Month: January 2019

Reflections on Traveling by Car

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My traveling companions
Me, Frick and Frack

You get to meet many people

I travel in the continental US by car, usually with Frick and Frack. At the moment they are sleeping beside me on the bed at my resting spot at Motel 6 in Deming NM. And here I am writing my blog post for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. My main route is back and forth along Interstate 10. I live in Sedona and my family is in Texas. People ask me how far it is. I say about 14 hours because that’s the length of the audio books which take me from door to door. There are so many wonderful people in this country. Sure, there are the jerks, but I can’t say I’ve met many on my travels. One day this tough looking biker guy stopped me as I was getting in my car. “Ma’am, are these yours?” He held in his hand a collection of cards which had fallen unnoticed out of my aluminum card case. There were two debit cards, my driver’s license and a number of extraneous cards. Today, as I was walking the little guys after we got to Motel 6, this couple stopped me. “Did you come from Texas?” “Yes, I did.” “We were next to you getting gas earlier today. We saw your dogs in the front seat of your car in their crate.” They were walking their tiny Shih Tzu and I was walking Frick and Frack. One trip to Jackson Hole to be at my niece’s wedding, I spent a couple of nights at rest stops. The first time I was rather nervous having never done that before. There was a camper there and another guy who didn’t want to pay hotel prices. He was on his way to see family across country. Outside of Denver there was a rest stop that had a sign that said, “No overnight stays.” There were a slew of cars there. I asked one woman about staying there overnight and she told me they didn’t mind as long as you didn’t cause any trouble. A van catering to the homeless came by providing water and some clothes. She was waiting for low income housing. There was her Mom, three kids and a boy friend. They had a voucher for housing but none was available. It was only good for 6-months and then she has to start all over again and go to the bottom of the wait list. One day I dropped into a Waffle House in Tennessee. It was busy and I asked a woman about a decade older than me if she’d like to share a booth. Turns out she is a regular there almost every day for breakfast. She moved from Florida because her son was worried about her being down there by herself after her husband, his dad, died. She loved Florida and hates Tennessee but wants to make things easier on her son. The most important thing I’ve learned is don’t judge the people of our country by the news. Yes, terrible things happen. Yes, there are some terrible people, but they are a small minority. There are wonderful people here. You just have to get out and meet them.

Do You Surround Yourself with People Who Influences Your Success

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How Those Around You Influence Your Success

Let’s talk about those who influence your success… or don’t.

Imagine you grew up in a household of lazy underachievers. Now imagine you grew up in the household of high achievers. Do you think you’d be different depending upon the home you grew up in?

If your family cheered you on, encouraging you to be your best, you probably left home feeling confident about yourself.

If your family was negative, chances are you struggled inwardly about your prospects and your success no matter how talented you are.

You Can Change the Influence of Your Past

You can’t change your past, but you can change the influence it had on you. You do this by surrounding yourself with supportive high-achievers as well as people who believe in you.

Think about the people you know. Are they supportive or non-supportive? Some people pretend to be supportive but then whisper doubts into your ears. That’s not support no matter what they may claim.

Find people who support you. 

If you want to succeed in business, find people in your area of interest who can give you support. Yes, they tell you the truth AND they encourage you to reach for your dreams.

If you want to succeed in establishing good relationships, be with people who have good relationshisps

  1. Gain access to new people. Those around you can introduce you to new people. One of them may ultimately become your mentor or be the business contact you’ve been searching for.
  • Every person you know already knows lots of people that you do not. These people that are unknown to you may become a valuable resource.
  1. The people around you can teach you new things. Everyone you know has something to teach you. Are you hanging out with the right people to learn the things you need to know?
  2. The people around you influence your attitude and expectations. You can’t help but be influenced by those around you. It has been argued that you can’t rise above the results of the five people you spend the most time with. You can learn a lot about success from your social network.
  • Imagine you’re a real estate agent and you’re spending time with the most successful real estate agent in your city. You earned $100,000 last year, and she earned $1,000,000.
  • You call five expired listings each day and send 50 postcards each week to potential new clients. You come to learn that your new friend calls every expired listing each day and sends out thousands of postcards each week. She even has two full-time assistants to handle her incredible workload.
  • She’s also doing forms of marketing you’ve never even considered.
  • Consider how this can change your life. You suddenly realize that you’re not working nearly as hard or as creatively as you could be. You start to wonder what else you could be doing better. It’s an eye-opening experience.

