The first 30 days passed by slowly, yet the days since have been flying by. I am amazed to be at 80 days already. I'm really feeling good, strong, clear minded, and even more motivated to implement some brand new personal challenges...for the next 100 days. It's really neat to see how having small successes over a short period of time can really fuel the flame of inspiration, motivation and confidence. I'm going to start developing my next set of goals over these last 20 days. I am ready to keep working hard and reaping real, lasting rewards that will continue to improve my life and the lives of those around me indefinitely. As I see it now, at 80 days, this 100 day program is only the beginning of more goodness to come, as I plan to grow and share as much as I possibly can. :-)
Here's the rundown of the past 10 days:
1. PhilosophersNotes: Here are the books I covered this week:
"The Pursuit of Perfect" - Tal Ben-Shahar
"Real Magic" - Wayne Dyer
"Rich Dad, Poor Dad" - Robert T. Kiyosaki
"Rumi Daylight" - Rumi
"The Science of Being Great" - Wallace D. Wattles
"The Science of Getting Rich" - Wallace D. Wattles
"Secrets of the Millionaire Mind" - T. Harv Eker
"The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson"
"The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" - Deepak Chopra
"The Silva Mind Control Method of Mental Dynamics" - Jose Silva & Burt Goldman
Here are my favorite 13 quotes from the past 10 days...
“You can render to God and humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“Get rich, that is the best way you can help the poor.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“Facts do not cease to exist simply because they are ignored.” – Aldous Huxley
“If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?” – Rumi
Learn to fail, or fail to learn.” - Tal Ben-Shahar
“Greatness is attained only by the thinking of great thoughts.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.” - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.4.5
“Practicing the Law of Giving is actually very simple; if you want joy, give joy to others; if you want love, learn to give love; if you want attention and appreciation, learn to give attention and appreciation; if you want material affluence, help others to become materially affluent. In fact, the easiest way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.” – Deepak Chopra
“The answer to your prayer is not according to your faith while you are talking, but according to your faith while you are working.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“Concentrate all your thoughts on the task at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell
“In every forest, on every farm, in every orchard on earth, it’s what’s under the ground that creates what’s above the ground. That’s why placing your attention on the fruits that you have already grown is futile. You cannot change the fruits that are already hanging on the tree. You can, however, change tomorrow’s fruits. But to do so, you will have to dig below the ground and strengthen the roots.” – T. Harv Eker
“Commit to paper precisely what you would like to have appear in your physical life. By seeing it and reading it repeatedly you will plant that thought more firmly in your mind and you will begin to manifest that which you are imaging.” – Wayne Dyer
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
***More Super-Awesome Quotes follow below this post...
2. Jump Attack: I enjoyed my week of rest as the demands of this program have been heavy on my legs. I am getting stronger and faster indeed, and I look forward to completing the final phase of the program. This new phase sees all my weights increasing and my reps going down. This phase will be power based and intense. I look forward to the ongoing challenge and will be pushing hard until completion. I hope by the end of this phase to be able to "put it down", aka "slam dunk" for those not hip to the lingo. ;-)
3. Nutrition, Eating Well and my other Commitments: I've been staying strong, eating well and feeling good. I've discovered dried Figs (Black Mission) and have been in love with them. I was reading about nutrition and Figs were highly recommended by numerous sources so I thought I'd give them a try. They look kinda gross, and not so appealing, yet once I took my first bite and chewed I was hooked. I've forged on with the plant based (Vegan) diet while also managing to stay clear of all sweets, refined grains/sugars, toxins, etc.
In other food/nutrition related news I would highly recommend that everyone watch Food, Inc. It's a great documentary that has been getting a ton of attention Nationwide, and really sheds light on the state of our Food and Agriculture Industries. Discovering how the food you eat, and the products you buy get from the farm to your plate, is a great thing to know. You'll be very surprised to learn about the whole process. You'll be appalled at some of the practices and truths, yet you will be informed and empowered. Check it out! :-)
***Here are the rest of the quotes I've enjoyed from the past 10 days...
“You might initially think courage, not faith, is the opposite of fear. But consider that courage exists only where there is fear to be overcome. Without fear there can be no courage; you would just act.” - Josè Silva and Burt Goldman
“To deal with it [fear], go to your meditative level. Polarize the fear; visualize the positive expectations. What would you be doing if you did not have the fear? Go over this again and again.” - Josè Silva and Burt Goldman
“There is no way to get dark out of a room other than to let light in. The only way to get stress out of your being is to let in relaxation. You cannot be relaxed and stressful at the same time.” - Josè Silva and Burt Goldman
“Fear is nothing more than Negative Expectation.” – Brian Johnson
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well… To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“And truly it demands something godlike in him who cast off the common motives of humanity and ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is!” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”- Thomas Jefferson
“There is only one way in which you can ‘change your luck’ and that is by altering your thoughts.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Our desires presage the capacities within us; they are harbingers of what we shall be able to accomplish. What we can do and want to do is projected in our imagination, quite outside ourselves, and into the future. We are attracted to what is already ours in secret. Thus passionate anticipation transforms what is indeed possible into dreamt-for reality.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.” – Thomas Edison
“Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The lion who breaks the enemy’s ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.” – Rumi
“The intelligent want self-control; children want candy.” – Rumi
“No mirror ever became iron again; No bread ever became wheat;No ripened grape ever became sour fruit.Mature yourself and be secure from a change for the worse.Become the light.” – Rumi
“Patience is the key to joy.” – Rumi
“If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?” – Rumi
“Burdens are the foundations of ease and bitter things the forerunners of pleasure.” – Rumi
“Facts do not cease to exist simply because they are ignored.” – Aldous Huxley
“Conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls.” - Rumi
“God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.” – Rumi
“Travelers, it is late. Life’s sun is going to set. During these brief days that you have strength, be quick and spare no effort of your wings.” – Rumi
“If your knowledge of fire has been turned to certainty by words alone, then seek to be cooked by the fire itself. Don’t abide in borrowed certainty. There is no real certainty until you burn; if you wish for this, sit down in the fire.” – Rumi
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” – Buddha
“The Principle of Power gives us just what we ask of it; if we only undertake little things, it only gives us power for little things; but if we try to do great things in a great way it gives us all the power there is.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“You can never become a great man or woman until you have overcome anxiety, worry, and fear. It is impossible for an anxious person, a worried one, or a fearful one to perceive truth; all things are distorted and thrown out of their proper relations by such mental states, and those who are in them cannot read the thoughts of God.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“Intellect helps us to see the best means and manner of doing the right thing, but intellect never shows us the right thing.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“Obey your soul, have perfect faith in yourself. Never think of yourself with doubt or distrust, or as one who makes mistakes.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“Close your ears to all adverse suggestions. Never mind if people call you a fool and a dreamer. Dream on.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.” – George Bernard Shaw
“Greatness is attained only by the thinking of great thoughts.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“So surely as you find yourself in the mental attitude of haste, just so surely may you know that you are out of the mental attitude of greatness. Hurry and fear will instantly cut your connection with the universal mind.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“It is within the power of every man to become great.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“It is a tremendous fact that all you need is already within you.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“The only service you can render to God is to give expression to what he is trying to give the world, through you. The only service you can render God is to make the very most of yourself in order that God may live in you to the utmost of your possibilities.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“The world needs demonstration more than it needs teaching.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“When you discover your essential nature and know who you really are, in that knowing itself is the ability to fulfill any dream you have… and the more you experience your true nature, the closer you are to the field of pure potentiality.” – Deepak Chopra
“You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.” - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.4.5
“But first, you have to practice stillness. Stillness is the first requirement of manifesting your desires, because in stillness lies your connection to the field of pure potentiality that can orchestrate an infinity of details for you.” - Deepak Chopra
“Practicing the Law of Giving is actually very simple; if you want joy, give joy to others; if you want love, learn to give love; if you want attention and appreciation, learn to give attention and appreciation; if you want material affluence, help others to become materially affluent. In fact, the easiest way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.” – Deepak Chopra
“The takers are the people who believe that their lives will always be the total of what they can get from the world. They are always thinking get, get, get. They plan and scheme ways to get what they want in money, in love, in happiness, and in all kinds of good. No matter that they may be applying metaphysical techniques, they still may very well be takers. But whatever may be their spiritual ideals or lack of any, no matter what they take, they can never know peace or security or fulfillment… The givers, on the other hand, are convinced life is a giving process. Thus their subtle motivation in all their ways is to give themselves away, in love, in service, and in all the many helpful ways they can invest themselves. They are always secure, for they intuitively know that their good flows from within.” – Eric Butterworth
“This means that your acceptance of this moment is total and complete. You accept things as they are, not as you wish they were in this moment. This is important to understand. You can wish for things in the future to be different, but in this moment you have to accept things as they are.” - Deepak Chopra
“All problems contain the seeds of opportunity, and this awareness allows you to take the moment and transform it to a better situation or thing.” – Deepak Chopra
“One-pointed intention is that quality of attention that is unbending in its fixity of purpose. One-pointed intention means holding your attention to the intended outcome with such unbending purpose that you absolutely refuse to allow obstacles to consume and dissipate the focused quality of your attention. There is a total and complete exclusion of all obstacles from your consciousness. You are able to maintain an unshakable serenity while being committed to your goal with intense passion. This is the power of detached awareness and one-pointed, focused intention simultaneously.” – Deepak Chopra
“The Law of Detachment says that in order to acquire anything in the physical universe, you have to relinquish your attachment to it. This doesn’t mean that you give up the intention to create your desire. You don’t give up the intention, and you don’t give up the desire. You give up your attachment to the result.” – Deepak Chopra
“Everyone has a purpose in life… a unique gift or special talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of goals.” – Deepak Chopra
“You can render to God and humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“To do things in a way you want to do them, you will have to acquire the ability to think the way you want to think; this is the first step toward getting rich.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“The purpose of Nature is the advancement and unfoldment of life; and every man should have all that can contribute to the power, elegance, beauty and richness of life; to be content with less is sinful.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“What he [God] wants is that you should make the most of yourself, for yourself, and for others; and you can help others more by making the most of yourself than in any other way. … You can make the most of yourself only by getting rich; so it is right and praiseworthy that you should give your first and best thought to the work of acquiring wealth.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“A seed, dropped into the ground, springs into activity, and in the act of living produces a hundred more seeds; life, by living, multiplies itself. It is forever Becoming More; it must do so, if it continues to be at all.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“Get rich, that is the best way you can help the poor.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“A man’s highest happiness is found in the bestowal of benefits on those he loves; love finds its most natural and spontaneous expression in giving.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“It is the natural and inherent impulse of life to seek to live more; it is the nature of intelligence to enlarge itself, and of consciousness to seek to extend its boundaries and find fuller expression.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“You are to become a creator, not a competitor; you are going to get what you want, but in such a way that when you get it every other man will have more than he has now.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“The answer to your prayer is not according to your faith while you are talking, but according to your faith while you are working.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“You must form a clear and definite mental picture of what you want.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“You cannot impress the mind of God by having a special Sabbath day set apart to tell Him what you want, and then forgetting Him the rest of the week.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“You cannot exercise much power without gratitude; for it is gratitude that keeps you connected with Power.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you; and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“You want to be rich in order that you may eat, drink, and be merry when it is time to do these things; in order that you may surround yourself with beautiful things, see distant lands, feed your mind, and develop your intellect; in order that you may love men and do kind things, and be able to play a good part in helping the world to find truth.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“In order to get rich you do not need a ‘sweet hour of prayer’; you need to ‘pray without ceasing.’ And by prayer I mean holding steadily to your vision, with the purpose to cause its creation into solid form, and the faith that you are doing so.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“Every day is either a successful day or a failure; and it is the successful days which get you what you want. If everyday is a failure, you can never get rich; while if every day is a success, you cannot fail to get rich.” - Wallace D. Wattles
