Pictures and links about things I like, whether it's material, intellectual, entrepreneurial, or great books, art, organizations, and ideas. Just for fun.
Link reblogged from LOVE MORE, FEAR LESS with 12 notes
LOVE MORE, FEAR LESS: BE YOUR OWN GURU: →
BE YOUR OWN GURU:
Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
I spent the better part of the first 40-years of my life looking for a guru, that person who would just blow me away with her or his prescience, kindness, compassion, vision and guidance. The one who would give me the answers. Who would tell me what to do to get to that place where I finally felt like I had “made it.”
So many others I knew had found one and their lives seemed so much better, more directed and purposeful for it, but that never happened to me. I would attend lectures, teachings, seminars, trainings and retreats and, inevitably, end up leaving early because some combination of information, integrity, pace or delivery did not resonate. Why couldn’t I find that person?
It finally dawned upon me…
The person I was looking for was the one I would need to become.
That’s not to say I don’t seek out teachers and desire to learn. Others can offer guidance and insight. Classical texts like the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, the Talmud, the Koran, The Tao De Ching and the occasional Bazooka Joe comic lend intelligence, humility and humor to the process of discovery. I am and will always be an eternal student.
But, I’m not driven by the quest to find and place upon a pedestal any single teacher who will make everything okay, show me the light or bless my decisions and actions and diminish uncertainty.
Because, in the end, no one else can stand in my shoes.
No one else can live my fears, dreams, love, relationships, desires, intellect, challenges, life and lifestyle.
No one else can enjoy or suffer the outcome of my decisions or actions.
No one else is better equipped to know me.
No one else can act but me.
Upon these realizations, I began to accept responsibility not only for my life to-date, but for the process of making it come alive from that point forward. Not for anyone else. For me. And, increasingly, for those I serve.
I continued to listen to conventional wisdom, but, realizing most who followed it ended up not more, but less fulfilled, I committed to forming my decisions another way. I adopted a standard that guides nearly every major business decision I make.
Will this career choice allow me to spend the greatest amount of time absorbed in activities and relationships that make me come alive, while surrounding myself with people I cannot get enough of and earning what I need to live well in the world?
And, I also realized much of what makes not only me, but most people come alive comes from a place of service and impact.
When I started making decisions from this place, the world seemed to increasingly become my partner in the career adventure of a lifetime.
Does that mean everything started to come easily? No.
In case you haven’t gathered, creating your life and livelihood to deliver maximum passion and prosperity is a gargantuan challenge.
But, it’s not about whether it’s hard or easy…it’s about whether it’s WORTH the effort.
And, the answer is a definitive yes. Especially since recent advances in technology have made possible options and opportunities that simply did not exist even a few short years ago. Launching and scaling a meaningful professional path while minimizing risk has become so much easier.
I can’t tell you where or how it’s going to end.
Frankly, taking full responsibility for the state of my life and happiness still scares the hell out of me on a pretty regular basis. Such is the nature of working the edge of convention and owning up to the inevitability of uncertainty.
But, it scares me far less than it would to turn my future over to someone else and simply hope for the best.
I have increasingly better-defined goals, core-qualities that are important to build around and experiences I want to bring to my and my family’s lives. But I have also discovered the wonder that presents itself, seemingly spontaneously, when you consistently act in alignment with your authentic Self, then open to relationships and opportunities you never saw coming.
I cannot conduct the balance of my life in a vacuum of inevitable regret.
I cannot imagine the sorrow of leaving this Earth one day filled with visions of a life I dreamed of living, but never had the will to try.
And, I cannot rest with the notion that, in my actions, I might have taught my daughter to do the same.
Like Helen Keller said,
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
So. What are you waiting for?
Ball’s in your court…
- Jonathan Fields
These are incredible, incredible tips, and something to always remember in those stressful moments.
