LIVE TO SPREAD GOODNESS

Live To Spread Goodness

Live each moment with integrity, and you’ll find value and goodness in every experience. Make truth your priority and let your life gain from its great power.

Fully benefit from life’s goodness by fully committing yourself to uphold it. As tempting as it can be to cheat others, you cannot do so without cheating yourself more.

The way you treat people is a major part of the way you treat yourself. Act always with respect toward others, and you’ll live with great respect for yourself.

The most loving, compassionate, generous activities are the most enriching activities. Live to spread goodness, and you’ll spend your moments immersed in goodness.

Being truthful feels right because it is right. Being genuinely helpful feels good because it is good.

Align yourself with the power of life’s highest values. And live at your highest, most fulfilling level.

— Ralph Marston

I'D RATHER BE HATED FOR WHO I AM...

“I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.”

― Kurt Cobain

THIS IS THE HIGHEST ACT OF COURAGE

DROP IT LIKE IT'S HOT

Drop it like it's hot...all the doubt, worry, frustration, stress and anxiety that has been robbing you of your health or causing you to lose sleep at night. Decide to live your life looking forward...not backwards. Examine yourself and be brutally honest with you. If you have habits, behaviors, or choices that are taking you down the wrong path, or that don't represent the GREATNESS that is within you...face the truth.

Make the hard decision to release these from your life. Don't allow these choices or habits to rob you of your greatest life or dictate your future. Take back your power, deepen your resolve to win, and intensify the pursuit of what you want. Practice calming your mind, going within, and finding a place of peace within yourself. The mark of GREATNESS is upon you. Live from this place...because this is the truth of who you really are.

LES BROWN

NOW IS THE ONLY TIME THERE IS

Now Is The Only Time There Is

Every moment contains all other moments.

That is why the central teaching of all traditions
is to claim our awareness in this moment.

This moment may be only one point on the circle,
but any point will do.

Any point is the alpha and omega. A special time or place is not needed.

Here is the only place there is.
Now is the only time.

To be present with what is here and now
is your only responsibility.

From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini
www.paulferrini.com

SMALL MOMENTS

Small Moments

Small moments are the building blocks of great achievements. Steadily, diligently, one moment at a time, is how new value comes to life.

Anyone can stay positive, focused, effective for one small moment. Great things happen when you string such moments together.

Today is filled with an abundance of moments. Within those moments, if you choose, you can make real, solid progress.

For a moment, let go of worry, anxiety, fear, anger, resentment and frustration. Fill that moment with action that makes a positive difference.

When that productive, satisfying moment is over, you can choose to do it again. You can create positive moments for as long as it takes to get the results you seek.

Enjoy living at your highest level of effectiveness for just this moment. Then keep it going, and amazing things begin to appear on your horizon.

— Ralph Marston

WHEN PEOPLE DON'T EXPRESS THEMSELVES...

“When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time.”

― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE UNCERTAIN DOES NOT MEAN...

DECIDE TO NEVER LET ANYTHING TURN YOU AROUND

It is time to believe in yourself and your dreams. It is time to take the risk of living your true life. It is time to hold your head up and decide to never let anything turn you around.

Stay connected with people who inspire, nourish and bring out the best in you. It takes time to pull yourself together and to heal if you have been hurt, humiliated, or become emotionally broken because of what you have gone through. You can become disconnected with the real you and forget who you really are. It is necessary to read, listen and focus on positive things. Things that strengthen your mind, develop your confidence and fortify your spirit. Create a strategy that will allow you to rid your life of people whose only intention is to strip, destroy, or take you down.

Be aware that there are certain situations that are just not good for you. Make a conscious, deliberate effort to focus your mind exclusively on things that will build you up, give you hope and expand the possibilities in all dimensions of your life. You have the capacity and the ability to rebuild your life. What you have gone through can be used to develop another part of yourself. Stay connected with positive people with the knowledge that you will get through this. You have something special. You have GREATNESS within you!

LES BROWN

EVERYWHERE AND NOWHERE

Everywhere and Nowhere

Nowhere is not a bad place.

It’s just the place you come to
when you no longer have “somewhere else” to go.

It’s just the place you come to
when you stop avoiding this moment
and realize that the journey
doesn’t have to do with anyone but you.

You are the subject: your thoughts,
your feelings, your words, and your actions.

Turn your attention here
and you stop running around like Don Quixote
fighting windmills.

You can be where you are
and address the origin of joy and suffering
inside yourself.

Enlightenment doesn’t involve
getting something you do not have.

It involves relinquishing a barrier you have placed
between yourself and truth.

It is not so much a finding of truth,
but a giving up of illusion.

From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini
www.paulferrini.com

ABLE TO GIVE

Able To Give

If you don’t give value in return for value, your life gets out of balance. If all you do is take, that takes a big toll on you.

