Category: Choice
Quality Is Contagious
“You’re only as good as the people you hire.”
— Ray Kroc
[Classic post from 5-7-11]
This quote of Ray Kroc’s has proven itself in every business environment I have ever been in and I see it in full operation in every business I visit or deal with. This aspect, far more than any current business climate, has everything to do with the success of the enterprise. Better people will always make a better enterprise.
Any success that I have had in any operation I’ve been involved in was successful as a direct result of the quality of the people that I was working with. And, here’s the interesting part: My own quality improved as the quality of the talent around me improved and vice versa. All the more reason to surround yourself with the most talented and highest quality people you can find.
Quality Is Contagious.
Spread Some Joy Today–When you’re in joy, there are no significant problems.
The Window That Efficiency Flies Out Of
“Work expands so as to fill the time
available for its completion.”
— C Northcote Parkinson
[Classic post from 5-17-11]
When I watch those movies where the world is saved from extinction at the last minute available, I think of all the tasks I have to do and how much time I allow for them and end up right at the last minute trying to get it done. Heck, if I didn't have some kind of deadline, it may never get done!
It does seem clear that work actually does expand to fill the available time, and I would like to be more organized and efficient, so I am learning to allow a specific amount of time for some projects and to set deadlines with clients as well my team and myself. I am compartmentalizing tasks in an effort to help them flow more smoothly.
Procrastination is always a predator and I am easily swayed by projects that I like better than others, and I am finding that by shortening the available time, I still can get it done and end up being more efficient at the same time.
We'll see how this goes and I'll report back on the progress. It looks promising. . .
I'm So Busy Is Such A Pathetic Excuse…
Spread Some Joy Today–Getting it done should help everyone feel better.
Imaginary Blues In The Key Of See
“How much pain they have cost us,
the evils which have never happened.”
— Thomas Jefferson
“Every evening I turn my worries over to God.
He's going to be up all night anyway.”
— Mary C Crowley
[Classic post from 5-18-11]
It's funny now. The real troubles that I have are no match to the power and persistence of my imagination.
What's really funny is that today I am absolutely certain that I have a minimum of twice as many problems as I have ever had in my life, and my imagination can still run circles around all of them.
What's even funnier still, is that not thinking about my real problems, regardless of how many there are, or who thinks they are so damn important, makes them so much smaller than they have ever been in my entire life.
And the last funny thing is that I am in full control of my imagination, although, I think most of my life, I didn't realize that was possible.
I am eager and excited in anticipation of the place where there are no problems at all–where life is bliss and joy reigns supreme. As imaginary places go, that is as good a one as I can dream up; however, I am not convinced that it is a real place.
But, as my experience is teaching me now, having problems is not a problem unless I choose to make it, or them, one. My view is so different now. So little stress in comparison to how it used to be when I didn't really have hardly any problems.
Maybe That's What They Mean About Heaven On Earth.
Spread Some Joy Today–By seeking joy today. It really is that easy.
Greatest Stress Weapon
“The greatest weapon against stress
is our ability to choose
one thought over another.”
— William James
[Classic post from 5-19-11]
I was talking with a friend and associate this morning and she mentioned that she teaches and advises people to do something in a certain way, and then sometimes finds herself not following her own advice. I could instantly relate to that because I do it myself from time to time. But, I told her that the difference to me now is that I have awareness, and having awareness serves to have me recognize when I am off the path, so I can get back on quickly, whereas, in the past, I may not have even noticed I was off the path.
Now the quote by William James is so powerful and true in my own life. I know this. And yet, I sometimes fail to have it operate on autopilot as I would like, find myself over in the weeds feeling stressed. This is where my learning and study kicks in and makes me aware that I am off in the weeds. This then allows and encourages me to get back on track with the truth in my life and change my thoughts.
It is human to run old tapes and get off track. It is the learning that brings me the awareness that helps me grow beyond and overwrite the old tapes. That is how learning empowers me. The path to enlightenment is through awareness.
Though what William James says is true for me from my awareness, on a practical side it is a challenge because of past training and interaction with other people and societal norms. Here are some things I've learned to help me overcome those practical obstacles.
1. Release all rules. Realize that so many of my thoughts are from past training and other people's rules. Rules are just ideas that someone had and others accepted. Many of those rules were turned into legalisms called laws. To think for oneself, especially if the world, in general, is not in step, requires ignoring a lot of rules; e.g., you should do this, you should do that, everyone does this, everyone does that, and so on.
2. Suspend judgment. Right and wrong are judgments. I need to suspend as many judgments as possible–all if I can. Judgments like I should feel this or I should feel that for whatever reason or whoever said it can just as easily be looked at with suspicion. Some of those judgments might say that you should feel sad about this and not feel joy about that. Can if you want, but I am choosing to feel how I want to feel, and I choose joy as often as I find it possible to do so, under a wide variety of circumstances and customs.
3. Choose to feel better. I want to choose a better feeling thought in every case and there is no end to feeling better. Feeling bad even slightly will now awaken my awareness and then I can consciously remind myself that I choose to feel better, and then do so by changing my thought. Without the rules and judgment, I have more power to change my thoughts and more power to feel better.
Stress is just a view and it is a fearful view. It is 100% thought. Without judgment to encourage the fear or rules to expand it, changing my thoughts to release all stress is practical and effective.
I Choose To Feel Better By Choosing A Better Feeling Thought Any Time I Want. I Want To Do So Often.
Spread Some Joy Today–Joy is alive and full of life and optimism. Joy is real. Joy is contagious.
So How Bad Is It?
“When I hear somebody sigh,
'Life is hard,'
I am always tempted to ask,
'Compared to what?'”
— Sydney J Harris
[Classic post from 5-20-11]
You know it's going to be a bad day when. . .
