Are we losing, or have we lost our resiliency?
                 

Are we becoming soft and self-absorbed?
 
Most of our ancestors came from other countries or continents.  Have you ever thought about what they must have gone through to get here just for the opportunity to achieve their dreams?
 
Imagine living in the 17th century and having to, or wanting to move to another part of the world.  Imagine having to relocate a family of 6 or 8, packing only the items you can carry and selling everything else.  Then getting on a wooden ship about the length of your house with sailors and crewmen you don’t know. 

And then, traveling thousands of miles across the ocean, not knowing where you are or what may happen during the voyage.
 
When you finally land, after months at sea, you don’t have any idea where you and your family will sleep.  You may not have any food for a time.  You probably will not have work for a time.  What do you do with your family?  How do you feed them, protect them?
 
I can only image how tough my ancestors had to be.  I can only guess at their resiliency.  Are we that tough, that resilient? 
 
Are we in danger of becoming too soft?  Are we in danger of taking events in our life as a personal affront or a personal attack?
 
Are we tough and resilient when we blame our problems on others, when we don’t take personal responsibility for our current life situation?
 
When life deals us a blow, do we lie down and whine and feel sorry for ourselves?  Or do we feel the pain, and then get back into the game of life?  
 
I believe we need to be tougher, not mean or rude, just more resilient.  We don’t need to act ugly to people.  We simply need to take the events in our life less personally, and focus on our gifts, talents and passions. 

When we do, we will find, way down deep, the presence of a toughness, a resilience our ancestors displayed that has, perhaps, been obscured.
 
Start using your Fearless Thinking skills to become tougher and more resilient.

Pressure is self-imposed.  It is self-induced.

While writing about pressure, I found myself putting pressure on myself to make this weekly thought clear and thorough, yet concise.

The more I tried to be concise and clear as to where pressure comes from and how it manifests in our life the less clear and concise it became.

The harder I tried (pressure) the less it flowed.  Our life is very much the same.  We put pressure on ourselves with our “have to’s” and “musts”.  We feel the pressure to perform (financially, relationally, career wise).  The harder we try, the more pressure we put on ourselves and the less creative we are.

When an athlete says to himself “I have to make this basket”, “I have to make the perfect pitch” or “I have to get a base hit”, he creates the pressure that keeps him out of the “zone”.  The athlete’s body tightens, and his breath becomes shallow, causing him to be less “athletic”. 

In sports we perform best when we are in the “zone”.  And the same is true for our life.  When we take the pressure off of ourselves, we become more relaxed and more creative. We get into the “zone” more easily. 

Since pressure is self-imposed, self-induced, we can take control of the “have to’s” and the “musts” and turn them into creative “zone inducing” thoughts.

Take the PRESSURE off of yourself!  Use the skills taught in Fearless Thinking to get into the “zone” and create your life.

Dictionary.com defines Indoctrination as … “teaching someone to accept doctrines uncritically”.  Two synonyms are brainwash and propagandize.

Raise your hand if you want to be indoctrinated.  Raise your hand if you would knowingly allow someone to indoctrinate you.

Now, a better question, how many of us have been indoctrinated?  If you have, who was the one doing the indoctrinating?

Unfortunately, we allow ourselves to be indoctrinated continually.  Of course, we don’t call it indoctrination.  We call it advertising, commercials and mass media.

In fact, they are the minor players in this drama.  The real culprit is….us.  We are the indoctrinators.

When we continually self-talk our failures, mistakes and limitations, we are indoctrinating ourselves.  Isn’t it strange that we will do to ourselves that which we loathe someone else trying to do to us!

Continual self-talk is indoctrination, either positively or negatively.  Since we are indoctrinating ourselves anyway, why not indoctrinate ourselves to be joyful, peaceful, creative and loving?

It is only a matter of changing what we focus on.

Use your Fearless Thinking skills to indoctrinate yourself with Joy, Peace, Love and Creativity.

Be a Fearless Thinker.

We are all more gifted, talented, deserving, passionate, resilient, and capable than we give ourselves credit for.

There is a story about an eagle’s egg that rolled down the hill into a farm yard full of chickens.  When the egg hatched, the eagle thought he was a chicken.  So, he acted like a chicken.  The eagle could see his family soaring high over head.  He could feel the longing in his heart, but the chickens told him he could never fly.  And, he never did.

Perhaps, you have heard the story of the man who heard about diamonds being discovered in a far off land.  He sold all of his property to travel there and search for diamonds.  After a few years, the new owner of the land discovered diamonds lying in a river running through his property.

How about the beggar that had been sitting on a box for many years, while begging for money?  When asked by a stranger what was in the box, he said there was nothing in it.  The stranger insisted that he look in the box.  When the box was opened, the beggar was astonished to discover gold.

Just to be sure you understand the point, each of these stories talks about the gifts and talents that are anxiously waiting for us to uncover them.  Don’t look to the outside!  Look to the inside!  Everything we need has been given to us as a gift.  All we need to do is to uncover and discover the gifts, and use them for their intended purpose.

Become a Fearless Thinker, and discover your gifts and talents.