Here's a long piece.
Hope it inspires you guys out there. It did, for me
Be Realistic: Create a Miracle!By Harald Anderson, Copyright 2004
What is it that you really want in your life?
Money? Status? Success? A Prosperous Business? A Loving Relationship?
Now let me ask you a super blunt question: Why donÂ’t you have it yet?
A few months ago I attended a seminar. One of the speakers began his
presentation with what I initially considered a very confrontational
remark. He paused very dramatically and bellowed… “What lies do you keep
telling yourself?” Although the room fell deafly silent, we all knew
that his question truly touched a nerve. That question has echoed in the
hollows of my mind ever since.
“What lies do you keep telling yourself?” “You’re calling me a liar?” “All the lies?” “How much time do you have?”
“That’s not a lie, that’s the truth!” The responses that were firing up
to that question were racing through my mind at the speed of light.
In Life We Can Have Results or Reasons. If you are not getting the
results you want, your reasons are the lies that you keep telling
yourself. You can try to argue with that statement but its kind of like
wrestling with the wind, it will keep you real busy but you really wonÂ’t
get anywhere. Lies create the idea that we are powerless to make things
any different than the way they are.
I hate to admit it but we are all liars. We love our reasons and will go
to extreme lengths to hold onto them. After all, our reasons are our
stories, which define us. Those experiences “made us who we are today!”
ItÂ’s just the way things areÂ…Â…..
Results or reasons. Which do you have more of? If you answered reasons,
its time to analyze the lies. I speak from experience. I spent the first
thirty years of my life studying what I should believe in. Studied all
the great reasons. Read all the great philosophers, not once did anybody
ask me…..”What is it that you want to experience with all these ideas?”
So I got a little top heavy on reasons and a little short on results.
The problem with having so many reasons is that eventually these reasons
create a logic of limitations. They are like a virus that creates “a
story” that runs in the background of your minds hard drive. Whenever we
see something that we want to create, the first thing we bump into is
these beliefs (reasons) that have shaped our experience thus far. And so
the battle ensues.
Possibilities vs. Limitations.
The Grudge Match.
It's like a counterproductive stealth message has been implanted in your
mind, “You never seem to really win at anything, so don’t expect much
here!" This message brought to you by your sponsor, “limiting lives is
what we do!”
We all search for meaning in life. However sometimes life is
meaningless. It just “is.”The critical moments that shape our lives are
when we define our experience and declare….”what this means is (fill in
the blank).” If the statement that we make at this crucial moment, in
filling in the blank, even mildly disempowers us, we empower the logic
of limitations to control our perspective from that moment forward.
DonÂ’t believe me? Here are some famous examples for you to try on for
size:
Oprah Winfrey was fired from one of her first jobs as a television
reporter and told that “She wasn’t fit for TV.” How do you think she
defined that moment? After his first performance on the Grand Ole Opry,
Elvis Presley was banned from returning and told, “You ain’t going
nowhere son!” At that crucial moment do you think the King of Rock
created a message of possibility or limitation?
Life just is. Sometimes when we look for meaning we might want to
remember that.
WhatÂ’s your story?
Have you ever been fired, rejected, heartbroken, mistreated, insulted?
How did you define the moment? I only ask, because that agreement has
shaped your reality. Be Careful What You Agree With! The Results Can Be
Lethal. Now what did you say you really wanted in your life?
Listen carefully and youÂ’ll hear those reasons whispering their logic of
limitations! It’s no big deal if you hear the “stories” from time to
time. The question is what are you going to do about it?
Mark Twain once commented that “life does not consist, mainly or even
largely of facts or happenings. It consists mainly of the stream of
thought forever flowing through ones head.” Our REASONS create our
definitions and create the energy of our life. Change our definitions
and you change your experience. Change your meanings you alter your
destiny. Life does not give us what we want. Life gives us whatever we
expect. Life just is. The meaning that we attach to the events of our
life defines our experience and creates the thoughts that allow us to
create abundance or limitation.
When I was a kid I absolutely loved to read the cartoons and comics in
the back of the newspaper. They made me laugh with glee. Now those
cartoons were essentially a picture being defined by a clever or witty
caption. One day I got the bright idea that I was going to change the
captions on those cartoons and see if I could make them funnier. IsnÂ’t
life the same way? Your pictures are your experiences. Your captions are
your beliefs. Do you have the courage to change your own captions? ItÂ’s
your life after all. The only limitation we possess is the idea that
there are limitations. Did you write your own captions or did you allow
someone else to write them for you?
We all have a huge investment in what we have come to know. However,
sometimes what we know has nothing to do with what we need to know to be
successful. Sometimes what we know has nothing to do with what we need
to know to be happy! To change all of that you need to locate your
limiting beliefs and say goodbye to them. Change the captions of your
life. Reasons or Results.
Marilyn Voss Savant writes a weekly column for Parade magazine. She is
acclaimed as the person with the highest IQ on record. When she was
asked by one of her readers about life, she responded with ““Feeling is
what you get for thinking the way you do!” True poetry. To that I would
simply add, be careful what you agree with itÂ’ll mess up your focus.
Consider this for a second: How many beliefs were you born with? How
many beliefs do you have today? Along the way you have acquired a lot of
baggage that is weighing you down. The problem most of us run into is
that we believe in things that are “just not so”, but we lead our lives
in alignment with those lousy definitions and experiences to make them
“so.” It might be BELIEF-ECTOMY time.
One of the central tenets of the personal development movement is that
we become whatever we focus upon most. Fifty years ago Earl Nightingale
published his bestseller “The Strangest Secret” and made us realize that
our focus creates our destiny. Web poet, adventurer and philosopher Mike
Dooley of www.tut.com has eloquently modernized and improved upon this
statement when he states,
“Thoughts Become Things. Choose the Good
Ones!” Most people don’t get what they really want because their focus
is fuzzy at best. Do you really know what you are focused on? Before you
answer that question too quickly recognize that your focus has been
responsible for creating your life up until this point. Your agreements
shape your realityÂ….
so be careful what you agree with.
So what is it that you really want? My advice is simple. Be Careful What
You Agree With and Then Focus, Focus, Refocus and Refocus some more. And
when you think you are through focusing, focus again. You wouldnÂ’t drive
to your destination fixated on the rear view mirror! Reasons or Results.
Be Realistic: Create A Miracle!
Can you share some of the more meaningful and motivational quotes that encourage the depressed to cherish and enjoy their lives? 
meow ~ meow 