“Do not give your creative impulse to Original Substance, and then sit down and wait for results; if you do, you will never get them. Act now. There is never any time but now, and there never will be any time but now. If you are ever to begin to make ready for the reception of what you want, you must begin now.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“In every forest, on every farm, in every orchard on earth, it’s what’s under the ground that creates what’s above the ground. That’s why placing your attention on the fruits that you have already grown is futile. You cannot change the fruits that are already hanging on the tree. You can, however, change tomorrow’s fruits. But to do so, you will have to dig below the ground and strengthen the roots.” – T. Harv Eker
“An affirmation states that a goal is already happening. I’m not crazy about this because, often when we affirm something that is not yet real, the little voice in our head usually responds with ‘This isn’t true, this is BS’ … On the other hand, a declaration is not saying something is true, it’s saying we have an intention of doing or being something. This is a position the little voice can buy, because we’re not stating it’s true right now, but again, it’s an intention for us in the future.” – T. Harv Eker
“Your programming leads to your thoughts; your thoughts lead to your feelings; your feelings lead to your actions; your actions lead to your results. Therefore, just as is done with a personal computer, by changing your programming, you take the first essential step to changing your results.” – T. Harv Eker
“No thought lives in your head rent-free.” – T. Harv Eker
“It’s simple arithmetic: ‘Your income can grow only to the extent you do.’” – T. Harv Eker
“Poor people choose to play the role of the victim.” – T. Harv Eker
“Let me put it bluntly: anyone who says that money isn’t important doesn’t have any! Rich people understand the importance of money and the place it has in our society. On the other hand, poor people validate their financial ineptitude by using irrelevant comparisons. They’ll argue, ‘Well, money isn’t as important as love.’ Now, is that comparison dumb or what? What’s more important, your arm or your leg? Maybe they’re both important.” – T. Harv Eker
“Complaining is the absolute worst possible thing you could do for your health or your wealth. The worst! … For the next seven days, I challenge you not to complain at all.” - T. Harv Eker
“Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.” – T. Harv Eker
“If you shoot for the stars, you’ll at least hit the moon. Poor people don’t even shoot for the ceiling in their house, and then they wonder why they’re not successful.” – T. Harv Eker
“Comfort kills! If your goal in life is to be comfortable, I guarantee two things. First, you will never be rich. Second, you will never be happy. Happiness doesn’t come from living a lukewarm life, always wondering what could have been. Happiness comes as a result of being in our natural state of growth and living up to our fullest potential.” - T. Harv Eker
“Bless that which you want. If you see a person with a beautiful home, bless that person and bless that home. If you see a person with a beautiful car, bless that person and bless that car. If you see a person with a loving family, bless that person and bless that family. If you see a person with a beautiful body, bless that person and bless their body.” – T. Harv Eker
“Energy is contagious: either you affect people or you infect people… I believe negative thinking is like having measles of the mind. Instead of itching, you get bitching; instead of scratching, you get bashing; instead of irritation, you get frustration. Now, do you really want to be close to people like that?” – T. Harv Eker
“Here’s an equation I want you to remember for the rest of your life: CZ = WZ. It means your ‘comfort zone’ equals your ‘wealth zone.’ By expanding your comfort zone, you will expand the size of your income and wealth zone.” – T. Harv Eker
“I am concerned that too many people are focused too much on money and not on their greatest wealth, which is their education. If people are prepared to be flexible, keep an open mind and learn, they will grow richer and richer through the changes. If they think money will solve the problems, I am afraid those people will have a rough ride. Intelligence solves problems and produces money. Money without financial intelligence is money soon gone.” – Robert Kiyosaki
(Speaking about Debt)- “If you find you have dug yourself into a hole... stop digging.” - Robert Kiyosaki
“We all have tremendous potential, and we all are blessed with gifts. Yet, the one thing that holds all of us back is some degree of self-doubt. It is not so much the lack of technical information that holds us back, but more the lack of self-confidence.” – Robert Kiyosaki
“Life is much like going to the gym. The most painful part is deciding to go. Once you get past that, it’s easy.” - Robert Kiyosaki
“If you have little money and you want to be rich, you must first be ‘focused,’ not ‘balanced.’ If you look at anyone successful, at the start they were not balanced. Balanced people go nowhere. They stay in one spot. To make progress, you must first go unbalanced. Just look at how you make progress walking.” – Robert Kiyosaki
“Concentrate all your thoughts on the task at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell
“Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively.” – Peter Senge
“Whenever you feel ‘short’ or in ‘need’ of something, give what you want first and it will come back in buckets. That is true for money, a smile, love, friendship. I know it is often the last thing a person may want to do, but it has always worked for me. I just trust that the principle of reciprocity is true, and I give what I want.” – Robert Kiyosaki
“When you go beyond outcome in life you find yourself unconcerned about what is in it for you. Thoughts, feelings and behavior focus more and more on the fulfillment of your purpose. You go beyond success, achievement and performance as indications of your life’s mission. Instead, every moment is lived fully and lovingly. Material possessions cease to dominate your thoughts, which is not to say that they disappear. They simply cease to be the focus of life. Instead, your purpose takes hold, and you gain a sense of joy and inner harmony knowing that you are divinely fulfilling your reason for being here. As Michel de Montaigne put it so succinctly: “The great and glorious masterpiece of man is how to live with purpose.” – Wayne Dyer
“All of the things that you have become convinced are limits are products of the way in which you have learned to think… Before the invention of the microscope most people did not believe in the existence of microscopic life. People who believe only what they can see or p – Wayne Dyer
“Become detached from the outcome of your actions and paradoxically your level of performance will climb.” - Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
“Begin to act in your physical world as if that person whom you would love to be were already here.” - Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
“When you are able to shift your inner awareness to how you can serve others, and when you make this the central focus of your life, you will then be in a position to know true miracles in your progress toward prosperity.” – Wayne Dyer
“How do you surrender? Just let go! Don’t strain to achieve; instead, enjoy the process of the work that you are doing. The results will come independent of your striving for them. When your mind is on the result rather than what you are doing, you create inner discord that blocks any and all possibilities for miracles to show up. Prosperity is about process, not outcome. Purpose is about loving and giving.” – Wayne Dyer
“Your biggest hurdle to reshaping your personality into the work of art that you desire will be overcoming your fears and doubts.” - Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
“For a master, the rewards gained along the way are fine, but they are not the main reason for the journey. Ultimately, the master and the master’s path are one. And if the traveler is fortunate—that is, if the path is complex and profound enough—the destination is two miles farther away for every mile he or she travels.” – George Leonard
“Commit to paper precisely what you would like to have appear in your physical life. By seeing it and reading it repeatedly you will plant that thought more firmly in your mind and you will begin to manifest that which you are imaging.” – Wayne Dyer
“Create an intention inventory for yourself. Not a wish list, but an inventory of what you intend to create within yourself. The kind of person you want to become, along with the necessary ingredients for creating that person. You must first know this. Then shift to your intention stance. ‘I intend to manifest the necessary talent and intellect to become the kind of purposeful person I am destined to be.’ This kind of inner commitment to your own excellence is the stuff of which miracles are made.” – Wayne Dyer
‘The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.” – Carl Rogers
“Change is not a threat but a challenge; the unknown is not frightening but fascinating.” - Tal Ben-Shahar
“The pain associated with the fear of failure is usually more intense than the pain following an actual failure.” - Tal Ben-Shahar
“A conscious realization of our innate oneness with the Ineffable does not mean that we will never make a mistake again. Even enlightened beings burn their bagels once in a while. It’s important to maintain a sense of humor because this is how you will stop being afraid of making a mistake. You’ll make some, but so what? That’s why they’re called mis-takes. Humor relaxes the uptight ego. You get a new cue from your inner Self and simply say, ‘I missed my cue, so let’s do a second take.’ Your willingness to take the risk of making a mistake is actually an expression of courage and a willingness to grow from them. Mistakes are about getting the blessing in the lesson and the lesson in the blessing.” – Michael Beckwith
“Taking the constraints of reality into consideration, the Optimalist then works toward creating not the perfect life but the best possible one.” - Tal Ben-Shahar
“The word appreciate has two meanings. The first meaning is ‘to be thankful,’ the opposite of taking something for granted. The second meaning is ‘to increase in value’ (as money appreciates in the bank). Combined, these two meanings point to a truth that has been proved repeatedly in research on gratitude: when we appreciate the good in our lives, the good grows and we have more of it. The opposite, sadly, is also true: when we fail to appreciate the good—when we take the good in our lives for granted—the good depreciates.” – Tal Ben-Shahar
“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare, is to lose oneself.” - Søren Kierkegaard
“The problem in today’s corporate world, as well as in many other realms, is not hard work; the problem is insufficient recovery.” - Tal Ben-Shahar
“The rising levels of mental health problems, coupled with improved psychiatric medication, are thrusting us toward a brave new world. To reverse direction, rather than listening to advertisers who promise us the wonder drug, the magic pill that will improve performance and mood, we need to listen to our nature and rediscover its wonders. Regular recovery, on the micro-, mid-, and macrolevels, can often do the work of psychiatric medicine, only naturally.” – Tal Ben-Shahar
“Those who understand that failure is inextricably linked with achievement are the ones who learn, grow, and ultimately do well. Learn to fail, or fail to learn.” - Tal Ben-Shahar
“The basic premise of cognitive therapy is that we react to our interpretation of events rather than directly to the events themselves, which is why the same event may elicit radically different responses from different people. An event leads to a thought (an interpretation of the event), and the thought in turn evokes an emotion. I see a baby (event), recognize her as my daughter (thought), and feel love (emotion). I see the audience waiting for my lecture (event), interpret it as threatening (thought), and experience anxiety (emotion).” – Tal Ben-Shahar
“The goal of cognitive therapy is to restore a sense of realism by getting rid of distorted thinking. When we identify an irrational thought (a cognitive distortion), we change the way we think about an event and thereby change the way we feel. For example, if I experience paralyzing anxiety before a job interview, I can evaluate the thought that elicits the anxiety (if I am rejected, it will all be over and I will never find a job) and reinterpret the event by disputing and replacing the distorted evaluation with a rational one (although I really want this job, there are many other desirable jobs out there). The distortion elicits an intense and unhealthy fear of failure; the rational thought reframes the situation and puts it in perspective.” – Tal Ben Shahar
“Helen Keller, who in her lifetime knew much suffering, as well as joy, noted that ‘character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.’” - Tal Ben-Shahar
“Why the double standard, the generosity toward our neighbor and the miserliness where we ourselves are concerned? And so I propose that we add a new rule, which we can call the Platinum Rule, to our moral code: ‘Do not do unto yourself what you would not do unto others.’” – Tal Ben-Shahar
Monday, March 22, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
70 Days...
Wow, I'm nearing the home stretch now, and feeling really good. Let's jump right into it the breakdown of the past 10 days...
1. PhilosophersNotes: I feel like I should be getting paid for talking about these awesome tools. PhilosophersNotes are perfect for me. I love to gather wisdom as I am continually learning, and trying to improve my life in every aspect I can. But, with two young boys and 3 businesses it is so hard to find the time to do so. That's were these wisdom packed 20min. audio summaries of some of the most valuable books ever written come in. Seriously check these things out if you'd like to feel better, and do more with your life than you previously have. Who wouldnt want to do that?
