Become all you can become with Sophie
He that won't be counselled, can't be helped
Originally posted 2011-05-22 18:15:05.
Life Is Like a Bruce Lee Movie – Create Positive Outcomes and Adventure With Your Mind
The gist of this article is to go within. Within really means: go to the vertical, instead of staying and living on the horizontal plane with all the drama, all the conflicts, all the bumping into this and that. Continue reading “Life Is Like a Bruce Lee Movie – winning first inside”
Originally posted 2011-05-20 13:15:08.
Know thyself… said the Greeks, and I can’t agree more.
Unless you are clear about where you are, what are your limitations, what are your inner pulls (conation), your results in life will be puny, in every area of life.
Know Thyself If men would search diligently their own minds, and examine minutely their thoughts and actions, they would be more cautious in censuring the conduct of others, as they would find in themselves abundantly sufficient cause for reproof. “It is a good horse that never stumbles;” and lie is a good man indeed who cannot reproach himself with numerous slips and errors.” “Every bean has its black,” and every man his follies and vices.
The adage also teaches us to set a proper value upon ourselves, and to be careful not to do anything that may degrade us. It is not known to whom we are indebted for this golden rule; we only learn that it is of very long standing, and was held in such high estimation by the ancients, that it was placed over the doors of their temples, and it was also supposed by them, that ” E coelo descen- dit,” it came down from heaven. ” ‘Man know thyself!’ tins precept from on high Came down, imagined by the Deity; Oh! be the words indelibly imprest On the live tablet of each human breast.
But how do you Know Yourself? Know yourself as others know yourself? Know about yourself? Know what psychologist made up as a category for yourself? Do the test that was devised for testing privates sent to fight in the VietNam war?
People want to know themselves to make it easier to win… to make it easier to beat bad habits. To justify why they are the way they are.
My experience (as a coach, 30 years and thousands of people), has been that you do best when you know your machine. Your machine has a bent… an inclination, and if you know it you can be successful… with any machine.
Some 30 years ago I had a car I didn’t have to lock, because only I could drive it. It would stall for everyone else. I drove it another 100 thousand miles. I got it after the previous owner gave up on it. It had 160 thousand miles on it.
The knowledge: know yourself, here, with that car, applied to the car and myself, together. The car was seriously flawed… but no one could have guessed from the outside, when I drove it.
I have dyslexia, serious, but I read one or two books every week. I also write for a living.
I had two major episodes of brain damage: you wouldn’t know it. I know how to drive my machine.
My soul correction is arrogance and condescension. It’s taken me longer to drive my life with these horrible afflictions, but knowing it made it possible.
When you know all the quirks of your machine, when you know what is your unscratchable itch, when you know what the machine will do unless you compensate for it, you can take your machine anywhere, any heights, any distance, any achievement.
As you work to grow in different areas in you life, it is important to really know yourself. The concept of not knowing yourself may sound preposterous to some people, but hear me out. Because we live such hectic lives, it is important to take time to become reacquainted with ourselves. It is very easy to get so focused on living life that we lose ourselves in the hustle and the bustle. With every phase in life, we change and evolve, and if all goes as planned, we should not be the same person we were five years ago. This is not to say that everything about us has to change, but it is perfectly natural and healthy to mature and grow in different areas.
Knowing yourself can help you improve your work ethic because you can really understand your limitations and know when you are pushing yourself too hard. If you are a self starter like me, you would probably work for 24 hours a day if you could. In fact, you’ve probably had to make yourself step away from your work one more than one occasion. While this self starting attitude is a good thing, it can also be a problem. If you aren’t careful, your desire for success can drive others away from you and actually ruin relationships. You may be thinking, “I thought we were supposed to be able to accomplish everything.” That is true, but sometimes you can bite of much more than you can chew, and running yourself into the ground to accomplish goals in not healthy. The beauty of accomplishing goals and achieving personal growth is discovering the balance of work and play.
While it is important to know your limits, knowing yourself helps you to know what you can’t accomplish as well as what you can accomplish. Many times, people don’t push themselves to accomplish real goals simply because thy think don’t think they’ll be successful. Once you really know yourself, you will know what you can accomplish. However, if you never try, you’ll never know how much you can truly accomplish.
