In North America, every February 2nd the groundhog indicates if the winter is going to last either five or six more weeks. For 2010 the groundhog decided that the winter will last six more weeks.
This is an irrational belief, but it is a perfect example of how we human beings like to attribute supernatural powers to external events.
I agree that we are not able to change the duration of the winter, but this news made me realize how we want our life to be dependent on other people, the government, the industries, the president, even a groundhog!
The benefit that we obtain from depending on external circumstances is that we decide that we don’t have options to change the reality…
We have the perfect excuse and we are allowed to blame those external factors without taking action.
Some years ago Mark Twain said: “Everybody talks about the Weather, but nobody does anything about it”
At that time, it was funny because we were convinced that we could not do anything about it. Nowadays it is not funny anymore because we know that our actions are actually affecting the weather. The weather is partially affected by our behaviour as guests of this planet called Earth…
We are day by day realizing that the destiny of our world depends more and more on our individual actions…
However, we reject continuously the idea of the responsibility of having the control of our lives in our hands. We prefer to depend on the groundhog, the economical crisis, the president, the boomers or our spouse …
We want to believe that something or somebody out of our control is defining our fate…
Why we like this external dependence?
This dependence on external factors, doesn’t allow us to be responsible. And to be responsible would mean to be able to respond… It would mean that we would be able to change our behavior to change the results, and who wants that?
We prefer to blame something or somebody else, and as final option, we will blame ourselves in the past. In these cases, we use expressions such as:
“I married the wrong person (ten years ago)”
“I studied the wrong career”
When we say so, we are making ourselves helpless.
It is great to say so because it keep us in our own comfort zone: we made a mistake in the past and now we cannot do anything about it…
The actual truth is that we are today, right now, accountable and responsible of anything that we are facing.
If we don’t like our job, we can do something about it immediately.
Anything that we don’t like about our life right now, it might be gradually changed by us.
You might rationalize and explain that “your case is different”. But your case is not different; I could bet that your condition is not worse than Viktor Frankl’s when he was a prisoner in a Concentration Camp and he decided that nobody could take away his freedom of choice.
Any kind of problem that you are facing right now, be a matter of weight, health, finances, love, etc. is the result of your own actions. This discomfort that you are experiencing is just the feedback that the Universe is giving you indicating that you should modify your behavior to get a different result.
Stop giving the power to the weather, the boss, the economy or your spouse… You have complete control of your life, start to change right now!
Tags: Choice, freedom, groundhog, Power, Self-improvement
My friend the snail wanted to appear at the February 2010 Vanity Fair cover and to make a comment about Tiger, but the laws about copyright and derivative works prevented me to show you that scene… However, if you want to see the magazine that the snail is perusing, just click the image.
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Now, your comments:
What can I say? I agree with the snail, as long as Tiger plays Golf properly, why should we worry about his private affairs?
Feel free to express your opinion…
Tags: Humor
I disagree with Steve Pavlina on the way that he targeted his blog exclusively toward “smart people”…
So if you don’t perceive yourself as “smart”, we could conclude that you shouldn’t visit his blog…
Before continuing with the discussion, let’s see the following cartoons:
In the case that you consider yourself “smart” you would probably be proud of this condition and as the characters of the above cartoons you would like to share with others “how smart you are” …
Is there any problem in considering yourself “smart”?
Yes, the problem of considering yourself ”smart” is the same problem that others have when considering themselves “dumb”
It is the problem of perceiving yourself as smart (or as dumb) in a permanent condition!
When you consider yourself “smart”, you perceive this as a fixed condition that you don’t want to change: you are not willing to do anything that could make you look as a fool!
You can act very smart right now and then you might act as as total fool the next minute, this is part of our human condition…
So pretending to be smart in a permanent way is not really smart.. 
Making continuos efforts to improve in the aspects that we care more, is a better approach… Realizing that the difficulties and challenges that we face every day are actually opportunties to sharpen our skills, blessings and talents will allow us to enjoy life every single moment while growing.
And what is life about? as Richard Bach explained it skillfully in his book “Illusions”, Life is exclusively Fun and Growth! Nothing else matters…
P.S.: Although I disagree with Steve Pavlina’s focus on “smart” people, I certainly respect it…
Actually,I formally propose a deal to Steve:
Every time somebody considering himself as permanently “smart” visits my blog, I will invite him to follow this link to visit the great blogs by Steve Pavlina, targeted exclusively for smart people…
In retribution, I would ask Steve that anytime somebody who doesn’t consider herself as permanently “smart” visits his blog, he should invite her to visit my blog at read-y.com!
