Beginnings and endings are very close…
This column is written with true concern for those feeling the stress, fear, and anxiety from recent losses. If it applies, I hope you may take courage. If it is useful for those you know facing losses, and believe it will be helpful to someone near you, I hope you will share it.
What matters is the perspective we have on what really matters most; the highest meaning in our lives. An economy is lost. A way of living ends. BUT... perhaps also the beginning to a new way of living, loving, enjoying life is also at the door... That depends on how we respond to life's curve balls...
Today a man in Los Angeles took his life, his wife's and his three children because they lost their jobs, and as he said, "Life just wasn't worth living anymore." Over the course of many weeks, multi-millionaires have been committing suicide out of shame, fear, and realization that what gave them their "meaning" (personal fortunes) was seemingly lost. Self-esteem is a fragile thing when tied to "stuff" and appearances.
What really matters most? To many basic survival, to others their image, to many the stuff they don't want to live without...
During the past several months I have had several friends ask me to pray with them, and I am delighted to do so. This is a positive thing for it indicates faith in a higher power, and an ego not so highly wrapped up in material matters that they cannot see that in the end, we control nothing, but God controls all. I was particularity delighted that my daughter, who indicates little use for God, would ask for Dad and Mom's prayers. (More on this later, but "faith power" is an absolute necessity in tumultuous times.)
So... these beloved friends recognize that control over their lives has slipped. Jobs have been lost. A way of life is jeopardized because of new economic uncertainties. Health issues abound, stress over debt unpaid mounts... I am very uniquely qualified to offer solace having been severely hammered economically (and unexpectedly) four times in four decades. I understand starting over, losing everything, including beginning again from a hospital bed. (Story found in next week's column) I have tender feelings for the fear being experienced. There is hope, even in the darkest night. I know from surviving beyond anything I ever anticipated... BUT rather than share a dozen hard luck stories with you, and how everything finally works out, I prefer to ask you to do this one thing right now; Believe in power beyond yours to make things right...
Opportunity knocks more often when starting over than in the flow of constant comfort and predictable results day after day. Why? A few thoughts…but first watch this, or simply listen to the music and continue reading:
Humans Beings Create and Possess Potential for “Re-Creating”—
We are best when challenged. We are human "beings," (the present tense) and as such, creators. We take raw material and fashion homes, clothing, harness energy, make metal ships fly and float, communicate in milliseconds to any part of the planet, create drugs that heal, fortify foods, make entertainment that allows a symphony orchestra travel with us if we choose, access encyclopedias of information in seconds, and the list goes on.
Children of God, are part Supermen and Superwomen—
Believe it. This is not some hyperbole. You and I really have chemistry and stuff made of the stars, and the Universe, and everything… So look up... What do you want to "be?"
"Being" something new is a choice in the present moment, so choose! And then, address the greatest "Being" of all; God, regarding your choice. Here's how:
Give thanks for what you've had (have) and just talk. Share the pain you are going through, and ask for ideas to help guide you. Listen (or better yet feel) for the peace. Peace is the answer that you are on the right path. Trust is the next step. If you do not feel peaceful, maybe it is also answer... Perhaps not how you see best, but how he sees best for you is happening. Let him be the extra set of eyes you need in this quest of new beginnings and a path you may not recognize today. He will begin to partner with you if you choose to let Him. Can you trust Him?
Personal Meaning is Purpose Filled Living—
Each person, at some time of their life, will face deeply searching questions about “who” they are, “why” they are here, “what life is really all about.” The sooner that happens, the sooner a deep and rewarding personal “meaning” is developed; a meaning and purpose which can drive you through any obstacle, over any mountain, and out of deepest despair. (This kind of "meaning" has spiritual power in it. When you lose a job you won't kill yourself over it, you'll just say "Next?")
When you live with "meaning" you live "on purpose."
Having purpose means you are partnering with someone in the Universe greater than you, and yet focused on making decisions (from your freedom of choice and free will) designed to be in harmony with this wonderful feeling of real worth, meaning, and value.
The biggest blessings in life may not be the calm and peaceful seas we travel upon, but the storms which force us to ask those questions about our meaning and purpose and then develop the answers.
Please… Understand—
That Super Being most believing in you is the one most willing to love, forgive, and partner with you!
When stripped of his cloths, a carpenter who used hammers and nails to build things, had them used upon him and then was hung on a cross, (ironically built by another carpenter that day) and mocked, ridiculed, and at the end… was laid in a borrowed tomb— (Not much real estate to show for a perfectly lived life, huh? Think He understands?)
He then arose to new life, and offers that same new life to you! God made no junk, a bumper sticker once read. That is because you are literally made of Divine DNA… Perfect stuff, just on a ride on an imperfect planet spinning through time and elements of space, with all the potential of divine matter residing within.
