Enlightened Engagement

What is perfection. Certainly what is perfect for me would not be perfect for you or would it? Perfection is a judgment, feeling, opinion, or idea. We want things to be perfect that can't possibly be that way unless we change our perspective and say that it is. So perfection is our ability to take something that is not perfect and say that it is. Many times in my life things have happened to me that were wonderful, but  I recollected the event as not perfect, because there were always aspects of the event that didn't go as I had planned. Well, that is the way most everyone views their lives and events that happen to them. Perfection is a judgment that will never be or can always be. It is a state of mind that flows continually as we experience our day. My bike ride where I had to brake suddenly because a car almost got in my way, when I barely averted an accident because of a big rock in the street, and when my wheel slipped into a groove and I almost tipped over going 18 MP

Goal Seeking Organisms All living organisms are goal seeking. Most, including us humans, seek survival, reproduction, and quality of life as our goals. Humans are intellectually evolved enough to seek more than just the basic needs as goals. We seek more. We seek to know everything we can. We seek to understand the unknown. We seek to attain power and wealth way beyond our need for survival. We seek to question the unanswerable. We seek to find a deep understanding of all that is. We seek a lot of things. As we travel through our time on Earth we gain lots of knowledge, experience many experiences, and add value to the world in which we live. This is what I believe we are all destined for. Our god, our eternal consciousness, our I am, our Yahweh, or our karma wants us to aspire to add value to this world. This can be done in a myriad of ways. As a matter of fact we add value in as many different ways as there are humans on the Earth. Adding value to our ecosystem, religious communit

Life is Hard There are myriad of things that can challenge you, obstruct your progress, or keep you from accomplishing your goals. That is because life is hard. No animal running through the forest, no insect flying through the sky, or any human would tell you that life was easy. We are constantly battling illness, running for our life, and are stressed as we face all the roadblocks life puts in our way. Even though this is true every human also has the capacity to make every dream come true. We are all built with the mechanisms that give us the ability to live long and prosper. Animals run as fast as they can to keep from being eaten and that is the least we can do. Well, since we are on the top of the food chain no other creature eats us so we can rest assured that won't happen. However, we are challenged with a plethora of other worries. Will we have enough money for our bills, will I ever get over that illness, or how do I make my friend understand their mistake. How do I ge

Happiness is a Choice In our careers, and mine is education, you can choose a lot of different things in the way you approach your job. You can choose the career path you follow, you can choose the type of education you want, and you can choose the way you react to environmental circumstances. There are a myriad of other choices we have each day. One of those choices is how you react to the things that happen to you as you go through your daily routine. I became frustrated one morning because I was having problems with my computer and how it was navigating the program I installed. I didn't understand how it was working and it was not working the way that I thought it should. I became frustrated and got angry at it. It was not doing anything it wasn't supposed to be doing, however, it wasn't doing what I perceived it should be doing. I let the environment choose my happiness. You don't have to do that. A friend of mine was complaining about how he could not trust the

Give Thanks Many of us say a prayer before our meal in thanks. Most of us give thanks at Thanksgiving. (Of course) All of us (I hope) are thankful to be alive. We give thanks for many different things and situations as they transpire in our sphere of reality. When someone is rescued from certain peril we breath a sigh of relief and give thanks. If your child gets an unexpected praise we give thanks. Life is full of opportunities to say, "Thank You," for all we have. One of the truths in life is that the more you give thanks the happier you are. How is this you might ask? The fact of the matter is that the more you give thanks for what you have the less you dwell on the things you lack. We (as humans and I am a human so I have the same condition as everyone else) tend to focus on what we don't have. I need a bigger house. I want a more loving relationship. I want to have 6 pack abs. I wish I was as spiritual as Jesus in my daily life. Humans often look at the lack in th

You Can Choose Happiness Happiness is not just something that happens across your existence, although it can be. Happiness is not just something that is earned, although it can be. Happiness is not just something that is lucked upon, although it can be. Happiness is a choice. Consistent and profound happiness is a choice that we make in each and every decision that we make each day. You can love or not love your job. That is a choice. You can enjoy or not enjoy a specific food. That is a choice. You can laugh or not laugh at a joke. That is a choice. Pretty much everything we do, in reaction, to another event that passes across our existence can be reacted to with happiness. My friend and I are in an ever changing society of educational reforms, many of them we don't agree with, but none the less they are part of our world. We can choose to be happy amid the every changing world of a new paradigm or not. So my friend and I boost each other up on a daily basis extolling the virtu

