What happened? Did things change? Did you work hard for it or did you just hope and pray?
We may have felt from time to time that it’s our turn to do what we were destined to do!
But somehow things just never worked out.
Maybe it’s because we need to click on the link that gets us to the place we need to be (there’s a thought).
Is it your turn?
Only you can decide that.
No one can make your dreams come true, only you can, by putting the work needed. And even though we know this, we always could use a reminder. We are bombarded by all the things we have to do to get by. However, this state of affairs cannot be our end game. We need to do what we have to do, in order to do what you want to do. And sometimes when it’s our turn we may think we are not ready, but that’s because we do not know how strong we have become. All we need is the right timing to prove this to ourselves. Sometimes your turn is when you feel like you’re not ready!
What do you do when it’s your turn? Will you be ready to take advantage of all the opportunities waiting for you? We are good at dreaming about the things we want to do but we can defeat ourselves if we do not believe that we deserve our turn when it comes.
So what ever it may be, believe that it is your turn and everything will always work out the way it is suppose to. All you need to do is remember that when your turn comes, it’s not just about you, it’s not just about what you can get and how much you can get; it’s about being true to you. Also, make sure that when your turn comes, you make the most of it!
When you focus on what you think you can’t do or be, then you will never be who you could have been. No matter what you do, you will remain poor.
Many of us have an escapist mindset. Every time something looks like it could be kinda hard, we say we can’t, we chip away at enriching our lives; we become poor in spirit and we clip our wings before we learn how to fly. We accept that we can’t and never try. We become the thing we most fear when we are eager to believe that we have limits.
Maybe your frustration and unhappiness has nothing to do with anyone but your mindset about what you can do and where you can go. The limits we place on ourselves are the ones that stick because we are doing a better joy at chaining ourselves to our circumstances, than anyone else could.
It’s easy to tell yourself that there many things you can’t do but remember that when we do this, we become uninspired to dream big and reach for all the possibilities available to us.
I too have to learn this lesson and so it is important to take some time to remind yourself of all the things you have done that say you could, can and will. It may be safer to remain in one place but we make ourselves easy targets for regrets and the very real crime of limiting ourselves. We need to put in the work to be more than a can’t. We need to allow ourselves to be limitless and free ourselves from our self-imposed prison.
No one ever got where they wanted to go by making their home at the bus stop. Maybe we need to get some words out of our vocabulary, and maybe, can’t is one of them. It’s never too late to start!
You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.
― Steve Maraboli
If you’ve recently looked in the mirror after one hard day and wondered when you got so old – but you’re not, you my friend may be stressed.
Today, we use stress as if it is a badge of honor. We talk about being stressed day and night, as if it were a prize that we have to brag about.
This leads to little things happening that add up to becoming BIG problems:
We remember nothing from moment to moment
It feels like your bodies are attacking itself – literally, every patch of skin bones and organs are at war with each other.
you can’t eat or you eat too much.
You can’t sleep or you sleep too much.
You nightly dreams become hellish – a monster you can’t escape.
You can’t decide whether to sit or stand, go or stay. It’s all a mystery!
A small bitter little monster is knocking away all day at your head. Trying to tear it off your shoulders.
You get angry and then don’t know why and frankly you just don’t care at this point.
Absolutely nothing is worth smiling or laughing about!
You have a constant river of sweat pouring down your body. Even when you know the temperature should not allow this!
And nothing you do ever turns out right!
There are so many things that can go wrong because you are stressed. The greatest of them all is that it can kill you.
So what are you going to do about it?
What you are not going to do is continue this way. Because if you do it could be that you really have developed a tolerance for being stressed, which is not good.
The road that seems the easiest is often the most dangerous and the familiar can be so deceptive that your demise creeps up before you can fight it off. To combat stress maybe we need to stop leaning on the wrong people (yes frenemies, they may seems a strange breed but they are a dangerous one!) Also, we need to go to bed and get some sleep (even though I should have been at mine an hour ago, we will get it right). Next, stop overthinking things and just go with the flow. Stop giving people your time, and don’t stretch yourself – who cares what they think. Only you know what you are going through. And finally, stop overlooking great opportunities that may seems difficult but which will bring the desired results. Give back the title and trophy that is stress and live your best life. Shalom!
