More Great Quotes

I don't know about you, but, remembering quotes helps me in times of need. I am not always the best at remembering them. But, the feeling and the ideas they brought to my mind when I read them just come to me. I hope you like these...my favorite today is the last one.

Where nothing is sure, everything is possible – Margaret Drabble

When you are down to nothing, God is up to something.

Only those who attempt the absurd achieve the impossible.

Faith - See the invisible. Believe the incredible. Achieve what the masses think is impossible

Don’t tell God how big your troubles are. Tell your troubles how big your God is. Faith without works is dead.

When in doubt, when in fear, be aggressive. Commit yourself and never look back. Unknown

The same everlasting Father who cares for you today will care for you tomorrow and everyday. Either He will shield you from suffering or give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace then and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginings.

Daily Kick in the Butt

The more I thought about what I get to do, the less I realized I had to do. It was just a shift, just a new perspective, just a new and more grateful method for labeling the things in my life. Think about it—if you stopped yourself every single time you were about to say, "I have to" and changed it to "I get to," it might change your entire experience.

Kristin Armstrong, Mile Markers blog

Daily Kick in the Butt

From the moment I ran through the tunnel into the Olympic stadium I knew that the Olympics wasn't everything I wanted but it was everything I needed. Meaning that I had dreamt of winning for so long but by losing I would develop a whole lot of character and my running career would have a lot different direction compared to if I had won.

Ryan Hall on his 2008 Olympic Marathon performance

Daily Kick in the Butt

Here is one of the daily quotes I get from Runner's World. Thought I would share...

I don't know how the creative process works, but it always seems, as I'm running...that thoughts start coming in; sentences start coming in.

Robert A. Caro, biographer

Your Destiny

I am keeping the things that get me thinking and inspire me here on this blog. I love this. Thanks Cathy Anderson for including it in your most recent e-mail.

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

Running (and Life)

The only secret is that it is consistent, often monotonous, boring, hard work. And it's tiring.

Robert de Castella, World champion marathon runner

A Couple of Great Quotes

Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old-time rail journey -- delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts -- interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride. - Gordon B. Hinkley

Be at peace with the process and nothing can hurt you. - George Guzzardo

God cares more about your growth than your comfort. - Unknown

Book: A Thomas Jefferson Education

I heard about this book a few years ago from my friend Clancy. I just finished it. I wish I had picked it up sooner. EVERYONE needs to read this book.

We are all concerned with our children's education. We see deficits in the public school system and no way to really fill in the gaps. We want the best for them but feel we don't really know what we can do. It feels as though it has been taken out of our hands. This book helped me see that it is my own education I should be concerned with. And this will inspire my children and any children over which I have influence to pursue a great education for themselves.

Here are just a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

The world teaches that good grades equal intelligence, but they don't; that degrees are equal to education, but they aren't; that money and position are success, but they aren't.

Do not buy the facades the world offers. Only virtue is success. Only integrity is greatness. Your task is to become "men and women of virtue, wisdom, diplomacy, and courage who inspire greatness in other and move the cause of liberty," to live up to your mentors and the classics which helped make you who you are and will

help build the person you will become.

--

Statesmen are needed in our day, in our communities, homes, businesses, schools, churches, governments, relationships and associations.

In 1776 Thomas Jefferson declared the independence of all humankind, but in 1764 he was just a college student trying to mend a broken heart.

In 1780 George Washington almost single-handedly brought down the greatest military force on earth, but in 1764 he was just a farmer struggling to get out of debt.

In 1787 James Madison swayed the entire course of history, but in 1764 he was just a shy twelve-year-old.

It is the ordinary people in our day, just like those in 1764, who have greatness in them, if they decide to develop it.

--

I know it is hard to study the classics and find mentors. We are busy making a living or going to school, but if we are too busy to study the classics and apply the lessons they teach, then we are too busy to stay free, too busy to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

--

Tomorrow's leaders will determine whether the flame of freedom and prosperity lit by American Founders two hundred years ago continues to burn brightly or is extinguished.

Why did I love this book? Because I truly believe that all of us were called to do something great! And, in order to do something great we must prepare ourselves. This book is a beginning. GET IT! READ IT!