Here are the books I covered this week:
The Places That Scare You - Pema Chodron
Positive Addiction - William Glasser
The Power of Decision - Raymond Charles Barker
The Power of Full Engagement - Jim Loehr/Tony Schwartz
The Power of Intention - Wayne Dyer
The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell
The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Your Supermind - Vernon Howard
Psycho-Cybernetics - Maxwell Maltz
The Psychology of Winning - Denis Waitley
Here are my 6 favorite quotes from the past 10 days:
“Human beings live the way they CHOOSE, not the way they WANT. A vast difference lies between the two.” - Vernon Howard
“Few doctors will say, ‘Look, your headaches are caused by inadequacy; take some aspirin and then go and find some more love and do something more worthwhile.’” – William Glasser
“A bicycle maintains its poise and equilibrium only so long as it is going forward towards something. You have a good bicycle. Your trouble is you are trying to maintain your balance sitting still, with no place to go. It is no wonder you feel shaky.” – Maxwell Maltz
“It is a mistake for anyone to think he has lived too long in his old, unsatisfactory ways to make the great change. If you switch on the light in a dark room, it makes no difference how long it was dark because the light will still shine. Be teachable. That is the whole secret.” – Vernon Howard
“Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.” – Vernon Howard
“As within, so without: If humans clear inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.” - Eckhart Tolle
***More Super-Awesome Quotes follow at the end of this posting, see below.
2. Jump Attack: I just finished up with the 2nd Phase of the program and now get another week off, which is well needed rest. I'm feeling stronger with every workout and foresee this last phase being really intense and elevating...literally. :-)
3. Nutrition, Eating Well and my Commitments: I have been going strong with the plant based (Vegan) diet and feeling great. I am toning up, although I have lost zero pounds. I'm certain I've converted old fat to new muscle, but won't know how much until I test my body fat at programs end. Like I had mentioned in a previous post, I thought eating only plants that grow from the earth would have me dropping a lot of weight, but I'm glad that I have thrived and been able to convert fat to muscle and stay the same weight. I've still stayed clear of any and all Sweets, Sodas, Alcohol, Toxins, etc. I'm still really looking forward to that big piece of Cossetta's Cheese Pizza in St. Paul, however, in about 30 more days. :-)
Thanks for being you and doing all you do. Losta love, and I'll see you in 10 more days...
:-)
***Here are the rest of the Super-Awesome Quotes:
“Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.” – Vernon Howard
“It is a mistake for anyone to think he has lived too long in his old, unsatisfactory ways to make the great change. If you switch on the light in a dark room, it makes no difference how long it was dark because the light will still shine. Be teachable. That is the whole secret.” – Vernon Howard
“How on earth can another’s thought harm you? It is your thought about his thought that harms. Change *your* thought.” - Vernon Howard
“Rebel against everything within yourself that you feel is artificial. Become what you are!” - Vernon Howard
“Encourage yourself by remembering that any detection of negativity within you is a positive act, not a negative one. Awareness of your weakness and confusion makes you strong because conscious awareness is the bright light that destroys the darkness of negativity. Honest self-observation dissolves pains and pressures that formerly did their dreadful work in the darkness of unawareness. This is so important that I urge you to memorize and reflect upon the following summary: Detection of inner negativity is not a negative act, but a courageously positive act that makes you a new person.” – Vernon Howard
“Use this secret for developing receptivity: Learn to love situations which make you uncomfortable. That is the only way you can learn to be comfortable everywhere.” - Vernon Howard
“Human beings live the way they CHOOSE, not the way they WANT. A vast difference lies between the two.” - Vernon Howard
“No one can tell you what is right for you except for yourself. So start telling yourself what to do. If you blunder for ten years while thinking for yourself, that is rich treasure when compared with living these ten years under the mental domination of another. The only true, honest and enriching authority is the internal authority of your own Supermind.” – Vernon Howard
“If it takes apparent misfortune to turn us into true philosophers and doers of good to receive good, then apparent misfortune is our greatest fortune.” – Vernon Howard
“To be real is to be spiritual. A cat is normal because no one has fixed him with a neurotic notion that he should be a tiger. A man loses neurosis when he is what he is.” – Vernon Howard
“At the start of your quest, wisdom is a flash, not a glow.” - Vernon Howard
“No one can enjoy a truth for which he is unprepared, any more than an ape can appreciate a harp.” - Vernon Howard
“Please don’t go around trying to save the world. You have all you can do to save yourself.” - Vernon Howard
“Creative striving for a goal that is important to you as a result of your own deep-felt needs, aspirations and talents (and not the symbols which the ‘Joneses’ expect you to display) brings happiness as well as success because you will be functioning as you were meant to function. Man is by nature a goal-striving being. And because man is ‘built that way’ he is not happy unless he is functioning the way he was made to function—as a goal-striver. Thus true success and true happiness not only go together but each enhances the other.” - Maxwell Maltz
“Every human being has been literally ‘engineered for success’ by his Creator. Every human being has access to a power greater than himself.” - Maxwell Maltz
“A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment.” – Maxwell Maltz
“Your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an imagined experience and a ‘real’ experience.” – Maxwell Maltz
“Imagine how you would feel if you were already the sort of personality you want to be. If you have been shy and timid, see yourself moving among people with ease and poise—and feeling good because of it. If you have been fearful and anxious in certain situations—see yourself acting calmly and deliberately, acting with confidence and courage—and feling expansive and confident because you are.” “This exercise builds new ‘memories’ or stored data into your mid-brain and central nervous system. It builds a new image of self. After practicing it for a time, you will be surprised to find yourself ‘acting differently,’ more or less automatically and spontaneously—‘without trying.’” – Maxwell Maltz
“Our self-image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other. The word ‘habit’ originally meant a garment or clothing… Our habits are literally garments worn by our personalities. They are not accidental, or happenstance. We have them because they fit us. They are consistent with our self-image and our entire personality pattern. When we consciously and deliberately develop new and better habits, our self-image tends to outgrow the old habits and grow into the new pattern.” – Maxwell Maltz
“We are engineered as goal-seeking mechanisms. We are built that way. When we have no personal goal which we are interested in and which ‘means something’ to us, we are apt to ‘go around in circles,’ feel ‘lost’ and find life itself ‘aimless,’ and ‘purposeless.’ We are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals, and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve. People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile. Prescription: Get yourself a goal worth working for.” – Maxwell Maltz
“A bicycle maintains its poise and equilibrium only so long as it is going forward towards something. You have a good bicycle. Your trouble is you are trying to maintain your balance sitting still, with no place to go. It is no wonder you feel shaky.” – Maxwell Maltz
“The measure of mental health is the disposition to find good everywhere.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Simply define your goal or end result. Picture it to yourself clearly and vividly. Then simply capture the feeling you would experience if the desirable goal were already an accomplished fact. Then you are acting spontaneously and creatively. Then you are using the powers of your subconscious mind. Then your internal machinery is geared for success: To guide you in making the correct muscular motions and adjustments; To supply you with creative ideas, and to do whatever else is necessary in order to make the goal an accomplished fact.” – Maxwell Maltz
“Take inventory of your good reasons for self-esteem today. Write down what your ‘BAG’ is. Blessings—who and what you are thankful for. Accomplishments—what you have done that you’re proud of so far. Goals—what your dreams and ambitions are.” – Denis Waitley
“Every winner I have ever met knows where he or she is going day by day … every day. Winners are goal oriented. They set and get what they want—consistently. They are self-directed on the road to fulfillment. Fulfillment or success has been defined as the progressive realization of goals that are worthy of the individual. The ‘human’ system is goal-seeking by design and, using a very basic analogy, may be compared to a homing torpedo system or an automatic pilot. Set your target and this self-activated system, constantly monitoring feedback signals from the target area and adjusting course setting in its own navigational guidance computer, makes every correction necessary to stay on target and score a hit. Programmed incompletely, non-specifically or aimed at a target too far out of range, the ‘homing torpedo’ will wander erratically around until its propulsion system fails or self-destructs. And so it is with each individual human system in life.” – Denis Waitley
“One of the best ways to develop adaptability to the stresses of life is to view them as normal. Earl Nightingale tells of his visit with his son recently to the Great Barrier Reef which stretches nearly 1800 miles from New Guinea to Australia. Noticing that the coral polyps on the inside of the reef, where the sea was tranquil and quiet in the lagoon, appeared pale and lifeless… while the coral on the outside of the reef, subject to the surge of the tide and power of the waves, were bright and vibrant with splendid colors and flowing growth… Earl Nightingale asked why this was so. ‘It’s very simple,’ came the reply, ‘the coral on the lagoon-side dies rapidly with no challenge for growth and survival… while the coral facing the surge and power of the open sea, thrives and multiplies because it is challenged and tested every day. And so it is with every living organism on earth.’” – Denis Waitley
“Since they fail to plan, they are planning to fail by default.” - Denis Waitley
“The most readily identifiable quality of a total winner is an attitude of personal optimism and enthusiasm.” – Denis Waitley
“Concentrate all your energy and intensity, without distraction, on the successful completion of your current project. Finish what you start.” – Denis Waitley
“Most people spend more time planning a party, studying the newspaper, or making a Christmas list, than they do in planning their lives.” – Denis Waitley
“The fear habit, the anger habit, the self-pity habit—all are strengthened and empowered when we continue to buy into them. The most compassionate thing we can do is to interrupt these habits.” – Pema Chodron
“Acknowledging that we are all churned up is the first and most difficult step in any practice. Without compassionate recognition that we are stuck, it’s impossible to liberate ourselves from confusion. ‘Doing something different’ is anything that interrupts our ancient habit of indulging in our emotions. We do anything to cut the strong tendency to spin out… Anything that’s non-habitual will do—even sing and dance or run around the block. We do anything that doesn’t reinforce our crippling habits. The third most difficult practice is to then remember that this is not something we do just once or twice. Interrupting our destructive habits and awakening our heart is the work of a lifetime.” – Pema Chodron
“A traditional analogy for the pain caused by the lord of form is of a mouse being caught in a trap because it can’t resist eating the cheese. The Dalai Lama offers an interesting twist to this analogy. He says that when he was a boy in Tibet he used to try to catch the mice, not because he wished to kill them, but because he wanted to outsmart them. He says that the mice in Tibet must be more clever than ordinary mice because he never succeeded in catching one. Instead they became his models of enlightened conduct. He felt that, unlike most of us, they had figured out that the best thing they could do for themselves was to refrain from the short-term pleasure of cheese in order to have the long-term pleasure of living. He encouraged us to follow their example.” – Pema Chodron
“This is the path we take in cultivating joy: learning not to armor our basic goodness, learning to appreciate what we have. Most of the time we don’t do this. Rather than appreciate where we are, we continually struggle to nurture our dissatisfaction. It’s like trying to get flowers to grow by pouring cement on the garden.” – Pema Chodron
“A warrior begins to take responsibility for the direction of her life. It’s as if we are lugging around unnecessary baggage. Our training encourages us to open the bags and look closely at what we are carrying. In doing this we begin to understand that much of it isn’t needed anymore.” – Pema Chodron
“Without loving-kindness for ourselves, it is difficult, if not impossible, to genuinely feel it for others.” - Pema Chödrön
“Each moment is an opportunity to make a fresh start.” - Pema Chödrön
“One begins identifying those factors which lead to happiness and those factors which lead to suffering. Having done this, one then sets about gradually eliminating those factors which lead to suffering and cultivating those which lead to happiness. That is the way.” – Dalai Lama
“Very few of us realize how much we choose the misery in our lives. Even when we do, we still go ahead with the disastrous choice because we are convinced that we don’t have the strength to choose better…I will first describe in detail how weakness is the cause of almost all the unfortunate choices we make. Then I will argue that anyone who wishes to become stronger seriously consider trying to become an addict.” – William Glasser
“…Positive addicts because, due to their addictions, they are almost always stronger than nonpositively addicted people who lead similar lives. With this added strength they live with more confidence, more creativity, and more happiness and usually in much better health.” – William Glasser
“Throughout almost the whole history of psychiatry it has been difficult for most psychiatrists to accept that depression is a choice.” – William Glasser
“Depression is a choice.” – William Glasser (Dr. Glasser’s approach is non-traditional. He does not believe in the concept of mental illness unless there is something organically wrong with the brain that can be confirmed by a pathologist.)
