Who Are You Waiting For?

Of all the words ever written or spoken, some of the most influential in shaping human history and thought are to be found in the Ten Commandments. When we think of the Ten Commandments, usually three words spring to mind: “Thou Shalt NOT.” I don’t know about you but whenever I’m told I can’t do something I get very curious about the thing I’m not supposed to do! So, ironically, we seem to be drawn to the negatives in our lives, toward those things we’re not supposed to do because they bring more negative consequences than positive ones into our lives.

I think the reason for this is that so few of us are ever given explicit permission to set and pursue specific positive goals. Rarely, if ever, do we hear, “You may.”

Granted, some of the Ten Commandments begin with “Thou Shalt,” but this is interpreted more in terms of being given an order rather than being granted permission. The difference is that when you give someone an order, you’re trying to shape their behavior without regard for their personal beliefs and aspirations. Sounds like a boss or a parent, doesn’t it? On the other hand, when you grant someone permission, you are allowing them and encouraging them to pursue a goal of their own choosing and of their own desiring.

More on this in the near future. . . .

I wish for you a very Merry Christmas and a restful and rewarding Holiday Season. Happy New Year and all the best therein!

Better Than Your Best: Follow Your Path and Learn to Fly

I've been traveling all day to get to a retreat that I hope will actually be a forward! I'm experiencing what I call the "slingshot effect." This effect gives you the feeling that you're being pulled back and that you're losing ground but, in fact, you're in the saddle of a slingshot poised to be let loose so that you can fly much further than you could have gone if you had merely kept trudging forward one foot after another.

Sometimes, you must allow yourself the perspective that going backwards is often the fastest way forward. By pausing from your current activity to examine your past patterns of thought and behavior and their consequent results, you can learn to move at greater speed toward accomplishing a personal or professional goal. By consciously interpreting a setback as a step forward, you prepare yourself to be released with greater force and momentum toward a target that now seems far distant and perhaps unattainable. Let yourself go back during those times of being pulled back so that you can learn to trust the path that you're on even if you feel you're being dragged in the wrong direction. By learning to trust your path you'll learn how to fly and cut your time to goal achievement!

Throw your heart over the goal line and your body with soon catch up!

Ken

Thoughts on the Start of a New Week

Each week, especially Mondays, brings with it a slew of emotions accumulated from all the weeks and Mondays in the past. Mondays are usually greeted, if not with a sense of downright dread, then with a less than enthusiastic attitude and a low-grade anxiety. It's like going through a briar patch - as you travel through it, more and more burrs from the branches stick to your clothing. As you accumulate more "attachments" (physical, mental and emotional) as you go through life, the spiritual speed with which you travel decreases and the goals you set for yourself begin to loom loftier and soon appear to be bigger than your ability - and now your desire - to achieve them.

In order to grow inside, often you must shrink the outside, the accumulations and attachments and stuff that wind up cluttering up your mind and soul. The things you possess eventually possess you because you worry about their safety, care and cost and develop anxiety over the possibiity (or expectation, if you're really paranoid) of losing them. The growth of a person into a fuller, more fulfilled and joyous human being is more a matter of letting go than of adding on. If you can let go of your attachments to past possessions and attitudes you can move forward faster to accomplishing your worthy and worthwhile goals of becoming the person you can be so that you can do what you need to do in order to have what you really need to have - and nothing more. You won't want anything more because you have all you need because you are the person you've always wanted to be. You've given up trying to add anything else because you don't need anything else. You've grown so big on the inside that nothing on the outside can add to your growth as a person. The only source of growth from external things for you now is to let them go so they can flow through you to those whose need of them is greater than yours.

This is a great place in which to be, emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically. What do you need to let go of instead of trying to add more of?

Ken

Having traveled home by a different route, I saw different things. Now returning home on a familiar route, I see things differently. The lesson: I'll see when I choose to see and not simply because what can be seen happens to be in my field of vision.

Ever looked high and low for something only to find it where you searched several times before? It was in your field of vision but you were distracted from choosing to see it. You chose to focus your mind on something else, quite likely what you were going to do after you located what you were looking for. To really see, you must choose to see; you must be in the moment and not merely looking through it to what might be after it.

Have a different way today!

Ken

A thought on doing better than your best.  Try going home today a different way.  And when you do, make a point to look for something unusual - like the unusual brightness of a particular tree or bush, or the different people you see on the way and what they are doing that might be different than what you'd expect.  Alter your path and you alter your perception!
Make it a different day!
Ken