A Fast Ball by Babe Ruth?

Did you know that Babe Ruth, a famous baseball player, was
once a pitcher? At one point he made the deliberate decision
to stop pitching so he could focus on batting. He took a lot
of heat for his decision because he was a GOOD pitcher. He
stuck with his decision though because he knew he had the
motivation to be a GREAT batter.

Often the difference between being good and being great
is making adjustments that allow you to spend more of your
time developing your greatest strengths.

Ever had an annual performance review where the first part
was about the wonderful things you did that year, but then
the focus quickly shifted to a discussion about shoring up
your weaknesses? It’s an all-too-common scenario. And it’s
probably a waste of time.

The "fix your weaknesses" school believes that with enough
discipline, determination and training, anyone can do anything.
Unfortunately, it confuses weaknesses and limitations. Weaknesses
reflect a lack of skill (how to do something) or knowledge (what
you know). Weaknesses can be overcome by education, training,
experience and practice. On the other hand, limitations reflect
a lack of motivation (what you do well naturally). These really
can’t be overcome, because new motivations can’t be acquired.
In fact, if a person has low motivation in a particular area,
spelling for example, there is very little likelihood that he
or she will ever be a great speller. The best they will be is
adequate. Who wants to be adequate?

It’s a much better idea to build on your strengths.

If you want to move up from being good to being great, know
what your talents and motivations are, and build on them.
Why? Because you will develop what you do best and enjoy
most. These are your strengths, and they are yours for life.
You can build on them, and they won't let you down. Think about
it: what would your life be like if you got paid to do what you
do best and truly enjoy? Awesome, isn’t it?





.

Practice to Consistently Produce

Every now and then you encounter someone who demonstrates
excellence on the job. It might be an exceptional waitress
who anticipates your every need. Or a manager who generates
both high performance and loyalty in his teams. It could be a
teacher with a knack for unlocking the desire to learn in each
student. Excellence, true excellence, is something we prize
but seldom see. It’s a joy to encounter someone who is truly
excellent at what they do. Why is that so rare? More
importantly, how can you become known as a man or woman who
consistently demonstrates excellence?

One comment that is heard time and again about those who demonstrate
excellence is, "He/she is a natural at it." They don’t seem to
struggle to be excellent; it just flows. That is always a sign of
motivation, and therein lies the first key: Motivation is required
for excellence.

Motivation is what we like to do naturally. It’s like being right
or left-handed. We don’t even think about it. We just write. The
same is true for people known for excellence. They have a group of
motivations that work in concert to help them perform at a higher
level. Like all motivations, these were inborn and are as much a
part of them as being blue-eyed or tall.

But there is a second key: Motivation can be developed. People who
demonstrate excellence have identified their motivations and worked
hard to develop them. They have added knowledge, skill, experience
and practice to consistently produce at the highest levels.

By the way, there is a flip side to these two keys, and it is
this: The best we can be with low motivation is adequate. No
matter how hard we work and desire it, in the long run we will
never be excellent at something without high levels of motivation
in that area. In other words, if we toil in areas where we have low
motivation, we resign ourselves to mediocrity.

Who wants to be mediocre? Who wants to be known as "adequate?"
Wouldn’t you rather have a shot at excellence? The first step to
unlocking your excellence is to know what you do well naturally.
What are your motivations?

Well...what are they?




I am blessed and I bless you.

Blessings are Blessings

Were it not for the technological advances made in global
communications, delivering this lesson to you in whatever
particular place in the world you happen to inhabit might be
difficult. Thanks to the world-wide web, the internet and email,
however, we now have high-speed access to a previously undreamed-of
world of connectivity and can now literally "reach out and touch"
people spread all across the planet. But as remarkable as this new
connection to the world is, it cannot hold a candle to the speed
and ease with which a blessing can reach out to touch and transform.

The more practiced we become with the art of blessing, the more
aware we are of the truth of our being and the Divine way in which
we are so fully connected to the world around us. We discover a
willingness, many of us for the first time, to listen to our soul
and follow its guidance, and with each blessing we send forth, the
world of which we are a part undergoes a subtle yet undeniable
change. It becomes brighter, smoother, softer and infinitely more
sweet.

Notice I described the change occuring in our world as "subtle".
The fact is that, though they can be, the changes wrought by our
blessings are rarely ostentatious, dramatic or filled with any
sense of the spiritually glamorous. As David Spangler writes,
"Real blessings in everyday life are more like peasants than
nobles, they move and mingle with the commonality of our daily
experiences, sometimes going unnoticed or unrecognized for what
they are."

Blessings are blessings in whatever form they take. Our job is not
to question whether one act of blessing is greater than another,
nor is it to judge ourselves as being more or less capable of
blessing than someone else. Our job is to bless in whatever
ordinary way feels good to us and to keep on blessing for the sheer
joy the act of blessing brings.

And when we do this, when we practice the art of blessing everyone
and everything in our lives in whatever sweet and simple fashion
feels best to us, then with a swiftness that technology, no matter
how advanced it might become, can never match, our ordinary
blessings connect us to the Divine and make it possible for us to
see our universe in a whole and extraordinary new way.

And in reality, whether its peasant-born or noble in its rank, a
blessing need do nothing else. It has done the job it was meant to
do the moment it changes the way we view the world.

Changing us, you see, is what blessing others is really all about.


