Day 393 - Realizing My Utmost Potential: Seize Moments of Opportunity

Never again will I wait and hope for opportunity to embrace me.


The eighth vow of success as written in Og Mandino's book titled The Greatest Salesman in the World, Part II: The End of the Story. I just read this "scroll" tonight for the first time, and it resonated with me in a very important way. Most of my life, I've been fortunate and had access to most earthly pleasures. I felt special. My world was filled with opportunities, and it was relatively effortless to move myself in the direction that best suited me. Opportunities came knocking, and all I had to do was say yes or no. For the first time in my life, opportunities are not overtly coming to me  as they had in my past. Going with the flow is no longer a viable option.

Now it is my turn to go knocking on opportunity's door. I am now responsible for recognizing potential, AND doing the hard work to create success from opportunity. This is the key take away I received from my reading tonight. Moving myself and taking the initiative in life is personally an underdeveloped skill. I hadn't need it in my passive approach to seizing blatantly obvious opportunities that would serve my best interests. No longer flowing down that easy river of predetermined direction that I called life, I now must lead myself in and as life to create my/life's utmost potential. The commitment to consider all as equals, as life, as one, as myself is a real game changer! I stand. I take on this challenge. I commit myself to finding and creating opportunities that are conclusive solutions in supporting what is best for all life.


I forgive myself that I haven't accepted and allowed myself to see, realize and understand that it is my responsibility to put forth serious effort in transforming opportunity into value.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to take for granted my past living and lifestyle of going with the flow, of zombie-like decision making, of waiting for success to find me.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to think, believe and perceive that I will always be taken care of by the universe because I am special.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to believe that I am more special than other people in my world and reality.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel entitled to comfortable living.

I forgive myself that I haven't accepted and allowed myself to realize that without taking the initiative to lead and create my life in specificity, I am not really living at all. To follow the automated living of consciousness is hardly living. I realize that if I am going to manifest my highest potential of myself and so contribute to manifesting the highest potential of humanity, I MUST MOVE.

Inertia.

What a great word to investigate! Join me tomorrow for my philosophical reflection here.



Declaration of Principled Living 1.2

Day 228 - Becoming Consistent with Focus

This is a continuation of Day 227 - Sticking to one mission at a time

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to believe that I have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to believe that I am more productive when I multitask, and so feel compelled to do more than one thing at once.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to want to be MORE THAN productive.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to not realize that multitasking actually slows my productivity as I am not fully directing my side-tracking, rather bouncing from one thing to the next as if I am on auto-pilot.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to seek for and follow distractions when faced with a challenge or resistance within applying myself in the context of "work."

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to simply let slide my reactions of resistance toward work, not realizing that each and every single movement is my responsibility as a statement of who I am / what I allow.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to bite my nails, eat candy, play video games, do laundry, do other work, when I am experiencing resistance toward a task, such as this JTL post.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to not realize my decision to delay a task.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to not take responsibility for the timely completion of a task through the thought "there is plenty enough time," not realizing how I am compromising my ability to do the primary task AND other work more effectively.
 --
When and as I see myself abdicating my responsibility to direct myself through playing the Victim Character of some externalized force such as ADD, I stop I breathe. I realize that I am responsible for all of my directions, preprogrammed or otherwise. I commit myself to the continual realization that I am responsible for every movement I make.
..I have a long way to go, but accumulation is the only way. One bite at a time. 1+1+1+1...

When and as I see myself multitasking, I stop I breathe. I realize that I have chosen to multitask because of a desire to be ultra-effective with my time. I commit myself to breathing and questioning if I am diminishing my effectiveness within a particular task.

When and as I see myself on productivity auto-pilot, I stop I breathe. I realize that I wasn't consciously directing myself and completely unaware of my breath. I commit myself to create a plan to get back to my original task if the current task is worth the current attention. No more task, to item, to interest, to video, to curiosity, to other side-track. This behavior leads me down a path that I did not intend. I commit myself to move with intention.

When and as I see myself moved by distractions such as nail biting, candy, fun, interest, I stop I breathe. I recognize the resistance. I commit myself to breathing until the resistance fades and to continue with the primary task. I commit myself to pushing through that resistance, and if necessary, to investigate how I have created a relationship toward a given task that yields that resistance.

When and as I see myself abusing time by putting off responsibility, I stop I breathe. I realize that what's actually going on inside of me is a reluctance to face a responsibility, and I have entered into an energy of resistance and allowed it to direct me within tiredness or some form of laziness. I commit myself to sit and breathe and get back on track, finish my objective, and plan for rest.

The key in all of this is to have a plan. A day plan. An hour plan. A project plan. A plan for multiple projects. There's no limit to how I organize/structure my time. The important element is that I do organize and structure my time, effort, and even sleep.

I commit myself to planning when and as I see myself moving from task to task, unplanned.

photo from flickr cc