Category: 365 days to a better you

Old Dog, New Tricks – Day 339 of 365 Days to a Better You

You’ve heard the old saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” What if you’re the old dog? As slip into the back end of my 50s, I’ll admit it. Despite my reasonably cheery outlook on life and youthful impulses, I sometimes feel like that old dog.

We live in a world moving faster, so far as we know, than any other period of human history. Whereas 20 years used to constitute old, today 20 hours often does. Technology is changing by the moment. We drink information through a firehose without the ability to critically analyze it. In short, there’s always a new trick for us old dogs.

How do we cope?

We must commit ourselves to becoming one with the change. We must commit ourselves to learning new lessons, drawing new conclusions, and releasing cherished paradigms that simply don’t work anymore. All things we old dogs are loathe to do.

I’m not suggesting you relinquish timeless principles. In fact, we need to add a few more of those back into the mix. There’s been some throwing the baby out with the bathwater there.

I am suggesting that you need to adjust to doing old things in new ways. You need to be willing test new ideas, seek new approaches, and always be growing and getting better.

It would nice, for us old dogs, to think that the world is going to slow down and go back to how it used to be when we were young, comfortable, and uniquely confident. The truth is, barring an asteroid, this is the new reality, old dog. If you want to stay in the game, you’ve got to be willing to learn new tricks.

Just in case no one else has reminded you today, you ARE amazing!

Ray

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Everyday Humanity – Day 338 of 365 Days to a Better You

In our age of instant and continuous news, we are all immediately made aware of horrific events and tragedies in our world. As we sit and watch these events, often live, on TV and the Internet, we know there are struggles for survival, acts of heroism, and the anguish of loss all happening and all within a single camera frame. We find ourselves, very humanly, asking a resounding WHY?

Why do things like this happen? Why do so many innocent people have to be harmed and die? We all have our suppositions and beliefs, but no real answers to questions like that. In an absence of answers, we are compelled to act – to help in anyway we can. Our most authentic humanity comes out and we all pitch in to do whatever we can – physically help the recovery, send money and supplies, send prayers and well wishes.

In these moments of stunning tragedy our humanity shows up big. We recognize, if only for the briefest of moments, that we humans are all traveling in the same “boat”. We are all subject to death. We are all subject to loss. We are all susceptible to the totally unexpected.

We have an innate sense that we can either lose ourselves in sadness over that fact or we can grasp each moment with zest and a determination to make the most of this precious life – a gift beyond all gifts.

For those closest to these events, the repercussions of these events resonate for years to come. For the rest of us, we typically move on with the change of the news cycle in a few days or become again distracted by things happening in our own world.

Here is what I wish for us all. May the surge of humanity we feel in these moments carry over beyond them. May it carry over into our daily lives. Why must we wait for tragedy to feel it? We lose it in our political, religious, economic, and ethnic differences. We forget it until a tragedy again shakes us awake.

Let normal days be filled with our humanity. Let us remember our humanity and that of our adversary in every encounter we have out in the marketplace of ideas.

Ray

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Digging Shallow Wells – Day 337 of 365 Days to a Better You

The average water well is 100 to 500 feet deep. As you walk around on the earth’s surface, you can’t see the well water. You could dig 100 thirty-foot holes and not reach one drop of water.

This might frustrate you because digging 100 such holes without return is a lot of work for nothing.

Are you digging shallow wells in your life? Are you spreading yourself so thin that you can’t give any one “well” the time and effort required to get your “well water?”

Whatever your goals, ample time and effort spent on one or a few goals is like digging the well until you hit water. Having too many goals or responsibilities leaves your life pock marked with half dug wells. You might be frustrated because you’re putting in a ton of effort and not getting results.

Power hack:

  1. Try to limit yourself to one to three big goals at a time. How many depends on the goals and how much time you have to devote to them.
  2. Always be reassessing your goals to make sure you’re working on what’s most important. It’s OK to abandon half-dug wells to make room for more important priorities.
  3. When you commit to a goal, dig it all the way until you hit the “well water.”

If the goal’s worth achieving, it’s worth going all the way.

Ray

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The Power of Your Mind – Day 336 of 365 Days to a Better You

Today’s Affirmation:
I AM the engine of MY dreams! MY dreams NEVER give up on me and I NEVER give up on MY dreams!

