We all have goals in life. We want to be rich, we want to be successful, we want to be famous, we want, we want and we want some more. There are many ways to get what we want. Some people inherit their money, some get lucky and win the lottery and some work hard to earn every penny. At the end of the day the heiresses, the lottery winners and the hard workers, have all achieved their goal of being rich. As for being famous, you can be famous for a number of things, some good and some bad.

Life is not about being rich or being famous, life is about the things you do to become rich or famous. Life is about how you stay rich and/or famous. When you are standing at the peak of the mountain, it’s not about standing at the peak, it’s about the climb. The steps we take to get what we want are what matter. Because a goal is something you achieve at one particular point in your life but the things you do to achieve that goal, those are things that make up your everyday life.

If all you really wanted was to get to the peak, you could have your self flown up, but the point is to make the journey. The joy is in the hard work. The things you are going to remember are the thing that happened on the way. The stress, the relief when you round a dangerous bend, the fortitude it took to keep going even when all you wanted to do was lay down and go to sleep.

There will always be obstacles in your way. How you faced those obstacles, how you overcame them, those are the stories that make up a life. To quote Miley Cyrus, ‘It’s not about how fast I get there; it’s not about what’s waiting on the other side. It’s the climb.’

]]> http://www.theloacenter.com/the-climb/feed 0 http://www.theloacenter.com/of-friends-foes-winnie-the-pooh http://www.theloacenter.com/of-friends-foes-winnie-the-pooh#comments Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:18:47 +0000 loacenter http://www.theloacenter.com/?p=886 Think of all those times when you were in trouble and you leaned on a friend. I’m talking about the hundreds of people we meet, and share a bond with. They may not be very close to us, but they still lend a helping hand. These are the people you laugh with at a party, the ones who gossip behind your back and the ones who tease you when you act like a fool. Of course you always return the favor.

You don’t need to have an exceptionally intimate bond with someone, for them to connect with you. We connect with people the second we meet them. We feel their pain and they feel ours. We do not know their history, their hopes and dreams, and still we care. Some call these people acquaintances. But I think they’re wrong, these are your friends.

Then, there are the people you trust with your lives. The one’s who’ve always been there. You know them; the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between. Are these your friends? No. They’re not just your friends; they are so much more than that.

They say, friends are the family we choose for ourselves. The best of our experiences are experiences we shared with a friend. The most vivid of our memories are the memories that are connected to friends. What would we do without them? We love them, we hate them and we can’t live without them.

Friends are what make life worth living. Wouldn’t it be great to have a friend at work too? You can’t hope to make a ‘friend’ if you don’t act like a ‘friend’ yourself. Be it business or pleasure, always remember, friendship comes first. Today is friendships day, so honor your friends, your foes and the world ambassador for friendship, honor, Winnie the Pooh.

Because you believe that your pain will be gone once you have taken a pill, it does not matter even if that pill is made up of sugar. The sugar in no way reduces pain. You made the pain disappear by believing that it would do so. This shows that you can affect the world around you, simply with your thoughts. There is no need to look in the external to bring into your life what you want. All you need to do is believe that you already have it. There are many ways of doing this, visualization, affirmation, meditation etc. all these different techniques have one thing in common. They all begin with you. They all begin with your thoughts. Mind over matter.

You have an urgent appointment at 8.30 in the morning. For some reason the alarm doesn’t ring. You miss the appointment. Now you’re in a bad mood. You decide to go to the diner around the corner for some breakfast. You sit in the booth and seethe over the missed appointment. After ten minutes the waitress comes over to take your order. You give her lip for taking her own sweet time. She’s had a rough morning too, but you don’t know that. You are gruff and short with her and don’t leave her a tip. Now she’s in a foul mood. Her boss is having money troubles; he sees her taking a break and yells at her. He tells her to get to work. She yells back, she calls him names; she takes out all of her frustration on him. She gets fired. Now rewind the day. You missed your appointment, its ok you can try to reschedule it. You’re at the diner. You can see the waitress is busy so when she comes over ten minutes late you don’t say anything. You give her a smile. She also smiles. She feels a little better. Later when the boss yells at her she quietly gets back to work. She doesn’t get fired that day.

She keeps her job because you smiled. We affect the world around us in profound ways with even the slightest of actions. Everything we put out into the universe eventually finds its way back to us. Some call this ‘Karma’. If you are negative and act negatively your life will reflect that. Newton said that ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’. He may have been talking about physics but this law holds true even in our daily lives. The next time you’re going to lash out at someone or something, think about how you would feel when it comes back to you.

Open your mind to the high potency of positive affirmations. Even quantum physics teaches us that our thought patterns attract similar energy. If you turn your attention to what you do not have, you’ll continue to perpetuate what you are lacking. Why? Because you are focusing on a negative. You need to focus on a positive by turning your desire into a positive. By opening your mind to the Law of Attraction and believing that you already have that which you desire, you will manifest your dreams on the physical plane.

By believing in infinite possibilities with the Law of Attraction, you have to keep positive thoughts and surround yourself with positive people. Have you noticed being around negative people leaves you feeling drained and negative? Conversely, when you’re around bubbly and positive people, you can’t help but feel happy and in a much better mood. Thoughts and energy are the same way. Negative energy will cluster around other negatives. Positive energy gravitates toward other positives. Let those “other positives” be you. Be a positive to effect change in your life and be open to the infinite possibilities with the Law of Attraction. Take the first step: Believe!