A sense of control

Did you know that crosswalk buttons and elevator door close buttons are dummys?  

They give people a sense of control.

When people have a sense of control in their lives, they are much happier.

People don’t like to have no control over their lives.

How much control do you have? 

In what areas do you have no control and are frustrated?

When you do have control you are happy about it because you get to call the shots; even if you make a mistake you are ok with it because it was your decision.

Life is people

Do you have negative associations in your life?

That’s a choice.

What are you tolerating?

The water you swim in

You absorb the environment you enter.

Be careful where you go.

Voices have moved you.

“Associations don’t shove you in a direction; they nudge you, ever so slightly in a direction.” – Jim Rohn 

We can’t help but be influenced by the people around us, and the voices coming to us through speakers and screens, and pages.

How have the people you put yourself around influenced your thinking and actions – and results?

Who can you listen to, watch, or hang around that will influence you in the direction of your goals or into a better place?

"When the student is ready…."

“When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

Why?

Because the teacher doesn’t want to teach people who don’t really want to learn.  He or she would be wasting their time.

“The Master said, only one who bursts with eagerness do I instruct; only one who bubbles with excitement, do I enlighten.  If I hold up one corner and a man cannot come back with the other three, I do not continue the lesson.” – Epictetus, The Analects of Confucious

Do you want to learn?

Has the teacher showed up for you?

Where breakthroughs come from…

“When you look at most of the breakthroughs you have had in your life, most of them probably came out of an area of life that just wasn’t working.  There was pain and you had to navigate through it.

When you have to figure something out, tap into resourcefulness, or develop a skill, talent or capability to get through difficult situations, it breeds a breakthrough.” – Joe Polish

In order to have a breakthrough, something’s got to break.

Has that been true in your life?

Feeling engaged and alive

“The source of continuing aliveness was to find your passion and pursue it, with whole heart and single mind.” – Gail Sheehy

I have found this to be true for me.  If I am doing what I love (in my business or my play) and challenging myself, I never get bored or tired.

Do you feel “aliveness” each day?

Four kinds of people in the world…

“There are four kinds of people in this world;

Those who make things happen,

Those who watch things happen,

Those who wonder what happened,

and those that don’t know anything happened.

I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be first on that list.” – Mary Kay Ash

If you reflect on your life so far, what kind of person are you?

Unlearning and relearning

Will Rogers was famously repeating a quote by Artemus Ward when he said-

“It ain’t so much the things we know that get us in trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.”

We all learn things that aren’t right.  We learn parts and fill in the rest.  We learn from people who have just one perspective.  And sometimes, like with modern news media, we learn things that just ain’t so because the source has an agenda for us.

We decide what is true and start rejecting counterpoints and alternate ideas way too soon in life.

Consider that some of the things you know, just ain’t so. 

Be willing to unlearn and relearn better.

Rationalize – Rational-lies

Most of us rationalize bad behavior and habits.  We justify.  We tell ourselves rational-lies so we don’t feel guilty and can feel superior and smart instead.

But this is our ego making us do this.  Our ego wants to be right, even if we aren’t.

The first part of being a better human is to recognize the truth and see when we are wrong or doing less than our best – to be honest with ourselves.

It’s a challenge and one that never ends.

What truth about yourself have you been unwilling to see and accept so far?