Gratitude, Prosperity & Positive Overload?

When I first became aware that what I thought seemed to materialize in my life,  I was quite nonchalant about it.  In my way of thinking it was just something I had chosen for myself and eventually, whether with my action or not, it seemed to always show up and usually just when I was able to accept it into my life with ease and gratefulness.  It never occurred to me that this didn't seem to happen to everyone.  I didn't realize that perhaps I was a bit more unique (odd?) than my friends who neither believed in what I believed in and didn't believe that what they thought could impact their lives in both negative and positive ways.

Believe and it can be

My very first experience with the "Believe, Conceive, Achieve" experience of today was way back when I was about 16.  While walking along a road with my cousin one day, we happened to pass a house where a bunch of guys were outside working.  One guy had his shirt off and was nicely tanned, with blondish brown hair.  I'd never met the guy before and knew nothing about him but I pointed to him and said to my cousin, "Someday, I'm going to marry that guy!"  She laughed of course, not taking me seriously and actually I don't think I was serious either...but a year later I met this fellow at a New Years Eve party and we hit it off.  Of course I think the long hair and John Lennon glasses may have had something to do with my attraction to him. Two weeks later though he seemed to lose interest so as I always did, I said goodbye, see you around, let's still be friends.  Two years later he met me at a dance  and two years after that, we were married.

After we had been married for about 6 years we decided on a spur of the moment to move to another city that was about 2 hours from where we had built our home.  With no job prospects in that city and no idea why we were really moving we went to the city for a trip to visit relatives.  While there we drove by a set of octagon high rise buildings and I pointed to one of the buildings and said, "One day we're going to live there."  Just prior to our moving to the city, we saw a job advertised in the paper.  We applied for it and ended up getting it.  It was for a couple to take over the Resident Manager duties at the very high rise I had pointed to and said we would live in.  We lived on the 18th floor of that building and boy was the view fabulous!

Then, several months later, as we drove by a building that housed a local Cable company, I pointed to the building and told my husband, "Someday I'm going to work there!" Of course he laughed, as did I.  Oddly enough within 4 weeks I was indeed working there.  I remained there for a few years until one day I decided I wanted to get hired by a local Embassy.  Of course, by now you know how that went...yes, I was hired by the Embassy of my choice and remained with them for several years.

Continue Reading>>

Do you allow the cream to rise to the top?

I've always had a problem accepting a compliment as a compliment. It's in part due to my childhood which was for the most part unremarkable but which, on occasion seemed to dip into a rather hollow pit. These pits were usually during periods of time when my mother, whom I firmly believe suffered from Bi-Polar, would rage against me for something I had failed to accomplish to her standards. As a perfectionist, it was rare that my child-like attempts would ever reach the level of acceptance that she often demanded and expected from others. It was often difficult  to understand what my mother truly expected from me. More often than not, I failed to meet let alone exceed her expectations and this would more often than not lead to criticism rather than compliments.

On the other side of the coin was my father who was never at a loss for words when it came to praising a person's attempts no matter how weak or how poorly completed. I remember clearly the day that he completed work on a vehicle that he was planning to sell. I had just gotten my learners permit and was thrilled when he asked me to move the car from one spot in the driveway to another. (My father had incredible belief and trust in his children, even if it meant more work for him!)  My error came when I paid attention to a friend who, to be fair, sincerely believed she was helping to  guide me as I backed the car up. The only problem was that she hadn't taken into consideration the fact that there was a big wooden lawn chair between the car and the garage!  Of course, neither had I.  I backed right into the chair and solidly squashed it against the side of the car that my father had carefully fixed, painted and polished and up against the garage wall.

As he came out to survey the damage  I fully expected my father to send me to my room without any outside ventures for quite some time. Instead, he turned to me, his 6 foot 5inch frame towering over me and his gentle voice falling softly on my ears and said, "Well, it's a lot less damage than I thought it would be. Did you happen to learn anything from this?" To which I quickly responded, "I learned to look myself before I move a car!"

Continue Reading>>