January 2nd, 2012
This new year is a special one and I imagine that you already have that feeling but what you may not know is that this year is special not because of what will happen in the world but because of what will happen with you. This is definitely, unequivocally, without any doubt, The year of YOU! That’s right, this is your year.
You have reached a point in your life where you have everything you need to fulfill your dreams. You have thought enough, studied enough, talked enough, worried enough, experienced enough and now you get to use it all! There are no caveats. This really is your year. All you have to do is believe and go right on believing. That’s it!
You don’t have to change a thing. You just have to walk your talk. That’s right, just walk your talk. Start doing what you have been preaching to others. Start owning up to power inside of you. Start believing in you like you tell others to believe in themselves. Start giving pep talks to yourself instead of condemnation. Do what you tell others! Walk that talk of yours! Be happy. Be grateful.
One more seminar or sermon or book or course or bit of travel will not put you finally in that place of confidence in yourself. Only your uncompromising belief in your own unlimited possibilities will do that. This is your year. Do not hide your light under a basket anymore. Do not wait for some magic turnaround.
You can ask, beg, plead, pray, meditate, contemplate and light candles but all is useless until you start telling you: “This is the day I begin to live my life not in response to someone or something else but in complete harmony with my highest aspiration, my dreams. This is the day that, come hell or high water, I begin to like myself enough to create instead of worry. This is the day that I will look back and say it began that day.” This is the year of you and the celebration starts as soon as you say so. Ready? Let’s start this party!
(C) 2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
December 19th, 2011
You could read all the right books, get enough sleep, meditate, pray, exercise and eat right and still be short changed on what life could possibly give you. It is all because you are missing the most important thing of all. You could be conscious, present and grateful and still feel like “That’s it?”. On the other hand, you could actually do very little in the way of study or self improvement but if you have the one crucial thing, it really wouldn’t matter. Life would be still be a constant joy.
It doesn’t matter what troubles lay in front of you or even right on top of you. It doesn’t matter where or how you live. It does matter however if you have ENTHUSIASM!
The person with enthusiasm doesn’t search for the light. The person with enthusiasm generates light. The person with enthusiasm doesn’t duck “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” for they know that their enthusiasm, their zest for life is their armor.
Enthusiasm is the precursor to every good thing you desire. Without it, life is a grey struggle. With it, life is a rainbow with a promise of pots of gold.
If you open the front door and go to step outside and suddenly realize you are not prepared to deal with the weather, you go no further. You go back and dress properly. Take a moment before you embark on your day or your project or your work and ask yourself, “Is my enthusiasm valve open wide, barely open or closed?” If it is not open wide, go no further! Stop and tell yourself that “My enthusiasm comes from my intent and my intent is to honor the gift of my life with constant enthusiasm”. No venture or life can be successful without it. Open that valve!
(C) 2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
September 12th, 2011
Do you like how you look?
For most people the answer is a very demonstrative “NO!” For some others, the best they can offer is an “It’s okay”. For a tiny group, it’s a very “Of course!” Wherever you fit on this spectrum is fine because wherever you want to go or whatever you want to do, the body you have is fine. Disagree? Of course you do. We have been told ad infinitum that we have to have a perfect body. For what? I don’t have to leap tall buildings in a single bound and neither do you.
How much you love, how much you help, how often you are there for others is what matters. Do you like how you look? It doesn’t matter! Do you remember your grandmother’s love or her state of physical fitness?Did your grandfather have a six pack (under his shirt not in a paper sack)? Did your favorite, most influential teacher have flawless skin and perfect hair? Did it matter at all what the people you love and revere looked like? Did the body shape of any historical figure matter to the good they accomplished? Are the holy ones remembered for the shape of their bodies or how they shaped their lives and the lives of others? Guess what? It doesn’t matter to anyone else what you look like. It only matters how much you love and how much you care.
Do you like how you look? It doesn’t matter! Do the best with what you have in the shortest amount of time and spend the rest of the time making life better for everyone you love. Is someone criticising how you look? Pity them for their blindness and shallowness. Look inside and if there are changes that need to be made, start but don’t criticize yourself along the way or you’ll be as blind and as shallow as the ones who criticize you.
When you are taking your last breath everyone will reflect on your love and not your abs. Strengthen the one that matters.
(C) 2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
January 3rd, 2011
December 31st, 2010