There are no Traffic Jams along the Extra Mile!!

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Rod's World

Amongst Stepping Stones for March 29th is the question – How could you increase your personal effectiveness? As we all are at a different level with this our answers will differ wildly.

If we set goals in our lives or we simply go with the flow will affect our relationship to the question. A bit like Tony Robbins Vs. Eckhart Tolle. So, from what angle has the world looked at personal effectiveness, let’s have a look:

1. J.M. is not famous, no Wikipedia entry but an entry in Goodreads for this insightful quote.

2. I have dealt with many customer serivce staff who have got this dramatically the wrong way round: I Know you Care.

3. The book related to these quotes has sold 25 million copies since its first release. Covey added an 8th Habit – Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs later in his career.

4. What is the principle: 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react: Sounds Babies Love.

5. Back to the 1700’s and 1800’s for a quote from Goethe, he was a German writer and statesman. His works include epic and lyric poetry; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour; and four novels. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters, and nearly 3,000 drawings by him exist.

6. Self Explanatory really: Say Something.

7. Never have enough time in the day, listen to the clock!!

8. Five very costly words, try How can I Help in their place: Poeple help the People.

9. What do you communicate with your words, do they hear what you want them to?

10. It takes 21 days ot reverse a habit, begin today and May will be an inspiring month: Don’t stop me Now.

11. Not telling people what to do!!

12. Not a lot of effective listening goes on in an argumentative situation: Don’t.

13. Is your life on the right trajectory or do you have to aim just that little bit higher?

12. We love stories from our earliest years, not much changes later in life: Ohio.

15. For some people they would call the latter the shadow of a relationship, they don’t work without it.

Effectiveness is the capability of producing a desired result or the ability to produce desired output. When something is deemed effective, it means it has an intended or expected outcome, or produces a deep, vivid impression. So the question to answer for ourselves, is how much of the time do we do this in our lives, It is something I think we will continually work on over our lifetimes.

Music comes from Ellie Goulding, Sounds Babies Love, Christine Aguilera, Birdy, and then grows in Age via Queen, Shania Twain and Neil Young.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Put on your Perspectacles!!

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Rod's World

The quote in the empowering book Time for my Life: 365 Stepping Stones by Thea Westra for today is as follows: Goals help you keep in perspective what’s really important so you do not spend all of your time doing what seems important – Nido Qubein. Nido is an American Lebanese University president and philanthropist who has donated over $10 million dollars in his lifetime to education. He has not lost sight of his goal to his seemingly important day to day urgent tasks.

How do you stay in perspective when it comes to your purpose, your goals, your why in life? Another way of asking it is How can you be more effectively making use of your time? And how has society related to it over the years, Here’s a few takes at it:

1. How many people do you have in your life who would give you everything?

This piece of wisdom is from the First Century A.D. Marcus was a Roman emperor who sought the meaning of life and wrote an excellent book called Memoirs about it: Human.

3. I think I have wasted a few years of my 63 years not doing this, worrying about things that I couldn’t at the time change or do anything effective to change my circumstances, nice one Mary.

4. Too simple: Mean.

5. Remember when we were kids and we were going to astronauts or veterinarians, why did we change our perspective and stop looking?

6. They wrote a song about this a long, long time ago: “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)” is a popular song composed by Mitch Leigh, with lyrics written by Joe Darion. It was written for the 1965 musical Man of La Mancha. It is the main song from the musical and became its most popular hit. The song is sung all the way through once in the musical by Don Quixote as he stands vigil over his armor, in response to Aldonza (Dulcinea)’s question about what he means by “following the quest”. It is reprised partially three more times – the last by prisoners in a dungeon as Miguel de Cervantes and his manservant mount the drawbridge – like prison staircase to face trial by the Spanish Inquisition. It was awarded the Contemporary Classics Award from the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame: The Impossible Dream.

