How are things going? Smooth as butter? I doubt it :^) Because if you’re living life then you’re having more and new challenges everyday! Where’s your salvation? Overeating? Leaving things up to your higher power? Reading a good book? Or watching a good movie? Anyone of these possibilities can give way to a short term solution in helping to deal with those antagonizing issues.
You've Got To Believe Others Who Believe In You Until You Believe Yourself!
Sometimes you just need a 5 minute or 5 hour vacation to help reduce the stress and anxiety that can and does hit everyone from time to time. Knowing what you will do when the hard times come is preparation well spent.
I’d like to talk about the great times all the time. Or how to make it towards reaching your goals and dreams and other positive thoughts or ideas. However, the truth is if you are working towards reaching a new level in your life, you’re going to meet defeat head on and most likely many times. It’s amazing how an incredible idea in your mind can meet with so much opposition or lackadaisical (or should I say a lack of) enthusiasm. Then you think how can this possibly be happening? I know it’s so right and has more power to do good and be just the thing the people of whom you serve want and yet it turns out, at least at the beginning to be a “What’s everyone’s problem” type thinking that goes through your mind.
My attitude is that of a song played by the band Journey that says “Don’t Stop Believin”. I believe it’s a matter of time that things will begin to click. Don’t give up or give in. Make a decision to go after that which you believe in. Think about others who came before you who had they stopped believing might have left us in the dark, without any way to record music, or no Kentucky Fried Chicken, just to name a few.
It’s the power of a dream and once you have it, you can get others to believe in your dream too. It comes through in the way you talk about it and pursue it relentlessly moving people one by one to the same way of thinking that you have. If you don’t believe, nobody else will either and then you’re definitely doomed to failure. Don’t give up. Keep pushing forward. I believe in you. You can do it. You have the power and ability to have, do, and become anything that you desire if you’ll just believe in yourself. No one can take a deep seeded dream from someone who won’t let them have it. And once you have it, it means so much to you that no one can take it away from you regardless how much they try because you won’t let them. It’s your dream for gosh sakes!
You were placed on this planet for great things, not anything less. Find that thing for yourself. Reach high. Make a difference for yourself and the lives of others. There isn’t any other way to go. G-d didn’t create any junk and that means you. He didn’t place you on this infinitesimally small as compared to the universe, fast spinning globe to just ride out life. He put you here to give you the opportunity for so much more. Accept your calling and leave a piece of something amazingly special that you can be proud of and perhaps give great honor to your family as well. You are Incredible and I mean it.
May my love and energy work towards your becoming that which you aren’t today so you can have what it is you want tomorrow. I encourage you to check out my thirteen year old daughter’s dream.
My daughter, Susan has two dreams of which she is living through her crowdfunded Arcade Extravaganza project. One is to create an iPod Touch (iTouch)/iPhone/iPad mobile application funded by a community of supporters like you and Two is to help feed the world by utilizing a portion of the sales generated by Arcade Extravaganza to fight hunger.
That’s a noble idea on her part that I can stand behind too. I know how uncomfortable I feel when I’m hungry and I don’t like it one bit. Her dream has become my dream and we want her dream to become your dream too.
Especially if you don’t have a dream for yourself. Because everyone needs something to believe in, something to dream about, and you can live your dream through her dream. That is until you can discover and pursue one of your own.
Because we want you to live your life to its fullest, we want you to be as successful as you possibly can be. We want nothing more than that for you! We also know that for this to happen, you are going to have to have a dream.
Once you find your dream. You will also find your passion and nothing will stand in your way, between you and your dream. You’ll feel it in your entire being and in every cell of your body. It will cry out because you believe so strongly in what you are doing. You don’t mean to step on anyone’s toes or offend them, but you may because you are so committed to what you are doing. You see, failing is not an option. You have no choice but to do what you fell is right!
Now, is what you do right now meet this definition?
