Posted on by BWThomas

Playing our game, meeting the challenges, chasing the dream, loving, and making the best of what is.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

In the game of life, we must play what is dealt to us, and the glory consists, not so much in winning, but in playing a poor hand well. Josh Billings

Our team plays an important game, and we are sure we’ve lost it early in the game. We wake up and our team is out of the playoffs, but the birds are still singing, newly planted flowers and vegetables look beautiful and vigorous. Our family is as healthy as it was yesterday, and life goes on.

We get caught up in the fortunes of the teams we root for. Watching them gives us a little excitement in our lives. For a few brief weeks, we dream this could be our year. The sports we watch on TV or the games we attend are not important games unless our children are playing, because we are just spectators in someone else’s game.

The important game is our game, the game of life. Too soon, our game will end, the opportunities, missed plays, wins, and losses will be over. Do we wish we’d played a better game, made better choices, taken a chance instead of playing it safe, or played it safe instead of taking a chance?

We are where we are, but it doesn’t mean we don’t still have choices. Are we in the first period of life, second, or third, and will we get a chance at overtime? I watched a heartwarming movie, “Nonna’s,” the other night. It’s about overcoming loss, following your heart, and taking a chance. It’s based on a true story about everyday people chasing a dream.

Every small business is someone’s dream of a better life. Some small businesses become big businesses, but they all start in someone’s mind first. Businesses come and go; some live long after their creator. This week, Canadian Tire bought the branding and intellectual property from the Hudson’s Bay Company. One iconic Canadian company will own the multicolored stripes motif, coat of arms, houseware brands Gluckstein and Distinctly Home, and the apparel line Hudson North.

Ultimately the way to win the game of life, is found in only one thing: Our ability to choose meaning in any life circumstance. Become the master of meaning and you master your life. Tony Robbins

Change is always coming, some of it we like and some we don’t, but we must accept the bitter with the sweet. How often do we wish things were different, but if we want something different in our lives, we must do something different? We’ll have to take a chance, get out of our comfort zone, try something we’ve never tried, or return to something we gave up on when life got in the way.

Life is about choices, some we’ll be proud of, some we’ll regret, and some will haunt us forever, but the choices we didn’t make haunt us as well. The things that coulda, woulda, and shoulda been, if only…

We might wish we’d stayed with something longer, or given up sooner. Maybe we wish we’d travelled more, taken the opportunity far away, or stayed close to family and loved ones. When we say yes to something, we are saying no to something else, and we have to be okay with that. Time spent doing something means it isn’t time spent doing something else. We can juggle a few things, and we have to choose what those things will be.

What would we choose if we knew we couldn’t fail? What would we like to do, but doesn’t seem worth the effort to make the changes needed to make it happen? What if we took the chance? Is a new adventure waiting if we get out of our comfort zone? Are we waiting for a push, a sign, or a cataclysmic event to make a change we want to make?

Most people consider life a battle, but it is not a battle; it is a game. Florence Scovel Shinn

Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor. Sholom Aleichem

Life is a song – sing it. Life is a game – play it. Life is a challenge – meet it. Life is a dream – realize it. Life is a sacrifice – offer it. Life is love – enjoy it. Sal Baba

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To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts, click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to those who leave reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item, I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Appreciating uncertainty, embracing self-doubt, and moving forward with faith and courage.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Fear and self-doubt have always been the greatest enemies of human potential. Brian Tracy

 On Saturday, I gave a talk at Mississauga Writers Group on self-doubt. How often does self-doubt keep us from doing something we want to do? Does it also have us check over something before we do it? Is the flip side of self-doubt hubris, where we feel invincible and overconfident? Would being overconfident be better than being underconfident and doubting ourselves? Do both of them come with an upside and a downside?

We might envy the overconfident but also consider them arrogant. The world appears to be their oyster, but does it come with challenges?

What does confidence feel and look like? We might be confident in one area and struggle in other areas. Do we compare the worst of ourselves to the best of someone else? Do we see other people’s ambitions as more noble, worthy, and important than our own?

