Nurture seeds

Some people wait in vain for their lives to start.  For them, its like waiting for a bus that never comes.  Success, as they dream it, is not something that can simply appear.    Now, other people think they'll stumble on success like a discarded newspaper that someone used and left for someone else to benefit from.  This sort of success wouldn't last.  It wouldn't really be yours. You would borrow it.  True success requires effort and vision and doesn't simply happen by chance.

Powerful ideas for success must grow from a seed to be nurtured into workable conditions.  As you develop personal skills, experience and wisdom, these tools can't be taken from you.  They will always be yours so you can use them to enrich your life and the lives of others.  Your will to move forward is what shapes the process of developing your success.  Concentrate on what is unique about your own learning process. What could other people learn from your life? 

When you have both the desire and the will to succeed, you will discover sources of lasting contentment.  The will to be content with your pursuit  must be more than a wish.  Intense, inner drive must move you.  Obtaining tangible things will not ensure you create inner joy.  It has been said that once you tap into your sources of inner joy, once you clarify your inner vision and build on it, then, other things that contribute to your sense of personal success will simply appear.

Choices come from within

I read about a man who was told be doctors his cancer was incurable and he would certainly die.  Yet, by the power of his thoughts, by the sheer will of his inner core, he healed himself without medical treatment.  He lived dozens of years after that in increasingly better health.  This and similar stories demonstrate the fervent desire to heal oneself can lead to self-healing.  The incredible power of loving and believing in oneself is connected to Forces beyond us.

Now, if you dwell on poverty and sources of misery, would it not be logical that these particular circumstances would await you or be reinforced by your own thoughts?  To focus on misfortune, to repeat stories of pain ad suffering would surely bring on continued misfortune. It is never too late to break the cycle.

Rather than wallow and repeat what discomfort you may have experienced, speak instead of how you plan to think and live differently than before.  Write about how you will establish limits for just treatment and set standards for your own self-respect.  Recognize that your state of mind is connected spiritually to people all aound you.    Each person is somehow touched by the development of your inner strength. The value you create for yourself in life also enriches others.

You are never alone.  Your choices carry an incredible responsibility for people you don't even know.  You act in relation to everyone you consider to be human, learning and growing much like yourself.  Believe it or not, you set an example for others and your choices have consequences.  What you choose to pursue, abandon or ignore all affect your growth and how you inspire or otherwise affect others.

Although many human beings live in constant anticipation of a coming happiness linked to love, they often limit themselves to their imagined concept of love among life partners.  Human beings seldom realize that learning to love and understand themselves may be the greatest love of all.

Is make-believe fantasy risky?

Western society appears to be making progress in teaching children to be less violent.  Some psychologists argue that children's violent fantasies are helping them to work through violent feelings and accomplish just that.  All-the-while, violent fantasies, available in media and other entertainment, put children at odds with ideas adults have struggled with for centuries. 

Symbolic violence has long held an accepted place in human cultures.  Generations of children fell asleep listening to gory fairytales which were suddenly censored by modern society into feel-good stories with happy endings.  Kids went from being expected to carry toy weapons as signs of strength, glory and accessible self-defence, to being told to stop playing war.  At the same time, images of war surround us in the media and real life conflict. What truth should society be teaching?

The popularity of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of books and more recently, Christopher Paolini's Eragon and Eldest dragon series, are a testament to the hunger of children and adults to experience violence and danger in order that they may be challenged to devise solutions.  Where resolutions to problems aren't found, at least characters generally can't say they never tried.

Where does it come from?

To have what you've never had you must do what you've never done.  You don't always get what you want out of life, but you generally get what you expect.  If you exert effort to learn things, you likely anticipate benefits, results, a desire for change, or some kind of reflection of what you put in.  If you don't reap rewards, you may feel like you're missing out or doing something wrong.  When you sense your choices make a positive difference, you gain confidence in the choices.  If you make no effort to learn about 'why' you do things, you can't expect your life to change.

Consider who teaches you, what you are choosing to learn or to discard as unimportant details.  Consider your lifestyle choices as a reflection of your values.  What you buy says a lot about your taste preferences, what beliefs or lifestyles you support and how you feel about all the industries, politics and economic systems that keep these products available and affordable at your level.

Think about where you live and the local climate.  If you live in a place where it snows, remind yourself how fresh fruits and vegetables are grown far away and transported in trucks, planes or ships to where you are. Anything not produced where you are comes with cost to society which goes beyond simply financial.  Modes of transport need gas to function, roads or runways or ports to be built to process the incoming cargo.  Gas-production and gas-propelled transport create pollution and environmental problems.  Economies of countries that grow and produce what you eat, at least in the off-season, may be paid less than what you would pay local people to grow similar produce. Buying products at lower prices from offshore may put local people out of work.

If you choose to be a strict vegetarian because you feel eating animals goes against your principals, it would be inconsistent to wear clothing or use other items made from animal products.  Yet, some people say one thing and hypocritically do others. 

Step back and follow the thread that connects your beliefs with your choices.  Are you buying things which are consistent with how you feel about what you've learned about the world? You may be willing to spend more money for bio-degradable products because you care about the environment, yet do you also recycle and do what you can to help the environment in other ways? Learn the origins of things and take the time to learn why you think and act as you do.

Be an Explorer

To devise and develop new ideas, you need information to draw from; feelings and experience.  How do you obtain emotional knowledge? You can search in the same old places.  You can speak withe same people you always have.  You can re-read books you have read before. Yet, you're much more likely to find original gems if you head 'off the beaten path.'  Take a chance.  Step outside your area of expertise.  Reach out to meet people. You'll make new kinds of discoveries.  You can apply what you learn to other areas of your life. 

A resourceful explorer has the attitude that answers to your dilemmas are always available.  It's simply a matter of taking steps to investigate, perceive differently and find what you need.  Open your mind to people, places and things that have no apparent connection to the problem you seek to solve.  The more diverse your approaches, the more unique your suggestions will turn out to  be.   If you've never gone in a particular direction looking for answers, you'll be surprised at what you till discover there.