If not, why not? And I’d like you to re-evaluate your life and make changes that will be a turning point for you. Get on the right road or path. Quit playing with life and start living it. Remember you only live one life, there are no dress rehearsals and you will die someday. Make a decision to find your passion and live your dream instead of missing that golden opportunity. You haven’t much time to create whatever it is that you want, so get started today and commit to completing your passion or some portion of it by setting a deadline. Guess what, you’ve just created a goal.
Shama Israel Adoni Elo Hanu Adoni Echad – Here oh Israel, the L-rd our G-d, the L-rd is one
Why did I say that famous Jewish blessing? Because that’s how I go about the beginning of my prayers in helping to defeat the enemy.
Arcade Extravaganza Main Menu
Challenges and difficulty happen all the time and you have to be prepared for them as much as possible. You see, the enemy can bring bitterness and disappointment and can cause you significant difficulty if you let it. The choice is up to you and if you are smart, you will be better prepared to meet those difficulties by making a decision on how you will respond to them when they do occur.
Let me tell you a little story that happened recently. As you may know, my daughter has been working on her Arcade Extravaganza project. Everything was going really good. Her friends and supporters like you were coming out to show support by making donations. Then it really got exciting when on Thursday August 6th a huge donation of $6000 came through. We were so happy because our goal was $6000 and we had more than that. At first we wondered if it was real or not and couldn’t believe it. We finally accepted that it was real and began to celebrate our success. I believe in G-d, so I was overwhelmed with appreciation and thankfulness to what had transpired. I believed that my long 18 year journey was finally paying off and that my time had come to experience the success that I had been looking for.
Susan began to contact corporate sponsors and one of the first 3, Bill Gates gave a generous $10,000 donation within 24 hours of the $6,000 donation having come in. We know Bill can afford it so we were ecstatic about this huge donation and it added very impressively to our total, which was now around $16,500 and we could breathe a breath of relaxation as we no longer would need to contemplate the possibility of needing to have a strong push to meet our $6,000 in 60 day goal.
There are several crowdfunding sites out there and Susan chose Kickstarter which requires you meet your goal or you don’t get any of the donations. So it was very imperative that we hit the 6K goal within the allotted time. Each crowd funding site is a little different in how they work, so it’s really good to know the differences of each and use the one you believe will work the best for what you are trying to achieve. Some don’t have deadlines, some don’t require you get all the money to get any of it; some have easier ways for contributors to donate and so on.
Monday morning, Aug 9th we got a tip that some of the donations were bogus and after investigating them, we found out that it was true. We contacted Kickstarter who has limited customer service and they did not respond. We wanted to get the account corrections made quickly in order to release a press release that was ready to go, so we attempted to correct the situation by removing the donations. Kickstarter decided to close the campaign at this point without contacting us and that was it.
We have since started a new campaign with another crowdfunding site called GoFundMe.com and we had to hold off on releasing the press release for now because we wanted to have some seed money donated before we announced Susan’s project via her press release. As a result, we are asking for your support again to donate the same as before. This time the donation will be instant, so please expect that. The URL hasn’t changed as we now redirect to the new site.
So my question to you is what are your enemies?
They are out there and you have to know they are going to come to you. How are you going to respond when they do? A victor or a victim? The choice is up to you. You see before the money was there and after we found out the money wasn’t there, nothing had changed other than time had passed and a lot of emotions of victory and disappointment. So if you took out that event in time, the same challenges await us. How are we going to respond to them is what matters, not what happened.
How do I deal with it? First, I expect it. Next, I leave it in the hands of my higher power and in doing so, I know He who cannot be defeated is taking on my problems and so I will be victorious in some way. Lastly, I know G-d has a master plan for me and so I say the Shama.
A thirteen year old girl who I’m proud to say is my daughter Susan, believes in her dream. Yes folks, she has discovered that belief equals possibility.
