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Mindset: Don’t Be Defined By A Definition

Mindset: Don’t Be Defined By A Definition

Success is not about big goals that one accomplishes which are planned for years. It’s about getting out of bed in the morning when the only thing you want to do is sleep and hide from the world. It’s about rising up and putting your feet on the floor when yielding to a feeling of failure seems normal. It’s about forcing a laugh when crying feels more natural. It’s about living through each day when death seems the only way to peace. This is success!

Success is a relative term but most will agree that it is defined as the accomplishment of something, an achievement even. In other words, it’s something that is gained. To some this is all it will ever be. But to others, it is not about the gain, but about battling the losses and continuing the fight. Their success is not defined by moving forward, but by not falling backward.  It’s a different world for those who give all just to maintain than it is for those who push forward with ease.

Success cannot be defined with one global meaning because individual meanings should only be defined by the particular obstacles each one of us must endure. There are as many worlds to live in as there are people on the planet. Each of us must overcome the obstacles in our own existence and each of must choose what we deem as a success based on those difficulties. Our happiness depends not on the obstacles in our lives but in the fact that we don’t allow them to keep us from us challenging them. Success should not be a definition for all to agree but a new cause each of us redefine every day.

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Mindset: All Yesterdays Die

Mindset: All Yesterdays Die

All circumstances pass away, they live and die within the moments that age us all. What is happening in this space and time will fade away and only the residue will remain. In each moment we must remember this truth. When we look over our lives and that of history, we see parcels of time where things were good or bad to different degrees. Those moments become lost in days and those days may become wrapped up in months and even into years. That period of time is remembered as a circumstance in our lives.

No matter how violent or frightening a circumstance is, it always fades into the dust of time. We then move forward as tomorrow pulls us out of yesterday bringing the residue of that circumstance with us but leaving the physical aspect of that time behind. That time in our lives then becomes a phantom that no longer harms us unless we allow it to haunt us and taunt the residue that is left inside us.

The evils of yesterday always reach beyond the grave to draw us back because of our unwillingness to let go of a memory or tragedy that no longer has any physical power over us. The very concept of a sunrise and sunset are that all things have a beginning and an end. Although thunderstorms will still come, they will not be yesterday’s storms. And in time, those new storms too will fade away in a future sunset. We must always carry with us that each new sunrise is our reminder to not be pulled out of yesterday but to willingly step anew into tomorrow.

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Mindset: Looking Beyond The Slivers

Mindset: Looking Beyond The Slivers

It is not from the evil of this world in which we are defined. Those acts of atrocity against humankind, the crimes of individuals in our everyday lives and the will of those to bring conflict and suffering are not who we are as a whole. They are mere slivers of a broken world which obstruct a clear view of what is mostly wholesome and good.

Our collective identity lies with those who work hard with pride and integrity to provide a living for those whom they love. It is apparent in the forgiveness that is given when forgiving is the most difficult of tasks and in the examples of our choices when the easiest choice is one that we choose not to be an option.

It is also in the kindness that we teach to our children who learn all too soon that the world is not a fair and just place and all too often not worthy of kindness and mercy. Further still, it lies the faith of those same children who continue the teachings of grace and mercy in spite of this knowledge.

So much of what we experience seems of a dark nature. We are engulfed in a world that appears to be crumbling but the fact that we still feel shocked and shame at the sight of evil is proof that immorality has not become commonplace in our hearts and minds and an accepted as a way of life. It is a belief that good does win out over evil and that we choose to rise above that which attempts to destroy us while building a future that will never crumble into dust.

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Mindset: We Are But Grains Of Sand

Mindset: We Are But Grains Of Sand

Most of us focus on our individual lives. We live in such a large world with numerous activities abound at every moment that we tend to remain in the small part of the world which makes sense to us. As a result, we become disconnected from others even as the technology works to bridge us closer together. This implies that we choose to be separated. But what if we were to perceive the world differently? Would this change not only affect ourselves but our involvement in the world?

How would our lives be different if each of us saw ourselves as grains of sand? What is the nature of sand? At times it attaches to other grains in an effort to build something or to be a part of something larger. Other times it blows singularly in the wind to other destinations. But it’s very essence is that it moves. It moves across oceans and continents to other places in a never ending process of migration with its nature never changing. It is a minuscule grain of sand that follows a plan much greater in scope than what it represents in size.

We mustn’t fight that which uproots us physically, mentally or emotionally because it will move us to where we are needed most. That wind that blows us or wave which carries us away is part of a greater plan that is meant to connect us to others for an ultimate purpose. It is part of a greater plan that we may never get to view in its entirety, but we do get to feel and know deep inside that we are a small part of a very large idea. If we simply accept that we are part of a plan, then the wind and the waves will always carry us to where we are a part of something better, something more meaningful.

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Mindset: One Moment Ago

Mindset: One Moment Ago

We live in a yield sign world where everyone and everything slows down but nothing seems to ever come to a complete stop. Life rushes by because we experience the world around us moving at ever-increasing speeds and if we are to keep up then we must flow with the rhythm of this world’s chaotic momentum.

However, we need to understand that the world only spins as quickly as each of us allow. We need to realize that it should not push us but instead be pushed by us as individuals in control of our lives. When our actions are done hurriedly and in haste then the very essence of those acts get lost in our attempt to keep moving forward.