Getting something for nothing is not something you want. It may seem good on the outside, but it will tear you up on the inside.

Tokens of achievement are a poor substitute for being a person who does the achieving. The goodies alone will not fulfill your deep-seated desire to make a difference.

Take a continuing, active role in your own fulfillment. Anything less is not true fulfillment at all.

Jump at the opportunities to create value. Get away from people who promise or who seek something for nothing.

Your heart wants to be able to give. Do yourself a favor, and let it.

— Ralph Marston

LOVE IS ...

“Love is the absence of judgment.”

― Dalai Lama XIV

KINDNESS. COURAGE. LOVE.

STEP FORWARD WITH POWER AND FIERCENESS

Do not accept life the way it is. Step forward and take life on. Look for a way to win, because you can! If life has hit you below the belt...so what? You are still in the game. It will take far more than that to take you out!!

Step forward with the power and fierceness that you have used in the past to get through what appeared to be a hopeless situation. You still have the power, the drive and the ability to take your life in another direction. You were born to win! Step forward! Success is in your DNA. Giving up is not an option. Because you have GREATNESS within you!

LES BROWN

CONTROL OF OTHERS

Control of Others

As soon as you love someone your ego goes crazy
and tries to take control. This happens to everyone.

Love brings every shadow up to the surface
so it can be witnessed and transformed.
You are either willing to look or you aren’t.

Love gives you homework to do.

If you don’t become aware of your fears and insecurities,
they will eventually destroy your relationship.

Don’t turn the blessing of love into a curse.
Acknowledge your fears to your partner
and ask for help in walking through them.

From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini
www.paulferrini.com

HIDDEN SKILLS

Hidden Skills

You have skills you don’t know about. Take on a challenge, and you’ll find what those skills are.

In the process of living life, from moment to moment, from day to day, you’ve been doing much. What you’ve already been doing has prepared you to do much more.

Don’t let your hidden skills remain hidden. Force them out into the open where you can exercise them to create value.

There are plenty of people, things, values and concepts you care about. So consider what you care about, and commit yourself to do something about it.

Launch the whole of your being into purposeful action. Discover levels of wisdom, resourcefulness, skill and effectiveness you never knew you had.

Set off on a meaningful journey. Skills and capabilities will rise from within to power you forward.

— Ralph Marston

REMEMBER

“Remember, darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always bring good.”

― P.C. Cast, Betrayed

THEN EVERYTHING CHANGES

BE CAREFUL OF YOUR SELF-TALK

Be careful of your self-talk. Without monitoring your mind and your mouth, the majority of what you say to yourself can poison your attitude, weaken your spirit, drain your energy. Be aware that, left unchecked, the negative storyteller in your brain can shut down your faith, amplify your fears and activate a spirit of hopelessness and self-sabotage. Turn off and banish the automatic negative thoughts that will ruin your life, if you let them.

Learn to keep your heart open and love yourself unconditionally. The universe is on your side waiting for your next move. Celebrate what is working in your life. Focus on the positive and on what you can do right now. Give thanks for what you have and that you are still here. That, alone, says that your life still matters. You have something special. You have GREATNESS within you!

LES BROWN

EXPANSION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Expansion of Consciousness

When new energy comes into your life,
your consciousness expands
and old limits no longer.

New content requires new form.
New wine needs new skins.

The more you grow in consciousness,
the more you move through various forms.

It can be a little disorienting.
so be sure to take the time to adjust emotionally.
and regain your perspective.

You need time to inhabit the new form
before you try to express yourself through it.

New energy sends you out on a limb.
You see things there you have never seen before.

But then you have to climb back down
and find your roots again.

Unless you take the time to do this
you may find that you get overextended,
lose your balance and fall to the ground.


From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini
www.paulferrini.com

FEED YOUR CURIOSITY

Feed Your Curiosity

To discover something new, look where you’ve never looked before. To energize your thinking with a pleasant surprise, get out of your regular routine.

There are things that would fascinate you, help you, change you for the better. Problem is, you don’t know to look for them.

Don’t assume life is the way you assume. Let your curiosity run ahead of you like a beagle puppy, sniffing out unexpected treasures with wild abandon.

Go beyond merely opening yourself to new experiences. Get into places, relationships and situations ripe with new facts and experiences.

Despite all you know, all you’ve done, you’ve only been exposed to a fraction of reality. Be thankful there’s so much more to experience, and get yourself out there where you’ll encounter it.

What at first seems random can take to you what’s meaningful and valuable. Feed your curiosity, and follow where it leads.

— Ralph Marston

ANY FOOL CAN BE HAPPY.

“Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.” 

