When it comes to creative inspiration, I am very comfortable letting it come to me. I never try to force it. If my head is foggy or I am in not in a good state to receive inspiration, what do I do? I take a break, take a nap, or take a walk. If I’m not feeling it, I don’t worry about it. These blog posts are a good case in point. It is 10:36am right now as I first start typing these notes out. This is pretty early in…
Day 236: Attitude Trumps All
Recent events remind me of the supreme importance of mental attitude. Attitude trumps all. So what is attitude, really? It’s a set of thoughts (and the accompanying emotions) about a certain person, thing, or situation. We usually think of attitude in emotional terms, as in a mood, yet there’s always an explanation (a why) that goes with it: Our mental attitude affects everything it focuses on. Norman Vincent Peale’s famous self-help classic “The Power of Positive Thinking” was basically all about mental attitude. Recently I got reminded of the importance…
Day 235: Magnificent Ongoing Growth
The Law of Attraction states that we attract the people, things, and experiences through our thought vibration. Many people (most people?) have probably encountered the Law of Attraction in movies like “The Secret,” books like “Think and Grow Rich,” and teachers such as Wayne Dyer and Abraham-Hicks. However, exposure to an idea and mastery of its principles are two very different things. I should know. I have been studying this LOA stuff (short for “Law of Attraction”) a long minute now, and sometimes I still feel like I’m working out…
Day 234: Reward’s Evil Twin Brother
So here we are in late March 2023. After a rough 2022 for the stock market, market shakiness continues, despite an upswing to start out the year. The ever-present volatility continues to be a slog. Even though I really do appreciate buying shares on discount, I feel like I have had a scratch that has remained un-itched for over a year. This feels kind of stupid as I write it, and yet, being a student of behavioral economics, I know how my brain works: I want to see gains! Sure,…
Day 233: Doing It For the Right Reasons
I have learned over and over again, usually the hard way, why it is important to do things for the right reasons. Many times in the past I made choices for what seemed like good, sound reasons, and yet the experience sucked. Thinking it through afterward, my reasoning for those choices was always screwy. Garbage in, garbage out. If you do something for sucky reasons, expect the experience to suck! Tonight I was thinking about signing up for a half marathon that is coming up later in the year. It…
Day 232: The Wonderful World of Humanity
One of the benefits of years of personal work is that I seem to be lightening up. Bit by bit, as I soothe myself with a self-accepting attitude, I’m learning not to take everything so darn seriously. It also translates into a sense of ease, power, and freedom 🙂 Recently I’m noticing this in relationship to interacting with groups. Although I have had many great experiences in groups, there were times in the past where I lost sight of my own needs and desires.* In fact, I was completely clueless…
Day 231: Fostering a Lightness of Being
Being alive, being human, can be such a strange, fluctuating experience. Like a radio antenna that sometimes gets a clear signal, sometimes doesn’t seem to be getting anything, my signal fluctuates. Sometimes, I admit it, it sucks… at least initially. I do not like feeling disconnected! At those times, I soothe myself as best I can. I am getting better at this. As a result, I am quicker to pinpoint the problem, change the subject, or distract myself to get into a better place. Or I take a nap. It…
Day 230: Sharing Something Real
We are at Day 230. That means a mere 135 more days of this blogging project 🙂 This time through the 365 days, once again it’s been pretty easy to maintain my daily posting. Sometimes I really enjoy myself! For example, I loved doing yesterday’s post. I felt energized afterward. There are posts I’m not as excited about, but at the very least, I always feel satisfied a) to get the post done, and b) that I’m sharing something positive. The positivity part is key: when I put my mind…
Day 229: Compounding, You Either Get It Or You Don’t
The magic of compounding is truly a remarkable thing. It is the idea that money invested can generate more and more money that eventually can snowball into impressive amounts (side note: here’s my thought experiment where a penny doubled every day becomes over $21 million in only a month!) Compounding has massive implications for our ability to accumulate wealth. Unfortunately, it seems that most people do not understand this principle, or do not believe it will work for them. I am very appreciative that I “got the bug” awhile ago.…
Day 228: Inner Guidance Never Gets it Wrong
Recently I have been thinking about how easy it is for us to get hooked on actions and routines in our lives, especially when those actions bring pleasure and satisfaction. I personally have experienced being attached to behaviors that brought me joy in the past but no longer do. My mind overrode my actual experience. Instead of paying attention, I let the “tail” of habit “wag the dog” of my behavior. This happened with marathoning. I needed a break, but I was attached to the idea of training. This attachment…