Don’t Predict your Future, Just be Prepared for It
For a partial explanation of the meaning of the title of this post, see the post from 1/26. Here’s another perspective on this:
“There are two things that are no cause for worry: that which can be fixed, and that which cannot be fixed. What can be fixed should be fixed — so what’s there to worry? What cannot be fixed cannot be fixed — so what’s there to worry?” – Chassidic master Rabbi Michel of Zelotchov
For a little lighter perspective:
“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” – Art Linkletter
You Think So?
As we begin today and each day by being thankful and grateful (see post of 1/21/11), we should also listen carefully to our inner-speak.
As we think about the day ahead and our plans for it, pay careful attention to thoughts that self-impose constraints. Frame or re-frame all your thoughts, all the time to the “can do.” Do it even if you don’t truly believe it at first. The more you do it, the more you will actually get the results you wish for. Then the more you will believe it, “Etcetera. Etcetera. Etcetera.” The King’s favorite phrase from “The King and I.”
“You become what you think, even if you don’t think so.” – Dr. Morris Mandel
Think about that.
First in Our Inner-Speak series
Your Power is in Your Follow-Through
You have your dream, your goal. You are excited. You see the future. You are ready to go. So again like the boxer, you enter the ring. Now you are dancing and waiting, and waiting for your opening to throw your punches. You are waiting and waiting and waiting for your opportunity….
“If opportunity doesn’t knock build a door.” – Milton Berle
(Who remembers who Milton Berle is? Let me see a show of hands.)
Three Most Important Questions
Adapted from “The Three Questions” by Tolstoy
Q. What is the most important moment in your life?
A. RIGHT NOW!
“Not a single moment in a person’s life is extra. Each person is given a particular number of days to accomplish their dreams.” – Unattributed
Q. What is the most important thing you will ever do?
A. Whatever I am doing RIGHT NOW!
“What you do and how you do it determines who and what you ultimately become.”
Q. Who is the most important person in your life?
A. The person before me RIGHT NOW!
“Ubuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu” – Zulu meaning, ”A person is only a person through other persons.”
So RIGHT NOW, let me hear you say it!
What is the most important moment in your life?
GOOD!
If You are Always Looking Back, Then Your Future Will Look Like Your Past (first in a series)
If we are to actualize our purpose, goals and dreams, we have to let go of the past by accepting the past. There is purpose and meaning to everything. That means you are exactly where you need to be to get to where you are going. You had to go through whatever you went through to get here.
Let’s say you hire a personal trainer to get more fit and/or improve at a sport. The trainer will put you through drills and exercises that you might not like and might not want to do. You might even think the trainer is mean for making you do theses drills. Those drills will cause some pain and suffering. When you are done, you are stronger, healthier and better.
Could you have gotten those results without all the blood, sweat, and tears? You chose to hire a trainer, would you have chosen to have those past experiences?
“Remember that not getting what you want, is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” – Dalai Lama
“Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
First of If You are Always Looking Back, Then Your Future Will Look Like Your Past series
Pursuit of the Good
“The pursuit of the good is the noblest of character builders and one of the sources of true gratification”. There are other things in life besides self-interest. Personal involvement in others challenges, in community affairs are the greatest sources of personal achievement and success. Too many people refuse to understand what it means to be involved and to help others. They are truly missing something. There is nothing as gratifying and self-fulfilling as helping others. Why don’t you try it? If you do, I can assure you that you will arrive at a similar conclusion. Try it, you will like it”.
Sam Fox, my Father, a Holocaust Survivor
From an acceptance speech he gave at a dinner honoring him on May 11, 1987.
“Eye of the Tiger” (Rocky lll), the first in a series
You have found your purpose. You have a dream or goal. You know there will be many hurdles, obstacles, and distractions that could throw you off.
See this as though you are an athlete in a competition. Let’s make you a boxer. Your opponent will use anything they can to defeat you. If they can’t beat you physically, then they will beat you mentally, or both. So, like an athlete you train to prepare yourself for the fight and the opponent. This way you are mentally and physically prepared. No matter how much you train though, the real fight is always at least a little different and there will be the unexpected.
So now, sing along with me, “It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight, rising up to the challenge of our rival”, Survivor.
The last thing you want to do is give your opponent an edge, a weakness that they can exploit.
“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure–which is: Try to please everybody.” — Herbert Swope
First of the Eye Of The Tiger series
The Spinning Rabbi - Heart & Soul 