New Seeds

March 29th, 2010

Every gardener and farmer knows that you can’t harvest something new if you haven’t planted something new. Are you tired of struggling? Are you tired of being tired? If there is anything in your life that you want to change you must identify it clearly, state your intention to change it and take action. When you truly want to change all or part of your life, the most important action that you can take is to change your self-talk.

Every morning we wake up and we start planting seeds with every word and picture we think. If they are the same old words and pictures, we are going to have exactly the same old harvest! If we want to harvest something new, we must plant something new. We must use different words, imagine different pictures and then we will harvest the bounty from those new seeds.
You absolutely can change what you are getting and all you have to do is to change what you are planting. You can do it!

©2010 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

Enthusiasm

March 22nd, 2010

Every one of us is looking for that secret additive, that one thing that if we add it to our life, our life breaks out in joy and possibilities that would rival the finale of any fireworks show on July fourth.We read books, listen to CDs, watch videos, attend seminars, quiz those who we think have found it and we plod onward, becoming more and more serious and a bit frustrated too until one day, by the Grace of God, there it is and our life lights up. It usually shows up in a quote but it can also come as a flash of inspiration. However it comes, you know without a doubt that EVERYTHING is now possible. Your dreams, your plans, your goals, suddenly you know that you can make them happen. What is this secret ingredient?
Ralph Waldo Emerson pointed it out when he wrote “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” Walter Chrysler said “The real secret of success is enthusiasm”. Oliver Wendell Holmes made it clear “It’s faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living”. There’s your secret additive!
We believe that we will have enthusiasm when we find something to be joyful about. Of course we will but if we don’t have it long before that we will never get to joyful! Look at those places in your life that have stagnated. Is there enthusiasm anywhere to be found in those places? Of course not that’s why they stagnated.
You don’t have to go out and find enthusiasm. You are the sole creator of your enthusiasm. If it is lacking it’s only because you are not producing it. Henry Ford stated it perfectly. “You can do anything if you have enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars. With it, there is accomplishments. Without it there are only alibis.” The secret additive is sustained enthusiasm under any and all circumstances. BOOM! There go the fireworks!

©2010 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

The Ladder of Gratitude

March 15th, 2010

The greatest quest in every life is the search for happiness. Some people spend great amounts of money looking for it. Some grab hold of other people and try to wring it out of them. Some give years of their lives in barter for it. Some run down a road or two and not seeing any hint of it, give up looking for it.
Is it really that rare or are we looking in the wrong places? You see, there is a door marked GRATITUDE that we pass so very often as we open other doors in search of the one that contains happiness. Oh, we know that the door marked GRATITUDE is there all right because every time we pass it we make a solemn mental vow to come back and open it as soon as we find happiness and have something to be grateful for and so we continue our frantic pursuit of happiness.
We are trying to pick apples using a trampoline instead of a ladder. Oh, you’ll manage to grab an apple or two jumping up and down until you are too exhausted to eat one but you can have every apple in the tree and the time to enjoy them if you use a ladder instead. The trampoline is the way we have been going about it but gratitude is the ladder. It’s the first thing that you see when you open the door marked GRATITUDE. That ladder is the only way to get to happiness. Happiness exists on another level. It doesn’t exist on the level of frustration and doubt and complaining. If it did, those things would make you happy. Happiness exists on a level that only the ladder of gratefulness can take you up to. Every step up that ladder makes you consider the good where you only saw bad. Each step reminds you of the inherent good in people. Each step reminds you that there is always more blessings than adversities in your life. Each step beckons you to think with your heart too. Each step implores you to drop some of your baggage. What are you waiting for? Open that door, grab that ladder and start climbing. It’s a Heaven of a journey and it’s exactly what you’ve been looking for.

©2010 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

Look Straight Ahead

March 9th, 2010

Climbing to the top of the mountain or crossing a high bridge or trail, every experienced guide has exactly the same advice. “Don’t look down! Look straight ahead!”. They say this because they know that if you start looking down you stand a very good chance of going down.
Our vision, where we are looking, is what determines where we are going. Fate can bring some heavy winds and some treacherous patches but by focusing on where we want to be, we keep going, we keep striving and we make it.
We may say that we want to get somewhere specific but where are we looking? Are we looking at what could go wrong? Are we looking at what other people might think or say? Are we looking at others who didn’t make it and were ridiculed? If we are looking at any of these, that’s where we are going!
It doesn’t matter what we planned or what we have invested. It only matters that our goal and our vision are in sync. It only matters that we are looking straight ahead to where we are going and that we have a burning desire to get there.
Where we have been has absolutely no bearing on where we want to go. What is behind us may have strengthened or weakened us but the next step forward is all about now and not then.
Look straight ahead and take a step today no matter how tiny and you are on your way.

©2010 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

Don’t fear mistakes

March 1st, 2010

“The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake” -Meister Eckhart 1260-1328.
Every day we have a multitude of decisions to make and by these decisions we shape our life, or so we believe. I believe that the vast volume of what we don’t decide has an equal or even larger impact on our life. We are so terrified of making a mistake, of guessing wrong, of being ridiculed, of feeling regret, remorse or guilt that we have become frozen. Bad jobs continue to be filled, bad bosses continue to be tolerated, bad relationships continue to be ignored. It is time to bring the heat of passion to thaw us out.It’s time to feel the exhilaration of taking a chance. It’s time to live.
Dare to be wrong. Dare to make a mistake. Focus on a positive outcome but realize that some mistakes are teachers and some mistakes make the very best stories and some mistakes are inedible and you just have to throw them away and start over again. But all of this time you will know that you are alive.
What is going or feeling right in your life? When is the last time you really celebrated that? What is going or feeling wrong in your life? When was the last time you tried to change it? Could your life be better or more fulfilling? What would it take? I don’t know is the answer of frozen people.
Make a list of the changes that you would like to see in the world, your country, your community, your family, your relationships, your health, your job, your money, your security and your spirituality and each day take a chance on making one of those better. Don’t let a past mistake or the fear of a future one stop you. Live the life you want. You’ve got what it takes.

©2010 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com