This particular quote really got me and I have included it with my meditations.
Think about it where does your mind wander most of the time? Is it a good place or a bad place? Is it full of positivity or negativity? This is where your heart is!
Meditating/Pondering on this quote can be a real good wake-up call for anyone. You may come to a realization that you have to change your life for the better after thinking about this quote.
If you are stuck in a rut not enjoying the job or career that you are in sit down and meditate upon this quote and think about where your mind wanders when you are in a good mood. If you discover where your heart is when you are in a good, pleasant, excited, or feeling worthy kind of mood then maybe that is the type of job or career path you should look towards. Where your mind wanders when you are in a good mood. What kind of career can you do that relates to this? How can you make money on the place where your mind wanders when you are in a great place emotionally? If you want to turn this into a business instead of a career how can you put this out to the universe in a massive way to as many people you can at once?
Wayne Dyer once said in a taped program I listened to that he was being interviewed at a station where the last day everyone was going to be there because the radion station was changing the format and everyone was getting laid off. Needless to say, everyone was down and out and told Wayne, “Isn’t this terrible! This is my last day here!”. Then Wayne would say, “Congratulations!” They looked at him like he was crazy and then Wayne explained that this might be God’s way of kicking them in the butt to start doing what they really should be doing and that within one year’s time this all wouldn’t matter because they would be in a better place. He asked one person what he REALLY wanted to do in his life and he said that he always wanted to write an opera. Another person said they always wanted to open a small metaphysical book store, etc. He touched base with a few of them later and found out of the few that he contacted a year or two later that all of them were much happier now than when they worked at the station after following their dreams.
Of course, there may have been some that ended up in a job they didn’t like. But you have to think did they follow their dreams or did they grab a job that they thought would pay the bills better? What do you think?
A lot of times we seek happiness outside of ourselves. We won’t be happy unless this happens or until that happens or until this person does this, etc.
When you put conditions on being happy you will end up spending life with the goal of being happy out of your reach.
“Happiness is like a butterfly. When pursued it is always beyond your grasp but if you sit still it enlightens upon you.” I am not sure but I think I read that quote in the book, Zen and the Birds of Appetite by Thomas Merton. If I am wrong and the quote is not in there the book has a wealth of information in there to take the confusion out of life and make you look at life in a different way which in turn makes your life so much better. It is one of the most favorite books that I have ever read. This is the book that I read that helped me reach a level of enlightenment.
Wayne Dyer paraphrased a famous quote, “There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.” This is so very true! For too many times in my life, I have always put conditions on my happiness. This has given me great drive to succeed in almost every area of my life. But at what cost? I have missed out on a lot of happiness in my life with this limiting self-belief. I could have been happy the whole time and just as ambitious. The funny thing about this quote is that if you seek happiness from within and become truly happy success will follow you like a shadow that never leaves.
Popular journalist Ernest Hemingway wrote this quote. How many times have you opened up your mouth too soon before speaking and get yourself into a whole lot of trouble? There is a zen quote that talked about thinking carefully before speaking and of course the famous three gates quote.
“Before you act, listen,” They say that in order to be successful you have to have the ability to act quickly and decisive but wouldn’t that contradict this? No, not really. Successful people have the ability to quickly make decisions by drawing on their past experiences and already knowing their surroundings and always paying attention (“Listening”) to everything going on around them. Another quote, “He who hesitates is lost” is also a contradiction to this quote, but I feel this quote only applies if you already draw on your past experiences, paying attention (“Listening”) to your surroundings, know everything going on around you but are hesitant because you are afraid of the circumstances. At that point, you may lose your chance for an opportunity if you look into these quotes deeper.
“Before you react, think” I’m guilty of this one. My face and body language react much faster than me thinking it through. This creates a misinterpretation if my first reaction does not match what I process (think) about a split second afterward and of course, makes a mess of things when trying to get points across from either side. It takes practice but now that you are aware of it you can catch yourself the next time and realize what you are doing. The more times you catch yourself the easier it will be to stop doing that seemingly automatic response the next time. One thing you can try is to think like Spock and just raise an eyebrow. That makes your reaction questionable about what your reaction is really about. This will give you time to think about it at least.
