No external thing or person is ever coming to you, which will make you happy or complete you. As long as you are waiting for something to make you happy — happiness will never come. Expectancy creates disappointment. Chasing the external to achieve joy is a death-trap for personal development. The external only creates dependency. The foundation of joyful independence is being content with yourself; self-love. Recognize that you are enough and that all external gifts are simply extra blessings. Praise first the mighty blessing of yourself! Find your own joy within and then greater joy will be added to you.
The potential of your life experience shrinks or expands according to your ability to love. Love expands and opens. Love is courageous. Love is strength. Love praises and embraces life. Love stands-up and walks forward. You cannot avoid what you fear because what you fear is inside of you. Fear seems to stalk you because it is in you. When we come face-to-face with our fears we are really confronting ourselves. The moment we confront our fears we are declaring that we are contenders for life, and for love. To those who are mindful, life's preciousness becomes ever more apparent each day. When we truly love ourselves and love life, we are compelled to deeply explore ourselves and life's possibilities. Only when you decide to truly live can you be free of your fears, and only when you are free of your fears can you truly live. Embracing life and overcoming fear are one and the same. Your special destiny is too important to not act upon. Leap toward life. Expand in love. Let your passion and courage swell in you until you can no longer be contained by fear. This is your time to live your life to its fullest.
Fear causes you to feel small and powerless. Fear is the most insidious and suffocating emotion. How many great and beautiful people have withered and vanished — whose gifts the world never knew — because of fear's dread? Fear is paralyzing to life. When we are afraid of failure, judgment, loneliness or rejection, we try to play-it-safe to avoid fear's pain and uncertainty. When we are afraid, we advance cautiously and try to keep things the same and "safe." However, no matter how hard we try to keep things the same, change is inevitable. Even non-change is imperceivable change, because inaction will slowly change you from what you could have been, to what you never will be. It can be so hard to face our fears. It is a pathetic agony, so desperately wanting to liberate our dreams and live fully and completely in alignment with our hopes. It feels like crawling when we want to stand and leap. Yet, with all the passion, hope, faith and determination we can muster, we still feel the foreboding unease that our dreams, if attempted — could become a nightmare. This is how we are stunted by fear. Fear is a thief because fear robs you before you even begin.
Do you want to prosper? What do you give the world? Do you want to flourish in the garden of life? Life's gardeners pluck the weeds and care only for the productive plants. The quality of your life hinges on your attitudes and offerings. Become a gift in the lives of others, and you will always be well received. If you want more opportunities you have to become an opportunity for others. As you advance yourself your opportunities advance too. It's so simple. Get to work on yourself. The harder you work on yourself the more the external things you couldn't change will change on their own. Cultivating your value proposition in life is the way to move forward. You are the raw material of your own destiny. Start creating, start giving back — start caring! What will you share?
You better have some skills in this world. You better bring something to the dinner party, or you will be the dinner. You will either have value or be grist for the mill — nothing more. I know it seems so unfair. I didn't make the rules. The truth is that the world doesn't have much use or respect for "do nothing" people. Can you really blame them? Take some pride in yourself. Get to work. Read everything you can get your hands on. Acquire several skills and find at least one that you can master, and that earns you respect. Let your skills do the talking. Get determined. This world is bursting with opportunity. Maybe it's time you reinvent yourself and try again. Get going. Don't cheat the world or yourself of what you have to offer. You must cultivate value within yourself if you want to move forward. If you feel trapped, quit thinking about the trap and start thinking about your value. Life favors value. Value is your way out.
Your life is not supposed to be filled with unnecessary drama and pain, and if it is, then something is not right. While bad things do happen to good people, many common problems are frequently created by our own behaviours and thinking. You may not have started every problem, but you sure as hell have been keeping them going. Your burdens are perfectly measured and gifted to you according to your resistance. As long as you keep resisting, expect the pummeling to continue. Life is trying to get something through your thick head. Much of the torment of our lives is our own creation. Your every ill-thought, secreted hate, cynical and vicious judgment you carry is meant only for you. If you are prone to drama, you put your ugliness on others because you secretly want to see it and feel the pain it reflects back, so you can grow. You are the source of your pain, and you are the source of your healing. Even when someone hurts you, you choose how to struggle, resist, deny and receive. Maybe you receive pain selfishly — thinking only of yourself. The cycle of pain wounds every participant; both victim and aggressor. Most of your problems exist because your heart is hard, and you are being arrogant. It doesn't have to be so hard! You can change it. When you start acting more mindfully and positive, your life will come together in positive ways. But, no one can make it better for you; it's up to you. Take a beating of misfortune for the rest of your life, or expand in love and live with grace and ease. The life you want doesn't want you — until you are worthy. Only you can decide your worthiness. The nightmare can end the moment you humble yourself and begin practicing being virtuous and taking proper care of yourself.
The real ladder of opportunity is ascending levels of consciousness. As your consciousness, refinement and pureness of heart expand you will become less judgmental, less corrective, less reactive, less black-and-white, less critical, less apt to blame and less tormented by others and their faults and views. As the aperture of your heart opens to love you will receive more of the light of compassion, acceptance, gentleness, grace and understanding. The more evolved you are the less you will agree or disagree with others, and the more you will gently sift through the fullness of what people are offering and gratefully take only what you need. The more spiritually aware you become, the more you will focus on your own development and less on the imperfections of others. As an evolved being, you will begin to see pettiness, quarreling and correcting others as non-constructive and crude. As you evolve, you will learn that the only person you need to correct is yourself. We teach best by how we live life; who we are instructs with absolute clarity.
In simple external terms, this is how it works. When you carry a frown you will see more frowns; when you carry a smile you will see more smiles. When you are hardworking and educated you attract hardworking, educated friends and you repel ignorant deadbeats. When you love yourself you attract those who love themselves, and you repel co-dependence because of your healthy boundaries. When you are a wholesome person, more wholesome people will appear in your life. Who you are is shaping your so-called reality. When you change — the world changes with you. This is what "be the change" means. This is what the "law of attraction" is all about. This is the basis of personal responsibility. You will always receive what you are equal to and what your perceptions, judgments and positions insist.
We aren't always dealt the best hand in life, and some things are out of our control, but not everything, and there are easy ways to turn around some of your common recurring problems and challenges. We have all heard terms like "you reap what you sow" and "the law of attraction," both of which suggest having personal responsibility can help us. You may not even realize it, but who you are, how you act and present yourself to others, and your deep inner-truths are either calling fortune or misfortune into your life right now. You cannot hide from yourself. Your unresolved issues will continue to call-in experiences to teach you what you need to learn. If your life is a persistently a disaster, it is absolutely because you are a disaster. There is no way around it. Your problems are not because bad things happened to you; bad things happen to everyone. Your persistent problems are because of your response to common misfortune. If you want your life to be different you have to start reacting to life differently. The question you must ask yourself is, what is it about you that causes you to choose situations and people who expose you to risk, sadness and hurt? Why do you do it to yourself? You choose these things because that's who you are. Like attracts like. Dysfunction relates to dysfunction. You know, "birds of a feather" — you've heard it all before. But really, it is about your deepest core identity, your self-esteem, your soul-signature, and your level of spiritual and intellectual development. If you want more, then be more. If you want better, then be better.
Stop blaming and start being. Everything comes by being! Be the love you seek. Be the friend you seek. Be the lover you seek. Be the honesty you seek. Be the integrity you seek. Be the patience you seek. Be the tolerance you seek. Be the compassion you seek.