The people around you matter. With whom are you spending your time? Are you choosing to spend time with those that inspire and support you? Are you spending time with people that struggle with life and sabotage your best efforts to excel?

You have to power to choose the people you spend the most time with. Choose intelligently and you’ll experience greater levels of success.

Unleash Your Hidden Mental Strength

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Unleash Your Hidden Mental Strength

 

We don’t need to be mentally or psychologically strong when life is running along smoothly. It’s when we hit those bumps in the road, and sometimes sinkholes, that our strength is tested. 

Advanced preparation will help you handle the difficulties that will present themselves. You can do almost anything if you set your mind to it.

Enhancing Your Mental Strength

Here are a few tips to increase your mental stamina and emotional strength. Know that mental strength manifests differently depending upon individual personalities, age, experience, and wisdom. There are strategies each of us can use.

Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is simply about paying attention. When you are attentive to what is happening within and around you, you’ll be able to manage your feelings and thoughts. Notice the thoughts passing through your head.

Are they the ones you want? Do those thoughts support the life you want? Challenge your thoughts and destructive beliefs. Develop more efficient ways of coping with what’s going on in your life.

Be conscientious. Organize your life, take your responsibilities seriously, and follow through on your plans. Keep your commitments to others and to yourself.

Develop patience. Oh, this is a big one and can be difficult. In our society, we don’t want to wait for anything. Train yourself to breathe when you become impatient. There are going to be delays. Sometimes you won’t get what you want when you want it.

Patience gives you the ability to stay calm and choose your actions. By uniting patience with mindfulness, you’ll be able to remain focused on the type of person you want to be.

Discover Flexibility. How do you handle change? Some people are great. They bend and move with the flow of life. Others try to be that tree which won’t flex in the driving rain, then it topples over at the roots.

Being open to change allows you to adjust your thinking and adapt to new circumstances. There are wonderful rewards which come from flexibility. Often people and situations come your way when you go with the flow that you wouldn’t encounter staying mired in place. Take a chance and discover the rewards of being innovative and resilient.

Live life with Joy and Delight. Some people call this living authentically. Know what is most important to you. Make them a priority. Laugh well and often. Open your eyes to the wonder of the world.

You can’t remove the challenges from life, but you can respond to them in a way that makes you smarter and tougher. Build up your mental strength now so you’ll be ready to thrive under any conditions. Believe in yourself and use setbacks as stepping stones to greater happiness and success.

Increasing Trust in Yourself

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What You See May Not Be Reality

You may know people who seem to be brimming with self-confidence. Recognize that you can observe what they’re doing, not what they’re feeling. It’s possible their insides don’t match their outsides. You can learn to trust in yourself even when you aren’t filled with self-confidence.

Back when I was in the convent, I was in charge of a particular function. The next day someone complimented me on how much confidence I exhibited. She wished she was like me.

I could have laughed out loud. Today, I would have. Back then, I wasn’t going to let anyone know how terrified I had been.

Having confidence in yourself is about trusting yourself, trusting that you’ll be able to handle the job, whatever job that is.

You may have a difficult time trusting yourself and wonder if you’ll ever be able to. Don’t think you’re alone in your self-doubts. Not trusting yourself seems to be ingrained in the human condition. It’s something many experience and find difficult to overcome.

Learn to Trust

The first thing to recognize is that comparing how you’re feeling with how someone looks like they’re feeling is a false comparison. Someone may look confident when they are, in reality, shivering inside.

Did you know that Barbra Streisand, Adele, and Rihanna all suffer from stage fright? Adele was so scared she once projectile vomited onto a member of the audience.

Even if you have fear, have faith in your accomplishments. Own them. If you’re a great singer, trust in your ability. Practice and prepare. Then trust your skills.

Trust your instincts, your gut. No, you won’t always be right, but, if you keep track, you’ll find that you’re right more often than not. Every time you trust yourself and you’re right, you’ll become more self-confident. As you gain in confidence, you’ll have more of those intuitive hits making life easier.

The Role of Others in Self-Trust

You have three types of people: those who don’t care one way or the other about you, those who’ll cheer you on, and then those who’ll be negative.

Don’t try to please those who don’t care. Accept them.

Find people who will be your cheering squad. I’m not talking about people who will cheer you blindly along your way when you need a little direction. Find those who cheer and will also let you know when you’re heading the wrong way. These folks will build your trust in yourself.