We are where we are; our decisions and circumstances have brought us here. Some things can be changed, and some things cannot, but what if accepting the reality of our lives, where we are, the constraints we have, and embracing what is possible is how to live a joyful and consequential life, no matter our age or stage.

Do we have gifts we could and should be using to better our lives and the lives of those around us? What would it look like if we made the best of every opportunity? Encouraged every person we meet, built bridges wherever we can, and forgive ourselves and others for being less than we feel we and they should be.

Life is a journey, and of course, if we’d known then what we know now, we’d have made different choices in some areas, but that might also lead to consequences we don’t like.

You’re busy doubting yourself while others are intimidated by your full potential. Unknown

We were told the consequences of many things in the truisms we grew up with. Things like, “Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” We may look at someone who lived by that maxim all their lives and wonder how they are healthier, wealthier, and wiser than us. Who can say they were never told to “Live below their means,” or “Self-mastery is the road to freedom?”

Was it hubris that we didn’t listen to the sage advice we received, or chose which nuggets to follow? Is life simple, but not easy, and everyone has challenges to deal with?

What if wrestling with self-doubt is part of life, and every time we want to take a new path, we will struggle with it? What if courage and faith are what we need to go forward in life? It’s what we’ve always needed. We might have areas in our lives where courage and faith are easy, other areas where we find it hard, and it is the combination of everything we do and everything we think that builds our lives.

What if self-doubt and fear, if we harness them, can help us build a better life, and we need to go forward with faith and courage to make the best of what can be? Our life won’t look like someone else’s because it is ours. If we all wrote a book, it wouldn’t be the same book, even if the prompts we were given were the same. That is how life is: we can’t change the past, but we can turn the page and write a new chapter.

What would we like more of in the next chapter of our lives? What do we need to do to make it happen, and what do we need to give up, change, redirect, or embrace? If we have life, we have choices, and our choices today will impact our tomorrows.

What choices do we have before us, what would we like to be, have, or do?

Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will. Unknown

When self-doubt creeps in, don’t ignore it – address it. Unknown

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt. William Shakespeare

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Posted on by BWThomas

Motherhood and the hand that rocks the cradle.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Raising a child is like planting a seed and watching it grow into a beautiful flower. Lisa Wingate

It’s been a family weekend. Our daughter attended a bachelorette party, and we looked after our six-month-old breastfed granddaughter. With a good supply of breast milk, bottles, and a hungry baby, we had a wonderful time. She slept like a baby, getting up every few hours to feed, and I felt like I was managing okay, but it was hard to get up this morning.

Raising children is a big job, and we forget how big it was when it is behind us. Motherhood is romanticized; it is a lot of work, but it is one of the most fulfilling roles we get in life. I’m sure it is romanticized because we become so much more when we become mothers than when our only concern was our interests. So much of life is taken up with caring, feeding, and providing for children that we lose connection with people who aren’t parents or want to be parents.

Motherhood is not the power-wielding career some women crave, but when it was said, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” It wasn’t said in jest; the families we are born into color our view of the world, the possibilities we see for our lives, and the dreams for our future.

Fathers and mothers have dreams for their children; they mold and shape them in the early years. Some children rebel, some attain a parent’s dream without realizing their own, some have so many choices but never choose a direction. Sometimes, going with the flow puts people on paths they didn’t know they could choose.

Life works in mysterious ways, and we never know if things we think are bad will work out for good, or things we think are good will end up bad. We have to have faith to deal with what shows up in our lives, the good, the bad, and the ugly. We need not be too harsh with those who need a helping hand because some day we or someone we love may need one.

I wrestle with what help looks like, when we elevate, and when we enable. Are we building a strong, resilient society, or a society that only works for a lucky few?

Life isn’t fair, it will never be fair, and maybe part of what we need to embrace is who we are with our gifts, vulnerabilities, and potential. I wonder if we spend so much time wishing we had other gifts, we don’t use the potential we do have. Are we like roses wishing we were dahlias, or rabbits who would rather be the hawk?

The most precious jewels you’ll ever have around your neck are the arms of your children. Cardinal Mermillod

I think of Mom and Dad, who didn’t have the benefits society offered many, because their parents moved north to homesteads in a new area where schools would eventually be built. Dad often said, “You got a good education.” Looking back at the opportunities available, I wonder why I didn’t do more with what was offered.