Invitation to act:
I invite you to submit your comment below…
Do you consider yourself as permanently smart?
Do you see the benefits of realizing the impermanence of smartness?
Feel free to share this information with others…
Tags: Originality, Self-improvement
For discussion:
Consideration:
Have you heard about the World ending on December 21, 2012 as per the Mayan Prophecy?
The origin of this speculation is actually what the above cartoon says: Some fool decided that if the Mayan Calendar ended on December 21, 2012, then the world would end as well!
This has happened in the past: A lot of people feared that the World would end at the end of 1999!
This kind of beliefs are shared for thousands of people who always choose to think the worst scenario.
Some people like to feel desperate and hopeless because then they don’t have to worry about planning their future or building a successful career… They could just complain and “hope” for the best without taking any concrete action.
Now, knowing that the world doesn’t end on December 21, 2012, ask yourself, how bad would be to know that the world were to end by that day?
I invite you to make an experiment: tomorrow morning imagine that your life is going to end tomorrow night.
Keep on mind all the day that this could be your last day and consequently don’t allow anybody to ruin your day…
You could decide to live all the day with fear because you wouldn’t live after tomorrow, or you could decide to live full of love, being friendly and compassionate with everybody because this could be the last time that you saw them… The choice is yours!
Don’t care too much about the weather, try to enjoy any kind of weather tomorrow, because this could be the last chilly day that you are going to enjoy…
When you see that old and grumpy lady walking her dog, smile and greet her, maybe you will not be able to see her after tomorrow…
Do you remember that good friend that you have not called her because you never have had time? Grab the phone and make a quick phone call, tell her how much you appreciate her, but don’t tell her about this exercise.
Go and try to flood the world around you with love and optimism because tomorrow could be your last day!
At the end of the night, evaluate how much you have enjoyed the day, may be after this experiment, you might decide to live every day as if it were the last one!
Go, live your last day and post your comment, tell us if you were able to live one single day in that way and what you learned from that experience…
This is the first post in the category of Diversion and it is meant to amuse you, give you a break and allow you to relax without requiring any mental effort or significant action…
No comments, except yours:
Tags: Humor
This is a famous quotation attributed to Abraham Lincoln:
“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax”
The below cartoon illustrates this concept:
Now, your comments:
This cartoon shows a flaw in Honest Abe’s approach.
I would love to know your point of view…
I wish you a successful and Happy New Year!
Tags: Humor, Originality, Self-improvement
–This is the first post for a new category described as “Different Drummer”. In this category I explain how I disagree with a famous and recognized leader or celebrity in an aspect that is usually motive of admiration for most of the people.–
The first leader that I disagree with within this Category is Gandhi and I specifically differ with him on the way that Gandhi applied his “Non violence” philosophy.
Gandhi was a spiritual and political leader who led India to the independence from foreign domination through his civil disobedience and non violence movement . I admire him for his commitment to the causes that he pursued and his persistence and courage.
However, he wasn’t consistent in the application of his renowned non violence philosophy.
It is supposed that the basis of this philosophy was to fight the violence with non violence.
He broke this principle several times when he decided to put on risk the Health and Wellness of an innocent as a means of protesting against the British !
Every time Gandhi performed a hunger strike he broke the principle of Non Violence.
When a leader allows the violence against an innocent as a valid way of reaching certain purpose, he/she is validating violence.
Trough history we have seen several martyrs die for a cause, in other words, those martyrs have allowed innocent people (themselves) to die for a cause, perpetuating violence as a valid resource.
Violence is not acceptable and we shall not accept it as a valid resource even when the victim of the violence is willing to experience it, as it happens in a hunger strike.
I invite you today to realize that all expression of violence is unnecessary, let’s realize that Love is the only authentic Force in the Universe, let’s experience Love through our thoughts, words and actions. Let’s revere all the expressions of Life and realize that violence never makes any sense.
PS: The spirit of this post was inspired by the message of Peace that Lisis delivered in her post on her blog Quest for Balance.
Invitation to act:
I invite you to submit your comment below expressing if you agree on the application of violence against yourself as a resource to fight for a cause.
Would you harm yourself for a noble cause?
There is a great cause that would validate the use of violence upon an innocent?
Feel free to share this information with others…
Tags: Originality