities that are in the daily news. I look to each group for what they bring into my life: Entertainers - how much I enjoy their show, movie or song. Sports stars - how they perform on the filed of play. Politicians - what they do for the betterment of society or what they do with issues that are important to me. I think we all forget that these are people just like you & me. They make mistakes just like each of us do & rarely do they deserve the label of hero.

So do heroes exist today? I believe there are heroes all around us. To me surrounding ourselves with heroes can lead us to more growth in our lives. This growth can be in many different areas but the best part is that you will have people around you that you can pattern your behavior & life after. Certainly there are heroes that do amazing things, I'll never forget all the sacrifices our men & women in the military make everyday or the person who runs into a burning house to save the people inside. These are amazing people in a moment of decision but to me finding the people that do the right thing everyday of their life are the people to surround yourself with. These are the people that will truly help change your life. Find the people that can enhance the things that are important to you in your life. Listen to them, learn from them & your life will be amazingly full of joy.

Remember that you too can be hero to someone else. Yes, you!! You have the ability within you to do amazing things & to help others discover their own hidden talents. Be a hero for your children, your church or your friends. Show them the way to be more loving & grateful or show them what you've learned in your life that can help them grow beyond where they are now. Discover the hero within you, believe in yourself because I know you can do amazing things!

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Find the hero within you & be the shinning light for everyone involved in your life!"




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Chart a course

I've always liked sailing. The feeling of being out on the water with nothing but a sail. The quiet of the ocean, the feeling of the wind & the thought it takes to get to where you want to go. To me sailing is very much like life. One minute everything is going great, the next minute there's no wind or a storm comes up.

I think it's important for all of us to have a course to follow in life. I try hard to have goals for each day or at least each week. I also try to chart a course for the rest of my life. But like sailing we can't get to stuck with the course we chart. To often we become rigid with the plan we have for our lives & we no longer feel the wind. Yes at times the wind can blow us far off course but sometimes the adventure to get back is worth the inconvenience.

Ok I'll stop the comparison for now but life is about living. We have choices everyday on how we're going to live our life. It's very easy to fall into a negative frame of mind & very difficult to get back to living a more joyful life. But because life is about living every moment to the fullest we should never become rigid with what we want in our life. Don't misunderstand me at times we have to move through difficulty with a laser focus but in order to truly enjoy life we need to begin to experience everything & adjust our life plan when we come across things we discover in our life.

To often, even when things aren't working, we stick with our plan & refuse to move away from it. I believe one of the great keys to life is to be flexible & to learn from everything that comes into your life. Just like when the wind changes if your sailing, you need to be willing to let go of what doesn't work in your life & move on to a better life.

Finally, don't get caught up in the negative. There will always be storms in your life. Don't remember how difficult the storms are instead give yourself credit for making it through & let go of the negative. To many of us have people around us that are stuck on the negative & their energy will bring you down quicker then you know what hit you. Surround yourself with positive loving people & let go of the negative things that happen in your life. Chart your course with love & flexibility & you'll sail into a more joyful life.

Till Tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Sailing is like life. Feel where the wind is & adjust your life accordingly."




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Talking with God

Do you talk with God/universe? Do you get answers to your questions? I remember reading the book "Conversations with God" by Neale Donald Walsch & wondering at the time whether it was even possible to talk with God/universe. And if we could talk with God/universe would we really get any answers or was this book just completely contrived? When I was younger I use to have a problem with over analyzing everything. My mind would look for some empirical proof that what I read was possible. As I've gotten older & learned to quiet my mind I've discovered that talking with God/universe can happen to anyone everyday of their life.

To me the true connection to God/universe is your soul. The soul is the window to all possibilities in your life but many of us struggle to hear what the soul is telling us. We so desperately want an answer that we never take the time to listen. Instead we react to the noise in our head. That noise can be deafening & very hard to ignore especially if you have an overactive mind like me. Learning to quiet the noise & move beyond your mind was the hardest thing for me to learn.

I've spoken many times before in this blog about the problem with the EGO. The EGO is all consuming for many of us & the only thing we know to listen to. But the truth is that although it's always the loudest noise & always craves attention we need to let it go & get past it. Once we can move beyond the EGO & the active mind we can begin to feel the connection with the soul.

This deep feeling of understanding that I choose to define as the soul is the quiet voice deep within you. It's never loud & sometimes it's very difficult to hear at all. But if you take the time to move beyond the "noise" in your life, you will begin to hear that small voice deep inside which is your soul!