― Clive Barker, Days of Magic, Nights of War

I WILL NO LONGER ATTEMPT TO...

WHAT WILL IT COST YOU?

What will it cost you if you do not follow your dreams? By doing the soul-searching to answer this question, you will discover all of the wonderful things that you deserve in life that you will miss out on.

Get three pieces of paper. On one page, make a list of what it will cost you. On another page, make a list of the fears that are holding you back right now. On the last page, make a list of what actions you need to take to overcome each fear and the actions to take to create your dreams. Getting clarity provides the increased awareness necessary to do something about it. You Deserve!


LES BROWN

STEPPING BEYOND FEAR

Stepping Beyond Fear

If you want to go beyond your fear,
you must first go through it.

You must learn to be in fear
without beating yourself up,
without projecting your anxieties onto others.

Walk with fear as your companion
so that you get to know it.

If you don’t take the time to discover
what your fear is all about,
you will not be able to step beyond it.

From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini

www.paulferrini.com

YOU CAN MAKE IT THROUGH

You Can Make It Through

You can make it through this trouble. You can make it through this day.

Don’t take any of it personally. Do take it all in stride.

Fix your focus firmly ahead. Take a steady, solid step forward, then another.

Allow inner strength to flood every chamber of your being, of your awareness. Let love, beauty, possibility inspire you forward.

Join spirit, mind and body in harmony to make good things happen. Embody the progress you seek to make, feeling sweet satisfaction as it drives you to do more.

Life is as it is right now, and you can make it through. Take the steps, do the work, fulfill your promise, for that is what you do best.

— Ralph Marston

Dearest Readers!

Sorry, for the posting intermission because of momentarily inconsolably obstacles! Please, don't lose your interest. I'll be back soon!

HC_Behrens

=)

THERE ARE YEARS THAT...

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

DON'T KEEP GIVING THE FINGER TO YOUR SOUL

THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU JUST NEED TO LET GO

Let it go. There are some things, some people, some attitudes, and some feelings that you have experienced that you just need to let go ~ because they are preventing you from living your greatest life! You are in charge. Exercise your power by consciously looking and asking the question..."How is this serving me by holding on to this attitude, anger, lack of forgiveness, grudge, or negative emotion?" Stop allowing these things to rob you of your peace of mind, happiness and well-being.

Let it go so that you can grow and prosper. Make the decision to release anything that is unbecoming of you, and that does not represent your highest and best thinking. This is easier said than done. It requires work, becoming deliberate and consciously aware of your feelings. No person or thing is worth sacrificing being joyfully enthusiastic about your life and health. Look for many ways to increase laughter, joy and love in your daily experience. You Deserve! 

LES BROWN

UNITY IN DIVERSITY

Unity in Diversity

When we look for agreement in the world we live in,
we find factionalism and conflict.

Only when we stop looking for agreement
and start accepting our differences

do we experience the core equality
that unites us as human beings.

From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini
www.paulferrini.com

IN CHARGE

In Charge

Your situation will never make you happy unless you choose to be happy. All the money in the world cannot change the way you feel until you change the way you feel.

No, your feelings do not alter the circumstances. Yet they radically change what you do with the circumstances.

If you feel optimistic, you will see the opportunities and seize them. If you feel despair, you will find plenty of reasons to confirm your feelings.

So which will it be? How will you choose to see the world, your life, your situation today?

For every person, crafting a life of quality and fulfillment is difficult work. Your attitude determines whether that work results in reward or punishment.

You’re in charge of the one factor that decides how to handle all the other factors. Choose the most beneficial outcome by choosing the most positive perspective.

— Ralph Marston

UNDERSTANDING IS THE FIRST STEP TO ACCEPTANCE

“Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.”

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

SUMMON POSITIVE ENERGY

NO TEST, NO TESIMONY

No test...no testimony. You can not make lemonade with sugar alone...you must have some sour lemons. You can not learn good horsemanship by riding a tame horse. The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.

Regardless of what happens to you, never say you are having a bad day...say you are having a character building day. All the things that you are going through are building your character. You are being shaped and designed for your greatness. You have something special! You have GREATNESS within you!!


LES BROWN

TO CHOOSE OR NOT TO CHOOSE

To Choose or Not to Choose

You can't force yourself to choose before you are ready.
If you do, you will probably have regrets.

Be patient with yourself and learn to accept
all of the voices within your psyche.

You don't have to act on any of these voices.
Just listen to them and see what they need to say to you.

Accept your ambivalence and it will move when it is ready.
Guidance and direction will come when it's time.

From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini
www.paulferrini.com

TREAT PEOPLE LIKE PEOPLE

Treat People Like People

Empathy makes you a better communicator. Empathy makes you a better person.

