The Optimist Creed
According to Joe Vitale, “The Optimist Creed” was first published in 1912 in a book by Christian D Larson – Your Forces and How To Use Them. Optimist International use this creed, in a shortened version today. I am moved to publish it here and hope that you will join up with the group of people, worldwide who are intent on making a positive difference in the world.
Promise Yourself:
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticise others.
To be too large to worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words but in great deeds.
To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.
Enjoy your optimism and share it with others.
10 Reasons Why I Love Blogging
I saw another blog that featured 10 reasons why I hate ….. and so I decided that I would rather write 10 reason why I love something and the something is my blog. I have been seriously blogging for nearly a year now and at times I have managed to write every day. At other times, like lately, I manage only once a week and occasionally less. But no matter how often I write my blog, I just love to do it and especially love the challenge of picking a topic that will appeal.
So here are my ten reasons why I love blogging:-
- It keeps me on my toes with what is currently of interest.
- It is an opportunity for me to explore my own issues around the subject matter that I choose.
- Researching the articles is great – I learn something every time. How does it get any better than that?
- My blog creates a link to others who offer comments and I find that very interesting.
- Having a blog has caused me to be a blog surfer and I have all but given up TV watching in favour of all of the amazing things that I find on blogs.
- I continue to have to learn about SEO and other interesting marketing strategies and that has only occurred because of my blog.
- It is really nice to be part of a worldwide community of bloggers.
- Old friends have found me and contacted me via my blog.
- Blogs are more fun than facebook.
- I get to keep polishing my writing skills in preparation for the book that I have in me.
So there you have it, ten reasons why I love blogging. What do you love so much that you can write ten reasons really easily? Go on, have a go, have some fun and a positive experience.
1 Million Women Taking Action On Climate Change
Sometimes I see something and think “what a great idea – I must follow up on that”, then move on and forget all about it until it re-surfaces in some way or another. Know what I mean? Done that too? Well lately, I have been surrounded by inspiration (blogged about some of it earlier this week), it is just everywhere!!! I can not get away from it and unlike other times in my life, the ones that really matter to me are staying on my mind. And 1 Million Women is one of those.
This example is the article that I read called “Join the Million” just before I went on holidays four weeks ago. Now I have to say that I did not forget this one; it touched a cord for me and got into my mind and heart. So here it is.
The Australian Women’s Weekly published this article in the January 2010 edition and invited 1 million women – daughters, mothers, sisters and grandmothers to inspire climate change action. The idea is to make small differences to the way that we live and to individually save 1 tonne of greenhouse gas each per year. The target is very straightforward – reduce carbon dioxide pollution, the main greenhouse gas causing global warming, by a minimum 1 tonne each per year.
The website, 1millionwomen.com.au provides you with all of the help that you need to work out how to save your CO2 and even calculates your savings!! So what are you waiting for? Are you up for the challenge? Sign up, learn more ways to cut CO2 and help make the world a better place. And I am sure that it is not necessary to be an Australian woman. How does it get any better than that?
Oh, and just for the record, I did not fail to take action on this one. I signed up and got started just this week and will report on my progress via this blog.
We Wish You Happiness Now And Always
This is the time of year when lots of people wonder how to send out widespread greetings to all without offending those who hold different religious or cultural traditions at the same time as being politically correct. Well guess what? I am not really bothered by that because I hold the view that we should all be warm, friendly, kind and giving all year round. Not just at Christmas time.
That means the giving of smiles, greetings and love to other’s regardless of race, culture or religious beliefs. So I wish you every happiness for whatever you are doing over the next few days, weeks, months and years. I send you warm greetings and love to nurture your mind, body and soul and I wish you prosperity in every way in the coming year.
Above all, I send out positive and loving thoughts to the thought pool of the world and universe and I trust that as the present custodians we will find a way to live in peace with each other and harmony with our environment.
Have fun over the coming holidays and stay well and safe.
Turn Your Worst Problem Into Your Best Opportunity
Many people have the aim in life to attract success like a magnet, however everyone has their share of problems that move into and out of life. What havoc or beauty they bring with them is really up to the individual. It is possible to choose your action or reaction to obstacles and adversity and determine how you will approach each situation. Take the negative view and see each as a problem, sometimes insurmountable, or the positive view that each is an opportunity that has a solution. It is all a matter of perspective.
First, try to understand how you normally react when you experience hardship. You must know whether you fall back and stay back and therefore see the situation as negative or whether you quickly recover, take a positive perspective and look immediately at solutions. The one thing that is definite is that overcoming hardship is a skill that you need to get through life. Positive or negative, you decide.
If you have taken note of how you react and know that you get up quickly and start looking at the situation as an opportunity and find solutions, then you are functioning from a positive perspective. Well done, stay on that path. You have probably also found how much easier it is to get around barriers when you are thinking about solutions and what it is that you want to happen.
If, however, you have identified that you fall away and stay away, reacting to adversity as if it is a problem then you hold yourself in a negative state and it is unlikely from this point that you are going to easily find ways to get on with what it is you want to do. No doubt you spend a lot of time thinking about what you don’t want, how hard life is and wishing that it could be a lot simpler. Well it can be and it is all up to you and how your choose to act.
Having identified that you see problems and not solutions or opportunities, take a little time now to start to work on changing that habit. First, make a pact with yourself to stop talking about problems and start talking about solutions. Language makes a big difference as does your silent mind chatter. If all that your mind hears is how impossible the situation is, then that is being reinforced continuously. If all that your mind hears is what you do not want, then that is what you will get. Remember, the powerful Law of Attraction says that you get what you focus on.
Additionally, the people around you will hear how hard it is and will reinforce that to you and to themselves and possibly even to your customers. Almost everyone these days is looking for what can be done, not what can not be done and quite frankly, if they are paying, then that is reasonable. So stop with the talk about problems and start with the talk about solutions.
Then, sit for a moment and write down a list of all of your problems. Alongside that, list all of the possible solutions, even if they seem a little crazy. Go over those solutions and see what you need to have at your disposal to make it work. Ask your self a few questions such as – can I get those things? What do I need to know to do this? How can I get that knowledge? Who do I know who has it?
Right now you are in solutions mode and doesn’t it feel great?
When you are swamped by a problem, seeing only the negative, you can bet it feels pretty bad. As soon as you move to solutions, you mood will lift, your brain will fire off ideas and you will start to get motivated. Great, stay with that.
Last, and most important, take action. It is not enough to see a way around a problem or to see any event as an opportunity. The next and sometimes most difficult is to get active. Go and get those things that you need to make something start to happen, persist, do not give up, every day decide what you will do towards your solutions and just keep on it.
Stay with the basics – decide what you are going to do, take action every day, persist and keep an eye out for when you have succeeded. Celebrate that moment.
