Decisions

September 24th, 2012

(You are Wonderful!)

How do you make the right decision? You have gone back and forth, first thinking one way and then the other a hundred times. You’ve lit candles, flipped coins and tossed crumpled up paper into the wastepaper basket from a fair distance figuring if it goes in you’ve made the right choice. You really want to choose BUT what if you choose wrong? Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

First of all, let’s get this straight. There is no award for making it all the way through life always guessing right. In fact I think there’s a penalty for that. Secondly, what looks at first glance to be the wrong choice can turn out to be the best choice you ever made. Thirdly, no matter how hard you pray, God will not make the choice for you but will absolutely, positively help you with whatever choice you do make. Fourthly, the only thing that is stopping you from making a choice is fear. Not fear of a bad outcome but fear of blame. Fifthly, sixthly and beyond; right, wrong or indifferent, you grow from each decision that you make. There is nothing else that grows you faster.

So, when a decision is looming, do the right thing, make a decision. Any decision is better than none. Not making a decision is an affirmation that you are weak. The longer you delay, the more you reinforce this weakness. Put it off long enough and you will paralyze yourself into not making any decision about anything.

So, how do you make the right decision? You set a deadline and you make a vow to yourself to make a decision before that time. When that time approaches, you go for it. That act signals to yourself and to the Universe that you are not someone to be trifled with. You are a person who makes decisions. And what happens if it’s the wrong decision? You take full responsibility and you grow some more.

(c)2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

Move

September 17th, 2012

(You are Excellent!)

Are you living in the right place? Does where you live make you happy? I’m not talking about zip codes or states or provinces. I am talking about where do your thoughts live when you are not concentrating on something important. Are you living in the past? The future? What is it like there?

Is it a past filled with wonderful memories and remembrances of love and joy and carefree days? Is it a future filled with promise and health? Or maybe it’s a past filled with regrets and self recriminations. Or maybe it’s a future filled with scarcity and darkness.

Only a few of us can afford to physically live in the richest part of town but EVERY ONE OF US has the free will to live in a better mental place. Your thought are yours for the making and no one can limit them or destroy them or take them away from you. And since our every thought determines our happiness, we can literally move into joy no matter where we are or under what conditions we find ourselves.

How would today feel if you focused exclusively on whatever joys there were in your past? How good would you feel today if you painted a mental picture of the perfect future for you and kept adding details? How would you feel today if you mentally moved to a place of optimism and joy and lived there for the whole day?

The same way we take a break and go on vacation, take a break from worry and move to a mental place of upliftment and enjoy today. What you were worrying about today will still be there for you to worry about tomorrow if you decide to go back to it. Maybe, just maybe, you might decide to stay in that happy place and who knows, maybe, just maybe, things will start to change. Let’s face it, your worrying hasn’t exactly created miracles. How about living somewhere else today?

(c)2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

One Step

September 10th, 2012

(You are Courageous!)

If you are in Oklahoma but totally focused on being on the beach in Malibu and you get so focused on being there that when you decide to go to San Francisco, you just jump into your car and head north, where will you end up? In San Francisco? Not a chance. You’ll be in Kansas! Why? Because you weren’t accepting that you were in Oklahoma.

Acceptance does not mean surrender and it does not imply in the least that you like what’s going on. It merely means that you understand that this is the way things are right now. This is where you are. If you don’t get that right, all the positive thinking and wishing and lighting candles and mantras and prayers are useless.

Accept where you are in every area of your life right now. That’s your starting point. Nothing else is real. Being based in that reality, whether you like it or not, make your plans to get to where you want to go. There are no helicopters in your future. You are not going to be lifted up from where you are and dropped into paradise. Paradise does exist but you are going to have to take every step to get there. It’s okay. You have time.

Everything is possible from where you are right now, not easy but not impossible. To some, a highway lies in front. To others, a bumpy dirt road. Whatever is in front of you, look around. If you don’t like where you are, start moving regardless of the condition of the road in front of you. One step at a time and you’ll get there. Accept where you are, figure out where you want to go that is better, point your feet in that direction and take a step and then another and everything is possible. One step at a time.

(c)2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

What’s Missing

September 4th, 2012

(You are better!)

We pray for an increase in happiness and a decrease in the suffering for ourselves and those we love and we have seen those prayers answered time and time again but is something missing?

When we do pray for ourselves (a rarity because we think that everyone else is more important and somehow there’s something wrong or selfish asking for ourselves) we usually ask for the bare minimum that we need. Let me ask you a question or two; have you ever looked up a a clear night’s sky? Does that say “I’m Limited” to you? Have you ever looked out from a high place and seen a vast vista in front of you? Does that say “I’m Limited” to you? Have you seen the skyscrapers and the crowds of people all over this earth? Does that say “I’m Limited” to you?

If the sky and the endless vistas and the billions of people and buildings and homes says “I am expanding” and you are definitely a part of all that, why do you think that you are contracting or limited? It’s because you have experienced suffering and contractions and you are scared to death that it going to happen again or get worse if you are already in it.

The in breath follows the exhale. The high tide follows the low tide. What’s missing in our prayers is the belief that we are getting better, that EVERYTHING in our life is getting better. The ocean does not fail at low tide. Our lungs do not fail at exhalation. We don’t fail when things seem difficult. We are expanding. We are growing. We are getting better and better. If it seems like it’s going in the opposite direction, hooray!, that means it’s going to come back bigger and better. Are you ready?

(c)2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com