Saturday, March 15, 2008

All that from making a cup of tea...

I had a visitor this weekend who "taught" me something (speaking of the boxes we operate within...) and they don't even know it. My friend wanted some very hot water for her tea, so she got one of my pans, put water in it. placed it on the stove, then turned the burner (electric) up on VERY HIGH, and in short order -- seemed like just a few seconds, really -- the water was boiling feverishly and begging for attention.

In all the years I've used that stove to heat things up, it never dawned on me to turn the burner up on HIGH or VERY HIGH to heat it up quickly, then re-adjust the heat to the "operating" temperature I needed. I've always just turned it to medium and waited... and waited... and waited... until it crawled it's way up to where I needed the temperature to be.

Do you realize how much time I've wasted standing in front of that stove waiting for a pan of *something* to boil, or get hot... just using medium heat? (sigh)

I'm looking at other areas of my life, and realizing that I'm using just medium heat and waiting for something to happen when what I really need to do is turn it up on high and get it heated up quick... Then I can adjust my effort back down to where I need it to be to sustain it and keep it going.

Wow. Definitely a V-8 moment. And all that from just making a cup of tea.

Kelvin

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Focus Pocus !?

I get the Motivational Quotes of the Day via email from Nightingale-Conant. I find them fascinating, and they help keep me on point. The one I received this morning read:
"Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives." ­Robert Collier

And that goes right along with probably my favorite, memorable quote from the book, Illusions:
"We magnetize into our lives what we hold in our thoughts."
We motivational types (yes, we motivators need motivating, too) usually highlight this principle so we remember that we need to keep our goals and our wishes and our desires out in front of us. We need to keep those things up front in "our thoughts" so they be manifested in our lives.

BUT... what if we hold negative thoughts in our minds? What if we hold thoughts of "this day sucks...", or "bad things always happen to me" or... "every time I take one step forward, I end up taking three steps back..." WHAT IF we hold *those* thoughts in our minds?

Yeah... the law is the law. This morning I was driving to work. Felt fine when I got up, got dressed, was rather happy to be alive, actually. But on the way to work, somehow, I managed to hook up with some thoughts about things that weren't particularly pleasing me and I didn't even notice that I was concentrating so intensely on these thoughts. By the time I walked into my office... about 15 minutes later... I had this unexplained (at the time) depression... until I figured out what had happened.

Negative or disempowering thoughts can creep into your mind, with no notice and no warning, and start working when you're not paying attention. So, as Tony Robbins says, you need to "Stand guard at the door to your mind..." and stay aware of the thoughts we allow to enter and grow. Focus Pocus ! What we focus on will appear in our lives -- whether we realize we're focusing on it or not.

Please pardon me whilst I go do some weeding in my mental garden.

Have an awesome day.

Kelvin