“Few doctors will say, ‘Look, your headaches are caused by inadequacy; take some aspirin and then go and find some more love and do something more worthwhile.’” – William Glasser
“Depression, no more than acting out, does not come from the outside. We don’t catch it like chicken pox. It is out of our weakness that we choose to be depressed because we have discovered that not making this choice is even more painful.” – William Glasser
“With the first choice, giving up, he relinquished responsibility, but with the second choice, depression, he is now shielded from his own inadequacy and able to turn to others.” - William Glasser
“No one is so inadequate that he cannot help himself to some degree. Not only can he, but he must; nothing else will work.” – William Glasser
“What they always seem to have that makes them strong is that no matter how many problems they face they rarely run out of options. Unlike the weak, who tend to give up and then choose symptoms to reduce their pain and perhaps later become addicted to get some pleasure in their lives, strong people never seem to be at the end of their rope. They almost never lock themselves into one pattern of thinking and behavior.” – William Glasser
“Unlike the weak, the strong neither give up nor are driven by pain into rash or stupid behavior. They don’t like pain any more than anyone else, but they are not willing to settle for short-term relief if it means reducing their options later. They don’t rob Peter to pay Paul, they face reality now.” – William Glasser
“You can not go beyond your own self-accepted image. As long as you underestimate yourself, you cannot succeed in life.” – Raymond Charles Barker
“Success and failure are results of the use of mind. Every success-motivated mind has been a decisive mind. Every failure-motivated mind has been an indecisive mind. Only the dreamer who acted with decision on his dream brought forth something new and valuable.” - Raymond Charles Barker
“Man is not born perfect. He is born incomplete, he is born as a process. He is born on the way, as a pilgrim. That is his agony and his ecstasy, too; agony because he cannot rest, he has to go ahead, he has always to go ahead. He has to seek and search and explore. He has to become, because his being arises only through becoming. Becoming is his being. He can only be if he is on the move. Evolution is intrinsic to man’s nature, evolution is his very soul. And those who take themselves for granted remain unfulfilled. Those who think they are born complete remain unevolved. Then the seed remains the seed. It never becomes a tree and never knows the joys of spring and the sunshine and the rain, and the ecstasy of bursting into millions of flowers. That explosion is the fulfilment, that explosion is what existence is all about—exploding.” – Osho
“You cannot think and feel negatively over a period of time and have positive situations maintained in your experience. The Law of the Subconscious can only bear the kind of fruit based on the seed ideas you have given them. Jesus said you could not gather figs from thistles. Paul called this sowing and reaping. The Hermetic Teachings stated that what goes in must come out. All are saying the same thing.” – Raymond Charles Barker
“You are the result of your past decisions. You will become and experience the result of your present decisions. Join me in deciding on the side of greatness.” - Raymond Charles Barker
“All of this is already in you. The great use it. The non-great do not, so they remain the non-great. Decide upon some thing, situation, or condition that you want right now in your present life. Be definite in this decision. Do not limit your decision by investigating the probable reasons why it will never happen. That is the detour to nothing. All false speculations of defeat have to be ruled out of your consciousness. If they enter into the decision for even a fleeting moment, the decision is robbed of authority and the subconscious mind cannot act upon it. You do not need to know how the final result will come to pass. That is the function of the subconscious. It has ways and means that, if they were known, would stagger the intellect.” – Raymond Chalres Barker
“The more you watch your moods, attitudes, habits, and central ideas and stop all basic negatives from lingering in your area of attention, the richer and fuller your prosperity will be.” – Raymond Charles Barker
“We would be living in a grand Utopia today if every great idea that arose in men’s minds had been followed by decision and right action. Too many great ideas have been meditated upon and then discarded. Usually the thinker discards them for what seem to him to be plausible reasons. No great discovery in history has been based on plausible reasons. Automobiles were implausible in 1900. Radios were implausible in 1910. Transatlantic planes were implausible in 1920. Yet thinkers let such ideas arise in their consciousness out of the wellspring of the Infinite Intelligence. We should all be grateful that these thinkers decided to try the ideas they had. Every scientific mind has made the implausible plausible.” – Raymond Charles Barler
“Periods of recovery are likewise intrinsic to creativity and to intimate connection. Sounds become music in the spaces between notes, just as words are created by the spaces between letters. It is in the spaces between work that love, friendship, depth and dimension are nurtured. Without time for recovery, our lives become a blur of doing unbalanced by much opportunity for being.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“Drinking water, we have found, is perhaps the most undervalued source of physical energy renewal. Unlike hunger, thirst is an inadequate barometer of need. By the time we feel thirsty, we may be long since dehydrated. A growing body of research suggests that drinking at least sixty-four ounces of water at intervals throughout the day serves performance in a range of important ways. Dehydrate a muscle by as little as 3 percent, for example, and it will lose 10 percent of its strength and 8 percent of its speed. Inadequate hydration also compromises concentration and coordination.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“Television, for example, is one of the primary means by which most people relax and recover. For the most part, however, watching television is the mental and emotional equivalent of eating junk food. It may provide a temporary form of recovery, but it is rarely nutritious and it is easy to consume too much. Researchers such as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi have found that prolonged television watching is actually correlated with increased anxiety and low-level depression.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“To be fully engaged emotionally requires celebrating what the Stoic philosophers called anacoluthia—the mutual entailment of the virtues. By this notion, no virtue is a virtue by itself. Rather, all virtues are entailed. Honesty without compassion, for example, becomes cruelty.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“In short, money may not buy happiness, but happiness may help you get rich.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“Creating positive rituals is the most powerful means we have found to effectively manage energy in the service of full engagement.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“The more scheduled and systematic these rituals became, the more renewal they provided.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“Across cultures, religions and time itself, people have admired and aspired to the same universal values—among them integrity, generosity, courage, humility, compassion, loyalty, perseverance—while rejecting their opposites—deceit, greed, cowardice, arrogance, callousness, disloyalty and sloth. To begin to explore more deeply the values that are most compelling to you, we suggest that you set aside uninterrupted time to respond to the following questions: Jump ahead to the end of your life. What are the three most important lessons you have learned and why are they so critical? Think of someone that you deeply respect. Describe three qualities in this person that you most admire. Who are you at your best? What one-sentence inscription would you like to see on your tombstone that would capture who you really were in your life?” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” - Wayne Dyer
“Act as if everything you desire is already here… treat yourself as if you already are what you’d like to become.” – Wayne Dyer
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold service was joy.” - Rabindranath Tagore
“The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one’s own ignorance concerning one’s self and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening. The finding of God is a coming to one’s self.” - Aldous Huxley
“It grows my fingernails, it beats my heart, it digest my food, it writes my books, and it does this for everyone and everything in the universe.” – Wayne Dyer
“Choose to be in close proximity to people who are empowering, who appeal to your sense of connection to intention, who see the greatness in you, who feel connected to God, who live a life that gives evidence that Spirit has found celebration through them.” – Wayne Dyer
“The Wright brothers didn’t contemplate the staying on the ground of things. Alexander Graham Bell didn’t contemplate the noncommunication of things. Thomas Edison didn’t contemplate the darkness of things. In order to float an idea into your reality, you must be willing to do a somersault into the unconceivable and land on your feet, contemplating what you want instead of what you don’t have.” – Wayne Dyer
“God is an intelligible sphere—a sphere known to mind, not to the senses—whose center is everywhere and whose circumference nowhere.” - Joseph Campbell
“Ramakrishna once said that if all you think of are your sins, then you are a sinner. And when I read that, I thought of my boyhood, going to confession on Saturdays, meditating on all the little sins that I had committed during the week. Now I think one should go and say, ‘Bless me, Father, for I have been great, these are the good things I have done this week.’ Identify your notion of yourself with the positive, rather than with the negative.” – Joseph Campbell
“Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck to its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.” - Joseph Campbell
“Freud tells us to blame our parents for all the shortcomings of our life, Marx tells us to blame the upper class of our society. But the only one to blame is oneself.” - Joseph Campbell
“You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are!” - Eckhart Tolle
“There is clearly an intelligence at work that is far greater than the mind. How can a single human cell measuring 1/1,000 of an inch across contain instructions within its DNA that would fill 1,000 books 600 pages each? The more we learn about the workings of the body, the more we realize just how vast is the intelligence at work within it and how little we know. When the mind reconnects with that, it becomes a most wonderful tool. It then serves something greater than itself.” – Eckhart Tolle
“Accept—then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.” – Eckhart Tolle
“I would say about 80 to 90 percent of most people’s thinking is not only repetitive and useless, but because of its dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful. Observe your mind and you will find this to be true. It causes serious leakage of vital energy.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Watch out for any sign of unhappiness in yourself, in whatever form—it may be the awakening of the pain-body. This can take the form of irritation, impatience, a somber mood, a desire to hurt, anger, rage, depression, a need to have some drama in your relationship, and so on. Catch it the moment it awakens from its dormant state.” – Eckhart Tolle
“It is certainly true that, when you accept your resentment, moodiness, anger, and so on, you are no longer forced to act them out blindly, and you are less likely to project them onto others. But I wonder if you are not deceiving yourself. When you have been practicing acceptance for a while, as you have, there comes a point when you need to go on to the next stage, where those negative emotions are not created anymore. If you don’t, your ‘acceptance’ just becomes a mental label that allows your ego to continue to indulge in unhappiness and so strengthen your separation from other people, your surroundings, your here and now.” – Eckhart Tolle
“The present moment is all you ever have. There is never a time when your life is not ‘this moment.’ Is this not a fact?” - Eckhart Tolle
“As within, so without: If humans clear inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.” – Eckhart Tolle
1. PhilosophersNotes: I feel like I should be getting paid for talking about these awesome tools. PhilosophersNotes are perfect for me. I love to gather wisdom as I am continually learning, and trying to improve my life in every aspect I can. But, with two young boys and 3 businesses it is so hard to find the time to do so. That's were these wisdom packed 20min. audio summaries of some of the most valuable books ever written come in. Seriously check these things out if you'd like to feel better, and do more with your life than you previously have. Who wouldnt want to do that?
