Posts Tagged ‘optimism’

Knowing Yourself

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Think of all the experiences you have been exposed to during your life. When you start thinking about these experiences, you begin to realize that you have been exposed to a great wealth of information and knowledge, knowledge you can apply to your individual and community goals and dreams.

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People who have a willingness to tap into their personal wealth of knowledge stretch themselves and step off into the unknown as a way to increase their learning experiences and base of knowledge.

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The brain files away everything we experience or that we are exposed to, yet we only use about 10% of our brain’s potential. Your lifetime collection of knowledge has tremendous potential to support you in achieving your inner most desires.

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We all have a Shadow. Our Shadow is everything that is deep inside of us that is unconscious, repressed, underdeveloped, and denied. This is the dark side of ourselves, and like all things in life it also has the potential to become the light inside of us.

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If I am going to stop repeating the negative patterns in my life I am going to have to take a hard look at my Shadow so that I can learn more about myself.

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Life will always present you with opportunities for growth and learning to occur whether I ask for it or not. We all have the choice to learn from these opportunities or to ignore them. In any case, they will not go away until they are dealt with.

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When we pay attention to the Shadow side of ourselves we have an opportunity to see and accept who we really are, enabling us to positively develop the person that we were meant to be. To “know thy self” is one of the most important things we can do. It is impossible to become a balanced person and reach our full potential without understanding and embracing our Shadow side.

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The goal for all of us, the goal for you, is to become all that you can be, to reach your full potential, and to make a difference in this world.

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create yourself.

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Embracing Change

Monday, November 24th, 2008

Embracing change is one of the greatest challenges we face as humans. Change is accelerating at an ever increasing pace and if we do not learn to embrace, or at a minimum accept, the changes taking place globally we will in all likelihood wake up one day and say to ourselves, “Was I sleeping? How did we get so far behind?”

Many of us are so caught up in our own lives that we are blinded by the realities of what is taking place outside our daily activities. We get so focused on ourselves that we lose sight of the bigger picture. Because of this self-centered focus many of us are unable to see the changes going on outside ourselves, changes that can have direct or indirect influence on our lives.

Nothing stays the same and if we are going to be a relevant as a community we need to collectively wake up to our changing world and figure out how we can be a part of these changes.

Our challenge is not to forget how we got to where we are and remember that to be relevant we must continually reinvent ourselves. We cannot live life in a bubble thinking that we can remain the same.

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” Victor Frankl

When we think outside-of-the-box and look beyond what we know learning takes place and we increase our chances of being relevant players in our increasingly changing world.

Instant gratification is a growing phenomenon and it is preventing us from seeing how we contribute to a positive or negative future for the generations ahead.

Now more than ever the world needs for us to take a “long view,” a view that allows us to look toward the kind of future we want to create for our descendants. The decisions we are making today have the ability to create a positive impact on the future or our decisions have the ability to have a potentially negative impact.

When you allow your mind to imagine future scenarios as they connect to past events and current activities you will start to link and form new ideas and creative and innovative scenarios.

“Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.” Pauline R. Kezer

Today we need to be thinking about the future we are creating. This means that we will have to take calculated risks, think beyond our comfort zone, out-of-the-box, and collaborate with others.

With the pace of change accelerating and the desire for instant gratification growing, it becomes imperative to think out ahead into the future so we can make the best decisions today, decisions that will have a positive impact on the future.

When you are open to letting your imagination wander, enabling connections to be made, new and powerful solutions become possible.

We need to get serious about expanding and exercising our creativity as individuals and a nation. This means thinking differently about how we go about interacting, relating, and doing business with the world and ourselves.

“They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.” Confucius

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create yourself.

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Living Life

Friday, August 1st, 2008

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Just suppose you were living life exactly the way you have imagined you want it to be. What does that look like? Are you traveling around the world? Are you swimming with dolphins? Where are you living? What kind of car are you driving? How are you helping the world? Are you taking time to just be? Are you creating that piece of art you have always wanted to create? What kind of career do you have? How are you spending your leisure time?

“Prepare your mind to receive the best that life has to offer.” Ernest Holmes

If you are already living your life exactly the way you have imagined it, congratulations. You are among the select few in the world who have achieved such bliss in life. For the rest of us who continue to dream about a life still not fully achieved there is hope. For each new day has the potential of opening new doors of possibilities. The key is to stay optimistic even through the dark times, the times when our path to living the life we know is possible is shadowed by the daily challenges of living.

It is easy to gain enthusiasm for a dream in the short term. It is a very different thing to remain enthusiastic for that dream through the passing of time. Creating and living the life you want and imagine takes time and hard work. Very few things worth obtaining in life are easy to achieve. This is why so many people fall short, giving up and settling for what is instead of what can be. Don’t let this happen to you. You have too much to give back.

