Yes, You Can Have It All

From the magazine, Guideposts

What is the most important element in life? Surely confidence, happiness, contentment and love rank high. Courage, successful living, hope. But all of these come from a single source.

Confidence is faith in God and yourself. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

Happiness and contentment arise from faith that God’s hand is in everything that happens. “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21).

Love is faith and trust in another. “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6).

Hope is faith for the future. “Put your hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17).

Courage is faith that you can win. The Bible’s heroes “through faith conquered kingdoms…shut the mouths of lions…escaped the edge of the sword… (Hebrews 11:33-39).

Successful living is taking action through faith. “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4).

Searching for the good life? Begin with faith…and all you need will follow.

Rejections and Reactions

Rejection takes many forms. You didn't make the team. The college you want to attend turns you down. The woman you asked out said no. You didn't get the job. You were passed over for a promotion. Your husband left you.

Whatever form it takes, being rejected hurts. It is a blow to your ego and challenges your ability to cope. It makes you question yourself. It makes you angry. In its most extreme and painful forms, it generates self-destructive thoughts and behaviors - ranging from rage to drinking binges to suicide.

The tricky thing about rejection, though, is not to avoid it but to choose a positive way of reacting to it. After all, everybody suffers rejection. That is not meant to minimize anyone's pain at being let go or turned down; it is simply to say that you aren't alone. Others have lived through similar - or worse - things. The only way to avoid the risk of rejection is to fail to live, dream, or dare! And that is a far worse thing than being courageous enough to apply for the position, to accept a leadership challenge, or to invest your heart and getting turned down.

In a recent interview reported in the Wall Street Journal, Warren Buffett spoke of his rejection by Harvard Business School at 19. "The truth is, everything that has happened in my life . . . that I thought was a crushing event at the time, has turned out for the better," he said. With the exception of health problems, he continued, life's setbacks teach "lessons that carry you along. You learn that a temporary defeat is not a permanent one. In the end it can be an opportunity.“

In Buffett's case, a second-choice application to Columbia put him under the tutelage of two professor-mentors who taught him the essentials he has used in a successful investment career. More important still, the disappointment he thought his father would feel over his failure turned into a positive expression of "unconditional love" and "unconditional belief in me."

Rejection is the challenge to find a new way, a better path. Rather than curse the job you didn't get or the person who didn't hire you, rethink your skills and find another venue for their use. Instead of hiding from life because a relationship has ended and your heart is broken, learn something about yourself from what has happened and know there is someone who needs what you have to give. Temporary setbacks become permanent defeats only if you allow it.

It isn't rejection that determines the outcome. It is your reaction to it.

EXCELLENCE

Preparing more than others care to or expect, practicing more often than the average person believes is necessary, believing in the quality of every moment, every day and every quest – this is what excellence is all about.

And it comes from striving, maintaining the highest standards, the highest beliefs, looking after the smallest detail and using the basics, and going the extra mile. Excellence means caring – caring enough about making a difference – it means making a special effort to do more than is asked and to expect more of oneself.

THE MYTH

By Jon Gordon

There is no such thing as an overnight success. Too many believe in fantasy that superstar athletes, actors, musicians, doctors, pianists, researchers, Olympians and others were born that way or simply stumbled on their success overnight. After all, the best of the best make what they do look so easy that people either think anyone can do it or that a select few are chosen to do it. This myth is perpetuated by the media. On television we see the successful person performing his craft. We see the concert, the movie, the computer program, the presentation, the game, the play, the miracle surgery, the lecture, the Nobel Prize, the latest discovery or the Olympic event. We see the end result - the outcome. But what most of us don't see are the countless hours of sweat, toil, dedication, practice and preparation that lead to greatness. The golf champion practice thousands of putts before hitting the one to win the U.S. Open. The tennis champion hit a million backhands before winning Wimbledon. The rock star sang for countless hours before reaching stardom. Technology designers spent thousands of hours to create new and revolutionary products that make our lives easier. The movie star spent years honing her acting skills before making it big. The teacher spent a career preparing and practicing ways to better connect with and teach her students before winning a teacher of the year award. The symphony practiced thousands of hours to create music that brought the audience to tears. And the sales team spent a year preparing for the important meeting that landed their biggest client. The ideal of the overnight success is a myth. Just as the Olympian must train for years for one defining race, you must wake up each day and practice, prepare and train to be your best. Don't settle for mediocrity, but strive each day for excellence. It requires hard work, preparation, and hours of effort, but it's worth it.