Change Your Routine . Got a bad habit? I do. I have many of them. At least what I consider bad. Maybe if you had the same habit I had you wouldn't consider it bad and that is fine. I am not here to cast a judgement on what you do or how you do it. I do things that are time wasters when I feel I should be using my time a little more effectively. We only get one today in this life so I like to use up my time to do things that help myself or the world. Not that I don't like to just sit around and relax and that is good but the habit I waste a considerable amount of time on is watching TV. If you spend 2 to 3 hours a day watching TV you may consider it too much. I do. You may not so maybe you don't want to change that habit. Maybe you want to quit smoking, change your attitude, or stop biting your nails. If you have a bad habit you want to change what you have to do is change your routine. When you engage in a habit you do certain things before you engage in it. You sit down

Perfection 2 I mentioned in my last post That perfection is in the eyes of the beholder. I wanted to expand upon this idea because all of us have different ideas but there are some constants in our society, or any society, that we have to adapt to. That means that, depending upon which societal constraints that you live under, perfect also is determined by the laws, ethics, and culture that you are governed by. In one culture or society it is perfect to get married at an early age of 12. In our culture it is considered so imperfect it is illegal. In one society it is perfect and desirable to run around completely naked. You would get arrested in our society if you did that. The regulations surrounding your given reality is what you have to adjust your idea of perfection to. Even though different cultures and social systems have different ideas of perfection most ideas about what is perfect can be boiled down to what is right. What is right can be interpreted in different ways as wel

Perfection Perfection like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. What this means is that beauty as well as perfection vary with each individual. How can perfection change? What is it? If we do something different is it still perfect? These are but a few of the questions that people, including me, think about when considering perfection. There are as many definitions of perfection as there are human beings on the Earth. There are as many ideas of what perfection is as there are cultures, environmental experiences, and behavioral reactions to our reality. What is perfect for one person may be totally imperfect for another. That being said, there are common threads that most human beings share that govern their perspective of what perfection is and more often than not, if that idea of perfection is not achieved, it will give us headaches, stress, high blood pressure, anger, hatred, shame, frustration, and every other negative emotion possible. A classic example is something I experie

Finding Joy If you are like me, finding joy is not a difficult thing to do, but it is something that takes practice, dedication, and focus to do effectively. If you are like me you laugh at the comical things that happen in your life, you genuinely smile at a child as you see them, or you think pleasant thoughts as you recollect a joyful memory. We all do this instinctively and that is easy. We find joy all around us every moment we give awareness to one or more of our experiences. The gentle sway of the trees, the colorful sunrise, or the sweet taste of a cold glass of water on a hot summers day are all ways we may experience joy as we progress through our day. This type of joy surrounds us and we don't have to do anything, other than observe and experience it, to make it a part of our day. I think what most of us want to do is to increase that joy. This goal is a matter of seeing, feeling, and experiencing that joy as it passes us in turbulent times. Most of us find little joy

Never Give Up A friend of mine was working with her child and was trying to explain a preference she wanted and he didn't understand it so he kept annoying her with questions and behavior that frustrated her so she said, "I give up." I told her, "Never give up, just pick your battles." This was meant as an instructional statement to her to reevaluate her thought process. Of course you can give up on anything you want. However, what you are doing, when you give up on some goal or behavior you want to change, is demonstrating to yourself and those in your world that the behavior or goal was not important to you. This may be true. The goal or behavior may not be important to you and you don't want to pursue it any more and that is perfect. We all do that. We all quit. We all start something and then decide it isn't the work. This is OK. If you consider the goal or behavior important and then quit you will feel bad that you did. Later on you will have to

Quotes on Optimism Positive Attitude "An optimist sees the glass half full while a pessimist sees the glass as half empty.”  - Anonymous "When you look at the possibilities instead of the problems, the future is filled with endless opportunities." - Zig Ziglar "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Winston Churchill "Real optimism is aware of problems but recognises the solutions, knows about difficulties but believes they can be overcome,   sees the negatives but accentuates the positives,   is exposed to the worst but expects the best,   has reason to complain but chooses to smile." - William Arthur Ward "A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition." - William Arthur Ward "Few things in this world are more powerful than A Positive Push, A Smile, A Word of Optimism, and Hope." - Rich DeVos "Positivity is a choice. Is the glass half empty or