You see, her piggy bank wasn’t big enough to cover all of the expenses of bringing her dream to create Arcade Extravaganza to the market. So she used the money she had and then worked real hard to communicate her desire to complete Arcade Extravaganza through her crowd funding project that you can find on Kickstarter.com right now.
When you believe in your dreams, anything is possible but you have to get to the point where you’ve created a burning desire within yourself. Once you’ve done this, you can have whatever it is that you want. And let me tell you something, Susan has got to that point.
Her Arcade Extravaganza iTouch, iPhone, and iPad application is on her mind all the time. She thinks about how she can improve her idea or create more value to the community she serves so she can build a bridge to satisfying even demanding iDevice users, and her standards are high.
What do you believe in? What can you believe in? Discover for yourself like Susan has with her Arcade Extravaganza project. So you can live your dreams and stop compromising on life.
Susan would really appreciate your support by making a donation regardless how small and by telling friends, family, and co-workers about her project to create $6,000 in 60 days. We both thank you in advance.
If you know me at all, you know that I don’t usually say things like “Life Is Tough”, and you’re right I don’t because I believe that what you say is what you get. Maybe not right away, but your most dominate thoughts will determine your future. Just like self talk can change your future to whatever you choose it to be.
You Can Succeed
So why then did I say it?
The truth is that life is tough. The only time life isn’t tough is when you’re dead. So if you feel like you’re having a tough go at it, then you’re right on course. Thank your higher power for the strength to see it through. And remember that even tough times will pass at some time.
I was thinking late last night how sometimes going through hard or bad times is preparation for the good and great times. You have to have a comparison between the two (bad times and good) to even see that where you are at any moment (good or bad).
It’s easy to take for granted the good times and also easy to accentuate the not so good times. So how do we differentiate between the two? It’s up to us to do that. But always remember that no matter how bad it seems to get that it can get worse and it’s probably not as bad as you make it out to be.
Someone said, “If you knew other people’s problems you’d probably be happy to just have your own.” (more…)
I found this very interesting video that explains how to get what you want as long as you are connecting to the right people. Keep this in mind when you are doing anything. It’s fascinating.
Have a great week,
Kevin
Believe Yourself To Success Because Belief Equals Possibility
Things School Never Taught Us On How To Live A Better Life
I was recently appointed to VP of Education for my local toastmaster club of which if you aren’t participating in a toastmasters group, I highly encourage it. Unknowingly I found out it is my responsibility to make sure all the roles are in place for each meeting. Because the assigned toastmaster was unable to attend, I sent out an email giving everyone an opportunity to volunteer to be this week’s toastmaster and low and behold, no one responded with an affirmative. I’m happy to take on any role when an opening presents itself.
How willing are you to jump out of your comfort zone?
I was fortunate to come across one of the most interesting and inspiring videos I’ve seen in a while and want to pass it along to you. It’s well worth the time to watch. What a great story. What can we accomplish if we try. Peace is available to us all.
I’m not very knowledgeable in the area of health to the degree Jill Bolte Taylor is, but you don’t have to be to learn great lessons from her captivating presentation. Enjoy!
I’ve had days like you’ve had. You know which ones. The ones you HATE. But really, it’s not the day, nor does the feeling of having a bad day linger all day either.
Sometimes We Push The Wrong Button
It can come from many different sources, but for me it was due to the frustration of trying to work cooperatively with a banking institution on something that means a lot to you, like your home.
When something very important to you is not or appears not be taken seriously by others of whom you need cooperation from; that can challenge you beyond what a lot of other more trivial issues of which can be overlooked. If you’re like me you begin to think how can I benefit, survive and remove these negative feelings so I can again become the productive machine I was prior to having this incredibly awful situation. The answer for me was to notice the beauty of what was going on around me.
I did this by noticing my family and it was interesting because at first they thought I was not being nice to them, which was my reaction to what was happening to me. But then I began to focus on other more pleasant things without even knowing it. Like my dogs in the backyard playing with my daughter and my other daughter playing beautiful music on her keyboard.
