A man's mind stretched by a new idea can never go back to its original dimensions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Raise your hands if you are experiencing some “dealings” in your life presently! I see that hand! Welcome to personal development 101. I have had my fair share of dealings in life and they seem to have stepped up of late. In fact, if medals were issued for shoveling from beneath what’s been dumped on oneself, I reckon I would get gold! Seriously, there is some poetic justice that seems to brighten up our day, as we hear of another’s misfortune.
The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it. John Ruskin
I love the Monty Python sketch “four Yorkshire lads” talk about “The good old days,” whilst reminiscing upon the pain and injustice they had experienced. “Aye” says Michael Palin “sheer luxury.”
When it comes right down to it, all you have is your self. Your Self is a sun with a thousand rays...
Pablo Picasso
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. John Heider
Talent (we are told), will open the door of opportunity to us, but character will keep us there. Each week, we watch talented sports people play out their talents for ridiculously obscene amounts of money, yet under the pressure of daily life, their true character is revealed. Pick up any morning paper and compare the escapades of celebrities and the privileged few, revealing what goes on outside of the spotlight. You and I may never have the gaze of public adornment to contend with but never the less our character is on full view during times of hardship, privilege and pressure. A friend of mine Robert Ferguson has a saying “If you want to know what’s in a man’s heart, drop a brick on his foot”. Discomfort has a way of exposing our frailties, which is why the hard times present us with an opportunity to grow from the inside out. What goes on externally effects what is developed within us?
Illness
Unemployment
Relational breakdown
Bereavement
Finances
Gossip
Misunderstanding
Neighbours
Accidents and many more will all eventually reveal what is truly within our character.
I'm convinced that we can write and live our own scripts more than most people will acknowledge. I also know the price that must be paid. It's a real struggle to do it. It requires visualization and affirmation. It involves living a life of integrity, starting with making and keeping promises, until the whole human personality the senses, the thinking, the feeling, and the intuition are ultimately integrated and harmonized.
Stephen Covey
My mum always had a saying, “I used to complain I had no shoes, until I saw a man with no feet.” Monty Python said, “We were poor but we were happy, aye we were happy because we were poor”.
So how is life and living treating you?
One of the marks of excellent people is that they never compare themselves with others. They only compare themselves with themselves and with their past accomplishments and future potential. Brian Tracy
Whatever life has had in store for you of late, it’s all about the development within that reveals how much we are truly growing. So take a deep breath, pick up the shovel and Hi Ho Hi Ho, It’s off to work we go, with a knife and fork and a belly full of pork, Hi Ho, Hi Ho!
