Little Deep Thoughts

I have certain messages, quotations, sayings that I read in the morning. There is one that I always read no matter what, and I will never move this one out of the line-up: "He who is not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life." - Ralph Waldo Emerson Our usual system is to not only avoid what we fear, but also to avoid knowing that we are avoiding things. We don't know why we have this vague feeling of danger and insecurity. We just know it's there. Every day I practice this avoidance, I become weaker and more cowardly. I get scared more easily, sometimes by the smallest things-the phone ringing, an e-mail from a creditor. Courage and strength do not remain in place. The same is true with my soul and spirit. Each day I skip Emerson's advice to face a small or large fear, it's like my arm not lifting a small or large weight. Weakness creeps in. Therefore I use the quote as a message across time from Emerson to me. I see it in the ...

I often start the day by drawing four circles on a blank piece of paper. The circles represent my day (today), my month, my year, and my life. Inside each circle I write down what I want. It can be a dollar figure, it can be anything, and the goals can change from day to day-it doesn’t matter. There is no way to get this process wrong.   But by writing the goals down, I am like an airline pilot who is consulting a map prior to takeoff. I am orienting my mind to what I am up to in life. I am reminding myself of what I really want. We wouldn’t think, before an airline flight, of poking our heads into the cabin and saying to pilot, “Just take me anywhere!” Yet, that’s how we live our days when we don’t check the map.   Without advertising our goals to ourselves, we can lose sight of them altogether. It is possible to go an entire week, or two or three, without thinking about our main goals in life. We get caught up in reacting and responding to people and circum...

Practice being awake in the present moment. Make the most of your awareness of this hour. Don’t live in the past (unless you want guilt) or worry about the future (unless you want fear), but stay focused on today (in case you want happiness). "Until you can put your attention where you want it," said Emmet Fox, "you have not become master of yourself. You will never be happy until you can determine what you are going to think about for the next hour." There is a time for dreaming, planning, and creative goal-setting. But once you are complete with that, learn to live in the here and now. See your whole life as being contained in this very hour. Let the microcosm become the macrocosm. It's amazing what can be done by people who learn to relax, pay attention, and focus, appreciating the present hour and all the opportunity it contains. It is said that in America we try to cultivate an appreciation of art, while the Japanese cultivate the art of appreciation...

When I am happy, I see the happiness in others. When I am compassionate, I see the compassion in other people. When I am full of energy and hope, I see opportunities all around me. But when I am angry, I see other people as unnecessarily testy. When I am depressed, I notice that people’s eyes look sad. When I am weary, I see the world as boring and unattractive. Who I am is what I see! If I drive into Phoenix and complain, “What a crowded, smog-ridden mess this place is!” I am really expressing what a crowded, smog-ridden mess I am at that moment. If I had been feeling motivated that day, and full of hope and happiness, I could just as easily have said, while driving into Phoenix, “Wow, what a thriving, energetic metropolis this is!” Again, I would have been describing my inner landscape, not Phoenix’s. Our self-motivation suffers most from how we choose to see the circumstances in our lives. That’s because we don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are. In every...

Spirituality helps to clarify goals and objectives. It helps to motivate individuals, which is the step prior to setting goals. One must be motivated to do something in order to set a goal to accomplish it. When a goal is set, one's internal cognition is constantly thinking about accomplishing the goal and purpose for setting it, which leads one to thinking about one's larger purpose in life. It is possible to have aspects of positive thinking without necessarily being a positive thinker. It is possible to be spiritual, or religious, without having the three vital relationships for complete positive thinking. When a person has one aspect of positive thinking, they feel some of the very powerful outcomes of positive thinking, which motivates and opens up the opportunity for that person to attain the other aspects of positive thinking.

Adversity is often a product of confused thinking, lack of proper goals and aims in life. If an individual is doing what he does not like to do or doing what he is not supposed to do or do not know what he should do, chances are he is inviting trouble into his life. It is also true that if a person is already going through difficulties and has not learned his lesson, chances are he may have to cope with more difficulties for a longer time. Resolve today to know what you think your aims are. Try to know to what extent you lack clarity on this issue, which is causing confusion and restlessness in your life. If you have clearly defined goals and if you are determined mentally to achieve them, solutions will come eventually. You will perceive hidden opportunities and present themselves to your conscious mind which will lead you towards your goals. Whatever be the gravity of the situation, keep the goals clearly in your mind and focus on them. Make them an integral part of your cons...