The results are in! For thousands of years, the wisest of the wise among us have been telling us, “It’s all about the mind, stupid.” It makes sense. The mind, via the brain, is the part of our being that interacts with and makes sense of our environment.

Modern science has demonstrated that the Universe around us, despite its physical appearance to our senses, is really just energy. Our mind/brain structure is tuned into that energy and literally creates the individual and collective realities that we experience within that field of energy.

However, the mind is not just a passive receiver of frequencies. It also has the ability to transmit, when trained properly, frequencies that can manifest objects of its desire.

We’ve all heard quotes like these.

  • “The Universe is Change; our life is what our thoughts make of it.”
    ~ Marcus Aurelius
  • “Wealth is the capacity of man’s mind to think.”
    ~ Ayn Rand
  • “We become what we think about most of the time.”
    ~ Earl Nightingale
  • “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
    ~ Napoleon Hill
  • “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.”
    ~Buddha
  • “A man is a product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”
    ~ Mohondas Gandhi
  • “For as a man thinks within himself, so is he.”
    ~ Proverbs 23:7

These are just a few of the most famous quotes. You could literally fill a book with quotes from humanity’s best and wisest people sending this very same message to you. But, are you listening?

Do you still believe that life is something that happens “out there” and “to you” rather than “in here” and “by you”? Do you still believe that your thinking is out of your control? There’s nothing you can do about it? Thoughts just pop into your head?

Affirmations are a workhorse tool when it comes to changing and choosing the thoughts you want to think in your life. It is more complex than just saying the words over and over, but  there are many resources on this blog and elsewhere to help you with the finer points.

You CAN change and master your thinking. That is the first thing you must believe.

I have been writing and recording audio affirmations for more than 20 years. First, I used them to improve my own thinking and my own life. Then I shared with them others. Now I have created a website called The Affirmation Spot where I make the power of audio affirmations available to you.

How does it work? Just like you learn the lyrics to a song with repeated listening. You’ve had that experience of suddenly knowing the lyrics to a song when you didn’t even know you’d been listening. Audio affirmations provide the same benefit. Soon the positive affirmations are appearing in your mind to replace the negative programming that was there.

I’d like to invite you to The Affirmation Spot today. You can download any single affirmation on the site for free to try or you can jump right and download the ones that make sense for you in your life right now.

You will find short affirmation singles, extended affirmations and meditations, and ebooks. I home record all the audio to keep the prices down and affordable for everyone.

You can always contact me directly and I am happy to help you get the most of your affirmations. I’ve been writing, recording, and using audio affirmations for more than 20 years. So, I’ve encountered and found solutions to the things you may face, as you begin using affirmations. I’m here to help.

Follow your bliss! Achieve your bliss! Become your bliss!

Ray

Morning Gratitude – Day 335 of 365 Days to a Better You

Thank you. There’s no better two words to start every day. We should keep what we’re grateful for close. It reminds us what we have. It reminds us what and who we’re fighting for. It reminds us to be humble.

When you think about it, how can you expect more from God or the universe or your society, if you’re not grateful for what you have?

Try starting each day by writing down a few things you have to be grateful for. They can be standard things that you continually appreciate or things unique to today. Start your day with a thank you and your whole seems a little better.

Here’s my list for this morning.

  • I’m grateful for another 24 hours to be a better person than I was yesterday. Thank you!
  • I’m grateful for a warm house on a cold, snowy morning. Thank you.
  • I’m grateful for my family. Their support along this life’s journey gives me a foundation. Thank you.
  • I’m grateful for the freedom to speak my mind freely. Thank you.
  • I’m grateful for this yucky cold that arrived yesterday because it reminds me to be grateful for healthy days and access to healthcare when I need it. Thank you.
  • I’m grateful for easy access to food and clean water. Thank you.
  • I’m grateful for the courage to fight for a world where everyone has their basic needs met. Thank you.
  • I’m grateful for access to information and for the freedom to process it as I choose. Thank you.
  • I’m grateful for all the kind people and positive experiences that are on their way to me today. Thank you.

Never roam far from things to be grateful for. They warm the soul, they feed the mind, and they inspire a better you.

Just in case no one else reminds you today, you ARE AWESOME!

Ray

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