I believe that when the time is right, some of you will be called upon to be statesmen of our day - whether you like it or not. And whether you are prepared or not.

MonaVie Convention

We went to the MonaVie convention in SLC where they released their new hybrid energy drink, EMV. It tastes great! The convention was incredible. We learned a lot and got to spend time with some of our best friends.

2009.06.20 MonaVie Convention in SLC

The Climb

Hi, I am back from the dead.  Maybe.  Just thought I would write something to contribute to the theme of my blog.  We went to see Hannah Montana the movie.  She sings the song "The Climb" in the movie.  (I had never heard it before, but, apparently it is quite popular.)  Anyway, it is wonderful and I wanted to put the lyrics here for everyone to read.

I can almost see it
That dream I’m dreaming but
There’s a voice inside my head sayin,
You’ll never reach it,
Every step I’m taking,
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking but I
Got to keep trying
Got to keep my head held high

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I'm going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

The struggles I’m facing,
The chances I’m taking
Sometimes they might knock me down but
No I’m not breaking
I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I’m going to remember most yeah
Just got to keep going
And I,
I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on,
cause

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I'm going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Somebody's you're going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

Keep on moving
Keep climbing
Keep the faith baby
It’s all about
It’s all about
The climb
Keep the faith
Keep your faith

I can't keep this song out of my head!  I love it!

When You Are Weak...Read This!

This is the note that Lana read to herself from my previous post.

You are strong. You can do this. This whole journey wasn’t about you starting. Anybody could do that. It was about you finishing; and only you can do that. When you stand on this stage in the dark, in your heart only you will know if you’ve been true. Don’t let yourself down. I believe in you!

Love you guys!

Self Discipline - Answers

What is the right amount of pressure? What are the right things to either take away/or give when I have accomplished or failed to accomplish my objectives? How do I avoid the thoughts of complacency and procrastination that keep me from choosing something to work on and applying the pain/pleasure principle to it?

These are the questions I set out to answer for myself, again. Isn't it funny that we already know or have known the answers to the questions that seem to give us the most trouble. As I thought about self discipline this week many things came up to answer my questions. I listened to a CD's by Laurie Woodward, Chuck Goetschel and Jerry Harteis. And, all of them gave me some little nugget that helped me get my head back in the game in terms of my own self discipline.

On May 28, 2006 I made a list of 14 things I wanted to change about myself. I remember feeling a little overwhelmed as I looked at the list. I didn't know how to change all of those things at once. So, I prayed about it. I was direct to one thing on my list and felt as though if I changed that one thing many of the others would come into alignment. So, I focused on that one thing and don't really remember coming back to the list to pick the next one. But, as I review it now 3 of the 14 things are habits for me now. The rest are in progress. But, in all 14 of them there has definitely been improvement since 2006.

I have heard this principle more than once. If you take 21 days to focus on one thing that will make it a habit for you. That was the purpose of my list was to take 21 days on each thing. So, I got started this week again. I went right back to the gym thing and I am going to spend the next few weeks firming up that habit and getting it to the level that I want. Then, I am going to move to some other important areas of my life. On her CD Laurie Woodward said you have to focus. She said 'He who begins too much accomplishes nothing'. So, I am going to keep it simple and focus on one thing at a time for three weeks at at time. And, I am going to apply the pain pleasure principle and use rewards to get myself into action. This week my reward was reading one chapter of the Twilight book from Edward's perspective. Next week I'll get to read two. Yea!! How did I choose that? First I thought of rewards that I would have enjoyed but they would hurt my progress in other areas. For example: I wanted to make my mom's biscuits and gravy. But, that would have destroyed my diet goals for the week because I had already used all my extra points. So, I chose something that I really wanted to do but don't generally take time for. And, as soon as I got home from the gym on Saturday I read my chapter. Of course I wanted to just keep reading. But, I am storing that desire to get myself to the gym five times this week. I think that is the answer to almost all of my questions. Find something you really want! That got me over the desire to just stay in bed this week. And, I know that if I can keep finding things that I really want - deep down, truly want - I can leverage that to change myself. I hope this week helps you as much as it has helped me.

