Conquering Your Mountain

The following obstacle is based on the Chinese character for shan, which means mountain.

What is the mountain before you? It can be conquered if you can find the right person with the means to help you or if you keep doing what you can, bit by bit, until you find your breakthrough.

Keep exploring possibilities, stay positive and visualize your conquest of your mountain daily. The winds of change is in the air. Remove your personal doubts, stay strong and courageous.

Things will turn around for you as you keep believing; your tenacity will outlast  and move your mountain.

Complaining Impedes Your Progress

When you hear someone starts to complain, the room darkens figuratively and your enthusiasm gets drained. 

Catch yourself complaining and learn to hold your tongue which can steer a ship like a rudder or set fire to a forest. The book of Proverbs even asserts that death and life are in the power of the tongue. 

Photo by Heather Schwartz on Unsplash

Learn from Terri Savelle Foy on how to avoid the trap of complaining as she shares some nuggets of wisdom such as the following:

"Complaining is a subconscious way of expressing you are powerless to change your circumstances."

"When you complain, you remain."

"A grateful heart is a a magnet for miracles."

Click here for Improve Your Life in 24 Hours by Terri Savelle Foy.

  

The Last 3 Wishes of Alexander the Great

Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, is regarded as one of history's most successful military commanders. Even though he was undefeated in battles, there was an adversary he could not overcome -- his own terminal illness.

At his deathbed, he apparently summoned his generals to carry out his final 3 wishes without wavering:

1. "My physicians alone must carry my coffin."

2. "When my coffin is being carried to the grave, the path leading to the graveyard be strewn with gold, silver and precious stones which I have collected in my treasury."

3.  "Both my hands be kept dangling out of my coffin."

His generals were stunned by the instructions. By the by, his favourite general plucked up the courage to ask him about the unusual requests.

In reply, Alexander has this to share with us:

1) 'I want my physicians to carry my coffin because people should realize that no doctor on this earth can really cure any body. They are powerless and cannot save a person from the clutches of death. So let not people take life for granted.'

2) "I spent all my life earning riches but cannot take anything with me. Let people realize that it is a sheer waste of time to chase wealth."

3) "I wish people to know that I came empty handed into this world and empty handed I go out of this world."

Now, wouldn't it be great if we could keep in mind our mortality and the purpose we are planted where we are right now so that we can serve others and leave an enduring legacy?

We are responsible for our own health. We need to watch our diet, keep fit, de-stress and sleep adequately so that our body can heal itself (with the help of medical prescriptions from medical doctors, if need be). The biblical perspective for overcoming physical death could be found, inter alia, in John 3:16.

Wealth is good, but it is not the ultimate goal in life. Wealth shared with those who need some help or can't help themselves makes for a better life one person at a time. And, when wealth is used to benefit an entire community and beyond, then it generates the greater good all-round. Then, there is the greatest need for people to have a divine perspective of life with a heart to pursue close fellowship with God Himself. See Matthew 6:19-21 for what Jesus Christ had to say concerning our treasures.  

Death is the great equaliser. What we have done for ourselves would be gone when we are gone. But the good that we do for others would live on. One of the richest man of the East, Job, lost all his children and livestock in one day. His response is as follows:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

And naked shall I return there.

The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;

Blessed be the name of the Lord.” -- Job 1:21 (NKJV)

Job recognised the Sovereignity of God -- that everything belongs to God. What we have is temporary or, at the most, on a leasehold basis with an expiry date. When we purchase a car, it comes with an instruction manual for us to know how best to upkeep our vehicle in prime condition. Whaddaya know, God has already given us an instruction manual, the Holy Bible, for all mankind to take heed as early and as soon as possible.

Food for thoughts indeed from the Alexander the Great Commander and Jesus Christ the Great Teacher (the Son of God and the Son of Man).

Believe That You Can Achieve Your Dream

Richard M. DeVos is a co-founder Amway Corporation together with Jay Van Andel. Here are some words of inspiration from DeVos, with adaptation, on how you can achieve your dreams.

Believe that you can. "I can." is a powerful statement and gives you the oomph to go for it in direct opposition to the wet blanket of "I can't." You can do whatever you really believe you can do. DeVos' goal was to succeed in business and he believed that he could do it. Business was his thing. 

What's your thing -- the thing that makes you tick with passion? Put it another way, "What's your goal?" "What are you believing for today -- really believing for?"

DeVos' is of the view that the gap between what you think you can achieve and what is actually possible for you is very, very small. Also, he is convinced that almost anyone can do whatever he really believes he can do. You can do it! Start off with this conviction; you owe it to yourself.

Be determined and make the efforts to pursue your dream. It is a combination of "faith and effort" which would produce results in whatever sphere of endeavours. 

DeVos started Amway together with his high school buddy, Jay Van Andel. Before this, they had had many shared experiences of achieving with "I can" in their bones. For example, they actually went into the aviation business with Wolverine Air Service. You will never know what you can achieve until you try! They started with a little Piper Club airplane and employed seasoned pilots to train their customers how to fly. Yes, neither of them knew how to fly an airplane. And, faced with the lack of an available airstrip, they mounted some pontoon floats to their planes and used a river for their runway! Nobody said it was going to be plane sailing, but they had "I can" in them. That's the difference; the big difference; the real difference.

Give your dream a chance. Put your thoughts into actions. How else will you know whether it will work out unless you give it a try and fine-tune things along the way? Don't let the naysayers distract you. You are in it for your your own good with preparedness to pay the price and willingness to take a loss even if things do not turn out well. But, the experience of being true to yourself with the guts to stick out would be priceless. You will gain invaluable experience of the good, bad and ugly, and be a lot wiser down the road to eventual success in your pursuits.

"The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible." -- Richard M. DeVos

And, where did DeVos catch his "I can" attitude? He said, "My father was a great believer in the potential of individual effort. Every time he heard me say the word "can't" as a boy, he would say, "There is no such word as "can't", and if you say it one more time I'll knock your block right through that wall!" He never did that, but I never forgot the point he was making. I learned that there really are no good uses of the word "can't."

Rainbows are for real ever since God gave the promise of rainbows after the Great Flood. You can see rainbows, right? How clearly can you see your own rainbow in the eye of your imagination and heart of conviction? Believe that you can and you will see.

See yourself in this: "They can because they think they can." -- Virgil

Click here to view a collection of beautiful rainbows.

Click here to find out more on "You Can If You Think You Can" written by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale.