Don’t Go Comparison Shopping*
How often do you compare your life to others? This kind of comparison shopping comes in different forms.
In one form, you might look at the lives of others that have more of the things you want and you become envious. This doesn’t improve your lot, instead it might make you angry. Angry never leads to improvement.
Another form is to look at those in worse situations than you believe you are in. How many times, when you are in a period of struggle, do you find yourself thinking “it could be worse, look at…….”, in order to make yourself feel better? Or, how many times, when you tell someone else of your struggle or pain, do they tell you that? It is said by them in an effort and an expectation that it will make you feel better.
Does comparison shopping for someone who is in a worse situation really make you feel better? Perhaps it will provide some temporary relief like taking an aspirin, but it doesn’t cure the ailment.
“Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.” – Regina Brett
Comparison shopping for someone seemingly in a worse situation might give temporary relief, but it does nothing to inspire you to do what’s necessary to improve your circumstances. In fact, it may do the opposite and inspire you to just accept your situation, which will make things worse by prolonging it. Worse, it might just be feeding your ego by finding someone you perceive you are better than. Instead, shop for something that will actually make things better.
Your lot and that of others is not a competition. If everything happens for a reason, then a part of the reason for your struggle is to find a way out and learn what you can from that process. Rather than focusing on another, focus on finding the meaning in your struggle. It will make you stronger and prepare you for more lessons sure to come your way. Learning all these lessons and welcoming the challenges will eventually lead you to the person you are destined to become.
“Adversity introduces a man to himself.” — Albert Einstein
“You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.” — Golda Meir
The only value in being aware of others in worse situations is to remind you to kindly and compassionately seek ways you can help them. When you help, you will have shopped in the right place. That place that will make you feel better.
When you feel better, you can continue to climb your mountain!
“The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.” – Mark Twain
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” – Booker T. Washington
Heart and Soul
*Oldie But Goodie” updated
The Wrong Question Promotes The Wrong Attitude*
We are often asked “How is life treating you”? That question creates a mindset of us as victims of circumstance. The question really should be “How are you treating life”? Thinking that way is another attitude shift.
We have no control over the events that come our way; we can only control how we react to them. We can train ourselves to treat everything and everyone that comes our way as an opportunity to learn, grow, and improve. That’s why it’s presented to us.
An athlete’s trainer has the athlete perform drills to master in order to build a base. Building on the base the trainer successively gives new and more challenging drills. We should view the next thing that comes our way as what we now need to master.
“It did not matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.” – Viktor Frankl speaking of himself and other inmates of Auschwitz from “Man’s Search for Meaning”
“Circumstances are beyond the control of man; but his conduct is in his own power.”— Benjamin Disraeli
“A joyful person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes”.– Hugh Downs
So, How are you treating Life?
Heart and Soul
*”Oldie But Goodie”
RWA*
You begin your day by being grateful. You’ve unwrapped your gift. Now to bring all of you, to all the day brings your way, think RWA.
R=Ready W=Willing A=Able
Ready – is from all the previous life lessons sent to you to train and prepare you to become you
Willing – is your choice, choose willing
Able – it’s a given that you are, otherwise these challenges wouldn’t have been sent to you
Make it your mantra as you start your day and as challenges of any type come your way, anytime. Say silently or out loud “I am RWA” (or say the words), and believe it.
This is an attitude adjustment, that if said and believed often enough, that attitude will become automatic. Having that attitude will lead you to constant growth, improvement, and happier days.
R— “Good judgment comes from bad experience”.- Elderly wise person
W—“It’s choice, not chance that matters.”- Jean Nidetch, founder of WeightWatchers
A—“Imagine if a bird was unaware that its wings enabled it to fly.”- The Rebbe
Heart and Soul
*”Oldie But Goodie” updated
You Are Our Gift*
If you are reading this then you have continued to receive the gift of life and more time for you to unwrap it. Now it’s time for you to realize that you are a gift.
We all need you to unwrap the gift within you, which is you. When you present the gift of the true you to the world, you will find your purpose, you will find joy, and we will all benefit.
To do that you must be who you were created to be. In the great symphony of life, a violinist needs to be a violinist and a pianist needs to be a pianist.
“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be”. — Abraham Maslow
Heart and Soul
*”Oldie But Goodie” updated
Your Eclipse
The sun shines and brings light all the time. Sometimes we can’t see it because of clouds, the earth’s rotation, or on those very rare occasions when its light is eclipsed by the moon.
Just like the sun, our light is ever-present or available. Our light is our soul.
There is a difference between the sun’s light and ours. When the sun’s light is blocked, it’s not of its own doing. When our light is blocked, it’s because we are blocking it. Our ego and wants keep it blocked.
So “Let the sun shine”*, your sun, your soul, or your truth!
“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.’ – Elvis Presley
So how do you keep the light shining through? For starters read this “Oldie But Goodie” true story
Many years ago there was a very wealthy man who was a pillar of his community. He was a very charitable and generous man. Many came to him for loans, advice, investments in their business, or just to be around him. One day through no fault of his own he lost everything. Pretty soon people stopped coming and he was left to be alone with his sadness.
He became very depressed. So one day he went to see his spiritual leader Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), known as the Alter Rebbe. He presented his letter to the Rebbe outlining the help he was seeking. The Rebbe read the letter and looked up at him and said “I see you have given a great deal of thought as to what it is that you need, but have you given any thought as to what it is that you are needed for?”
“Once you have found that which you are needed for you will have all that you need”
When you focus on what you are needed for, your light will be radiant. It will produce an inner and an outer warmth.
Heart and Soul
For other suggestions browse through this site and stay tuned for more reminders
*Aquarius by the Fifth Dimension
Jump Out Of Bed*
Begin each day by being thankful and grateful. First and foremost be grateful that you woke up.
For that means that you have been given more of the most precious non-renewable resource of all—Time! You have been given time because you are needed, your life has purpose and meaning, and you matter.
You are given this time to perform a good for one or for many. You are given this time because no one else can perform this specific good except you. It all depends on you.
You are not just matter. It is you that matters.
You are given life for this moment, so that you can give this moment life.
Heart and Soul
*”Oldie But Goodie” updated
How Do I Know What My Purpose Is? (first in a series)*
*”Oldie But Goodie”
Your specific purpose may become clear to you any moment, or it may take a lifetime.
Yet there is a way to find it. It is traveling your path with purposefulness. It is a path of good. It is a path where we ask ourselves in all that we are about to do, “is this for the good”? Will this benefit another or others?
As long as the answer is yes then we know that we are headed in the right direction.
A rule for the road
“It is easier to do what is right than to right what is done”. – Rabbi Shraga Silverstein
Heart and Soul
How Do I know My Purpose series