7. Love and Respect for All – Everyone Included.

8. Are we all star seed, energy in different forms. If we vibrate what we want on a daily basis, the universe listens: Across the Universe.

9. This makes me think of his Holiness’s statement about If we really listen, and not just wait to reply we actually might learn something new.

10. Amazing, really: Nowhere Man.

11. We are all unique individuals, love that about yourself.

12. And it’s also one of the great medicinal plants on the planet: Dandelion.

13. I remember The Hour of Power evangelist TV show from the 70’s that Robert Schuller hosted, seems he did it for 50 years until 2010. We all have fears though, I find facing them is the most useful way of lessening their influence over my daily life.

14. How we are training our young folk more and more these days. Self love is the reverse of this: I was Here.

15. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation”. He was elected the first Saoi of Aosdána in 1984 by The Irish nation, the ultimate accolade a creative artist can receive in that country.

Martin Luther Kings distinction around perceptiveness Somebodiness’ which is a state of self dignity and worthiness, despite what others may think. It is a deep inner resolve that nobody can convince me that I am not somebody sums up how I feel about this subject well. Your perspective is just as valuable as anyone else’s, never forget this.

Music this blog has three song’s from the 1960’s , two pop diva’s and two people I have never heard of, that’s why I love what YouTube throws up for my requests. Rag ‘n Bone Man., Taylor Swift, Andy Williams, Rufus Wainwright, The Beatles, Tevin Campbell and Beyonce.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Freedom is being You, without anybody’s Permission.

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Rod's World

Let’s relate to how we think about the functions of our body compared to the function of our mind. We just go about our business walking, driving , working and playing without really focusing on it. In contrast let’s enter our mind, Can I really trust her, do they like me, What if I forget what I am meant to say on stage, etc. etc. etc. Our body communicates through its universal language: fear. Self-Consciousness, jealousy, insecurity, anxiety – they are all fear. The mind is trying to give you what you want on a 24 hour basis, unfortunately the world does not work that way.

Looking outside yourself for the answer is looking in the wrong direction, the answer lies within. Imagine what fun life would be if you didn’t have to deal with those ongoing neurotic thoughts. You could enjoy things, and you could get to know people instead of needing them.

What would the planet have to say about that solution, let’s take that journey:

1. Give up the addiction of the necessary.

2. They talk about millionaire mindset, because you have to have the ability to lose it as well as make it, most people never reach this plateau: Losing Control.

3. When was the last time you were truly amazed by something in your life?

4. Donald Arthur Carson is a Canadian-born, Reformed Evangelical theologian and professor of the New Testament. Writing books is D.A’s thing, Carson has written or edited 57 books, many of which have been translated into Chinese.

5. I call it Interculturalism – Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included.

6. Eagles fly above the storm clouds, they are truly free of the effect of the storm: Eagle Flying.

7. Albert Camus ( 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, and journalist. His views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism. He wrote in his essay The Rebel that his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism while still delving deeply into individual freedom. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 43 in 1957, the second youngest recipient in history.

8. We are sent here to do what we ought, time to begin: Freedom.

9. From one of the great peace disciples of the world, Thich Nhat Hanh attributes freedom to the universal force of love.

10. Walk straight towards you fears, and magically on the other side lies that freedom you have always been seeking: Riders on the Storm.

11. Alignment with honour, not something we see much in mainstream media these days.

12. Did it instantly come to you who Jonathan was, one of the most read transformational books of the 1970’s Jonathan Livingstone Seagull is worthy of a read at any stage of your life: Richard Bach Quotes.

13. The mind would have to be relatively quite to attain this state, I feel.

14. As a choir member and a closet shower singer, I would have ot agree with this wholeheartedly: When I fall in Love.

15. Adyashanti, author of The Way of Liberation, Falling into Grace, True Meditation, and The End of Your World, is an American-born spiritual teacher devoted to serving the awakening of all beings. His teachings are an open invitation to stop, inquire, and recognize what is true and liberating at the core of all existence.

