Our grievances hurt us.

Grievance – The baggage of old thoughts and emotions.

Holding a grudge is like eating rat poison and expecting the rat to die.  You’re only hurting yourself.  If you don’t have time for all the good things in your life, you don’t have time for a grudge.

Do you need to let something go?

Self-Propulsion

It’s up to us to get moving, get out there and make something happen and live a great life.  Nobody else really cares if we are less than we can be, do less than we can do, and settle.  

No matter where you are from or who you are, the key factor in determining how your life goes and where you wind up, is your own ambition and self-discipline.

This is great news – we are not at someone else’s mercy or confined in their vision for us.

You are free. What are you going to do?

Blood flow to the body is blood flow to the brain

What is good for your heart is good for your brain.  After you get your heart rate up for 20 minutes, you are a better thinker; more alert and sharp. 

A friend I know is an inner city physical education teacher, and she reports that it is well known in school that her students can be groggy and unproductive in academic classes, but after working out in her class they are much more focused when they get to their other classes.

When you exercise, you get more blood to the brain.  

How about you?

EVE Ratio

What is your Entertainment Versus Education ratio?

If you ask high-performance people, you’ll find they spend far less time entertaining themselves (TV, Facebook, radio, video games, etc. etc.) than average people, and far more time learning things relevant to their current key goals.

What is your EVE ratio?

Should you make an adjustment?

The world is round

What you put out in the world will eventually come back to you.

What are you putting out? 

I'mpossible!

Sandy Gibson, one of our subscribers and a friend of mine, wrote an inspiring comment recently. Sandy has a prosthetic leg and she was in the waiting room to be re-fitted and saw a poster with the word “Impossible” with an apostrophe in it.

A small change in attitude can make all the difference. Like my friend Mike Lane, who has brain cancer (which is on its way out of his body!), the way you look at things makes all the difference.

Thank you, Sandy!

"The chosen ones"

Particularly in class rivalry, it’s easy for some to think that some people are “chosen” for a better life. Certainly, if a couple was successful they will do all they can to help their children be successful as well. (One thing they cannot give their kids is desperation, which is a key ingredient of becoming successful!)

But the idea of being “chosen” by others I think is misplaced. What matters most is that you are chosen by YOU. You must believe in your ability to make your dreams come true. (These dreams that may be different than others’ dreams.) And you must believe it so much that you have the faith to pursue these dreams and take action each day toward them, and enduring setbacks that surely will come in such pursuit.

If you don’t choose you, there is nothing anyone else can do for you. 

Do you choose you?

Superior or inferior?

Some people think they are better than everyone else. Sure they may have a certain skill or area where they are better, but that’s not what I am talking about. I mean a general sense they are better. This is not a good attitude to have. Nobody likes to hang out with or cooperate with someone who thinks they are better than they are.

More commonly, people think other people are better than they are. They think others are more capable, more able, more popular, more talented, better connected, etc. The world is full of people selling themselves short; people who don’t try because they don’t think they are capable.

How about you?

Get out of debt so nobody can mess with you

That is a message from a seminar I went to about 25 years ago. (I took notes and still have them today!)

When you owe money, people have a claim on your earnings and your stuff. They get to ask you questions and pry into your finances. If you’re like me, you’re not a fan.

Sure, there is a time to have some debt – when we are young and need to buy a house and start a family and interest rates are low. But living on borrowed money for everything is not a safe place to be. And who wants to pay interest? We want to collect it!

Work on making more, and/or spending less, so you aren’t in debt very far at all. Then “nobody can mess with you!”

Take care of yourself

We all know we should, and most of us know what to do. Here’s a reminder. 

We are not our bodies, but we need them to house our mind and soul.  

Don’t eat how most people eat. Don’t exercise as little as most people do. Pay attention to what your body is telling you and how it responds to various inputs. Have self-discipline now when it comes to your health because when something bad comes up, it’s late to start.

If we want to be around a long time and not suffer, we need to be friendly to our bodies.