The Power of Manifestation

I am a creator of my reality. Each of us are creative beings in our own right. It's who we are. It's in our DNA! We begin the manifestation process with our thoughts and birth them into the world with our speech. For those of you that didn't get that the first time. We begin the manifestation process with our thoughts and birth them into the world with our speech. As Mike Dooley says, "Thoughts become things. Choose the good ones." Everything that happens in our life is a result of our thoughts. Notice that I didn't say some things, but everything! Make a declarative statement beginning with "I am". Let Satan know that you mean what you say. You're not playing! I am serious Satan, you have no power over my life!

Boredom is not in my vocabulary!

Anyone who has known me for longer than five minutes will tell you that I don't do boredom. I am vehemently opposed to anything that suggests boredom. If you needed to go somewhere and you had a Lear Jet fueled up in the hanger with a qualified pilot, would you claim that you have no way to get somewhere? Of course not! It would be absurd to suggest that! That's why I believe that it's ludicrous to say that you're bored.

Confidence versus Conceit

Two different words. Are they different or synonymous? Confidence is signified by a healthy respect for ones abilities. Conceit, on the other hand, is being overconfident in ones abilities to the point where they are cocky. Confidence is a product of time. More specifically time and practice. The 10,000 hour rule comes to mind. Conceit requires no such time requirement. In fact, I would posit that there is an inverse relationship between time and conceit. In other words the more time that you invest the more that you realize what you don't know.

Persistence versus Consistency

I have been focused on the consistency thing and how it differs from persistence. Dictionary.com defines Persistence as “the continuance of an effect after its cause is removed.” Which one is more important? Persistence will help you to achieve a goal however if you're not consistent you will revert to old habits shortly after you accomplish it. Consistency, on the other hand, will cause you to continue long after you have reached the goal. Consistency or persistence. Which one do you choose? It's about making a lifestyle change.

Consistency

I have been doing a lot of reading about actions that I take on a daily basis that I can be proud of. The action that I take consistently is touching base with my Contacts on a daily basis. My goal is to touch base with 3-5 people via email, text message or phone. I have been crushing my goal by contacting seven people per day.

Do Something That You Can Be Proud Of.

Often times schoolchildren are rewarded with a gold star for good behavior. This action reinforces the desired outcome and makes a public display of the child's accomplishment.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...Reality

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my loyal blog followers. The question that I ask myself as I ponder my bowl of healthy fiber commonly called oatmeal is during this time of year, when we are supposed to be happy, and many of us sad? I am thinking about wildfires that are burning out of control in northern San Diego County. It's heartbreaking and it helps you put material possessions into perspective. Reality can bite and I mean bite! It can suck! Sometimes you can be bummed. I hesitate to use the word "depressed" because depression is a medical term which conjures up images of being in a medically induced stupor. So for that reason, I will just use the word bummed.

The significance of the Wise Men's gifts

When the Christ was born three Wise Men came bearing gifts. Conceivably they could've brought a variety of things, but the Holy Bible specifically states that they gave babychronic Jesus gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Have you ever wondered why? "Frankincense, sometimes referred to as olibanum, is a common type of essential oil used in aromatherapy that can offer a variety of health benefits, including helping relieve chronic stress and anxiety, reducing pain and inflammation, boosting immunity and even potentially helping to fight chronic disease." "The health benefits of Myrrh Essential Oil can be attributed to its properties as an antimicrobial, astringent, expectorant, antifungal, stimulant, carminative, stomachic, anticatarrhal, diaphoretic, vulnerary, antiseptic, immune booster, circulatory, tonic, anti-inflammatory, and antispasmodic." Gold is a precious metel, but is it more valuable than Palladium, Rhodium, or Platinum?

Be the best version of you possible.

Often times when companies are developing a software there are several tradeoffs that are made and they normally involve the benefits of the features versus the cost. The same thing can be said when we are deciding whether we should pursue an advanced degree or take a course to learn a new skill.The question becomes what is the cost in financial opportunities or time to be a better version of you than you were? The initial question becomes why are you pursuing the degree or taking the class? What is your motivation? Are you taking the class for you or someone else? Any kind of decision like this should be made with your best interest in mind. Your goal is and should always be will this decision render the best version of me possible?

The Last Mile Is The Hardest

When running a marathon it is said that the last mile is the hardest. The same thing can be said for the challenges that people with disabilities face on a daily basis. The front door of the gym where I exercise is on a slight incline. For most people it wouldn't be a thought to get out your car and go inside. I usually stay for an hour before I leave to return home. Before I leave, I have to go through my usual exit routine of visiting the restroom. It's to the point where I have visited the restroom of 90% of the places that I've been in the last four years. I don't say that to boast, but so that you peek into a day in the life.

Managing your energy grid.

