“Man is not the sum of what he has but the totality of what he does not yet have, of what he might have.” –Jean Paul Sartre

I find it pretty funny and absurd to think of all of the limits I place on myself. “No, I can’t do that,” or “That’s impossible,” and even “I don’t have the means, someone else can do that, but not me!”

This is all BULL!

Imagine a life free from the nagging limitations we place upon ourselves and our abilities. When you’re in this state of placing limitations, borders, and boundaries around your capabilities as a human being…STOP and remember that you have complete and utter control over your life and your brain. You choose to be happy! You choose to be great! You can create the powerful frame of mind that will allow you to break through limits, and produce miracles for you and the people you care about. This will all happen only if you make it happen. Correspondingly, you must STOP succumbing to the voices of doubt and uncertainty within you that shape limitations.

Limits are illusions.  You are limitless!

Do we view ourselves as creators?…think about the words below….

“You might say, ‘I’m not the creative type. When I sing, I’m always half a tone above or below the note. I cannot draw a line without a ruler. And the only practical use for my homemade bread is as a paperweight or as a doorstop.’

If that is how you feel, think again, and remember that you are children of the most creative Being in the universe. Isn’t it remarkable to think that your very spirits are fashioned by an endlessly creative and eternally compassionate God? Think about it—your spirit body is a masterpiece, created with a beauty, function, and capacity beyond imagination.

But to what end were we created? We were created with the express purpose and potential of experiencing a fullness of joy. Our birthright—and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth—is to seek and experience eternal happiness. One of the ways we find this is by creating things.

You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us. The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter.” ~Dieter Uchtdorf

….I am an optimist. My belief in human beings is rooted in their capacity to create and beautify the planet. I believe in the immense power of creativity and intelligence backed with love; these forces can make our world a much better place. Today, make a conscious effort to extract the creativity from within your mind and heart to bless the human race.

“Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.“ ~Alan Alda

Live creatively.

How will you harness the creativity within you today to bless the lives of others?

I cannot think of anything more honorable than the building up of the human being. Building character. Building knowledge. Building faith. Building hope. Building skills. There are so many ways we can engage in human development…

“Human development is about much more than the rise or fall of national incomes. It is about creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their needs and interests. People are the real wealth of nations. Development is thus about expanding the choices people have to lead lives that they value. And it is thus about much more than economic growth, which is only a means—if a very important one—of enlarging people’s choices.” - Human Development Reports, United Nations Development Program

Also, do not forget this process is always mutually benefiting. Remember these words by James E. Casey: “While building up others, you will build up yourself.”

Bless you on your journey to build up the human race!

Dear Friends,

Remember that life is a trail dotted with numerous, arduous puddles of tribulation–puddles deep enough to momentarily dampen down and frustrate the weary traveler–yet, puddles never meant to drown a cherished soul.

While on the trail of life, remember to keep walking despite the occasional dampness, insist to enjoy the beauty all around, and love everyone you encounter!

That’s it.

Enjoy the trail!

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or REJOICE because thorn bushes have roses.”-Abe Lincoln

Friends, for crying out loud let’s REJOICE! We’re alive!!!

If you’re struggling with emotional downs or having a hard time realizing desired happiness, then take a moment and internalize the words of the famous Og Mandino:

If I feel depressed I will sing.
If I feel sad I will laugh.
If I feel ill I will double my labor.
If I feel fear I will plunge ahead.
If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice.
If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come.
If I feel incompetent I will think of past success.
If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals.
Today I will be the master of my emotions.

May we master our emotions TODAY. Let’s rejoice more and complain less.  Let’s lift up our chins and be positive.  We need to open our eyes and see the beauty all around us. When we see beauty for beauty we forget what is bad.

God bless you on your journey to be happy and serve!

For many of us we are always wanting more – we think we would be happier if we had such and such—a new flashy car, designer jeans with bells and whistles on the butt, $70 Ed Hardy T-shirts, the nicest cosmetics, new, new, new, and more, more, more STUFF! Not going to lie, the best of us can struggle with this. Maybe we should pause for a moment and hear what struggling people throughout poverty-stricken areas would like to make them happier: 1. “Having enough to eat for ourselves and our family so when we go to sleep at night our stomach doesn’t ache, or even worse, we won’t die.” 2. “Having shoes on our feet and any kind of clothing to keep the cold out.” 3. “Having a roof over our head.” 4. “Having the hope that we’ll be lucky enough to get some kind of an education.” 5. “Having clean water–water clean enough to drink and remain alive.”  6. “Having access to some sort of medical attention for ourselves and our children.”  etc…

Take a moment and compare global priorities in spending in the year 2000 (source: globalissues.org):

Now compare the above statistics to what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries:

I’m not telling anyone what we should spend our money on. All I ask is that we think about these issues—in doing so, I strongly feel that we would be inspired to give a little more and spend less on frivolous things. I can’t help but cringe when I hear what some people say they “need.” Next time we think we need something to enhance our happiness in life, stop and think about these things. Stop and think how truly blessed we are; stop and think how blessed we are to give!

