Fear

June 27th, 2011

You know the feeling. Suddenly, out of the blue, you have a thought about your finances or your health or your relationship and worry arises. You feel it first in your stomach and then it kind of tingles its way through your extremities and then it comes up your spine and settles into your mind like a dark, ominous cloud. The very next thought you have starts with the words “What if…” and you know that fear has made another assault.

You know how to repel this assault. You should. You have been fending off these assaults all of your life. You have taken in good advice. You have read the books. You have done the work. You are well prepared to fight back but…do you? As you prepare to fight back, there’s a little voice that says “You can’t fight against the truth. There is some truth here. Let’s explore it further”. And you have succumbed. Now all you want to do is escape. Fear is winning because you forgot.

Fear is an acronym for Forget Everything And Run. When you give up fighting and take off blindly running, you always run into the darkness instead of away from it. It doesn’t have to be like that. When those awful, familiar feelings start to surface, fight back by opening the floodgates of gratitude and prayer. Find a joyful thought. Think about who you love. Think about the kind people who have helped you. Remember your heroes , your dreams. Have faith and know that it is within your power to be happy and joyful no matter what thoughts are assaulting you because you do indeed have a blessed life. Don’t run. Stand strong and say to yourself “I AM LOVED”. Fear can never win if you just breathe and remember that.

(c)2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

Bon Appetite!

June 20th, 2011

Suppose you really wanted to cook a fantastic meal and you took thirty different recipes and pasted them up all over the kitchen. Suppose you started seriously making four of them, got together the ingredients for ten of them and spent some time researching the rest. When would dinner be ready? Never! What’s going on in this imaginary kitchen is exactly what is going on day in and day out in our minds. We have a bunch of things we are considering, a couple of things we are working on and several things that we are testing and we lament that we can’t manifest what we want.

Not all goals are financial or work related. Making dinner is a goal. You start out by checking with your feelings. “What do I feel like eating? What sounds good?” (Honestly check your feelings) “Oh , I know what would be great!” (Visualize with passion what you decide upon) Next you would check to ascertain that you have what you need to make this feast (Make a plan). Then you would get everything together (Focus). Next would be to actually start the process (Action). Keeping good spirits (Optimism) and taking each step without rushing (patience) all the while imagining the final product ( sustained belief). If anything suddenly changes, you make changes (flexibility) and continue (persistence). There will be things in the oven and different things on different burners but they will all be completely connected to your goal (connectivity). Before long, what you imagined, worked on and focused on becomes a reality. In fact it bears a striking resemblance to what you imagined in the first place.

There is no magic, fate or destiny involved with most of what you want. There are just recipes waiting for you to take the necessary steps and if you take those steps, the outcome is practically assured. It all comes down to picking ONE major goal at a time to work on and following it through to fruition. Stop trying to follow thirty recipes. If you can make even the simplest dinner, you have what it takes to cook up your dreams. Bon Appetite!

(c)2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

Time

June 13th, 2011

On my fiftieth birthday years ago, my mother, God rest her soul, asked me how fast fifty years had gone by. I said “Like an eye blink” . She paused for a moment and said “News flash, seventy two years goes by like an eye blink too!”. Your life and mine are flying by and in an eye blink will be done, for this round anyway.

We kick our spurs into time when we are young, galloping as fast as we can to be an adult. When we are adults we kick our spurs into time every Monday morning, hoping to get to the weekend faster than last week. We rush our workday to get home. We rush our meal to get to the TV. We rush our spring hoping to get to our summer vacation a little faster this time.

And then it happens. We get terribly sick or someone we love gets terribly sick and we stop kicking our spurs into time. We pull on the reins. We know it won’t stop but we want to slow it down. We want these moments to count, to mean something, to be special. We notice the buzzing of a fly, the handiwork of the blanket, the temperature of the room. We notice how kind the people around us are. We are sad but we are also aware and it feels different.

Time doesn’t slow down but we can and therein lies the gift. You and I are the ones who set the speed of our lives. Time is a constant. How we use it isn’t. Enjoy the time you have today. Make it count. There is no place to rush to. There is just this time and you. Stop spurring time and just trot. You’ll see, love and appreciate more.

When people say that they had a very good time, they usually say that they had the time of their lives. It was always there. They just noticed it. I wish you the time of your life today.

(c)2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

Questions

June 6th, 2011

What do I want to be when I grow up? What direction should I be going? What is my purpose? These questions plague everyone regardless of background, economic status or education. When these questions inevitably show up they are not a sign that you are on the wrong path. You are exactly where you are meant to be right now. “But it doesn’t feel like this is it” you say and you are right. THIS is not your future. THIS is preparing you for your future. The stirring that the seed feels before it bursts open and sends a fragile shoot searching through the darkness for the sunlight is not the seed’s future. The stirring, the uncomfortableness is a beginning. It is a signal that something is going to change.

If you focus on the stirring in the seed instead of the shoot you are going to feel lost. Once the seed cracks open, it’s dead. The shoot is where the life is after that. Focus on where that is going. Where is your life going? What ideas have been growing in the darkness of your thoughts? What themes keep popping up time and time again? What gives you pleasure to think about? What similar advice have several people given you?

What are your dreams? “Oh, I don’t really have dreams”. Liar! You have dreams. You just took your dreams out of the “possible” file and relegated them to the “impossible” file. “Oh, I couldn’t possibly do that now . What would my (fill in the blank) think? Besides I am too (fill in the blank) now.” Your dreams are stirring. You try to ignore them but nothing seems fulfilling or purposeful. Your dreams are stirring. You concentrate harder on what you are doing. Your dreams are stirring. You decide to take a course or buy a book and the seed starts to crack. You lay in bed or drive alone and you start thinking “What If…” and the seed opens.

Too many people go to the grave with seeds unopened. The ones that make a difference to themselves, their families and the world go to their grave and leave behind an orchard for others from the seeds they sprouted.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

(c)2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com