Creating Happiness

Quote
"You may control a mad elephant;
You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger;
Ride the lion and play with the cobra;
By alchemy you may learn your livelihood;
You may wander through the universe incognito;
Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful;
You may walk in water and live in fire;
But control of the mind is better and more difficult."
-Paramhansa Yogananda

My Thoughts
Instead of my thoughts, I'll share this with you:

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Creating Happiness
by Paramhansa Yogananda
East-West 1932 and 1933

If you want to be loved, start loving others who need your love. If you expect others to be honest with you, then start by being honest yourself. If you do not want others to be wicked, then you must cease to be evil yourself. If you want others to sympathize with you, start showing sympathy to those around you. If you want to be respected, you must learn to be respectful to everyone, both young and old. If you want a display of peace from others, you must be peaceful yourself. If you want others to be religious, start being spiritual yourself. Remember, whatever you want others to be, first be that yourself; then you will find others responding in like manner to you.

It is easy to wish that others would behave perfectly toward you, and it is easy to see their faults, but it is very difficult to conduct yourself properly and to consider your own faults. If you can remember to behave rightly, others will try to follow your example. If you can find your own faults without developing an inferiority complex, and can keep busy correcting yourself, then you will be using your time more profitably than if you spent it in just wishing others to be better. Your good example will do more to change others than your wishing, your holy wrath, or your words.

The more you improve yourself, the more you will elevate others around you. The self-improving man is the increasingly happy man. The happier you become, the happier will be the people around you.

Stagnant people are unhappy. Extremely ignorant people scarcely know how it feels to either be happy or unhappy. They are unfeeling, like the stones. It is better to be unhappy about your own ignorance than to die happily with it. Wherever you are, remain awake and alive with your thought, perception, and intuition, ever ready, like a good photographer, to take pictures of exemplary conduct and to ignore bad behavior. Your highest happiness lies in your being ever ready in desiring to learn and to behave properly.

If you have given up hope of ever being happy, cheer up. Never lose hope. Your soul, being the reflection of the ever-joyous Spirit, is, in essence, happiness itself. If you keep the eyes of your concentration closed, you cannot see the sun of happiness burning within your bosom; but no matter how tightly you close the eyes of your attention, it nevertheless remains a fact that the happiness rays are ever trying to pierce the closed doors of your mind. Open the portals of calmness, and you will find a sudden burst of the bright Sun of Joy right from within yourself.

The joyous rays of the soul can be perceived if you interiorize your attention. This can be done by using the architect of your mind to enjoy the beautiful scenery of thoughts in the invisible, tangible Kingdom within you. Do not search for happiness only in beautiful clothes, clean houses, delicious dinners, and soft cushions and chairs. These will imprison your happiness behind the bars of externality or outwardness. Rather, in the airplane of your visualization, glide over the vast tracts of Fancy, beholding the limitless empire of thoughts. There behold the mountain ranges of unbroken, lofty, spiritual aspiration, for improving yourself and others.

Glide over the deep valleys of Universal Sympathy. Fly over the geysers of enthusiasm, and the Niagara Falls of perpetual wisdom, plunging down the hoary crags of your Soul’s peace. Soar over the endless river of intuitive perception to the Kingdom of His Omnipresence. There, in His Mansion of Bliss, drink from His fountain of Whispering Wisdom and quench the thirst of your desires. Dine with Him on the fruits of Divine Love in the Banquet Hall of Eternity. If you have made up your mind to find joy within yourself, sooner or later you will find it. Seek it now, daily, by steady, deep, and deeper meditation within, and you will surely find everlasting happiness. Make a steady effort to go within, and you will find your greatest happiness there.

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Until next time...

Productivity

Quote
"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."
- Stephen Covey

My Thoughts
Do you find yourself not making any significant progress relating to your goal(s)?
The first area to check is your passion. But what if you are passionate and you are still not making progress?
The next thing to look at would be, are you focusing on areas that will bring you the greatest results?
Or are you scattered all over the place?
Do you find yourself wishing there was more time in the day to get things done?

If you find yourself answering yes to these questions, don't worry because I was in the same boat about a year ago. So what happened?

I read an outstanding book from Brian Tracy called "Eat that Frog". That book increased my productivity tenfold. Essentially you need to stop focusing on managing time and start focusing on managing activities. Once you begin doing this your ability to get things done will skyrocket.

I strongly encourage you to read that book and apply the principles in it.

