MDP

This is a society of instant gratification.  All too often, when faced with what seem unassailable walls between where we are and where we want to be, we turn aside from our goals rather than find a way through or around those walls.

Make a decision to succeed, no matter what.  Keep chipping away at those walls until you break through.  If you need external validation to provide your motivation, you’re looking in the wrong place.  Those on the outside looking in will never see the incremental growth that you’re making towards your goals and will think that you’re at a standstill when in reality the effort that you expend is constantly moving your closer to your goal.

Take a few deep breaths, picture your goal, then get back at it.  It’s the only way you’ll ever get there.

I tell ya, the Beattles had a lot of this stuff figured out, but I never really understood, or really listened.

If you pick some result that you want to achieve in your life and begin back tracking how you got there, you’ll find that every positive thing in your live has a basis in love.

Love of yourself, family, lovers, friends, strangers and nature..

So,open the door to each of those types of love, stand fast in the face of a life, which through our perspective can either pull us down or lift us up. It is all up to us how to approach things.

Throughout my life, although less as I age, I have sought approval from those around me, parents, friends, co-workers, girlfriends.. hell, even people I have just met. Earlier in my life it wasn’t unheard of for me to talk up, or brag about different things in my life. Even, at times, embellishing the truth or outright lying about things. If you were one of those people that I did that to:

I’m sorry, it was wrong and I strive to do that no longer.

I do think that I have turned a corner in the last few years where I no longer seek that approval at every turn. I can’t say that I never find myself exaggerating at times, but when I do I catch myself through a little twinge of awareness.

The goal I have set for myself is to only ever use myself as the benchmark by which I judge myself, not how others see me. My sense of satisfaction, or disappointment should only come from myself.

In order to live with a sense of positive purpose, I need to constantly look at myself in the mirror, wiping away the fog of self delusion, however thin it may be, and see how my actions effect the most important person in my life.

Myself.

I’ve never actually sat down and thought about the core values which govern my life. I think having a considered approach to this allows one an easy reference. Through the day you can say, “Am what I am doing right now in line w/ my core values”.

So..I sat down to figure it out by just writing down a number of concepts that are important to me, maybe some that I do well today, other that I’d like to do better.

The list became quite long, so I tried to categorize them into a few key concepts that I could easily recall and reference.

The long list:
Perseverance
Commitment
Honesty
Respect
Playfullness
Innocent Curiosity
Responsibility
Creativity
Compasssion
Patience
Empathy
Integrity
Kindness

These ultimately got grouped as below:

1) Care
- Compassion
- Empathy
- Kindness

2) Explore Life
- Creativity
- Playfullness
- Innocent Curiosity
- Learn

3) Be Trustworthy
- Commitment
- Honesty
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Integrity

4) Take the Long View
- Perseverance
- Patience

These 4 things are going to be going up around me as a constant reminder.

What are your core values?