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
July 23rd, 2012
We all try to get to a place of happiness, a state of well being, a peaceful countenance. We all go about it in different ways but the destination is the same. There is not just one way but there are some that are more powerful and direct than others. One of the most overlooked is actually one of the most effective.
When we think about being “fed up” with some aspect of our life we automatically think of it as a negative state but nothing could be further from the truth. Being fed up is the edge of the diving board, the top of the ski run, the door to the sky dive. It’s the place where the next step is change, no two ways about it.
It’s when we are fed up with coughing that we give up smoking, fed up with certain behaviors that jettisons the alcohol or drugs, fed up with the way we look that buys the exercise equipment or the new clothes, fed up with how we are being treated that gives us the guts to make an overdue change, fed up with poverty that gives birth to ideas and action.
I wish that you become fed up with not pursuing your dream. I wish that you become fed up with limiting yourself, fed up with criticizing yourself, fed up with not supporting yourself, fed up with feeling weak, fed up with worrying, fed up with being lonely or worn out or stressed.
Here’s to being fed up and doing something about it. Today. Cheers!
(C) 2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
July 16th, 2012
We label our days as good days or bad days by the way we feel that day. If we feel good, it’s a good day. If we feel bad, it’s a bad day. The key then is to feel good more often thereby having a larger percentage of good days. Seems simple, right? Maybe.
The biggest hindrance to bettering our percentages is the fact that other people exist on the planet too. Oh, if there was no one else around, we could still call it a good day or a bad day based on other things like the weather or the availability of our favorite food but by and large, it is other people that we believe make it a good or bad day for us.
The fact is that there are other people on the planet, a lot of them. Each one, just like you and I, has their own way of thinking and acting and to expect all of them to be in total harmony with the way you think and act is actually quite laughable.
So, if your daily happiness is based on how you choose to see the world, you are in luck. If your daily happiness is based on being in perfect harmony with others, you’re screwed. Your only shot at having a good day is generating and embracing your own happiness. Other than that, it is just like buying a lottery ticket each morning and hoping to win the happiness lottery that day.
You wouldn’t expect everyone to be hungry when you are hungry so why should you expect everyone else to be happy at the same time as you. When you are hungry, go eat. When you want to be happy, think about your blessings and get happy.
A good day is yours and yours alone to make.
(C) 2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
June 25th, 2012
What is love? Writers have written and painters have painted and musicians have sung since time immemorial their answer to this question. Which one got it right? Which one came up with the truth about love? They all did, each and every one of them.
When we ask what is love and who got it right, it’s like asking which drop of ocean water is just like the ocean? They all are is the answer. If we could ask every mammal, fish, crustacean and plant in the ocean to describe that thing that surrounds them, that thing that gives them life, that thing that makes their life possible, we would get an infinite number of answers and they would all be right.
We, you and I and all the others, live in a world of love. We are surrounded by love, we breathe love, we eat love, we hear love and we see love. For it is the love of nectar that the honeybee pollinates the flower that becomes our food. It is because of the love of the farmer for her family that she plants our food so that her children will eat and have the money for clothes and education. It is the love of literature that drives the man to become the teacher and share his joy. It is the child’s love of a puppy that takes the animal home from the shelter and brings more love to the family.
There is the love of sweethearts, the love of children, the love of parents, the love of art and music and colors and laughter and rainbows and beaches and mountains and yes, the love of God. We are indeed surrounded by love and yet we feel at times that we have lost it. Nothing could be further from the truth.
How silly would it seem to us if we were to watch a fish in the ocean swimming around trying to find this thing called water. What would you say to it? The same thing God would probably say to you. “Relax, love is all around you. Do not spend your time looking for it but rather spend your time being grateful for being in it. For if you were not in it for even a moment, you would perish. If you exist at all it is because of the love that surrounds you. Enjoy.”
