Good day!
Welcome to the first Tuesday of the year!  We're very glad that you're
here with us this year, and we hope that you're able to make this day--
and the coming year--one of your best ever.  Take good care!

As You Believe, So It Is for You
Chris Prentiss

Nothing Comes Easy
tom walsh

The Key to Making Life Unique and Worthwhile      Jim Rohn

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No matter what accomplishments you achieve, somebody helps you.

Althea Gibson

We don't know who we are until
we see what we can do.

Martha Grimes

The true person sees what the eye sees, and does
not add to it something that is not there.  This
person hears what the ears hear, and does not
detect imaginary undertones or overtones.  He or
she is not busy with hidden meanings.
--Chuang Tzu

Acting on the basis of what you believe is what brings about the conditions of your life and the degrees of happiness you have experienced.  In the breakthrough 2004 film What the Bleep Do We Know!?, physicist and author Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D., observes:  "There is no 'Out There' out there, independent of what goes on in our minds."  Take the story of Max.  Max owned a thriving sandwich shop.  There were almost always people waiting in line to eat at his little shop.  He gave away free pickles, free potato chips, sometimes a free soft drink, and his sandwiches were famous for being overstuffed.

One day his son, who lived in a distant city, came to visit.  They had a good visit, but as the son was leaving, he told his father, "Since I've been here, I've been observing how you run the sandwich shop, and I have to tell you for your own good that you're making a big mistake giving away all those extras.  The country's economy is in bad shape.  People are out of work, and they have less money to spend.  If you don't cut back on the free items and on your portion sizes, you'll be in a bad way before long, too."  His father was amazed, thanked his son, and told him he would consider his advice.

The poor economy that the man's son saw all around him was real.  Despite the poor economy, though, the father had been running a successful sandwich shop.  He didn't realize that times were hard, that many people were out of work, and that money was scarce.  He was treating everyone with great generosity and he was reaping the rewards that such actions always bring:  a positive, generous outpouring of good things.  But after his son told him about the "bad shape" the country was in, he began to act as if it were so, bringing about the only possible result--a negative, fearful, ungenerous experience of life, an experience that he believed was "out there."  Was it "out there"?

The answers are never "out there."  All the answers are "in there," inside you, waiting to be discovered.

Here's a personal example of how the power of a belief can influence our behavior and the events of our lives.  When I was young I received many speeding tickets, and that behavior carried over into my adult life.  I live in California, and one day in 1968 I received a notice from the California Department of Motor Vehicles saying that if I received one more ticket, my license would be suspended for a year.  The state suggested that I go to a local DMV office and meet with one of their psychologists.  At the meeting, the psychologist commented on the many speeding tickets I had received.

"Everyone gets speeding tickets," I replied defensively.

"That's not true," he informed me.  "The average person in California gets only one ticket every four years."

I was amazed.  I thought that everyone was like me and got speeding tickets all the time.  After that meeting, I stopped getting speeding tickets.  I'd had a destructive mindset, and as I believed, so it was for me.  As you believe, so it is for you.

You are like a railroad switch.  Each time an event occurs, you channel the activity onto the positive or the negative track.  Even though the event hurt you or took something away from you, you are still in charge of channeling it onto a positive or a negative track.  You determine its future outcome.

Have you ever had anything happen to you that seemed really bad at the time but later turned out to be beneficial--experiences where days, weeks, or even years later, you said, "That was the best thing that could have happened to me!"  Everyone I've ever posed that question to has been able to remember several events like that.

It's time to look at all events in the light of that information.  Learn to see that perfect truth now, in every situation.  Condition yourself to see it at the moment each event occurs, and happiness will become your constant companion.  You will save countless hours, days, and weeks of useless lamenting over situations that will always turn out to be for your benefit.
    

Nothing Comes Easy

It's kind of funny to keep watching people who want things to come easy to them in life.  Many other people know of this tendency among human beings, so they keep selling them diet pills that let them eat whatever they want, job information that will make them rich with no effort, college "degrees" that require no study at all, and many other "easy" fixes to their problems, easy fulfillment of their desires.  But over and over again these people who want the easy ways out are disappointed, for what they hoped and expected would help them simply has left them still with their problems and now with a little less money in their pockets and wallets.

I'm coaching a high school girls' basketball team right now, one that not only has a brand-new coach (me), but that also lost most of their players from last year.  We've adopted the slogan "Nothing Comes Easy" for this year, mainly because we all knew that we would have a long and difficult road ahead of us--that is, if we wanted to accomplish anything significant.  We definitely could have taken the easy road and doomed ourselves to a winless season, or we could have worked very hard to try to become more than anyone expected.  And while we haven't come out as a Cinderella team that in the movies would win all of their games against much tougher teams, we have become a team that's extremely competitive, and that already has won more games than anyone expected us to.

That all comes from having a realistic perspective, I believe.  We know that we aren't a very experienced team, and that means that we have to work harder than the other teams, both on and off the court.  We have to work harder during games, and we have to work harder during practice.  And that's fine with us, because as long as we know that nothing is going to come easy to us, we're ready and willing to pay the price necessary to improve.

