Musings by John Weir

“It is the repetition of affirmations that leads to beliefs, and once those beliefs become deep convictions, things begin to happen”. – Claude M Bristol

Here are seven *spectacular* ways to make your Monday rock – and I bet they get you off to such a great start the whole week will rock too!

1. Take time to set your mind. A little time in prayer, meditation or just reflecting on all the amazing blessings you have does *marvelous* things for setting your mind and spirit in a great state to start the week.

2. Stretch! Stretching does *great* stuff for body. It promotes blood flow, it works out kinks and aches and it makes you feel more flexible. And really, when we’re more flexible and we feel good our minds are more flexible too!

3. Do a bit of exercise. You bet. Strong bodies help build strong minds. Get those endorphins flowing, build muscle, feel buff.

4. Picture your week. Create the image of the week that you’re starting – and see it all going GREAT! See it just the way it should be. Don’t worry, even if things come up, you’d be amazed at how easily you can adapt those surprises in and help make them part of how great the week is!

5. Make today’s to do list. If you haven’t already done it the night before, do one now. Don’t make it exhaustive and don’t make it for the rest of the month. Today’s list is fine. Then find one thing you can get done straight away and get your first check mark!

6. Smile and say hello to everyone (yes, even "them") that you work with on the way into your desk/office/cube/work station. You’d be surprised at how much starting with a smile will make both their week and yours better!

7. Be *positive*! For real! This is pithy, but true. Look at things with a glass half full – heck – even go 3/4 full! – mentality. Sure, stuff happens, but look at it as an opportunity! Yes, I hear some of you thinking that you’re a "realist" or " too pragmatic" for that. Well, guess what! The most pragmatic thing you can do is to change the reality by going after those opportunities by unleashing your creative mind with a positive outlook for creative solutions with enthusiasm!

Here is a wise word from Martyn Lloyd-Jones, from his work Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure. It will help to know that the biblical context for what he is writing here is Psalm 42.

The main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problem of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself, ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been repressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you’. Do you know what I mean? If you do not, you have but little experience.

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’-what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’-instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’.

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

That’s Teddy Roosevelt speaking at the Sorbonne a century ago in 1910.

Some truths are timeless: The critics, your critics, will always be there, lurking and worthless.

There’s no storybook about "The Boy Who Followed Somebody Else’s Dream", no movie rights sold for the tale of "It Wasn’t Within My Purview To Consider Alternatives", no Sinatra tune entitled "I Did It The Way My Critics Requested I Do It".

All the songs, all the movies, all the books say the same damn thing about you and your dream for a reason, because it’s true!

You’ll be on a stone slab someday too soon — far too soon — and your children will look at you and you’ll look at yourself, and you’re going to ask, and they’re going to ask, and wherever you are right now just do me a favor and… stop

…and listen to the wind.

And count the years between here and birth — your birth,  — and count the years between here and death.

And count the words of your loved ones, and your family, and your friends, and your kids, and your own words in your own head about who you are and who you want to be and who you always wanted to be. And realize that that is beautiful. And that is what you were made for.

And count the words of the critics and naysayers and the negative people in your life and the words they’ve piled up like stones for you with their wants and their desires and their demands of you.

Count the piles and feel their weight and add them up and ask yourself…
Which one do you want to carry with you to the end? Which one do you want to carry for the rest of your days?

Which one is worthy of you?

A story is told about a distinguished hassid, a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov, who wanted to see the Prophet Elijah. He had heard that certain mystics and Kabbalists had had this privilege, and he asked the Baal Shem Tov which spiritual exercises in order to merit the same.

The Baal Shem Tov discouraged him, but the hassid persisted. For months he implored the Baal Shem Tov, yet the great master kept rebuffing him. Finally, a few days before Passover, the Baal Shem Tov acquiesced. He told the hassid that he would help him to meet Elijah, but on one condition – he’d have to carry out his instructions exactly as conveyed, without deviating even one iota. The hassid readily agreed.

“If you want to see the prophet, this is what you need to do,” the Baal Shem Tov instructed. “Fill up nine boxes with large quantities of food: fish, meat, matzah, wine, etc. Then, on the day before Passover, travel to the neighboring town with all the food you purchased. At the outskirts of the town, at the edge of the forest, there is a dilapidated house.

Shortly before the holiday begins, knock on the door and ask if they would put you up for the holiday of Passover.”

With enthusiasm, the disciple followed the instructions of the Baal Shem Tov. He purchased parcels of food and drink, and on the designated day traveled to the impoverished home. He knocked on the door. The woman of the house opened it, and he asked her if he could stay with them for the holiday.

“How can I welcome you when I don’t have any food in the house?” she cried. “We are a very poor family.”

“Well, I happen to have plenty of food here with me,” he replied. “I have enough food for all of us.” The woman could not believe her ears and welcomed him into their home, introduced him to her husband and children, and gave him bed to sleep in. Seeing how the entire family was overjoyed, and the children were dancing around, the man guest realized how impoverished they truly were. These poor kids had never seen so much food in their life.

And the parents were the happiest people in the world, feeling that they could finally celebrate Passover properly, with abundant food, matzah and wine. The hassid spent with them the first two days of Passover, celebrating together. All the while, he was eagerly waiting to see Elijah. But to no avail … Elijah never showed up.

Frustrated, he returned to the Baal Shem Tov and complained: “I was in that house for two days, but I did not see Elijah! Why did you disappoint me?”

“Did you do everything I told you?” asked the Baal Shem Tov.

“Yes, I did!” he asserted. “And you didn’t see him?” “No!” “In that case,” said the Baal Shem Tov, “go back to the house for the last days of the holiday, but this time remain outside and just stand near the window, listening.

