Random Thoughts #12 – The Affirmation Spot for Thursday November 19, 2009

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Check out our new affirmation apps for Apple devices or search i-mobilize on the iTunes store. The Affirmation Spot is developing these motivation apps in partnership with i-mobilize. Click an app to view it – Love Magnet, Sales Booster, Confidence Affirmation, or Full Body Scan, and many more.

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Following are some random thoughts that have occurred to me lately. Love to share these occasionally.

• Fear distorts, anger destroys, doubt limits. Love expands, prospers, and transforms. Where will you live today?
• Looked at in the right way, a loss is a win with bigger lessons.
• When there is nothing at risk there is nothing to gain.
• Freedom is a tsunami ready to permanently drown the nightmares of tyranny and dogma.
• Love is the light, freedom the path, empowerment the goal.
• Challenges in life are not a signal to quit. They are a signal that success is near. The Universe never challenges failure.
• Success never comes knocking on your door. Success comes knocking on your heart.

Stay inspired!

Ray

2009 Affirmation

“This year I am absolutely committed to being the person I came here to be!”

The Promise of A New Life – The Affirmation Spot for Thursday November 12, 2009

Check Out Our Cool New Affirmation Apps:

Check out our new affirmation apps for Apple devices or search i-mobilize on the iTunes store. The Affirmation Spot is developing these motivation apps in partnership with i-mobilize. Click an app to view it – Love Magnet, Sales Booster, Confidence Affirmation, or Full Body Scan.

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Today’s affirmation is:

 

“Difficulities are doorways to something better than I had planned.”

“The entire cosmos is made up of clashing forces and polarities, yet without this seeming conflict, the universe itself could not exist. Life is a dance of opposites that involves destruction, rebirth, pain, and joy.”

~ David Fideler

The powerful symbology is important in Fideler’s quote. We have many of familiar aphorisms that confirm this idea such as, “It’s always darkest just before the dawn,” or even that famous gym affirmation “no pain, no gain.”

It is certainly a very old and very common human concept that out of pain, difficulty, and death comes new life. The Hindus recognize this interplay in their personification of Shiva, “The God of Destruction,” who is also recognized as the “Bringer of New Birth.” The Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Naht Hanh talks about the cycle of the beautiful rose that dies, becomes garbage, and then can be used as fertilizer to grow a new rose.

For whatever reason, adversity is often the birthplace of the best things in our lives. Think about your own past. Even though you dread the pain and struggle that comes with tough times, were those times not the seeds of some of your greatest triumphs?

So, am I extolling the virtues of pain and suffering? Suggesting that you should go looking for difficulty as a kind of initiation experience leading the greater joy? No.

As the saying goes, “Into every life, a little rain must fall.” We all face the proverbial winter in our lives. Things seem bleak, lifeless, maybe even hopeless. Yet, even on the coldest day of winter, the signs of new life are only inches below the surface waiting to emerge.

This is just a reminder – in case you are experiencing one of those times right now or for when you experience it in the future – to always be looking for the spring sprouts of new life. You can count on them always being there, if only you look closely enough. For as surely as the seasons come and go in nature, they come and go in our lives.

Hope everyone is enjoying spring in their lives today, but if not be looking for its signs.

Be peaceful Be prosperous

Ray

2009 Affirmation

“This year I am absolutely committed to being the person I came here to be!”

Veteran’s Day 2009 – The Affirmation Spot for Wednesday November 11, 2009

“The first casualty when war comes is truth.”

~ Hiram Johnson

It is fitting that once a year we reserve a day to remember those who have given their lives or at least their all in the service of our country. Sacrifice for others is a noble and rare quality. The men and women who choose that path are to be commended.

The question is how do we honor our veterans? Do we honor them by refusing – as our government is – to look into the impacts of Vietnam’s Agent Orange impacts, Gulf War Syndrome, or the current impacts of depleted uranium exposure? Do we honor them by cutting their benefits by providing shoddy healthcare?

Do we honor them by giving away the freedoms they fought because we are constantly fearmongered into doing so?

If we are going to ask them to risk their lives then we have an obligation for compel government to take care of them when they come home. We have an obligation for compel the government to abide by the Constitution and maintain the freedoms they swore to defend.

As we honor those willing to go to battle, never should we be more unwilling to honor battle itself. We should recognize that it is not only the soldier in battle who preserves freedom.  It is also the teachers of peace who show us another way. It is also the citizen who holds leaders accountable for the orders they give to soldiers and for wars of choice.