We sat around the table last night, and my husband mentioned a detached house we looked at years ago for $110,000.00. We thought Wow, how could we afford that? A few years later, we bought a condo and paid much more. Does anyone make all the right decisions? When we look back on our lives, we had opportunities and choices; we took one road, but we will never know where the other road might have taken us.

How many people look back over their lives and think they should have made different choices? Should I have married him or her? Should we have had more children and started sooner or later? Should we have started a business, or stayed with the good job that would have given us a pension?

Life is about choices, and our choices make us. We become parents, or we don’t, and sometimes it’s a choice, but other times circumstance. Our big goal may elude us, or when we get it feels like an empty victory. We may reach the pinnacle of success in one area of our lives, but fail in others.

If we go forward with a good attitude and gratitude for what we have, and teach our children to be grateful for what they have, as they look for opportunities to contribute to society. I think we’ve succeeded as parents.

As Mother’s Day approaches, many of us give thanks for a mother we can no longer talk to. We hold her memory in our hearts; we appreciate what she taught us, her endless love and support. Even if we didn’t feel endlessly supported and loved, she gave us life and the opportunity to grow and develop into who we are and make the best of this life. If we haven’t made the best of it yet, there might be time to make some choices and make the best of what is still to come.

A salute to mothers who did the best they could. We might not understand the challenges they faced, the choices they felt compelled to make, or the sacrifices made so we would benefit.

Thanks, Mom, for all you were, and all you did.

Parenting is the easiest thing in the world to have an opinion about, but the hardest thing in the world to do. Matt Walsh

The best kind of parent you can be is to lead by example. Drew Barrymore

The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family. Mother Teresa

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it and return to read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

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Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item, I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Choose wisely, but have the courage to choose.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

May your choices reflect your hopes, and not your fears? Unknown

If we have a choice, we should make what we think is the best choice. If we don’t choose, we’ll have to live with everyone else’s choice.

If we think our choices don’t matter, is that why we don’t make better choices or make any choice? If every choice we make in life builds our life, and it makes sense that it does, do we eliminate the worst choices and think of the long-term consequences before we make a choice?

As I sit writing this, my husband is listening to people complaining about the price of food, gas, eggs, and deodorant. What are we to make of the cost of food these days? We should realize how lucky we’ve been, and we might want to go back to the days of cheap food, and maybe we can, or maybe we can’t. I remember asking Mom about the price of food when she first got married in 1941, and she said they spent every penny they could on food. She told me they budgeted to the penny, and to buy her a Christmas present, her husband quit smoking to save up the money for her gift.

I’ve never budgeted to the penny, but I did take a calculator to the grocery store to keep our food bill in check, and maybe this practice should be brought back. We live in peace and plenty, and today we have choices to make, and in the end, those choices will add up to our lives. Will we look back and think we made the best choices, or will we think, if we could do it again, we’d make a different choice?

In the end that was the choice you made, and it doesn’t matter how hard it was to make it. It matters that you did. Cassandra Clare

Is it possible to make the best choice every time? Probably not, because we don’t know what the future holds, and if things go one way, choice A might be best, and if things go a different way, choice B might be best. In the middle of things, we might always question our choices, perhaps this is one of the laws of life. If this isn’t how life works, how could the Israelites who were freed from bondage in Egypt have longed to go back to what they left when they hit the hardships that freedom brought?

We want to keep the good we have, and the good that might come from a choice, and this can fill us with doubt. What if we stay where we are with what we know, instead of forging on to the Promised Land? That Promised Land might be a new job, getting married, starting a family, starting a business, moving to a new country, or even retiring and enjoying the golden years we’ve worked so hard for. No matter the choice we make, we will likely at some point look longingly back at where we were and the choices we didn’t make.

The more choices we have, the more dissatisfied we might be with the ones we made, or worse yet might not be able to bring ourselves to make a choice, and we sit on the fence of life waiting, hoping, and praying for the courage to make a decision that will propel us forward, but life is still moving forward even if we aren’t.

