Category: Ideas

Dogma Blocks a Better World

In a world where dogmas and entrenched beliefs rule, it’s practically impossible for better and new ideas to grow. Societies that become that, lose their forward momentum and they cease to be leaders.

The only way for a society to get better on this front is for individuals within that society to release limiting paradigms and be open to new ideas. All the world’s great ideas are not limited to certain times, certain places, and certain people. They’re born every day in the minds of people we “agree” and those we “disagree” with.

Failing to see that, we cut ourselves off from half or more of the better ideas that could improve country, planet, and species.

It’s up to each of us to reflect on how we are contributing to being stuck with ideas that don’t work anymore. The pace of change in the coming decades is likely to force our hands, but a more enlightened approach is to begin opening ourselves to new possibilities, figuring out how we make timeless ideas thrive in these new environments, and how we stop being a roadblock to needed change.

Our best future was not conceived in the past. It’s being conceived right now in real time. Our choice is to participate constructively in that process or be an obstacle to it.

Every great teacher and leader of the past did not re-entrench in old ideas. He or she brought new ideas to the table. They were change agents not defenders of the status quo. If we are to transform our times as powerfully and positively as they did, we must be agents for conscious change too.

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

Ray Website | YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Support Us on PayPal

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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Let Idealism Be Your Realism – Day 325 of 365 Days to a Better You

Did you used to be young and idealistic? Are you right now? If you’re part of the first group, when and where did you lose it? If you’re part of the second group, please, please never lose it.

“Realism” is too often used as an excuse for dashing hope, giving new things a try, or seeing a better world or a better you is even possible.

“That’s just not realistic,” says your inner voice, the naysayers, the media , and current structure of the world. Sometimes it appears in the form of a command, “Be realistic!” Sometimes in the form of an excuse to yourself, “I’m just being realistic.”

Have you ever noticed that being realistic is never aimed in positive direction? No one ever says they’re being realistic by expecting good things to happen or the world to become a better place.

No, realism, in it’s most common use, is a wet blanket, a limiter, a euphemism for closet negativity.

If being realistic was the standard, what great thing ever would have been tried much less achieved?

So, I don’t buy it. When I hear someone pull out the realism card, I just hear someone ceding to the status quo, giving up without trying, and hoping they can convince others to remain hopeless and mediocre along with them.

I say to you. Let idealism be your realism. Never become such an “adult” that you stop seeing and striving for big possibilities. The truth is the realistic status quo we live in just isn’t good enough. It just doesn’t ensure the freedom, security, and basic needs of enough people on this planet. It doesn’t point us to the stars or to higher spiritual achievement.

Let’s choose to become totally unrealistic. Let’s bust the ceilings, break the barriers, and open the doors to a new day for human beings and all living creatures on our planet. Sure, there’ll be naysayers. So what? So what?

Just in case no one else has reminded you today, you’re awesome!

Ray

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10 Ideas to Empower Your You Right Now Day 41 of 365 Days to a Better You

10 Empowering Ideas 

The mind is like the body. When you feed it nourishing, nutritious ideas, it is a juggernaut. When you don’t, it falls into disrepair. Here are 10 Thoughts that you can keep in front of you today to nourish your mind. I have written them in the first person so that you can use them as affirmations/mantras. These thoughts will keep you rocking through your day.

1) I am not a tool for money! Money is a tool for me!
2) Kindness pays in a hundred ways.
3) I use today to create my future, not rehash my past.
4) The hero I am waiting for is waiting for me in the mirror!
5) I am a miracle in motion!
6) To receive more love, I become more love.
7) My power to choose IS my power to change!
8) My best IS good enough!
9) My life/world is what I make of it.
10) My dreams are waiting for me to come true. Today their wait is over!

Follow your bliss. Experience your bliss. Become your bliss.

Ray 

Please visit the TAS website, where you will find downloadable affirmations to add your playlist.

Hatred is a Poison

Child watching the fireHatred is a poison.

It eventually destroys both the person who feels it as well as the target of his hatred. The evidence for this in human history as whole, and your particular dispute, is so apparent and obvious that this very simple truth has been lost in your anger.

You cannot kill enough of “them” or fuel your actions with enough hatred and anger to solve your problems. Love and peace is the only path to solution…this, as the Buddha, pointed out, is a universal truth. Never, anywhere, has hatred and violence resolved human
differences. Look at the headlines. Look at your own experiences.

Has all the killing caused any among you to be less determined to kill more of “them”? Has all the killing created the peace and security you both crave? Or, has it just raised the bar of how willing you are to keep killing “them”?

It matters not how many people in the human species still believe that killing and hatred will create the world we want; ALL people who think this are WRONG!

Whether president or pauper, Jew, Muslim, Christian, rich, poor, male, or female believes it; the belief and all its premises are FALSE. As long as your desire is to kill “them”, their desire to kill you will remain strong. The way out is simple, but takes more work and courage than picking up another stone or firing another tank shell.

I wonder if any among you have that kind of courage?

Ray

Do you have a playlist you use to get fired up? Try adding affirmations to it. Your thoughts become your life. Think empowered thoughts.