Your mind has very little control over this world. It cannot control the weather and other natural forces. Nor can it control all people,places and things around you You have given your mind an impossible task by asking it to manipulate the world in order to fix your personal inner problems. Your mind is not qualified for that job. Fire it , and let go of your inner problems instead.

This blog is loosely based on the Untethered Soul by Michael Singer, which I am really enjoying re-reading after several years.

The music for this blog goes back to the 70’s with Richie Havens, The Doors and Richard Bach. A choir – Aquapella World Music Choir and the magnificent voice of Andrea Bocelli are closed off with Russ and a song from Moana.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Only the pure of Heart can make a good Soup!!

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Rod's World

Nothing changes without Me

Sometimes, my heart is so open

I can’t tell if it is a gaping wound

or a portal for everything that ever was and ever will be.

I’ve learned to love the beautiful terror of eternity,

and scenario planning for how shattered I could be

If the dark things got tall

and if I fell backwards in my forgetting of the light.

But you can’t fall backwards in Space,

You can only only ever unfurl.

More than anything,

I’ve wed the certainty that nothing changes without me –

not coal becoming diamonds

not fertilizing eggs

or migration patterns

or medicine dreams.

And what I thought was a net cast to me from a higher God

is actually strands of truth and filaments of desire

that I have tied together with my own two hands.

And in precious encounters, I tie what I know and want to you,

so we can ride the winds of wonder.

Yes, and

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day – E. B. White

These are the first two entries in the chapter from Danielle LaPorte’s excellent book White Hot Truth on the Soul of Service: Link to the Book.

In this chapter Danielle discusses Conscious Optimism, the next quote is from Neil deGrasse Tyson:

I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday, and lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.

Today we will discuss the second of these, how to lessen the suffering of others. To me, as demonstrated by all our great heroes and heroines it is through service this is attained.

How do we as humanity relate to this, lets have a look:

1. Although Muhammad Ali points to the other one in this quote.

2. How do we start to serve, from where we are: because From little things, big things grow: Classic Version of that song.

3. Giving from your soul turns on the love light.

4. Some beautiful words with deep insight from the master, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī: Light a candle in your Heart.

5. A man who died freeing his beloved India but believed that the answer lied in serving the culture of his country.

6. Achieving this lets us see more and more opportunities to be of service: Wrecking Ball.

7. Erica Jong is an American novelist and poet, known particularly for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying. The book became famously controversial for its attitudes towards female sexuality and figured prominently in the development of second-wave feminism. According to Washington Post, it has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

8. They say if you achieve this you will never work another day. A hint, look how you can serve others: Soul’s on Fire.

9. Wordy, but needs to be taken in.

10. Swami’s are meant to be very wise. This one seems to be in the area of service: Try Everything.

11. I know this is taking the piss out of Shakespeare’s more famous quote but I just had to include it.

12. Maya liberates my soul: And still I Rise.

13. You nearly need a magnifier to read this famous quote from Martin, but we all know the line anybody can serve.

14. Three beautiful gifts to give to the world: Just give me a Reason.

15. With the recent passing of Stephen Hawkings, the former president of India has a great point about the service to humanity that science provides.

And to finish some more words from Danielle that really sum service up:

Service is when spirit meets matter where it is. Service is being informed. Service is being enraged and compassionate. Service is being ruthlessly honest about the facts – then choosing to be hopeful about the future.

The music today starts with one of Australia’s preeminent Indigenous singers Archie Roach and Sarah Storer, then Paul Janz, Sarah Blackwood, Anthony Blackwood to the more well known Shakira, Maya Angelou and finishing with Pink.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Focus on only that which is Eternal!!

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Rod's World

A course in Miracle teaches: There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not “harder” or “bigger” than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal.