Your perspective has value, but it is not the only perspective. Always take the other person’s point of view into consideration.

Don’t assume just because you know it, think it, feel it, that everyone else does too. Nothing ever entitles you to be rude, arrogant, or inconsiderate.

Empathy helps you understand, understanding helps you relate, and positive relationships facilitate real progress. It’s always better to work with others than to work against them.

Empathize, understand, find common ground and common objectives. Remind yourself that the way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.

Whether you’re dealing with a customer, customer service rep, family member or stranger, empathy works wonders. Treat people like people, the way you want to be treated, and they’ll almost always return the favor.

— Ralph Marston

ANYONE CAN START OVER AND MAKE A NEW ENDING

“‎Though nobody can go back and make a new beginning... Anyone can start over and make a new ending.”

― Chico Xavier

BRICK-BY-BRICK

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE IN SOMEONE ELSE'S BELIEF

Sometimes you have to believe in someone else's belief in you...
until your own belief kicks in!

The people you are with can have a huge impact on you. Choose wisely and courageously. Align yourself with people that you can learn from, people who want more out of life, people who are stretching and searching and seeking some higher ground in life. You have GREATNESS within you!

LES BROWN

SOFTENING THE SWORD'S EDGE

Softening the Sword’s Edge

As long as you are trying to choose
between two strongly held points of view
you will sharpen the edge between them.

The pressure to decide is a double edged sword.
It hurts everyone it touches.

Step away from the pressure and the urgency.
Be patient with yourself and others.

Take the sword of division and love it.
until its edge softens and it can no longer do harm.
Then you can decide.

Because then you will rest in the heart-space
where all needs are considered
and everyone is enfolded in your love.

From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini
www.paulferrini.com

FRESH BREEZE

Fresh Breeze

The day is still, hot, sweltering, and suddenly a fresh breeze appears. Think of how the experience can lift your spirit.

So many in this world so often feel despair. Think of how you can be a fresh breeze in the lives of others to ease that despair.

Be the fresh breeze that brings positive energy to a dismal situation. Be the fresh breeze that brings real hope and a change in perspective.

Surprise life with new goodness. Surprise yourself with how good it feels to do so.

Though the temperature is still just as hot, a fresh breeze makes it feel much more tolerable. Though a positive perspective does not change the situation, it improves where the situation leads.

In an instant a fresh breeze brings relief, a fresh perspective brings hope. Be that fresh breeze, for yourself and for others.

— Ralph Marston

IF YOU TREAT AN INDIVIDUAL AS HE IS, HE WILL REMAIN HOW HE IS.

“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

YOUR SOUL WANTS TO FORGIVE

STOP TRYING TO CHANGE THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE

Stop trying to change the people you love and change yourself! Stop trying to change people who take your money but will not take your advice. You will only drain your own mental, spiritual, emotional and financial reserves. The truth is...people change when they are sick and tired of being sick and tired or hit rock bottom.

If you are dealing with addiction or irresponsible behavior from grown adults ~ protect your wallet and your mind. It does not mean you do not love them. Your attempts to help may only delay what is inevitable. Allow them to take the journey they have chosen for themselves. Choose to let go of the guilt and be at peace. You may require counseling or emotional support to stop being an enabler. If necessary, give yourself some distance so that you can stop being used or manipulated because they know that you care and you love them. You have the right to enjoy a guilt-free, happy and productive life. Commit yourself to changing the only person you really can - YOU!! You have GREATNESS within you!!

LES BROWN

PEACE IN THE MIDST OF CONFLICT

Peace in the midst of Conflict

To be peaceful in the midst of conflict,
you must create respect
for everyone’s ideas and experiences.

That creates emotional and physical safety
so that people know that they won’t be attacked
when they express themselves honestly.

When people are committed
to equality and mutual respect
disagreements do not result in separation,

but in dialogue and increased understanding.

From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini
www.paulferrini.com

KEEP YOUR THOUGHTS REAL

Keep Your Thoughts Real

If you let your mind wander too much, it can wander into some very dark places. Your thoughts can get so far away from reality that your life is impaired.

Yes, keep your mind open, let it run full throttle. But keep it on the pavement of reality.

You can literally think anything you choose to think, and those thoughts build upon one another. There is great power in your thinking, so use that power wisely.

One effective way to keep your thoughts focused where you want them to be focused is to write them down. That forces you to think about your thoughts rather than letting them build into obsessions.

Another useful tactic is to seek the feedback of others. If you have trouble explaining what you’re thinking, perhaps those thoughts are getting outside the bounds of reality.

Your thoughts have great power and influence over your life. Let them soar to the highest heights while also keeping them real.

— Ralph Marston

I DREAM MY PAINTING AND I PAINT MY DREAM

“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.” 

― Vincent van Gogh