When you know yourself, it is easier to keep yourself motivated. It you met someone for the first time, and they asked you to encourage them without giving you any details about their life, you would have a hard time encouraging them. By being aware of the types of things that keep you motivated, you will be less likely to reach that rock bottom point where you feel like your world is crumbling around you. It is best to constantly encourage and motivate yourself as your grow and mature.
How do you react to disappointment? What do you do when you’re sad? How often do you need to take time to truly relax? In order to maintain balance in your life, you have to constantly ask yourself these types of questions. Not only do you need to know yourself in order to have a strong foundation for personal growth, but you also have to be willing to motivate yourself when things are less than ideal.
Originally posted 2011-05-07 23:30:04.
If you know me, you know that the misery I experienced in my life for 50 years drove me to many modalities of relief, including affirmations.
Why? Because affirmations are spoken from the mind: and the mind says so many things, a nice word here and there won’t make a difference. Just watch how much difference and how long a pat on the back does to you: not much, correct?
Life started to change when I learned different ways of speaking. I learned that there is descriptive language, and that includes the affirmations: the ordinary way of speaking of most people.
requests, promises, and declarations. This way of speaking does not come from the mind: it comes from your higher way of being: your vertical plane, your vertical self.
This kind of speaking creates a context that is inescapable.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that people won’t use request or promise sounding sentences, that come from the mind, a casual tool of babbling. They may even seem to declare something, but the power is missing.
I measure the power of your word in the Starting Point Measurements
The power of MY word is 70%… But even with that much power you need to know that what you say matters. If the mind says: ‘you are lying’, then it doesn’t matter how much power your word has… does it?
So then why do negative statements seem to have disastrous consequences: what the statement says seems to come true? Because those statements, when spoken in the absence of a commitment, the absence of a higher context, are the true description of where the speaker’s world is heading.
I often say: this won’t work… this is going to fail… but my actions are not consistent with those ‘affirmations’, they are consistent with making it work.
Your most important job, if you want your word to have power, is to learn to connect to your higher self (not god! not Jesus! but your own higher self), and speak from there.
Until then you are just littering the world with your affirmations.
‘What changes your focus: changes your faith. What changes your faith changes your outcome.’ ~ Jesse Duplantis
Let me start by saying that everything you say is some kind of affirmation – either positive or negative. When you complain to your friends, ‘nothing ever goes right for me,’ you are affirming to the world and the universe that nothing should go right in your life.
It’s true, you know. You are where you are today because of your beliefs, attitudes and words.
What you say today becomes your reality tomorrow. What you believe about yourself and your situation creates and maintains your world.
You may not like where you are right now. You may not think you deserve all the hassles, stress and problems. And you are right. But you are the only one who can change your life with affirmations.
It was a revelation to me that my lack of money, bad attitude and poor relationships were my own fault! It was life-changing to learn that I could change my circumstances by changing my words.
Over the years, I have learned to say certain things – affirmations – to cancel negatives and attract positive results. Here are six affirmations that changed my life.
1. ‘I will not be defeated and I will not quit.’ It is so easy to throw up your hands and say, ‘I tried.’ But ‘try’ is never enough. To win in any situation, you have to be prepared to stay with it until you do win! It’s a philosophy that applies to everything. Michael Jordan is perhaps the greatest basketball player ever. But he freely admits that he has lost more than 300 games and missed over 9,000 shots. But he never quit. Whatever you want, whatever you need to accomplish, don’t let your circumstances win. Don’t quit.
2. ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ Yes, it’s a Bible verse. But I use it all the time – when I’m tired and just want to give up (see #1!), when I’m faced with a problem that I don’t know how to solve, when I need physical strength to just get through the day. Sometimes I partner it with ‘I rest in God’s energy,’ drawing strength and resolve from the Eternal source of all energy and ability.
3. ‘I have the mind of Christ.’ The power here taps into Divine wisdom to solve seemingly unsolvable problems. God has answers to every situation. Affirming that connects your spirit with His wisdom. Patience allows Spirit to work on your behalf to bring the answers or change the circumstances to bring the solution you seek.
4. ‘I am rooted and grounded in Love.’
