Stuff happens, and sometimes it sucks! That is just the nature of life. We, as mere mortals, cannot control everything and that means we are not always going to be happy with our circumstances. However, what is upsetting us now, or in the next moment, or the last, isn’t permanent. Life will get better, and then again, at other times it will get worse….
Our redeeming feature is that we have choice, which some people consider ‘free will.’ Yes, we are free to choose to act within the limits of our programming….. OR, for the brave among us, we can break away from our habitual thoughts and habits and do things differently. And this is when life can really begin to get better for us.
None of us have all the answers to why we are here and what we should be doing with our lives. But I do know this: When we choose to actively participate in our journey with passion and zest, the moments of the journey become the focus of our lives….. and by intentionally choosing to, we can live amazing lives.
Even though your current self believes they are in some way suffering, you are not. You are being given opportunities to learn more about yourself and to grow in understanding and experience beyond who you currently are.
So, here you are….. Living in a time of unprecedented wealth, luxury, and amazing technology…… you’re alive, and you have many options in front of you. What you choose to think about next is going to determine how you will feel and what you will do…..
….. I suggest that you choose thoughts that will help make your life better than before, not worse…..
And with that in mind, I’d like to share these quotes in the hope they will provide you with some inspiration to make your life better.
“The one law that does not change is that ‘Everything Changes,’ and the hardship I was bearing today was only a breath away from the pleasures I would have tomorrow, and those pleasures would be all the richer because of the memories of this I was enduring.” – Louis L’Amour
Suffering adversity is, in a weird way, a blessing, because it makes life that much richer once we are out of it. Think about it! If we only ever had pleasant experiences all the time, we wouldn’t know how good we had it. We need to experience some of the crap stuff to give the good stuff some meaningful context.
However, once we realize that everything changes (even the good stuff,) our way out of our suffering and pain is to stop assigning values to our experiences.
It is our thoughts, our judgments, of good and bad, wanted and unwanted, and like and dislike, which evoke feelings within us…. and our feelings are our ‘measure’ of how well our life is going.
If we are feeling good, life is good. If we are feeling down and out, then we consider our life is not so great…. Either way, it is we who have determined the quality of our life…… not the actual events or circumstances that are happening around us and to us…..
……. we alone have decided, by the thoughts we are having, that our lives are either good or bad.
And therefore, we can change our thoughts and change our world! Life will get better when you decide to make it so and it all begins with changing your thoughts to better ones.
“Everything in your life gets better when you get better, and nothing is ever going to get better until you get better.” – Larry Winget
In other words, it’s up to us if and when our lives get better. And again, it all comes down to the thoughts that we are having.
It’s important to understand that our thoughts are just that…. They are ‘our thoughts’ and just because we may think the same negative crap often, IT DOESN’T MAKE IT TRUE…… AND IT ALSO DOESN’T MEAN OUR NEGATIVE THOUGHTS HAVE ANY RESEMBLANCE TO REALITY!
This is good news for us. Because it means that the thoughts we have been having, that make us feel like our life is not so good, can be discarded as ‘not real.’ And instead, we can begin thinking as happy and healthy people do…..
…..thoughts that make us feel good, thoughts that make us feel like our life is getting better!
And you know what? This is a turning point that Larry refers to in his quote. This is when your life will begin to get better.
“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” – Nelson Mandela.
So often, many of us choose to think about the things that we DON’T WANT TO HAPPEN! And then we wonder why we are feeling anxious, fearful, and depressed! Come on…. Really?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that if you spend a lot of your time thinking about stuff that depresses you, YOU ARE GOING TO END UP DEPRESSED!
Now- Nelson Mandela had a lot to be depressed about during his life (including repeated jail and torture for many years.) He held it together, as did Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and many others. How? They were always hopeful of creating a better future. And you know what, they got their better futures, not just for themselves, but for all of us!
Unfortunately, we live in a world where the Main Stream Media currently have a monopoly on promoting and sustaining fear in our societies. If you are happy to continue to live in fear, then keep watching it…….
However, if you want a better life for yourselves, then turn the bloody crap off! And you’ll quickly find that when you stop watching it, you will stop being afraid of all the crap they are telling you to be afraid of…. stuff that you really do not need to be afraid of in the first place!
Sure, there is some bad stuff going on, somewhere, at all times. But, you have to consider…..
….. does it benefit you, or anyone else, if your mental, emotional, and physical health is suffering because you are afraid all the time?
No, it doesn’t…..
What does benefit you, and the planet as a whole, is if you become the best, happiest, healthiest, and most successful person you can be. Then, you are actually in a position to be able to make positive changes not only in your life but the lives of others that you love….. but only once you have your own life sorted out!