A society that glorifies and reverences war cannot know peace. We must guard our own thoughts against and guide our national direction away from that glorification. Honor the soldier….yes. Honor war and leaders who misuse it. No.

Some of the greatest 20th century American generals and leaders have wise words for us on this day.

“I have known war as few men now living know it. It’s very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.”

~ General Douglas Macarthur

“Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.”

~ General Omar Bradley

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

~ General Dwight Eisenhower

“Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.”

~ John F. Kennedy

Veteran’s Day Affirmations

• “Today I remember and thank those who have sacrificed so much to give me the life I enjoy.”
• “Even as I support the troops, I work diligently for a world where their role is unnecessary.”
• “When my [insert loved one] is deployed I can feel weak and alone. Today I know I am strong and supported!”

The real goal of Veteran’s Day should not be only to honor veterans, but to commit ourselves to have fewer veterans to honor. The soldier’s duty is to follow orders. The citizen’s duty is to hold leaders accountable for the orders they give.

Stay inspired!

Ray

2009 Affirmation

“This year I am absolutely committed to being the person I came here to be!”

The Power of L.O.S.S. – The Affirmation Spot for Tuesday November 10, 2009

Check Out Our Cool New Affirmation Apps:

Check out our new affirmation apps for Apple devices or search i-mobilize on the iTunes store. The Affirmation Spot is developing these motivation apps in partnership with i-mobilize. Click an app to view it – Love Magnet, Sales Booster, Confidence Affirmation, or Full Body Scan.

 

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Many people see losing or a loss as a very negative thing. Like anything else, losing is all in how you look at it. A well-studied loss can be every bit as valuable in our journey as a victory. I’m not saying that losing is more fun than winning or that winning isn’t valuable. Clearly, we all want to win.

The truth is that most winners had to experience losing before they ever succeeded. So what if you chose to look at your losses in a slightly different light. A loss might be seen as Lessons and Obstacles on your way to Stunning Successes.

 

 

 

• L – Lessons: Losing nearly always provides some lessons and some clues on how to improve. If you pay attention to the things that contributed to the loss, you can apply those lessons to future situations. Given time, you find the winning combination.
• O – Obstacles – Losses are clearly obstacles. After all, your goal was to win or succeed. However, an obstacle might challenge you to improve or increase your determination to succeed. Used as mental and emotional leverage, a good obstacle can propel you to future victories.
• S – Stunning – Losing can get you down and make you feel unworthy. In that dark moment of loss, remember to see what a stunning miracle you are. You are a diamond in the rough slowly being polished into something very special.
• S – Successes – Success is that moment of break through when the journey of loss has been transformed into victory. The lessons, obstacles, and seeing how stunning you are kept you on track to enjoy the sweet taste of success.

So you see a loss is never loss. It’s an opportunity, an invitation to a journey of self-discovery, stretching yourself, and new achievement.

Stay inspired!

Ray

2009 Affirmation

“This year I am absolutely committed to being the person I came here to be!”

Success Is…. – The Affirmation Spot for Friday November 6, 2009

Check Out Our Cool New Affirmation Apps:

Check out our new affirmation apps for Apple devices or search i-mobilize on the iTunes store. The Affirmation Spot is developing these motivation apps in partnership with i-mobilize. Click an app to view it – Love Magnet, Sales Booster, Confidence Affirmation, or Full Body Scan.

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There are as many definitions of success as there are people. Many people see success as status or financial abundance. While others see it as feeling happy or living in peace. What does success or successful mean to you? I recently asked this question on Twitter and here were some of the responses I received.

• @ScrapbookLatino
  Success: Emotional state achieved when PERSONAL, not external, dreams/goals materialize.
• @DrCathySubber
  Success: waking up everyday excited abt wht i’m doing whether its work, kids, networking or just having fun 4 the day!
• @terrysweetser
  Success: To learn from failure.
• @PamelaBruner
  Success: Living in alignment with my values, enjoying every day!
• @blissmonger
  Success: autonomy belonging contribution solitude delight challenge display creativity diligence curiosity articulation integrity.
• @narjoy
  Success: achieving your goals, no matter how small.

I’d love to hear your definition of success. Leave a comment to share what success means to you.

Stay inspired!

Ray

2009 Affirmation

“I am absolutely committed to being the person I came here to be!”