The Ripple Effect

Your actions affect your life, and those of your family members and friends.

Their actions affect their friends, and so on.  In this way, we can make the world immediately around us better or worse.

Honestly, how have your actions affected the people around you and the people around them?

Think on it. 

When you are done, think about how you can do even better.  What can you do today to make things better for the people around you (and ultimately the people around them)?

What brings you joy?

What do you just love to do, with who, and where? 

How can you increase the number of those moments in your life?

Don't fool yourself

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself- and you are the easiest person to fool.” – Richard Feynman

We tend to believe every thought we think because we thought it.  We try to protect our ego and justify our positions and look for evidence we are right – which we can always find.  But all of us are fooling ourselves in some area.  

What area is it for you?

“A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others.” Fyodor Dostoevsky

In what area are you lying to yourself or just not facing the truth or taking responsibility for what you have created in your life?  Recognizing it is the path to making it better for yourself.

So…?

"You've come a long way baby"

“Life is so subtle that sometimes you barely notice yourself walking through doors you once prayed would open. – Brianna Wiest

Often we look at the road ahead to our goals or a “perfect life” as we may define it, and can get overwhelmed at how far we need to go and how much we need to do.  But look at it from the opposite position this morning. 

Where did you start at age 17?  How far have you come?  What have you accomplished?  What have you learned?  Who have you become?

Isn’t that something? 

Congratulations. Keep going!

Be Your Own Hero

Recognize your own ability to heal, live a great life, do wonderful things and be happy.

Be your own hero and you’ll always have one you can count on.

The End of Poverty

The vast majority of our ancestors lived and died in humanity’s natural state of disease-ridden abject poverty and pervasive ignorance.  In 1820, about 84% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty (less than $1.90 per day per person).  Back then, most of the world lived under a king or iron-handed ruler and there was little free-market capitalism.  

In 1910 66% lived in poverty.  In 1950 it had fallen to 55%.  Today only 8.6% of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty.  

Great news!

Goals – Instructions for your brain

Once you set a goal with purpose and clarity, believe in it, and keep it in front of you every day, your mind has something to look for in the world.  It has a mission and will sort information and options according to your goal; bringing you closer each day.

Getting clear is getting started.  

What are you clearly pursuing?

Learn from your mistakes

What mistakes have you made lately?  I made a few.  Sometimes they are small and sometimes they are big ones – you know the ones that had you going down a path for months or even years before you learned that you had to turn back.  Those hurt.  Time invested, wrong expectations shattered, and wasted resources.

But that’s what life is if we are getting better.  We learn from our mistakes.  Of course, it’s always better to learn from someone else’s mistakes; it’s cheaper and faster and doesn’t hurt much.  That’s why we read and observe. 

When you see someone who made a big mistake, ask about it if you can.  What were they thinking in the beginning?  Why did they do it?  What information did they have and not have?

“All in the dark we grope along, and if we go amiss, 

We learn at least which path is wrong, and there is gain in this.” – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Learning suddenly

“Pain is knowledge rushing in to fill a void at great speed.” – Jerry Seinfeld

This statement wasn’t part of Jerry’s stand up routine.  He was serious.

When we have a knowledge gap or poor expectations of what will happen, it hurts when we find out suddenly.

Fear is not the enemy

We all are afraid.  This is what holds us back from being our best selves and doing what we are capable of.  

“Fear is not the enemy.  Waiting for fear to go away, is.” – Marie Forleo

It’s not whether you have fear or not; it’s whether you are letting it stop you or not.

Use your head.  Feel the fear.  Do it anyway.