Once you've made the connection to the soul you will begin your conversation with God/universe. You will often hear the answers to your questions within this small voice & if the answers aren't spoken to you by your soul, you will see signs throughout your life to answer your questions.

As with Clarity, the way I find this connection is to quiet my mind completely. What do I mean by this? I try to empty my mind completely. I try to get to a point where there is nothing happening in my head....just a blank feeling where my mind embraces the quiet. Once I find this quiet, I listen. I start by listening to my heart beat & then I move beyond that sound to the small voice inside. I rarely directly ask questions because it knows what I need to know & many times it will answer me with what I need to know. Regardless of what I hear I pay attention to it & I pay attention to everything that comes into my life after I've made this connection.

People may argue that this isn't the voice of God/universe & that's ok with me. I believe it is & I believe it's the only way to move your life forward in true harmony. Let go of the noise & discover your soul through this process & you will lead a more joyful life.

Until tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day "Discover the connection to your soul & you can begin your conversation with God/universe today!




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Love

Yes, Love....I've written about it from time to time because it's one of my favorite subjects. But I feel like it's time to write about it again. How do you love? Are you searching for love in your life? Have you found pain because of love?

Love is the answer to everything in our life. I truly believe that, love is the answer. I know it sounds wonderful but what do I mean & how do I find love? For me, love begins from inside of each of us. We all have a deep love trapped inside of us. It's the purest love we will ever find in our lives but discovering it can be difficult. The way to begin is to first love yourself. This can be very difficult or at least it was for me. I've always loved the people in my life but loving myself took me many years to figure out. I've written before about the relationship I had with my Dad to summarize here; I always felt that I could never be good enough for him. This lead me to being extremely hard on myself. I was overly critical of any mistakes I made in life & didn't feel like I could love myself because I wasn't good enough for my love.

I have discovered as I've gotten older that true love begins with loving yourself. We are all imperfect beings & in order to bring more love into our lives love needs to begin with us. Learn to forgive yourself for your past mistakes. Let go of the past because the past holds us back from finding true joy in our life. Remember that no matter what's happened to you in the past. It's in the past & can't be changed. So forgive yourself or the others that have been involved with your past & begin anew today. Once you begin to love yourself you can allow that love to radiate out of yourself into the world.

The next key is to always come from a place of love first with everyone in our life. What do I mean by this? Fill your heart with love & begin each conversation from love. Give people the benefit of the doubt & feel that love throughout all of your relationships. I've always believed that everyone that comes into our life, even for a short period of time, is there for a reason. If we come from a place of love first we allow that reason to be revealed.

The biggest mistake we all make is to search for love. Love will fill your life if you allow yourself to feel love. There's no need to search because what we give out we receive back. So begin with love inside of yourself & you will find more love in your life then you can ever imagine.

So what about the pain of love. I don't want to minimize the pain that can come from loving everyone who enters your life. But the joy we receive from filling our life with love will always outweigh the pain that a few individuals can cause. Remember that each person is on their own journey & we can't control where there journey will lead them. Celebrate the time that people are in our lives & learn from each relationship we have. By doing this our life will be better & love will always find us.

Believe in love, it makes all the difference in the world & if each of us loved just a little bit more the world would be a better place. Join me in bringing more love to the world & changing the world into a better place.

Till Monday, have a great weekend.

Bill

Quote of the day: "Love is the most fulfilling emotion we can have in our life. Open your heart to love & you will lead a more joyful life."


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Confused

Are you confused in your life? Are you unsure of which path to choose? I think there are times in all of our lives when we all feel a bit confused. How do you get through these times? For me, I have learned a way to deal with the uncertainty of life. The path I take begins with patience. Patience is the most difficult thing to have when you're confused or uncertain & although there are times in life when a decision has to be made on the spot. Most of the time we can take the time that is needed to discover the correct path to take.

Why do I start with patience? I like to start with patience because most of the time the quickest & easiest answer to what's in front of us is an answer from the EGO. I've written often about the EGO & how difficult it is to remove it from the decisions we make in our lives. The most important thing to remember when we have life decisions to make is that the EGO wants the the easiest way & the way that will bring instant gratification. Patience can be a difficult way to begin but I've learned that usually it's the best way to start.

Along with patience I begin the process of narrowing my focus to really pay attention to the things in my life. As I've mentioned before God/universe will always send us the signs we need to know which path to take in our life. Sometimes these signs are very subtle & it's only through narrowing our focus & paying attention to the little things that show up in our lives that we're able to see a clearer path through these subtle signs.

