Curious about Being Joyous and Pursuing a Life Filled with Joy

Definitions: Joyous - Glad; gay; merry; joyful; also, affording or inspiring joy; with of before the word or words expressing the cause of joy.

Joy - The passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good; pleasurable feelings or emotions caused by success, good fortune, and the like, or by a rational prospect of possessing what we love or desire; gladness; exhilaration of spirits; delight.

I belong to a group of delightful, bright and action oriented woman. We shared a conference call this past week to discuss our goals, intentions and aspirations – especially for 2008. One in the group declared that her main focus for this year would be “joy.” She feels that she hasn’t been experiencing enough.

Yes, as a free agent, I know that I can get spread out and overwhelmed with all my businesses and tasks. And, that is when it is easy to lose sight of joy and my joyous existence. The following two quotations, however, sum up how I feel about the productive work my days involve:

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt, American President

“Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic well-being than any other single factor.” - Paul Hawken, American environmentalist

Then, there are many other uplifting quotations that brought more joy into my life:

• “To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.” - Pearl S. Buck, American novelist
• “If we wish our nature to be free and joyous, we should bring our activities into same order.” - Vinoba Bhave, Indian educator
• “A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness, there can be no true joy.” - Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher
• “Success soon palls. The joyous time is when the breeze first strikes your sails, and the waters rustle under your bows.” - Charles Buxton, English public servant
• “The best way of removing negativity is to laugh and be joyous.” - David Icke, English athlete

A few more:

• “Joy is not in things; it is in us.” - Richard Wagner, German composer
• “Dance is so joyous.” - Graeme Murphy, Australian dancer
• “All who joy would win must share it. Happiness was born a Twin.” - Lord Byron, British poet
• “The closing of a door can bring blessed privacy and comfort - the opening, terror. Conversely, the closing of a door can be a sad and final thing - the opening a wonderfully joyous moment.” - Andy Rooney, American journalist
• “There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.” - Henry Ford, American businessman

How joyous are you? What would fill your life with even more joy than you have now? I will leave you with the following quotation to ponder:

“The joy that isn't shared dies young.” - Anne Sexton, American poet

Curious about Attitude: Does It Define Us and Our Lives and Careers? You Bet It Does!

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” - Zig Ziglar, American author

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” - Thomas Jefferson, American President

Having a good attitude – and even Zig Ziglar’s quotation – has almost become a cliché. Every book on success, selling and/or self improvement starts with attention to attitude. When I was considering my theme for today, I suddenly realized that I hadn’t written about the all important and life defining attitude.

Of course, when I started searching the quotations for “Attitude” the number was almost overwhelming. My own attitude toward writing my weekly blog is that it is to not only provides thoughts and inspiration for you, my reader, but also makes me think and gives me motivation for the week.

Yes, I have always considered attitude to be everything in every situation. This serves me well. I enjoy every career I pursue. I love working and learning on the computer. My twelve fitness classes a week are a joy. With the Internet, I get the opportunity to write for a huge number of readers.

I whole heartedly agree with Denis Waitley who writes, “The winner's edge is not in a gifted birth, a high IQ, or in talent. The winner's edge is all in the attitude, not aptitude. Attitude is the criterion for success.”

Here are some of the other great quotations from the experts:

• “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” - Oprah Winfrey, American entertainer
• “Happiness doesn't depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude.” - Dale Carnegie, American writer
• “If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.” - Charles Revson, Canadian businessman
• “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” - Winston Churchill, English statesman
• “It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come.” - Dalai Lama, Indian leader
• “My attitude towards drawing is not necessarily about drawing. It's about making the best kind of image I can make, it's about talking as clearly as I can.” - Jim Dine, American artist
• “A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change.” - Earl Nightingale, American entertainer
• “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.” - Albert Einstein, German physicist

There are so many other excellent quotations, I am just going to share three more of my favorites:

“Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different.” - Katherine Mansfield, New Zealander author

“Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.” - Allen Klein, American businessman

“Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.” - Og Mandino, American author

Have a wonderful week. Let me know how you feel about “Attitude.”

Curious about the Subconscious: Does It Have Power and Control? How Much?

“Whatever you determine to be true in the subconscious becomes true for you.” – Richard Hatch, American actor

“The conscious mind may be compared to a fountain playing in the sun and falling back into the great subterranean pool of subconscious from which it rises.” - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychologist

I chose The Subconscious for this blog’s theme, because I finished reading the fun and thought provoking book I wrote about last week. The Ant and the Elephant – Leadership for the Self by Vince Poscente, reinforced what I have been told about the subconscious. In this well written parable (you know how much I love stories), the ant, Adir, represents our conscious mind and the elephant, Elgo, represents our subconscious. The third character and mentor is the wise owl, Brio.

As Poscente wrote in the Afterword, “Conventional wisdom says we control our own destinies. Yet, this wisdom stops at appreciating that the mind is more than just a conscious tool. … In this story, Adir the ant is a metaphor for your conscious mind. The elephant represents the subconscious. Until the ant can learn to lead and guide his subconscious, he will not be able to attain his goal. I have yet to meet a person who does not ad it to having at least a little disconnection between ‘his ant and his elephant.’”

