Month: January 2019

Your Experience IS Valid Data – Day 31 of 365 Days to a Better You

Your experience is as valid as any other data.

You have reached the last day of January and the 31st day in our journey together. Celebrate with a big hot chocolate in recognition of National Hot Chocolate Day.

fall_activities_pollAccording to a poll in October 2018, drinking hot chocolate was the number one fall activity elementary school students were looking forward to. That’s what’s known as a data point. All scientific research and statistical polls are a based on data points. They are accumulated into a statistical dataset which is analyzed to yield findings from the study.

I must admit that I always chuckle a bit when someone goes to check the scientific evidence that “this positive thinking stuff” works. It’s almost as if it worked for them without the data, they wouldn’t believe it. Harder line skeptics won’t even dip their toe in the positive thinking waters. There was even a book called “Bright-Sided” by Barbara Eisenreich a few years ago that bemoaned people wanting her to think positively during her experience with cancer.

I’m not here to tell you what to believe. Please consider this, though. Have you tried having a more positive outlook, seeing the good in things, looking for the positive angle? Did you feel better? Did things seem to move in a more positive direction for you when you did? If so, then who cares about the data?

Data is rarely an absolute. It’s a consensus, a preponderance of the evidence based on a dataset. You are your own dataset. If it works for you, what difference does it make if it didn’t for others?

In case you’re wondering, though, there are literally thousands of studies that have shown health and outcome benefits from positive thinking. Don’t believe me? Google positive thinking research in Google News almost any day and you’ll find several articles of studies that show the benefits.

What’s my message to you today? You don’t have to believe something or not based on consensus. Your own experience is a valid dataset in its own right and the most important one for you.

Besides, data has clear limits. It’s terrible at measuring intangibles – the hallmarks of we human beings. The former baseball All-Star Nomar Garciaparra had it right when he said, “There’s no stat yet that measures heart.”

Live by yours today and forget the statistics.

Ray

Have you subscribed to my YouTube channel? I’m working to reach 1000 subscribers in 2019 and I’d greatly appreciate your support. Thanks!

 

 

Justin Manifested His Dreams, Why Not You?

Timing Affirmation:

The Sun knows when to shine. The rose knows when to bloom. I know this is my time!

We are manifestation machines. We’re doing it constantly. The timing may not always be what we expected, but it is always perfect.

This past summer I became aware of a fantastic YouTube channel called You Are Creators. It is run by a gentleman named Justin Perry. Justin’s story is amazing and inspiring. His self-taught knowledge on our minds create our world is amazing. I highly encourage you to check out his channel.

In his most recent video, he discusses how he literally manifested all his dreams in five years through empowered thinking and action.

Please checkout his channel. If Justin can do it, why not you?

Ray

If you haven’t, please checkout the TAS website for tons more motivational content.

16 Motivational Will Smith Quotes

What I love about Will Smith is he has used his success to spread the word that the power to achieve, succeed, and thrive is right here within all of us. Success? He’s had his share. He starred in a successful TV show – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – having never acted before arriving on the set. He’s had success as recording artist, including two Grammy Awards. He really made his mark, though, as one of Hollywood’s most consistently marketable leading men, scoring blockbuster after blockbuster. That’s $7.5 billion in box office revenue worldwide.

Here are 16 of the best motivational Will Smith quotes I’ve come across.