This one is particularly effective when I’m NOT feeling very loving. When someone interrupts ‘my’ routine, wants something from me that I don’t really want to do, or when I’m feeling selfish, I remind myself of my higher calling. I am rooted and grounded in love. I can set aside my wants and focus on the other person. God will take care of me. Use that as an affirmation, coupled with appropriate action to line yourself up for greater blessing.
5. ‘There is nothing lost in God’s world.’ Use this one where you are looking for lost keys, glasses or any misplaced item. It may take some time, but if you will let this work, a thought will pop into your mind to look… somewhere. And you will usually find exactly what you are looking for.
6. ‘God loves me and has a good plan for my life.’ Use this all the time, but especially when circumstances seem aligned against you. This affirmation helps to line up your thinking with the divine plan of blessing and abundance. It helps defeat stress by acknowledging the power of Divine assistance and direction.Remember, you must stay consistent with your affirmations.
Think of your words like a bucket of paint.
If you are filling the bucket with negative (black) words, complaints and mumblings throughout your day, how much white (positive) words will you have to speak to get the color you want?
Don’t just think of affirmations as things you speak sometimes. Watch your everyday words to make sure you are speaking what you want. God explained it this way: call those things that be not as though they were (Rom. 4:17). By following His method of creation, you can re-create your own world with your words.
Words have power. They have the power to change your mindset. By changing your mind – your beliefs – you change your attitude. That leads to a change in your actions. Use the ‘A-team’ – Affirmation, Attitude and Action – to change your life.
Obviously this wasn’t my article… it was quoted by some god-fearing person. You need to find what YOU have faith in… if you don’t have faith in Christ or whatever….
Originally posted 2011-04-06 13:35:55.
How To Manifest Anything or THE Missing Piece Of The Law Of Attraction Puzzle: …Or How To Be In Vibrational Harmony With Money, Love, And Success
How to Manifest Anything or the Missing Piece of the Law of Attraction Puzzle
We all want to manifest our wants and needs. We all want miracles. We all want some divine assistance to solve our problems. But… Continue reading “THE Missing Piece Of The Law Of Attraction Puzzle”
Originally posted 2011-03-27 10:18:00.
End Of Times, The Earthquake, The Tsunami, The Nuclear Threat, Hydrogen Peroxide, desire to receive for the self alone, A Spiritual Interpretation
Why did the earthquake in Japan happen, what about the tsunami and the threat of radiation from the nuclear plant, desire to receive for the self alone? A spiritual interpretation
There are two major attitudes that humans uses to look at an event. Both are desire to receive for the self alone.
Both attitudes are faulty and driven by ego and a profound misunderstanding of how it all works.
Originally posted 2011-03-05 09:25:31.
When it comes to your life, Are you a race car driveror a hop-into-the car grocery shopper?
Said in another way: If Your Life Were A Car, Who Is Driving Your Life? Continue reading “When it comes to your life, Are you a race car driver or…”
Originally posted 2011-02-05 13:53:04.
Success Loves Speed… why is that? what does that look like in real life?
I have a simple tale to share, and it will become clear:
I have liked this guy for quite some time. He sounded firm, no b.s., and he left a nice comment for my blog.
I asked for his skype contact and we spoke. Continue reading “Success Loves Speed… what does that mean to you?”
Originally posted 2011-01-26 15:31:02.
Good, Better, Best Vibration: everything vibrates, including conspiracy theories, even if they are trueMy notes on vibration:
I found this article on the internet on vibration, and thought if fitted into my blog, so I am reprinting with full reference to the author. Continue reading “Good, Better, Best Vibration: everything vibrates”
Originally posted 2011-01-10 20:30:44.
What does it take to attract your desire?
In January, people make resolutions, that address some of their deepest desires.
Weight, relationship and money are the three most frequent wishes, and most of them never go anywhere, no change, and yet another year makes hope lost a little bit more, confidence lost a little bit more, self-esteem lost a little bit more.
Why would this be? Continue reading “Weight, relationship, money you desire… are you stuck?”
Originally posted 2010-12-24 12:38:59.
You Can Beat Depression… if you recognize it as depressionI found this article when I searched for the phrase ‘beat depression.’ I muscletested its truth value. It tested 10%. not bad.
