Starting somewhere

Napoleon Hill reminds me that poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.  You are source energy.  If you're first plan doesn't turn out as you envision, you can try another and so on.  You may start with nothing, but you can evolve to create someting.  Eventually, you'll find a plan that works.  Be careful what you think. When you intend for things to happen, they will.  In order to start somewhere and develop a stronger sense of direction, you need practical, workable plans.   

At least two key kinds of people exist in this world: those people who follow their dreams and those people who choose to follow dreams imposed by others. What kind of person are you?

Lilia Mayagoitia is a significant inspiration for me.  She has had the courage and resourcefulness to follow her dreams and help other people to realize theirs.  I initially met her in October 2006 and recently attended a conference in Sydney, Australia where she was a guest speaker.  Here, she shared her success story speaking English for her third and fourth times in public. This effort revealed her determination to share her meaningful message and inspire even more people. 

She grew up in poverty in Mexico City. As a child, Lilia never knew luxuries such as Christmas presents or birthday parties, and rarely holidays unless relatived invited them.  She dreamed of dance and music lessons but couldn't afford them. Her parents feared her dream and tried to discourage her because it didn't pay well.  After dreaming of a theatre and entertainment career, at age 21, she finally took ballet.   Within a year, she was performing lead roles in professional musicals and theatre productions. Lilia struggled for years to make enough money to support herself, yet she refused to give up her dream. 

She met the man who became her husband Alberto when she initially played the role of his wife in a traveling soap opera.  While she became Roberto's girlfriend, she was aware he'd grown up in an American-Mexican middle class family.  She never forgot her desire for independence, her goal to to develop herself, and to be able to do certain things herself.  Much to Alberto's surprise and confusion, she broke up with him. During the next year and a half after the break-up, she built a business alone to prove herself.  She created her sense of a dream about lives of people less fortunate she wished to help change.  This motivated her to travel to remote places in buses with animals and use other basic means to promote her business idea, to share her own struggles and victories.  Over time, her business grew. She learned Alberto was promoting a similar business. They met at professional functions, rekindled their romance, and shared new success.  

The Mayagoitias remind me the true measure of a one's character is what you do with what you've got when you're on your own, after you read about or listen to people who have blazed their own trails.  Of course, without a dream, there's little reason to do what it takes.  We're each reminded that if someone else can achieve success, then we can create our own prosperity and become the best person we can be.  Never underestimate the power of your own plan and how you might touch a life.  Think carefully about how many lives you wish to change. Who might discover and build on opportunities because you empowered them to see differently?

To quote Lilia, "I have a life and it's a gift.  If there comes a day when I don't touch someone, then my life lacks meaning."

So, what price are you willing to pay to create wealth in your life and enrich the lives of others?  I think the price we need to be willing to pay is to exert effort and devote time to things we don't necessarly want to do when we don't want to do them.  We need to step out of our comfort zones and learn the value of sacrifices. Your mindset is your compass which will clarify your sense of direction. Learn to commit to what you believe in with a sense of responsibility.  You'll evolve and grow to reap unexpected benefits.

Urges to respond or not

It's often said that the greatest urge human beings have is actually to be recognized and appreciated.  Do you feel these urges to receive this kind of compassion and attention? Consider whether your primary focus is in yourself or in other things. Do you tend to focus the subjects on you? It's possible to review and live up to your expectations. You have power to shape your life.

In my own life, I've met many people who have developed conditioned reactions to criticism.  A popular reaction is the urge to respond back, often on the defensive. Sensitive people do this.  Perhaps such reactions are familiar to you?  Whether or not you realize it, you can take a kind approach which opposes this urge.  Instead, why not suprise the person who criticizes you and agree with what they say.  This would acknowledge how intelligent and perceptive this person is and recognize him or her as valuable.  You could always expand by re-stating your point of view in a less-threatening way afterward.  If you happen to disagree with the critic, you can still accept it and respect it for what it is. A good rule of thumb is

1) recognize the other person's feelings in a positive way

2) express how you have felt in the past and why

3) identify how the present can positively influence your future (value the critic)

Adjust your sails

If you know where you wish to go and what you aim to do, then whetever pace you choose to take actually helps you get there.  Rather than focus on what other people do or don't do, say or don't say, why not focus on your own race? Ultimately, you only really compete against yourself.

Of course, if you put yourself on a boat with an inspiring mentor, or someone who strikes you like he knows what he's doing, that person will always sense just when it's time to adjust his sails.  He can intuit the direction of the wind.  He reminds you that you can always find your own wind.   It can be helpful to re-evaluate your standards based on the bevhavior of people you admire.  Yet, teach yourself not to judge yourself or others. Instead, orient your life based on how you're inspired.

Regardless of what anyone says, you are never a victim of circumstance. You have every reason to be excited about where you are, what you're doing, and how you are evolving.  As you learn to get emotional about a dream, the power of emotionals goal will motivate you to commit.  How long it takes you to reach your own goals is directly related to the clarity of your own vision.  If you don't have a strong vision, you can always revise it and review your progress.  Ask yourself an open-ended question and plan how your circumstances will unfold.  Make it happen.

Perpetual change

No event, no relationship, no feeling, no joy or sadness, no situation, ever stays the same.  All setbacks are a matter of perception. Even setbacks themselves change. Why? Higher Forces empower us to shape our perception, to evole with our understanding and acceptance of that which does not change. The external world is constantly changing but only as the physical senses see things.

It may be a revelation but you are not the center of the universe.  The essence of being is one of many expanding universes.  Humans are but a small part. The big picture is constantly changing, and we constantly participate in and contribute to the changes inside ourselves and around us.

We have at least two choices; to resist change or participate in and embrace change. Every change can be resisted. Every change can be facilitated by cooperation and good will. How will you choose to act today to further clarify your own sense of success?

"There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control." -Leo F. Buscalgia

Secrets of Happiness

In the Secrets of Happiness, Richard Schoch examines three thousand years of history and concludes that we can deepen understanding of happiness by reading different philosophical and religious ideas and applying them selectively to our lives. He reviews thoughts of the Greeks, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Stoics, and then, invites you to ask:

a) Do you think you have a right to be happy?

b) What is required for you to feel content?

c) Can you be happy if others are unhappy?

In the end, only you can determine if your own sense of happiness represents something you need to feel complete, whether it represents an illusion or unattainable goal, or a mysterious feeling meant to gain significance through you life experience. You may determine happiness is the symbolic trophy earned through challenges, hardship, burdens and suffering. Perhaps you feel this state of mind can only result from deep and consistent spiritual reflection or honest self-examination. This is your journey. Fulfillment could be in this life or the hereafter. You decide what form it will take, that is, if you decide it should take any form at all.

Start with believing the truth of happiness is accessible and all you really need to be happy is easy to obtain. Focus on learning about yourself, on helping other people to satisfy desires and things necessary for survival, such as obtaining enough food, water, compassion and shelter, to meet basic human needs.  Helping the less fortunate also enables you to help yourself. 

Decide whether your sense of happiness must be connected to lower stress, minimum pain and maximum inner peace, or if another combination makes more sense to you. How you reach out to learn will enable you to plot your course.  The secret to your own happiness lies inside yourself.