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
June 7th, 2010
No matter how much we would like to change or fix something in the past, it is truly impossible. The past is written in cement and that cement has dried and set. What good then are regrets and remorse and self punishment? NONE!! They serve absolutely no positive influence on your present or on your future. They can, however, be used as guilt whips by yourself or another.
As soon as you find the strength to drop your own guilt whip , they will also disappear from the hands of others. What you have come to peace with in your own self cannot be used against you by anyone else.
A life without regrets does not mean a life without consequences. You are responsible for each and every one of your actions but once the lesson is learned, let it go. There is no reason to carry around and to keep rereading the test that you failed.
You can’t rewrite the past but you can rewrite your plans for your future based on your past. Plan to be a more loving person than you have ever been. Plan to be happier than you have ever been. Plan to help others more than you ever have. Perfection can only be found inside of you. Outside, there will be a test failure every now and then. Learn and release.
As I told a dear friend yesterday, you have not screwed up – you have lived!
c 2010 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
April 5th, 2010
If you take a little bit of the yogurt that you had yesterday and put it in some fresh milk today, with proper cooking you will have more of exactly the same yogurt that you had yesterday. Just like the yogurt, whatever part of yesterday that you bring into today will bring exactly the same feelings and emotions that it did yesterday. Are you carrying love and joy over from yesterday? Prepare yourself for more. Are you bringing worry and resentment over from yesterday? Prepare for more.
Today will have its own challenges and joys. Is what you are bringing from yesterday adding to the challenges or the joy? Choose wisely.
©2010 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
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
January 1st, 2010
Happy New Year! I wanted to take this moment and let you know that you are standing on the threshold of the very best time of your life. All that you have read and studied, all that you have dreamed and fantasized about, all that you have been taught by two legged teachers and four legged teachers and by experience and tears has been to fully equip you for this wonderful time. You are ready. Get rid of your doubts again and again and again. Walk your beliefs. Breathe your beliefs. Be your beliefs. You know what you want and you know what is right and good for you. Bring joy and consciousness to everything that you do. Don’t expect everything you do to bring consciousness and joy to you! You are and always have been a generator of love and joy. TURN UP THE VOLUME. Fill your life with what feels right to you. Acknowledge your problems but spend ALL of your time and energy on the solutions not on the problems.
The clarion call has gone out and it’s playing reveille! It’s time to wake up and create your joy and it’s time to let any and all negatives pass right by you like leaves in the wind. Forget the leaves! You’re after the bloomin’ flowers! Love and Blessings, Patrick