Tag: Hope

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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Coming Out of the Dark – The Affirmation Spot for Monday November 15, 2010

Thought for today:

“We can easily forgive a child for being afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
~ Plato

Coming out of the dark….what a powerful, powerful metaphor!

It’s been 19 years since Gloria Estefan released “Coming Out of the Dark” – a powerful anthem with an even more powerful metaphor of walking from darkness to light. Many of you probably remember that Gloria was critically injured in a March 1990 bus accident, while on tour. Her 1991 album “Into the Light” and this single represented her return after a 10-month long recovery that included the placement of two titanium plates to support her spinal column and extensive physical therapy.

In January 1991, she debuted this song at The American Music Awards where she received a standing ovation both for the song and for her courageous comeback.

Ironically, 1990 was also the moment of truth in my life. Beginning in March of that year I spent two stints in the hospital totalling almost 11 weeks. I was admitted unable to eat, drink, or stand, and down to 96 pounds. I was writhing in pain and ready to leave this world. Eventually, I was diagnosed with Addison’s Disease and was finally released from the hospital in late May. My life was in a shambles financially, emotionally, and physically.

I remember hearing this song for the first time and thinking it was speaking directly to what I was going through and, I assume, was Gloria was going through in her life. This song played a key role in my own comeback. It inspired and provided a methaphor for the new life I was creating.

I hope this amazing song brings inspiration and courage to you this Monday, as it has for me and millions of others for nearly two decades. Wherever you are today in your life there is a light can transform everything and you need only look within to find it.

Stay inspired!

Ray

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If you’re looking for thoughts and ideas that will push you from the dark to the light or expand the light in your life, checkout Ray’s ebook The Power to Be You: Game Changing Posidigms for Daily Life. The book contains more than 400 empowering, original daily thoughts that will help your paradigms become posidigms.

Whatever I Need Always Comes My Way – The Affirmation Spot for Wednesday March 24, 2010

Today’s Affirmation:

“Whatever I need comes my way.” (hear this affirmation)

During a very difficult part of my life, I used to say this one about 100 times a day. I also used to listen to it when I went to bed at night. I found this thought very effective at responding to the negative thoughts that ruled my life at that time.

It’s a simple affirmation, but contained in it is world of faith, hope, and awareness.

  • Faith: The affirmation communicates faith in its implicit understanding that everything happens for a reason. I know that assertion has almost become trite conventional wisdom. Nonetheless, even science acknowledges discernable patterns in the universe. The Earth does not suddenly begin orbiting the Moon. The ocean tides do not flow in reverse. There is a certain perfection to things. Are our lives an exception? Hardly. When you look back at your life you see that so many things that did not seem to make sense in a moment made perfect sense given perspective. There seems to be a kind of plan to things. You can have faith that the new things coming into your life will also fit into that plan and provide you new opportunities to grow and expand.
  • Hope: The affirmation communicates hope in that it reminds you that there is a flow to things. You are not stuck where we are. New things are coming to you all the time. The universe and your life are in motion constantly. When you get stressed or depressed it is often because you create solidity to a momentary setback. It feels permanent, but it is not. Every day brings new possibilities. “Whatever” is an open book and reminds you that anything is possible.
  • Awareness: The affirmation communicates awareness. Notice it says “whatever I need” not “whatever I want”. The concept here is that there is a certain intelligence or wisdom in the events, people, and things that come your way in life. There are no accidents. Because that is so, you can be confident that you have the wherewithall to handle these things. You really can take lemons and make lemonade. You can handle setbacks and move forward to new levels of achievement.

Stay inspired!

Ray

Hold On – The Affirmation Spot for Monday November 30, 2009

Check Out Our Cool New Affirmation Apps:

Check out our new affirmation apps for Apple devices or search i-mobilize on the iTunes store. The Affirmation Spot is developing these motivation apps in partnership with i-mobilize. Click an app to view it – Love Magnet, Sales Booster, Confidence Affirmation, or Full Body Scan, and many more.

Many people who follow me on Twitter or elsewhere on the Internet have come to know me for my positive affirmations and motivational thoughts that I post regularly throughout the day. What they do not know is that my life was once far from a bed of roses.  I hit absolute rock bottom at the age of 25 and very nearly left this world way too early.

Much of my situation was self-imposed and based on some really wrong-headed thinking about life in general and my life in particular. I know all too well and all too personally how difficult life can get. I also know – from my experience – how critical it is that we master our thoughts and tilt them in a positive direction. That is why it has become my life mission to spread that message to everyone I can.

Today I am sharing a video from a song that came out at that moment in my journey.  I consider this song to be one of the great motivational anthems in modern music. “Hold On” was released in 1990 by the singing trio Wilson Phillips. For me, this song came along right at this moment when I was facing my life or death situation and climbing my way back from the edge.

This song spoke to me as I was just “holding on for one more day” and hoping things “will go your way”. That’s where I was and the best I could think each day at that time.

This song – even 19 years later – still speaks to me. It’s popularity at the time and since indicates it has spoken to many others as well.

What a message of hope for a brand new week! This is a live version from the MTV awards that year.

Stay inspired!

Ray

2009 Affirmation

“This year I am absolutely committed to being the person I came here to be!”

The Promise of A New Life – The Affirmation Spot for Thursday November 12, 2009

Check Out Our Cool New Affirmation Apps:

Check out our new affirmation apps for Apple devices or search i-mobilize on the iTunes store. The Affirmation Spot is developing these motivation apps in partnership with i-mobilize. Click an app to view it – Love Magnet, Sales Booster, Confidence Affirmation, or Full Body Scan.

grass_through_snow.jpgToday’s affirmation is:

 

“Difficulities are doorways to something better than I had planned.”

“The entire cosmos is made up of clashing forces and polarities, yet without this seeming conflict, the universe itself could not exist. Life is a dance of opposites that involves destruction, rebirth, pain, and joy.”

~ David Fideler

The powerful symbology is important in Fideler’s quote. We have many of familiar aphorisms that confirm this idea such as, “It’s always darkest just before the dawn,” or even that famous gym affirmation “no pain, no gain.”

It is certainly a very old and very common human concept that out of pain, difficulty, and death comes new life. The Hindus recognize this interplay in their personification of Shiva, “The God of Destruction,” who is also recognized as the “Bringer of New Birth.” The Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh talks about the cycle of the beautiful rose that dies, becomes garbage, and then can be used as fertilizer to grow a new rose.

For whatever reason, adversity is often the birthplace of the best things in our lives. Think about your own past. Even though you dread the pain and struggle that comes with tough times, were those times not the seeds of some of your greatest triumphs?

So, am I extolling the virtues of pain and suffering? Suggesting that you should go looking for difficulty as a kind of initiation experience leading the greater joy? No.

As the saying goes, “Into every life, a little rain must fall.” We all face the proverbial winter in our lives. Things seem bleak, lifeless, maybe even hopeless. Yet, even on the coldest day of winter, the signs of new life are only inches below the surface waiting to emerge.

This is just a reminder – in case you are experiencing one of those times right now or for when you experience it in the future – to always be looking for the spring sprouts of new life. You can count on them always being there, if only you look closely enough. For as surely as the seasons come and go in nature, they come and go in our lives.

Hope everyone is enjoying spring in their lives today, but if not be looking for its signs.

Be peaceful Be prosperous

Ray

2009 Affirmation

“This year I am absolutely committed to being the person I came here to be!”