The hassid wondered about the meaning of this strange instruction. But he followed orders. He went back to the house. He stood near the window. Inside he heard the following conversation taking place between the wife and the husband: “Sarah,” the husband was saying, “Where do will we get food for the last days of the holiday? I am so concerned.”

To which his wife responded: “Why are you worried Yankel? Didn’t we see how God send us Elijah during the first days of Passover with all the packages of delicious food? Surely God will send Elijah again for the last days of Passover!”

And suddenly the man understood what the Baal Shem Tov was telling him. You want to see Elijah? Don’t look for him elsewhere, in the heavens above, or in the holy people living in the mountains or caves.

No! You want to see Elijah? Fill up nine boxes with food, feed hungry children, then take a good look in the mirror and you will see Elijah! You will see Elijah in yourself.

So yes, we can all perform miracles. We all have that power. All we need to do is to not be self-consumed … to be sensitive to others and help anyone we can.

The Character of Success
by Dr. Napoleon Hill

A part of this philosophy is that adversity is good for us! The person who really ought to be pitied is the one who grows up with a "silver spoon" in his mouth, with a rich dad and no responsibilities! It’s a safe bet that such a person will never be a very strong competitor of the individual who has had to fight hard for every foot of ground that he or she has covered.

No, it is not wealth that makes a person—it is character, persistence and a strong determination to be of service to the world! You might as well understand now that your real success will be measured and determined by the quantity and quality of service that you render the world! There is no guesswork, no luck or chance about this. It’s according to nature’s own laws.

You may be wealthy, but that isn’t success! You may have a splendid education, but that isn’t success either. You may have wealthy parents, but neither is that success, for you must remember that wealth is an evasive thing which sometimes takes wings and flies away.

The only real, permanent and worthwhile success is represented by the character you are building!

And remember that you are building some sort of a character all the time. The chances are about ten to one that if you are devoting some of your time to self-improvement, developing self-confidence and self-control, you are building a character that will be an asset to you in years to come.

Character is built slowly, step by step. Your every thought and every act goes into it. Character is the crystallization of the things you do, the words you speak and the thoughts you think! If you think about worthwhile things, you are pretty much apt to be a worthwhile person.

You can be pretty much what you want to be if your will keep your mind on the one thing you want to be long enough. Remember, I said if you try hard enough—not if you wish hard enough.

We should never complain if success does not come easily. If it did, we might not recognize it when it arrived! I have no complaint to register against fate for taking me over the pathway of hard experience. I have no kick to register against the world for the rough manner in which it has used me. An easy time in life doesn’t seem to leave the proper temper in the metal. No one wants to cash a check on the Easy-Time Bank. The world is afraid of it.

The world is waiting for men and women who are seeking the opportunity to render real service—the kind of service that lightens the burdens of our neighbors; the kind of service that makes the world a better place to live in; the kind of service that ninety-five people out of a hundred to not render because they do not understand it. Shakespeare was right when he said, "our only sin is that of ignorance."

Source: Excerpted from the 1919 issue of Hill’s Golden Rule Magazine as appearing in the Think and Grow Rich Newsletter, July 1993, Volume 5, Number 10, pg. 7.

Another clip from Victor Antonio. Don’t listen to dream killers, and a great definition of stupid people.

The Word is my friend. The Word is my best friend, for The Word is the Word of God, whom I must always listen to, rather than other words. I pray that I only listen to His Word, not others, and that I be directed by His Word, not my own evil inclinations, or false words.

We all have days to wonder about, because we think too much about our jobs, from our viewpoint, and we have lost sight of our jobs from God’s viewpoint. Our lives are to be a reflection of Him, and our work should be as work for Him. When we forget that, our heart wanders and we need to get pointed back in the right direction, UP.

Every day remind yourself that you are serving God and you can do all things through him, then  you will feel that you can do what he has placed you into. When you listen to your own yetzer hara then you will question if you can or not. Man has a yetzer hara (evil inclination) and a yetzer tov (good inclination). The existence of the two allows man to have the free will to choose good. The yetzer hara will first try to grab a person through a subtle gesture. If an individual falls prey at the early stage he will likely fall deeper and deeper into its clutches. Our goal is to overcome the yetzer hara on its onset because this is when we are strongest and most able to resist its pull.

Stay focused on His Word, and all the rest will fall into place

Luke 11:9-10 (New International Version)

⁹“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

It is possible to lose every desire except the desire to be with the Lord, as you read the Word, & pray. I am speaking of the pressing tasks, the calls, the work that needs to be done. You can realize the simple peach of the real priority. Here and now it is really short lived. A few hours if we want it.

I heard, or read, that we have as much of God as we want. When I understood that, I determined I would seek him with all my heart, soul & strength. Does that mean 24/7? Sorry, no. I’m not there yet. I still, daily have frequent moments when I realize I have not been praying, talking with my Father. More often though I realize a worship song has been playing in my mind. Our God is an awesome God, he reins.

The Power of Not Thinking

By Tzvi Freeman

Thinking has a profound effect. So does not thinking.

A mind obsessed with yesterday’s travesties, today’s aches and pains, and tomorrow’s dark clouds, creates problems where none exist. It transforms daydreams into realities, molehills into monstrosities, innocent creatures into venomous snakes. All the more so when such words pass the lips into the tangible world we all share.

That is why simply turning your back to those thoughts is such a powerful form of healing—for every sort of illness. Distract your mind to good thoughts, productive thoughts, thoughts of confidence in the One who made you, and especially thoughts of Torah.

Heal your mind and heal your soul. You will heal your body as well.