Who Do You Think You Are?

I was reading a book today that really made me think about my life and the way I live it. It caused me to think about the way I think about and treat others, the way I think of and treat myself and the decisions I make each day. I have considered my life in these terms, but for some reason it really struck me today. So, I just want to throw it out there for any who comes across this to ponder and reflect on and hopefully to share further with others:

How do you see yourself?

As a human being having an occasional spiritual experience?

... or ...

As an infinite spiritual being having a temporary human experience?

Think about it for a moment. The way you answer this question makes all the difference in the world!

Proof that the Law of Attraction Works!

I don't know about the rest of you but I have noticed that whenever I choose to water the lawn, no matter how clear the sky is at the time, it rains within 24 hours. Now, if I were on irrigation it wouldn't bother me so much. It would already be covered by the $200+ that I pay to the Kennewick Irrigation District every year. But, even though I am forced to pay for it, I don't have irrigation anywhere near my property. So every time I water my lawn I have to use city water which is an added expense. So watering the lawn just before it rains is pretty much like throwing a wad of dollar bills out into the grass for whoever wants it.



What does all this have to do with the law of attraction? Hold on a second. I'm getting to that.

I finally had the opportunity to mow my lawn last night for the first time in three weeks because it rained or was raining during the only available times I had to mow. Because it was so tall it took me right up until it was dark to finish. When I woke up this morning I thought, "I should probably water the lawn now that it is short."

I checked the sky and it was looking a little overcast. I went on weather.com and checked the forecast and it showed that there was a chance of rain about mid-day for an hour or two. I decided to wait and water the lawn tonight if the rain didn't happen to pan out.

I read from the scriptures for about 15 minutes before heading out to play basketball and when I opened the door ... it was raining!!! And it kept raining for most of the morning. So now all I have to do is think about watering the lawn and it will start raining.

LoA Principle: What you think about, you bring about.

My wife now thinks I have an attractive mind and an attractive body!

My Memory Bank

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.

"I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

"Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait."

"That doesn' t have anything to do with it," he replied.

"Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged .. it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.

"It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.

"Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away. Just for this time in my life.

"Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories! Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing."

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

Let's Be Foolish

Kurt Godel: I would rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right.

I.Q.

Since the production of The Secret in 2006, the Law of Attraction (LOA) has been a hot topic on talk shows, in articles and among friends and family all over the world. LOA, in its most basic form, says that we attract into our lives that which we focus on. If your focus is primarily on how terrible your life is, you will attract terrible experiences to you. If you focus on how great each and every day is, you will attract great experiences each and every day.

I don't know what your personal take is on LOA, but I am a believer in it. That is one reason why the quote above me describes my personal philosophy so perfectly. I would rather think optimistic and happy thoughts and be considered a fool by the general populace than be a grumpy, bitter pessimist waiting for that moment when I can shout to the world, "See? I told you! The world is going to H - E - Double Hockey Sticks in a handbasket just like I told you it would!" Do you really want to live your life like that?

I love being an optimist!

• Being optimistic makes me excited to get up every morning just so I can see what wonders and miracles are in store for me that day.

• A pessimist hates having to wake up to another dreary, disappointing morning.

• As an optimist I am more aware of and constantly looking for beautiful things that I may encounter throughout the day that add to my joy of living.

• Pessimists see the litter and garbage.

• My optimistic nature opens me up to look for opportunties to improve my life and the lives of those around me.

• The pessimists can't see any hope for improvement and constantly reaffirm how bad things are.

• Optimists are more ready to take risks and, win or lose, learn and grow by the experience.

• Pessimists don't dare take the risk because it will never work out.

• Optimists say, "I can do it!"

• Pessimists say, "I don't stand a chance."

There are many more ways we could illustrate the differences between optimists and pessimists. But each and every example points out how pessimists miss out on the joys of life. You don't want that, do you?

Come on! Let's be foolish!

Whatever You Do ... Don't Try!

Morpheus: What are you waiting for? You're faster than this. Don't think you are, know you are. Come on. Stop trying to hit me and hit me.

The Matrix

This quote is closely tied to something I was blogging about yesterday on my blog for The Millionaire Marathon. In this scene, Neo has just "downloaded" a number of martial arts programs and Morpheus is sparring with him in a secure program patterned after the matrix to see how good Neo is and to teach him more about himself and the actual matrix. No matter how hard Neo fights, he just can't seem to get past Morpheus's defenses.

It may seem like Morpheus is taunting Neo a bit, but he is actually trying to teach him a lesson we all need to understand. We have programmed ourselves to believe that there is a limit for each area of our lives. We are only so strong, only so fast, only so smart, only so capable, etc. And we have proved to ourselves that those limits are accurate by hitting them repeatedly and being stopped by those limits. And whenever we come up against something that lies beyond those limits, we try to accomplish it and fail in the attempt.

