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

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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

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 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.