One of these great people is Mother Teresa.

Today, I would like to share with you 8 life lessons that Mother Teresa has taught us all and which, especially in times of difficulty, we should try our best to live up to.

1. People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centred; forgive them anyway.

2. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway.

3. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies; be successful anyway.

4. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be frank and honest anyway.

5. What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight; Build anyway.

6. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.

7. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

8. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you have got anyway.

Be like Mother Teresa. Be content that you cannot solve every problem, help every person or win every battle. However, do not let this stop you from giving your best in everything you do.

The story about my suburb started with one of the reporters standing in front of a vacant house. She said that the real estate market was getting so bad that most of the houses were vacant and that the neighborhood was a “ghost town”. Those were the exact words that she used–”Ghost town”. Then she went on to talk about how many empty homes there were and how many homes were for sale and what a bleak outlook it was for the new home builders and the people who were trying to sell. The people who were watching the newscast who happen to live on the other side of town probably thought that things were “really bad” out here in my pretty little suburb.

But here is the truth as I see it.

I actually recognized the house that she was standing in front of. I knew exactly where it was and I am very familiar with the neighborhood. Yes, that house is vacant. However, I know for sure that it has been vacant for at least 3 years. It is not something new that just popped up recently.

Since the news story broke we drove up into the neighborhood again. Green lawns, Halloween decorations, kids playing in the yard and people walking their dog was what we saw. There was not even one vacant home that we saw that we didn’t remember being vacant from long before now. And definitely, by no means whatsoever did it look like a “ghost town”.

Well, actually that might not be completely true as I did see many, many ghosts and goblins, witches and jack-o-lanterns and Halloween decorations to commemorate the season but I don’t think that is what she meant when she said “ghost town”. It specifically sounded like she was sounding the call of alarm that the real estate market here is failing and that things are getting really bad!

“The sky is falling”.

The problem is that it’s not true!! I checked it out myself and it’s not true! There are no more vacant homes now than there was a year ago or even 2 years ago (back when everything was supposedly “good”) and there are no more homes on the market in that neighborhood than usual. Now as far as time on the market goes and those kind of market conditions, since I am no longer a Realtor, I don’t keep up with that stuff too much. But looking at it from a layperson’s viewpoint it looks just the same as it has for the last couple of years.

Nothing has really changed. It is not a “ghost town”!

So it just goes to show and proves to me at least that the media doesn’t always get it right and if you believe everything you read and everything you see in the media you may just be focused upon the worst of the world instead of the best of the world.

And what do you really want to focus on if you want to powerfully create your life?

There are always, always more good things in this world than bad. Where is your focus?

Related posts:
What If…?

So since my favorite spiritual teachers tell us to focus only upon what we want I thought I would make a list of what I really want, not in any particular order but just a few thoughts about what I would choose if we were all able to create the world in the way that we wanted.

Also I am not publically endorsing either candidate but just talking about what I want. I know who will get my vote. I encourage you to study the issues before you vote and make the wise and thoughtful decision that feels right to you.

And there may be more….As this list is of course, not all-inclusive.

To quote someone you may have listened to in the past….

On November 4th I will be at the election booth bright and early. I hope you will be too.

Related posts:
Exercise your Privilege- Vote

So with all of this news there are some who believe that we are in dire straits. In fact, just a day or so ago I heard a woman say out loud that ?Nobody has any money!?

My question is?..Where?s the money? What happened to the money? If all the money is gone and now nobody has any money what happened to the money?

Did it all burn up in a fire?

Did it magically disappear into never-never land?

Did the bad guys swoop in and steal all of the money away from the rest of the world?

Of course, there have been some challenges with the economy. Did all of those challenges just erase all of the money?

What happened? Where?s the money?

Think about it. Common sense says that the money is still there. It?s always been there, it is there now and it will always be there.

There is still an abundance of wealth in the world. We create our own realities. There is no lack in the world. There is only lack in our lives because that is what we have focused upon and that is what we have created.

Focus upon abundance in all things. Focus upon wealth in all things. Focus upon what you want in all things.

You create your own reality.

(This post was inspired by Frank Kern, who just happened to make about $750,000.00 on the same day as Black Monday #2, the day of the largest stock market drop in US history. How much money will you make if there is a recession? What will you focus on?
Fear? Or Opportunity?)