(C) 2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
May 14th, 2012
How big is your life? You know the size of your room and your height and your waist but what is the size of your life? Is it a big life, one growing with ideas and openness to whatever comes or is it a small life, concerned with surviving and stepping around obstacles and praying nothing bad befalls you?
A big life has very little to do with work and chores and obligations. You can have a small life and still be run ragged with a million things to do. A big life is a life that is filled with trust and faith. It is a life that says “Oh Dear God, I dislike what is happening but I know it is all for the best and I trust you.” It is a life that says ” I am going to make a positive difference in the short time I am alive.”
A small life says “Oh Dear God, please don’t let any problems, health issues or financial or relationship issues negatively affect me or anyone I care about.” It is a life that wants a story book existence (forgetting of course that all story books are about problems that have to be overcome!) so that there will be no need for sleepless nights or soul searching. It is a life that says “I don’t want to give up any of my pleasures but I want the results as if I did.”
Live large! Whatever comes your way, without exception, is helping you to grow. No matter how big your problems, realize that in your pain is an alarm clock. You are being awakened. You are being taken from your slumber and told to remember your dreams and to start making them a reality.
When you decide to live large, you will become a bigger target for fools and problems but the bigger you live, the smaller those things will seem. You are not here to be stopped by your problems but to grow bigger because you encountered them and to step over them and keep going. Whatever problems there are in your life, know that you are as big as you think you are. Think positive, powerful, big thoughts! It’s who you really are.
(C) 2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
April 23rd, 2012
The moment you were born no one held you up and yelled “This child is incomplete! Quick, find another child to make this one complete!” It didn’t happen like that because it wasn’t the truth. You were born into this world complete. You didn’t need any one to complete you. You still are complete but you have forgotten.
On a heart and soul level you are connected to all of life and nothing is lacking. On a physical and emotional level you have a desire to bond with others but is a desire and not a necessity. There are times when you really need to be alone and you should. The problem is that we have terribly confused aloneness and loneliness.
Loneliness is the feeling that we are somehow incomplete without the presence of someone else. Aloneness simply means that there is no one else physically around at the moment. Aloneness can be remedied by reaching out to any one of the seven billion people on this planet. Loneliness can only be remedied by understanding that you are perfect just the way you are.
You are complete and whole. You are one flower in an endless field of flowers. Your leaves and blossoms may not touch another flower until the wind blows just right but you are always touching and connected through your roots to every other flower in the field.
If there is someone in your life, they don’t complete you. They join you as divine company on the journey. If there is no one in your life right now it does not mean that you are incomplete. It just means that you have some space to grow and blossom before the wind blows just right.
(C) 2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
April 16th, 2012
Mostly Sunny With A Chance of Showers
Imagine waking up in the morning and planning your day, you listen to the weather and the forecast is “Today will be mostly sunny with a chance of showers”, what would you do? Would you write the day off? Would you refuse to go outside for fear of being soaked? Would you tie down all the patio furniture?
Of course not! If you made any adjustment at all, maybe you would change your jacket or grab an umbrella. You, like everyone else, would feel pretty good at the prospect of sunshine. If you had a chance to eat al fresco at a cute little lunch place, you’d probably go for it especially if the sky looked clear. You would keep an eye on the sky and be ready to adapt if clouds came but you would enjoy the sunshine for as long as you could.
Every lifetime is sunny with a chance of showers. Oh, make no mistake about it, the rain will come on occasion and sometimes it will be a great big gully washer but the sunny days will always outnumber the rainy ones. The stormy days will be worth experiencing for one reason or another and of course the sunny days will be great to experience. The only days that you want to stay away from are the days that you don’t enjoy because you are waiting for a storm and it doesn’t show up. Those are the wasted days and you really don’t want too many of those. Better to be caught in the rain than to miss the sunshine.
March 26th, 2012
Is there success in your future? Most of us pursue success like the proverbial carrot in front of the horse. The story goes that if you put a carrot just out of reach in front of a horse he will pursue the carrot and just keep on trotting along. Is there some way that you can just stop and enjoy the carrot?