Don't Underestimate Your Greatness

The following comes from: http://www.getmotivation.com/ezines.html, and ezine email from Josh Hinds.

There is a sad tendency in some of us to underestimate just how powerful we are. Just how much greatness lies inside each and every one of us - just waiting to get out. The reality is if you knew just how special you were - and how much greatness went into making you the unique you that you are I'm convinced you'd immediately know that nothing can truly keep you from achieving that which you want in your life.

The journey is not always an easy one - very little of lasting or true value is first paved with an easy road. In fact we often find it is during those very times we believed to be insurmountable that are often most responsible for our gaining the skills it took to reach our eventual success.

What I'm suggesting is that the skills it takes to become that which we desire to be are learned most often through times of hardship or unrest. Certainly the good times and study in self-improvement plays a part, but don't discount the importance of life's challenges either. In the end all parts of our life can be valuable teachers. Provided we're willing to accept them as such.

We need only accept that each event - positive or negative can hold in it an opportunity to be made better for having experienced it. Now that's certainly not to say that we will find joy in each and every one of life's events - certainly not the negative ones anyway.

However, I believe it is worthwhile to look for the lessons that exist in both the good and bad in our lives. Being careful not to dwell on the negative. Remember, there is a huge difference between dwelling on - and simply learning from and moving past something.

It's your life, LIVE BIG!
Josh Hinds

Serenity

By Steve Houchin

As I stood at the gate waiting to get in, I thought about all the things I had done; the rules I had broken, the wrong choices I had made, people I have hurt. I waited patiently to be judged, as patient as a person can be thinking he already knows his fate.

As I stood there reliving in my mind all of the mistakes I had made, I saw him approach. He was wearing a white suit, so clean and perfect as if nothing could possibly stain it.

His face was perfect and so bright that it was hard to look at it for more than a few seconds without the feeling of not being worthy overtaking me. He was carrying a white folder in his hand, very thick and overflowing with papers, records that would determine just how unworthy I am.

As he stood in front of me looking at me, as if he had a photographic snapshot of my life in his head, a Rolodex to quickly recall the mistakes I have made, He asked me to sit and talk to him awhile. That's when I noticed the clear glass table and chairs that I had not seen before.

As we sat, he offered me a glass of water from the crystal pitcher that was on the table. The water tasted so pure and clean, like no water I had ever tasted before.

When I placed the glass on the table, I calmly stated that I was ready for my judgment.

He looked at me as if with smiling eyes and said "Judgment? I am not here to judge you; you have already done that. I am here to discuss the love you have shown others".

I looked at him with a puzzling look and said, "What about the mistakes I made, the people I have hurt? What about the rules I broke?"

"Rules?" he said, "those were not rules I gave to you, those were promises; promises of what life will be like when you are truly with me. Now, can we get back to our discussion?"

As he opened the folder, he began to smile as he spoke of my great uncle, Mac. Mac was blind and had been most of his life. He spoke of how much Mac enjoyed my company, how much he trusted and loved me.

He said that he gives blind people an extra sense that most people do not have, the sense to feel emotions from other people just by being close to them.

He told me that my great uncle Mac knew how much I loved him and he still talks about me sometimes at the supper table.

He then reminded me of the lady I helped on the side of the road when I was in the Navy and traveling cross country. He spoke of me giving her and her five kids a ride from Louisiana to South Florida when she was running from her abusive husband and her car broke down.

He told me of how she was able to turn her life around and how she met a wonderful man that is a great father to her children. He talked about the oldest son and how he is a skilled surgeon and has saved many of lives.