Many of us are depressed. Depression can be low-grade or raging… I am most interested in the low-grade depression, it is easier to beat depression that is low-grade without medication.
The writer of this article uses valid arguments for self-management, but misses a lot of factors, like what did he do, exactly, that allowed him to beat depression to begin with.
He says he took responsibility for his feeling down and out, ad he kicked the medications… so far so good.
What is it a sign of? In my experience, as a once depressed person (for 40 years!) I have noticed a few common characteristics with my coaching clients.
So, how do you get out of these three interconnected and synergistic (negatively) states of mind?
I think that the easiest is to start with number 2.
Why? Because it is easier go get happy(er) with yourself, especially because you need energy for the other two, and having a good feeling about yourself will give you energy.
You can also start really small, like doing something that you consider hard to do, but still doable, like
As you can see, these actions look quite inconsequential, but they actually give you energy, and make you feel better about yourself, so you can start to beat depression.
A few years ago I did a course that was very effective in dragging me out of my depression. The first homework was to ask everyone I talked to what they loved about their life.
I didn’t think anyone loved anything, I was so miserable, but to my surprise people broke out in a wide smile and started to recount the things they loved. Every time I met a person I had already asked, they made a point of telling me some new things they forgot to tell me the previous time.
I saw that I brought happiness to people, and I started to view myself with more love, and eventually I came out of my misery.
Now, let’s hear what our ‘author’ has to say:
I beat depression without medication and so can you. For years I was caught in the unforgiving clutches of manic depression, ‘bipolar disorder’ or what ever else people call being unhappy. Taking complete responsibility for my self was the key, and I’m happy to share what I’ve discovered with you here.
There are thousands of people and doctors who are more than willing to say that you need to be on medication or that you need the advice of some ‘expert’ with a degree hanging on their wall in order to feel happy. And I guarantee that every one of those people or doctors want your money in exchange for their so-called expert advice or medication. In reality, only you are an expert on you. Only you know what makes you tick and what you should do to improve the quality of your life. The shocking and often avoided truth is: No one else can figure this out for you!
By nature, people seek easy and automatic answers to their problems.
And unfortunately, there are stadiums full of others chomping at the bit to tell people where to go and how to live their life for a nominal fee. I know this first hand. I’ve had my share of being manipulated and taken advantage of by society’s ‘experts’ on how to be happy. I noticed one common denominator between them: none of them got to the root of my problem. Their intention was not to help me but to ‘use me’ to help themselves.
Eventually I saw through their facade and immediately took all of my prescribed pills and threw them in the garbage. I felt horrible for a couple days while those toxic chemicals were flushing out of my system. And yes, that’s exactly what they are: toxic chemicals. I’m referring to the dozens of different prescription psychiatric medications. Becoming dependent on something outside of you is indeed a destructive dead end road to travel. And putting those foreign substances in your body throws your body’s natural chemistry out of whack. Not to mention the horrible side effects they all have.
Most doctors are quick to say someone has a ‘chemical imbalance’
…and therefore they should ‘buy my drugs so I can afford a second yacht!’ My question is: a chemical imbalance compared to whom? Every person’s body chemistry is different. No one can be compared to others because we are all individuals in completely different situations with different body chemistries.
No one is unhappy because they have a ‘Prozac deficiency.’ Your headache doesn’t come from having an Advil deficiency. You don’t need masks for your problems, you need to stop doing the things that cause the problems! So what are these things that cause depression? Well it’s a complicated and dynamic answer. Bare with me for a few sentences so I can give you accurate context:
Unfortunately, society judges mental stability by how well one can accept or conform to the screwed up society we live in. All you have to do is turn on the news to see blatant dishonesties, corruption, war, murder, fraud, and despair every where around us. If we are grounded in reality enough to recognize all of this as fundamentally wrong and against honest productive life, then often we develop mental disorders if we lack the tools to properly deal with such things going on around us.
Yes, everywhere you turn you see an uphill battle: Public education is set up to keep us specialized with impotent minds. The result is we end up never thinking for ourselves and we take orders from someone for 40 years until we’re handed a measly retirement. We never fulfill our dreams or even have a clue about how to start to achieve them.
And the business structure is set up the same way.