Ever have one of those days? It doesn’t necessarily have to be a Monday…any day of the week will do. Just one of those days when you just can’t keep your feet on the ground. You just keep floating up into the air and flying around and around in the atmosphere and you just float all over the place. It is just such a struggle to stick to the earth. It’s just one of those days when no matter how hard you try, you just can not make that damn Law of Gravity work!!

Ever have one of those days?

No, I didn’t think so. Gravity works.

And it is the same as with the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction works.

It works every time. It works for everybody. It works. Just like gravity works, the Law of Attraction works.

When you hear someone say “the Law of Attraction is just not working for me”, you can be sure that they are having some deep misunderstanding about what exactly the Law of Attraction is because if it works for some but not for others or if it works for me but it doesn’t work for you, or if it works on Friday but not on Monday (Monday, Monday blah, blah…..again!) then it would not be a Universal Law and it would just be a myth. The myth of the Law of Attraction! I know, some of the Naysayers and the skeptics are cheering right now!

The Law of Attraction states that “like attracts like”. That means that you will attract into your life the vibrational equivalent of the thoughts that you think.

The Law of Attraction is just a way of describing how the world works and how the Universe comes up to meet you.

So if you want more money but you are lamenting the fact that you don’t have enough money, or you want to find love but you are thinking about how hard it is to meet someone…..

The Universe cannot rendezvous with you and meet you because the Law of Attraction can only bring to you what you are vibrating and unfortunately you are stuck in the “complaining for what you have now mode” instead of the “focusing on what you really want mode”.

You don’t get what you want, you get what you focus upon. You get what you vibrate.

So if you want the Law of Attraction and the Universe to rendezvous with you, you have to focus upon what You want!

That is why processes like gratitude, pray-rain journals and vision boards or one of my favorite everyday rituals – the rampage of appreciation can be so successful, because they take your mind out of the reality that you don’t want and help you to direct your thoughts and vibrations back to the end results–which is what you do want.

The Law of Attraction is a Universal law. It works for me and it works for you. But in order to make it work in your favor you have to play by the right rules.
To quote one of my current favorite movie characters….

So I paid my 99 cents and now I have it on my Itunes. I?m talking about the song ?I kissed a girl? by Katy Perry.

But this is not about the song, or the apparently controversial lyrics.

This is about how I found the song.

A few days ago on MSN it was reported that a pastor in Ohio had found such offense with the lyrics ?I kissed a girl and I liked it? that he was compelled to send a message out to his little corner of the world (yet it caught on nationwide!) on the sign outside of his church. So he wrote ?I kissed a girl and I liked it?..and then I went to Hell!?

Ohhhh…..kay.

I had not heard the song before. They don?t play it on the country music radio station that I listen to the most. My kids are not quite to the age yet where they are really into music or new music so consequently I had never had the opportunity before to hear Katy Perry?s song.

But when someone?.anyone?.of the human persuasion starts condemning another to Hell or whatever for not conforming to what ?they? believe?.my curiosity peaks.

So I found the song. I listened to the song.

I heard the song and I liked it.

The point is that the pastor by spewing out his hate-filled vitriol, actually succeeded at bringing more attention to the song. And yes, it is possible that he had some people who agreed with him. But I?m not one of them.

Yes, he got my attention. The song got my attention. But it was not in the way he intended. Instead of convincing the people who don?t agree with him, he brought more energy and attention to the song.

We live in a all-inclusive Universe. When you give attention to the things that you do not want you succeed in bringing more light to those things.

Just something to consider.

(Especially in the USA in the next 54 days before the elections. Don?t fight against the candidates that you do not want but only focus upon the candidates that you do want.)

Imagine a balance beam, you know the kind that the gymnasts use in the Olympics. A balance beam is 5 meters or about 16.4 feet long and 10 cm or 4 inches wide.
So imagine that this beam is flat to the floor and you are asked to walk across it. Do you have any doubts that you can do it? Easy, right? You may lose your balance a bit but it is likely that you dont have any fear about walking across the beam.

So now put that beam up to the regulation height of 125 cm or about 4.5 feet high. Now think about walking across it.

Do you have more trepidation this time?

Next imagine the same beam, the same piece of wood balanced between two large building that are say&
30 stories high. What do you think about walking across it now?

My guess is that the higher the beam goes into the air, the more frightened you become of that little walk. Yet, it is the same beam, it is still just a short walk of 16.4 feet balanced on a 4 inch plank. It is essentially the same walk.

The difference is your perception.

Now consider this. Circus performers walk tight ropes and do wild things at great heights all the time. If they share the same fears we do then somehow they overcome them and they do it anyway.