Do or Don't There is No Try One of my favorite characters from the Star Wars fame is Yoda. He is an alien with some super natural powers. His ability to connect to the almighty or universal power that connects us all is one of a kind. He is like a super hero philosopher who also has the ability to defeat bad guys, because it wouldn't be a good movie without that. One of most poignant sayings that has significant meaning to me is, "Do or Don't there is no try." What I believe he means by this is that we can do something or not but there is no try. It is up to us and the amount of effort we put into a goal whether or not we accomplish it. Most of us, including myself use the word try as an escape for something we don't want to do. We say, "I'll try to make it to your party or I'll try to get that job done," but it is just an escape clause for us because in our mind we don't really want to do that job or go to that party. No matter what t

Take 5 As I have mentioned in many blogs and also in my book, "261 Mantras, Motivation, and Magic for your Workdays" there are many things that you can do to be happy. One of those things is super simple and yet difficult to do for most of us. That one thing is to take 5. Take 5 means to take a few minutes whenever you can to notice what is going on around you. It doesn't even have to be 5 minutes. It can be only a couple of seconds and that noticing has a profound effect upon your peace of mind and happiness. The more you do this noticing during the day the more thankful you are for all the beauty you have in your life. The greater amount of time you spend in seeing what it around you the greater your ability to enjoy the splendor of our world. It is easy to be thankful for a sunset, the crystal blue sky, a baby's innocent cry, easy flowing traffic, or a myriad of other situations and events. The more noticing you do of all these life events the more contentment fi

You Only Get One Chance When living life you only get one chance to live each day. Now I know that most of us believe in a life after death and that may be true or not. There is only circumstantial and spotty evidence to prove that claim. Even if there is a here after we don't know what it may look like. There are people that believe that it looks like Earth only it contains only good stuff from the mind of the observer. There are those that believe we come back again to get a do over if we need. There are those that believe we return to the mind of God and get mixed up with every other existence as if we were a spiritual soup. Whatever it is it is not the point of this blog. We get one chance to do what we do right here and now. Whether there is an after life or not our chance to be a loving parent, to be nice to your neighbor, or to care for our environment is only here and now. If we get a chance for a do over after we die that is great, but personally I want to do my best in

Do One Thing We often times go through our day with nothing but thoughts of fret about the future, regrets about the past, worries about our situation, condemnation for others who don't fit our scheme of perfection, and denials about our responsibility in the problems we create for ourselves. This is true for me as well. I do all the above and I consider myself enlightened. I consider myself a person of love, consideration, contemplation, and care and I do all those things that keep me imprisoned in all the negative aspects that life has to offer. The thing that keeps me sane is that I can do something about all those things I do that make me unhappy. I can do one thing each day, each hour, or each moment that will give me solace toward the goals that I set for myself to become the person I want to become. If your goal is to become rich take each day, hour, and moment and dedicate yourself to that one thing, but leave the rest in the recycle container. If you can do that one thi

It is never too late many people will tell you. This parable, mantra, or saying has been used across the generations. The truth of the matter is that it is too late for many things to occur in your life. If you are 30, it is too late to go back and experience the wonder of being a teen. If you are 40, it is too late to get your hair back. If you are 50, it is too late to live the innocence a baby experiences. Maybe it is too late to do many things but the one, and most important thing, it is not too late to do is enjoy the day you are experiencing currently. We all live in the here and now, even if we don't know it. What we have here and now is all that matters. If I could go back and change anything in my life it would be the knowledge I have now about enjoying the present. I had a difficult childhood with many negative experiences that filled my existence. However, there were many times in my troubled life that I could have lived in the moment and filled my life with much joy if

Today I saw a beautiful woman of distinction having problems with her kids. Having children is always a challenge and blessing wrapped into a big burrito of love. Children will always test there parents resolve over specific issues that are considered important to the kids. These tests come in the form of challenges to the parental authority, keeping something they want, or finding out how far they can push the issue. Whatever the reason children will find a way to test their parents resolve.We all do these childish behaviors in our daily lives, however, children do it more often and if we let them, they do it successfully. In this specific incident the children were playing with some toys while she was trying to read to them and even though she asked them to listen and stop many times they continued until, she finally got up and took the items away. Her frustration got higher and deeper until her emotions boiled and she got angry. This anger was something I thought could have been av

