A great friend of mine posted this story and I found it to be quite inspirational. I'd like to share it with you now. Enjoy.
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The Pencil Maker took the pencil aside, just before putting him into the box.
"There are 5 things you need to know," he told the pencil, "Before I send you out into the world. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best pencil you can be."
"One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in Someone's hand."
"Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you'll need it to become a better pencil."
"Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make."
"Four: The most important part of you will always be what's inside."
"And Five: On every surface you are used on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the condition, you must continue to write."
The pencil understood and promised to remember, and went into the box with purpose in its heart.
Now replacing the place of the pencil with you. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best person you can be.
One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in God's hand. And allow other human beings to access you for the many gifts you possess.
Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, by going through various problems in life, but you'll need it to become a stronger person.
Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.
Four: The most important part of you will always be what's on the inside.
And Five: On every surface you walk through, you must leave your mark. No matter what the situation, you must continue to do your duties.
Allow this parable on the pencil to encourage you to know that you are a special person and only you can fulfill the purpose to which you were born to accomplish.
Never allow yourself to get discouraged and think that your life is insignificant and cannot make a change.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Success Traits
What makes a person successful? What makes them motivated, prosperous, a great leader? The following is only a brief and partial list, but it may whet your appetite to discover for yourself some of the principles of success.
Optimism
Optimism is power. This is a secret discovered by all who succeed against great odds. Nelson Mandela, Ernest Shackleton, Eleanor Roosevelt—all admitted that what got them through tough times was an ability to focus on the positive. They understood what Claude Bristol called "the magic of believing." Yet great leaders also have an unusual ability to face up to stark reality, so creating a single powerful attribute: tough-minded optimism.
Optimistic people tend to succeed not simply because they believe that everything will turn out right, but because the expectation of success makes them work harder. If you expect little, you will not be motivated even to try.
A definite aim, purpose, or vision
Success requires a concentration of effort. Most people disperse their energies over too many things and so fail to be outstanding in any-thing. In the words of Orison Swett Marden:
"The world does not demand that you be a lawyer, minister, doctor, farmer, scientist, or merchant; it does not dictate what you shall do, but it does require that you be a master in whatever you undertake."
So to be successful, you must have higher aims and goals and doggedly pursue their realization.
Willingness to work
Successful people are willing to engage in drudgery in the cause of something marvelous. It has been said that in order to succeed you have to pay the price: You have to pay it in full, and you have to pay it in advance. The greater part of genius is the years of effort invested to solve a problem or find the perfect expression of an idea. With hard work you acquire knowledge about yourself that idleness never reveals.
A law of success is that, once first achieved, it can create a momentum that makes it easier to sustain. As the saying goes, "Nothing succeeds like success."
Discipline
Enduring success is built on discipline, an appreciation that you must give yourself orders and obey them. Like compound interest, this subject may be boring, but its results in the long term can be spectacular.
Great achievers know that while the universe is built by atoms, success is built by minutes; they are masters when it comes to their use of time.
An integrated mind
Successful people have a good relationship with their unconscious or subconscious mind. They trust their intuition, and because intuitions are usually right, they seem to enjoy more luck than others. They have discovered one of the great success secrets: When trusted to do so, the nonrational mind solves problems and creates solutions.
Prolific reading
Look into the habits of the successful and you will find that they are usually great readers. Many of the leaders and authors covered here attribute the turning point in their lives to picking up a certain book. If you can read about the accomplishments of those you admire, you cannot help but lift your own sights. Anthony Robbins remarked that "success leaves clues," and reading is one of the best means of absorbing such clues.
Curiosity and the capacity to learn are vital for achievement, thus the saying "leaders are readers." The person who seeks growth, Dale Carnegie said, "must soak and tan his mind constantly in the vats of literature."
Risk taking
The greater the risk, the greater the potential success. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Be action oriented.
Realizing the power of expectation
Successful people expect the best and they generally get it, because expectations have a way of attracting to you their material equivalent.
Since your life corresponds pretty much to the expectations you have of it, the achiever will argue, why not think big instead of small?
Mastery
Advanced beings can turn any situation to their advantage. They are "masters of their souls, captains of their fate."
When other parties are involved, they will seek solutions in which gains are maximized for all. In the words of Catherine Ponder:
"You do not have to compromise in life, if you are willing to let go of the idea of compromise."
Well-roundedness
Achievements mean little if we are not a success as a person. The capacities to love, listen, and learn are vital for our own well-being and without them it is difficult to have the fulfilling relationships that we need to both renew us and inspire achievement.
Optimism
Optimism is power. This is a secret discovered by all who succeed against great odds. Nelson Mandela, Ernest Shackleton, Eleanor Roosevelt—all admitted that what got them through tough times was an ability to focus on the positive. They understood what Claude Bristol called "the magic of believing." Yet great leaders also have an unusual ability to face up to stark reality, so creating a single powerful attribute: tough-minded optimism.