Then he told me of my father. I could feel a lump swelling up in my throat, thinking of the disappointment my father must have felt towards me.

But he didn't speak of disappointment; He spoke of how much it meant to my dad that I was there with him for his final days he was alive. He talked about the tears I cried with him and how I expressed how important he was in my life.

He told me how proud my earthly father was of me and how he has been watching me carrying on the kindness and generosity towards others that he had taught me from such a young age.

He then closed the folder and said "Son, this is not judgment, this is praise! I do not expect any of my children to be perfect, I just want them to love each other as I have loved them."

He then pushed the folder over to me and said, "Here, this is for you. There are many more examples in here of the love you have shown others. This is to help you forgive yourself for the rules you had broken, the wrong choices you had made and people you have hurt."

"Now it is time to go," he said.

He stood up and reached for a glass bell that was hanging right over the table; I did not see it there before, just like I had not seen the table and chairs.

He began to ring the bell and the sound seemed to echo through my head. The sound was pleasing, like the soft sound of a wind chime made of glass.

The sound seemed to fade as I reached for the folder in front of me. Before I knew it, I was mesmerized by the sound as it continued to fade, as if it was moving away from me.

The man was no longer in front of me and everything seemed to fade to black. I gripped tighter and tighter on the folder, only to realize it was no longer in my hands. I closed my eyes tight, as if hoping to change the darkness that had quickly come upon me.

The ringing sound of the bell was getting louder, as if to be moving closer to me now. I opened my eyes once again and the darkness had lifted and replaced by white. I could still hear the bell ringing as I realized I was staring at my bedroom ceiling.

I reached for the alarm clock to turn off the bell that was still ringing in my head.

Sadden by the thought of this all just being just a dream and the realization that the folder I held so tightly to was not in my hands, I stood up out of bed and a shiver came over my entire body.

A smile slowly came to me as if I was not in control of my face. And then I realized that the entire contents of that folder I saw in my dream were stored in my memory.

It was as if someone had placed it there, cataloged perfectly and with vivid details. It was as if I was watching a movie about me, seeing the pictures so real in my mind. What a wonderful gift!!

Was it a dream or did something happen to me?

Years of recalling all of my failures in life, reliving all of the pain I had felt and the pain I had caused, for the first time I saw only the beauty.

I had to share this; I had to tell people what had happened to me.

Was this God talking to me? Was this just a wonderful dream that opened my mind to the life I had hide in a dark corner of my memory?

Whatever had happened, I realized I would never be the same.

For the first time in my life, I saw the book of my life and realized it was a love story. The best part of this wonderful discovery is that the book is not yet complete. I had been shown some of the outcomes of the love I had shared in my life and I wanted more.

That day I reached a new level of serenity and I realized for the first time that the love you give away, the pure unconditional love that you show others, always stays with you.

WEED AND FEED

Each day you think of your mind as a garden and you pay attention to your thoughts. You know that if you don't weed out the negative thoughts, then they will take over your mind. You also know that if you continuously plant positive thoughts, eventually the weeds of negativity will have nowhere to breed and grow. It's a process and it works. Just as you practice running, you must practice thinking positive thoughts and eliminate negative thoughts. You realize that being positive or negative is a habit, and you choose the positive.

By Jon Gordon

It All Depends On How You Look At It??!!!

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, 'How was the trip?'

'It was great, Dad.'

'Did you see how poor people live?' the father asked.

'Oh yeah,' said the son.

'So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?' asked the father.

The son answered:

'I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.

We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.'

The boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added, 'Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.'

Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends!

THE QUEST

We strive because God knows that in the striving we will push ourselves to the point where we come to the reality that we need something more - that our will isn't big enough, that our strength isn't strong enough. It is then that we seek God with our whole heart. At this breaking point we realize we must tap into a power greater than ourselves. This allows us to become more than what we want to be. It inspires us and moves us to become everything God intends for us to be. The quest for greatness becomes a joy rather than a burden.

By Jon Gordon