Here are the books I covered this week:
The Places That Scare You - Pema Chodron
Positive Addiction - William Glasser
The Power of Decision - Raymond Charles Barker
The Power of Full Engagement - Jim Loehr/Tony Schwartz
The Power of Intention - Wayne Dyer
The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell
The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Your Supermind - Vernon Howard
Psycho-Cybernetics - Maxwell Maltz
The Psychology of Winning - Denis Waitley
Here are my 6 favorite quotes from the past 10 days:
“Human beings live the way they CHOOSE, not the way they WANT. A vast difference lies between the two.” - Vernon Howard
“Few doctors will say, ‘Look, your headaches are caused by inadequacy; take some aspirin and then go and find some more love and do something more worthwhile.’” – William Glasser
“A bicycle maintains its poise and equilibrium only so long as it is going forward towards something. You have a good bicycle. Your trouble is you are trying to maintain your balance sitting still, with no place to go. It is no wonder you feel shaky.” – Maxwell Maltz
“It is a mistake for anyone to think he has lived too long in his old, unsatisfactory ways to make the great change. If you switch on the light in a dark room, it makes no difference how long it was dark because the light will still shine. Be teachable. That is the whole secret.” – Vernon Howard
“Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.” – Vernon Howard
“As within, so without: If humans clear inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.” - Eckhart Tolle
***More Super-Awesome Quotes follow at the end of this posting, see below.
2. Jump Attack: I just finished up with the 2nd Phase of the program and now get another week off, which is well needed rest. I'm feeling stronger with every workout and foresee this last phase being really intense and elevating...literally. :-)
3. Nutrition, Eating Well and my Commitments: I have been going strong with the plant based (Vegan) diet and feeling great. I am toning up, although I have lost zero pounds. I'm certain I've converted old fat to new muscle, but won't know how much until I test my body fat at programs end. Like I had mentioned in a previous post, I thought eating only plants that grow from the earth would have me dropping a lot of weight, but I'm glad that I have thrived and been able to convert fat to muscle and stay the same weight. I've still stayed clear of any and all Sweets, Sodas, Alcohol, Toxins, etc. I'm still really looking forward to that big piece of Cossetta's Cheese Pizza in St. Paul, however, in about 30 more days. :-)
Thanks for being you and doing all you do. Losta love, and I'll see you in 10 more days...
:-)
***Here are the rest of the Super-Awesome Quotes:
“Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.” – Vernon Howard
“It is a mistake for anyone to think he has lived too long in his old, unsatisfactory ways to make the great change. If you switch on the light in a dark room, it makes no difference how long it was dark because the light will still shine. Be teachable. That is the whole secret.” – Vernon Howard
“How on earth can another’s thought harm you? It is your thought about his thought that harms. Change *your* thought.” - Vernon Howard
“Rebel against everything within yourself that you feel is artificial. Become what you are!” - Vernon Howard
“Encourage yourself by remembering that any detection of negativity within you is a positive act, not a negative one. Awareness of your weakness and confusion makes you strong because conscious awareness is the bright light that destroys the darkness of negativity. Honest self-observation dissolves pains and pressures that formerly did their dreadful work in the darkness of unawareness. This is so important that I urge you to memorize and reflect upon the following summary: Detection of inner negativity is not a negative act, but a courageously positive act that makes you a new person.” – Vernon Howard
“Use this secret for developing receptivity: Learn to love situations which make you uncomfortable. That is the only way you can learn to be comfortable everywhere.” - Vernon Howard
“Human beings live the way they CHOOSE, not the way they WANT. A vast difference lies between the two.” - Vernon Howard
“No one can tell you what is right for you except for yourself. So start telling yourself what to do. If you blunder for ten years while thinking for yourself, that is rich treasure when compared with living these ten years under the mental domination of another. The only true, honest and enriching authority is the internal authority of your own Supermind.” – Vernon Howard
“If it takes apparent misfortune to turn us into true philosophers and doers of good to receive good, then apparent misfortune is our greatest fortune.” – Vernon Howard
“To be real is to be spiritual. A cat is normal because no one has fixed him with a neurotic notion that he should be a tiger. A man loses neurosis when he is what he is.” – Vernon Howard
“At the start of your quest, wisdom is a flash, not a glow.” - Vernon Howard
“No one can enjoy a truth for which he is unprepared, any more than an ape can appreciate a harp.” - Vernon Howard
“Please don’t go around trying to save the world. You have all you can do to save yourself.” - Vernon Howard
“Creative striving for a goal that is important to you as a result of your own deep-felt needs, aspirations and talents (and not the symbols which the ‘Joneses’ expect you to display) brings happiness as well as success because you will be functioning as you were meant to function. Man is by nature a goal-striving being. And because man is ‘built that way’ he is not happy unless he is functioning the way he was made to function—as a goal-striver. Thus true success and true happiness not only go together but each enhances the other.” - Maxwell Maltz
“Every human being has been literally ‘engineered for success’ by his Creator. Every human being has access to a power greater than himself.” - Maxwell Maltz
“A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment.” – Maxwell Maltz
“Your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an imagined experience and a ‘real’ experience.” – Maxwell Maltz
“Imagine how you would feel if you were already the sort of personality you want to be. If you have been shy and timid, see yourself moving among people with ease and poise—and feeling good because of it. If you have been fearful and anxious in certain situations—see yourself acting calmly and deliberately, acting with confidence and courage—and feling expansive and confident because you are.” “This exercise builds new ‘memories’ or stored data into your mid-brain and central nervous system. It builds a new image of self. After practicing it for a time, you will be surprised to find yourself ‘acting differently,’ more or less automatically and spontaneously—‘without trying.’” – Maxwell Maltz
“Our self-image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other. The word ‘habit’ originally meant a garment or clothing… Our habits are literally garments worn by our personalities. They are not accidental, or happenstance. We have them because they fit us. They are consistent with our self-image and our entire personality pattern. When we consciously and deliberately develop new and better habits, our self-image tends to outgrow the old habits and grow into the new pattern.” – Maxwell Maltz
“We are engineered as goal-seeking mechanisms. We are built that way. When we have no personal goal which we are interested in and which ‘means something’ to us, we are apt to ‘go around in circles,’ feel ‘lost’ and find life itself ‘aimless,’ and ‘purposeless.’ We are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals, and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve. People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile. Prescription: Get yourself a goal worth working for.” – Maxwell Maltz
“A bicycle maintains its poise and equilibrium only so long as it is going forward towards something. You have a good bicycle. Your trouble is you are trying to maintain your balance sitting still, with no place to go. It is no wonder you feel shaky.” – Maxwell Maltz
“The measure of mental health is the disposition to find good everywhere.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Simply define your goal or end result. Picture it to yourself clearly and vividly. Then simply capture the feeling you would experience if the desirable goal were already an accomplished fact. Then you are acting spontaneously and creatively. Then you are using the powers of your subconscious mind. Then your internal machinery is geared for success: To guide you in making the correct muscular motions and adjustments; To supply you with creative ideas, and to do whatever else is necessary in order to make the goal an accomplished fact.” – Maxwell Maltz
“Take inventory of your good reasons for self-esteem today. Write down what your ‘BAG’ is. Blessings—who and what you are thankful for. Accomplishments—what you have done that you’re proud of so far. Goals—what your dreams and ambitions are.” – Denis Waitley
“Every winner I have ever met knows where he or she is going day by day … every day. Winners are goal oriented. They set and get what they want—consistently. They are self-directed on the road to fulfillment. Fulfillment or success has been defined as the progressive realization of goals that are worthy of the individual. The ‘human’ system is goal-seeking by design and, using a very basic analogy, may be compared to a homing torpedo system or an automatic pilot. Set your target and this self-activated system, constantly monitoring feedback signals from the target area and adjusting course setting in its own navigational guidance computer, makes every correction necessary to stay on target and score a hit. Programmed incompletely, non-specifically or aimed at a target too far out of range, the ‘homing torpedo’ will wander erratically around until its propulsion system fails or self-destructs. And so it is with each individual human system in life.” – Denis Waitley
“One of the best ways to develop adaptability to the stresses of life is to view them as normal. Earl Nightingale tells of his visit with his son recently to the Great Barrier Reef which stretches nearly 1800 miles from New Guinea to Australia. Noticing that the coral polyps on the inside of the reef, where the sea was tranquil and quiet in the lagoon, appeared pale and lifeless… while the coral on the outside of the reef, subject to the surge of the tide and power of the waves, were bright and vibrant with splendid colors and flowing growth… Earl Nightingale asked why this was so. ‘It’s very simple,’ came the reply, ‘the coral on the lagoon-side dies rapidly with no challenge for growth and survival… while the coral facing the surge and power of the open sea, thrives and multiplies because it is challenged and tested every day. And so it is with every living organism on earth.’” – Denis Waitley
“Since they fail to plan, they are planning to fail by default.” - Denis Waitley
“The most readily identifiable quality of a total winner is an attitude of personal optimism and enthusiasm.” – Denis Waitley
“Concentrate all your energy and intensity, without distraction, on the successful completion of your current project. Finish what you start.” – Denis Waitley
“Most people spend more time planning a party, studying the newspaper, or making a Christmas list, than they do in planning their lives.” – Denis Waitley
“The fear habit, the anger habit, the self-pity habit—all are strengthened and empowered when we continue to buy into them. The most compassionate thing we can do is to interrupt these habits.” – Pema Chodron
“Acknowledging that we are all churned up is the first and most difficult step in any practice. Without compassionate recognition that we are stuck, it’s impossible to liberate ourselves from confusion. ‘Doing something different’ is anything that interrupts our ancient habit of indulging in our emotions. We do anything to cut the strong tendency to spin out… Anything that’s non-habitual will do—even sing and dance or run around the block. We do anything that doesn’t reinforce our crippling habits. The third most difficult practice is to then remember that this is not something we do just once or twice. Interrupting our destructive habits and awakening our heart is the work of a lifetime.” – Pema Chodron
“A traditional analogy for the pain caused by the lord of form is of a mouse being caught in a trap because it can’t resist eating the cheese. The Dalai Lama offers an interesting twist to this analogy. He says that when he was a boy in Tibet he used to try to catch the mice, not because he wished to kill them, but because he wanted to outsmart them. He says that the mice in Tibet must be more clever than ordinary mice because he never succeeded in catching one. Instead they became his models of enlightened conduct. He felt that, unlike most of us, they had figured out that the best thing they could do for themselves was to refrain from the short-term pleasure of cheese in order to have the long-term pleasure of living. He encouraged us to follow their example.” – Pema Chodron
“This is the path we take in cultivating joy: learning not to armor our basic goodness, learning to appreciate what we have. Most of the time we don’t do this. Rather than appreciate where we are, we continually struggle to nurture our dissatisfaction. It’s like trying to get flowers to grow by pouring cement on the garden.” – Pema Chodron
“A warrior begins to take responsibility for the direction of her life. It’s as if we are lugging around unnecessary baggage. Our training encourages us to open the bags and look closely at what we are carrying. In doing this we begin to understand that much of it isn’t needed anymore.” – Pema Chodron
“Without loving-kindness for ourselves, it is difficult, if not impossible, to genuinely feel it for others.” - Pema Chödrön
“Each moment is an opportunity to make a fresh start.” - Pema Chödrön
“One begins identifying those factors which lead to happiness and those factors which lead to suffering. Having done this, one then sets about gradually eliminating those factors which lead to suffering and cultivating those which lead to happiness. That is the way.” – Dalai Lama
“Very few of us realize how much we choose the misery in our lives. Even when we do, we still go ahead with the disastrous choice because we are convinced that we don’t have the strength to choose better…I will first describe in detail how weakness is the cause of almost all the unfortunate choices we make. Then I will argue that anyone who wishes to become stronger seriously consider trying to become an addict.” – William Glasser
“…Positive addicts because, due to their addictions, they are almost always stronger than nonpositively addicted people who lead similar lives. With this added strength they live with more confidence, more creativity, and more happiness and usually in much better health.” – William Glasser
“Throughout almost the whole history of psychiatry it has been difficult for most psychiatrists to accept that depression is a choice.” – William Glasser
“Depression is a choice.” – William Glasser (Dr. Glasser’s approach is non-traditional. He does not believe in the concept of mental illness unless there is something organically wrong with the brain that can be confirmed by a pathologist.)
