Beware the Ides of March

Today is March 15, the Ides of March.  When Shakespeare wrote, "Beware the Ides of March," he was giving a warning to Caesar.  When I think "Beware the Ides of March," I think about a warning of a different sort; this warning is about the perils of spending too much time thinking about the past.

You see, sometimes we have a tendency to re-live our failures and we criticize ourselves; we go over scenarios as what we should have done or said differently and how things would have turned out differently.  When we allow ourselves to dwell on past mistakes, we are not moving forward.  Fear and regret kill our dreams and stop us from trying something new.

And not all of our time thinking about the past is negative.  Sometimes we want to remember our peak experiences and our various successes.  Maybe we felt "on top of the world" or we felt we were invincible.  We love those feeling and enjoy replaying those scenarios over and over again.

The problem with both of these examples is that we don't live in the past and the more we focus on past victories or failures, the more effort it takes for us to achieve lift-off in the present.  We talk ourselves into playing safe, not taking any risks, and being comfortable.  We can become so comfortable with a certain state of mind that we try and create a future based on what we already know. 

Yet, there is something within us that wants to grow, expand, and become more than we were yesterday.  

We must dare to visualize and picture ourselves succeeding.  We must dare to dream it, to capture it, and then to soar. We cannot soar if we’re sitting in a chair; we cannot soar in front of the television watching soap operas, sports, or reality TV; we cannot soar while telling everyone about all the wonderful things we’re going to do in the future; we cannot soar by looking at a book about diets and then eating the same things we’ve always eaten; and we cannot soar by saying negative things about ourselves and what we believe we can’t do.

So, if there is a dream, a desire, or something you get excited about when you are talking to a friend, do it. Make a commitment to move forward step-by-step, even if you don't see all of the steps.  Do that thing which is deep within your heart and mind to do. It will not only be a blessing to you, but could be a blessing to the entire world.

Start now.  Get started in the next 72 hours.  Don’t wait.  The moment you’ve been waiting for is now.  The person you’ve been waiting for is you.  Take that step and be willing to soar into your infinite possibilities. 

A Matter of Principle

Have you ever been in a group and felt like you just didn't belong? Have you felt like you were a fraud or a phoney and if people knew you, they'd realize you weren't good enough? Have you ever felt like you really didn't matter?

Just because we believe something, doesn't mean it's true; it may simply be a habit of thinking. And if we have a habit of thinking we don't matter, we end up diluting our joy, our happiness, our ability to engage fully in life, and our conscious connection with the Divine.

 

Who are you?  Are you simply a collection of memories?  Are you someone's family member?  Are you what you do for a living?  How many different ways do we describe oursevles by using the words, "I am.....?"  For me, I've commonly described myself in the following ways: I am a minister, I am a coach, I am a mother, I am not good at meeting people for the first time, I am a great speaker and story-teller, I am too fat, I am smart, I am not always likeable - - and the list could go on and on.

 

The problem comes when we think we are what we think we are. In his book "The Untethered Soul," Michael Singer tells us we've only ever had one problem and that is the voice in our head.  We believe our voice when it tells us we are less than, we are not good enough, we've been abused, we've lied, we don't deserve love, we have to earn love, we shouldn't trust, and we must never let ourselves be hurt.  When we believe that and we think we are that - it is easy to feel like a fraud or a phoney and to think we don't matter.

 

However, that is never the Truth and it never will be the Truth.  It is just an idea (and a limiting idea at that!)  You are not the experience, you are the one who is experiencing; you are not your thoughts, you are the one doing the thinking.  There is a big differnce.  In the first case, when we think we are what we experience, we can feel powerless and victimized and simply hope for the best. But when we realize we have the choice to change our way of thinking, we can observe our situation(s) and not be defined by them.  This choice leads to freedom.

The Sufi mystic Rumi wrote, "You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and truth. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness. You were born with wings. You're not meant for crawling, so don't. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly. Know this truth about you." It's time to change our habits of thinking and realize we are good enough and we do matter!