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
Isaiah 43:18
Don’t wait for a new week, a new day or the new year to start making changes. You know what you want and you know how to get it!
There are a lot of things in the past that in the past I have been stuck on. Sometimes I look back and which I could go back to make some tweaks here and there. Perhaps prevent a certain meeting or totally erase another. If only I could.
But sadly there is nothing we can do about what we have already done. But wouldn’t life be easy in the present if we could?
We will never know because it is impossible. While we focus on the past, our present is passing. There it is waving at us. It looks sorry for us- as it should, what a waste of a present!
Yes the present is a gift that will keep giving if we remain fully committed to it. Yet, many of us are careless with it and are either looking behind or ahead, but never living in the present.
We hurry to do everything and then wonder where the time went. We hope that one day we can get to live in the present. However it has been there all along, slipping between our fingers until very little is left to enjoy.
It’s important to remember what matters, let go of what is keeping you from holding to the present that you have for as long as you have it.
Do you get really anxious when the subject of the time you have to do all you want to do comes up?
It’s not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it’s been given to us in generous measure for accomplishing the greatest things, if the whole of it is well invested. But when life is squandered through soft and careless living, and when it’s spent on no worthwhile pursuit, death finally presses and we realize that the life which we didn’t notice passing has passed away.
If there was a great deal of truth in the words of Seneca, a Roman Stoic Philosopher, then the last part would be darkly humorous. Imagine complaining about something only to realize when you’re losing it that you had it all along but was too blind to see it for what it was. Oh the irony! And yet many of us are quite easily going down this truly ironic path. Life is too short! This is the cry of most.
Time is too short!
There aren’t enough hours in the day to everything that I want to do and accomplish!
The ironies of ironies is that those who cry, moan and complain about the shortness of time and therefore life, are the biggest procrastinators. Again of this I and many many more are guilty. I think we would be hard pressed to deny this. So we waste time, then complain that we did not have enough of it to do all that we wanted or were meant to do. Sounds about right!
So Seneca encourages us not to waste time complaining about the limited time we have to live our lives but to maximize it so we live purpose driven lives that lead to happiness contentment and NOT regret. In his essay, The Shortness of Life, he gives specific ways in which we waste time. Now do these sound familiar?
We waste time by:
Chasing wealth or what he terms, voracious avarice (sound nice to say too! Say it with me, Voracious Avarice)
Pursuing things that do not benefit us and that lead to very little meaningful returns.
Drinking and getting drunk, smoking, partying. Generally seeing live as a 24 hours happy hour event.
Trying to be at the top of the totem pole. Generally trying to win popularity contests as we seek to ambitiously get ahead.
Either try to conquer others or being anxious about being conquered.
Trying to please those above us in order to be in their good graces. Even though that won’t to where we want to be. But we are too blind to see this, until it is too late. Oops, time’s up!
Not really having a plan or as he puts it: Some have no goal at all toward which to steer their course, but death takes them by surprise as they gape and yawn (YIKES!)
Now honestly which have you been guilty of?
He goes further in his writing to bemoan our shortsightedness in allowing distractions (vices) that take us off track and prevent us from using the time we have in a more responsible way. The good news is that all of us are screwed! The rich, and seemingly most “successful” among us, are also capable of falling into this trap. Clearly he was not partial in his assessment. He further writes of our very human need to attain recognition from others, even while we do not take time to look at ourselves, and recognize our worth, but expect others to do so. Another serious crime committed by us all is the fact that too many people allow others to “trespass on their existence” – attention everyone, do not allow instances where others control your lives while here on this earth! These are things that we need to hear; it’s not that others are wasting your time, but you are allowing them to do so.
Interestingly, he notes the importance of reflecting on the past for self-assessment and for not repeating the errors once made. Sometimes we refuse to look too closely at things we have done because we know that we do not come out looking good! We would rather stay in the present, thank you very much, to worry more about our future. It is handy to remember that our past informs our present condition and plays a role in our future state.