(via Extreme Love)
10 GOOD REMINDERS FOR STRESSFUL TIMES:
1) Happiness is never constant, and it’s not supposed to be.
You have to fight through some bad days to earn the best days of your life. To believe that you can reach a state of happiness and stay there forever, is like the tide believing she can reach for the shoreline and remain there forever; or like a fruit tree believing that if she only holds on tighter, she can keep her fruit from dropping to the ground. Happiness is simply a series of moments that come and go and add sweetness to our lives. Learn to accept this, and the more happy moments you will have.
2) Failures are temporary situations that teach us necessary lessons.
Life’s best lessons are usually learned at the worst times and from the worst mistakes. So yes, you will fail sometimes. The faster you accept this, the faster you can get on with being brilliant. You’ll never be 100% sure it will work, but you can always be 100% sure doing nothing won’t work. Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing. So get out there and try! Either you succeed or you learn a vital lesson. Win – Win.
3) Even if you can’t see it now, you are making progress.
You may not be where you want to be yet, but if you think about it, you’re no longer where you once were either. You have good reason to believe that you can trust yourself going forward. Not because you’ve always made the right choices, but because you survived the bad ones, and taken small steps in the right direction. So cry for a moment if you have to, and get it out of your system. Crying doesn’t indicate that you’re weak; since birth, it has always been a sign that you’re alive and full of potential. Once you’re done, keep going! You’re undoubtedly getting closer to where you want to be.
4) How you feel when you’re stressed is not a true measure of reality.
Just because you’re afraid, doesn’t mean you’re in danger. Just because you feel alone, doesn’t mean nobody loves you. Just because you think you might fail, doesn’t mean you will. Look beyond your doubts and keep searching for the truth. Be aware of your mental self-talk. We all talk silently to ourselves in our heads, but we aren’t always conscious of what we’re saying or how it’s affecting us. The way to overcome negative thoughts and destructive emotions is to develop opposing, positive emotions that are stronger and more powerful. Listen to your self-talk and replace negative thoughts with positive ones. The sun is always shining on some part of your life. Sometimes you just have to forget how you feel, remember what you deserve, and keep pushing forward.
5) You cannot change what you refuse to confront.
You can learn great things from your failures and mistakes when you aren’t busy denying them. If you’ve been asking the same questions for months or even years, yet are still stuck, it’s probably not that you haven’t been given the answers, but that you don’t like the answers you were given. It takes a lot of courage to admit that something needs to change, and a lot more courage still, to accept the responsibility for actually changing it. The most important step forward is taking the first step. The simple act of getting started and doing something will give you the momentum you need, and soon you’ll find yourself in a positive spiral of positive changes – one building on the other.
6) You are not what happened to you in the past.
No matter how chaotic the past has been, the future is a clean, fresh, wide open slate. You are not your past habits. You are not your past failures. You are not how others have at one time treated you. You are only who you think you are right now in this moment. You are only what you do right now in this moment.
7) Not getting what you want can be a blessing.
Not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of good luck, because it forces you reevaluate things, opening new doors to opportunities and information you would have otherwise overlooked. Remember, some things in life fall apart so that better things can fall together.
8) Being a ‘work in progress’ is a great state to be in.
Stop berating yourself for being a work in progress. Start embracing it! Because being a work in progress doesn’t mean you’re not good enough today; it means you want a better tomorrow, and you wish to love yourself completely, so you can live your life fully. It means you’re determined to heal your heart, expand your mind and cultivate the gifts you know you’re meant to share. May we all be works in progress forever, and celebrate the fact that we are!
9) Nobody else can do it for you.
Keep doing what you know in your heart is right for you. Let your dreams be bigger than your fears and your actions louder than your words. Live by choice, not by chance. Make changes, not excuses. Be motivated, not manipulated. Work to excel, not compete. Choose to listen to your inner voice, not the jumbled opinions of everyone else. It’s your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.
10) Life is not easy, but it’s worth it.
