Enjoy Pride of Ownership | Morning Coffee Break
We choose the thoughts we allow ourselves to think,
the passions we allow ourselves to feel,
and the actions we allow ourselves to perform.
Each choice is made in the context of whatever value
system we’ve selected to govern our lives.
In selecting that value system, we are, in a very real way,
making the most important choice we will ever make.”
ENJOY PRIDE OF OWNERSHIP!
Remember the day you made the decision to go to college? What about the day you decided to buy that sporty red car? Surely you remember the day you decided you would get married. What about your present career path? Did you purposely decide it’s what you want to do? Do you remember making a conscious decision to have three children?
Some decisions are relatively simple. You decide to buy a TV, go to the store, write a check – and it’s yours. You own it! Other decisions are also easy to make, i.e. the red sports car, but carry a higher price. The decision comes quickly, but entails both a down payment and a commitment to make payments on time for several years. Again, you make the decision to buy and the car is yours – you own it!
At some point in life come decisions that shouldn’t have been made, but were, as well as those you should have withheld. In high school, a day of classes skipped may have resulted in grades lower than acceptable to your choice of colleges. Later, a poor choice of friends may have resulted in a blemish on your “permanent” record. As an adult, poor decision-making not only may reduce the quality of your life, but of those you love.
Regardless, each decision made is yours to keep – you own it! You also own the responsibilities created by the decision, i.e. following a healthy lifestyle to stay trim, working two jobs to keep your commitment to the mortgage company, giving up poorly chosen friends and activities to provide your children with a happy, nurturing home life.
Every decision made can turn positive or negative, depending on the actions taken once the decision has been made. Either way – making the decision is followed by ownership of the results. Does “pride of ownership” appeal to you? Buy it, own it, love it!
Make this a great week!
Can You Have It Both Ways? | Morning Coffee Break
and you keep and hold that picture there long enough,
you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking.”
YOU CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!
Walk into a totally dark room. What do you see? “Absolutely nothing,” you say. Now, turn on the light. Where did the darkness go? Really – where is it now? Hopefully you will agree that darkness cannot exist in the face of light.
During a lifetime, we experience many types of “darkness.” It may appear in the form of discouragement, fear, hopelessness, grief, ignorance, or poverty. Yet, in every case, there is a “light” in which such darkness cannot exist.
Fear, for example, cannot exist in the face of courage. Education denies ignorance any chance of survival. Grief disappears in the presence of peace-of-mind. Discouragement ceases when hope prevails. Wealth denies poverty its chance.
No matter what form darkness takes, it cannot exist when faced with its opposite. That also means we have the ability to send darkness on its way at any point in time. No matter how overwhelming the darkness appears, it is our thoughts and our minds that ultimately control the outcome. How powerful is that?
In the words of several favorite authors: “Think you can, think you can’t, either way you’re right.” “Your life is what your thoughts make of it.” “We are what we think about all day long.” Finally, in the words of Tom Bodett, from one of his Motel 6 commercials: “We’ll leave the light on for you!”
Make this a great week!
Replacement Therapy | Morning Coffee Break
REPLACEMENT THERAPY!
Ever received one of those emails that contains a touching message, then suggests that if you forward it to ten more people you’ll receive a “special blessing” or “ten million dollars in three days”? It usually also warns that the last person who didn’t forward it met some terrible fate at the hands of unknown evil-doers. Remember how that last part – the veiled threat – made you feel? You didn’t think something awful would really happen, but you resented being put in the position of wondering.
We’ve been told many times that our worst fears are of the “unknown.” An unidentified fear sends our imagination into high gear, conjuring up vivid mental pictures of dastardly plots against us. We ruminate endlessly over the possibilities. Such fear is disruptive to our well-being, and leaves us tired and wrung-out.
So, how do you handle fear? One method is to identify the fear, so that once you do, it is no longer “unknown.” That also means it is measurable, and can be logically quantified. Once you know what it is, your imagination can no longer dream up worse things that it is not. Once identified, it is possible to determine possible outcomes.
Most fears will never come to fruition. Those that do are divided into two categories: those we can control, and those we can’t. If we have control, we also have the ability to survive our fears, and change their outcomes. Most fall into that category.
One mother’s lifelong advice to her daughter who worried too much was to replace the worry thought with another more pleasant thought. The opposite of fear is hope, which also gives us courage. The next time you experience fear of the unknown, try replacement therapy. Think positive, hopeful thoughts when fear knocks at the door. Then, when you open the door – no one is there!
Make this a great week!
