Life’s Choices

October 31st, 2011

If you are blissfully happy with the direction your life is going, keep going and be joyful and thankful of that fact but if you just want to make it through this day, this month, this year, then you are in the greatest danger because sooner or later you will come to the awful realization that your day, month, year, life could have been a whole lot happier.

The greatest freedom we have is the ability to choose our attitude on our life’s journey. By choosing the highest, most uplifting attitude, our journey changes significantly. There is a tremendous difference between riding on the roof of a train in the dead of winter and riding inside in a warm comfortable seat. Yes, the destination is the same but the journey is so very different. The greatest effect we can have on our life’s journey is our choice of a better attitude.

Want to show everyone how upset you are? Or maybe you want to show everyone how broken you are? Or maybe you want to show everyone how you have suffered? Well, it will take a certain attitude and a certain posture and a certain willingness to be devoid of any joy whatsoever. It will work and they will get it but what have you sacrificed? An hour,a day or more of happiness? You will never have that back! What is a moment of happiness worth? Why rob that from yourself?

Resolve right now to change. There is nothing more important than embracing attitudes that make you feel good. Embrace love. Think of all who have loved you and those you have loved. Embrace caring. Remember how good caring makes you feel. Embrace hope. See how hope brightens your world and future. Embrace pleasure. Feel your senses come alive. Embrace lightness. Release those thoughts that weigh you down. Embrace gratitude. Nothing starts or sustains your joy better. Embrace how you look. Your clay is still wet and there is still time to sculpt. Embrace forgiveness. EVERYONE makes mistakes. Embrace prayer and meditation. These are the keys to the kingdom. Physically embrace those you love and be totally present when you do.

Your journey improves the very second that you do. It is your choice to be happy right now or to put it off until later. Now is better.

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

 

Frustration

October 24th, 2011

You look out at the world and you are frustrated. You look at your bank balance and you are frustrated. You look at your smaller clothes in the closet and you are frustrated. It is not your physical condition or the condition of things around you that is making your life less than joyful. It is actually your frustration that keeps you mired in negativity. The world? It is actually getting better day by day. Check any history book about any era. It’s now better than that. Bank balance? It is always a measure of your frustration. Weight? Did you put on extra pounds because you ate too much dirt? No, you ate too many things that tasted absolutely yummy at the moment. Celebrate the joy you felt.

Remember – You will always be paralyzed by your frustration. You will always be liberated by your celebration. Celebrate that children are being born, people are falling in love, birthdays, anniversaries are happening all over the world. Flowers are blooming somewhere, someone is having the best laugh of their life right now. Somebody is finding a cure for someone’s suffering. That plane you see in the sky is going to reunite people that love each other. Celebrate those people with great tests results either in a classroom or a doctor’s office. Celebrate every joy you have ever experienced. Actively search for things to celebrate. It is a quest filled with joy. Do you want to increase your bank balance and decrease your waist? If you woke up this morning you can start to accomplish both. Celebrate waking up this morning. Celebrate those you love waking up this morning.

There is always so much to celebrate and the benefit of all celebration is gratitude and gratitude is the universal key to happiness and happiness causes more celebration and the circle is complete. It doesn’t matter if the glass is half full or half empty. Celebrate what is in it.

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

 

God’s Electricity

October 17th, 2011

If your toaster wasn’t working this morning would you go to the power generating plant in your city and start looking for what was wrong? Would you start cursing the power plant for your lack of toast? It seems preposterous but that is exactly what we do when our lives lack the “electricity” to make us feel good, to manifest the things we desire, to make things go in our favor, to be happy. Where does the “electricity” come from? Most will say God and I agree but if God is unlimited in “electricity” and we are lacking, where’s the disconnect? Where is the wiring to our toaster broken?

Grace or God’s “electricity” is flowing all the time. When we feel it, we feel invincible and unlimited. We are in the flow and everything seems possible. We greet others with a smile. We counsel others not to feel down. We encourage every new attempt that is being made. We overlook petty annoyances. We look favorably upon our past and our future. We see the good everywhere. We see positive outcomes to everything.

So, if we want the “electricity” and God is always showering us with the “electricity” where’s the disconnect? Why isn’t our toaster working? The answer is in the second sentence of the second paragraph above. The secret is that we have to feel it! Our toaster isn’t working because it’s not turned on!! Your job isn’t to generate the “electricity”. You job is to put yourself in the proper frame of mind to accept and feel the “electricity”. And the most amazing, gratitude inducing fact is that there is an unlimited amount of “electricity” and we have an infinite capacity for using it. All we have to do is stay turned on to life.

Take literally 15 seconds right now and close your eyes and become aware of your breath and imagine being filled with God’s “electricity” right this moment. This one moment will change your day.

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

 

Independence

October 3rd, 2011

A few blocks from my house is a street named Legacy and as I stopped at a red light on the corner of Independence and Legacy, I thought to myself “What is to be my legacy and what does it have to do with my independence?” I had always prided myself in my independence. I liked most people but I made sure I didn’t need people. I was proud of that. I had been hurt and frustrated and disillusioned with many people in the past and I choose independence. From that lofty perch I could rise above ever depending on people. As I stared at the red light waiting for the go ahead green, I asked myself “Is my independence my legacy?”

The light turned green and I made a left onto Legacy. As I drove I kept pondering the question. I was raised in a time when independence was the pinnacle of accomplishments. But now I was asking that sacred cow whether it was true or was it all cow patties? The surprising answer was that it was cow patties!! Independence is a farce. I was wearing my independence like some kind of merit badge when, truth be told, it was just an escape from being vulnerable. Independence is overrated and true strength is underrated. I realized then that it takes a lot more strength to deal with other people and to take your chances on being hurt but that’s where the real growth is. You can’t truly help people on a lofty perch because you are usually the only one there. People can’t talk to you, love you, feel your love or ask you for help if you are way up there.

It was more than a drive that day. It was a change in how I saw me. From then on, I told myself, I would focus on my similarities to others and not my differences. I would focus on engaging with others and not being aloof. I would put myself out there and if I got frustrated, I’d get over it but I would live and I would help. And when the time came my legacy would be “Yeah, he was open and he loved and he helped”. Everything else is just cow patties.

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