No-Limit Thinking
Out of the box thinking means that we look at something with a beginners mind. There is a proverb that says “In the beginner’s mind that are many possibilites. In the expert’s mind there are few.”
There is also a story about a young man in college that was late for class and so when he did the math homework he didn’t know that the extra credit problem was one that no one had been able to solve, and because he didn’t know he couldn’t, he did it.
So approach the challenges in your life with a beginners mind and write down all of the possible solutions on a piece of paper – write down everything that enters into you head, no matter how silly. This is called “no limit thinking” and it gets the creative juices flowing. It’s amazing how many good ideas come from the beginners mind – you might just solve your unsolvable problems!
Circle of 5
Your circle of 5 – the 5 people that you associate with the most have a powerful and subtle influence over you. Your associations don’t shove you in a direction, but rather like floating in an inner tube in the ocean, you drift towards the same behaviors they have. This group determines as much as 95% of your sucess or failure in life according to Dr. David McClelland of Harvard. They end up determining what we say, how we think, our attitudes, even how we dress – and for most of us we aren’t even aware of it happening. That being said, what are the attitudes, health, and behaviors of the 5 people that you associate most with? Then ask yourself is this who I want to be? Your relationships can nuture you or keep you stuck. Evaluate and shift your life starting today.
Possibilities
Choose to look at the possibilities. Life should be about the next open door, not the one closing behind us. We choose our joys and sorrows by the attitude that we bring to our experiences.
Clutter
To experience a simplified life, we first have to learn to slow down long enough to see through all the clutter. The clutter is everything that we fill up our lives with sometimes by choice and sometimes by default which is also a choice – your job, the appointments you make in your life, your email, FB, TV, errands, work, school…, look at all of it. The busyness of our lives that causes us to say that we don’t have enough time to do it all. Our choices created this chaos and our choices can change the chaos. So slow down – examine what is truly important and simply your life – use your choices to pluck out the time wasters, so that you have time for what is truly important.
I Choose
This is going on my bulletin board to remind me every day I have the choice to create my life and not to settle or discount what I want as unimportant.
Meditation
Just heard something that I love. “When you pray you are asking, when you meditate the answers come” – made me wonder how many of us ask and then assume that no one is listening because what we ask for isn’t immediately manifesting. So the question is are we listening for the answers? What we want isn’t going to magically appear. The answers we get in mediatation are going to be what you need to do (yes actions) in order to find the answers to living your life on purpose and having the happiness and joy that we all deserve in our lives.
Expand
At 40 the eagle must go through a painful life change. The eagles beak and talons are bent and worn. It must break out its beak against the rocks. Then when the new beak has grown in, it will pull out the old talons and feathers to grow new ones. This takes 5 months. The eagle can live for 30 more years. If the eagle doesn’t do this it will die. Many times in order to grow we need to break, tear or pluck out what no longer serves us. We need to open the space for our lives to expand into new ways of being.
Inspiration
Inspiration always comes…we just have to be still enough to notice it. I think that this is why the idea always pokes its way out when we are busy doing something that doesn’t demand our complete attention. It lets the mind wander enough to let the thought through. So stop trying to figure it out and go for a walk or take a shower and in the stillness, see what emerges.
Destiny
Destiny. Everyone has one, but some let their destiny happen to them and some pursue what they want their destiny to be! What about you? Your destiny is the dream that lies within you and the things that we choose each day are what lead us to that destiny: Our actions or lack thereof, our words, our attitudes, and our relationships. They all add up and shape what we reach as our destiny.
Ripples
You know how you feel inside when you have a day that is going great, the kind where every stop light is green and says go? Give that feeling to everyone you meet today. It feels good for you, it will spread out into the world & just maybe even impact the life of another. It could be the stone thrown into the lake that, long after the ripples are over, has changed the world.
Integrity
Restore your integrity wherever you have stepped out of it. It is the little things that when ignored, turn into large issues. We get angry and we we make it the other persons fault. We are irritated by someone at work and we lose patience with our spouse or child at home and overreact to the situation. We promise to do something that we don’t really want to do and then back out at the last second. All items that take us out of integrity. Make amends, correct the situation, shift the balance.
Impulsive
Impulsive decisions are the ones that lead us into trouble. We need to stop before each deicion, even if it is only for a moment, to clarify our goals. Is the information clear or clouded by emotions? What are all of the alternatives? Do we need to use our willpower to overcome temptation? Looking forward in time, will this decision move us forward or lead us into regret?