“Before you spend, earn” You would think this one would be obvious but many people have the idea, “How can I be out of money! I still have checks left!”. Robert Kiyosaki the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. (Good book by the way even though he supports Trump) talks about how you should never borrow money unless you are making money from it. An example of this is if you want to buy a house on a nice lot of land make sure that you buy a big enough plot of land that you can sell to someone else on land contract. That way his payments to you would cover the payments of your loan and if they stop payments and leave then the money that you received from them would be free and clear then you can sell it to another interested party and start over again. On the Zen thought of this is to of course live as simply as possible. I remember a short Zen story of living simply because we are only here temporarily. Wayne Dyer has often said that if you get rid of more material possessions then you will have that much less to clean, maintain, repair, and insure that will ultimately give you more peace of mind. This part of the quote should be expanded to, “Before you spend, earn, think if you really need it, think if it would be the extra trouble down the road to maintain and insure it, and think if the money could be put to better use, elsewhere.”
“Before you criticize, wait” Maybe you shouldn’t criticize at all. What is the person that you are talking to you like? Can they handle constructive criticism? Some of the best teachers I know will bring up stories of their past or stories of someone else they know that matches the current situation so that the person they are talking to does not take things personally. Some people seem almost impossible to talk to because they take things so personally and this is a good method of teaching. Plato had a great way of teaching that would also help in this situation. He never told his students anything but would rather ask them questions instead so that they had to come up with the answer themselves. (I have a spirit guide that never speaks but makes me come up with questions instead and then only smiles when I seem to be going down the path.) Once the student comes up with the answer on their own they are more likely to remember the answer than when someone tells them the answer.
“Before you pray, forgive” Prayer for many people is like asking for something from a great vending machine in the sky. Praying should be for someone else or for asking guidance on how to solve your own problems. Forgiving before you pray helps clean the slate for doing a proper prayer or meditation. Wayne Dyer said that if praying is talking to God then intuition is God talking to you.
“Before you quit, try” I see too many people with not enough drive or ambition to keep going. After all, it’s never crowded along the extra mile (A great book by Wayne Dyer). Sometimes you have to step back when things are not working and try a different approach. Do not be like the fly trying to leave out the window and keep hitting the glass! Don’t ask yourself the wrong questions like, “why is this not working?” but instead ask yourself, “how can I make this work?” Asking yourself the right questions will help put your mind and body in a better state of mind that will make you succeed better. Tony Robbins has many books that help you with this.
Isn’t this the truth! I have always been a worrywart. This quote from Wayne Dyer reminds me of something he said he learned from one of his teachers. To paraphrase a teacher told him that if you can solve the thing that you are worried about then there is no point to worry. Wayne thought this was really good and wrote it down. Then the teacher said that if you cannot do anything about what you are worrying about then worrying will not do any good!
So that leaves out everything doesn’t it? Think about it if you are worrying all you are doing is pumping up the wrong emotions inside of you. If you are thinking about what could go wrong all you are doing is attracting that to yourself. Worrying does not solve the problem now, does it? All it does is make the problem worse.
Tony Robbins said that if you ask the wrong questions you will get the wrong answers. Don’t ask yourself, “How could he have done this to me!”. All this will do is make your brain think of reasons why. Instead, ask yourself, “How can I make this better?”. Then your mind will think of ways to resolve things and the worries will go down. Who knows? You may come up with a solution for your worries or realize that it wasn’t such a big thing after all!
One thing to ask yourself that will help you in this situation is, “Will this matter 24 hours from now? Will it matter one week from now? Will it matter one year from now?”. The answer more than likely is no and you will discover that it isn’t as big of a deal after all and that you could manage it.
This quote I come back to from time to time when I am having a difficult day. As long as the desire is strong you can accomplish anything. Nothing too deep to write about with this quote. Even if you cannot do it by yourself you can still seek help on how to do it or learn how to do it yourself.
I am one of those people that if told that I cannot do something it makes me want to prove them wrong and want to do it even more!
A smart-aleck remark to this quote could be to travel 3,000 in the next 30 seconds. Go! To responses like this, I usually say, “Let me get in a time machine in the future. Once I do, I’ll do that for you.”