Optimistic people tend to succeed not simply because they believe that everything will turn out right, but because the expectation of success makes them work harder. If you expect little, you will not be motivated even to try.
A definite aim, purpose, or vision
Success requires a concentration of effort. Most people disperse their energies over too many things and so fail to be outstanding in any-thing. In the words of Orison Swett Marden:
"The world does not demand that you be a lawyer, minister, doctor, farmer, scientist, or merchant; it does not dictate what you shall do, but it does require that you be a master in whatever you undertake."
So to be successful, you must have higher aims and goals and doggedly pursue their realization.
Willingness to work
Successful people are willing to engage in drudgery in the cause of something marvelous. It has been said that in order to succeed you have to pay the price: You have to pay it in full, and you have to pay it in advance. The greater part of genius is the years of effort invested to solve a problem or find the perfect expression of an idea. With hard work you acquire knowledge about yourself that idleness never reveals.
A law of success is that, once first achieved, it can create a momentum that makes it easier to sustain. As the saying goes, "Nothing succeeds like success."
Discipline
Enduring success is built on discipline, an appreciation that you must give yourself orders and obey them. Like compound interest, this subject may be boring, but its results in the long term can be spectacular.
Great achievers know that while the universe is built by atoms, success is built by minutes; they are masters when it comes to their use of time.
An integrated mind
Successful people have a good relationship with their unconscious or subconscious mind. They trust their intuition, and because intuitions are usually right, they seem to enjoy more luck than others. They have discovered one of the great success secrets: When trusted to do so, the nonrational mind solves problems and creates solutions.
Prolific reading
Look into the habits of the successful and you will find that they are usually great readers. Many of the leaders and authors covered here attribute the turning point in their lives to picking up a certain book. If you can read about the accomplishments of those you admire, you cannot help but lift your own sights. Anthony Robbins remarked that "success leaves clues," and reading is one of the best means of absorbing such clues.
Curiosity and the capacity to learn are vital for achievement, thus the saying "leaders are readers." The person who seeks growth, Dale Carnegie said, "must soak and tan his mind constantly in the vats of literature."
Risk taking
The greater the risk, the greater the potential success. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Be action oriented.
Realizing the power of expectation
Successful people expect the best and they generally get it, because expectations have a way of attracting to you their material equivalent.
Since your life corresponds pretty much to the expectations you have of it, the achiever will argue, why not think big instead of small?
Mastery
Advanced beings can turn any situation to their advantage. They are "masters of their souls, captains of their fate."
When other parties are involved, they will seek solutions in which gains are maximized for all. In the words of Catherine Ponder:
"You do not have to compromise in life, if you are willing to let go of the idea of compromise."
Well-roundedness
Achievements mean little if we are not a success as a person. The capacities to love, listen, and learn are vital for our own well-being and without them it is difficult to have the fulfilling relationships that we need to both renew us and inspire achievement.
Monday, February 23, 2009
The Power of Questions
The human brain is a powerful, incredibly effective apparatus that allows us to imagine, create, remember, analyze, dream, breathe, move, and regulate literally thousands of bodily functions and biochemical processes all at the same time. It is also an extraordinary problem solver. Feed it a mix of facts, suppositions and best guesses and it will invariably and inexorably deliver to you an abundance of solutions of varying value.
The adage, ‘garbage in, garbage out,’ usually applied to computer programming, is an apt account of how our brains operate. What we can expect to receive as answers is exactly proportional to the quality of the stuff that we enter into our heads. A huge amount of the self-talk that we engage in everyday is the questions that we ask ourselves. These questions that we pose are powerful molders of meaning for us. They are queries that can send us into spirals of helplessness and inaction, or propel us to heights of confidence and accomplishment.
When you ask your brain a question, it immediately goes into action to try to come up with an answer that makes sense. The answer doesn’t have to benefit you; it just has to make sense. For instance, when you ask, “Why can’t I lose weight?” What comes to you are things like, “because it’s too hard.” or, "I'm just meant to be fat." That's because the question presupposes that you can't lose weight. So the brain does it's best to give you a rationale to fit your assumption. What if you consistently fed your brain a diet of positive questions, that assumes the most beneficial outcomes for you? The brain would then become a mighty ally, sifting through all of your accumulated information, extrapolating courses of action from your current situation. You would even start to notice potentially helpful things throughout your day, things to which you would have otherwise paid no attention. That question, let loose in your brain, would start working even when you are not consciously considering what you asked.
The trick then is to acquire the habit of re-framing your questions to ones that assume and point you in the direction of your success. So, when dealing with the battle of the bulge, you might ask yourself, “How can I most quickly and easily loose 25 pounds?” or, “What do I have to do differently to stick to this new diet?” Begin to consistently think in terms of what you want, instead of dwelling on the idea of not having it. For many of us, contemplating our misery has become a well-established practice.