“Few doctors will say, ‘Look, your headaches are caused by inadequacy; take some aspirin and then go and find some more love and do something more worthwhile.’” – William Glasser
“Depression, no more than acting out, does not come from the outside. We don’t catch it like chicken pox. It is out of our weakness that we choose to be depressed because we have discovered that not making this choice is even more painful.” – William Glasser
“With the first choice, giving up, he relinquished responsibility, but with the second choice, depression, he is now shielded from his own inadequacy and able to turn to others.” - William Glasser
“No one is so inadequate that he cannot help himself to some degree. Not only can he, but he must; nothing else will work.” – William Glasser
“What they always seem to have that makes them strong is that no matter how many problems they face they rarely run out of options. Unlike the weak, who tend to give up and then choose symptoms to reduce their pain and perhaps later become addicted to get some pleasure in their lives, strong people never seem to be at the end of their rope. They almost never lock themselves into one pattern of thinking and behavior.” – William Glasser
“Unlike the weak, the strong neither give up nor are driven by pain into rash or stupid behavior. They don’t like pain any more than anyone else, but they are not willing to settle for short-term relief if it means reducing their options later. They don’t rob Peter to pay Paul, they face reality now.” – William Glasser
“You can not go beyond your own self-accepted image. As long as you underestimate yourself, you cannot succeed in life.” – Raymond Charles Barker
“Success and failure are results of the use of mind. Every success-motivated mind has been a decisive mind. Every failure-motivated mind has been an indecisive mind. Only the dreamer who acted with decision on his dream brought forth something new and valuable.” - Raymond Charles Barker
“Man is not born perfect. He is born incomplete, he is born as a process. He is born on the way, as a pilgrim. That is his agony and his ecstasy, too; agony because he cannot rest, he has to go ahead, he has always to go ahead. He has to seek and search and explore. He has to become, because his being arises only through becoming. Becoming is his being. He can only be if he is on the move. Evolution is intrinsic to man’s nature, evolution is his very soul. And those who take themselves for granted remain unfulfilled. Those who think they are born complete remain unevolved. Then the seed remains the seed. It never becomes a tree and never knows the joys of spring and the sunshine and the rain, and the ecstasy of bursting into millions of flowers. That explosion is the fulfilment, that explosion is what existence is all about—exploding.” – Osho
“You cannot think and feel negatively over a period of time and have positive situations maintained in your experience. The Law of the Subconscious can only bear the kind of fruit based on the seed ideas you have given them. Jesus said you could not gather figs from thistles. Paul called this sowing and reaping. The Hermetic Teachings stated that what goes in must come out. All are saying the same thing.” – Raymond Charles Barker
“You are the result of your past decisions. You will become and experience the result of your present decisions. Join me in deciding on the side of greatness.” - Raymond Charles Barker
“All of this is already in you. The great use it. The non-great do not, so they remain the non-great. Decide upon some thing, situation, or condition that you want right now in your present life. Be definite in this decision. Do not limit your decision by investigating the probable reasons why it will never happen. That is the detour to nothing. All false speculations of defeat have to be ruled out of your consciousness. If they enter into the decision for even a fleeting moment, the decision is robbed of authority and the subconscious mind cannot act upon it. You do not need to know how the final result will come to pass. That is the function of the subconscious. It has ways and means that, if they were known, would stagger the intellect.” – Raymond Chalres Barker
“The more you watch your moods, attitudes, habits, and central ideas and stop all basic negatives from lingering in your area of attention, the richer and fuller your prosperity will be.” – Raymond Charles Barker
“We would be living in a grand Utopia today if every great idea that arose in men’s minds had been followed by decision and right action. Too many great ideas have been meditated upon and then discarded. Usually the thinker discards them for what seem to him to be plausible reasons. No great discovery in history has been based on plausible reasons. Automobiles were implausible in 1900. Radios were implausible in 1910. Transatlantic planes were implausible in 1920. Yet thinkers let such ideas arise in their consciousness out of the wellspring of the Infinite Intelligence. We should all be grateful that these thinkers decided to try the ideas they had. Every scientific mind has made the implausible plausible.” – Raymond Charles Barler
“Periods of recovery are likewise intrinsic to creativity and to intimate connection. Sounds become music in the spaces between notes, just as words are created by the spaces between letters. It is in the spaces between work that love, friendship, depth and dimension are nurtured. Without time for recovery, our lives become a blur of doing unbalanced by much opportunity for being.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“Drinking water, we have found, is perhaps the most undervalued source of physical energy renewal. Unlike hunger, thirst is an inadequate barometer of need. By the time we feel thirsty, we may be long since dehydrated. A growing body of research suggests that drinking at least sixty-four ounces of water at intervals throughout the day serves performance in a range of important ways. Dehydrate a muscle by as little as 3 percent, for example, and it will lose 10 percent of its strength and 8 percent of its speed. Inadequate hydration also compromises concentration and coordination.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“Television, for example, is one of the primary means by which most people relax and recover. For the most part, however, watching television is the mental and emotional equivalent of eating junk food. It may provide a temporary form of recovery, but it is rarely nutritious and it is easy to consume too much. Researchers such as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi have found that prolonged television watching is actually correlated with increased anxiety and low-level depression.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“To be fully engaged emotionally requires celebrating what the Stoic philosophers called anacoluthia—the mutual entailment of the virtues. By this notion, no virtue is a virtue by itself. Rather, all virtues are entailed. Honesty without compassion, for example, becomes cruelty.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“In short, money may not buy happiness, but happiness may help you get rich.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“Creating positive rituals is the most powerful means we have found to effectively manage energy in the service of full engagement.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“The more scheduled and systematic these rituals became, the more renewal they provided.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“Across cultures, religions and time itself, people have admired and aspired to the same universal values—among them integrity, generosity, courage, humility, compassion, loyalty, perseverance—while rejecting their opposites—deceit, greed, cowardice, arrogance, callousness, disloyalty and sloth. To begin to explore more deeply the values that are most compelling to you, we suggest that you set aside uninterrupted time to respond to the following questions: Jump ahead to the end of your life. What are the three most important lessons you have learned and why are they so critical? Think of someone that you deeply respect. Describe three qualities in this person that you most admire. Who are you at your best? What one-sentence inscription would you like to see on your tombstone that would capture who you really were in your life?” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” - Wayne Dyer
“Act as if everything you desire is already here… treat yourself as if you already are what you’d like to become.” – Wayne Dyer
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold service was joy.” - Rabindranath Tagore
“The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one’s own ignorance concerning one’s self and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening. The finding of God is a coming to one’s self.” - Aldous Huxley
“It grows my fingernails, it beats my heart, it digest my food, it writes my books, and it does this for everyone and everything in the universe.” – Wayne Dyer
“Choose to be in close proximity to people who are empowering, who appeal to your sense of connection to intention, who see the greatness in you, who feel connected to God, who live a life that gives evidence that Spirit has found celebration through them.” – Wayne Dyer
“The Wright brothers didn’t contemplate the staying on the ground of things. Alexander Graham Bell didn’t contemplate the noncommunication of things. Thomas Edison didn’t contemplate the darkness of things. In order to float an idea into your reality, you must be willing to do a somersault into the unconceivable and land on your feet, contemplating what you want instead of what you don’t have.” – Wayne Dyer
“God is an intelligible sphere—a sphere known to mind, not to the senses—whose center is everywhere and whose circumference nowhere.” - Joseph Campbell
“Ramakrishna once said that if all you think of are your sins, then you are a sinner. And when I read that, I thought of my boyhood, going to confession on Saturdays, meditating on all the little sins that I had committed during the week. Now I think one should go and say, ‘Bless me, Father, for I have been great, these are the good things I have done this week.’ Identify your notion of yourself with the positive, rather than with the negative.” – Joseph Campbell
“Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck to its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.” - Joseph Campbell
“Freud tells us to blame our parents for all the shortcomings of our life, Marx tells us to blame the upper class of our society. But the only one to blame is oneself.” - Joseph Campbell
“You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are!” - Eckhart Tolle
“There is clearly an intelligence at work that is far greater than the mind. How can a single human cell measuring 1/1,000 of an inch across contain instructions within its DNA that would fill 1,000 books 600 pages each? The more we learn about the workings of the body, the more we realize just how vast is the intelligence at work within it and how little we know. When the mind reconnects with that, it becomes a most wonderful tool. It then serves something greater than itself.” – Eckhart Tolle
“Accept—then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.” – Eckhart Tolle
“I would say about 80 to 90 percent of most people’s thinking is not only repetitive and useless, but because of its dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful. Observe your mind and you will find this to be true. It causes serious leakage of vital energy.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Watch out for any sign of unhappiness in yourself, in whatever form—it may be the awakening of the pain-body. This can take the form of irritation, impatience, a somber mood, a desire to hurt, anger, rage, depression, a need to have some drama in your relationship, and so on. Catch it the moment it awakens from its dormant state.” – Eckhart Tolle
“It is certainly true that, when you accept your resentment, moodiness, anger, and so on, you are no longer forced to act them out blindly, and you are less likely to project them onto others. But I wonder if you are not deceiving yourself. When you have been practicing acceptance for a while, as you have, there comes a point when you need to go on to the next stage, where those negative emotions are not created anymore. If you don’t, your ‘acceptance’ just becomes a mental label that allows your ego to continue to indulge in unhappiness and so strengthen your separation from other people, your surroundings, your here and now.” – Eckhart Tolle
“The present moment is all you ever have. There is never a time when your life is not ‘this moment.’ Is this not a fact?” - Eckhart Tolle
“As within, so without: If humans clear inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.” – Eckhart Tolle
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
60 Days...
As I sit down to write this it has just hit me...I have been making some serious progress and it feels really nice to know that I have put in so much hard work. I've got just over a month left on this 100 day program/commitment (before I start a new one) and Spring is on the horizon. Usually, as most Minnesotans, I am the least inspired and energized in the Winter, but this program has kept me motivated and focused on bigger things, and for that I am grateful.
Besides the other commitments in this program, during this 10-day segment, I've continued building my Photography Business, A Frame Forward. I researched, planned, designed, and then acquired everything necessary to have a really sweet portable studio, to get studio like results, in any environment. This program has given me the clarity, discipline and inspiration to turn my strong passion into a sustainable business, and I am grateful and enthusiastic as I head down this path.
Back to the Program...
1. PhilosophersNotes - This is well known as my favorite commitment and practice of the 100 day program. I get to sit down and really focus on amazing wisdom that has taken this collection of extremely driven individuals lifetimes to compile. There is so much inspiration and practical knowledge in these notes, it is one of the most valuable tools in life that I could imagine. You can download 3 of the notes for FREE at PhilosphersNotes to see what I mean. Take a second to do this, it will change your life and help bring you clarity, purpose and happiness.
Here are the books I covered the past 10 days:
Money, and the Law of Attraction - Esther & Jerry Hicks
The Monk who Sold his Ferrari - Robin Sharma
Motivation and Personality - Abraham Maslow
A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle
The Now Habit - Neil Fiore
The Other 90% - Robert K. Cooper
Overachievement - John Eliot PhD.
The Path of Least Resistance - Robert Fritz
Pathways to Bliss - Joseph Campbell
Paulo Coelho (comprehensive) - Brian Johnson
Here are my Top-Three quotes from the past 10 days:
“The secret of happiness is simple: find out what you truly love to do and then direct all of your energy towards doing it.” - Robin Sharma
“The dichotomy between selfishness and unselfishness disappears altogether in healthy people because in principle every act is both selfish and unselfish.” - Abraham Maslow
“The years teach us much the days never knew.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
***I have attached more awesome quotes at the bottom of this post.
2. Jump Attack - I am now in the 3rd week, of the 2nd month of the program. I have been 100% committed this entire time, not skipping a beat even once. I'm feeling stronger and stronger with each workout and although I haven't exactly been "Air Jordan" yet, I have felt much stronger on the basketball court, especially a day or two after my intense workouts. I have two weeks before my next 'week-off rest period' where gains are more noticeable. Just as a carrot takes nearly 7 weeks to surface, I'll keep at it diligently, patiently and persistently, as I know there is much growth going on "underground" in my body and the "breakthrough" is near.