Today's affirmation:

"In the every day and ordinary, blessings abound."

Today's quote:

"In approaching the art of blessing, it's important to understand
that we are really entering a territory that is different from the
one we navigate through most of our daily lives. We are shifting to
a way of looking at the world and at ourselves that is unusual in
our mainstream society. This is not a magical or esoteric
perspective. It's simply a way of understanding the ordinariness
of the sacred and the sacredness of the ordinary."



-- David Spangler

Honor the Sacredness of every Single Moment

Most of us spend a lot of time in yesterday and tomorrow. We spend
so much time either regretting the things that have happened or
dreading what might come, that we are often apt to neglect this
particular moment entirely. And actually, right now is the only
moment we have. A moment ago, for instance, you clicked on the
link to open this message. That moment is already gone and there is
nothing you can do to get it back. And before you finish this
sentence you will be in the future. In actuality, the only
moment you can ever know is RIGHT NOW. This is the one that counts.
This is your blessed moment.

At this moment your physical body is probably resting in a
comfortable chair or at your desk. The conscious and subconscious
mind are in turn reading and digesting these words. But since the
subconscious mind doesn't understand time, it's not paying any
attention to the time you are taking to read this.

That's because time is really nothing more than a mental construct
we use for moving things through space. Our subconscious mind
knows nothing about it, doesn't understand it, and won't comply
with it. Our subconscious mind knows and understands nothing but
NOW.

The conscious mind, however, considers time to be both real and,
unless trained otherwise, in short supply. It runs to and fro,
from the past to future and back again, stopping rarely to fully
examine the present moment and choosing, instead, to dart from one
scattered thought to the next. While the subconscious stays put in
NOW, the conscious mind is free to scurry about like an unruly
child and unless we teach it to stay put, will do just that. This
unruliness, when pitted against a subconscious that wants to stay
in the moment, can cause a mental battle that leaves us, at the
end of the day, feeling exhausted and tension-filled. Having spent
our days fighting our way through the clutter and debris of our
past and future thinking, it's no wonder we so often feel like life
is passing us by. Since we've been paying so little attention to
it, it really is.

So how do we keep our conscious minds from all this unruly
behavior? The key is in learning to focus fully on what we are
doing in any given moment. By paying attention to NOW. First, we
must decide that no matter what is happening, we will give it our
undivided attention, and then we commit to that decision. We bless
each moment by being fully present in it.

This is not as difficult as it might at first seem, but it does
take practice. By giving the present moment due diligence,
however, you will soon see the results in clearer thinking, greater
originality, and getting more accomplished without any sense of
strain or fatigue. By centering your thinking and emotional energy
in one spot, you'll feel renewed, regenerated and reborn. You will
no longer be living in the past; you will no longer be racing into
the future. You will be living RIGHT NOW, in this precious, eternal
and ever-present moment.

This doesn't mean you cannot plan for the future or remember the
past. It simply means that when you do either, you are fully
conscious of doing so. You willingly venture into past or future
thinking instead of being dragged there by a cluttered mind.



Since time is a mental concept and fully created by you, you can
create as much of it as you need. The universe is never in a hurry,
so why should you be? Just as it did this morning, the sun will
rise on time tomorrow. Look on any calendar to see when the moon is
next scheduled to appear, and you can rest assured it will peek
over the horizon the very moment it is slated to do so. Everything
in this universe, you see, runs with majestic, orderly, quiet
precision. So can you. There is no need to rush. You have all the
time in the world. You only need to retrain your mind to remember
this truth.

To do so, begin by taking a deep breath and then center your entire
mind on this moment. This is usually easy to do for a few seconds,
and then other thoughts start clamoring for your attention. Don't
be concerned. This is normal. As soon as you feel yourself being
pulled away from the present, just gently break away from the
thought pattern that is pulling you away and come back to this
moment. No matter what thoughts may be demanding your attention,
quiet them down, again and again returning to here and now.

Now, throughout the day, whenever you find your thoughts wandering
away from what you are doing at any given moment, gently pull them
back again, just as you did in this mini-meditation. Become fully
aware of what you are doing as you are doing it. If you are washing
dishes, for instance, put your whole mind to it. Notice the silky
feel of the warm, soapy water. Feel the smooth, squeaky cleanness
of each dish as it is washed. Commit yourself wholly to what you
are doing. Be reverent of it. Honor it by giving it your full
attention. At first it may be a bit difficult. You may venture off
into the past or future for several minutes before you realize
you've left the present. You may begin doing other things in your
mind instead of paying attention to what you are doing now. You may
even leave what you are doing physically to go start something
else. When this happens, simply return your full awareness and
your physical being to the moment at hand and imagine that you are
filling this perfect moment and this perfect action with light and
love and peace. By blessing it in this way, you will be training
your mind to honor the sacredness of every single moment and every
single action.

Again, don't worry or chide yourself when your mind wanders. As you
continue with this practice, you will find your mind wandering less
and less, your awareness growing more attuned to the moment you are
in. For now, simply bless the moment and return your attention to
it as quickly as you discover you have wandered.


Today's affirmation:

"Past and present are only in the mind. I am now. I am blessed."

Today's quote:

"If you are waiting for anything in order to live and love without
holding back, then you suffer. Every moment is the most important
moment of your life. No future time is better than now to let down
your guard and love."


-- David Deida

.