If you expect it to be, you will perpetually disappoint yourself. Achieving anything worthwhile in life takes effort. So start every morning ready to run farther than you did yesterday and fight harder than you ever have before. Above all, make sure you properly align your efforts with your goals. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it in the end.
Guide to Careers in International Affairs.
The be-all end-all guide to the best job posting databases for jobs in international affairs.
Thanks to fellow PCV Marcia for this great resource!
Photoset reblogged from The Next Best Thing to a Time Machine with 6 notes
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passions may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
I have never been so affected by a film. One of the most incredible movies I’ve ever seen.
Click to zoom in.
A great compliment to this tool is this article: I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years.
Improve your resume, advance your career, expand your knowledge, and gain confidence by successfully completing one of our challenging university courses
A Portrait In Time
I’m writing this on here because… well… this doesn’t have anything to do with this particular blog, but I can’t seem to find anywhere else in my life where it fits.
I am overwhelmed with so many things: incredible, joyous, challenging, frightening, frustrating, and a rainbow of emotions that capture me all at once, all the time. I feel like an utter mess in every sense of the form.
Physically- There’s a pile of dishes that need washing and a pile of laundry that needs doing. Floors need to be swept and mopped, doors need to be duct taped down so the bugs don’t get in, fridge needs to be cleaned, shelves need to be re-arranged and given a once-over with a good sponge. I’m out of honey, flour, and eggs, which seem to be key things in my usual diet, but I have no money- that would require going to the bank. Projects I’ve been meaning to finish for months lay around like loose ends- leggings that need to be mended, necklaces that need to be polished, artwork on three of my walls that I haven’t finished and have no plan to do in the immediate future.
Mentally- I’m all over the place. My thoughts jump around to what will I possibly to after the Peace Corps, to what my life will be like in 10 years, to sudden urgent reminders of things I need to do tomorrow. I have two projects with organizations outside of the Peace Corps I’m working on, as well as a heavy project in the Peace Corps right now that I keep pushing off to the next day since it requires so much mental effort and clarity. Rulers and markers and papers are strewn all about; piles of work lay untouched on my book shelf. I haven’t cracked open a GMAT book in weeks. My sleep patterns are completely erratic: in the last two days I’ve gotten 10 hours of sleep out of the recommend 16, yet I know I won’t be able to fall asleep until 2 AM tonight, only to wake up at 10 AM tomorrow and feel guilty for letting my community down by not being Paraguayan, since everyone else gets up at 6 AM. My desktop on my computer is so full of screenshots, papers, or documents that it covers the entire screen.
I do little projects around the house to give myself the illusion that this mountain is becoming less. I carry dishes outside to my sink, or put away two pairs of pants lying on the floor. I suddenly remember that I haven’t updated my blog in two weeks and spend an hour writing whatever’s on the top of my mind, only to not post it. I call my sister who I haven’t spoken to in a month and have an hour long conversation with her. I realize I haven’t eaten anything since lunch, it’s 9 PM, and that any nutritious food would take me 1+ hour to make- so I resort to cooking a cheese grits package my Mom sent me for my birthday, and eat it for dinner at 10 PM. I paint chalkboard paint on my spice jars. Procrastinating by actually doing things I would do if I had the time, which I don’t.
I’m driven by so much passion, excitement, curiosity, desire to DO everything, yet have it all neatly done. I’m wildly exhausted by a combination of happiness and frustration, with small doses of joy and despair. My life feels like it’s spinning out of control in the right way, the wrong way. I strategize ways to make the mountain of things-to-be-done disappear- but what if I do accomplish all of these things?
Well, then I’ll be downright bored.
The day in the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer.
How To Join the Peace Corps →
This article has so many great points about joining the Peace Corps and becoming a Volunteer, all that I agree with.
13 Simple Steps To Get You Through A Rough Day.
Hilarious. My new automatic go-to when I’m feeling down.
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