The gymnasts not only walk across the beam but they do back handsprings, aerials and turns, leaps and dance poses. All you had to imagine was walking across. The gymnasts have overcome any doubts and fears that they have while the typical, normal adult is too scared to even try.

And the difference is perception. The circus performers and the gymnasts have learned to overcome their fears and do it anyway.

Now, lets shift to something that you can probably relate to.

Think about taking a trip, a trip of a lifetime, to someplace that you have always dreamed of going. You call the airline and the tickets are $25.00. Wow, pocket change, whoohoo, going on a trip! Easy, fun, effortless! How lucky you are!

Now imagine the same trip…..you have always dreamed of going……its still the trip of a lifetime but now the tickets are $2500.00.&.or $25,000.00.&. or (are you ready for this?) $250,000.00.

How lucky do you feel now to be taking that trip of a lifetime?

Its still the same trip. But your feelings about the trip have changed.

At what point does your heart stop and you say I cant do that!.

Its all a matter of perception.

There are people in the world who would not flinch at the price of $250,000.00 or even more for the trip of a lifetime and there are people in the world who would flinch at $250.00 and probably even at $25.00.
(reminder: this is not a conversation about value and worth but rather a conversation about perceptions).

So which one are you?

If you cant even imagine having something that you would want, if you cant even imagine having an abundance of money, love, time, energy, health, whatever it may be that is your wildest dream&.

If you cant imagine your wildest dream then you cant achieve it.

But if you can imagine your dream, you can have it.

And imagining it is all a matter of perception.

But you would have had to have been living under a rock to have not heard who the absolute phenom of the games has been. Michael Phelps, of course. With 8 gold medals and 7 world records, he really has put his mark on these Olympics.

I love watching people like Michael Phelps. It is so inspiring to watch someone who really sets out to create something amazing and wonderful and then succeeds. Dont you agree?

In all of the races that I saw Michael swim, he was far ahead of the competition with the exception of the one. And even in that one, he still got it done in .08 of a second or something like that. I guess the time matters not since he still accomplished his goal. He got the Gold. Its pretty amazing, pretty inspiring.

So Im watching and reading about this young man who is obviously a very powerful creator and there were some things that really stood out for me.

For one, he seems to love his life.

He said that his life consists of eating (apparently a lot! 5000-8000 calories a day and more!) swimming, playing video games and sleeping. He said that he Loves to swim. He loves to train. He loves the pool, and that is really an advantage. Its easier to create wonderful things by being happy and doing what you love. In order to create something that is exceptionally great, it really helps to love what you are doing.

Love Energy in equals Success Energy out compounded to Infinity!

Another thing that really stood out was that in one of the articles that I read it said that Michael has an uncanny ability to predict the time of his races. It said that it was something that he has done with his coach since he started racing. He would write down on a piece of paper what his time would be for the race and then see how close he would come. Turns out that he was right or very, very close to right almost every time.

My question for you is&.Does Michael predict the time of his races or does he intend the time of his races?

Uncanny is perhaps a perfect word to describe the phenomenon but I dont think he predicts his time but rather that he intends his time and the Law of Attraction and the Universe come to his aid.

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps has unequivocally been the phenom of the games.

He loved what he was doing, he had a very clear Intention and he created Massive Success.

It happened for him. No resistance.

And that is a perfect example of Deliberate Creation.

“What if gas prices got to be $**** per gallon?

(what? Did you think that I was going to join in on that pitiful party and say out loud how much? Not me!)

It’s fun to play “what if”. We all enjoy the game of speculating on what the future may hold but some speculations should be reserved just for entertainment purposes, novels and movies. For example,

“What if a giant asteroid hit the earth?”

Yes, that is a subject that could be (and has been) a fun movie or an entertaining read but in real life? No. Don’t think so.

So when you are playing “what if” in real life, play it in a productive, creative way. Rather than thinking about “what if” and following it with a huge catastrophe, follow it with something that you really want, that really makes you happy, and that you would really love to create in your life.

For example…..(this one is for everybody)

“What ……if we could really have world peace?”

Or we could turn that first one around…..
“What if …..the price of gas went down to $***”
Or even better
“What if….. there was so much money that the price of gas didn’t even matter ?”

And since you are speculating for your own future, play your own “what if”.

If you are going to play the “what if” game play it in a manner that serves you. You don’t really want a catastrophe in your life, so stop speculating on that and start speculating on the life that you really want!