“Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.”
― Deepak Chopra
“Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sometimes it isn’t easy to do something different. People around you may react negatively, afraid of what you are becoming and wanting to keep you as the person they are conditioned to expect to see. Breaking free of these expectations is necessary when you begin to follow your dreams, and it can be disconcerting. At times it will seem easier to ignore the inner urgings and just continue along with the status quo, but this becomes more challenging as time goes by.
You can only ignore the brilliance that wants to express itself through you for so long before not changing becomes more uncomfortable than changing. Just don’t look outside of yourself for help – in a lot of cases it won’t be there.
When you are continually reinventing yourself, the people in your life may think that you are losing it. It’s normal – we like to be able to count on things to stay the same, to be reliable and dependable and consistent. That really isn’t how life is supposed to be lived though. If you always do what you have always been doing in the same way, there is no growth, no flow of new creativity and no realization of your true potential.
So, do what you need to do. The people who truly love and support the real you will understand. The rest of them don’t matter.
Lama Day – Happy birthday to the Dalai Lama today! He was born in 1935 to a peasant family, and at the age of two it was declared that he was the reincarnation of a great Buddhist spiritual leader and he was thus named the 14th Dalai Lama. Talk about having your career decided for you by other people. He has two books on the bestseller list – The Art of Happiness and Ethics for the New Millennium. His words have helped guide millions and his camp has embraced new technology, reaching an audience of 19.3 million followers on Twitter alone.
His latest tweet: “Peace means no disturbance, no danger. It relates to our mental attitude. If we have a calm mind, obstacles will be less disruptive. What’s important to realize is that ultimately peace of mind is within us, it takes a warm heart and using our intelligence.” He is a beautiful soul.
Thought of the Day – It’s Monday. Change the record that runs endlessly in your mind today, the one that is good at noticing everything around you that you don’t like. Put a different one on, one of appreciation and gratitude just for the privilege of being alive for another day. Your mind is yours, and you control what you choose to think about and subsequently how you feel. Thoughts create emotions, and emotions create the experience of life. Make yours a pleasant one today.
“Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.”
― Dalai Lama