Here are some other quotes I have picked up along the way that you might enjoy:

Stay ready so you don't have to get ready. - Will Smith

Success will not come to you on your terms. - Jerry Harteis

Success is directly related to standing out not fitting in. - Joe Gregorski

Success is going from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill

When you aim at nothing, you hit it with remarkable accuracy. - Unknown

Self Discipline 2

Not long after writing the last post, I went back into Google Reader and took the time to watch and read a blog by Chuck Goetschel. Click here and check it out!

Self Discipline

I've been giving a lot of thought to this topic lately. It is a funny thing. On one hand, we want great things to happen in our lives. We want to reach our goals and live our dreams. But, who wants to follow a strict pattern and do all the things necessary to achieve them? And even if you want to, who can? And how to they make themselves get it done?

I remember a couple of years back I was struggling with making myself go to the gym. I wanted to go. But, just couldn't make myself go when it was time. So, I decided to use some advice I heard on a cd. I am not sure which one it was exactly because a lot of them gave this advice back then. It was the pain/pleasure principle. Basically, you either deprive yourself of something you want or give yourself a reward in order to get yourself to do something you aren't doing. I decided to apply this to make going to the gym a habit. I decided that I was going to the gym 4 times per week. And, I would have to take a cold shower for every time I didn't go. So, if I only went 3 times, I got one cold shower. It wasn't just a shower lacking in warmth either. I made myself take a cold enough shower that I wouldn't stand in the water except to rinse REALLY fast. It worked. I didn't take many cold showers. And, now I love going to the gym. I am still not the best at getting there. But, I am way better than I was before I followed this pattern.

Now, here's the test of toughness. Have I ever used this technique again? No. Have there been a whole host of things I have wanted to change? Yes. So, I ask myself why not? Why not use a technique that really made a difference?

This opens up a whole new topic. Miles and I are Mona Vie Distributors. And, we are tied into the best group in the industry, Team. So, I listen to a lot of CD's about personal growth. They teach pursuing excellence, doing your best in everything you do and pursuing your goals and dreams. The difference the system (meaning the CD's and books Team provides for personal growth) has made in my life is immeasurable. But, there are things that my little brain struggles with. Like how much pressure to I place upon myself to change? I am notorious for expecting myself to accomplish way more in a day than is even humanly possible. And, then, I am hard on myself when I don't. This drives Miles crazy. He always says, "You always try to put 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag." He's right. And, I have had many a monthly break down because of it. I am doing much better now. I set more reasonable goals and don't place so much pressure on myself if I don't get them done. But, now I fear that I have gone too far the other way.

So, these are my questions. What is the right amount of pressure? What are the right things to either take away/or give when I have accomplished or failed to accomplish my objectives? How do I avoid the thoughts of complacency and procrastination that keep me from choosing something to work on and applying the pain/pleasure principle to it?

I believe that questions are the answers. I believe that as we ask questions our brain and our spirit go to work at finding those answers for us. So, these are the questions I will be pondering this week. I welcome your thoughts...

The Power of the Written Word

I have eluded to this post a couple of posts ago.  And, now I have waited so long that I am afraid that I have lost the spirit of my intended original post.  But, I still like the message and so I will do my best to get it back.  If you are like me you are scrolling down the page right now and asking yourself what I could have to share that would have to take so many paragraphs and so many words.  I like short and sweet posts on the blogs I read and tend to pass up the long ones until I have time later.  Feel free to do that, or, read on.

 

The endings to two books that I really loved Bringing Out the Best in People and Positve Words, Powerful Results touched me.  I think it was mostly because they emphasize the fact that small things can make big changes in the lives of the people you associate with.  And, it seems that we try to focus on the big things we do and sometimes overlook the small things that would make all the difference.  For instance, writing someone a note!  That is what this post is about.  The power of giving someone a hand-written note of encouragement or love.  What kind of an impact can that have?

 

I am going to paraphrase a story given in Positve Words, Powerful ResultsI by Hal Urban to avoid printing a long story here.  It is about the author of the comic strip Dilbert, Scott Adams.  He was watching a show about cartooning and got some ideas.  So, he wrote the host of the show asking for some more information.  The host politely wrote back and answered all of his questions and encouraged him by telling him he shouldn't give up when he received a few early rejections.  Scott followed his advice except that he did get discouraged when he received those early rejections and he put his materials away and forgot cartooning as a career.  Then, about fifteen months later he received another letter from the host of the show.  Scott was surprised to hear from him when he hadn't even thanked him for the advice he had given him the first time.  The letter encouraged him again to hang in there and keep drawing.  Scott was touched by the letter especially considering that the host had nothing to gain by writing it and states that he wouldn't have tried cartooning again if he hadn't received that letter of encouragement.

