“It’s never too late.” No matter what is cycling through your head at this very moment, it’s never too late to set goals, to change your life. (Really, it’s not.) Often the hardest part to getting started is overcoming that overwhelmed feeling – the one that occupies your mind when you contemplate all that you have to do at once. You think about how long it will take; what sacrifices you have to make. You become bewildered by the endless details and fall back to the comfortable feeling of saying you’ll start next Monday or at the beginning of next month. Today is the day you put that kind of thinking behind you. Today, focus on taking the first step toward your most cherished goal. Take care of the first detail right now, whatever it may be. Start exercising, dieting or looking for a new job. You know what you need to do. It’s not too late to get started. ©Jane Powell THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS I understand that two women were studying a painting titled The Road to Happiness. The scene was warm and compelling. Isnt that beautiful? one of the women said to her friend. But the other looked despondent. Of course its beautiful. The only problem is … there is no such road. No road to happiness. And I suspect she may be right, in part, anyway. There is no one path that, if we just follow, we will be sure to arrive at happiness. But that doesnt mean there are not various roads to greater happiness. And one path is really quite simple: to stop thinking that happiness as a state of being somewhere in the future. If we cant be happy now, can we be happy later? Writer Barbara DeAngelis, in her book REAL MOMENTS says this about happiness: Although when we say, I want to be happy we are usually projecting ourselves into the future, happiness, by definition, can only be found now, in this moment. Forget about being happy later, she says, happiness right here and right now is all there really is. She continues, If you cant be happy now with what you have and who you are, you will not be happy when you get what you think you want. If you dont know how to fully enjoy $500, you wont enjoy $5,000 or $500,000. If you cant fully enjoy taking a walk around the block with your mate, then you wont enjoy going to Hawaii or Paris. Im not saying that having more money or more recreation wont make your life easier. It will. But it wont make you happier because it cant. And we dont have to take her word for it. The Dalai Lama (THE ART OF HAPPINESS), who has made a study of these things, puts it this way: We dont need more money, we dont need greater success or fame, we dont need the perfect body or even the perfect mate - right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness. So we all have, at this very moment, the basic equipment we need to achieve happiness. That means there really IS a road to happiness – and you and I are on it. In fact, weve ALWAYS been on it. Is there a reason we cant be happy now? Let me ask you a question. I know it sounds a bit morbid. But, could you be happy right now if you knew you were to be hanged in a few days, or even a few hours? What is much worse than that? As bad as things have ever gotten for me, theyve never risen to that level of fear and uncertainty. But the question is not just theoretical. It was real for Dietrich Bonheoffer in 1944. Arrested as part of a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the German pastor and theologian languished in a Gestapo prison awaiting his execution. In his last letter to his fiancée, just hours before his execution, Bonheoffer writes about his love for her – and about happiness. You must not think I am unhappy. What is happiness and unhappiness? It depends so little on the circumstances. It depends really only on that which happens inside a person. I am grateful every day that I have you, and that makes me happy. And thats it, isnt it? Happiness depends little on circumstances and a lot about whats going on inside of us. We have the basic equipment needed to be contented and at peace now. Whether we recognize it or not, we are already on the road to happiness. I wonder … can we ever just pause in our pursuit of happiness long enough to be happy? I think its worth a try. Steve Goodier Every day is a blessing Some of life’s blessings are immediately obvious. There are many others that, although they don’t feel like blessings at the time, can eventually bring great value to your life. It may seem strange to be thankful when difficulties come your way. Yet those difficulties, and your response to them, can end up making you much stronger and bringing new richness to your life. It’s easy, and very beneficial, to be thankful when life is going great. And your gratitude can be even more powerful and appropriate when things are not going so well. Gratitude is not merely the result of having good and valuable experiences in your life. Gratitude is an essential part of causing life’s goodness and abundance to come your way. By being sincerely thankful, you align your life with all that is good and positive and meaningful. By being thankful, you create even more and even better things for which to be thankful. Every day is a blessing, whether it seems like it at the time or not. Be truly thankful, and benefit from the abundance that is always there. Ralph Marston
Posted on: Mon, 03 Mar 2014 09:53:43 +0000
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