What you will do with it matters…
Endings are Just New Beginnings—James
NEXT WEEK: ABOUT LIFE 101 - How to Begin a New One
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
UPSIDE of the DOWNTURN
Finishing Strong!
Going, going...
MONEY!
COMFORT!
SUCCESS!
Gone?
The fear across the land is palpable. It is mostly related to the economy and so let's begin there....
MONEY: Need some? Who doesn't? From Saudi Princes, to the most respected banks, every corner of the globe is looking under rugs to seek out lost pennies. Billionaires and millionaires have been taking their lives over the last weeks as their fortunes dwindle; along with wisdom; an understanding of what matters most.
Money & Success: Let's create some perspective on real success before we deal too much with the money problem...
I was a finisher...a tradesman in one of my previous work lives. After framers, hangers, and others do the rough start to a wall job, along come the finishers...those trusted to make the final wall look like framers had never been there; just an architect and owner's vision should become apparent.
In carpentry, "finishing" is the art part of making raw materials and basic structure appear as if the piece of wood was always meant to be an elegant paneled room, a deck for watching stars, a library that was meant for the best books, and chair that was built for a king. (Jesus of Nazareth, for example, was both framer and finisher.)
Starting over every day with new raw materials was never easy. But, just like life, it is something everyone must do with the rising sun, and the first step toward whatever you call "success." Finishing strong...day after day; that's where hard work blends with talent, ending up in a daily satisfying victory.
Daily Bread: It might feel like MONEY gives “life” to all things but it doesn’t. After living in a desperate third world country for two years and seeing enough destitution and squalor beyond any that a young lower-income California suburbanite's mind ever imagined, I swore I would never complain again. I learned if you had "daily bread" you could start over again. Hunger does an interesting thing; it motivates -- it moves you to action. Comfort doesn't do that.
Though I saw enough pain to break any heart, I also witnessed the ingredients for real success that guides me to this day. And, I quickly learned that...
Not all bread is equal: Coming back to a recession in California in the 1970’s was like going to the “Magic Kingdom” – Disneyland - for the first time. At home there was more bread than I could eat; a fridge that overflowed with so much stuff in one place; something I hadn't seen for years! After asking Mom if I could eat anything I wanted, I dove in, and then crashed at the kitchen table...
THE CONSTRAST between real poverty and simple abundance! Everything sparkled, and “hope” seemed to hang in the air. In fact the air was so thick with “anything was possible” that I felt, though penniless at the time and without a college education or vocational training, that I could literally become anything I wanted. After all, I was starting at the bottom... and looking up was filled with every dream or possibility imaginable! And I had my daily bread!
Fast forward 2009...
MONEY by the trillions lost in just 90 days! You need some?
COMFORT has dissipated in three months. You want some?
SUCCESS in the big things seems to have faded... You desire it again?
Having lived in shacks, surviving with what dignity I could during three recessions, I have witnessed many people “reach up,” take hold of their circumstances, rekindle hope, walk before they rode again, restore wealth, and get it for the first time under often mind-boggling conditions. Many have more peace in their life because of the perspective losing has given...
(My first book contract was given to me over the phone in my hospital bed with tubes coming out of three parts of body, no health insurance and no job.)
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING: Someone said, "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." The current situation of financial chaos and political unrest is not your burden to carry alone, but felt by billions of people in the world today; it may require you to "build a door" just as finishers do. I tell you this from experience, but...
To encourage you a bit more, stop everything. Watch this:
How do people pull themselves up after losing everything?
Before you go away scroll down and listen to to a short piece of Paul Pott's "Britain's Got Talent" rendition of the opera "Nesum Dorma," as it ends with "Vincero! Vincero! Vincero!"
I will be addressing tried and true "solutions" during all of 2009.
MONEY, COMFORT, SUCCESS...It takes hard work, and conquering frequent despair, but also simple belief in dreams, looking at raw materials with inspiration for what they can become, and...
FINISHING STRONG!
NEXT WEEK: "Going the Distance - Endings and Beginnings Are Very Close."
James Pratt
www.powerthink.com
www.jmpratt.com
Going, going...
MONEY!
COMFORT!
SUCCESS!
Gone?
The fear across the land is palpable. It is mostly related to the economy and so let's begin there....
MONEY: Need some? Who doesn't? From Saudi Princes, to the most respected banks, every corner of the globe is looking under rugs to seek out lost pennies. Billionaires and millionaires have been taking their lives over the last weeks as their fortunes dwindle; along with wisdom; an understanding of what matters most.
Money & Success: Let's create some perspective on real success before we deal too much with the money problem...