3. Nutrition - 60+ Days without Cheese! For those of you who know me well, you are most likely amazed at this feat. I've been a Vegetarian for 4+ years and have always wanted to experiment with a strictly plant based (Vegan) diet. I've done this as a personal challenge, a personal experiment and to expand my food horizon. I have stayed committed, but have to say I am looking forward to having a piece of Cossetta's Pizza after day 100. Until then I will remain committed and keep expanding my food horizon, experimenting and learning more recipes to share.
4. Yoga - Yoga has been inconsistent at best. I think once I complete the Jump Attack program I will be able to incorporate daily Yoga, without overdoing it with physical exercise.
5. Sweets, Refined Foods, Alcohol, Toxins, etc - No candy, dessert, sweets, etc! This is a big success for me as well. This is the longest I have ever gone without sweets in my life, as well as the cheese. This was a personal challenge as well as the elimination of some things I don't really need. I'll dabble in the occasional sweet after the program, maybe just to celebrate as a reward, but I will be making it a point not to partake in them, except in very rare occasions.
Glad to share, grateful for this time, and all we can do as human beings. Although I am only scratching the surface of my potential I am committed to keep digging and digging. If I can serve as a shovel for you, then I have done what I set out to do. Here's to digging deeper and deeper every day, into our own potential and all positive possibilities.
:-)
Check out the additional super-awesome Quotes below and I'll see you in 10 more days...
More Quotes:
“The most valuable skill that you could ever develop is the skill of directing your thoughts toward what you want—to be adept at quickly evaluating all situations and then quickly coming to the conclusion of what you most want—and then giving your undivided attention to that.” - Esther & Jerry Hicks
“You have to begin to tell the story of your life as you now want it to be and discontinue the tales of how it has been or of how it is.” - Esther & Jerry Hicks
“While your parents and teachers are, for the most part, well-meaning people, they are nevertheless more interested in your finding ways to please them than in your finding ways to please yourself. And so, in the process of socialization, almost all people in almost all societies lose their way because they are coaxed or coerced away from their own Guidance System.” - Esther & Jerry Hicks
“To liberate the potential of your mind, body and soul, you must first expand your imagination. You see, things are always created twice: first in the workshop of the mind and then, and only then, in reality. I call this process ‘blueprinting’ because anything you create in your outer world began as a simple blueprint in your inner world.” - Robin Sharma
“Suggesting you’re too busy to slow down and invest in yourself is like saying you’re too busy driving to stop for gas. - Robin Sharma
“Most people live—whether physically, intellectually or morally—in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon which we do not dream.” - William James
“Weak minds lead to weak actions. A strong, disciplined mind, which anyone can cultivate though daily practice, can achieve miracles. If you want to live life to the fullest, care for your thoughts as you would your most prized possessions. Work hard to remove all inner turbulence. The rewards will be abundant.” - Robin Sharma
“Remember, either you control your mind or your mind controls you.” - Robin Sharma
“Understand once and for all that your mind has magnetic power to attract all that you desire into your life. If there is lack in your life it is because there is lack in your thoughts.” - Robin Sharma
“Every single person on the planet is a genius.” - Robin Sharma
“We all have something that we are meant to do. Your genius will shine through, and happiness will fill your life, the instant you discover your higher purpose and then direct all your energies towards it.” - Robin Sharma
“Push yourself to do more and to experience more. Harness your energy to start expanding your dreams. Yes, expand your dreams. Don’t accept a life of mediocrity when you hold such infinite potential within the fortress of your mind. Dare to tap into your greatness. It’s your birthright.” - Robin Sharma
“Act as if failure is impossible, and your success will be assured. Wipe out every thought of not achieving your objectives, whether they are material or spiritual. Be brave, set no limits on the workings of your imagination. Never be a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future. You will never be the same.” - Robin Sharma
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” - Albert Eintstein
“There are no perfect human beings! Persons can be found who are good, very good indeed, in fact, great. There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers, even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, or depressed. To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it.” - Abraham Maslow
“It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.” - Abraham Maslow
“A significant portion of the earth’s population will soon recognize, if they haven’t already done so, that humanity is now faced with a stark choice: Evolve or die.” - Eckhart Tolle
“To recognize one’s own insanity is, of course, the arising of sanity, the beginning of healing and transcendence.” - Eckhart Tolle
“How ‘spiritual’ you are has nothing to do with what you believe but everything to do with your state of consciousness. This, in turn, determines how you act in the world and interact with others.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Don’t seek the truth. Just cease to cherish opinions.” - Zen saying
“There are three words that convey the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness: One With Life.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Love and do what you will” - St. Augustine
“When you want to arrive at your goal more than you want to be doing what you are doing, you become stressed.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Every moment of our lives we are either growing or dying—and it’s largely a choice, not fate.” - Robert K. Cooper
“You’re only using about 10% of your potential.” - Robert K. Cooper
“Genius is childhood recaptured.” - Rene Dubos
“Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” - William Faulkner
“It takes great goals to lead us out of our everyday limits into accomplishing more than we ever thought we could or would.” - Robert K. Cooper
“A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for.” - Grace Murray Hopper
“Deep within humans dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish them, that they never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize their lives if aroused and put into action.” - Orison Marden
“It is heartening to realize that although we may crave comfort and routine, we nourish the soul’s growth primarily through what is hard. As Darwin saw it, it’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but those who are most responsive to change.” - Robert K. Cooper
“We are each given the chance to leave a unique imprint on the world. What will be yours? - Robert K. Cooper
“To be sure, great performers are well trained, experienced, smart, and in some cases, divinely talented. But the way their brains work during a performance is a lot more like a squirrel’s than like Einstein’s. Like squirrels, the best in every business do what they have learned to do without questioning their abilities—they flat out trust their skills, which is why we call this high-performance state of mind the ‘Trusting Mindset.’ Routine access to the Trusting Mindset is what separates great performers from the rest of the pack.” - John Eliot
“Thinking is a habit, and like any other habit, it can be changed; it just takes effort and repetition.” - John Eliot
“Butterflies, cotton mouth, and a pounding heart make the finest performers smile—the smile of a person with an ace up their sleeves… They definitely would agree with Tiger Woods, who has often said, ‘The day I’m not nervous stepping onto the first tee—that’s the day I quit.” - John Eliot
“Confidence is not a guarantee of success, but a pattern of thinking that will improve your likelihood of success, a tenacious search for ways to make things work.” - John Eliot
“Exceptional thinkers ignore their critics and go about their business making history.” - John Eliot
“You will not do incredible things without an incredible dream.” - John Eliot
“History, though, shows us that the people who end up changing the world—the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries—are always nuts, until they’re right, and then they’re geniuses.” - John Eliot
“The greatest leaders and statesmen in history have not been problem solvers. They have been builders. They have been creators.” - Robert Fritz
“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable… you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all you have left is a compromise… the human spirit will not invest itself in a compromise.” - Robert Fritz
“This one fundamental choice—to be the predominant creative force in your life—is a foundation for the entire orientation of the creative… From this choice the meaning of the word desire changes for you, from ‘idle wishes and hopes’ to ‘true vision of that which is the highest in human aspiration and vision.” - Robert Fritz
“Athletes and musicians may not enjoy practicing long hours, but they do so just the same: not out of duty, obligation, or any other form of self-manipulation, but because they are making secondary choices consistent with their primary choice to be able to perform music or excel in sports.” - Robert Fritz
“A primary choice is about some result you want in itself and for itself… It functions as the ultimate goal… A choice that helps you take a step toward your primary result is called a secondary choice.” - Robert Fritz
“There are something like 18 billion cells in the brain alone. There are no two brains alike; there are no two hands alike; there are no two human beings alike. You can take your instructions and your guidance from others, but you must find your own path.” - Joseph Campbell
“In a wonderful essay called ‘On an Apparent Intention in the Fate of the Individual,’ Schopenhauer points out that, once you have reached an advanced age, as I have, as you look back over your life, it can seem to have had a plot, as though composed by a novelist. Events that seemed entirely accidental or incidental turn out to have been central to the composition.” - Joseph Campbell
“Another astonishing way to look back is to pick up some diary entries or notes that you kept a long time ago. You’ll be astonished. Things you were convinced you had realized more recently will all be pinned down there. These are the driving themes of your life.” - Joseph Campbell
“The scientist knows that at any moment facts may be found that make the present theory obsolete; this is happening now constantly. It’s amusing. In a religious tradition, the older the doctrine, the truer it is held to be.” - Joseph Campbell
“This gets back to Krishna’s dictum: The best way to help mankind is through the perfection of yourself.” - Joseph Campbell
“What is it we are questing for? It is the fulfillment of that which is potential in each of us. Questing for it is not an ego trip; it is an adventure to bring into fulfillment your gift to the world, which is yourself. There’s nothing you can do that’s more important than being fulfilled. You become a sign, you become a signal, transparent to transcendence; in this way, you will find, live, and become a realization of your own personal myth.” - Joseph Campbell
“Imagine our life as a novel, would I really want to keep reading this book or is it way to boring to even want to get to the next chapter?” - Tripp Lanier
“There is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It’s your mission on earth… And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho
“We all have the ability, we just don’t all have the courage to follow our dreams and to follow the signs.” – Paulo Coelho
“The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.” – Paulo Coelho
“Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle.
Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone.
Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his.
Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons.
Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light.
Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties.
Every Warrior of the Light has said ‘yes’ when he wanted to say ‘no.’
Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved.
That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is.” - Paulo Coelho
“Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called ‘the love of your fate.’ Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, ‘This is what I need.’ It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment—not discouragement—you will find the strength is there. Any disaster that you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.” - Joseph Campbell
“Five years from now you’re gonna laugh at whatever’s stressing you out now, so why wait? - Tony Robbins
“As long as it doesn’t harm anyone, change your opinions now and then and be unashamedly contradictory.” - Paulo Coelho
“For a master, the rewards gained along the way are fine, but they are not the main reason for the journey. Ultimately, the master and the master’s path are one. And if the traveler is fortunate—that is, if the path is complex and profound enough—the destination is two miles farther away for every mile he or she travels.” - George Leonard
“Join with those who sing songs, tell stories, enjoy life, because happiness is contagious. Join those who walk with their heads high even when they have tears in their eyes. Avoid those who have never shed a tear.” - Paulo Coelho
:-)
Besides the other commitments in this program, during this 10-day segment, I've continued building my Photography Business, A Frame Forward. I researched, planned, designed, and then acquired everything necessary to have a really sweet portable studio, to get studio like results, in any environment. This program has given me the clarity, discipline and inspiration to turn my strong passion into a sustainable business, and I am grateful and enthusiastic as I head down this path.
Back to the Program...
1. PhilosophersNotes - This is well known as my favorite commitment and practice of the 100 day program. I get to sit down and really focus on amazing wisdom that has taken this collection of extremely driven individuals lifetimes to compile. There is so much inspiration and practical knowledge in these notes, it is one of the most valuable tools in life that I could imagine. You can download 3 of the notes for FREE at PhilosphersNotes to see what I mean. Take a second to do this, it will change your life and help bring you clarity, purpose and happiness.