We’re expected to clock in from 9-5 every day and do what we’re told in stagnate routine ruts void of creation and exhilaration. This is not the way conscious life is meant to exist. Very few people develop enough integrated thinking capabilities to work for themselves doing what they enjoy.
Yes folks, it’s an inconvenient truth, but the establishment of society is set up for us to fail in life. From birth we are programmed to fall in line, serve someone else, and do what we’re told. And unfortunately you can never find happiness if you’re constantly living for someone else. Almost everyone lives a boring stagnate routine life and has to numb the pain on weekends with whatever they can get their hands on. Being strong enough to admit that this is the way things are is the first step in overcoming those bad cards we are all dealt. Denying that things are set up this way is a sure fire way to remain specialized and depressed your whole life.
And now for the biggest tangible value in this article: So where does happiness come from? How do I acquire it? Again genuine happiness does not come from a pill, fancy cars or clothing or from what some PHD tells you to do. Happiness comes from within yourself and it is your prime responsibility to build your amount of happiness.
Happiness comes from putting value into society.
It’s as simple as that. Human beings are social animals and we derive genuine happiness when we use our honest efforts to put something of tangible value into our society. Ever notice why politicians, tort lawyers, most religious leaders, dishonest journalists and the like are genuinely unhappy people? Despite their fake smiles and keen ability to hood wink others into thinking they ‘have it made’, they are unhappy inside because they take more out of society than they put in. People like this such as the common criminal are parasites on society and quietly envy the honest productive individual who lives through rational action.
It takes honest effort to live in accordance with reality. It requires honest effort to take a brutally honest look at your self and figure out what makes you happy. Once you find out what you enjoy doing…what you are passionate about, you can pursue it and claim your own amassing happiness.
One of my passions is internet marketing. I focus on it every day because it is something I enjoy. The crazy world around me can do what it wants…but in my private world of bettering myself and acquiring more genuine happiness, I see things for what they are. I look forward to developing my internet marketing skills. I’m drawn to it. Sometimes I wake up at 3:00 in the morning and get on the computer to pursue my passion. This is where genuine happiness comes from. It comes from defining what you’re passionate about and pursuing it; nothing more. Your family, romantic partner, and vacations don’t give you happiness. They are simply avenues to express and feel your earned self worth and happiness.
Happiness comes from honest productive work.
This can come in the form of many different things. The bottom line is: it must be enjoyable for you and a benefit to society. For example: Take a married couple of a man who does honest and enjoyable work that benefits society and his wife who makes a supportive and functional home life for him. They both contribute tangible values to society. He does directly and she does indirectly through him. Now any woman can rise as high as any man in any career…My point is that if you make your livelihood into enjoyable, honest productive work which truly benefits society, you’ve found the key to happiness. I stopped letting others tell me what to do, who I should be, and what a ‘good life’ is. I quit depending on others for guidance. I took the time to look within to find out what I enjoy doing. This is an extremely important first step. You must put forth the effort it takes to find what you’re passionate about- if you don’t know what it is yet.
After defining what I was passionate about, I decided to look out for my own best interest (since no one else was) and I started taking small steps each day to pursue my passion. As you can see, I’m a very individualistic person. My passion for internet marketing allows me to work from home without anyone breathing down my neck and telling me what to do. Personally, for me this is perfect. After a year or so of stumbling around online, I found a very potent online club for learning internet marketing. I joined the club and to my surprise, I started learning everything there is to know about internet marketing and how to sell products online. I now have the tools to fulfill my dreams. This is just my path. Obviously yours might be quite different. The key is simply finding out for yourself what you enjoy doing and pursue it. No one can do this for you; you have to do it yourself.
I learned to pick myself up by the bootstraps…
…and make a tangible and constant self investment into my future every day. I’m sure you can do the same if being genuinely happy is important enough to you. Just keep in mind, it does take work, there is no easy answer. But if you find something you’re passionate about and pursue it at least a little bit every day, you are guaranteed to gain happiness…And who knows? One day you might find yourself doing it for a living!
Once you start feeling good about yourself, and continue doing the little actions that give you energy, it will be easier to see what it is that you would like to do with your life, and one day you’ll wake up and you beat depression for good.