I was a finisher...a tradesman in one of my previous work lives. After framers, hangers, and others do the rough start to a wall job, along come the finishers...those trusted to make the final wall look like framers had never been there; just an architect and owner's vision should become apparent.
In carpentry, "finishing" is the art part of making raw materials and basic structure appear as if the piece of wood was always meant to be an elegant paneled room, a deck for watching stars, a library that was meant for the best books, and chair that was built for a king. (Jesus of Nazareth, for example, was both framer and finisher.)
Starting over every day with new raw materials was never easy. But, just like life, it is something everyone must do with the rising sun, and the first step toward whatever you call "success." Finishing strong...day after day; that's where hard work blends with talent, ending up in a daily satisfying victory.
Daily Bread: It might feel like MONEY gives “life” to all things but it doesn’t. After living in a desperate third world country for two years and seeing enough destitution and squalor beyond any that a young lower-income California suburbanite's mind ever imagined, I swore I would never complain again. I learned if you had "daily bread" you could start over again. Hunger does an interesting thing; it motivates -- it moves you to action. Comfort doesn't do that.
Though I saw enough pain to break any heart, I also witnessed the ingredients for real success that guides me to this day. And, I quickly learned that...
Not all bread is equal: Coming back to a recession in California in the 1970’s was like going to the “Magic Kingdom” – Disneyland - for the first time. At home there was more bread than I could eat; a fridge that overflowed with so much stuff in one place; something I hadn't seen for years! After asking Mom if I could eat anything I wanted, I dove in, and then crashed at the kitchen table...
THE CONSTRAST between real poverty and simple abundance! Everything sparkled, and “hope” seemed to hang in the air. In fact the air was so thick with “anything was possible” that I felt, though penniless at the time and without a college education or vocational training, that I could literally become anything I wanted. After all, I was starting at the bottom... and looking up was filled with every dream or possibility imaginable! And I had my daily bread!
Fast forward 2009...
MONEY by the trillions lost in just 90 days! You need some?
COMFORT has dissipated in three months. You want some?
SUCCESS in the big things seems to have faded... You desire it again?
Having lived in shacks, surviving with what dignity I could during three recessions, I have witnessed many people “reach up,” take hold of their circumstances, rekindle hope, walk before they rode again, restore wealth, and get it for the first time under often mind-boggling conditions. Many have more peace in their life because of the perspective losing has given...
(My first book contract was given to me over the phone in my hospital bed with tubes coming out of three parts of body, no health insurance and no job.)
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING: Someone said, "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." The current situation of financial chaos and political unrest is not your burden to carry alone, but felt by billions of people in the world today; it may require you to "build a door" just as finishers do. I tell you this from experience, but...
To encourage you a bit more, stop everything. Watch this:
How do people pull themselves up after losing everything?
Before you go away scroll down and listen to to a short piece of Paul Pott's "Britain's Got Talent" rendition of the opera "Nesum Dorma," as it ends with "Vincero! Vincero! Vincero!"
I will be addressing tried and true "solutions" during all of 2009.
MONEY, COMFORT, SUCCESS...It takes hard work, and conquering frequent despair, but also simple belief in dreams, looking at raw materials with inspiration for what they can become, and...
FINISHING STRONG!
NEXT WEEK: "Going the Distance - Endings and Beginnings Are Very Close."
James Pratt
www.powerthink.com
www.jmpratt.com
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Paul Potts VINCERO; "I Will Win"
New Year's Hope for All Who Will Step on Stage...
Last year an insecure mobile phone warehouseman from Wales stepped onto Simon Cowl's "Britain's Got Talent" stage and stunned the judges, and the audience. If you are not touched in ten seconds by this video, get a heart exam. Listen for the Italian word "Vincero." It means, "I will win [conquer.]"
The point? With all that i s going on in the world, negative reports of economic chaos, and the gut-check on the reality of our world-wide dilemma, there is still room for something more; YOU AND YOUR UNIQUE TALENT...
IF YOU WILL STEP UP TO THE STAGE.
More coming next week: "UPSIDE of the DOWNTURN."
James Pratt
www.jmpratt.com
www.powerthink.com
Last year an insecure mobile phone warehouseman from Wales stepped onto Simon Cowl's "Britain's Got Talent" stage and stunned the judges, and the audience. If you are not touched in ten seconds by this video, get a heart exam. Listen for the Italian word "Vincero." It means, "I will win [conquer.]"
The point? With all that i s going on in the world, negative reports of economic chaos, and the gut-check on the reality of our world-wide dilemma, there is still room for something more; YOU AND YOUR UNIQUE TALENT...
IF YOU WILL STEP UP TO THE STAGE.
More coming next week: "UPSIDE of the DOWNTURN."
James Pratt
www.jmpratt.com
www.powerthink.com
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