Rose Petals or Thorns

"The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose." - Kahlil Gibran

There are many people going about their daily lives who do not realize their attitude can have a tremendous effect upon their stress level.

Being constantly negative can cause a great amount of stress.

How you look at situations as being a threat, challenge, beneficial or negative, stressful or exciting, is a matter of your point of view. But this point of view can have impact on your life. By getting rid of self-defeating thought patterns, life can be more productive, happier and less stressful.

By simply changing your attitude.

There are many articles you can read which will help you find a new attitude. One in particular is titled Reduce Stress and Improve Your Life with Positive Self Talk - Develop the Positive Self Talk Habit! by Elizabeth Scott, M.S. Here are a few of her thoughts, but read the entire article if you want to find out more.

Notice Your Patterns: The first step toward change is to become more aware of the problem. You probably don’t realize how often you say negative things in your head, or how much it affects your experience. The following strategies can help you become more conscious of your internal dialogue and its content.

Journal Writing: Whether you carry a journal around with you and jot down negative comments when you think them, write a general summary of your thoughts at the end of the day, or just start writing about your feelings on a certain topic and later go back to analyze it for content, journaling can be an effective tool for examining your inner process.

Thought-Stopping: As you notice yourself saying something negative in your mind, you can stop your thought mid-stream my saying to yourself “Stop”. Saying this aloud will be more powerful, and having to say it aloud will make you more aware of how many times you are stopping negative thoughts, and where.

Rubber-Band Snap: Another therapeutic trick is to walk around with a rubber band around your wrist; as you notice negative self-talk, pull the band away from your skin and let it snap back. It’ll hurt a little, and serve as a slightly negative consequence that will both make you more aware of your thoughts, and help to stop them! (Or, if you don’t want to subject yourself to walking around with a rubber band on your wrist, you’ll be even more careful to limit the negative thoughts!)

Replace Negative Statements: A good way to stop a bad habit is to replace it with something better. Once you’re aware of your internal dialogue, here are some ways to change it:

Milder Wording: Have you ever been to a hospital and noticed how the nurses talk about ‘discomfort’ instead of ‘pain’? This is generally done because ‘pain’ is a much more powerful word, and discussing your ‘pain’ level can actually make your experience of it more intense than if you’re discussing your ‘discomfort’ level. You can try this strategy in your daily life. In your self-talk, turning more powerful negative words to more neutral ones can actually help neutralize your experience. Instead of using words like ‘hate’ and ‘angry’ (as in, “I hate traffic! It makes me so angry!”), you can use words like ‘don’t like’ and ‘annoyed’ (“I don’t like traffic; it makes me annoyed,” sounds much milder, doesn’t it?)

Change Negative to Neutral or Positive: As you find yourself mentally complaining about something, rethink your assumptions. Are you assuming something is a negative event when it isn’t, necessarily? (For example, having your plans cancelled at the last minute can be seen as a negative, but what you do with your newly-freed schedule can be what you make of it.) The next time you find yourself stressing about something or deciding you’re not up to a challenge, stop and rethink, and see if you can come up with a neutral or positive replacement.

Change Self-Limiting Statements to Questions: Self-limiting statements like “I can’t handle this!” or “This is impossible!” are particularly damaging because they increase your stress in a given situation and they stop you from searching for solutions. The next time you find yourself thinking something that limits the possibilities of a given situation, turn it into a question. Doesn’t “How can I handle this?” or “How is this possible?” sound more hopeful and open up your imagination to new possibilities?

The pessimist in you is probably saying "this is all silliness and will never work." Well I say why not give it a try and see a change in your life.

See the rose for all it's beauty and the greatness in your own life.

And stay inspired my friends!

What Is Your Story

"Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives." - William James

We allow ourselves to go through life with a belief that the path we are on was pre-chosen for us. Looking forward, the only thing we allow ourselves to see is a narrow road which leads off in one direction. We might not be happy with this path, so we try to adapt to the road, to the scenery and make the best of our travel.

One day we come upon an intersection and stop to wonder.

We stop at this crossroads and see something different on the horizon, another path. Our interest is heightened but our mind tells us to "stay on our own path."

So we follow our mind and continue down the same path but with a growing sense this is not the path we should be traveling. And then one day you are standing at another crossroads. Here is the point at which you finally make a decision.

A decision of change in your life is made.

I would like to hear and share with others this decision you made in life. It is this change I want others to hear about. A story of your change in attitude and in personal revelation and change in direction.

What made you choose another path?

Your story can impact the lives of other people and together we can change lives for the better. With our stories of what we did to change the course of our lives will give others the courage to do the same.

I have heard some say "no one would want to hear my story" or "it was such a small and insignificant thing." These are precisely the stories I want to hear about. They are precisely the stories other people need to hear.

Leave a lasting impact for others.

Send me your story of change; the thing that happened which changed it all for you. It will be combined with a gathering of other stories to share with those who might be standing at their own crossroads right now.

Send your story to me at josephprimm@bellsouth.net.

These stories will become part of a larger story to inspire others. Stories which you helped to craft in changing the lives of others with something as simple as your own story.

If you are unsure, then guess what...you may very well be standing at that crossroads looking down the path at a new horizon. A new path which can make a difference for many others. Make a difference, make a change, tell your story.

Stay inspired my friends!

What Is Your Focus?

"One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular." -Tony Robbins

There are weeks and days in which I simply need to focus harder on the manuscript for a new book I am writing. Finding that focus can be difficult but when I do it certainly pays off in what I can get done.

As it is said, "Amazing things happen when you put your mind to it."

There were many things I had to simply let go and allow to wait while I worked ten to twelve hour days researching, writing, researching and writing some more. Quite a bit of the book had already been formulated in my mind, but it takes checking of facts, reading other opinions or authors to get a good handle on my own thoughts.

A lot can be learned in a focused process.

Your life can accomplish many things as well if you take the time to focus. Directing your attention to the goal, desire or vision will take you much further than simply coming up with a lot of different ideas.

Ideas are good, but they are only pieces of paper scattered about your desk.

You need to choose one idea and direct your energy to completing it. When you do that, surprise yourself with how far you will take yourself. Be surprised at how high you will take yourself. Surprise yourself in achieving.

Stay inspired my friends!

Life's Blueprint

[Reprinted from Seattle Times article]
Six months before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967.

I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is your life's blueprint?

Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint, and that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, and a building is not well erected without a good, solid blueprint.

Now each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives, and the question is whether you have a proper, a solid and a sound blueprint.

I want to suggest some of the things that should begin your life's blueprint. Number one in your life's blueprint, should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth and your own somebodiness. Don't allow anybody to make you fell that you're nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.

Secondly, in your life's blueprint you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor. You're going to be deciding as the days, as the years unfold what you will do in life — what your life's work will be. Set out to do it well.

And I say to you, my young friends, doors are opening to you--doors of opportunities that were not open to your mothers and your fathers — and the great challenge facing you is to be ready to face these doors as they open.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great essayist, said in a lecture in 1871, "If a man can write a better book or preach a better sermon or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, even if he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door."

This hasn't always been true — but it will become increasingly true, and so I would urge you to study hard, to burn the midnight oil; I would say to you, don't drop out of school. I understand all the sociological reasons, but I urge you that in spite of your economic plight, in spite of the situation that you're forced to live in — stay in school.

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn't do it any better.

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.

Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.

— From the estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Stay inspired my friends!