 

Hal Urban goes on to talk about some other examples of how a personal note can become a treasure.  I wont go into all the details here.  But, he encourages us to just take time to write a note to express our appreciation or love.  He says, "Mark Twain said that he could live for a year on one good compliment."  And, if you've ever been in a drought of encouragement, you know how it feels to have someone say the slightest thing that sounds in the least bit encouraging!  To have someone say the know you can do it!  Or, have them tell you that you have what it takes to make your dreams come true and live your purpose!  It makes me cry just thinking of it.  And, to think, that we all have that power.  We all have the ability to make this kind of difference in someone else's life.  And, it's free!!  It doesn't cost anything. 

 

And, the road goes both ways!  Odds are there is someone who looks up to you and whose life you have made an impact on.  And, no doubt it would be encouraging to you if that person told you so.  So, this begs the question....  Have you thanked the people who made that kind of a difference for you?  Did you make sure they knew what small thing had impacted your life in a way that you can't even explain?  Do you ever notice something wonderful about someone else but keep it to yourself?  Why? Too often we keep our feelings to ourselves when sharing them would have made all the difference to someone else. 

 

These books and others like The Anatomy of Peace by the Arbringer Institute and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle can help you answer some of these questions.  I am seeking these answers for myself and doing my best to extend every compliment that crosses my mind!  I hope you do the same and think of someone today that you can encourage with a note of thanks, a compliment, some appreciation or love!!   God Bless!!

A Couple Pick-me Ups

I was having a frustrating day. Mostly inside frustrated with myself and the perspective I had chosen, but, frustrated none the less. A couple of things came to me.

All things shall work together for your good.

When the moment comes that the reason for all this is revealed you will be so grateful that it didn't happen any other way.

As I thought about sharing these notes I had written to myself for encouragement, I thought of a couple of other encouraging statements I found in the home of Ann Karr. I love them and hope she doesn't mind my sharing them here. She has two signs in her office that read:

Dear Lord, put your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.

Ann, Trust me! I have everything under control!! Love, Jesus

Then, now, as I write this I am thinking of my dear friend, Clancy. Click here to see her blog post about today. On the days I am feeling as she describes, these are the things I need to read and hear! Let's be more like her and be willing to reveal our faults and weaknesses! I think in doing so we will build others up and what else is this life for....?

New Blog Title

I thought I would take a minute to explain the new, maybe permanent, blog title. I was listening to a cd by Claude and Lana Hamilton called 'Toughen Up' (Team 453). If you are familiar with their talks you won't be surprised by the title. They are straight talkers to the max. And, if you know me you won't be surprises by how much I like that. They are giants in our industry. Well Lana told a story about how her personal trainer inspired her to join a fitness competition. She started working on that goal and life happened and she let it go. But it haunted her that she had given up. This is a woman who is a winner. She has her life in order and has accomplished a lot in her life. And yet she couldn't let go of the fact that she had given up on something that she had committed to; even thought it was a non-consequential thing. That is the definition of a winner in my book. I want to be more like her.

Anyway, back on the main road, she decided, if I remember right, a year later to re-enter the competition. And she knew there would be times during her training for this competition that she would want to quit. So, she wrote herself a note that said WHEN YOUR ARE WEAK...READ THIS. This note told her that she was strong and reminded her of the vision she had that prompted her to enter the competition in the first place. And that note gave her enough courage to chase the dream and reach her goal. And she made it.

That is what the entries in this blog are for me. I was reading through my few posts and thinking what was the overall theme. And I realized that all the things I have included here are nuggets that help me stay the course and not give up. And I am grateful to have them all in one place so I can remember the things that touched me and helped me stay in the game.

So, whatever dream you are chasing I hope these thoughts help you too!!!! ;)

Bringing Out the Best in People

A couple of months ago I read Bringing Out the Best in People by Alan Loy McGinnis. The story in the very last chapter is what I want to share in this post. This is just part of what I was eluding to in the last post. So, there will be more to come.