Not making a choice is a choice; we live with the consequences when we don’t choose. Making the best choice is probably better than living with the direction our life will take when we have to live with everyone else’s choices.

If we have a choice to make today, we should make it and get on with living our best life. The sum of daily choices adds up, and so does the sum of not making choices.

Who does more complaining after an election, those who voted or those who didn’t vote? In America, 90 million Americans didn’t vote in the last election, and that’s a bigger number than those who voted. Do you think those who didn’t vote are happier with everyone else’s choice than if they’d made a choice themselves?

There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist or accept the responsibility for changing them. Denis Waitley

It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions. Jim Rohn

Our lives are fashioned by our choices. First we make our choices. Then our choices make us. Anne Frank

Thank you for reading this post. Please return and read more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts, click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to those who leave reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item, I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Every day comes with challenges and choices; sometimes we fall, but we should always get back up.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson

I wanted to lie in bed longer this morning. How important is it if I get this blog out, in the big scheme of things, or any scheme at all? It’s important because if I stop, I might not start up again. A few Mondays of not bothering is the end. It’s not the end if there is a reason we stop something, but if we stop for no reason, then it probably is the end. We might be going through a period of self-doubt, wondering why bother, no one needs my ramblings.

But, I need them; they’ve become a part of what I do, and I like myself better when I write, just like I like myself better when I eat right and exercise. I read an article by a doctor over one hundred years old, and he says the most important thing is to exercise daily. It is better to exercise and be overweight than be thin and not exercise.

We often belittle what we can do, because we aren’t perfect. If we can walk and do, we will be healthier, even if we have a cookie, cake, or ice cream sometime in the day. Moving and stretching are good for us.

Yesterday was a time to get together, share a meal, and laugh. We need to take the time to get together and enjoy the time we have. Time flies by fast; our grandson is already three, and our granddaughter is six months old. It won’t seem that long, and he’ll be twenty-three and she’ll be turning twenty-one. Those twenty years will fly by regardless of how I fill my time.

Finding a creative outlet and enjoying creating something lifts our spirits and feeds our souls. Getting our fingers in the dirt, cleaning up debris, and neatening up the yard gives us a feeling of accomplishment. Spring blooms make us smile. If we plant them, can we make someone else smile as they walk by?

The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises. Leo Buscaglia

Life is here, and we need to make the most of it. It won’t be perfect, we worry about things that won’t happen, and are blindsided by those that do. Things work out because we adjust to the realities of life, we might think I couldn’t manage if, but we can, whatever that if is.

One of the best things Mom and Dad did was show us what perseverance, courage in the face of adversity, and facing challenges head-on looked like. They planted in the spring, harvested in the fall, and dealt with what came. There is no other way to live a life. We might not be planting our seeds in soil, maybe we are planting seeds of a different sort, but they will still need time to germinate, they will still need to be tended and nourished as they grow to fruition, they will need to be harvested, and new seeds need to be sown.

We might feel like giving up, we might have given up on some of our dreams, but giving up is a sad thing to watch. We’ve seen a house that looks like the occupants have given up. The backyard is full of things that were once or still are treasures, but it all looks like junk to an onlooker. The house looks as rough as the backyard. Whenever I watch shows on hoarders, there is always a story behind the hoarding, usually one of loss. The question begs to be asked: What would it take for the hoarder to find a better way to deal with loss?

We, too, might be so broken by loss we can’t find a way out, and maybe we should think, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. Napoleon Hill

We cannot force someone to hear a message they are not ready to receive, but we must never underestimate the power of planting a seed. Unknown

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another. Napoleon Hill

Thank you for reading this post. Please return and read more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts, click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item, I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

If we take the step, will the bridge be there?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

We must trust in ourselves to learn the way, to build the bridge as we walk on it. Robert Quinn

What a wonderful weekend, Writers Group Saturday morning and a baby shower in the afternoon. Watching young couples take their place in the world is wonderful, and having babies is one of the most important contributions they will make to society. Who knows who that little person will grow up to be, and what they might bring to the world. New life and new love give us hope for the future. The joy on the faces of soon-to-be parents fills our hearts with hope and joy. Is there any endeavor where we build the bridge as we walk on it more than marriage and parenthood?

