Self-confidence

In my opinion, self-confidence is just an expectation of a positive outcome. When you have self-confidence and expect the outcome to be positive, then you are more willing to stay in the fight until you have reached your objective. You will become more willing to do whatever it takes to prepare yourself because you believe the efforts will pay off. It’s not having confidence by itself that produces success.

            Many people walk around full of confidence, but never have the expectation of a positive outcome. Work backwards. First, see the lifestyle you desire. See success first in your mind. This will then give you the self-confidence to start the project.

            Self-confidence is like the game of baseball. If you want to score, you must first get to first base. You can’t score from first base so you must do whatever it takes to get to second base. There are different ways to get to second base, or at least to move to third base. Here are the ways to score from third base. A hit will bring you in; a fly ball to outfield, and an error will bring you in as well. Even walking while the bases are loaded will bring you in. A wild pitch or a pass ball will do. A catcher’s interference will do it and a ground out that does not result in the third out will do it. You see, just having the confidence, you will score. The chances increase dramatically as you put forth the effort to increase your odds of scoring. Life is the same way.

            People cannot envision success because the distance from first base to home looks too far, so they really never try. Self-confidence without an expectation of a positive outcome, is just wishing and you and I both know that wishing alone will not accomplish anything. So grab a bat and see yourself scoring in the game of life. Expect to score and prepare yourself to do whatever it takes. Look at the faces of the winning team when they score the winning run. Then, look at the faces of the losing team and you decide which face is yours.

Today’s Exercise: Start seeing things from the end.

Today’s Affirmation: I am enthusiastic and confident.

Points to Ponder: Self-confidence is just an expectation of a positive outcome.

Positive Thinking

Faith is nothing more than a concerted effort to convey to your Subconscious Mind the thoughts that you want to manifest in your life. Faith means thinking of what you want not what you don’t want. Faith is discipline; it means refusing to accept the negative or to even think about the negative. It takes a bold person to make this stand and if you pronounce your faith out loud, you will stand the ridicule of all the negative people, which unfortunately is the bulk of our society.

Faith in a sense is trusting in God. Now most people trust in God, and they see no connection between how their lives are run and the intervention of God. Most people feel they have no direct contact with God until they die and then there is this big judgment party and you either go to Heaven or Hell. Imagine standing in line and your number is nine hundred forty-seven billion, six hundred million, eight hundred forty-six thousand, one hundred thirty-nine. That’s a long wait to find out where you are going. Now imagine going to Hell for eternity because of a few transgressions in your lifetime of one hundred years or less. Try to comprehend eternity. I remember in third grade in Catholic school I asked the nun if I ate meat on Friday and I died would I go straight to hell. She said yes, and it rocked my world. I told her that I had a Jewish friend who had chicken soup every Friday night. Is he going to Hell? Well, she realized she was getting in too deep, so she whacked me across the knuckles with a ruler and told me to sit down and shut up.

            I’m kind of curious, all those people who ate meat on Fridays during the 1920s to the 1950s did they get a pardon when the Pope did away with this sin. Think of all lives ruined because of a lack of understanding of our faith. Wouldn’t it be great if the great religions of this planet would teach love, kindness, positive thinking, and our connection to God and to every other human being on this planet instead of fear, pain, judgment, and everlasting Hell? People who die for their religion, die for nothing. People who die for faith, for their fellow human being, make the greatest sacrifice a human can make. God does not want us to suffer, to fail, or be despondent. God wants us to succeed, to feel good, to be happy, and love one another as ourselves. This is the message that Jesus and all the other holy lords have taught us.

“As ye believe, so shall it be done unto you.” – Jesus Christ

Today’s Exercise: Make up your mind that God does not destroy itself.

Today’s Affirmation: The kingdom of God is within me.

Points to Ponder: Faith means thinking of what you want not what you don’t want. “As ye believe, so shall it be done unto you.” – Jesus Christ

A Stress Busting Attitude

Developing a positive, stress-busting attitude, is the first step to taking charge of stress. Remember: Your can’t control many things that happen to you, but you can control your attitude. One technique to thwart stress involves doing a “Gross Impact Activity.”  Pound something to release tension in a productive way. Opportunities to fight stress range from hitting a punching bag, running, jogging, or cleaning up the garage or yard.