“One of the tragedies we witness almost daily is the tragedy of men with high aim and low achievements. Their motives are noble, their proclaimed ambition is praiseworthy, their capacity is great. But their discipline is weak, they succumb to indolence, appetite robs them of will.” -Gordon B. Hinckley

Recently, I have implemented a new train of thought. I have tried to think about how I would interact in all of my relationships, together with the people who mean the most to me and the everyday encounters with strangers, if I knew I would never see them again. If at midnight our mortal existence, or that of our loved ones was to come to an end, how would we act differently? How would we love if we knew it would be our last chance to show love? Likewise, how would we serve if it would be our last chance for us to serve? Would we get caught in our haste of our busy schedules and not have the time to truly listen, serve, or love one another? It may sound cliché, but we must truly live as though we or they die at midnight—you’ll find you will hug a little more tightly, listen a little more carefully, touch a little more softly, and love a little more passionately.

There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self. –Aldous Huxley

May we look deep inside ourselves to discover the true desire for positive change. Thoreau wrote that “there came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” We must take the leap outside of our confined limits and restraints we place upon ourselves, and blossom into the man or woman we know we must be–our best self!  While embarked on our mortal journey, we cannot afford to decline, procrastinate, or demur giving the world our BEST SELF! It’s time to be the man or woman we know we must be.  Forget New Year’s day. Start now. We must remember that the day for change is today, it’s right now—each and everyday we must be our best self. Our families, friends, society, and the entire human race deserve our best efforts for positive change. They deserve the best YOU!

A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked:

‘Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?’

His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson:

I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.’

Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special.

‘But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!’

‘That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.’

‘First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.’

‘Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpener. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.

‘Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.’

‘Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.’

‘Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action’

-Source: “Like the Flowing River” by Paulo Coelho

When studying Chinese characters, one may interpret the general meaning along with receiving a heightened sense of added clarification by simply breaking down the individual characters and examining each character and its relation to the other. One case in point is the Chinese word for crisis: 危機 (wei-ji). The first character in this word, wei, literally means danger. The second means opportunity. So, for reasons of remembering my Chinese vocabulary, I like to think of the definition of crisis as danger + opportunity. Not only does this benefit me in remembering my Chinese vocabulary, it also offers great insight on life: To me, this is a gentle reminder of the opportunity that exists in any unfavorable, arduous situation.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines crisis as “an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending.” In conjunction, an opportunity is “a favorable juncture of circumstances ; a good chance for advancement or progress.”

Therefore, instead of being bogged down physically and emotionally by the crisis in our lives and in the lives of others throughout the world who are suffering from seemingly insurmountable odds, it is paramount that we turn our focus on the opportunity that lies in every crisis for group and individual growth, learning, and experience. This is to say that challenges and opportunities always come together—you can’t have a challenge without an opportunity wherein to grow, progress, and succeed.

Moreover, we have an option when confronting crisis: We can either completely ignore the crisis in our lives or in the lives of others altogether, which will likely result in added disaster; or we can face the crisis head-on, and do our best to resolve it—this may completely change the situation for the better, especially if one takes the necessary measures to steer clear of future crises.

“Close scrutiny will show that most ‘crisis situations’ are opportunities to either advance, or stay where you are.” -Maxell Maltz

When faced with danger, we may offset that with courage. When faced with doubt, we may offset that with faith. Likewise, when faced with any sort of challenge, we must remember that we have an opportunity to overcome. This not only applies in our personal lives, but in the lives of those we wish to bless and empower.

So, my service-minded friends, may we all turn our attention to the golden opportunity, the silver lining in the clouds offered in every crisis. Remember that with every challenge comes room for unprecedented growth.

Bless you on your journey to serve and alleviate pain! ]]> http://www.theglobaloutreach.org/2009/12/05/%e5%8d%b1%e6%a9%9f-crisis-danger-opportunity/feed/ 0