•You turn on the morning news and it's showing emergency routes out of town.
•The sun comes up in the west.
•Your boss tells you not to bother taking off your coat.
•You jump out of bed and you miss the floor.
•The bird singing outside your bedroom window is a buzzard.
•You wake up and your dentures are locked together.
•Your car's horn gets stuck while you're following a group of Hell's Angels.
•You put both contact lenses in the same eye.
•You walk to work on a sunny morning and discover the back of your skirt is stuck in your pantyhose.
•You call to pick up your messages and are told it's none of your business.
•Your tax return check bounces.
•You put your bra on backward and it fits better.
•You step on the scale and it says “tilt.”
•You call suicide prevention, and they put you on hold.
So, How Bad Is It?
Spread Some Joy Today–If you're going to complain, make it sound so silly that it makes people laugh instead of run away.
Choosing Our Fate
Choice Week
“There is so much about my fate that I cannot control,
but other things do fall under the jurisdiction.
I can decide:
How I spend my time,
whom I interact with,
whom I share my body
and life
and money
and energy with,
I can select what I can read
and eat
and study.
I can choose how I'm going to regard
unfortunate circumstances in my life;
whether I will see them as curses
or opportunities.
I can choose my words
and tone of voice
in which I speak to others.
And most of all,
I can choose my thoughts.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert
[Classic post from 6-5-11]
We choose so often each and every day that we don't even realize we are choosing. Life is in our choices and we have multiple ways of seeing anything and anyone. It is not anyone outside of ourselves or circumstances or events outside of ourselves that does the choosing for us, but ourselves alone. We may respond or react. We may choose to be angry or happy. We may choose to justify and judge or allow. We may love with conditions or without. It is all in our choices and our choices then become us.
Though we all may realize that we are indeed the choosers, what we may be missing is the deliberate choices that we can make to create a deliberate reality in our lives. What those only means is accepting the responsibility that our power lies in our thinking and therefore all of our choices. In this light, I blame no one and nothing and only realize that I have chosen and each choice creates results. There is infinite freedom in that realization and much joy in the practice of it.
Rather Than Choose And Then See How I Feel, It Is Much Better To Feel Good And Then Make A Choice. It Always Seems To Turn Out Well That Way.
Spread Some Joy Today–Joy begins with appreciation. Find many things and people to appreciate today. What a wonderful day it will be!
Everything Is Relative
Choice Week
“Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives,
as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which
secret garden we will tend. . . when we choose not to focus
on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the
abundance that's present–love, health, family, friends,
work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring
us pleasure–the wasteland of illusion falls away
and we experience Heaven on earth.”
— Sarah Ban Breathnach
[Classic post from 6-4-11]
One of the other very powerful things that I have learned in just the last few years is gently working toward realizing and being grateful for the abundance that I have.
Everything is relative. If we in America compare ourselves to some of the poorest people in the world, there is no doubt that we have abundance. Yet, that is not what we in America normally do. We normally compare ourselves to those that are rich in comparison to ourselves, then we focus on the lack that exists between those two current realities.
Sometimes that motivates us to get going and get more abundance in our lives, and other times it just bums us out–not in a down-trodden depressed kind of way, but in a resigned sort of way. Not giving up, just not feeling much real hope. We begin seeing this reality–and we notice that we aren't there yet again and again. That's where those phrases come from such as, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and so on.
Yet the thing that I find motivating me is focusing on the abundance I have–whatever it is. I am rich in things, talent, energy, focus, friends, learning, expertise. To use an old phrase as I heard as a child, I am counting my blessings one by one. As a side note, it is also interesting how little “things” mean to me anymore and most of my life I couldn't wait to get more things.
In my observation of people, it is the choice between focusing on their abundance or their lack that I see affecting people's lives. Most that I see are focusing on what they don't have, what they're lacking, who's done what to whom, and so on. I think changing that focus toward abundance would change a great many things in their lives.
We always have the choice of how we want to view a situation; our lives; the world. Abundance and lack are not so much realities as they are attitudes. You don't have to be rich to feel an abundance. In fact, realities don't create attitudes–no, attitudes create reality.
Heck, You Can Just Make It Up In Your Head. Works For Me!
Spread Some Joy Today–See if you can list ten things that you're grateful for. Count those blessings and enjoy your abundance.
No More Victims!
Choice Week
“I've made mistakes, and I know why I made them,
but I made that choice. Nobody's ever made a choice for me.”
— Sandra Bullock
[Classic post from 6-3-11]
I used to call it PMA (Positive Mental Attitude), and positive thinking. It's what I was learning in my mid-twenties from motivational speakers and books I was reading, but I wasn't getting it really. Oh, I could repeat it, but I wasn't living it. Know what I mean? It has taken so many more years to come back to it and then to live it and even understand it more.
Part of what is so cool about getting to this point is accepting responsibility for my choices. I did my share of blaming the economy, the current administration, the boss, and that list could go on for days. Now that I have accepted this responsibility, I need only look in the mirror if I was seeking excuses or people to blame.
It was a hard idea to really grasp for a while because when I was thinking about positive thinking, I was thinking about the inside out and when things would happen that weren't really so much fun, I would think from the outside in–as if something outside was attacking me, wreaking havoc with my life. Then, I would muster all the positive thinking I could to think my way through it.
It is a different and so much more effective thing to accept everything that I get and be fully responsible for it with no excuses, and no circumstantial evidence to try to convince others or myself that I am an innocent victim.
So, in the end, it isn't about positive thinking at all. It is about realizing that I create my own world. Realizing this fully and accepting the role of creator allows me to do more than positive thinking ever could.
I Am A Victim No More! And, It's A Sweet Victory!
Spread Some Joy Today–There is so much joy in the realization that you have more control than you thought you did. Accept the responsibility that you are in charge!