The next thing I do when I'm confused in my life is to take a few minutes every morning with my vision board. One of the first blogs I wrote was on the creation of a vision board, take a look back if you're unsure of what it is. By taking time to envision the things we want in our life the path for our next step will become clearer.

Finally, I take time to reflect on the choices I have in front of me. Many times in my life if I clear my mind & reflect on the choices in front of me I can discover the correct path to take in my life. This reflection can lead me to a feeling which starts small but then becomes overwhelming. I believe this small voice is our connection to our soul & will rarely lead us astray. It takes time & practice to remove the noise of your life from your head & truly reflect on the choices in front of you. But I believe if you practice this deep reflection & truly listen to the small voice deep inside you the answers will be revealed.

Through these steps I have been able to guide my life along a more fulfilling path. I invite you to learn these practices & bring more joy into your life.

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "When confusion enters your life it can be difficult to discover the path to take. Listen deeply to the small voice inside & discover the way to a more joyful life."


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Quiet Mind

I've always had a problem since I was a very young boy with quieting my mind. This "over active" mind has been an amazing help at times but also a great hindrance. My mind has always been very open & largely creative. I think in associated patterns where one thought can lead to another to another, sometimes taking me in a whole new direction from where I've started. In a creative environment I tend to be even more creative because by listening to others ideas my mind can create new thoughts incorporating the ideas of others. As I've grown I've learned to quiet my mind some but I've never been completely effective in quieting it completely.

I have tired various forms of meditation but they've never truly worked for me. I have learned to slow my mind down & I've gotten very good at focusing on the things that appear in my life. In fact most mornings when I sit down to write this blog I am very quiet & just allow ideas into my mind. Thus far this "free association" has worked well & something normally just pops into my head. I then take time to think through the subject & then begin to write. So why am I writing about this today? I believe far to many people never take the time to slow down at all.

It is in the quiet that we become the greatest observer of our lives. Slow down quiet your mind & pay attention to the things around you. Pay special attention to the things that keep reappearing in your life. For me things can come from many sources. I can hear a song on the radio, then meet someone at a store that says one of the phrases. Then I'll pick up a newspaper & the same phrase will be a headline or something like that. When I'm truly connected to my soul/source things continue to pop up in my life. The only way I know to see the things that enter your life is to slow down & quiet your mind. The time you take to be quiet & narrow your focus will be well worth it.

The other benefit of slowing down your life & taking the time you need to reflect & open up your mind is the connection to your soul/source. The only way I know to remove the EGO from your decision making is to take the time to quiet your mind & move beyond the noise in your head. The deep connection that can be felt when you move from your head to your soul is an amazing process.

Take time to quiet your mind, reflect on the things around you & find the connection to your soul. By doing this you will lead a more joyful life.

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Take time to quiet your mind in this busy world. The time you take to slow down & reflect will bring you more joy in your daily life."


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The Journey of a 1,000 miles

"The journey of a 1,000 miles begins with one step" this is one of my favorite quotes from the Tao Te Ching written by Lao Tzu over 2,500 years ago. To me this quote speaks to my soul because I've always been a person who embraces change. In response to the New Year I think it's an important time to reflect on change. Most of us have a deep fear of things changing in our life. We hold on to what we know even if it's not working well for us. The reason for this is because we all want comfort & some "normal" to our lives. I truly understand this desire & at times in my life the "normal" pattern of life is all I could find comfort in. But the only way to live life & find more joy in each & every moment is to embrace change.

This doesn't mean that we need to change for change sake. Changing just to change is like a dog chasing his tail, we'll never get to where we need to be. Instead what it means is to embrace the idea of change & to realize that to live in the joy of every moment, means to keep yourself open to the change that comes into your life.

The Lao Tzu quote, especially in times of transition, reminds me that change doesn't have to be dramatic. To embrace change sometimes just means taking the next step. Even when things seem overwhelming, if we can shorten our focus to just taking the next step we can begin the process of change. It is in the process, the forward movement, that things begin to happen for us in our life. To continue to move forward even when the path ahead isn't clear is one of the hardest things for all of us in life. Remember it only takes the next step, each step one after the other can lead us down the path of change & onto a more joyful life.

Begin each day with an open mind. Embrace the understanding that life will change with or without you, by taking the next step you begin the change you want to see in your life. Remember that each day is a new part of the journey, live each day to the fullest & bring more joy into your life.

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. A tree grows from one seedling. A tower starts with one brick." Lao Tzu


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