In 1939, trainloads of Jewish children were piling into Sweden, and the boys and girls - some of them only three and four years old - would file off the trains with no belongings except for large tags around their necks, designating their home city, their name, and their age. They were thin and pale, with large, sunken, brown eyes. From their meloncholy gaze it was evident that they had already seen and experienced things far beyond their years - atrocities that most people would never have to see in a lifetime.

The Swedish families were taking children for "the duration of the war," but few were deluded into thinking that it would be a short time. One of the Swedes who opened his door was Johan Eriksson. He had known deprivation himself - at 28 hd had been left a widower with four children. By now he was middle-aged and most of the children were gone. But when he learned that a frightened nine year old named Rolf needed a home, he responded as if he were still a young man. And so a little Jewish boy began to adjust to life in a strict Swedish Baptist home. At first, when there was a knock on the door or loud voices outside, the boy with the deep-set eyes would dive into a closet and cover his head, but he was surrounded with warmth and love in the Eriksson house, and he began to gain weight, to lose the faraway gaze, and eventually he began to laugh again.

When an invasion by the Nazis seemed imminent, men at the machine shop said to Johan, "When Hitler comes you will be in trouble with that Jew boy in your house. They'll come and take him away." The normally gentle Swede would reply with clenched jaw, "They'll never take him as long as I'm alive." And curiously, Johan was almost equally defensive of Rolf before his fellow Baptists. When the members of the church assumed that he would try to covert the boy, Johan's jaw would clench again. The Swedish government had promised the refugee organization that the children's religion would be kept intact, and although Johan took little Rolf to church with his family, he went to considerable lengths to see that the boy learned the Jewish tradition and that when the proper age came he was prepared for and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. When the war ended, Johan wanted to return to Rolf's parents a son who had been raised as closely as possible to the way they would have wanted.

But when the war did end, the family was never reunited, of course. Rolf's parents perished somewhere in Europe along with the millions of others who were killed during those apocalyptic years. Letters from his parents had become more and more sporadic, and then one day and envelope arrived without a postmark. Inside was a hastily scribbled note saying that Rolf would not hear from then again, and that he should never forget what this Swedish family had done for him.

And Rolf did not forget. He grew up and went away to Stockholm, where he began to succeed in business. But the trauma and the wrenching of those early years perhaps took a belated toll, for one day Rolf's mind snapped. Relatives told Johan Eriksson that he had done enough, and the authorities wanted permission to keep the young man in the mental institution, for he was thought to be dangerous. But Johan would have none of it. "He belongs here," he said simply. "This is his home." And so Rolf returned to the little city of Amal and the quiet, solid Swede took him in again. For a year Johan nursed him until his mind returned to stability and peacefulness.

Rolf's life was relatively untroubled after that. He married, reared children, established his own company and became very wealthy. But he never forgot the man who had given him such unconditional love when he was a boy. Nothing was ever too good for Johan, and as the old man became more infirm, an even stronger bond seemed to glue them together. If Johan was sick or needed him, Rolf thought nothing of taking the train across Sweden to spend what was left of the weekend with the man who had become like a father. And when Johan was on his deathbed, all the children hurried home, but everyone knew who would arrive first - Rolf.

My mind often returns to the story of Johan and Rolf when I feel the doubt and despair of my fellow therapists. The reason is this: if Johan Eriksson had accomplished no other noteworthy thing in his long life, it surely would have been worth living to have been there to shelter on such child. When we get discouraged in our work with people it is important to draw back and remind ourselves that there is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being, to help someone else succeed.

Do you ever look at your life and wonder "what am I really accomplishing?" If you are a task person like me you get a lot of satisfaction from crossing things off of lists and taking things out of the inbox. And, when you ask yourself this question in terms of serving others things get a little merky. How do you measure that?

That is why I loved this story. It helped me see that by small and simple things shall great things come to pass. And, I think that most people do what Johan did naturally. Almost everyone I know, if given the opportunity, would help someone the way he did. And, that most of us fail to give ourselves enough credit for the good we do.

So, that leads me to my next post. How often have you made a huge impact on another person with even a small act of kindness and never knew it? What kind of impact can we have when we have the courage to tell someone when they have had that kind of an impact on us?

