"IN MANS STRUGGLE AGAINST THE WORLD; BET ON THE WORLD"

 Are you angry with the world? For some people each day represents another battle in a war against what they perceive to be a partisan world. Full of anger and driven on by feelings of injustice and inequality they rage against life as if it were a hostile regime.

When troubles come at you with a force that knocks you off balance, it is easy to see life as a fight for survival in a society divided into the haves and the have-nots, as a contest to be won or lost.

No one would deny that at times life is a struggle, when it becomes a war the conflict is often with ourselves, feeling impotent to change anything and unable to move on, we apportion blame, and deny responsibility. An old Chinese proverb says “It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness”.

Even the smallest triumph can change everything and make your life worthwhile, so don’t stand against the wind, you don’t always have to swim against the tide, no where is it written that the hard way is best.

Never give up fighting for the life you think you deserve, but if you accomplish this without blame or scapegoat, you may bring about lasting peace. 

As Buddha described  “It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell”.

 Title quote by Franz Kafka

"THINK HAPPY THOUGHTS AND YOU CAN FLY"

Goldberg wrote,” Stress is an ignorant state; it believes everything is an emergency, nothing  is that important”.

I think we would all agree that this is somewhat of a generalisation, some things are that important. The secret is to allow stress to release every hormone, raise every hair and consume every thought, over events that can threaten life or destroy happiness, but never to allow stress to dictate your thoughts and actions over the irritating, upsetting,  in your face  problems that life throws up every day.

Mark twain said” Drag your thoughts away from your worries by ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it”.

 If something you said, a mistake you made, a decision you have taken, is all you can think about, then don’t obsess about it any longer. Use every means at your disposal to put it right and then resolved or not let it go, because worry consumes courage and drains the spirit and if you don’t let go you will never have the strength to see it for what it is, simply a lesson learnt and not a tragic milestone directing the rest of your life.

“The art of living lies less in eliminating our trouble than in growing with them”.    Baruch

Title quote from Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie

“IF THINGS GO WRONG DON’T GO WITH THEM”.

Big important troubles, life’s disasters and catastrophes are dealt with by necessity, doing nothing is not an option, and we are strong because we have to be, there is no other choice, but as Billings said “It’s the little bits of things that fret and worry us; you can dodge an elephant but you can’t dodge a fly”.

 It is one of life’s cruelties that the smallest things take up the most space, and they can feel very big. A speck of dirt caught in your eye feels like a stone, the smallest splinter irritates constantly, creating pain out of all proportion to its size.

So it is with worry; worries are like seeds if you nurture them they grow. A tiny niggling thought that turns into a worry, steadily grows until it is so swollen that like a river breaking its banks, it floods the mind and drowns out all other thought.

Anxious thoughts are an essential part of human reasoning, they are part of our fight or flight reaction. If we did not acknowledge real threats we would not be alert and ready to deal with them. The danger is when we can not distinguish whether we are worrying about a real menace or an exaggerated maybe. 

“That the birds of worry and care fly over your head this you cannot change; but that they build nests in your hair this you can prevent”.  Chinese Proverb

Title quote by Roger Babson

“WE CAN’T ALL, AND SOME OF US DON’T. THAT’S ALL THERE IS TO IT ”. Eeyore

Life for most of us lies in accepting a series of second best, a compromise between what we desire and what is possible. If we seek nothing but perfection and see second best as failure, we deny ourselves all feeling of achievement.

 Trying is admirable, not dismissing something as impossible is an achievement, we just have to recognise that and give ourselves praise for endeavour, for self belief and for not giving up before we began. 

Failure is an event, its not a definition of character, and when things don’t turn out just as we hoped, it is important to understand that if we always aim for perfection in everything we do, we run the risk of never achieving anything.

Life is a struggle and at times we share it with triumph or disaster. The secret is to boast about trying rather than completing, to try, and finish anywhere, is a success, failure is never to have tried at all.  

George Burns said “I would rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate”. So don’t mistake perfection for success, success can be about trying to achieve something you really believe in, whilst accepting that the end result may not be perfect. Celebrate how far you got in trying to get there and in doing so, you will come to realise that a feeling of achievement can never be second best.

“Fear less and hope more, all good things are yours”.  Swedish proverb.

Title quote by A.A.Milne

CARPE DIEM

"The clock talked loud.  I threw it away, it scared me what it talked". 

Do you seize the day? When you wake are you filled with anticipation? Are you the person who finds the day all too short to do everything you want to do, or do you spend whole days simply trying to stay awake and remember your name. Do days drip by, moment by moment, until unnoticed they silently slip away, unremarkable and unremembered.

When the day needs careful planning, do you plan or are you prepared to wait and see. Dr Seauss thought that everyone waits, “Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite.  Or waiting around for Friday night, or waiting perhaps for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil or a better break, or a string of pearls or a pair of pants or a wig with curls or another chance”. Everyone is just waiting.

The trouble with waiting is that some opportunities only come around once and if we choose not to seize them they will never come again, so all the analysis, all the pros and conning, all the wait and seeing will be for nothing as the opportunity fades or worse still is grasped by someone else.

Seizing the day is not about making plans to fill every single day, it’s about having a plan at all, a direction you want your life to go in, a dream, an ambition, a change in circumstance.  What ever journey you are waiting to begin, has to start with a step, and if that step is part of a plan, then you will know when the chance comes, whether it is a step worth taking, whether it is time to stop waiting and start walking.

"He who is silent is forgotten; he who does not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed; out distanced, crushed; he who ceases to grow becomes smaller; he who leaves off, gives up; the condition of standing still is the beginning of the end." Henri Frederic Amiel

Subtitle quote by Tillie Olsen