The answer is…drum roll please….. No, you cannot stop. Life has no off switch. A change switch but no off switch. Yes, you can still enjoy A carrot. Notice that I said A carrot and not THE carrot.
What success is for you will always be just that – YOUR idea of success. NEVER let someone else’s description of success be yours. If your description of success and theirs matches, great but let it be because you found yours and didn’t just blindly or lazily adopt theirs.
You needs will change with age and circumstance and so your carrot should change also and that is why I said A carrot and not THE carrot. A success may be closing a big deal. A success may be potty changing a child. A success may be completing a 5K. All of these can be carrots for one person. In other words, let your carrot change!
You are never a success because you found just one carrot to pursue and you got it. If all you have at the end of this life is one carrot, you’ve wasted your time. Go get the carrot of happiness and the carrot of love and the carrot of God and the carrot of laughter and the carrot of adventure and a whole bunch more.
You weren’t born with blinders on. The poor horse only sees one carrot in his pursuit. You can look around. You can find more carrots. Pursue as many paths as you want. The line from birth to death should not look like a straight line. It should look like a plate of spaghetti. Enjoy your life. There is no failure. There is only bunches and bunches of carrots for you to enjoy. Bon Appetit!
(C) 2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
March 19th, 2012
Everyone is always telling you to follow your dream, don’t give up on your dream, make your dream happen, plan the path to your dream. But…what if you don’t have a dream?
What if you just want to survive without pain and without creditors calling and you just want people to like you? Well, THAT’s your dream! Dreams do not have to be writing the great American novel or becoming a world class cello player or becoming a famous sports figure. Those dreams are fine but there is no hierarchy of dreams. One dream is not better than another dream. Dreams aren’t better just because they are bigger or more complex.
Your dream of someone to love you or your dream of sitting by a pool reading a good book or making a tasty dinner are GREAT dreams! None of us are in dream competition. What small thing would you like to accomplish? Eating spaghetti without getting any sauce on your clothes? A great dream! Make spaghetti as often as you can stand it and eat it as carefully as you can and when that day comes that you take the last bite and your clothes are still clean, pat yourself on the back and think up a new dream.
Yes, our nation had a dream about going to the moon and it was a very big dream but that big dream was made up of countless, small, doable dreams. Someone had the dream of a helmet and someone else had a dream of creating a great latch for the door and on and on.
Don’t wait for a gigantic dream. Don’t despair or think that somehow you are deficient because you don’t have a great big dream. Follow every small curiosity. Follow every hunch. Follow every interesting idea. Those are all dreams calling to you. Try everything you want to try and someday people will look back on your life and say ” Wow! That person was really happy!”.
(C) 2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
March 5th, 2012
Being on a train that goes around in the same circle would be maddening after a while and we would pay any price to leave and yet, a roller coaster with the same amount of track going in the same circle would be a constant source of excitement and we would pay any price to stay on.
We sit and we think, “Oh, If I didn’t have any problems, life would just be so wonderful.” Poppycock! It is the problems and the upsets and the quandaries that provide the excitement on our ride through life. “Oh, if I could just lay on a beach and do nothing, I’d be so happy.” Poppycock, Poppycock! You’d be mad as a hatter after a couple of months if you had nothing to excite you.
Embrace your problems! Love your upsets! Welcome your quandaries! Sure, they are the anxiety producing clank, clank, clank as the roller coaster struggles to climb but as you get to the top, suddenly you see clearly all around you and immediately the rush of excitement fills every cell in your body and the thrill is on!
Too soon the ride is over. You look at the other strangers as you exit and you nod and smile at the shared experience and your only thought is, can we do this again?
Life is a wonderful, exhilarating ride. At times, it’s scary and unnerving and filled with anxiety but really, you never leave the tracks and if you turn your focus away from the ride for just a moment you can see that there really is someone in the booth that’s handling all the controls and making sure that you are excited and safe and having the ride of your life. Enjoy!
(C) 2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com