Control your attention –

We don’t live where our body is. We live where our attention is.

Control where your attention is. If you can’t, you don’t have control of your experience.

Where are you placing your attention these days?

Joy and pleasure are different

There is a significant difference between joy in your soul and hedonistic pleasure. One leaves you feeling fulfilled and the other can leave you feeling empty.

You know the difference. There’s nothing wrong with pleasure, but not at the expense of joy in your heart and soul.

What fills you up?

Treat people for what they can be

If we see people as small, untalented and insignificant, and we treat them that way, they become worse.  

But if we treat people for what they could be, for what they are capable of, we encourage the spark in them to be more and do more.

I bet your favorite people aren’t the ones who are always reminding you of your shortcomings, but the ones who believe in what you can do, whether you were doing it or not; the ones who encouraged you by their very attitude toward you.

How are you being to those that are underperforming their potential?

No Regrets

Regret comes from the idea that you could have done better in the past.  

If you could have you would have. Let it go.

No regrets.

Mastery is no fun most of the time

You know the ant and the grasshopper story.  The kids who hung out on the street, while others toiled away doing their homework, projects, or learning one skill really well.

Now we are adults, and those of us who have mastered something have it to lean on, to earn with, and to satisfy our deep need to be important and feel we are really good at something.  

That mastery didn’t come by having fun all the time, constantly engaged in activities that were stress relieving and entertaining.  It came by self-discipline and hard work.  Were we having fun?  Not the kind of fun everyone else was having.  We were not having fun most of the time as we labored and focused, so we may get a feeling of satisfaction that we had just taken a new step towards mastery.  The feeling was fleeting, but enough of its own reward. We moved on to ascending the next step right away – seeking the feeling again.

In the end, we will have reached a greater portion of our potential than we would otherwise; and maybe that’s the most fun of all.

Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue.

We can interpret the bad things that happened (to us) as unfair, troubling, disturbing, and a liability, or we can see them for what they are; just events that made us who we are – smarter and stronger.

Realize their positive effects, and move on.

The power to choose our response

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is the power to choose our response. In our response lies our greatest growth and freedom.”            – Victor Frankl

It’s not so much what happens to us that shapes our lives and results, it’s how we choose to respond to what happens that matters more.

No matter what happens, we can decide to accept it, lash out, love it, hate it, carry it, dismiss it, make it mean this or that, learn from it, or forgive it. And it’s never too late to change our response to something that already happened that we have already responded to a different way.

How have you shaped your life with your responses?

Off Track?

If you are off track of pursuing your goals, off track of your health, off track of your finances, career or relationships…there is always this moment to get back on track.  

You always have this moment, and it’s the only moment you will ever have.

How about now then?

Get Influenced

The other day my son ran a marathon – 26.2 miles. Not just any old marathon though – it was through the northern Vermont woods with 5500 feet of vertical elevation change. Oh yeah, and it was -8 degrees F. You read that right. -8 degrees F. (It was supposed to be a snowshoe marathon but there was not enough snow.)

So, after listening to his incredible tale, I went out and ran 5 miles in 19 degree F weather the next day. My motivation came squarely from what Tanner did.

We are influenced by the people around us. Get around people you SHOULD be influenced by. Listen to and read books by people you want to be more like.

Bad Hope and Good Hope

Bad hope is hoping for things to come true that won’t; deluding ourselves with thoughts of things that can’t possibly happen.

Good hope is when we can see an achievable future and take action toward it.  

They did a test of swimming rats. They gave one group hope that they’d be saved – and they swam 200 times longer than the ones who had no hope.  

What good hope do you have?