Now gather around the fire a little closer so that I won’t have to speak so loudly and so that you will be able to hear everything I have to say. Get another cup of java and “put your ears on,” “listen up,” and “pay attention.” I would like to talk about a topic that has great and lasting value to you. It is kind of like a secret. If you know it, you can use it for your own benefit. If you don’t know about it, you will continue on down the road you are now traveling, repeat the same mistakes year after year, and continue to waste valuable time and resources while simultaneously failing to move forward and be more productive. I think we can all agree that choosing such an unproductive path would not be the wisest and best use of your personal time and resources….What say you?
Now think carefully through what I am about to say to you before quickly giving me an immediate reply……How many times over the past year or two have you started out a new day of work, full of vim and vinegar, and ready to tackle a huge “have-to-get-it-done” to-do work list, only to hardly get anything started when quitting time rolled around with none of the important things on your “to-do” work list even started, let alone anywhere near completed? How many times have you trudged home after the work day ended….who said anything about 5:00 P.M….feeling totally exhausted with little or nothing to show for all of your expended effort? Have you ever felt like you spent the whole day on a merry go-round running at full speed, but that ended at the very same place you started 10 to 12 hours earlier?
Time is a very unique thing in our life isn’t it? Everyone has the same amount of it as each new day dawns. Seconds start ticking away at 0001 hours on the 24-hour clock. You cannot save any time. You have to spend every second before the day slips away at midnight or you will lose what you didn’t use. Unused or wasted time from the previous day can never be reclaimed to be used again today or tomorrow. And you cannot buy any excess time from someone else who claims they may have some extra unused time to sell. They are just like you, they won’t have any extra time either. The same 24 hours every day is given to each of us to use as we choose so as to achieve and accomplish the things in life that we personally decide are, in fact, the most important to us and to our families. You and you alone are the final authority for choosing how you will spend your time each and every day.
Now here is a fact of life. The only difference between a millionaire and a ditch digger is how they think and how they spend their spare time and money.
Think about that statement for a moment. How are you spending your time and money? How and what do you think about the most? What are you putting into your own mind on a daily basis? You will do, accomplish, and/or achieve the very things in your life that you think about and dwell upon most often. The success principle involved in this statement of truth is called the Law of Harmonious Attraction. This principle states that the human mind attracts to one the exact material equivalent of that which one thinks about most often. Your brain is a self-servo mechanism. That which you think bout the most will roll around in your own subconscious mind and because everything that you actually do in your life begins with a thought, those thoughts will put into motion spiritual forces, both good or bad, depending on the thought, that will go to work on bringing people, places, events, and things together, thereby permitting the thought to materialize in your life, i.e….the exact material equivalent of that which one thinks about most often! Kind of exciting and scary isn’t it?
So let’s quickly review what has been discussed.
Success:
1. Starts in your own mind…..and…..
2. It begins with a thought.
You see, when you allow yourself to be derailed, side-tracked, or distracted away from mentally dwelling on that which you desire the most, then you break the continuous thought process necessary to speed the self-servo workings of your own mind. Hence, you slow, delay, postpone, or even terminate the whole functioning of your own sub conscious mind in the role it plays within the Law of Harmonious Attraction…..May I suggest that this is Not a good idea for You!
Keeping all of this discussion in mind, please permit me to share with you a few things or activities that you can do or perform that just may free up some of the wasted time that presently occupies much of your already too busy work days. Here are just few things you can do:
1. Tame your inbox. I am not a “techy” type guy. My paws are just too big to be able to type with any kind of expertise or speed. Consequently I have never been one to waste much time fooling around on the computer. However, it always amazes me how all too many people just seem to live on their computers. Their machines are always on and they are always operating them. What a gigantic use of “not very productive” time they spend each and every day. My suggestion to you is to stop allowing e-mail and text messages to dominate your life! It always interrupts your concentration. It puts you in a state of constant anticipation, and it robs you of your productive efforts in other “must-get-it-done” work areas. Break the cycle. Disconnect. Treat it like snail mail. Check it once in the morning and then again late in the afternoon. The tremendous amount of time,… that following my suggestion,… will first free up and then will give back to you, will be the most valuable time of all…it will give you time to exercise your own mind,…. time to think!
Clarence Day, New York City businessman and author, once remarked:
“Information is pretty thin stuff, unless mixed with
experience.”
2. Lighten your own load. You are only so strong. You are not Charles Atlas. Make sure that you are only carrying today’s burdens. In far too many cases each of us tries to carry far more than our own share of the load. There is simply no need for you or anyone else to try to carry more than is necessary. Reduce your load by dropping tomorrow’s worries, and yesterday’s baggage. Don’t you find that the pressures and problems of the present are usually plenty enough for you to carry? May I please exhort you to leave tomorrow’s problems and pressures until later. You will be much happier and much more productive today if you follow my advice.
Listen to the words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832):
“Every minute cries to us: Do what you ought and trust what may
be.”
And finally,
3. Choose freedom. All too often we make our own cages: of the mind, or the heart. Or worse, we voluntarily allow technology to make them for us. Never forget that you alone possess your own keys that will unlock these gilded cages. You only need the will to unlock them! If you truly do desire to become successful and enjoy the wonderful life that it brings to you and your loved ones, then please allow me to offer you a few words of loving advice:
Unlock your heart, love freely.
Unlock your mind, live freely.
The great Greek philosopher Thucydides (460 B.C.–404 B.C.) said it well:
“The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is
courage.”
Peace And Love to All of You…………………………Poppa Bear