I Got to Love These Things!

A few days ago I posted a short piece entitled 'I am responsible.' I'm still responsible for everything in my life. This doesn't mean, however, to other people's actions. I'm not responsible. My responsibility lies in my choice towards their action. People are people, not robots, and hence, they chose to do stuff. They may be unreasonable, unfair, prejudiced, rude, and so on. This is their choice. My choice is what lies between their acts and my response. 

When people wrong me, I should be delighted (i.e. ideally). I'd love to love the opportunity to practise choosing my own response regardless of what they do. I'd prefer to use it as a gym for my emotional strength and character formation. It's the people who do unpleasant things towards me who enhance my growth, if I act and choose my response wisely.

Instead of being offended, view it as it is-a wrong act. Have the right perspective, namely I'm the master of my own thoughts and actions, not another persons. Practise self-control in these situations and strengthen your emotional muscles. Remain cheerful and cordial. Remember, if you let their actions affect your behaviour negatively, you miss the learning opportunity. 

Begin With the End in Mind

What would I want people to say on my funeral? What would I love my daughter say on that day of departure?
I'd love to hear her say how a great loving dad I was and how she learned from me so many lessons that she found useful in her every day life. I'd love her to say how I taught her by my example more than with my words. I'd love her to say that I was her best friend and that she's going to miss me. I'd love her to say that we had fun together, travelled together, and did so many crazy things together. I'd love her to acknowledge that I made it easier for her to find her life's calling. I'd love to hear that my best gift for her was my love for her. I'd love to know that because I was her daddy she is a confident, high achieving, wise, knowledge loving and a woman of integrity.
I'd love people to say that I genuinely loved them and forgave them. I laughed with them and shared their sufferings. I listened and listened to them. I respected them. I didn't preach to them with my words. I was a light to them.
I'd love to know that because of the way I lived and worked people believed in themselves and their true powers. I'd love to hear them say things like, he always said that if I could be this or that, you could also be that because you are a lot smarter than I am.
I'd love people whom I helped with my money to say that they learned compassion from me. They learned the true use of wealth, to be a blessing to others. They learned that if they change their lives, the lives of others would change because of them. 

I am Responsible!

These past couple of years have been very instrumental in learning a lot about who I really am as opposed to who I say I was. So many things happened. All of the bad ones that come to pass were of my own making. I've learned that in hindsight. I'd this chronic tendency of blaming it all on others, while I sympathized with my short comings.
It really feels like waking up from sleep. I can't believe I was that kind of person and didn't even know it. After all that's how ignorance is, like sleep. When you are not awake (mentally/spiritually), you are sleep walking through
life. Then life hits you hard-BOOOM! And you wake up.

The waking up part is enlightening, obviously. However, it's not easy. I was so used to sleep walking that I don't know how to walk while awake. I remember this line from Julian Cameroon, "Going sane feels just like going insane." How true! I'd to learn the skills-personal, social, business, etc.- that I needed to function in this new reality. Learning is arduous. The fruit is long in coming. Habits are hard to break. (Sometimes, I feel there are two people living in me.)
I'm thrilled that I now know that I am responsible for where I am in life and what happened in my life. (This admission has within itself another admission, "I was (also) irresponsible.") I'm now able to catch myself in the old mode of thinking. I'm able to choose some of my thoughts, and hence, some of my actions. But I've a long way to go. I'm only a baby of few days of age.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!

There may not be a single soul who sees the pearl in your being. There may not be anyone who gives you the attention you crave. There may not be anyone who, for a moment, believes that there's greatness ahead of you. There is, however, one sure thing: you got have the faith and belief in yourself. God, who lives within, believes in you and your repay his faith by believing in yourself.
So have faith in yourself every moment of every day.