You say you have set your goals?
Congratulations!
Are they set for the right reason?
We set goals for short term objectives. Most of these objectives concern materialistic wants: money, and physical things.
Here is a suggestion to take a different point of view when working on goals.
Start with deciding what your life should be. Take some time to define your life five years from now. Here are some questions you might ask yourself.
* What are my surroundings?
* What kind of places am I in?
* What am I feeling?
* What are my emotions?
* What types of people are around me?
* What kind of feelings do I get from them?
* What am I doing? Physically?
* Where am I going? My future?
* Where have I been?
Notice there are no questions dealing with money, or named places, or named people. The answers to these questions will provide you with attitudes, feelings, values, perceptions and other non-tangible ideas that make life worth living no matter where you are, who you are with, or what you are doing!
If we have created a lifestyle that we like, then the physical part of our lives will fit right in and accompany the lifestyle because it has to!
My suggestion is to look at the lifestyle you want to create, and set your plan to achieve the lifestyle instead of the physical side of life most of us set our goals to achieve.
To go even deeper, define your values very clearly and make sure that your vision of your life in five years fits with your values.
Is it worth it?
You have heard the phrase 'plan your work and work your plan'? If you do not create your life by setting goals and a plan to reach them, someone is doing it for you. If you think about it, that is really scary! What kind of vision would some else have for you?
Think of it this way. Look back five years ago in your life. Are you today where you imagined you would be five years ago? Or are you where someone else imagined you would be?
Don't you think your life would dramatically improve if you made the plan instead of 'them'? Don't you think you might have a little more interest in your life than someone else?
I should hope so.
As the advertisement says so well:
Just do it!
-by Miami Philips, Source Unknown
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Love is Understanding
You've heard it said: "Love is patient and kind." If love is patient, it may be because love is truly understanding.
Do you know what the most common craving is among pregnant women? (I'm sure this is factual.) The most common craving among pregnant women is not spicy food, pickles or ice cream. Not even close. It is for MEN to get pregnant.
Why? Because then they would know what it is like! Then they might be more patient. What most women need during times of cravings, discomfort, swollen ankles and morning sickness is... understanding.
Much of our conflict is simply misunderstanding. As a new bride, one woman moved into the small home on her husband's ranch in the mountains. She put a shoe box on a shelf in her closet and asked her husband never to touch it.
For 50 years he left the box alone, until his life partner was old and dying. One day when he was putting their affairs in order, he found the box again and thought it might hold something important.
Opening it, he discovered two doilies and $82,500 in cash. He took the box to her and asked about the contents.
"My mother gave me that box the day we married," she explained. "She told me to make a doily to help ease my frustrations every time I got mad at you."
Her husband was touched that in 50 years she'd only been upset enough to make two doilies.
"What's the $82,500 for?" he asked.
She explained, "Oh, well that's the money I've made selling the doilies."
Marge Piercy beautifully said, "Life is the first gift, love is the second and understanding is the third." But it is love that gives us life and understanding that brings about love.
Making doilies might take your mind off the problem, but it won't change anything. The path from conflict to love is not by way of arts and crafts. It is through the valley of understanding.
-by steve Goodler, Source Unknown
Do you know what the most common craving is among pregnant women? (I'm sure this is factual.) The most common craving among pregnant women is not spicy food, pickles or ice cream. Not even close. It is for MEN to get pregnant.
Why? Because then they would know what it is like! Then they might be more patient. What most women need during times of cravings, discomfort, swollen ankles and morning sickness is... understanding.
Much of our conflict is simply misunderstanding. As a new bride, one woman moved into the small home on her husband's ranch in the mountains. She put a shoe box on a shelf in her closet and asked her husband never to touch it.
For 50 years he left the box alone, until his life partner was old and dying. One day when he was putting their affairs in order, he found the box again and thought it might hold something important.
Opening it, he discovered two doilies and $82,500 in cash. He took the box to her and asked about the contents.
"My mother gave me that box the day we married," she explained. "She told me to make a doily to help ease my frustrations every time I got mad at you."
Her husband was touched that in 50 years she'd only been upset enough to make two doilies.
"What's the $82,500 for?" he asked.
She explained, "Oh, well that's the money I've made selling the doilies."
Marge Piercy beautifully said, "Life is the first gift, love is the second and understanding is the third." But it is love that gives us life and understanding that brings about love.
Making doilies might take your mind off the problem, but it won't change anything. The path from conflict to love is not by way of arts and crafts. It is through the valley of understanding.
-by steve Goodler, Source Unknown
Monday, December 17, 2007
The Perfect Heart
One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.
Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said “Why your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine.” The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn’t fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.
The people stared - how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought? The young man looked at the old man’s heart and saw its state and laughed. “You must be joking,” he said. “Compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears.”
“Yes,” said the old man, “Yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love - I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren’t exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person hasn’t returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges - - giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?”
The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his. They embraced and walked away side by side. How sad it must be to go through life with a whole untouched heart.
-by Author Unknown,Source Unknown
Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said “Why your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine.” The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn’t fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.
The people stared - how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought? The young man looked at the old man’s heart and saw its state and laughed. “You must be joking,” he said. “Compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears.”
“Yes,” said the old man, “Yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love - I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren’t exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person hasn’t returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges - - giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?”
The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his. They embraced and walked away side by side. How sad it must be to go through life with a whole untouched heart.
-by Author Unknown,Source Unknown
The Secret Ears
“Can I see my baby?” the happy new mother asked. When the bundle was nestled in her arms and she moved the fold of cloth to look upon his tiny face, she gasped.
The doctor turned quickly and looked out the tall hospital window. The baby had been born without ears. Time proved that the baby’s hearing was perfect. It was only his appearance that was marred.
When he rushed home from school one day and flung himself into his mother’s arms, she sighed, knowing that his life was to be a succession of heartbreaks.
He blurted out the tragedy. “A boy, a big boy… called me a freak.”
He grew up, handsome for his misfortune. A favorite with his fellow students, he might have been class president, but for that. He developed a gift, a talent for literature and music.
“But, you might mingle with other young people,” his mother reproved him, but felt a kindness in her heart.
The boy’s father had a session with the family physician. Could nothing be done?
“I believe I could graft on a pair of outer ears, if they could be procured,” the doctor decided.
Whereupon, the search began for a person who would make such a sacrifice for a young man. Two years went by.
Then his father said, “You are going to the hospital, son. Mother and I have someone who will donate the ears you need. But, it’s a secret who it is.”
The operation was a brilliant success, and a new person emerged. His talents blossomed into genius, and school and college became a series of triumphs. Later, he married and entered the diplomatic service.
“But, I must know!” He urged his father, “Who gave so much for me? I could never do enough for him.”
“I do not believe you could,” said the father, “but, the agreement was that you are not to know… not yet.”
The years kept their profound secret, but the day did come. It was one of the darkest days that ever pass through a son. He stood with his father over his mother’s casket. Slowly, tenderly, the father stretched forth a hand and raised the thick, reddish-brown hair to reveal that the mother had no outer ears.
“Mother said she was glad she never let her hair be cut,” he whispered gently, “and nobody ever thought mother less beautiful, did they?”
Real beauty lies not in the physical appearance, but in the heart. Real treasure lies not in what can be seen, but in what cannot be seen. Real love lies not in what is done and known, but in what is done and not known.
-by author unknown,source unknown
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