Are You The Brightness In Someone's Life?

Marlene

You know that person; it might even be you. Are you the one who is like a rock that others can lean on when they are tired, lonely, upset, and out of ideas? Maybe you're the one that the neighborhood kids come to because they know you will listen and encourage them when they need some guidance. I think we've all been there in that role at least 100 times in our life.

You are approachable without even knowing why sometimes, like in the grocery store. Has this ever happened to you? You're doing your shopping, up and down the aisles looking for your favorites, when someone approaches and asks for help. You look around and see five other people in the aisle with you. Why did this person pick you?

People can sense who will be willing to help or listen. It always happens to me, especially when I least expect it. Of course, I am glad to help them navigate where they need to be and ask if there's anything else I can do for them. Most of the time, they say, "Thank you, I appreciate your help," and continue on their way.

So the next time you're in a crowded store, turn up your smile as you cruise the aisles. You never know what kind of wonderful encounter awaits as you turn down the next aisle.

Zero-Based Gratitude

Perhaps you have heard of zero-based budgeting as a technique for governments, businesses, and occasionally individuals. Zero-based budgeting is in contrast to traditional incremental budgeting. In incremental budgeting, one starts with the budget for the last year, or other period, and prepares a budget for the next period based on the budget for the last period - incorporating whatever increases, or very occasionally decreases, are deemed appropriate.

Zero-based budgeting begins with a base-line of no expenditures, rather than the base-line of last year's expenditures. Each and every proposed expense must be justified on its own merits rather that falling back on the argument that it was in the last year's budget, and that everybody expects and demands it.

Most people's gratitude is incremental gratitude. If they receive a raise, a bigger house, a third car, a new love interest, or a healthy new baby, they are grateful. If they lose their job, are forced to downsize, have a tiff with their spouse, or have an illness in the family, they are disappointed and angry. Why disappointed and angry? Because they have not been blessed with as much today as they were yesterday.

Suppose our gratitude could be zero-based gratitude. With zero-based gratitude, we would be grateful for everything we had each day - regardless of whether it was more or less than yesterday. With zero-based gratitude, I can be grateful for a warm comfortable one-bedroom apartment, even if I had a four bedroom house yesterday. I can be grateful for being able to walk, even if I could run yesterday. I can be grateful for all the people, the love, the food, the shelter, the services, the health, that I am blessed with today, regardless of what I had yesterday. With zero-based gratitude, I can be grateful each day for the gift of life itself.

Consider adopting the ongoing practice of zero-based gratitude.

Failure Is Not So Bad

Marlene

Everyone fails, which is okay. If you are a scientist experimenting, you fail over and over again. Something new is learned when an experiment is unsuccessful, allowing the next step, the next trial.

Remember failing is part of success. Ask anyone you know who is what you consider "successful" how many times they have missed the mark, failed greatly, and got back on track to continue their quest.

If we can learn not to fear failure but to be fueled by failure, we can be energized to try again differently. Try not to be discouraged when success doesn't come running into your life. You have to do the work and be willing to accept that there will be times of growth brought about by failure that you couldn't have arrived at any other way.

How to Choose Your Life Purpose

by Jonathan Lockwood Huie

An overly complex statement of life purpose is more confusing than helpful.

Make your statement of life purpose a living document. Modify it whenever you get a significant new insight into your life. Look for opportunities to make that statement more action-oriented. Rewriting your statement to be more specific will help you to translate its intent and emotion into daily projects and tasks.

Put Your Life Purpose in Action Today

It is very unlikely that your statement of life purpose, however much it inspires and motivates you, contains any elements that you can directly take action on today. Suppose your purpose is to end world hunger - that doesn't tell you how to begin today.

The easiest way to get an idea of how to begin today in fulfilling your life purpose is to work backward from your tombstone.

Determine a smaller goal, which you will necessarily have to achieve on the way to your ultimate goal.

Repeat, by determining a even smaller goal, which you will necessarily have to achieve on the way to your intermediate goal.

Continue this process of moving the time-frame back toward the present until you define an interim goal which you sense you can effectively work toward.

Now, begin writing a plan that starts today and leads to the accomplishment of that first interim goal.

Make your Life Purpose the Focus of Your Life

There will always be many calls upon your time - far more than you can ever accommodate. Begin to allocate your time only to projects and tasks that further your life purpose. Does this mean that you shouldn't sleep, or take a vacation, or earn a living? Of course not. In order to fulfill your life purpose you must be rested, fed, relaxed, educated, and provide adequate resources for yourself and your family. But unless "watched over 100,000 hours of daytime television," is what you dream of seeing on your tombstone, ask yourself hard questions about many of your habitual ways of spending time. Choose to focus on projects that are compatible with your life purpose, and allocate a majority of your time to tasks that further those projects.

Stay True to Your Life Purpose.

Your friends and family can be your greatest supporters of your life purpose, or they can be your greatest obstacles. Begin by asking your friends and family for their support. Wherever you get support, be grateful. Wherever you don't, be understanding and polite.

Probably, most of your friends will accept and love you whatever you are up to in life. If so, consider that to be a really good outcome. If you are fortunate enough to have friends who are excited by your new life purpose, be very grateful, and offer to include them in your projects. Some, but hopefully not many, friends will find your new life purpose to be an affront, either because of the purpose itself, or more likely just because you are acting excited and motivated - and that makes them feel "not good enough."

Begin to spend more time with friends - old and new - who support your life purpose, and less time with those who, consciously or subconsciously, sabotage your life purpose.

Life is all about balance — work hard, play hard, that sort of thing. But where can we fit relaxation into that busy go-go-go equation?

The dictionary definition of “relax” is aspirational and healing: “to make or become less tense or anxious.” For some folks, relaxation takes the form of zoning out in front of a TV. For others, gardening or tending to the house offers calming effects. Whatever your chosen method of relaxation — whether it be time spent horizontal in a hammock or pressing pause on work to stroll through the neighborhood — rest should be a built-in part of everyone’s daily routine.

Fishing For The Moon

• One evening, a man went to fetch some water from the well. To his surprise, when he looked into the well, he found the sunken moon shining in the well.  “Oh, good heavens, what a pity! The beautiful moon has dropped into the well!”  So he dashed home for a hook and tied it with a rope to his bucket, then he put it into the well to fish for the moon. After some time, the man was pleased to find that something was caught on the hook. He must have thought it was the moon. He pulled hard on the rope. Due to the excessive pulling, the rope broke and he fell flat on his back.  Taking advantage of that new position, the man saw the moon high in the sky. He sighed, “Aha, it finally went back to its place! What a good job!”   He felt very happy and proudly told whomever he met about this wonderful accomplishment.  Chinese Fable Story