Time To Start Listening To The Universe

My earlier post entitled "Find A Way Or Make One" caused me to meditate on aphorisms, and how they get restated or reiterated. Oftentimes, they endure, because the underlying truth is there, regardless of semantic differences.

One aphorism that resonated with me when I first heard it is, "The universe will keep sending you the same message until you finally get it."

It's coherent advice, whether you believe in a God, gods, a higher power, the wheel of karma or that we live in a Newtonian world of apparently stochastic events.

Even if you eschew the idea of a Higher Power, you probably still believe in cause and effect. Regardless of what your particular demons are, the consequences of being ruled by them are going to keep happening to you until you get over them.

You're going to keep receiving the same message, and it's telling you that "this isn't working" until you finally clue in and realize that if want a different result, you need a different process. Unhappy with the outcome? Change what you've been doing to get there.

Quote Of The Day, Now With Commentary

"If you want to do something you'll find a way, if you don't you'll find an excuse."

-- Unattributed

As fond as I am of motivational aphorisms, this is the one that's most dear to me. So much so that it's on my computer's screen saver.

It really speaks to me because, for me at least, it cuts both ways. It's 100% true for me, in that it reflects both the best and the worst of my character.

Since that quote says it all, I'm not going to belabour the obvious here. I'll just say that central to making big positive changes in your life is to figure out exactly what you really want. Not what you kind-of want in a vague, half-assed way, nor what it's hip or fashionable to want. No, find out what you really want, and once you know that you'll do the things to need to do to get it.

What You Feed Grows

If you have a garden, and you only fertilize the weeds, but not the flowers and the vegetables, then the plants you don't want will grow bigger and stronger than the plants you want.

The same thing is true with your thoughts. Most people have both good thoughts and bad thoughts running through their heads. Unfortunately, it's easy to fall into the bad habit of dwelling on and nurturing the bad thoughts. Like all habits, running a discouraging internal monologue can be a tough habit to break.

What you feed grows. Make the decision to dwell on and nurture postive thoughts about yourself and others. When negative thoughts come to you, put them aside and think about something else that's positive instead. In time, thinking positively will be as much of a habit as thinking negatively used to be.

Whatever Happens, You'll Handle It

It's all too easy to live in fear: fear of getting fired, fear of getting dumped, fear of cancer, fear of missing your bus, fear of fear itself.

Certainly the news media doesn't help much, constantly bombarding us with a whole litany of things that we're expected to be afraid of: disease, terrorists, pit bulls, serial killers and sexual deviants, not to mention telling us to be afraid of the air we breathe and the food we eat, and even the sun.

But what's the point? Why waste your mental energies fantasizing about scenarios where something terrible happens to you? That's no way to live. It's doubly true when you consider that the terrible things that people obsess over are either only remotely likely or completely trivial.

When a terrible thought comes to you, ask yourself: What's the worst that could happen? And then ask what's the worst that could happen after that. And after that. Once you reduce the chain of consequences and take a wider view, you'll see that your mountains are merely molehills. If you apply yourself and realize just how much is within your power to change, you'll realize that nothing is ever as bad as you fear.

If anything, the anticipatory fear of an event is far worse than the event itself.

When beset by Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, tell yourself "Whatever happens, I'll handle it." Believe in yourself. You've handled what life has dealt you in the past, the future should be no different.