  1. Greatness is not this wonderful, esoteric, elusive, god-like feature that only the special among us will ever taste, it’s something that truly exists in all of us.
  2. In my mind, I’ve always been an A-list Hollywood superstar. Y’all just didn’t know yet.
  3. I wake up every morning believing today is going to be better than yesterday.
  4. Life isn’t how many breaths you take, but it’s the moments that take your breath away.
  5. Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist. Do not misunderstand me danger is very real, but fear is a choice.
  6. There’s no reason to have a plan B because it distracts from plan A.
  7. Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.
  8. Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings and emotions.
  9. If you’re absent during my struggle don’t expect to be present during my success.
  10. If you’re not making someone else’s life better, than you are wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other people’s lives better.
  11. Don’t chase people. Be yourself, do your own thing and work hard. The right people – the ones who really belong in your life – will come to you. and stay.
  12. I don’t know what my calling is, but I want to be here for a bigger reason. I strive to be like the greatest people who have ever lived.
  13. I never viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work ethic. You know, while the other guy’s sleeping, I’m working.
  14. Greatness exists in all of us.
  15. Sometimes you have to forget what’s gone, appreciate what still remains, and look forward to what’s coming next.
  16. So if you stay ready, you ain’t gotta get ready, and that is how I run my life.

The Best Filter for Information Ever – Day 30 of 365 Days to a Better You

The best thought, decision, and information filter I’ve ever heard articulated

croissant-101636_640Today is already the 30th day of the year. Can you believe it? Back in late December, I suggested that you create a To-Be List for 2019. If you completed that activity back then, please take a few minutes today and review it. Are you on track with your To-Be goals? If you weren’t following back then, it’s not too late. You can still go back and do this. Click here if you want to review or learn more.

Let’s get on to the business of today. First, Happy National Croissant Day. If croissants are your thing, celebrate BIG!

Our world is awash in information. We’re all constantly drinking from a fire hose. Would you agree? This makes deep thought about the information and separating the important from the crap a challenge for all of us.

2500 years ago Siddhartha Gautama – known to history as the Buddha – was asked a question we might ask in our world today. His answer is a simple and profound strainer to help us separate the wheat from the chaff in our lives today. Here’s the story.

Thus have I heard. During a visit to the town of the Kalamas, the Buddha was asked a crucial question by the people of that place.

“Reverend Gautama, many teachers enter our midst teaching that their way and their way alone is the path to salvation. They extol the virtues of their own doctrines while tearing down the doctrines of other teachers. This creates doubt in our minds about all their teachings. For how are we to know which speaks the truth and which speaks falsehood?”

Buddha replied, “Kalamas, you have doubt in circumstances where doubt is understandable. Where doubt thrives uncertainty is born.” The Buddha proposed a test against which to measure any teaching including his own.

  • Do not believe something because it has been passed down and believed for many generations.
  • Do not believe something merely because it is a traditional practice.
  • Do not believe something because everyone believes it.
  • Do not believe something because it is written in a book and has been recited over and over.
  • Do not believe something solely on the grounds of logical reasoning.
  • Do not believe something because it fits your preconceived notions.
  • Do not believe something because you trust who is saying it.
  • Do not believe something only because your teacher says it is so.

“Kalamas, when you yourselves know directly something is unskillful, unwholesome, blameworthy, rejected by the wise, harmful to yourselves or others, leads to poverty or unhappiness of both yourself and others, you should give it up.”

“One the other hand, Kalamas, when you yourselves know directly that something is skilled, wholesome, blameless, praised by the wise, and leads to well-being, prosperity, and happiness of both yourself and others, you should accept it and practice it.”

The filter is you and your innate knowledge of what is beneficial to yourself and the world. We don’t see our leaders using a filter like that often. If it’s to be, it’s up to us. If you strain the news and information that comes your way each day with this filter, you’ll find yourself more aligned with your truth and THE truth.

Have and empowered day!

Ray

Are you into essential oils? Me too! I wrote an article about my favorite essential oils and how I use them. There’s also information about how you can join with me in promoting these amazing aids to our well-being.

 

A Little Carl Sagan to Close Your Evening

Despite his famous deadpan delivery, Carl Sagan left a number of quite motivational quotes. Here are a few of them to close out your day. Tomorrow is NEW day…a chance to dream NEW dreams!

  1. You’re an interesting species. An interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you’re not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other. (from his book Contact)
  2. Imagination will often carry us off to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.
  3. We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself.
  4. Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
  5. Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.
  6. We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.
  7. The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.
  8. For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
  9. If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

Sleep well, my friends!

Ray