Mindfulness is the key. Start to be aware of how often you complain about a situation or person. Notice when you feel hopeless and defeated, and let that be your cue to ask a more empowering question. Begin to think of your mind as a supercomputer that can find the remedy to even your toughest challenges. Expect it to surprise and delight you with solutions you may never have dreamed of. By holding as your intention, the commitment to always look for the most positive outcomes, you can let the quality of your questions guide you to becoming your own best advocate and adviser.
What amazing improvements might you start to see in your life by asking yourself better questions?
Thursday, February 5, 2009
The Death of Struggle
Welcome to the premier posting on my new blog MIND MASTERY. As a life-long learner, I have consistently sought to find insight into and control over my motivations, talents and challenges. That quest has led me often to wonder why we think, talk and act the way we do. That's the impetus behind the name MIND MASTERY, the belief that with greater understanding of ourselves, we can Master our thoughts, speech and actions.
When it comes to the language we use daily, I strive to eliminate from my vocabulary words that embody struggle, aggression and violence. We often say things like, 'I have to fight to achieve this or that,' or 'I’m struggling to overcome one thing or another.' In the use of these words we conjure the image of forces clashing, and battles ensuing. This is something we are used to because of how in our society we view relationships as oppositional, people as contestants in a zero sum game. There is a saying that says, what you seek is also seeking you. What we sometimes fail to see is that what we struggle against struggles against us as well.
When we set up the dynamic in our mind that we have to fight something, we at the same time empower that same something to fight back. We create the very situations that we intend to overcome. We hear a lot about the “War on Poverty” or the “War on Drugs” or the “War on Terrorism.” When we speak of these things, we are telling ourselves that something is going to be struggling against what we say we want. Words have power. Thoughts become things. If we go to war against a nation, a person, our own selves, or even ideas and concepts, they each in their own way and their own right seek to defend its existence and will fight us back. That is not to say that we simply do nothing about the things that we wish to change in our lives. It is empowering and natural to seek change and to affect it.
Often times something has to die for us to get the change we want. We have to kill something in our lives or in ourselves so that the new thing can be born. But this is not a contradiction. Death is a natural and inevitable part of life. People, ideas and ways of being die all the time. We don’t have to hate the idea, or fight the idea for it to die in our minds and hearts. We can simply approach the idea with love, courage, and wisdom. We can learn from it what it has come to teach us, and then decide to release it to the Universe. There is no fighting or struggle or aggression in that process, but, to be sure, there is the death of what no longer serves us.
Struggle and adversity has its place. It will rear its head in our lives whether we speak it up or not. Words have power. We must use them carefully and with wisdom. Not that we should be afraid that we may slip up and use some negative phrasing. But rather we should be mindful and hold as our intention, to express love, peace and joy in all our words and actions. Life is challenging and adventurous enough without our summoning forces to fight us.
Peace
When it comes to the language we use daily, I strive to eliminate from my vocabulary words that embody struggle, aggression and violence. We often say things like, 'I have to fight to achieve this or that,' or 'I’m struggling to overcome one thing or another.' In the use of these words we conjure the image of forces clashing, and battles ensuing. This is something we are used to because of how in our society we view relationships as oppositional, people as contestants in a zero sum game. There is a saying that says, what you seek is also seeking you. What we sometimes fail to see is that what we struggle against struggles against us as well.
When we set up the dynamic in our mind that we have to fight something, we at the same time empower that same something to fight back. We create the very situations that we intend to overcome. We hear a lot about the “War on Poverty” or the “War on Drugs” or the “War on Terrorism.” When we speak of these things, we are telling ourselves that something is going to be struggling against what we say we want. Words have power. Thoughts become things. If we go to war against a nation, a person, our own selves, or even ideas and concepts, they each in their own way and their own right seek to defend its existence and will fight us back. That is not to say that we simply do nothing about the things that we wish to change in our lives. It is empowering and natural to seek change and to affect it.
Often times something has to die for us to get the change we want. We have to kill something in our lives or in ourselves so that the new thing can be born. But this is not a contradiction. Death is a natural and inevitable part of life. People, ideas and ways of being die all the time. We don’t have to hate the idea, or fight the idea for it to die in our minds and hearts. We can simply approach the idea with love, courage, and wisdom. We can learn from it what it has come to teach us, and then decide to release it to the Universe. There is no fighting or struggle or aggression in that process, but, to be sure, there is the death of what no longer serves us.
Struggle and adversity has its place. It will rear its head in our lives whether we speak it up or not. Words have power. We must use them carefully and with wisdom. Not that we should be afraid that we may slip up and use some negative phrasing. But rather we should be mindful and hold as our intention, to express love, peace and joy in all our words and actions. Life is challenging and adventurous enough without our summoning forces to fight us.
Peace
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