Saying that "nothing comes easy" isn't at all defeatist or cynical.  It's a fact that's been proved over and over in life, as major scientific breakthroughs come after years and years of research and hard work; financial stability comes after years of sacrifice and effort; great movies and albums are made with the most effort and practice and planning and preparation.  Colonel Sanders had to visit over 100 restaurants before he sold his recipe for fried chicken, and that came after years of perfecting that recipe.  Richard Bach received over 70 rejections for Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and that was after all the time and effort it took him to write the book.

History is full of examples of great successes and great results after a lot of effort and time.  There are, of course, the exceptions--those people who have found success almost immediately, with almost no work involved.  But they truly are the exceptions rather than the rule.  And that type of success rarely is lasting, either.

When we remind ourselves that nothing truly worthwhile comes easy, we can face our obstacles and problems with more equanimity, and we can be much more calm in the face of setbacks.  When we know that it's going to take time and work to reach a goal, we're much more likely to accept delays as necessary elements of the process, and we're much more likely to see obstacles as learning opportunities rather than back-breakers.  Keeping in mind that nothing comes easy, we can give our best effort because we know that it's that effort--as well as the time involved--that's going to craft a fine finished product.

Now the key to make life really unique and worthwhile is to share.  Sharing has a certain unique magic of its own.  Here's what I learned about sharing ideas:

If you share an idea with ten different people, they get to hear it once, and you get to hear it ten times.  So here's part of self-interest for yourself-- getting you even better prepared for the future.  Share ideas.  Share with your family, share with the people around you, share with other employees, share with your colleagues.

When one person shares with another, two things happen.  The audience could be transformed, and so could the speaker.  If you share with someone else, they could be transformed.  You may have dropped in at the right time.  This may be their moment.  They've got three numbers dialed into the lock already, and if you say it well and say it right you'll be the fourth number that they can dial into the lock of their personal experience and the door will come open and there's opportunity they never saw before.  The person who hears could be transformed.

But here's what else is exciting.  The person who speaks could be transformed.  Guess what we're all looking for--transformation for our new life.  The new life tomorrow, the new life this month, the new life next year, the new life this year.

The caterpillar one day says, "I think I was made for more than this crawling on the ground."  So the caterpillar climbs the tree, attaches himself to a leaf and spins the cocoon.  Who knows what disciplined effort it takes to spin a cocoon.  But something inside the caterpillar says, "I was designed for something more than being just a caterpillar."

And then when the cocoon is ready and it opens up, out comes a butterfly that flies away, maybe singing, "I believe I can fly!  I believe I can touch the sky!  I used to be a caterpillar on the ground, now I fly."

I'm asking you to go through such a metamorphosis.  I'm asking you often to go through a period where you say, "New skills, new things are waiting for me," and part of this will come if you'll translate for other people what you feel in your heart and in your soul.  As awkward as your language might be at first, don't hesitate to do it.

Here's what sharing does--it makes room for more.  Key question, if this glass is full of water can it hold any more?  If the glass is full of water, can it hold any more?  And the answer is yes, yes, if you pour some out.  So jot that down.  If you want more, you've got to pour out what you've got, then you have the opportunity to receive more.

Now, unlike the glass that remains the same size when you pour some out; not so in consciousness human beings.  Your capacity will increase the more you share.  You'll get bigger and bigger and bigger.

Now why the self-interest wish to be bigger?  Here's why:  to hold more of the next experience.  Some people can't hold much happiness because they're too small, their thinking is too small, their activity is too small, they're too small in their ability to share, they're just too small.  Can't hold much, they're too small.

But the bigger you get, the more you will receive.  When happiness is poured out, you'll get more.  When joy is poured out on the nation, you'll get more.  When bounty is poured out from the economy, you will get more, if you share what you've got and become bigger and bigger and bigger.

Now some people are not only small, they have their glass turned upside down.  It's hard to get anything in.  But if you come to every situation with an open mind, an open consciousness, ready to receive, I promise you will find the people that will share with you, and that will accept what you share with them.

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

Living Life Fully, the e-zine
exists to try to provide for visitors of the world wide web a place
of growth, peace, inspiration, and encouragement.  Our articles
are presented as thoughts of the authors--by no means do we
mean to present them as ways that anyone has to live life.  Take
from them what you will, and disagree with whatever you disagree
with--just know that they'll be here for you each week.

The late William Arthur Ward was one of my favorite writers. His insights and ability to put a philosophy of life into a few words were truly remarkable. Here is a sample from his book, "Reward Yourself":

A man phoned his physician and excitedly exclaimed: "Please come at once, Doctor. My son has swallowed my fountain pen."

The doctor replied, "I'll be right over. But what are your doing in the meanwhile?"

"Using a pencil," answered the father.

What we do "in the meanwhile" is of vital importance to our lives--and to the lives of others. What we do "in the meanwhile" can build our character or destroy it. It can make our fortune or mar it.

What we do "in the meanwhile"... presents a philosophy of life. Adopt it for your own, and you truly will reward yourself.

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If I had a formula for bypassing
trouble, I would not pass it round.
Trouble creates a capacity to handle
it.  I don't embrace trouble; that's
as bad as treating it as an enemy.
But I do say meet it as a friend, for
you'll see a lot of it and had better
be on speaking terms with it.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Listen to your beliefs, think about how you learned them, and realize that they are not genetic, nor are they the "only way."  You are free to acquire new perspectives, to absorb new ideas, and to question everything you were taught to believe.  As your mind opens to exploration and change, you'll feel a new lightness and more joy.

Charlotte Davis Kasl