So, how do we connect, lead and guide our subconscious? I found many quotations that suggest the power of repetition:

• “Any thought that is passed on to the subconscious often enough and convincingly enough is finally accepted.” - Robert Collier, American publisher
• “Only one thing registers on the subconscious mind: repetitive application - practice. What you practice is what you manifest.” – Fay Weldon, English novelist
• “You affect your subconscious mind by verbal repetition.” - W. Clement Stone, American businessman
• “Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.” - Earl Nightingale, American entertainer
• “We cannot always control our thoughts, but we can control our words, and repetition impresses the subconscious, and we are then master of the situation.” - Jane Fonda, American actress
• “You will be a failure, until you impress the subconscious with the conviction you are a success. This is done by making an affirmation which ‘clicks.’" - Florence Scovel Shinn, American artist

A few thoughts with a bit of a different slant:

• “I can't help believing that these things that come from the subconscious mind have a sort of truth to them. It may not be a scientific truth, but it's psychological truth.” - Brian Aldiss, English writer
• “One of the unfortunate things about our education system is that we do not teach students how to avail themselves of their subconscious capabilities.” - Bill Lear, American inventor
• “The main factor in any form of creativeness is the life of a human spirit, that of the actor and his part, their joint feelings and subconscious creation.” - Konstantin Stanislavisky, Russian actor
• “Traditions are the guideposts driven deep in our subconscious minds. The most powerful ones are those we can't even describe, aren't even aware of.” - Ellen Goodman, American journalist
• “In Buddhism there are words you can say... as you say the words with rhythm the conscious tells the subconscious.” - Tina Turner, American musician
• “That is the strange thing; I don't know if you want to call it the subconscious, but things that I don't seem to notice are getting stored away.” - Ann Beattie, American writer

And, as I close for now, think on these:

“I dream a lot. I do more painting when I'm not painting. It's in the subconscious.” - Andrew Wyeth, American artist

“As soon as I became old enough to make my dreams my reality, I became a firm believer that the subconscious and the world outside of our flesh and blood is essentially the truth.” - Melissa Auf der Maur, Canadian musician

How do you couple your dreams and goals with your subconscious? I would love to hear your comments.

Curious about Destiny: Do We Shape and Control Ours? If So, How?

Definition of Destiny : (1)That to which any person or thing is destined; predetermined state; condition foreordained by the Divine or by human will; fate; lot; doom. (2)The fixed order of things; invincible necessity; fate; a resistless power or agency conceived of as determining the future, whether in general or of an individual.

I chose “Destiny” for this blog’s theme, because I am reading a fun and thought provoking book. The Ant and the Elephant – Leadership for the Self by Vince Poscente, spurred me to consider destiny. In this well written parable (you know how much I love stories), the ant, Adir, represents our conscious mind and the elephant, Elgo, represents our subconscious. The third character and mentor is the wise owl, Brio.

Brio questions Adir about what makes him feel “alive.” Adir realizes that “We don’t know what we don’t know.”

“He was frequently afraid of failure, and because of that, he hesitated to lead with confidence. This new information amazed Adir. Throughout his life he had wanted to change his destiny but had never known how. He was beginning to realize Brio was right – he needed to be a leader to himself before he could lead others.”

So, I ask again. Can we control and change our destiny? Many of the experts (my mentors) that I checked into believe so:

• “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” - William Shakespeare, English dramatist
• “Control your own destiny or someone else will.” - Jack Welch, American businessman
• “You control your future, your destiny. What you think about comes about. By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands - your own.” - Mark Victor Hansen, American businessman
• “It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” - Tony Robbins, American author
• “Character is destiny.” – Heraclitus, Greek philosopher
• “As long as we are persistent in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens in its own time.” - Denis Waitley, American writer

And few more with a bit of a different twist:

• “Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.” - Carl Schurz, German revolutionary
• “Everything happens for a reason. I'm used to it, I prepare for it. Like I say, at the end of the day, those in charge of their own destiny are going to do what's right for them and their family.” - Shaquille O'Neal, American athlete
• “Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.” - John F. Kennedy, American President
• “My goal was, and still is, to write first, direct my own stuff whenever possible and control my own creative destiny.” - Jeff Probst, American entertainer
• “The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.” - James Allen, American author
• “I think that you have to believe in your destiny; that you will succeed, you will meet a lot of rejection and it is not always a straight path, there will be detours - so enjoy the view.” – Michael York, British actor

Two more to work on this coming week :

“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for: it is a thing to be achieved.” - William Jennings Bryant, American politician

“I believe that you control your destiny, that you can be what you want to be. You can also stop and say, No, I won't do it, I won't behave his way anymore. I'm lonely and I need people around me, maybe I have to change my methods of behaving and then you do it.” - Leo Buscaglia, American author

What is your destiny for 2008? As Adir, the ant, works on what his core destiny is and why, I am “going for it.” Are you?