I’m reminded of a book, “Take the Step the Bridge will be There,” by Grace Cirocco. I was thrilled to hear a familiar voice on the radio one day, talking about the book she wrote, and as she spoke, I realized the author was a ballet mother from years ago. Her book was published in 2000, and our daughters were in ballet around the mid to late 1990s.

How many people did we meet before they made something happen in their lives, and how many of us haven’t taken the step, not trusting the bridge would be there? What if we didn’t get married, start a business, have a baby, buy a house, travel the world, and write the book or any of the myriad things on our list to do? What can we still do, what is still possible, and what dream did we sacrifice for another dream?

Discipline is the bridge between goal and accomplishment. Jim Rohn

Having it all is a myth; we have to make choices, and sometimes we won’t be happy with the choices and sacrifices we make. Even though we can’t have everything, we might be able to have more than we think we can, especially if we don’t try to do everything at once. What has to happen now, and what can happen later? We might need to ask ourselves, how much later do we have?

Life is about choices, and the choices we make will make us. Sometimes we take a chance, do something we’ve never done before with fear and trembling. Our hands might shake as we sign the agreement to purchase a house. The next purchase will be easier and the one after that easier still.

What if we fail? That might be our biggest worry, but what if not doing something is what we should fear? What if the bridge is there if we take the chance on love, life, and pursue our dreams? What if learning to navigate the twists and turns of life is better than trying to have a smooth life?  

What if trusting the process of life, taking one step and then another, is what we should do? Do we think, who are we to do that? Why not us? If we do something we haven’t done, once we do it, we may wonder what we were afraid of? Are we afraid of change? Life is changing even if we stand still, and we won’t know what we can do until we do it. What do we still want to do, see, and make happen?

The bridge will take you halfway there – the last few steps you will have to take yourself. Shei Silverstein

The hardest thing in life to learn is which bridge to cross and which to burn. David Russell

Your problem is to bridge the gap which exists between where you are now and goal you intend to reach. Earl Nightingale

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Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to those who leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item, I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Do we need to get out of our comfort zone and be comfortable with being uncomfortable?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

If you’re serious about achieving what you desire and deserve, you have to constantly ask yourself, “Is this an act of self-love or is it an act of self-sabotage?” The key to a successful, fulfilled life is self-love. Debbie Ford

How we spend our days is how we spend our lives. I had an epiphany the other day. I’d set a goal, and then completely forgot about it. I set the goal of self-publishing my third children’s book on my grandson’s third birthday. It doesn’t seem like a goal to forget, and it would have been a nice gift to give him on his birthday, which just passed.

I had a day of goal setting, and thought it would be nice to publish the third book on his third birthday. I didn’t set up the steps to make it happen, or place the goal where I would see it every day, and it didn’t happen.

Getting off track with our goals is easier than we think. We start to veer off course, and if we don’t correct ourselves, a goal we could have reached becomes a wish, a hope, a dream, or a prayer, but not a reality. There’s always an excuse if we want one, and we often don’t recognize self-sabotage when it enters our lives.

It doesn’t take long to derail our good intentions, lose our good practices, or get off track with something we want to do. It seems I always need to be getting myself back on track. A little more sleep in the morning, a little more TV in the evening, and the progress I’ve been making almost comes to a standstill.

My Dad used to say, “Some people can’t work for themselves because they aren’t tough enough bosses.” Many of us don’t slack when we are accountable to someone else, but when we are accountable only to ourselves, when it is something we want to do for ourselves, we don’t think we count enough to make it happen. Is this self-doubt rearing its head again? Do self-doubt and self-sabotage go hand in hand?

A person’s potential is sabotaged by self-doubt more than by all external constraints combined. Brian Tracy

We need to be as gentle with ourselves as we would be with anyone else, and we also need to be as hard on ourselves as we would be with anyone else. No one cares if I complete my next writing project, and it doesn’t seem I care that much either. I like working on my projects, but completing them is another thing. When they are complete, they are out into the world, in a sense, are no longer mine, they can no longer be as great as I’d imagined, and they can be judged.