Finally, one of the most dangerous and most destructive crimes we commit , is the fine art of being busy doing absolutely nothing. While he believed in the importance of pursuing philosophical truths, Seneca did not approve of people who really did things that had no true value on the quality of their lives or the lives of others. All those meaningless activities just to kill time (pun intended) really are our Achilles’ heel, in making the most of what we have.
Seneca ends with zero sympathy, and exposes those who waste time preparing for death and their post-life image, instead of enjoying the time they have in the land of the living and makes it clear that such persons are not worth our time:
some people even make arrangements for things beyond life — huge tomb structures, dedications of public buildings, gladiatorial shows for the funeral, and ostentatious funeral processions. Yet in truth, the funerals of such people should be conducted by the light of torches and wax tapers, as if they’d lived for the briefest span.
Seneca obviously did not mince his words!
And so I end with a word to the wise among us, ensure you use the time you have to do the things that matter most to you. Things that enrich your life while you have it. That’s the only way to show that you truly appreciate the life you were given. After all, you only live once!
There are many ways in which we can take the things that happen to us. We can freak out, get mad or stay sad, forever. It’s easier to develop a particular attitude, depending on what we think mostly happens to us. So things are great, life is great! Then disaster strikes and life is so unfair and then it becomes real rough staying above water. When we face difficulties that seem like a great epic – when will it end – we often say we are going through something. When we use that phrase, going through, then what we are really saying is that we are, at that moment, experiencing something unpleasant or difficult. But we never consider how that phrase reveals our inability to see the value of the experience. We only know that things are not going the way we want them to go! We become so consumed by the present situation that we forget that this thing is only for a moment and like everything else, will eventually pass…
our bodies are constantly in the river of change and transformation
Deepak Chopra
If we decide instead to grow through what we experience, then we go through the most difficult times stronger than we were before. We can come out on the other side better than we were.When we grow we magnify the potential locked within us and can not only tell the tale, but become an example to others that anything is possible, if we remain optimistic in the face of great adversities. We have to accept and allow the hard seasons in life to be our teacher; we can learn so much about ourselves, people and the things around us. So the next time you go through something, remember to practice your smile and laughter for the happiness to come.
I recently came across this prayer and realized that it was a very popular prayer – yes I am currently living under a rock – that is prayed by people across the globe. Also, I have learned that this is a very powerful prayer and that those who testify concerning it, recount how their lives have been transformed by it.
Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!
People spoke of receiving mighty things from God when they pray this prayer. Now if we are honest when we think of receiving mighty things and God in the same sentence, material things may feature in the mix. However, for me enlarging my territory also involves the idea of making one more aware of themselves and the world around them. It means being more insightful of situations and people we come in contact with. It’s not just about getting what you want but getting what you need to be a more informed and aware individual. To be wise enough, humble enough, patient enough and having enough love to have a positive influence. God wants you to reach and stretch beyond anything that you could imagine for yourself. God can provide more than you can ever imagine – no matter how active that imagination!
Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.
For me this part of the prayer offers much comfort when faced with very trying circumstances. If we rely on a power greater than, ourselves then we are already winners against all the obstacles we may face. But also, God granted Jabez what he requested because he was an honourable man. It was not because he prayed ceaselessly and then did whatever he felt like doing. No, he was honourable, he had the right attitude – many of us have allowed our lives to be filled with too much negativity that comes from our thoughts and action and do not realize that that is what is stopping us from succeeding. It’s nobody’s fault when we stand in the way of our own blessings, because of a stinky attitude! It also important to be aware that you can be your own enemy and with spiritual discernment you can remove negative people from your space.
And God granted his request.
Here I am reminded to be careful what I ask for. Be very specific in prayer and be willing to accept that what you want will be granted. Granted we may not always be asking for the right things and we know when we are not, but refuse to admit it to ourselves, but God knows! Make sure what you pray for aligns with who you are praying to.
So, next time you pray the Jabez prayer, make sure to remember it goes much deeper and wider than the small mention it gets in the bible. And I will do the same!
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