Appreciating Life

APPRECIATING LIFE

The mindset that something great and wonderful has to happen before we can be happy is a myth. If you believe that winning a prize or buying yourself that great item that you've been wanting so long is going to make you happy, you're absolutely right. It will make you happy...for about two hours. Then you'll be looking for something else to bring on that shot of joy. Take pleasure out of the little things in life that happen more frequently and you'll find the long term solution to true happiness.

The weather feels so very much cooler after days of extreme hotness. Your loved ones seem so much more precious whenever they've been away. You truly appreciate and value your good health after recovering from a difficult and prolonged illness. You learn new respect for financial discipline after working your way out of a burdensome debt. It’s easy and natural to appreciate the good things after you’ve experienced life without them. Take a moment to feel, to sincerely feel, how good life is. Breathe in the magnificent possibilities of this unique place and time. Fully experience the wonderful and amazing fact that you are here. You are alive and aware, and in a position to make all sorts of great things happen.

Sometimes small acts of kindness can bring just as much joy as the big ones that everyone hears about. Start noticing the little things people do, even if they aren't being done for you, and appreciate the goodness that still lies in people's hearts. You might see someone give up their sit in a bus for a woman who is standing with two kids or someone much older. A driver on a busy highway might slow down to give you access as you merge from the entrance ramp. The person at the end of a business call might give you a sincere wish to have a great day even though the transaction doesn't even call for anything other than a professional attitude. These are small things, but when we notice them, they can really warm our hearts and build our faith in the human spirit.

Right now, you have the opportunity for another magnificent day of being you. Life’s immense goodness is yours with which to work. Focus your thoughts on the good and valuable things that are. Focus your heart on the good and fulfilling things that can be. Your existence in this moment, on this day, is nothing short of a miracle. Celebrate the goodness, and commit yourself to spreading it far and wide. Feel the rich, authentic joy that is the joy of being you. Now, on this day, let it flow out into all you know, and see, and do.

CHIOICES

The Choices We Make . . . . . . .

The alarm went off. Should I get up, or hit the snooze?

Should I take a shower, brush my teeth, stretch, exercise, eat breakfast?

If I eat breakfast what should I eat? Cereal, eggs or maybe I should go out?

Should I read the paper, watch the news, check my email…?

What should I wear?

Open the closet and there are so many choices---the blue shirt, the white shirt?

Finally I am ready to go to work; or maybe I should call in sick?

Ok, I know I have to go to work. So should I take the same route, or try a new one?

Wow, it has not even been an hour since I woke up and I have had endless choices.  That is what life is, endless choices.  Every moment of every day we have choices, we just don’t stop to think of it that way. The truth is that the number of choices we have are infinite. 

Have you ever stopped to think about how the choices we make in our lives can change our lives forever. So many times the choices we make are irreversible. With just one simple choice you can change the direction that your life is headed.

                                                    

Everyone is at a crossroads each moment of each day – it’s just that we never stop to reflect on the fact that each minute decision we make can have life changing consequences. Little choices we make thoughtlessly, mindlessly, change the very course of our life.

Sure, it is true that we don’t always have a choice of what happens, we cannot choose the weather or every other event.  However no matter what is happening we can choose what we do.

Two things to remember life is never perfect and road we take can become bumpy and painful because of the choices we make along the way. Yes, there may be times we make choices that cause our path to become bumpy, confusing and uncertain. It’s the choice we make that shapes our life even when life brings us the unexpected or unpleasant.

All the choices that we make will not always be good, but hopefully we will learn something from those bad choices that we make on life's journey. Sometimes we make good choices and sometimes we make bad choices. Usually the bad choices were made before we thought about the repercussions of those choices.

Never mind the actions we can take, the attitude while we are doing anything has a huge range of choices. We can choose to be mad, rude, obnoxious, kind, enthusiastic, negative, positive, friendly, mean and more. 

Our attitude will be one of the most important factors in the results in our life choices.