The secret to live is …….

I recently a movie about a lady who got diagnosed with a brain tumor. The doctors told her she had three weeks to live. She had a hard time accepting it and understandably cried a lot and blamed God. She also phoned her sister who was only interested in her own life and did not bother to listen to the lady.

This lady had a special book that she kept called her possibilities book. In this book she had pictures of things that she wanted to achieve in life and since she only had three week to live she decided to follow some of the dreams in her book. She went to the bank withdrew all her savings and went off on a great adventure. It took the possibility of dying that made her realise that there is more to life. 

This made me think. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was dying she would have never followed her dream. How many of us have dreams that we paste in a book? Once in a while we look at these things but never actually go out there and do the things we so badly want. Why must we be threatened by death before we start to live our lives.

We so often save up money for when we go on pension or work ourselves into a coma to achieve great things like living in a mansion or driving a nice car, that we forget to live our lives. What if there is no old age, can you honestly say you lived your life fully if you had to die today?

We often measure our achievements and our success to the standard of other people and then once we start comparing ourselves with others we see ourselves as under achievers in comparison to them. But what is the measure of success? I heard the tale of a man telling this story. He said he was standing at a railway station waiting for a train. As he looked up towards the escalator a very large lady was coming down. He gathered that she did not travel a lot because her luggage was old. Next to him on the platform was another couple that made some rude remarks about the lady. She heard them and he could see in her eyes that she was hurt by these.

Why do we compare ourselves to others? God created each and every person in his or her own unique way. We are all perfect, but by comparing us to others we seem to miss our perfection. God’s soul lives in each and every person. By judging and comparing we set our-self human standards and we are losing sight of the greatness that God created within us.

We all live our lives chasing and comparing ourselves to the standards of others instead of living our lives to the standards and capabilities that God has given each of us individually. 

We are all unique in our own special ways. Uniqueness that is beyond comparison. We each received various talents all to fulfill a special place on this earth and to live our lives to its fullest.

At the end of the movie the lady realised that she was the only one that could make her possibilities reality. She was misdiagnosed but instead of going back to her old life she change her possibilities into realities.

What is it going to take for you to change your dreams into realities

A change within

We are entering what for most of us is a well deserved rest. The festive season seems to put everybody in a mood of giving and gratitude. We give to those who are less fortunate because it is Christmas.

We are in a spirit of happiness. We shop and buy gifts for our family and friends, we leave to go on holiday. It is the time of year that people look forward to the most, but it is also that time of the year that we need to look back on the things we have done and take stock of our lives.

We look back on the things we have done and then set goals and new year’s resolutions to change the things we are not happy with. But how many of us actually see these things through. I take myself as an example. Every year I promise myself that this is the year that I will be top fit and achieve all my goals. O man and I start off with a bang. I exercise and cycle and before I know it I am back into my old routine of not having enough time to achieve these goals.

We walk the same path over and over again, and always end up at the same place. I cannot help but to ask myself why? Why at the end of the year am I all for it and when push comes to shove I end up where I started. We get frustrated with our current situations and stagnate in our lives. We live another year to survive and end up setting goals for the next year just to forget about them as the year progresses.

The only way to change the world is to change ourselves. I remember when I was younger it felt like everybody blamed me for the problems in their lives like it was my fault things happened and then I realised with a great shock that I was doing exactly the same thing. I use to blame other people for my problems, it was their fault that I rolled my car that I couldn’t cope at work and my relationships with my loved ones was on the rocks so to speak. It was only when I realised that the only person I can change is myself that things started to go my way.

We all so badly want the people and the circumstances in our lives to change and we get frustrated if they don’t. It is because the key to change is within us. We must look to the inside and change the things there that are causing the blocks to achieving our goals and ultimately our destiny. If each person just takes stock of his or her own life during the festive season we open ourselves to change. A whole new world awaits us. God told us that we must first remove the rock in our own eyes, before we attempt to remove the splinter in our brothers eyes.

World peace begins at home. Maybe this year we must make the entire year a year of festive happenings. Instead of just giving presents to someone because it is Christmas maybe we should give throughout the year to say we care.

May 2008 be a year of love and care throughout the year but also a time for change not in others but a change in ourselves.

The only way to change the world is to change ourselves.