Napoleon Bonaparte
George Bernard Shaw
I have a lot to do today and I need
to stay focused. Staying focused
is key for me. I’m excited about
today and I’m grateful, very grateful, to be here. Here are some other things I am grateful for today:
·
I’m grateful for this blog.
·
I’m grateful for my ability to write well.
·
I’m grateful for the people who love me and the people
I love.
·
I’m grateful that someone texted me a prayer request
this morning.
·
I’m grateful that I was up early this morning so I
could get to work quickly.
·
I’m grateful for my health.
·
I’m grateful that I have food.
·
I’m grateful that I have a job.
·
I’m grateful that I have time off from that job to do
other things.
·
I’m grateful for my books.
·
I’m grateful for the many opportunities to learn.
·
I’m grateful for my home.
·
I’m grateful for my car.
This list could go
on and on. Yes, there are areas in
my life that are far from perfect.
Having an attitude of gratitude is not an exercise in fantasy. I am not oblivious to my difficulties,
but there are really only three ways to address difficulties in an emotionally
healthy manner. Each way first
requires complete acceptance of the situation.
1. Deal
directly with the difficulties.
2. Let
go of the difficulty until a more appropriate time.
3. Accept
that the difficulty cannot be changed.
Dealing with a
difficulty may mean ending a relationship, getting a job, asking for
forgiveness, cleaning up a mess, or changing a habit or behavior. It is taking action. If I have learned anything in the last
few weeks, it has been how powerful action is. Very few things change by themselves.
Letting go of a
difficulty until a more appropriate time is sometimes, for me, the most
difficult. I don’t like to have
things lingering, especially with regard to relationship issues. Sometimes
though I just have to wait for the right time to deal with a problem, but not
let it take over every thought until I get to that time.
Acceptance of a
difficulty means simply that: I
accept this problem and I accept that I cannot change it. I accept, peacefully,
that I cannot or choose not to change a particular thing. This often applies to
the following:
·
The weather
·
Traffic lights
·
Political appointments
·
Other people’s behaviors.
There are only two
things that I can really change – my actions and my attitude.
Acceptance, by the
way, is not avoidance, apathy or acquiescence. Those are twisted mirror images of acceptance. Acceptance is a conscious choice that I
cannot or choose not to address a difficulty. I know I have accepted something by the degree of peace I
feel with my decision.
Also, though this
may contradict what I wrote above, sometimes things do change by themselves. Some problems do go away if I just give
them time. Again, this takes
conscious present thought to decide if this will be the case. Also, I have seen many things change
through the power of prayer.
Prayer can be a form of acceptance. I accept that a particular difficulty is beyond my power to
repair, but it is not beyond God’s power.
What does all this
have to do with Purpose? The more
Purposeful my life is, the surer I am to encounter difficulties. Actually, I will encounter difficulties
either way. But when I am in
Purpose I can be conscious of how to address difficulties. When I am not, difficulties often just
sweep me away like a tidal wave.
Quoting Albert
Schweitzer, Earl Nightingale says in The Strangest Secret, “The problem with men today is that men just don’t
think.” Often this is true. Thinking requires that I pause and
consider the best course of action.
Often I just react to what is going on around me. When I react, then I put events and
other people in control. When I
think, I get control of, again, either my actions or my attitudes. Being in control of these enables me to
Get Started and to Keep Going… and this too makes me grateful.
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