            As pressures build in the office, you may vent in frustration or anger, which only raises the level of stress around you. Other employees may absorb the pent-up stress that you release.

            Accountability is one of the keys to defusing stress. You may not be operating from a position of accountability. I recommend these steps to build accountability.

                        1. Adopt the right attitude.

                        2. Be accountable yourself.

                        3. Hold others accountable.

                        4. Write down your priorities.

                        5. Make and expect commitments.

                        6. Get and give support.

            In order to manage yourself, I recommend creating two types of lists:

                        1. A master To Do List

                        2. A six month, Important Things To Do List

Remember:“ If you change the way you handle stress, the stress you handle will dissipate.”

Today’s Exercise: Make your lists.

Today’s Affirmation: I am a calm, peaceful and patient person.

Points to Ponder: Accountability is one of the keys to defusing stress.

Who Am I - Life Questions

These are probably the three most important questions that any human being can ask.  The religions of the world have their answer for these questions, but in my opinion, they would be wrong.  All religions at their base teach love for God and love for your fellow mankind. However, at that point they start to differ on the above three questions. 

Question #1: Who am I?  Most religions don’t really answer this question.  Usually you will get that we are human beings with a soul.  For question #2: “Why am I here?” they say we are here to prove our worthiness to go to Heaven when this life is done.  We are here to obey certain laws of conduct; if we violate these laws then we could possibly go to hell for all eternity when we die.  For question #3: “Where am I going?” some religions say our final destination is one of three places: heaven, hell or purgatory.  That we will be judged by God for breaking the laws set up by individual religions. 

Who am I?

You are pure spirit, cast into a human mold as a manifestation of Divine Intelligence, existing this little while on Earth to help carry on the Divine Plan.  Being pure spirit, you are a part of the only intelligence there is and all the power and understanding of this intelligence are yours to draw upon.

Why am I here?

The only reasonable and intelligent answer that makes sense to me is that the Universal Superconscious Mind (GOD) is seeking to know itself by becoming things because it cannot know itself as infinity.  Thus we are born, we live, we have free will, we do well, we do badly, we suffer, and we die.  All the while we are expanding our consciousness.  GOD seeks to know itself by becoming you and me and every other thing in the Universe.  Thus, human purpose is destined to expand self-consciousness to Infinity.

Where am I going?

To understand Infinity, we need to be infinite.  Our body will clearly die, but our soul, our Subconscious Mind will never die.  Neither was it ever born.  What do the Great Teachers of all time keep saying?  WE ARE ONE WITH GOD! And GOD has no intention of doing anything with your soul except to bring it back home where it belongs.

Here is a theory that makes a lot of sense to me!

There is no such place in the hereafter as Heaven or Hell.  Heaven or Hell is right here on Earth.  We either live a happy, fruitful and rewarding life or we live an unhappy and meaningless life.  The devil and sin are non-existent and are creations made up by early religions to put fear into the hearts of people in order to control them.

God is everything in the Universe, God is us and we are God.

God is love, beauty, and the truth.  To understand God fully, think of God as the ocean and of mankind as individual drops of water in the ocean.  When you come into this life God places your soul (subconscious mind) into a new body and you are born.  The purpose of this life is to enjoy the experience and to grow in enlightenment.  When we die (there is no death, just a transition from one realm to another) our soul, that little drop of water, goes back into the ocean (God) to reincarnate over and over.  God does not judge, God does not condemn, God does not punish.  Our soul, our subconscious mind, that little drop of water is infinite, thus it reincarnates into another human body.  We have lived thousands of lives and will live thousands of more lives until we reach the level of the great Lords of our planet such as Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, Krishna, etc.  When we reach this level we will return as teachers. 

In the words of the great poet John Kents:

“Truth is beauty

Beauty is truth

That is all we know on Earth

And all we need to know.”