Today I saw a beautiful woman of distinction having problems with her kids. Having children is always a challenge and blessing wrapped into a big burrito of love. Children will always test there parents resolve over specific issues that are considered important to the kids. These tests come in the form of challenges to the parental authority, keeping something they want, or finding out how far they can push the issue. Whatever the reason children will find a way to test their parents resolve.We all do these childish behaviors in our daily lives, however, children do it more often and if we let them they do it successfully. In this specific incident the children were playing with some toys while she was trying to read to them and even though she asked them to listen and stop many times they continued until she finally got up and took the items away. Her frustration got higher and deeper until her emotions boiled and she got angry. This anger was something I thought could have been avoi

We go through our day making a myriad of choices. Often times the choices are minor and have minimal impact on our lives. Do I get up at the first alarm, should I put salt on my salad, or should I take this route or the other are choices we all make daily. Most of the time whether we do one thing or another doesn't change the quality of our lives. Today was different for me. Today I made a choice and it changed me profoundly. Although the choice I made was to take a different bike path I rode I experienced something that made me realize how wonderful and tenuous life is. When I was riding I took a different bike path and came across a man laying on the ground who had crashed his bike. He was breathing erratically and was in obvious distress. His granddaughter was by him crying. I told her he would be OK. We got out a phone and called 911. The man was breathing but just barely. I was thinking that I would have to give CPR, of which I am certified. Another bike rider came along and

Terms of Endearment The affections that we have for the ones we love, the people we interact with, and acquaintances we briefly encounter are tempered with conditions. What those conditions entail are governed by the people, our perspective, and the depth of our relationship. What we do in the presence of others is a conditional response to our environment and how we believe. Those terms, in my opinion, should be unconditional love and tolerance. That is not an easy thing to do when given the negativity we are bombarded with in our daily lives. Unconditional love and tolerance is something that only monks and ministers can do. I believe we can all hold out our hand in friendship, open the door for a person behind you, and give of your time and money for worthy causes because we all are part of the whole of humanity. This is the premise for the terms of love that we all can visit upon our family, neighbor, and friend.

Decisions, Decisions Everyone and I mean everyone faces critical and life changing decisions every day. You may not think that some decisions are life changing but I assure you every decision you make changes your life and directs you on a path toward a specific goal or experience. Often times we see a simple decision as to whether we stop at a fast food restaurant or wait till we get home to fix ourselves a salad as a life changing decision but the converse is true. Every decision you make whether it be what to have for breakfast, whether or not to get angry at your coworker, or deciding whether you will watch a movie or read a book all create a line of behaviors that will guide your day, week, and month. Now I am not saying that you will ruin your life if you have a burger or a salad, that you will lead your life to destruction if you get angry at someone versus remaining peaceful, or that your life will end up in nirvana when you read a book versus watching a movie but ever

Simple Steps Most people are stuck and so I am I but I am starting to realize the reality of what it takes to achieve what I want. Most people go through their lives content with the mediocrity of what they are doing and don't do anything to break out of that habitual behavior. Most people continue making the same mistakes because they are comfortable with their lives. (even if what they are doing doesn't bring them happiness) Most people go through their daily routine and make excuses for the sadness they feel, the anger they express, or the despair they fall into. It doesn't have to be that way. Obviously if you want to be sad, feel a sense of lack and limitation, be angry with yourself and the world, or fall into depressive moods and hide yourself from reality, you can do that. If you don't want those negatives to control your life there are some simple steps you can take to minimize and eventually eliminate those negative situations and experiences. Some of the

Now is the time to take action. Whether it be to lose weight, to master a language, or to start your own business the time to move forward is now. It doesn't matter whether you are learning one new word, watching one new video, or purchasing one new product that helps define your goals for you the time to do it is NOW. Often times we get into a rut, which is fine if you are loving your rut, but if you don't then it is time to get out. We get into a rut where we are angry at where we are in life. We get into a rut where we are comfortable with mediocrity. We get into a rut where we say we can't do any better. When we get into these ruts of limit and lack then there are only three ways we can go. We can go sideways and be content in that rut and about 87 percent of us fall into that category. Most of the time that is me as well. We can go down and that is about 10 percent of us where we question our progress towards our goals, become dissatisfied with our advancement, and t