When you stay optimistic you are able to see the doors of possibility opening up in front of you. You are able to go through these doors and explore the possibility to see if this new opportunity supports you to live the life you have imagined and are supposed to live. You will start to see your continued perseverance begin to pay off. Each day you make choices that either support your drive to live the life you dream of, or work to hold you back from living that life. We all need to be vigilant to keep the daily stuff that fills our lives from taking over and limiting our ability to see new opportunities.

Just living in today’s “super human” environment is enough to drag anyone down. When you let skepticism and pessimism take over your state of being, you derail your efforts to living the life you have imagined. I have met many people who have let the challenges of living take over and suppress them from becoming what they know they can become. They have given up and, worst of all, in many cases only complained about their situations as if they had nothing to do with it. They did and you do too.

“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Suppose for example, that you are making only the best choices for your life from this point forward. What choices will you make? Who will you choose to hang out with? Who will you choose not to hang out with? What health choices will you make? What will you choose for your life?

I suppose life is a journey of ups and downs, highs and lows. It is how we choose to respond to these highs and lows and ups and downs that allow us to appreciate the highs that much more. Sometimes this may mean taking a day as a do over or just going to bed, looking forward to tomorrow and a new day. When you are able to focus on the positive even during the times when your path to living the life you know is possible is shadowed by the daily challenges of living, you are on your way to making the most out of your life and the life of those around you.

“Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results.” Anon

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create yourself.

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Green Light Your Creativty

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

One’s ability to recognize and remove emotional, perceptual, and cultural blocks is a major step towards greater creativity along with breaking out-of-the-box. Once you start removing these obstacles you begin to establish a frame of mind that is more conducive to letting your creative thinking flow. This does not mean that you can simply flip a mental switch and suddenly become creative. Like so many things written in What Box? it takes practice.

The blocks that hold you back have been created over a lifetime. Like you, I continue to be challenged by my own blocks and obstacles holding me back which, in all likelihood, will be there for the rest of my life.

Unfortunately there is no silver bullet or magic formula that will help you to think and be more creative. Instead, you have to constantly practice putting yourself in environments that enable creative impulses and thinking to grow. Here are some effective tools I have found that when used and practiced on a regular basis have helped me to be more creative. I believe they will be helpful to you as well.

Keep a Positive Attitude
To reinforce a creative attitude within you, begin by stating out loud this simple statement, “I am a creative person!” It is that simple. Say it over and over again. For the rest of this week make this one of the first things you say when you wake up in the morning and one of the last things you say before you go to bed. By affirming your own creative talents you will minimize your negative self-doubts and build a more positive mind-set. Research and experiments have proven that the mere suggestion that a person is an original thinker improves his or her creative abilities. Begin to think of yourself as more creative. Begin thinking of yourself as a creative person. If you think you are creative you are.

“Make your optimism come true.” Author Unknown

Take Time to Relax
This is not always an easy one to achieve in our hectic lives. Here is the thing. When you take the time to relax you are working within your own natural flow of creativity. A relaxed mind is an essential characteristic of a creative mind. Being physically tense or mentally uptight has a crippling effect on our natural creative talents. If you are trying to hard to solve a problem, in all reality you are moving farther away from identifying a solution. Creative ideas must be allowed to emerge naturally. They cannot be forced. Removing rigidness and moving into a mind-set of greater flexibility is an important piece to being more creative. To be more creative stay loose and let go of human based time constraints.

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” Carl Sandberg

Suspend Judgment . . . at Least for a While
Ideas and creative thinking are very delicate. Just one criticism or negative thought can inhibit creative thinking. When you hear yourself say to someone, “That’s a good idea, but . . .” you are inhibiting his or her creativity and worse yet, your own. When you say to yourself or others, “That is no good or that will never work . . .” you are guilty of judging too soon. Try this instead. Give your imagination the “Green Light” and let the ideas flow. Later there will be plenty of time to judge and evaluate the ideas that have been created.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.” Albert Einstein

Open Your Doors of Perception
A creative attitude is a questioning and searching state of mind. Questioning is one of our great gifts and a basic foundation in the creative process. To be creative it is important to be sensitive to problems and their implications. While your judgment may be temporarily suspended, your analytical abilities are not. Creativity requires the ability to analyze problems and break them down into manageable components.

To achieve a stronger creative attitude, open up all of your senses. Strive for a state of heightened awareness which is more in tune with your natural abilities. This kind of fluid state of mind increases your perceptions making you sharper and more responsive. Plug into your senses and you will be able to maximize your creative powers.

“Originality is simply a fresh pair of eyes.” Woodrow Wilson

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create yourself.

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