Life is like …

… a box of chocolates – or so Forrest Gump said in a famous movie of the same name.  How true is that?  No matter how much we plan or how much we prepare.  No matter what we strive to do, life often just happens to us, doesn’t it?  Sometimes things really are beyond our control and there’s nothing we can do about it.  We can either sit back, take it, turn the other cheek and carry on, or we can get out there, fight for what we want, what we believe in and try to change our lives for the better.

Life might be like a box of chocolates.  We might not know what it’s going to throw at us.  But we dont have to simply accept it all the time.  Maybe now is the time for you to stand up & fight your corner. Perhaps you’ll feel all the better for it.

Throw out the rubbish

A skip appeared opposite my house this morning.  A place for the house owners to deposit all the things that they don’t want anymore, the things which aren’t needed, the things which are rubbish and have no place in their lives or their home.

We press delete on our emails.  We throw out household rubbish into our dustbins. We get rid of stuff on a daily basis.  But how often to we spring clean our lives and remove the things in it which is bad, which make us unhappy, which weighs us down?

Perhaps we all need to have our own skip to get rid of all that rubbish in our lives. Not the physical rubbish, but all those things which we carry around with us day in day out.  The things which we can’t let go off.  The things which have a negative effect upon us & which make us look at the world through black black glasses.

What will you throw into your skip today to make your life better?

Embrace Life

I just stumbled across this video - wow!

It’s refreshing to see a safety message being illustrated in such a postivie light and really makes you stop & take note about what it’s saying.  The high number of views that this video has received on YouTube (currently over 9 million) indicates that there are a lot of other people out there who think the same & who are taking the time to forward this on to others.

Check it out for yourself today!

The grace in falling apart

It’s amazing sometimes how there you are minding your own business, getting on with your life when suddenly bam!  The life that had just been drifting along nicely has crept up on you and without you realising how, things have changed completely and you’re left wondering what on earth has happened.

Well I’ve just read this post on Pamela Slim’s site.  There’s some great words in there & I thought it was worthy of a re-post.  I encourage you to go read it for yourself.

building likeability

“The closer you get to someone, something, some brand, some organisation … the harder it is to demonise it, objectify it or hate it.  So, if you want to not be hated, open up.  Let people in.  Engage.  Interact.”
Seth Godin

Very interesting.  I know this was written from a business perspective, but I’m sure it’s something we can relate to in our lives, be it on a business or personal level.

Do we sometimes close ourselves off to people, bring up those barricades, give out those keep away signals?  Or, are we open and honest, always with a smile for people, ready to listen, engage and react to them?

Obviously the second option is far more attractive.  It makes us people that others will actually like & want to spend time with.  It makes us likeable and leads to better relationships with those around us, on whatever level that actually might be.  We dont have to be best friends with people but I think our world would be a much better place if we all tried to at least take some of these thoughts to heart.

an eye for an eye

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandi
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 – 1948)

I heard this on the radio yesterday.  Isnt it a great quote? and a good reminder to us all to have more tolerance, more forgiveness and more love for one another in our world.

Wise words from a very wise man.

Just believe

“Between Austria and Italy, there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come.”

These words are taken from “Under the Tuscan Sky“, an adaption of the novel of the same name by Francis Mayes.  I watched the film recently and this particular quote made me stop and think.

How often do we give up on things or never even start them because we cant see how things are going to resolve or turn out the way we hope?  How often do we give up on our dreams, believing they are the foolish desires of our youth, hopes for impossibilities that can never happen?  How often do we cease our prayers for that miracle, that one thing which we truly believe in?

We shouldn’t.  We should pave the way, prepare ourselves and believe in the possibilities of the future, of our futures, of what we can achieve or attain if we are prepared to wait our time.

age is just a number

How important is age to you?  Is it something you worry about, seriously worry about, or is it just a number, a representation of when you were born, telling a little about your own personal history?

I guess I don’t wake up every morning & think “gosh I’m 25 years old, aren’t I young”, (well I’m not, so I wouldn’t!) or “oh no I’m 49, I’m soooo old” (and that wouldn’t be true either). But what I’m getting at is, is age really that important?

I don’t think so.  Why should it be? Why do we sometimes live our lives worrying about our age? After all, it’s not something that we can actually do anything about, is it? It’s just one thing that we have to learn to accept as fact and move on from, not worry about. Someone told me recently, your age isn’t your life, it’s just a number, it’s what you do with it that’s important. Such true words.

If people don’t know your real age, can they guess accurately?  I must admit I was more than a little pleased when someone recently told me they thought I was 10 years younger than I really am.  If I’m honest it was quite a boost to my self confidence The fact that this person didn’t know me, but from what they saw they believed me to be young, well isn’t that what we all want.?

You’re only as old as you feel, they say, or is it as young as you feel?  In my head I’m 21 – I don’t feel any different.  Sure I’ve seen & done loads in the years since I actually was 21 and I suppose I’m older & wiser in many respects, but still I don’t think it matters, does it?

I’m going to give the last words on this to Abraham Lincoln, whose quote is rather apt:

“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count.
It’s the life in your years.”

Smile

Are you feeling sad?
Do things sometimes get on top of you?
Do other people seem to bring you down and make you think it’s really not worth the hassle?

Then I have some words for you that I read earlier today:

“life really is too short to waste it on people that make you forget how to smile.”

I agree  100% and if you answered yes to any of my questions above, then I think you should take those words on board too.

Don’t let other people decide how you’re going to feel.
Be responsible for your own feelings.
Decide for yourself.  After all it’s your life.

So don’t just take my word for it, make up your own mind.
But remember, smiling really does make you feel good!

a cry for help

I dont know what to do.

I just feel kind of sad.
Things keep happening which remind me where I am, what I havent got & that makes me feel bad

And I know I should be positive and look at the good things
I know how fortunate I am to have so many things
family, friends, health, and a job, a home, and money too

But I still can’t help from thinking about things in my life
which arent so good right now and things which cause me strife.
And all of that just makes me sad. I just cant help myself.
So any suggestions from the world out there on how to get through life?

Please?