Here are the books I covered the past 10 days:
Money, and the Law of Attraction - Esther & Jerry Hicks
The Monk who Sold his Ferrari - Robin Sharma
Motivation and Personality - Abraham Maslow
A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle
The Now Habit - Neil Fiore
The Other 90% - Robert K. Cooper
Overachievement - John Eliot PhD.
The Path of Least Resistance - Robert Fritz
Pathways to Bliss - Joseph Campbell
Paulo Coelho (comprehensive) - Brian Johnson
Here are my Top-Three quotes from the past 10 days:
“The secret of happiness is simple: find out what you truly love to do and then direct all of your energy towards doing it.” - Robin Sharma
“The dichotomy between selfishness and unselfishness disappears altogether in healthy people because in principle every act is both selfish and unselfish.” - Abraham Maslow
“The years teach us much the days never knew.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
***I have attached more awesome quotes at the bottom of this post.
2. Jump Attack - I am now in the 3rd week, of the 2nd month of the program. I have been 100% committed this entire time, not skipping a beat even once. I'm feeling stronger and stronger with each workout and although I haven't exactly been "Air Jordan" yet, I have felt much stronger on the basketball court, especially a day or two after my intense workouts. I have two weeks before my next 'week-off rest period' where gains are more noticeable. Just as a carrot takes nearly 7 weeks to surface, I'll keep at it diligently, patiently and persistently, as I know there is much growth going on "underground" in my body and the "breakthrough" is near.
3. Nutrition - 60+ Days without Cheese! For those of you who know me well, you are most likely amazed at this feat. I've been a Vegetarian for 4+ years and have always wanted to experiment with a strictly plant based (Vegan) diet. I've done this as a personal challenge, a personal experiment and to expand my food horizon. I have stayed committed, but have to say I am looking forward to having a piece of Cossetta's Pizza after day 100. Until then I will remain committed and keep expanding my food horizon, experimenting and learning more recipes to share.
4. Yoga - Yoga has been inconsistent at best. I think once I complete the Jump Attack program I will be able to incorporate daily Yoga, without overdoing it with physical exercise.
5. Sweets, Refined Foods, Alcohol, Toxins, etc - No candy, dessert, sweets, etc! This is a big success for me as well. This is the longest I have ever gone without sweets in my life, as well as the cheese. This was a personal challenge as well as the elimination of some things I don't really need. I'll dabble in the occasional sweet after the program, maybe just to celebrate as a reward, but I will be making it a point not to partake in them, except in very rare occasions.
Glad to share, grateful for this time, and all we can do as human beings. Although I am only scratching the surface of my potential I am committed to keep digging and digging. If I can serve as a shovel for you, then I have done what I set out to do. Here's to digging deeper and deeper every day, into our own potential and all positive possibilities.
:-)
Check out the additional super-awesome Quotes below and I'll see you in 10 more days...
More Quotes:
“The most valuable skill that you could ever develop is the skill of directing your thoughts toward what you want—to be adept at quickly evaluating all situations and then quickly coming to the conclusion of what you most want—and then giving your undivided attention to that.” - Esther & Jerry Hicks
“You have to begin to tell the story of your life as you now want it to be and discontinue the tales of how it has been or of how it is.” - Esther & Jerry Hicks
“While your parents and teachers are, for the most part, well-meaning people, they are nevertheless more interested in your finding ways to please them than in your finding ways to please yourself. And so, in the process of socialization, almost all people in almost all societies lose their way because they are coaxed or coerced away from their own Guidance System.” - Esther & Jerry Hicks
“To liberate the potential of your mind, body and soul, you must first expand your imagination. You see, things are always created twice: first in the workshop of the mind and then, and only then, in reality. I call this process ‘blueprinting’ because anything you create in your outer world began as a simple blueprint in your inner world.” - Robin Sharma
“Suggesting you’re too busy to slow down and invest in yourself is like saying you’re too busy driving to stop for gas. - Robin Sharma
“Most people live—whether physically, intellectually or morally—in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon which we do not dream.” - William James
“Weak minds lead to weak actions. A strong, disciplined mind, which anyone can cultivate though daily practice, can achieve miracles. If you want to live life to the fullest, care for your thoughts as you would your most prized possessions. Work hard to remove all inner turbulence. The rewards will be abundant.” - Robin Sharma
“Remember, either you control your mind or your mind controls you.” - Robin Sharma
“Understand once and for all that your mind has magnetic power to attract all that you desire into your life. If there is lack in your life it is because there is lack in your thoughts.” - Robin Sharma
“Every single person on the planet is a genius.” - Robin Sharma
“We all have something that we are meant to do. Your genius will shine through, and happiness will fill your life, the instant you discover your higher purpose and then direct all your energies towards it.” - Robin Sharma
“Push yourself to do more and to experience more. Harness your energy to start expanding your dreams. Yes, expand your dreams. Don’t accept a life of mediocrity when you hold such infinite potential within the fortress of your mind. Dare to tap into your greatness. It’s your birthright.” - Robin Sharma
“Act as if failure is impossible, and your success will be assured. Wipe out every thought of not achieving your objectives, whether they are material or spiritual. Be brave, set no limits on the workings of your imagination. Never be a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future. You will never be the same.” - Robin Sharma
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” - Albert Eintstein
“There are no perfect human beings! Persons can be found who are good, very good indeed, in fact, great. There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers, even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, or depressed. To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it.” - Abraham Maslow
“It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.” - Abraham Maslow
“A significant portion of the earth’s population will soon recognize, if they haven’t already done so, that humanity is now faced with a stark choice: Evolve or die.” - Eckhart Tolle
“To recognize one’s own insanity is, of course, the arising of sanity, the beginning of healing and transcendence.” - Eckhart Tolle
“How ‘spiritual’ you are has nothing to do with what you believe but everything to do with your state of consciousness. This, in turn, determines how you act in the world and interact with others.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Don’t seek the truth. Just cease to cherish opinions.” - Zen saying
“There are three words that convey the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness: One With Life.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Love and do what you will” - St. Augustine
“When you want to arrive at your goal more than you want to be doing what you are doing, you become stressed.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Every moment of our lives we are either growing or dying—and it’s largely a choice, not fate.” - Robert K. Cooper
“You’re only using about 10% of your potential.” - Robert K. Cooper
“Genius is childhood recaptured.” - Rene Dubos
“Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” - William Faulkner
“It takes great goals to lead us out of our everyday limits into accomplishing more than we ever thought we could or would.” - Robert K. Cooper
“A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for.” - Grace Murray Hopper
“Deep within humans dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish them, that they never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize their lives if aroused and put into action.” - Orison Marden
“It is heartening to realize that although we may crave comfort and routine, we nourish the soul’s growth primarily through what is hard. As Darwin saw it, it’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but those who are most responsive to change.” - Robert K. Cooper
“We are each given the chance to leave a unique imprint on the world. What will be yours? - Robert K. Cooper
“To be sure, great performers are well trained, experienced, smart, and in some cases, divinely talented. But the way their brains work during a performance is a lot more like a squirrel’s than like Einstein’s. Like squirrels, the best in every business do what they have learned to do without questioning their abilities—they flat out trust their skills, which is why we call this high-performance state of mind the ‘Trusting Mindset.’ Routine access to the Trusting Mindset is what separates great performers from the rest of the pack.” - John Eliot
“Thinking is a habit, and like any other habit, it can be changed; it just takes effort and repetition.” - John Eliot
“Butterflies, cotton mouth, and a pounding heart make the finest performers smile—the smile of a person with an ace up their sleeves… They definitely would agree with Tiger Woods, who has often said, ‘The day I’m not nervous stepping onto the first tee—that’s the day I quit.” - John Eliot
“Confidence is not a guarantee of success, but a pattern of thinking that will improve your likelihood of success, a tenacious search for ways to make things work.” - John Eliot
“Exceptional thinkers ignore their critics and go about their business making history.” - John Eliot
“You will not do incredible things without an incredible dream.” - John Eliot
“History, though, shows us that the people who end up changing the world—the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries—are always nuts, until they’re right, and then they’re geniuses.” - John Eliot
“The greatest leaders and statesmen in history have not been problem solvers. They have been builders. They have been creators.” - Robert Fritz
“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable… you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all you have left is a compromise… the human spirit will not invest itself in a compromise.” - Robert Fritz
“This one fundamental choice—to be the predominant creative force in your life—is a foundation for the entire orientation of the creative… From this choice the meaning of the word desire changes for you, from ‘idle wishes and hopes’ to ‘true vision of that which is the highest in human aspiration and vision.” - Robert Fritz
“Athletes and musicians may not enjoy practicing long hours, but they do so just the same: not out of duty, obligation, or any other form of self-manipulation, but because they are making secondary choices consistent with their primary choice to be able to perform music or excel in sports.” - Robert Fritz
“A primary choice is about some result you want in itself and for itself… It functions as the ultimate goal… A choice that helps you take a step toward your primary result is called a secondary choice.” - Robert Fritz
“There are something like 18 billion cells in the brain alone. There are no two brains alike; there are no two hands alike; there are no two human beings alike. You can take your instructions and your guidance from others, but you must find your own path.” - Joseph Campbell
“In a wonderful essay called ‘On an Apparent Intention in the Fate of the Individual,’ Schopenhauer points out that, once you have reached an advanced age, as I have, as you look back over your life, it can seem to have had a plot, as though composed by a novelist. Events that seemed entirely accidental or incidental turn out to have been central to the composition.” - Joseph Campbell
“Another astonishing way to look back is to pick up some diary entries or notes that you kept a long time ago. You’ll be astonished. Things you were convinced you had realized more recently will all be pinned down there. These are the driving themes of your life.” - Joseph Campbell
“The scientist knows that at any moment facts may be found that make the present theory obsolete; this is happening now constantly. It’s amusing. In a religious tradition, the older the doctrine, the truer it is held to be.” - Joseph Campbell
“This gets back to Krishna’s dictum: The best way to help mankind is through the perfection of yourself.” - Joseph Campbell
“What is it we are questing for? It is the fulfillment of that which is potential in each of us. Questing for it is not an ego trip; it is an adventure to bring into fulfillment your gift to the world, which is yourself. There’s nothing you can do that’s more important than being fulfilled. You become a sign, you become a signal, transparent to transcendence; in this way, you will find, live, and become a realization of your own personal myth.” - Joseph Campbell
“Imagine our life as a novel, would I really want to keep reading this book or is it way to boring to even want to get to the next chapter?” - Tripp Lanier
“There is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It’s your mission on earth… And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho
“We all have the ability, we just don’t all have the courage to follow our dreams and to follow the signs.” – Paulo Coelho
“The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.” – Paulo Coelho
“Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle.
Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone.
Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his.
Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons.
Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light.
Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties.
Every Warrior of the Light has said ‘yes’ when he wanted to say ‘no.’
Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved.
That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is.” - Paulo Coelho
“Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called ‘the love of your fate.’ Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, ‘This is what I need.’ It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment—not discouragement—you will find the strength is there. Any disaster that you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.” - Joseph Campbell
“Five years from now you’re gonna laugh at whatever’s stressing you out now, so why wait? - Tony Robbins
“As long as it doesn’t harm anyone, change your opinions now and then and be unashamedly contradictory.” - Paulo Coelho
“For a master, the rewards gained along the way are fine, but they are not the main reason for the journey. Ultimately, the master and the master’s path are one. And if the traveler is fortunate—that is, if the path is complex and profound enough—the destination is two miles farther away for every mile he or she travels.” - George Leonard
“Join with those who sing songs, tell stories, enjoy life, because happiness is contagious. Join those who walk with their heads high even when they have tears in their eyes. Avoid those who have never shed a tear.” - Paulo Coelho
:-)
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