No Struggles - No Life

Have you ever looked at someone and thought, "They have it so easy!" or "I wish I could live like them."  Or, in my case, I see great authors or great speakers, and think, "Wow, why can't I be that good?"

The reality?  You and I are seeing the fruits of the struggle that these people are likely to have experienced.  Many times my mentor, John C Maxwell, has said that people say they wish they could have his lifestyle or his speaking abilities and he responds, "You can - you just have to pay the same price that I paid.  The work, the preparations..... the struggles."

You may love to watch birds or listen to their songs, but have you thought about their struggle for life?  Birds must struggle to break the egg to enter the world.  If the egg was broken for them and there was no struggle, the bird would die.  It is the struggle that brings the bird (and you and I) to life.  It is the struggle that shows us our limits or unlocks a desire that we never knew we had.

In the midst of your struggles, stay aware and ask yourself these questions:

• Where did this struggle come from?
• What can I learn about this struggle?
• What am I learning about me?
• What responsibilities, actions, or relationships in my life need to change?
• What one or two steps can I take immediately begin to move forward through this struggle?

You don't have to like the struggles.... and if you do, there might be something wrong with you. :-)  But embrace the struggles and know that there is something inside of you seeking to be birthed that needs this current struggle.

YOU Matter!!

Success Ahead

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours. ~Henry David Thoreau.

• "If one" = YOU
• "advances confidently" = small steps forward, action breeds confidence and overcomes fear
• "in the direction of his dreams” = what/where/who/when is your dream?
• “and endeavors” = committed.  Are you ALL IN?
• “to live” = life is the journey, not the moment.  Savor it.
• “the life which he(she) has imagined” = Your dream defined in present tense – start living it today
• “he(she) will meet with success” – Earl Nightingale says, Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.
• “unexpected in common hours.” – You may not know the exact time, but when you change your thinking and your habits, the world around you changes to the point that you finally realize you are already living the life you imagined. 

When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. ~Wayne Dyer

YOU Matter!!

Are You a Critical Thinker or Do You Think Critically?

Are you a critical thinker?

Do you have an insatiable appetite to learn, understand, ponder..... are you curious?  There are many definitions of critical thinking.  I like "thinking about one's thinking in a manner designed to organize and clarify, raise the efficiency of, and recognize errors and biases in one's own thinking."

My feeble attempt to define critical thinking for me is a continuous awareness of one's thinking with the purpose to remain open to unconventional answers in seemingly conventional situations. 

Critical thinkers typically look for why things are the way they are or even look for ways things can be accomplished.  The similarly sounding, but very different thinker is the one who thinks critically.  This is one who looks for why things can not be done or is always looking for what's wrong with individuals and the world.

Be a critical thinker, but don't think critically.

YOU Matter!!