What is The Shift?
It’s the story of the most important moment of your life—when you stop striving and start arriving! It’s the choice you make to move toward a life that gathers up the pieces of your best, most fulfilled, most loving self. It’s the moment when you start living a life rich with meaning and begin playing the music you came here to play!
Check it out below and watch the trailer.
So did you thank someone today? Maybe you started the day asking people to do something before you thanked them for what they have already done. Maybe you told the first people you saw, something nice. I got to work this morning and tried something fun…
First person, “Hey I want to tell you something, you are a driving force here, everyone looks to you because you know how these should be, and you make things happen.” You can imagine the positive reaction that got.
Second person, “I want you to know you are magnificent. You are like the rudder of a ship, you guide this facility to success. If it was not for you to keep everything running the doctors and nurses would not be able to perform their healing mission for these patients.” Again, you can imagine the positive reaction. Later in the day second person tells third person, “John always inspires me in the mornings”, or something really close to that.
What prompted me to do this. Well, I don’t really know. I did not plan it more than a minute before I spoke to person one, and person two was right after person one. The thought behind it I think, was more self serving then other serving. It goes back to something I try to practice; “Stay so busy giving recognition that you don’t need any for yourself.” I’m still trying to make that work but I have not given up yet. I imagine it takes a lot of daily recognition giving before you don’t need any, but slowly as I practice I can see it happening. As people recognize you as a recognition giver they like to return the favor, and there is the difficulty.
Do you give recognition because it is truly deserved, or because you want it in return. I guess it really does not matter as long as you mean it and it is for the right reason. So just keep doing it and prove me wrong, or right.
However, the real point of this is Gratitude. Do you show it, give it, live it? Do you know people who say the right thing at the right time? Go out of their way to help or show they care? How about just simple things, do you show gratitude? show that you are grateful? If not, here are some wonderful quotes to help you understand this better, and I’m grateful that you take the time to read these…
“Thank God–every morning when you get up–that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you a hundred virtues which the idle never know.”
~ Charles Kingsley ~
“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.”
~ Unknown ~
“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
~ Marcel Proust ~
“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.
These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.”
~ Joseph Addison ~
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
~ Melody Beattie ~
“Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.”
~ Author Unknown ~
“If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.”
~ Rabbi Harold Kushner ~
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
~ Epictetus ~
“The sun was shining in my eyes, and I could barely see
To do the necessary task that was allotted me.
Resentment of the vivid glow, I started to complain–
When all at once upon the air I heard the blindman’s cane.”
~ Earl Musselman ~
“There is a calmness to a life lived in Gratitude, a quiet joy.”
~ Ralph H. Blum ~ ( American Author )
“You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.”
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach ~
Simple Abundance
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy ~
“A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.”
~ Joseph Addison ~
“To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.”
~ Johannes A. Gaertner ~
“To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.”
~ Albert Schweitzer ~
“Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement – and we will make the goal.”
~ Jerome P. Fleishman ~
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”
~ Cicero ~
“Every time we remember to say “thank you”, we experience nothing less than heaven on earth.”
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach ~
“Gratitude is something of which none of us can give too much. For on the smiles, the thanks we give, our little gestures of appreciation, our neighbors build their philosophy of life.”
~ A. J. Cronin ~
“Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.”
~ Seneca ~
“True thanksgiving means that we need to thank God for what He has done for us, and not to tell Him what we have done for Him.”
~ George R. Hendrick ~
“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.”
~ Henry Ward Beecher ~
“Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude.
Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness.
Thankfulness may consist merely of words.
Gratitude is shown in acts.”
~ David O. McKay ~
“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”
~ Meister Eckhardt ~
Be Thankful
Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don’t know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
Because it means you’ve made a difference.
It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.
GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.
~ Author Unknown ~
Please enjoy this great article by Napoleon Hill.
A Man’s Mental Attitude
by Napoleon Hill
A man’s mental attitude in respect to defeat is the factor of major importance in determining whether he rides with the tides of fortune on the success side of the River of Life or is swept to the failure side by circumstances of misfortune.
The circumstances which separate failure from success often are so slight that their real cause is overlooked. Often they exist entirely in the mental attitude with which one meets temporary defeat. The man with a positive mental attitude reacts to defeat in a spirit of determination not to accept it. The man with a negative mental attitude reacts to defeat in a spirit of hopeless acceptance.