To me, the effect of a miracle is that it affects you for eternity, you can never forget it and why would you want to, there the title I have chosen for today’s blog. Gabrielle Bernstein , in her latest book : Judgement Detox points to the fact that anytime you shift your perception from fear to love, you have committed a miracle in your life: Link to the book.

How does the world relate to miracles, whilst researching it I got to see there are many perspectives over the times, here’s today’s offerings:

1. At what age did you stop believing in this joyous miracle in our early years?

2. I have recently taken on a 12 month challenge to reduce my weight to 80k, it has been over 6 years that was what showed on the scales and it is 20k away. A practice I have taken on is to walk for at least half and hour everyday. It is amazing what you notice in this time of reflection: When Life was a Miracle.

3. Helen Keller certainly gave her best given the circumstances she was handed in life. The world appreciated her for it.

4. What of we were all able to access the magic of the morning sun as it hailed a new day: Magic.

5. As we age we often forget this!!

6. Amanda Jane Bradley doesn’t jump out at you on google. You get the choice of a bartender, a pro-lifer and eventually the author of Oz at Night, bingo: That’s what friends are For.

7. And this is what Google came up for Himanshu – A person with the biggest ego ever found in this world. Will always try to be better than everyone in sight, even the person who teaches him something. A himanshu cares a lot about his future, in fact, that’s the only thing he cares about! A himanshu displays various sudden acts of movement in the face, like sudden twitches of the eye and nose, and often blames the movements on a “cold” or his glasses. Himanshu is always the best at everything he does. Even if he isn’t, he thinks he is.

8. When you transmute the dark, that is when miracles occur: Royals.

9. Miracles fill the body not the mind, where’s your heart located?

10. Mother Teresa discovered the magic and miracle of service and went on to provide it to thousands of people: Happy.

11. A hand written note these days is a minor miracle but so much more powerful than an SMS.

12. Edwin created the Christian Mens Network, he also played trumpet in a street witnessing band for the homeless. Through these actions he wished to have men see the goodness of life: Expectancy.

13. William Hazlitt was an English writer, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. He is also acknowledged as the finest art critic of his age. Most of his work has been out of print for decades.

14. The miracle of unconditional love: Falling.

15. I know people who are festival junkies, who then complain about the lack of community when they return to normal life. Its time for them to let the celebrations begin on a day to day basis when most of the miracles happen.

So, make it a practice to celebrate your miracles on a day to day basis, even if it might just be surviving the day or as mighty as leaping out of a plane.

The tunes today are from the quirky named Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra, The divas Alicia Keys, Dionne Warwick and Lorde. A short set by DJ Rickochey, Coldplay and the hour long version of Pharrel Williams Happy.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

I love that feeling I Get!!

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Rod's World

Change your habits, change your life! Success in life needs to be deliberately managed. Replace three unproductive habits with three new ones that raise the bar. Success in any endeavour requires a lifestyle change and you could do all that at once! Not recommended, if you are someone who stops all action, when just one small thing gets in the way. A less painful and more sustainable way is to change daily habits bit by bit. You cannot change a habit by trying to get rid of it. You can replace an unwanted habit with a new one.

Remember to choose new ones that make you come alive, the world doesn’t need actions for actions sake, It needs people who have come alive/awake. What does the world have to say about this, here’s some of the things:

1. After talking to God, Neale came up with this very wise quote as to when we need to wake up in our lives.

2. There were about 200 versions of this quote in Google Images, I liked the simplicity of this one: Staying Alive.

3. Michael Morpurgo says “For me, the greater part of writing is daydreaming, dreaming the dream of my story until it hatches it out – the writing down of it I always find hard. But I love finishing it, then holding the book in my hands and sharing the dream with its readers.