Happiness has always been found within the small things of life. The moments we cherish are the few we actually take the time to explore and feel; the ones we carry with us and that save us when our world is in chaos and drifting off course in this vast universe. Every moment that we stop for and then savor is our natural reminder that the beauty of life is not in the expeditious manner in which we live it but in the leisurely way we experience it. 

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Mindset Origins: Our Universal Connection

Mindset Origins: Our Universal Connection

So often it seems the root of humanity stems from what we want instead of what others need. The desire to tend to our own comforts can build walls separating us from those who need us the most. It is not always a conscious act of neglect but more of an unwilling blindness that keeps us from the most important issues and people in our lives.

It is a simple gesture to give, one that requires only the choices to see and then to act. This simplicity has an awesome effect on both the giver and the receiver because it brings positivity, which sparks an internal change that never ceases to evolve. To need is something that each human experiences. Whether it be love, money, emotional support or simply a reason to continue believing, we all understand its purpose and that it connects us to each other. 

After truly experiencing the power of giving, we no longer see ourselves as individuals with personal desires but rather part of a large family whose needs for assistance lead us to the understanding that we are one family with a combined conscious that dictates we must help others so that we too may be helped. It is this unity which allows us not only survival but serenity. 

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Mindset: Blessings In Wolves’ Clothing

Mindset: Blessings In Wolves’ Clothing

The truth is that there have been moments in my life when I have loved being depressed. I loved it with a passion that I will never be able to explain to anyone who has never known madness. It’s power, freedom clarity and safety beyond understanding. It is a blessing lost within a curse that dies in a hot breath and is reborn in a simple sigh. It’s life through a pouring rain of hot bullets and gentle cool drops.

Found means nothing without the experience of being lost. We only find what we all truly seek in the chaos that leads us through darkness. Reason emerges because of that chaos which we need to find for explanation and purpose. Once found, it can be accepted, understood and used. Misery and joy are both guides in this life. Each takes us to destinations which give us both power and vulnerability. They are not good or evil, but life tools.

Your chaos will come. It always comes. But when it does, realize it as the blessing within the curse that it is. Suffer from it what you can to extract the enlightenment which is at its core. It is your purposeful journey to reason; your cost for recognizing happiness. Allow it to strengthen, teach and become a part of you which you can then control. True happiness is forged in the dark. Without it, joy is simply a myth we chase never seeing that it is not that it doesn’t exist, but that we simply don’t know it when it comes to light.

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Living In The Lost & Found

Living In The Lost & Found

For some, there will come a time when you will step out on faith and that faith will fail you. Only then and only by those who have experienced that loss will ever truly understand what it means to possess it. Many will make sacrifices and carry heavy burdens but that is not faith; those are actions and consequences. To step where there is no ground. To walk in darkness without light. To trust more than to fear, these are actually acts of faith.

There are few who truly test to see if there are boundaries of faith because there are so few who are willing to lose what they have gained. Real faith is not a gamble; it’s a willingness to sacrifice everything for one thing with only a belief. It’s a risk where all you are and all you possess that moment are at stake. There are no contingencies. You are alone, naked and exposed before all others.

Those few who take the risk walk in a different world than the rest. They experience their surroundings in different ways because they see depth even in the shallowest of existence while others remain blind to anything below the surface or beyond the horizon. They feel beyond natural barriers and sense a deeper understanding in all creation. Within them is a courage and a lunacy that outsiders cannot comprehend. And when that faith fails us, leaving us in despair, we grasp even tighter to it. Not because we are lost, but because we are found in that which only the truly trusting can ever know…that which is hope.

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The Elements of A Miracle

The Elements of A Miracle

Everything in existence is made up of different elements coming together at different times to form a specific creation. There is always a process, a chain of inputs and actions that produce the smallest of insects to the largest of solar systems. We are constantly surrounded by these seemingly never-ending processes and rarely realize their significance.

We have become so numb to the miracles all around us that we don’t even see ourselves as a miraculous creation any longer. Our struggles, disappointments, and losses become our primary focus while we ignore the awesomeness of our own existence, simply take it for granted.

There is limited understanding and agreement as to our origins but there should be no disagreement as to the knowledge that we and our natural surroundings are incredible creations filled with wonder. Our ideas, drive, passion, love and trust are all just small parts of us that we use to further creation. The significance of existence is to use it. We are the elements that are used to fill tomorrows with new miracles.

To focus only on ourselves, steals what we can we can bring forth to those tomorrows that are created for us. Progress is a creative process that derives from pushing our negative selves out of focus and our desire to overcome within it. If we do this while acknowledging that we are a miracle, then we can always know that what we create becomes one too.

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Mindset Origin: Darkness is Where You Can See

Mindset Origin: Darkness is Where You Can See

The first part of understanding is acceptance. There can be no enlightenment through denial. What we allow ourselves to feel and experience are the seeds that become the trees of knowledge and wisdom.

There is growth in the darkness of despair just as there is in the light of prosperity. We shield ourselves from fears and tragedies in hopes of escaping the sorrows that befall humanity. We close our eyes and withdraw from others to find sanctuary within ourselves, trying to avoid the bleak times upon us.

This causes us to lose sight of our potential to expand our understanding of life. What we refuse to see and acknowledge becomes our fears and our boundaries. When we choose not to know it, we take away our choice and opportunity to rise up above it and become illuminated in every darkness that follows.

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