Until next time....

Responsibility

Quote
"The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins."
-Bob Moawad

My Thoughts
Do you take responsibility for all of your results? Or only for your successes? Do you find yourself blaming other people for your setbacks or failures? We all may find ourselves doing this from time to time.

When we decide to take 100% responsibility for our results we will start to see things change.
We will then be in control of our future. This is a very big step for most people to take because it is certainly easier to blame other people for the situations we find ourselves in.

I encourage all of you to become more aware of excuses. Start eliminating them from your life. You'll be amazed at how much more control you have.

Until next time...

Goals and Growth

Quote
“The real purpose of a goal is to grow. It causes you to draw something out of yourself that you didn’t even know was there.”
-Bob Proctor

My Thoughts
When was the last time you set a goal that caused you to grow? To really stretch? For many people the answer to those questions is never. Much of the world wanders through life letting other people decide their futures. This also helps explain why so many people have such a difficult time making decisions.

If you do have a goal that you are working towards, I would like you to look at it. Is it something you want to be, do, or have ? Or did you set it because it’s something your parents, friends, coworkers, or society wants you to be, do, or have? If it is something that you set, is it really stretching you?

I would encourage all of you to spend some serious time this week thinking about your goals. What area(s) are you really passionate about? Do you have goals in this area? If no, what are the reasons?

I would like to point out, don’t waste time thinking about how you are going to achieve these things. Get your imagination going and write down things that resonate with you.

Once you have found what you would like to be, do, or have, write it down in the present tense and put a date on it. After that write down three action steps that will move you closer to your goal. These can be small, passive activities (research, reading, etc...) at first. As you move towards your goal these action steps will tend to grow more active (meeting people, renting space, etc...).

Remember, the achievement of a goal is actually the secondary benefit. The primary benefit of a goal is the growth you achieve.

If you have further questions about goal setting or achieving please contact me: bob@oneamazinglife.com

Until next time...

Results

Quote
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
-Albert Einstein

My Thoughts
We often have heard that we learn not from studying information but by doing, or by experiencing. However, that is not quite true. If it was we would never make the same mistake twice. Real learning takes place from evaluated experience. Of course this can be tough, since you are the one going through the experience.

Are there results that you would like to change in your life? Maybe related to your work? Education? Health? Relationships? etc...I am sure the answer to that question for most people is yes. The question then becomes: have you actually taken steps to change? If no, and you keep expecting different results, I ask that you reread the quote above. If yes, is it working? Are you doing everything you can to facilitate this change?

I would encourage all of you that are seeking change to surround yourself with people heading in the direction you are aiming for. This will give you the focus and energy to see things through until the end.

Until next time....

Forgiveness

Quote
"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you."
-Lewis B. Smedes

My Thoughts
Forgiveness is perhaps one of the most difficult habits to develop. However, it is absolutely essential to our personal development. All of us have felt that we have been wronged by someone at sometime. But who gets hurt more by holding on to thoughts of anger, revenge, and hatred? Is it the person(s) or is it us?

In order for us to fully grow we have to let go of these past negative emotions. Remember, many of these negative thoughts and feelings come from our perception of things at the time. Also, it is impossible for us to absolutely know what is going on in someone's mind at the time.

I encourage you to think this week about someone you still hold negative feelings towards. Make an honest attempt to forgive them. Once you release these negative feelings you will feel rejuvenated.
I am not suggesting that this is easy, but over time it can be developed into a habit.

If you are having problems with forgiveness, I recommend reading the following books:
Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz
Building Your Field of Dreams by Mary Morrissey

Until next time....

Attitude

Quote
"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. "
-Viktor Frankl

My Thoughts
First, I would like to say if you have not read Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning" do so soon.

Many of us fall victim to simply reacting to the situations around us without really thinking about it. For example: If it is raining out, we may say it makes us feel down or depressed. Does the rain make us feel depressed or do we make ourselves feel depressed?

Another example: Maybe things aren't turning out well for us in regards to work (students, clients, customers, etc...). Is it their fault or is it something else? Perhaps we need to change.

I believe it is our attitude in regards to the situation we find ourselves. So if you find yourself in a situation where you are blaming other people for events, I would like you to be honest with yourself and see where your attitude is at. How is your attitude influencing the situation? In what other ways could you look at the situation?

I am not saying this is an easy thing to do, but like other things you can make this into a habit.

Until next time....