4. Remarkably, anything can make us come alive at any moment in our lives, sometimes we forget this: Come Alive.

5. And when we discover them , that is when we are truly alive.

6. Love the irony of this: When you wish upon a star.

7. You can dance if you want to, I do every week.

8. And its called your passionate heart: Dreams.

9. Pursuing things make them come alive, make it your ambition in life.

10. You can choose to have it in your lives every day, Its always there: You and I.

11. Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime, and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide, and exists in the public imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius, the artist “where discourses on madness and creativity converge”.

12. Primarily it should be yours you make come alive first: Come Alive 2

13. The scent of the ocean at full power is my favourite scent.

14. Smiling and happiness are outcomes from coming alive, fantastic results: Come up and make me Smile.

15. Fear and Love, a little bit of both to come alive, methinks.

There have been many days in my life, that when I woke up I definitely did not feel like I had come alive, I am getting better at it though.

Music is from the musicals, the 70’s and one you would never guess – The Bee Gees and Cockney Rebel, The Greatest Showman cast, Julie Andrews and Paris Hilton.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Do what makes your Soul Shine!!

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Rod's World

In the Google Images page for quotes to avoid stopping this beautiful quote that is the title of this blog appeared, seems strangely out of place. The subject for today’s blog is taken from Time for my Life, Thea Westra’s excellent book; Here’s the link to her Website. It comes from the challenge for February 12 – face the situation and just complete whatever you are avoiding.

I think we spend as much energy on avoiding things as we do in completing them if we do not set our goals up to act on a daily basis. It’s easy to roll over for another half hour if we have no plans for the day. I tend to not make to many though so there is space for unexpected actions that I need to take. Two to four definites works for me.

So what do our fellow humans have to say about avoidance in their lives, here’s a few cuts at it:

1. If you don’t face it, will it ever go away? Turn around and walk towards it, time to stop running.

2. Reach out and Touch Somebody else. If you don’t do this, they may stop calling: Reach out and touch somebody’s Hand.

3. Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English writer, who is considered one of the foremost modernist authors of the 20th century and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf became one of the central subjects of the 1970s movement of feminist criticism, and her works have since garnered much attention and widespread commentary for “inspiring feminism”, an aspect of her writing that was unheralded earlier. Her works are widely read all over the world and have been translated into more than fifty languages. She suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life and took her own life by drowning in 1941 at the age of 59.

4. And also those who saw the gulp and stood by that person in their pain: Feel the Pain.

5. Lots of hashtags for this simple Nike like quote.

6. What was that you said? Oh, nothing, I suppose I will have to make up what you are thinking, then: Sounds of Silence.

7. And this may be one of the things I make up in my frustration at the silence.

8. The worlds greatest philosopher, Ms. Unknown chimes in with the formulae of acceptance, as resistance if futile in making something cease happening: Let it Be.

9. A mixture of both works for me!!

10. Fill in the missing words……: Let’s Hurt Tonight.

11. Founding Honda Motor company in his back shed in 1948, three years after Japan had been bombed into oblivion, Soichiro Honda definitely did not avoid the challenges and vision he saw. The possibility of failure must have been great in the beginning.

12. If you don’t know what you want, spend more time on finding out what you don’t so you create space for the former to surface: Look what you made me Do.

13. My friend Lissa Rankin says there are two types of fear, real fear and suggested fear. I think RD Laing is making the same point in this quote in regard to pain.

14. Other ways to spell inspired action and why avoidance sucks big time: Stronger.

15. And there are plenty more quotes to help you break through the avoidance, actually 51 in the area of overthinking, a classic avoidance method.

Often in avoidance we are facing the wrong direction, pain we are running away instead of turning to face what it has to offer us, what if …. we are facing the circumstances that stop us beginning when we should be facing the other direction of taking the action that compels us forward towards our bright future. Yes, it’s that time!!

Music today is from two different eras, the 60’s offering is Diana Ross, The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel. Today’s are Kanye West, One Republic and Taylor Swift.

Namaste until next time my dear friends:

What sets your soul on Fire!!