Upcoming Post

I have a post in mind. Well, I have had it in mind for a few months now. But, a lot of good that does you. You can't read it in there!!

This quote is going to get me thinking about how I want to put my thoughts together. (And commit me to posting soon...you probably thought this blog was dead.)

If you were doing to die soon and had only
one phone call you could make, who
would you call and what would you say?
And, why are you waiting?

-Stephen Levine (Postive Words, Powerful Results by Hal Urban pg. 196)

Your Passion, Purpose and Dreams

I haven't blogged in forever. Clancy, you are probably the only one that will notice. LOL

I have had a few different blog posts in mind lately. But, I wanted to just get my thoughts on paper about a topic that I have read and heard about for a long time but, that have just recently come together for me.

Miles and I have been goal driven for several years. We have put pictures on the wall of the things we want and have really made significant efforts to make those dreams a reality. A few months ago I read A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. There is a section in there that I want to reference.

Make sure your vision or goal is not an inflated image of yourself and therefore a concealed form of ego, such as wanting to become a movie star, famous writer, or a wealthy entrepreneur. Also make sure your gaol is not focused in having this or that, such as a mansion by the sea, your own company, or ten million dollars in the bank. An enlarged image of yourself or a vision of yourself having this or that are all static goals and therefore don't empower you. Instead, make sure your goals are dynamic, that is to say, point toward an activity that you are engaged through which you are connected to other human beings as well as to the whole. Instead of seeing yourself as a famous actor and writer and so on, see yourself inspiring countless people with your work and enriching their lives. Feel how that activity enriches or deepens not only your life but that of countless others. Feel yourself being an opening through which energy flows from the unmanifested Source of all life through you for the benefit of all.

After reading that I came home and took down everything on my dream wall. I took down the home that I had designed for us to build. The cars I wanted to replace my current one with and the vacation we had been working toward. I thought I needed to take my focus totally on how I could help others and how the the "unmanifested Source of all life" could flow through me for the benefit of those I associate with.

Then yesterday I listened to a cd by Chuck Goetschel called Investing in People (SOTB13). He talks a little bit more in detail about the Hoyt Team that I have blogged a little bit about before and then he gives five reasons that investing in people is important. I am going to focus on the #1 reason. (He gives them in reverse order, kinda like David Letterman's Top 10 building up to the last one.)

He explains that finding your purpose and your passion and then applying the gifts and talents that God has given you will show you HOW YOU should invest in people. He asks: What are you passionate about? Are you passionate about helping the orphaned children in Brazil? Does that tear at your heart strings? Well then something needs to be done. So, he says to find your gifts and talents and apply them to that. He says this is how we will change the world. As each of us reviews our gifts and talents and notices what we are passionate about and then applies those gifts and talents to our passion we have found our purpose. Then, we have found God's calling for our lives. Seems so simple right!! Everytime a speaker tells me to find my purpose I just seem to feel totally lost and don't really want to try to find it becuase it seems so overwhelming. But, Chuck really made is simple. Apply your gifts and talents to your passion and see God's will/calling for you revealed.

He then talks about a law that ties all this together for me. It ties our purpose, what Eckhard talks about and what I have been learning over the past few years together. He says that if you want happiness and and all these things, don't pursue them. He says that the Law of Reverse Effect says that the harder you try to acheive those things the more ellusive they become. But, if you do what you are called to do then all of those things will just be a by-product and you will be happy and fulfilled because you are doing what you are called to do and that will always include investing in people. Isn't that what Tolle is talking about too. That we shouldn't focus on that things that will build our ego and give us a bigger image of ourselves. We should keep our focus and attention on how we can invest in other people and "benefit" them.

I have reconciled all this in the last couple of days and had already put my goals back up on the wall recently; not all of them yet. But, my custom home is back up and my big house is back up there. And, I am glad because they are the tangible rewards that will come as a by-product of finding HOW I am suppose to apply my personal gifts and talents to my personal passion to invest in people. Now when I look on that wall I don't see a house and cars I see people between me and them. And, I know from my limited exerience that when those things arrive as a result of my efforts to "benefit" others they wont matter much. What will really matter is the people I invested in and the difference that investment made in benefiting their lives. Nothing is as important as that!!