Nurture Your Mind With Great Thoughts

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“Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.”

—Benjamin Disraeli, British Statesman

Image of a psychedelic tree

Image from Twitter @HighestThinking

How often do you eat junk food? How often do manufactured foods with excessive sugar, fat, or mystery ingredients find their way through your lips?

When you do, what are the results on your physical, mental, and emotional vitality and well being?

How many junk messages enter your mind from news, social media, books, or even the people with whom you associate? What impact do these factors have on your abilities to better yourself?

EXERCISE:

How can you make more efforts to ingest and digest more nurturing ideas and thoughts, to take your life higher?

How can you reduce or stop detrimental thoughts and influences that hold you back in order to  make room for empowering and uplifting ideas?

The Art of Teaching

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“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”

—Mark van Doren, Poet and Educator

Where in your personal or professional worlds do you play the role of teacher, mentor, or trusted advisor?

How often do you find yourself sharing your experiences, providing your advice, or simply stating solutions?

In such cases, we remove much, if not all, of the work our students could do to inquire and discover their own answers, which tend to be far more valuable and sustainable in the long run.

EXERCISE:

How would adding more of a “Coach Approach” to your teaching efforts help more of the people you support discover their own answers and realize the progress they desire?

Friday Review Opportunity

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FRIDAY REVIEW: OPPORTUNITY

How often do opportunities come your way? How do you determine if they are right for you? Here are a few opportunity-related posts you may have missed:

 

“It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have one and not be prepared.”

 

 

 

“Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.”

 

 

 

 

“Doors don’t slam open.”

 

 

 

Tomorrow Hopes We Have Learned Something from Yesterday

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“Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.”

—John Wayne, American film icon

Image of Past Present Future on a timeline

Image from SpaceSys

When you settle under the covers and reflect on your day, what factors bring you satisfaction and put a smile on your face? What represents a day well spent to you?

Most people would say learning something new, and making a positive contribution are keys to living a meaningful life.

EXERCISE:

What do you intend to learn and contribute today, to make for a much brighter tomorrow?

Wear Out or Rust Out

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“Let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.”

—Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

Image of Barry's odometer at 200,014 miles

My car just reached a milestone, passing the 200,000 mile mark!

In some ways I feel pretty happy, given I have never owned a car that lasted so long and was so dependable.

Beyond the great value this car has given me, I fondly recall all the wonderful outings, adventures, vacations, and new places it took me, my family, and others.

I also take pleasure in the fact that it keeps on going, remaining safe and highly useful, as long as I keep it well maintained.

EXERCISE:

How can you maintain yourself in good working condition, to continue your life journey beyond what you might expect?  It sure beats rusting out, parked in a garage, and going nowhere!

Body and Soul Need New Challenges

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“Body and soul need new challenges.”

—Paulo Coelho, Warrior of the Light: A Manual

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Use it or Lose it!” As a former science teacher, this reminds me of the concept of entropy, which points to how things decay or fall apart if energy is not added to the system.

New challenges are tests that bring forth the efforts and energies to tackle them. It is through such exertions that we grow, and bring order to our lives.

EXERCISE:

What challenges are you currently rising to in your personal and professional worlds?

How can you initiate and proactively take on new challenges to improve your life in body and soul?

Seeking Happiness Outside Ourselves

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“Seeking happiness outside ourselves is like waiting for sunshine in a cave facing north.”

—Tibetan Proverb

How would you like a 10% return on your investments year after year?

Most people would be pretty happy with those results, except, perhaps, for some venture capitalists!

How does that relate to today’s quote? 10% Happier by Dan Harris is a book I highly recommend. Working on himself through his meditation and mindfulness practice, Harris tamed the voice in his head, reduced stress, and still kept his edge.

Meditation has allowed me to create far more sunny skies, because I’ve realized that we create our own weather through mindful self-awareness.

EXERCISE:

Consider picking up Dan’s book, or another resource on the value of daily meditation to help brighten your world.

I highly recommend the CALM app if you are just beginning this practice.

When You Take Your TIme, You Save Time

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“When you take your time, you save time.”

—Author Unknown

Image of a watch in a glass bottle

Image from Stepping Stones

How are your investments doing these days? This past year? Since you began your personal investment plans?

What has been the return on your investments?

Given the tangibility and objectivity of money and its ability to be exchanged for products and services, you probably know this number reasonably well.

Time, on the other hand, is a bit more elusive, in that it is often far more difficult to determine exactly how well we spend it. One of my other favorite quotes on this topic is Time is the Coin of Life, suggesting its great importance to our overall success and satisfaction.

Today’s quote coaches us to be far more intentional and thoughtful in our decisions to allocate our time and energies. In doing so, it suggests, we will actually save time by not making poor decisions, false starts, or initiatives that may not optimally serve our visions and values.

EXERCISE:

Where and in what ways can and will you slow down and spend your time more wisely, in order to save time for those most prized and valued activities in your life?