I went to a seminar once with my wife that was arranged by Mary Kay and the speaker said something that has always stuck with me. He pointed out that trying is simply failing with honor. When we are faced with something that seems outside our recognized limits, we try to do it so that when we do fail we at least have the honor of saying "I tried". We all need to take the advice of a short, green, muppet-like mentor who instructed us in a better way:

"Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
~ Yoda
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

The truth is that the limits never stopped us, we stopped ourselves - we quit - when we hit those limits. The only place those limits exist are in our minds. We are capable of doing far more on every level of our lives than we ever believed we could. All it takes is a little extra effort, a little more perseverence to improve just 1% or go 1 step beyond our previous limit. And if you do that once, you know you can do it again.

So whatever you are trying to do, stop trying and just do it!

What Do You Think?

Centauri: Alex! Alex! You're walking away from history! History, Alex! Did Chris Columbus stay home? Nooooo. What if the Wright Brothers thought that only birds should fly? And did Galoka think that the Ulus were too ugly to save?
Alex Rogan: Who's Galoka?
Centauri: Never mind.
Alex Rogan: Listen, Centauri. I'm not any of those guys, I'm a kid from a trailer park.
Centauri: If that's what you think, then that's all you'll ever be!

The Last Starfighter



While this was a somewhat "cheesy" movie, I really enjoyed it. It was fun, action-packed and carried a good message. Alex always dreamed of doing more with his life. He dreamed of life beyond the little trailer park community he lived in. I mean, their idea of excitement was everyone turning out to watch Alex break the high score on the Starfighter video game. That was a real life accomplishment in their book. And while that was exciting for Alex in itself, he dreamed of doing something more significant. Little did he know just how significant an opportunity he would get.

Never let a big opportunity in life pass you by because you think it is too big for who you are. That is something even I struggle with. I dream big dreams but then struggle to think of myself as more than what I am. Be big in life by thinking big. I'm not just talking about riches and celebrity status. Be a great parent by thinking of yourself as a great parent. Raise a significant amount of money for a charitable organization by thinking yourself able to do so. Inspire a child to reach great heights of athletic, artistic or musical achievement by thinking yourself a great teacher and/or motivator. Think of yourself as being more ... and you will be.

Here are some more quotes on how thoughts influence your life:

For as (a man) thinketh in his heart, so is he.
-- Proverbs 23:7

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.
-- Mahatma Gandhi

A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. -- James Allen

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.
-- Buddha

All that you accomplish or fail to accomplish with your life is the direct result of your thoughts.
-- James Allen

Build this day on a foundation of pleasant thoughts. Never fret at any imperfections that you fear may impede your progress. Remind yourself, as often as necessary, that you are a creature of God and have the power to achieve any dream by lifting up your thoughts. You can fly when you decide that you can. Never consider yourself defeated again. Let the vision in your heart be in your life's blueprint. Smile!
-- Og Mandino

Change your thoughts, and you change your world.
-- Norman Vincent Peale

Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts.
-- William Hazlitt

I think and that is all that I am.
-- Wayne Dyer

If constructive thoughts are planted positive outcomes will be the result. Plant the seeds of failure and failure will follow.
-- Sidney Madwed

If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.
-- Peace Pilgrim

Life consists in what a person is thinking of all day.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Man is made or unmade by himself. By the right choice he ascends. As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his own thoughts, he holds the key to every situation.
-- James Allen

Nothing has any power over me other than that which I give it through my conscious thoughts.
-- Anthony Robbins

Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.
-- Benjamin Disraeli

Our life is what our thoughts make it. A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him.
-- James Allen

Our minds become magnetized with the dominating thoughts we hold in our minds and these magnets attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts.
-- Napoleon Hill

Our thoughts create our reality -- where we put our focus is the direction we tend to go.
-- Peter McWilliams

Self-discipline begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do. Simply, self-discipline enables you to think first and act afterward.
-- Napoleon Hill

Some thoughts always find us young, and keep us so. Such a thought is the love of the universal and eternal beauty.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The game of life is the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy.
-- Florence Shinn

The human mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

The more clear and definite you make your picture then, and the more you dwell upon it, bringing out all its delightful details, the stronger your desire will be, and the stronger your desire, the easier it will be to hold your mind fixed upon the picture of what you want.
-- Wallace D. Wattles

There is a basic law that like attracts like. Negative thinking definitely attracts negative results. Conversely, if a person habitually thinks optimistically and hopefully his positive thinking sets in motion creative forces - and success instead of eluding him flows toward him.
-- Norman Vincent Peale

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.
-- Napoleon Hill

Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.
-- Henry David Thoreau

To find yourself, think for yourself.
-- Socrates

To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.
-- James Allen

We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.
-- Buddha

We are what we think. All that we are arises With our thoughts. With our thoughts, We make our world.
-- Buddha

What is the hardest thing in the world? To think.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.
-- Buddha

What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul's emphasis is always right.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
-- Author Unknown

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.
-- Patanjali

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.
-- James Allen

(I have the distinct honor of having a portion of this entry being quoted by Dr. Laura Markham as today's Quote of the Day at YourParentingSolutions.com.)