Love, Strength & Courage

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. ~ Lao Tzu

I don't know why I like this quote. There is something truthful about the words. I wonder if it is the same for men as it is for women. I know when I think about it, women tend to give men their strength. If it wasn't for women, I don't think men would ever do anything. I think they would sit around and do as little as possible. When women (or anyone you might care for) comes into the picture, then men want to do things for her. The man wants to give her everything he possibly can. It takes courage to do that.

When that same person loves you back, that just makes you want to do more. It becomes a cycle. She loves you. That gives you the courage to do the things that will make you successful. Loving her in return makes you strong enough to continue to do the things that make him and her successful. The cycle continues as long as they continue to love each other.

So here is what I suggest that you do. Take the time to find someone who you can love. Allow that love to give you the strength you need to build your life. When she loves you back, that will give you the courage to continue to do the things you need to do to continue to grow your life together. It will take that courage to have kids and to be the parents you want to be.

Strength, Courage and Love. Those are a fantastic combination.

Do What You Know You Can Do

"Don't let what you can't do stop you from doing what you can do." ~ John Wooden

Sometimes there are just things you can't do. For the majority of us, we can't fly to the moon. That is something we can't do. Are we going to let that stop us from getting into orbit? Today it is possible to buy a ticket to get on a shuttle and spend a few days in space orbiting the Earth. The only thing it will cost you is money and a bit of astronaut training.

I think sometimes we have it set in our mind that we cannot do certain things. Maybe you think you can't speak in front of large groups of people. That is not true. It might take some practice and a lot of self focus, talking yourself into getting up in front of those people. Once you are up there, I think you will find that people will be willing to listen to you. If there are those in the audience who are not interested in what you have to say or actually try to make fun of you, that is OK. Those are not the people you are speaking to. You are speaking to the people who are going to get something out of what you have to say. If you don't get up there, then the people you are there to speak to will not get the benefits of learning about what you are going to speak about.

Most of the time the things you think you believe you can't do are just that beliefs. You can change those beliefs. All you have to do is sit down and start writing down that you can do these things. Think about it. When you write something, you make that thing concrete in your mind. If you can make that concrete in your mind then you will be better prepared to do the things that you once thought you could not do.

The World Within You

Think of the world you carry within you. — Rainer Maria Rilke

 Life is a personal point of view. You have to look around you and think about what is going on. You have to process and make your own judgements. You have to listen to the sounds and the words and make of them what you know about. It is personal to each of us. The same experience is impossible for each of us to have. That means we each have a different world within us that each of us are living.

Now that I have completely confused you let me see if I can explain it a little; try to make it clearer. Lets say two people are standing at the bus stop. They are both standing side by side and the bus pulls to the curb and the doors open. It is there to pick them up to take them wherever they want to go. It may seem they are having the same physical experience, but the true experience each one is having is completely different.

First they are experiencing the bus coming to the bus stop at a slightly different angle than the person standing next to them. Therefore they are not seeing the exact same view of the bus.

Second they may be feeling different emotions about taking the bus. One of them might be excited about taking the bus because they have a little bit of pocket change that day and don't have to walk to the store. The other person might be dreading the bus because they don't like crowds and this bus is always crowded. You never know how a person's past experiences are going to affect the present moment.

Even though one thing is happening in the world, each person experiences it differently, therefore the world is different inside their mind than the person standing next to them. There is only one physical world, but we only experience a small fraction of that world, creating something unique within ourselves. Let's live it like it's our own.

Please Leave a comment and expand on my thoughts about personal experience; about the world within ourselves.