When the totality of what a City Energy Manager is responsible for doing is taken into consideration, we share much in common. Like them, we assess how much energy is needed; whether we have the resources to meet this demand and more importantly whether we generate enough energy to meet peak demands. This is the focus of this blog post. Fatigue is a major symptom of Multiple Sclerosis with an estimated 60% of individuals with the disease plagued by it. Most people take the characteristics described above for granted. If we don't have enough energy to meet the demand we simply eat more or for a short term boost drink an energy drink like a Red Bull. I would take shortcuts burning the proverbial candle on both ends. I would burn far too much energy and try to use a candy bar or energy drink as a substitute for a good source of energy. In wasn't until I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis that I really began to take seemingly simple tasks into account. I like to cook. The way that the dishes are distributed in the cabinets along with spices makes it virtually impossible to do this simple task. Even something as simple as standing at the stove and sautéing a meal requires thought about options for conserving energy like sitting on a bar stool. "Yeah, that's it Marcus! Get a bar stool and sit on that!" Well my friend, it takes energy to get the bar stool...time for a brownout.

Life is a Bell Curve

I took Statistics in college at San Diego State University. I hated it...Okay, maybe hate is too strong. I disliked it, however I did learn something very valuable. I am fascinated with patterns and the Bell Curve predicts the lifecycle of many things. Take friendships for example. They typically start out slowly then build to a crescendo and diminish over time. The challenge with programming a computer to play the game Go is that there are so many potential moves that it can only present a tiny fraction of the potential moves. The same can be said of friends. You know what your potential moves are, but you don't know your friend's potential moves. Will you be shot down? Hence, the problem.

Confusing Self Promotion With Shelf Promotion

Our Creator has endowed us with certain gifts and talents. Often we keep those gifts to ourselves and don't share them with the world. I call this 'shelf promotion' because we keep these gifts on the shelf and don't use them.

Revelation

Periodically I go through a period of self assessment or self reflection. I thought about everything that I have accomplished so far and I asked myself had my life been to perfect before? Had it been blemish free? For the most part it had. I mean, I had hit a few potholes in life, but who hasn't? For the most part it has been blemish free. That's almost scary... Many of you know that I am now an author and I was reading an article about the importance of revelation or an epiphany in the story. What is my revelation? My eureka moment.

Forming Friendships

Much has been discussed about the advantages and disadvantages of the current method of communication and forming friendships. I can see the inherent disadvantages of communication via texting, email and IMing. Much of the face to face communication has been lost. Since I started this post, I connected with a friend that I haven't seen since High School nearly forty years ago on Facebook! Let me go on record as officially endorsing this social media trend!

Expectations

I have done an incredible amount of reading on intelligence, the difference between races and ethnicities and cultures. I've discovered in my fifty-six years of living on this rock called Earth that the difference between us has never been about intelligence or aptitude, but expectations. In certain cultures the expectations that a child was going to excel in Math or Science is baked in. Just like the expectation that a child would excel in sports is a foregone conclusion. You probably could picture that child as I described the characteristics... It's all about what a parent expects from the child. I am reminded of the story of Thomas Edison. It is said that as a child he came home from school one day and handed his mother a note from the teacher wrote that she instructed him not to read. Thomas Edison's mother opened the note and read it silently to herself. Then she read it aloud to her son. "Dear Mrs. Edison, your son has exceeded the abilities of our staff to instruct him and we will no longer be able to teach him at our school." Several years later when Mrs. Edison had passed, Thomas Edison was going through her letters and found the note from the teacher. It read, "Dear Mrs. Edison, your son does not have the intelligence to keep up with the other students and we cannot address his needs at this school. Please find an alternative." Mrs. Edison had homeschooled him from that day forward.

Persistence

Of all of the virtues which have been portrayed in writing since ancient times one of them takes prevalence over intelligence, wisdom and charm. It is persistence because it is the engine that powers the other virtues. You can get all of the other virtues if you try long enough.

Word of Mouth

In marketing circles it accepted that the best form of advertising and marketing is word of mouth advertising from a friend or associate. It is the least expensive and the most credible as well. I finally figured out where my word of mouth advertising comes into play... There's a Spirit deep inside each of us that desires our word of mouth testimony. This Spirit craves it! It's free! It's from a credible source. This Spirit provides you with everything that you need and some of what you want.

Keeping Secrets

As a Life Coach for many years one of the exercises that I give my students is to write the clues that God has given them about their purpose; their gift. I realized that as long as I have been teaching this principle I have never been 'the man in the mirror' and taken an honest look at my own life. But today it finally hit home...it all made sense. I have always loved writing and I have an aptitude for it. I am a writer! In spite of all of the things that I've done, I am a writer.

Why pursuing your dream should never be a sprint!

When watching a sprint during a track meet a lot of effort and energy is expended in a brief amount of time. Marathon runners; on the other hand talk about the importance of pacing oneself. Marathons also have obstacles like the steeplechase. Life has obstacles as well. Unlike the steeplechase, however; sometimes those obstacles come with no warning. You can't prepare or plan for them. Some people call this serendipity. Other people throw up their hands and shrug their shoulders and say, "Caca happens..." (Most people don't say Caca...) It is said that 10% of life is what happens to us and 90% of life is how we deal with it. Take your time and stay focused.