There will also be the nay-sayers. Unfortunately, your tendency may be to pay more attention to them than is necessary. Work at filtering out negative information. Focus on the positive in your life. Listen to those you trust. Avoid negative people. They take delight in bringing down people just because they can.

Have Faith in Yourself

Trusting yourself may require a leap of faith. Take some thoughtful chances. Keep track of your accomplishments. Learn from mistakes and focus on where you’re going.

You are your greatest asset, and a wonderful asset you are.

Make 2019 the Year You Consider Opposing Viewpoints

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I can’t tell you how many people I’ve unfollowed on Facebook because they were crude, rude and disrespectful to other people’s viewpoints.

I attempt to understand where others are coming from, but there are many I really can’t figure out. Their way of looking at the world is so very different from mine. Their values are so different.

When considering opposing viewpoints, you have to truly “walk in their shoes.” Even more, you have to find a way to walk in their skin. How did they arrive at their beliefs? Why is safety more important than hurting people? What have they seen in their lives that formed them the way they are?

You know what formed you. Do you know what formed others?

You can’t change others, but you can change yourself.

In high school, I participated in competition known as Informative Speaking. I had files of data from Newsweek, Time, and other news magazines and newspapers. This was before computers were even in the mind of the average person. I learned various sides of every story.

When you’re faced with opposing viewpoints, educate yourself. Be open to the possibility you’re wrong. I know, heaven forbid you’re wrong! Learn how to take the other end of an argument or the opposing viewpoint. It may be distasteful but give it a try.

The first step is to consider the people you disagree with and learn more about them. You may not agree with their political views or the way they handle their lives. Try to put yourself in their skin. If you had the same fears, if you had the same beliefs, if you had the same experiences, would you believe and act like them.

You can always find information about religions, politics, and more on the internet. You do have to be sure the information is correct.

Read material that you would never consider reading. Do this even if you’re not facing an adversarial situation. It helps you to be open to accepting differences in others. You can look for magazines and books, or you can view blogs and forums related to the topic you want to learn. Watch the television shows they might watch.

You don’t have to agree with everything, just learn so that you can understand them more. You can point out information to them, but don’t expect them to readily accept what you say. Would you accept information someone gives you that is contrary to the way you think?

Play devil’s advocate when approaching any subject, including your own beliefs. Try to pose questions those who believe differently would pose. See if you can understand why they would pose those questions. You might even rethink your own beliefs.

Do you understand the motivations of those who don’t agree with you? Do you understand your own motivations? Self-reflection can bring greater personal understanding. This will assist you in being more compassionate towards others and what brought them to their beliefs.

Use language which opens your mind to understanding others rather than closing the door to those possibilities. When you catch yourself even thinking, “what an idiot,” STOP. This closes your mind down.

Remember, some people won’t accept facts no matter how hard you try to get them to consider them. When this happens, there isn’t any reason to continue engaging with them in discussion. If your difference is with a close friend or family member, accepting them as they are and avoiding the topic is the best strategy.

What if you can’t accept them? What do you do? That can be a tough question. For me, it depends upon actions more than discussion. If someone acts in a way I find immoral, I stay away. If they think differently than I do but are not immoral, I learn how to accept them as they are.

Keep in mind that your lack of acceptance of an individual or even a view point could be due to your own background, your own wounds. This is where I suggest you open yourself to asking for healing.

My favorite little prayer is what I call the Soul Healing Prayer. In this prayer you are asking for healing of the wounds which are affecting your life. I call it “Soul Healing” because my image is of wounds which hurt so much you send away parts of yourself, parts of your soul. In psychology we call it dissociation.

This is how you can apply the healing prayer to people who drive you bonkers because you can’t understand why they think, believe or act the way they do.

Here’s the process…

Consider something holding you back. Since I’m writing about “seeing the other side” of an issue, you could ask for healing of the wound holding you back from wanting to see the other side.

  1. Then you connect with your spiritual connection. I use Soul Healing Angels.
  2. Ask them to find and bring back to you any and all pieces of yourself which are missing related to you being open to learning and accepting others who think differently than you.
  3. Ask for those pieces to be cleaned, repaired and healed.
  4. Ask that all pieces be fully integrated within you.
  5. Give thanks.

Simple, isn’t it? The most difficult part is to be willing to remove blocks to attempting to see the other side.

Let me know what you experienced, would you, please?