By Scott Westerman
Listen to an audio version of this message.
“The superior person is modest in speech but exceeds in actions.” Confucius
Let this be the year when you make something happen.
Most people will stay stuck in unpleasant current realities in 2013. They will close their minds to possibility. They will blame others for their situation. They will accept the status quo. They have long ago given up on their dreams. The actions they do take, if any, will keep them right where they are. For these people, the new year will 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 examine your mindset. Chose to chase happiness. And make something happen.
Develop a new skill, face a fear head on, banish the words “I can’t” from your vocabulary, look at the world through another person’s eyes, finish something you have long left undone, 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.”
This year, create your own definition of happiness. Believe that you can become the best possible you. 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.
“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.
Happy New Year!
Hear “Observations From the Spartan Life” on MSU Today, Thursdays on WDBM and Sundays on WKAR-AM.