I wonder if self-doubt is ever fully dealt with; it rears its head at times we don’t expect, and it makes us second-guess things we thought we’d settled in our minds. We say we want to grow and develop, but do we really, or is that what we tell ourselves as we sink into the couch to watch one more movie or episode of something we find more compelling than our creativity?

Would we be comfortable if we hit a new level of success, or would that cause an identity crisis? How do we get comfortable, or is it getting comfortable being uncomfortable that we need to master?

When we say we want something and then work to prevent it from happening that is self-sabotage. Alyce Cornyn-Selby

There is no doubt that our preferred method of self-sabotage is procrastination. Alyce Cornyn-Selby

Give up getting in your own way. Give up offering justifications. Give up explaining why you are unable to. Quit undermining yourself. Akiroq Brost

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts, click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to everyone who leaves a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item, I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

What would our life look like if we reached our potential?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Don’t set limits on your unlimited potential. Unknown

What is our potential? How good are we compared to how good we could be? Is there a limit on improvement? If we continually improve something in our lives, our lives can be richer, and what if we don’t know how good things could be? Does this apply to individuals, families, communities, countries, and the world?

What part of our lives would we like to see improved? Do we have enough friends, or should we join a group of like-minded people? Do we get enough exercise and have enough fun outdoors, breathing in fresh air with the sun on our faces and the wind in our hair? Are we robustly healthy for our age and stage in life? Is the food we eat as wholesome and colorful as it can be?

We watch children grow and develop, but when do we decide we are developed? What if we didn’t reach the magical age of adulthood and settle into building a life, and often give up on earlier dreams? What if we kept those dreams alive for later when we have time to pursue them? Doing for our families takes all the time, energy, and resources we have, but what if, after the heavy lifting of raising children is over, we have a new lease on life and potential to make something out of the later years that didn’t fit into those years of heavy lifting?

Life is a journey, and what if we never finish improving something until we breathe our last breath? I’m looking around at women who are aging gracefully, who are active in their eighties, going to the gym, swimming, joining book clubs, travelling, and active in Toastmasters or other groups like horticulture societies, and quilting guilds.

Our health might not be as much in our control as we’d like; seemingly healthy people are blindsided by cancer, and some overcome it, and some will not. Maybe it isn’t so much the years in our life as the life in our years.

Believe in your potential, even when others don’t see it yet. Unknown

I wonder if I am living as fully and deeply as I can. Where can I improve? Is every relationship in my life as great as I would like? Will there always be room for improvement in relationships, and is it possible if I set my mind to it?

Life is ahead of us until it isn’t, and none of us know when life will take a turn we didn’t see coming. Change is coming for all of us; we can embrace it, live with it, and love it, live with it and hate it, but we can’t change what we can’t change.

Seeing the potential in our own and others’ lives is what we can do. Who can we encourage who struggles with seeing the potential in their lives? Who can we uplift, encourage, and support?

Sometimes we want to do big things, but maybe focusing on small things we can do right now will make the biggest difference in our lives. The more we get the little things right, the more we will get the big things right, because little things add up to big things. Are we too busy focusing on the big things that we let the little things slide, so we never figure out how to get the big things we want in life?

If our daily habits are what build our lives, then it makes sense that all change must come from our daily habits. What does a good day look like? What would a good week look like? Of course, perfection is the enemy of the good, and do we look down on little satisfactions and pleasures which add up to a good life, thinking about big things others are accomplishing, which makes our life look small and insignificant?

What if comparing ourselves to others is one of the worst things we do? What if we should be comparing where we are to where we used to be, and take satisfaction in the forward momentum of our lives? Small incremental steps will get us somewhere, so will big leaps, but what if the small incremental steps lead to the possibility of big leaps?

We are where we are, and we have to be okay with that; it doesn’t mean we can’t move in the direction we desire. We might want to be the hare, but what if we are the tortoise? We applaud early bloomers, but what of those who make continual though not applauded progress in life, and what of the late bloomers? What if some of the best moments can still be ahead of us if we have the right attitude? What if we embrace getting better in all areas of our life, and we don’t know where that will lead, because there is always room for improvement, and when we get to the top of one mountain, we see another mountain to climb?

Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start. Nido Qubein

Continuous effort, not strength or intelligence, is the key to unlocking your potential. Winston Churchill

You are the master of unspoken words, but a slave to the words you have spoken. Winston Churchill

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Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item, I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

A rich life is not all about money.

Don’t let money run your life. Let money help you run your life better. John Rampton

Do we have enough for our needs and most of our wants? Are we rich enough in material blessings? How do we stack up in non-material blessings?

Do we have harmony in our relationships?

Freedom from fear, failure, and disappointment, because we know we have resilience and can handle what comes even if it brings us to our knees.

Do we have the hope of an achievement, and are we shining a light in someone else’s life?

Do we trust the process of life, believing the bridge will be there if we need it?

Are we willing to be generous, share our blessings of time, money, and knowledge, and lift others?

Do we have something we love to do, not all aspects of it, but enough, and do we add value to other people’s lives?

Do we have an open mind on all subjects so we are in a state of learning?

Do we have self-discipline and can delay gratification? Is our plan unfolding through visions, strategies, and tactics?

Too many people spend money they earned… to buy things they don’t want… to impress people they don’t like. Unknown

Do we have the capacity to understand people? Do we have easy communication with them, understand what makes them tick, and motivates them?

Do we have economic security, financial freedom, and freedom of choice, time, and purpose?

If we can tick off a few of the questions, and others need work we are a work in progress. Shouldn’t we always be a work in progress, because progress is what we are after as we build our lives with purpose, faith, and gratitude?

What does a rich life mean to us? A rich life can’t be all about money because if we have no one to share it with how rich is that? Do we have friends, and people around us we love and care about? Are we loving, generous, and kind to those around us? Do we encourage, uplift, motivate, and notice a step in the right direction?

When we think of someone, do we call them, and do our best to help without enabling them? Is someone’s life better because we are in it? If we are rich in more ways than just money, aren’t we rich indeed?

It is the loving, not the loved, woman who feels lovable. Jessamyn West

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed. Edmund Burke.

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. Jim Rohn

Thank you for reading this post. Please return and read more and have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Discovering wisdom on our journey.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Every missed chance becomes a memory filled with regret. Unknown

Do we regret what we don’t do more than what we do? Does this mean we should follow every whim, every crazy idea that comes into our heads? I don’t think so, but over the years, a still small voice has spoken to us, prodded us, and encouraged us. When have we listened and been glad we did, and when have we not listened and regretted it?

Looking back over a lifetime, there are missed opportunities and u-turns we wish we’d taken. Here we are, for better or worse, and we can go forward, but we can’t go back.

I heard of a lady crying in a shop saying she’d been unhappy in her marriage for fifty-four years. She envied the person who was leaving a relationship at almost age seventy-five. The person leaving a relationship at almost seventy-five no doubt has regrets of her own, but it is the courage to take action the lady envies. The courage to say enough, there is only so much time left, and I want something different than what I have.

Grey divorce is a phenomenon of our time; as people reach a certain age they want something more, or at least different out of life. It takes courage to stay and courage to go, who has the most courage might not be evident at first glance.

Regret about yesterday takes away the beauty of today. Unknown

Courage to take action in life and knowing which actions to take is where we build a good life. We will never take advantage of every opportunity. We will not always make the best decision, and I doubt anyone gets a life with no regrets, but living a life with few regrets seems a good goal.

What are the opportunities in front of us, what are the choices ahead of us to make the best of the years to come?  Who can we be an example to, who can we encourage, and who do we turn to for support and encouragement? Regrets are painful reminders of what we think might have been, but if we embrace the lesson we can take a step toward wisdom. We don’t get wisdom from information, but from our journey, and no one can spare us the lessons we learned.

The weight of regret is often heavier than the pain of failure. Unknown

Regret in love is not loving enough, or loving too late. Unknown

Regret is the scar we carry from the battles we didn’t fight. Unknown

Thank you for reading this post. Please return and read more and have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

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Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.