Posted on January 25, 2018 by Rod's World

When people find their passion, they not only love what they do but they lead a life that other people only dream about. In his book Living Your Passion Keith Abraham has a quiz in which he asks the following questions:

What does having a passion mean to you?
What was one thing either in the past or present that you were passionate about, really focused on or just loved to do?
If you won 10 million dollars in Lotto tomorrow, what would you love to do with your time and energy?
Of all the things you have ever done, what were you doing when you were the happiest?
What are the five things you value the most in your life?
In 30 seconds, write down the three most important goals in your life right now.
What have you always wanted to do but been afraid to attempt?
What type of activities or circumstances gives you the greatest feeling of importance?
What is the one thing which you would dare to dream if you knew you could not fail?

They say that 3% of people have written goals, I must know a rare breed of people because at least 50% of my friends do. So what does the world say about having and knowing your passion, Let’s have a sneak peek:

1. Want a boost of energy, follow your passion and with it comes the energy to excel.

2.The 3 P’s that fulfil my life: On Purpose.

3. You’ll know when you find it, Steve definitely found his.

4. It is said you are both a student and a teacher in your life when it comes to your passion it’s up to you: Teach Your Children.

5. How beautiful, Live it, Breathe It, Beam It. Yowzaa.

6. America’s greatest gonzo journalist often got people’s blood racing if you have ever seen the interpretation of his life in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: The hotel on Acid.

7. When your passion enters your soul, it also enters your heart and mind.

8. Passion fills you with the roar of the ocean, Its like people can hear it as you enter the room: Oceans Roar.

9. That’s why it doesn’t go away, the rest of life may be random, but your passions are not.

10. It’s Oprah time. always good advice: Born to be Somebody.

11. Converting a nation with her passion, Julia Child definitely did this. Julia Carolyn Child was an American chef, author and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.

12. having written over 300 blogs, I have definitely found mine: My, My, My.

13. Make me think of Jim Carrey’s Fear or Love Speech, here it is: Fear vs. Love.

14. They’re your dreams, no one elses: Live Your Life.

15. And at the end, a wall chart for you to print out.

Don’t just get up, go to work, go to bed on a daily basis: do things that make your heart shudder.

Music is from Sabrina Carpenter, CSNY, Johny Depp, Dinah Smith, Justin Beiber, Troye Sivan, Jim Carrey and T.I. Enjoy their focus on passion and purpose.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Sometimes I’m afraid to be Happy!!

Posted on January 22, 2018 by Rod's World

In his book The Code of the Extraordinary Mind CEO of Mindvalley, Vishen Lakhiani talks about four levels of living. The first is The World Around You or Living in the Culturescape, The second The world you choose or The Awakening, the third The world inside you or Recoding Yourself and the fourth the world you can change or Becoming Extraordinary.

One of the main premises he points to is that firstly we must trust yourself and others to achieve this journey. So a question, how much do you trust, is it easy or an ongoing enquiry for you. There are many beautiful quotes on this state of being, let’s have a look at a few:

1. I have read many a fine self-help book, but until I have taken the actions recommended to achieve the states spoken about in them, nothing has been achieved.

2. Have you ever come across people that grate on you and you don’t know why. This is your intuition speaking to you. Time to trust it fully and move on: Thinking Out Loud.

3. I’m still working on this. Have quite a few moments where I forget that when life gets harsh it’s just a challenge to face.

4. We don’t have to fulfil our big dreams tomorrow if we just stay in our essence of it and take one action a day it breaks it down into doable chunks: From Little Things Big Things Grow.

5. This quote is taken from Spock’s 1946 bestselling book Baby and Childcare. It was a message to new mums to trust their intuition, it resonated with millions and made their journey into motherhood so much easier.

6. How many times have we not and had to deal with the consequences later on: Gut Feeling.

7. Still here? Keeping trusting yourself, you have lots of ways to go.

8. Not sure about this one, ofter when it looks right and feels right I call that intuition too: Intuition.

9. I have had both of these, lately, still following up on the first. When you are told I Love You and you totally get it, it can cause unexpected shockwaves.

