Self-delusion is pulling in your stomach when you step on the scale

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“Self-delusion is pulling in your stomach when you step on the scale.”

—Paul Sweeney, Member of the Scottish Parliament

Image from Unsplash by i yunmai

How often do you find yourself operating as your own PR firm, with your inner voice painting a rosy picture?

How often do you try to fool yourself by denying the realities about you and around you?

Many people do this with their personal appearance. In our youth-worshiping world, we often compare and contrast ourselves to those genetically lucky folks with perfect figures and six-pack abs.

Our propensity to judge others and ourselves can be a constant source of dissatisfaction and denial.

Looking back at the starlight from earlier times only makes us miss the current moments we’re fortunate enough to experience.

EXERCISE:

In what ways are you deluding yourself from seeing the realities of your life?

How would a more honest and objective view of things lighten your load and improve your overall attitude?

Welcome the present moment as an invited guest

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Welcome the present moment as an invited guest.

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Felicia Buitenwerf

What is your typical mood and attitude in the following situations? These are examples of positive and negative “creative tension.”

  • Friday afternoons, heading into the weekend
  • Sunday nights, before a busy week at work
  • Packing for an upcoming vacation
  • Heading to your doctor for medical testing
  • Getting a clean bill of health after a physical
  • Doing your taxes
  • Learning you’re getting a sizable refund on your taxes

When we have seemingly positive events in our future we’re up, and when impending negative situations loom, we’re down.

What about all of those in-between moments that seem rather bland or neutral?

EXERCISE:

How can you improve your mood and shift your attitude by welcoming more of the moments of your life?

A friend of mine uses the phrase It’s All Good to express his daily appreciation of simply being alive.

Friday Review: Ability

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Friday Review: Ability

Are you living up to your fullest abilities? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.

“Of all knowledge, the wise and good seek most to know themselves.”

 

 

 

 

“We are capable of greater things than we realize.”

 

 

 

 

“Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.”

 

 

 

 

 

“The heart is not a knee that can be bent.”

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“The heart is not a knee that can be bent.”

—Senegalese proverb

Image from Unsplash by Willian de Oliveira

We live in two fifty-five and older senior communities — one in Pennsylvania, one in Florida. For many of us, the added trips around the sun come with various maladies — including conditions related to the wear and tear on hips, shoulders, and — given today’s quote — knees.

Some of the people I know have experienced many of these conditions on multiple occasions. What always inspires me are their courageous hearts, which have them face their challenges and continue to take each step to live as fully and meaningfully as possible.

EXERCISE:

How does your own courageous heart help you stand tall and steady when life tries to bend you over and knock you down?

There are miracles in me waiting their own turn to happen

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“There are miracles in me waiting their own turn to happen. I am never giving up on myself.”

—Rupi Kaur, Canadian poet, illustrator, and photographer

Image from Unsplash by Towfiqu barbhuiya

My wife and I recently finished watching the 46th season of the TV show Survivor. To keep the viewer’s interest the game moves faster and has many more twists and turns than a formula one race.

Instead of a 39-day format each new season is squeezed into 26 days where a widely diverse group of people are placed on an island where their physical, mental, and social skills are tested to their limits and beyond.

I’ve added the word beyond because of the transformative impact this game has on many of the contestants.

Along with the potential of winning a million dollars, a high percentage of players discover new levels of grit and determination that laid dormant prior to the challenges they face by the game and their opponents.

EXERCISE:

What miracles in you are waiting their turn to happen? How can you rally your belief in yourself to not only survive but thrive playing the game of life?

“Allocate time well ahead of time.”

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“Allocate time well ahead of time.”

—Arthur C. Brooks, Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School

Image from Unsplash by Luke Chesser

“Time management” is a misnomer. Time flies while having fun, and moves along on its own even when we’re not having such a good time.

I prefer the term allocate, as in today’s quote. It conveys levels of intentionality and prioritization in the way many people try to wisely save and spend their money.

Time is life’s ultimate currency.

We only get so much and when it’s gone it’s gone. Investing this precious resource reminds me of the phrase, Plan your work and Work your plan.

Even when we are not working it seems wise to allocate significant periods of our days to the priorities of family, community, health, and leisure to keep things operating optimally.

EXERCISE:

In what areas of your life would allocating your time more wisely make the biggest difference? What blocks of time works best for you to apply this planning practice?

Notice nothingness. Discover the peace and power in the presence of absence.

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Notice nothingness. Discover the peace and power in the presence of absence.

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Noah Silliman

Have you ever spent time in an isolation chamber? Not me!

I think that would be too much nothing. What about the use of room darkening shades and a set of noise cancellation headphones?

We tend to live in a noisy, lights-on world where the presence of absence is absent.

How and where do you escape the barrage of stimuli that can drain your power and disturb the peace?

EXERCISE:

Where in your world is it possible to turn down the volume and turn off the lights?

Try a few experiments this week and discover the peace and power in their absence.

Try playing with your other senses and see where your mind wanders in this open field of awareness.

Friday Review: Wonder

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Friday Review: Wonder

Is there space in your world for Wonder? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.

“You don’t have to lose something to be searching.”

 

 

 

Bask in the wonderment of being a conscious part of the universe.

 

 

 

“The cult of productivity has its place, but worshiping at its altar daily robs us of the very capacity for joy and wonder that makes life worth living.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Purpose is the reason you journey. Passion is the fire that lights your way.

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“Purpose is the reason you journey. Passion is the fire that lights your way.”

—Anonymous

Image from Unsplash by Brett Jordan

Passion and purpose are definitely the one-two punch of success and achievement.

Having one without the other is often not enough for us to persist and stay the course.

Many of us feel the pull of purpose to begin our journeys only to be faced with dark times that slow us down or stop us completely.

To keep the lights on and the fires burning we need the inner flames of passion when we stumble.

Passion give us the strength and resilience to pick ourselves up and take the next step and the next.

EXERCISE:

How passionate and purposeful do you feel in your current personal and professional efforts?

How can you summon this powerful pair to punch through anything that may be standing in your way?

A vision is not just a picture of what could be

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“A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.”

—Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor of business at Harvard Business School

Image of the Methuselah Pine, from wikimedia.org

Did you know that many of the oldest and largest living things on the planet are trees?

The current record-holder for an individual, non-clonal tree is a great basin bristlecone pine from California, called Methuselah.

Through tree-ring cross referencing, it has been shown to be almost 5,000 years old.

Imagine yourself as this tree, living for five millennia.

Think of its skyward vision and continuous growth to become something more with each new branch and leaf.

EXERCISE:

What are some of your most powerful visions?

How do they appeal to your better self and call you to grow and become something more?