Do not be too concerned about distant situations and resources you may not have now.
In every case -- What is Close to You Holds the Most for You -- in reaching your dream state.
It is by doing the unpleasant with joy and focus that we learn to do the impossible.
A man is a fool not to put everything he has, at any given moment, into what he is creating.
Do better those things you already do well and nothing else will matter.
Out in the desert of ten thousand distractions, these ten words can be the path to get you back home:
"Stay the most true to what is the most you".
Your desires for BIG success, joy and relationships have their place. Yet, do not allow the BIG to distract you from the smaller, everyday successes, joys and relationships -- available every moment.
Also, giving your best for the smaller successes, joys and relationships will make your life full and will make you deserving of the BIG, regardless of the actual outcome.
Our jobs are to create, clearly and strongly, the "What" of our lives, and then to trust the Universe for the exactly right "When, Where, Who, and How".
Discovering your radiance
Basically, radiance is a state of being rather than something you do, but there are some practices that can help to uncover your natural glow.
Being present. The mind is like a butterfly that flits from one flower to the next. Seldom do we find ourselves nestled in the excuisite and eternal ocean of here and now. When you are, you can connect with your true self that is beyond the chattering of your mind. When you take the effort to focus your drifting consciousness to become fully awake to the present moment, you will discover the glorious light that dwells within you.
Before you can follow the Beauty and Wisdom of your own true star, you must be certain and content that, forever, for you, all else is pointless darkness.
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
What is more Paradise than a single, clear obstacle worth overcoming?
"Don't become weary in doing good. If we are patient, we can experience the change of heart we seek. For most of us this will require only a slight change of course, sending us toward true north. The adjustments we must make are in those 'small things,' but that does not mean they are easy. Too many forces are confusing our compass. But the pull to the polar star is one we recognize. It is the direction toward home."
How could any entrepreneur, confronted by such amazing opportunities to help transform the world and to do so with such extraordinary colleagues, be tempted to lose focus? Especially since the work involves such breadth that the boredom of routine or specialization does not exist.
Next time you are designing a process, a product, or a service, ask yourself, “What can I remove?” For most consumers, simplicity is more important than comprehensiveness (and complexity).
The concept of “taking away” is also a great time management technique. In addition to your “to do” list, be sure to create a “don’t do” list. Become masterful at killing products, eliminating non-value adding tasks, and removing old/pointless habits.
I have never found a problem with people from different religions
praying together. What I have found is that people are just hungry
for God, and be they Christian or Muslim we invite them to pray with
us. There is a large percentage of Muslims in our mission houses in
Spain and France and they want to pray. So that is our main focus,
to encourage them to pray, to have a relationship with God, however
that may be, because when you have that then everything else will
follow.
If not You then Who;
If not Now then When?
Wanting to be better in performance is like wanting to be happy -- it is very difficult to get there directly. It is much wiser, first, to focus on the building blocks -- and, in the case of performance, the building blocks are commitment, resilience and ruthless disregard for distractions.
Live where your Passion finds a purpose, effort is just another word for Joy, and rest is the only distraction you allow .
As in rock climbing without a rope -- in living your purpose without excuses, there are no casual, trivial distractions.
"A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others, is stronger than any physical force in the universe. "
Think about it. When we are so focused on achieving our goals, we often miss big, life-changing opportunities. Yes, opportunity knocks often, sometimes softly. And more often than not, sometimes loudly. Opportunity could be screaming and yelling at us, and yet we ignore it. People who live goal-free are constantly watching for new opportunities that present themselves in unexpected ways. With open minds—and open eyes—they’re able to identify opportunities anywhere, even in unlikely places, and anytime, even in tragedy. They keep their minds clear of clutter to allow subtle messages to appear, because on the road of life you need to be on the lookout for hidden signposts.
When walking, just walk. When sitting, just sit. But above all don't wobble!
What are the most important characteristics for success?
For me it's a dedication to your real interests. It's an ability to be open-minded. Without an open-minded mind, you can never be a great success. The great artists have been open-minded, even though they may seem, like Picasso, to be very directed, you can be directed and open-minded at the same time. I think you have to be really intensely serious about your work, but not so serious that you can't see the lightness that may also involve your life. You have to have that lightness too. You have to not be so heavy-handed and so ostentatious. It's very important not to be.
When one eye is fixed upon your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the way.
“Beliefs can easily cause us to become blind to the obvious. Recent research on ‘inattentional blindness’ has shown that even minor tweaks to one’s expectations can cause a form of blindness. A simple experiment developed by University of Illinois psychologist Daniel Simons provided a dramatic demonstration of this effect. …
Simon’s experiment consists of a twenty-five second video clip of six people playing a basketball game. Three are dressed in white T-shirts and three in black T-shirts. The white team is passing a basketball amongst themselves, and the black team is doing likewise. During the game, a person dressed in a black gorilla suit calmly walks into the middle of the game, beats its chest, and then walks off. The gorilla is not understated or camouflaged – it’s blatantly obvious. And yet the majority of people viewing the clip do not see the gorilla provided they’re given a very simple instruction: count the number of basketballs tossed between the members wearing white T-shirts. This minor deflection of attention is enough to cause complete blindness to something as obvious as a gorilla. The power of deflecting attention is well known to stage magicians, who specialize in creating such illusions.”
Focus on stillness, rather than on movement
Don't go through life, grow through life.
Do what you're doing while you're doing it.
Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor on what they ought to do.
There is great power in focusing on what you want..... The person who tries to do everything accomplishes nothing. Most people try to be all things to everyone. And so they end up being nothing to anyone. Confucius nailed the point: "Person who chases two rabbits catches neither."