10. Maya Angelou spoke on many subjects, but was most powerful in the area of love, the area she said that supported all others: Love Liberates.

11. Edward Estlin “E. E.” Cummings, often styled as ee cummings, as he sometimes signed his name, was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. He wrote approximately 2900 poems, two autobiographical novels, four plays, and several essays. That’s a prolific output.

12. Another one to think about, which one do you say to yourself more: What about Us.

13. Imagine if we spent our whole life with that nagging thought in the background, but can I really trust them. Mainstream media are proponents of having this become the norm.

14. And most games are based on there being a winner and a loser: Hurt.

15. What if each day, in the morning as we woke, we got in contact with the magic of the new beginning that was going to happen that day, a new world would be revealed to us methinks.

As you ascend the levels , your relationship with life alters, you begin to trust it more

First Life happens to You.

Then Life happens as you Choose.

Then Life happens from You.

Then Life happens Through You.

Music comes from Ed Sheeran, John Butler, Devo, John Lennon, Maya Angelou, PInk and John Cash – quite a wide range of styles.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Be brave with your Life!!

Posted on January 4, 2018 by Rod's World

Just received Brendon Burchard’s new free book, High-Performance Habits – you actually pay the postage and handling in the mail and the premise of it is six habits, three personal and three social. The personal ones are Seek Clarity, Generate Energy, and Raise Necessity. The Social Ones are Increase Productivity, Develop Influence and Demonstrate Courage.

As Mark Twain relates ” Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” When we first do something that contains fear, such as skydiving, the level of fear first time is quite high, or at least it was for me. But the more we do something the more comfortable we get with it. That’s why leading a courageous life can also increase our fearlessness.

What have people said about having a dose of courage over the years, here are the quotes I have chosen:

1. Who is your standalone hero or heroine, Gandhi, Malala, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa? Or is it just someone from your local community?

2. Everyday courage could mean keeping a positive attitude or taking action despite great uncertainty, bad health or hardship such as sharing unpopular ideas or showing up every day for work even when things are tough at the office: What’s Going On.

3. Mainstream media and our government are telling us to be afraid of Africans with one politician stating that people were afraid to go out because they were afraid of being followed home by an African and having their home invaded. No courage there!!

4. Feel that tremor in your heartbeat, that’s the recipe for courage, go out and do it anyway: The Climb.

5. Unconditional Love, the ultimate emotion – includes trusting someone besides yourself.

6. One of my top ten, Brene Brown. Netflix or ring that person you have been putting that conversation off with, you choose which will have the most positive effect in your life: Be Brave, Show Up.

7. My favourite E. E. Cummings poem is the following: I carry your heart with Me, here it is:

I carry your heart with me ( I carry it in my heart ) I am never without it ( anywhere I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling

I fear no fate ( for you are my fate, my sweet ) I want no world ( for beautiful, you are my world, my true ) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows ( Here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide ) and this is the wonder that keeps the stars apart

I carry your heart with me ( I carry it in my heart )

To love that much is an act of immense courage.

8. The dark and the light, Fear and Courage, they travel with each other: So What.

9. Every great adventure began by putting one foot in front of another, the courage is in taking the first step.

10 Who remembers the cheesy song from the Mickey Mouse club, one of Walt’s first creations: The original mouskeeters.

11. Every year my friend Emeli from Collective Potential produces a workbook to implement 2018. This year its called On Purpose. If you would like a copy, join Collective Potential on Facebook and there is a link.

12. One of my other blogs is about this amazing woman Maya Angelou.

Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights, activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

She became a poet and writer after a series of occupations as a young adult, including fry cook, sex worker, nightclub dancer and performer, cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess, coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was an actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professors of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made around 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” (1993) at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961: Maya on Courage.