The man who maintains a positive mental attitude may have anything in life upon which he may set his heart, so long as it does not conflict with the laws of God and the rights of his fellowmen. He probably will experience many defeats, but he will not surrender to defeat. He will convert it into a stepping stone from which he will rise to higher and higher areas of achievement.
The subject of a positive mental attitude is so important that it not only claimed first position in the list of the twelve riches of life, but it had to be included as an important part of the principle on pleasing personality, and has been mentioned in practically every principle of this course.
A positive mental attitude is an essential part of the key which unlocks the door to the solution of all personal problems. It is the magic quality of this key which enables it to attract success as surely as an electro-magnet attracts iron filings.
The whole secret of the formula by which you may turn defeat into as asset lives in your ability to maintain a positive mental attitude despite your defeat.
This is no man-made rule. It is a part of the imponderable phenomena of nature through which man has been provided with the privilege of drawing upon that power known as faith. Faith and a positive mental attitude are twin brothers! Where one is found, there also will be the other. The two are inseparable. Faith is a power which cannot be analyzed by science, yet it is the greatest power available to mankind.
And the strangest of its qualities exists in the fact that it is free, equally available to the humblest person or the greatest. Recognize this truth and you will be well on your way toward the great estate of Happy Valley.
Source: PMA Science of Success. Pgs. 396 & 397.
There is nothing quite like belief. Believe in yourself and you will see! Realize the abilities that only you possess; the uniqueness that was given to you; the special ways you are and the ways you can improve.
With you there is no second best. There are no losers in your race. It’s you… the winner all the way. Whether you win by a lot, or just a little, the decision is up to you. Give yourself every opportunity, every belief, that you have what it takes, you know it, so go for it.
Do you see what a difference it makes when you believe. Imagine yourself succeeding… then reach for it, and succeed. Don’t say, “If I could, I would.” Say instead, “If I will, I can.”
You must constantly ask yourself these questions:
* Who am I around most often?
* What are they doing to me?
* What have they got me reading?
* What have they got me saying?
* What do they have me thinking about?
* And, most importantly, what do they have me becoming?
In Proverbs chapter 13 verse 20 we read “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.” There is so much wisdom in this verse! Basically, you can boil this down to “choose your friends carefully” The life we each live really is so short. And there are so many people in our lives that we can choose to spend our time with. It would be very wise on our part to attempt to spend quality time with quality people; wise people. Otherwise, we can get swept up in a myriad of distractions, cares and negative thinking.
Who we choose to hang around with a lot is who we will become in many ways. Don’t get me wrong – there are clearly times that we are called to minister or serve or love or spend time with people that may not appear “wise” – at first glance. I think if you truly are ministering or serving or loving someone who is down and out, you may be surprised how wise a down and out person can be, and sometimes they can be closer to God in many ways. . . So – I’m just saying don’t insulate yourself with only spending time with people who appear worldly & wise. Wisdom and wise people truly can be found in the most unlikely of places.
There are two important things to understand about the influences we are exposed to by those we are around. First, influence is powerful. Second, it is subtle. You may not let someone push you off course, but you might allow someone to nudge you off course and not even realize it. Let the views of others educate and inform you, but make sure your decisions are a product of your own conclusions, not someone, or something else.
Last, what kind of influence are you? The greatest gift you can give to somebody, is your own personal develoment. What are you doing each day to make yourself better? What are you doing to become a person of positive influence to those who choose to be around you?
The opportunity to grow and achieve our dreams is always there. The possibilities to be happier, wiser, wealthier, healthier, more involved, more alive, more confident, more responsive, more of the person you always wanted to be…
Those are all possibilities that are around each bend in the road, each turn of a new day. It’s up to us to begin the journey, to open our hearts and minds, to accept the possibilities. That’s the hard part.
How often do we really learn from our mistakes, or mistakes we see others make? Do you sometimes find yourself repeating certain behaviors or taking the same actions when you know there is a better way. For someone who has not set it in his or her heart to be cautious in their actions they will often find themselves stuck in this cycle of error, don’t learn, repeat…
It is only after you will have opened your eyes to take a look at your actions and be cautious in them, will you truly be successful.