By Scott Westerman
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“The superior person is modest in speech but exceeds in actions.” Confucius
Let this be the year when you make something happen. That was my challenge in the first MM of the new year. We’re half way through it. Where are you?
Most people are still stuck in unpleasant current realities 6 months after making their new years resolutions.. They have closed their minds to possibility. They blame others for their situation. They accept the status quo. They have long ago given up on their dreams. The actions they have taken, if any, have kept them right where they are. For these people, the new year is turning out to be just like the old.
An unfulfilled life is shares one attribute with a life of adventure, achievement and joy. It is a chosen profession.
“Most people,” Wayne Dyer tells us, “are searching for happiness. They’re looking for it. They’re trying to find it in someone or something outside of themselves. That’s a fundamental mistake. Happiness is something that you are, and it comes from the way you think.” So at this half way point in 2013, examine your mindset. Chose to chase happiness. And make something happen.
It’s still not too late to develop a new skill, to face a fear head on, to banish the words “I can’t” from your vocabulary, to look at the world through another person’s eyes, to finish something you have long left undone, to forgive someone who did you wrong, apologize to someone you hurt, disengage from an unproductive relationship, make a new friend, envision a new path and take a step in its direction.
“Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive,” advises William James, “along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.”
And in the end, only those who persevere will prevail. Dr. Robert Schuller gave us the secret: “Most people who succeed in the face of seemingly impossible conditions are people who simply don’t know how to quit.”
If you haven’t yet done so, create your own definition of happiness. Start right now to believe that you can become the best possible you. Tomorrow morning, take a step in the direction of your joy. And never, ever abandon the quest.
“The tragedy of life,” a long forgotten sage once wrote, “is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.”
If you have begun, stay with it. If you’re stuck, resolve to get unstuck.
There are less than 180 days until 2014. Make each one a stepping stone in the direction of your dreams.
“We are here,” poet Charles Bukowski says, “to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”
“Do or do not,” Yoda says, “There is no try.” Make something happen.
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What a PERFECT mid-year post, and as I march towards my 40th birthday this week, and reflect on 40 years of experiences and things-not-experienced, the timing is perfect. You mention “mindset” above, which also happens to be the title of a book I started reading last night. I highly recommend it, especially to you, a person I believe is a “life-long learner” (a concept the book is centered around). Anyway, great way to start the week, the second half of 2013, and the second half of my life (hopefully).