My anger and frustration was completely gone even without knowing it, which was wonderful. The first answer that came to mind when I thought of the question of how do I turn my attitude around was to plow into self-help material, but the truth was I didn’t “feel” like doing it. And fortunately the answer came to me without even trying.
I realize that you may not be in an environment that can offer as much beauty as the one I was in to change your attitude, like an office. My suggestion is to place yourself in one by going outside or some other more appropriate and peaceful place that will facilitate your reaching a positive attitude and stay there until you achieve it. Take your mind off of your troubles and place your awareness on your surroundings instead.
The really neat thing about my experience is that I didn’t realize I had “survived” the situation in such a great way until nearly 8 hours later. I was just happy and peaceful during the time in between. Then it dawned on me what had occurred. I hope and wish this for you too.
“Consecration is dedicating the individual life to the service of others, to some noble mission, to realizing some unselfish ideal. Life is not something to be lived through; it is something to be lived up to. It is a privilege, not a penal servitude of so many decades on earth. Consecration places the object of life above the mere acquisition of money, as a finality. The man who is unselfish, kind, loving, tender, helpful, ready to lighten the burden of those around him, to hearten the struggling ones, to forget himself sometimes in remembering others,–is on the right road to happiness. Consecration is ever active, bold and aggressive, fearing naught but possible disloyalty to high ideals.” William George Jordan
When You Care About Others, You Will Find Happiness
I’ve been studying and enjoying the works of William George Jordan as I have for some time now and was very inspired by this part of his book called “Majesty of Calmness”. I really related to what it is saying because it has so much meaning in my life based on what I’m currently going through.
I’m dealing with a situation where if the person doing to me an unkind and un-deserving behavior was to embrace the words above from the wonderful passage by William George Jordan, then I would not be in the situation I’m currently in.
However, keep in mind that blaming others will only lead to anger and not taking responsibility in one’s life. So I’m careful not to fall in that trap because first of all, anger is a very disruptive behavior to self-improvement and personal growth. And secondly if I’m not taking responsibility for my life, as hard as it may be, when it seems others are out to get you, then I’m letting those other people determine and control my life.
I do believe in justice and doing what one feels is right to do, instead of just following the crowd or doing what everyone else is doing. Yes, I believe in making a stand when ethically, things aren’t right. You’ve got to fight for what you believe in or your life has little meaning and purpose.
When you are committed to self-improvement and lifelong learning, you don’t give in when things get rough because you have the confidence in yourself to do what is necessary and the smarts to do what’s right and stray away from what’s wrong. Timidity and fear fall away and are replaced by the thrill of doing everything so you can experience life to its fullest.
One important point I’d like to make is that even though I believe the person causing me a lot of troubles would learn from William George Jordan’s passage that I’ve written in this message, I also believe that it is meant for me to learn and grow from too. In other words, I believe that if something becomes apparent to you, or is done to you, or a challenge presents itself to you, that it is an opportunity for you to learn from it too, for yourself. And in doing so you grow beyond your current wisdom.
When I started writing this post, I wanted to talk more about the quote I picked out and because this post is already getting a bit lengthy, I’ll hold my comments to a short few. But read to the end because it’s well worth it :^)
My first comment is the word “consecration”. I had no idea what it meant and here’s what it means per dictionary.com, “to make or declare sacred”.
With this in mind, I read the first line as meaning, “If you want to have a sacred life, you must dedicate yourself to the service of others, to a noble mission, and to some unselfish ideal.”
Now that you’ve read this far, I’ve got the treat of my whole message to give to you right now. If only people would live their lives by this ideal, all would be great for everyone. In fact, my challenge would melt away like snow being penetrated by the spring sun. It goes like this…
The man who is unselfish, kind, loving, tender, helpful, ready to lighten the burden of those around him, to hearten the struggling ones, to forget himself sometimes in remembering others,–is on the right road to happiness.