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.” – Thomas Edison
So, you might have tried a few things to make your life better. Maybe you met a few new people, tried a new sport, went to a different restaurant, and got a new job…… and yet nothing has really changed for you……. you’re not yet feeling significantly better.
That’s ok. Not everything is magically going to fall into place just because you think better thoughts for 5 or 10 minutes each day (while still thinking in your old ways for 3600 minutes plus.) Positive change is a progressive improvement. It’s something that requires a bit of effort and that matures with time.
Breaking out from habits that weren’t serving your desire for a great life is a necessary and important step on the way to a better life. And if at first, you don’t succeed, try again, and again, and again…..
….. and who knows, maybe you’ll wake up and realize that life is about enjoying the journey…. About the trying, the experimenting, and the learning that we grow through along the way. It’s not about getting everything we want….. because once we have it all, where do we go from there??????? Game over!
NO, it’s far better to keep trying, keep doing, keep learning, and keep enjoying more and more of what life has to offer.
So when you have tried something and didn’t get what you want, or even if you did get what you want, then try something new, just for the fun of it! Your life is a journey filled with endless possibilities that you have not yet begun to explore.
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” -Socrates
Fighting in any way, shape, or form is negative energy….. and there is no place for any negativity is a better life. It is the very stuff that has been keeping us down for so long already.
We have a long history of fighting against stuff we don’t want. And where’s that getting us? Are we winning the war against cancer, the war against drugs, the war against child abuse? I agree these things don’t belong in civilized societies, but ‘fighting against’ stuff, even bad stuff is still violent, detrimental, and negative.
We will win our battles by changing who we are, so we become, NOW, IN OUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS, the healthy, wealthy, happy, and wise person we aspire to be. This is the way to build the foundation for the new and better lives we desire for ourselves…..
..… and we do not need to bring our old negative baggage with us. The reality is the more we think in negative ways about ourselves, the longer it is going to take, and the harder it will be to create a better life for ourselves.
You always have choices….. You can continue to think like you have been and continue to get the same results in your life…… OR, you can think about the new and better life experience you want to be living….. Then, use the power of imagination, visualization, The Law of Attraction, positive thinking, new skills, determination, commitment, etc…. to make your dreams become your reality!
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”– Soren Kierkegaard
I mentioned earlier that we are programmed to believe in struggle, and that we have to fight against injustice. And it doesn’t end there. We also are taught that scarcity is everywhere and that we need to compete for the things we want. That evil is lurking around every corner and is out to get us, and, more recently, that a deadly pandemic is going to decimate the population of the world.
And yes, I’ll say again, not everything that happens in our lives is great. However, we should not waste our time and energy worrying about stuff that we have no control over.
Should I be worried that an airplane might fall out of the sky and land on my head and kill me? It could happen- even though the chances are really, really slim, right? And if I don’t worry about it now, I’ve lost the opportunity to ‘be afraid’ because if it does happen…… well, let’s just say I won’t be able to worry about it after the fact!
Worrying after it happened…. Not possible. Worrying before it happens….. a complete waste of time and energy, because the odds of it happening, and many of the other things we worry about every day are millions to one.
My point is; The time and energy we spend worrying about stuff, trying to control outcomes, and thinking our lives suck, is all time that could be better spent enjoying the ‘experience of living.’
Because…. the reality is that, Life simply IS…. And we are (for whatever reason) a part of that ‘IS-ness.’ And the only sane response to being here is to actively participate in the best possible way (because you are already here) so you can have a really great life experience. Anything less than this would be madness!
“The world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape.” – Bono
The world is definitely an interesting place! Yup, no doubt about it.
There are so many different types of experiences that we, as humans, participate in. Some go to war, (with others and more so with ourselves) others become religious or spiritual, some choose to live on tropical islands, and others in snowy mountains. Some people are optimistic, and others are always seeing the negative in everything. And on it goes……
And what defines these different experiences that different people are having? We do!
You could argue that we are controlled and limited largely by our ‘circumstances of birth.’ And yes, I agree. The circumstances we were born into have a massive impact on who we become and how we experience the world. However, our early life circumstances, although they have influenced us greatly, do not define us.
We, as magnificent conscious beings, have the choice to evolve beyond anything that currently limits us…..
And this is where I have to disagree with Bono’s quote. He is saying the world is malleable and we can shape the world in the way we want…… I would argue that the world is happening as it is happening, and benefits us more if we can accept that….
And……. Instead, it is we who are malleable and it is we who can make our experience into either one of living in hell on earth or living in heaven on earth…… and it all comes down to the way we are participating in our own life journey. So with that in mind, I’ll leave you with one extra quote…….
