Don’t Believe Everything You Think! - Stay a Student!

Dear Why Team member,
I hope this week’s message finds you well and will be of service to you.
Consider this:

 What fuels our mind, our imagination? We can all agree it’s what we read, hear and see that fuels what we think. But we should also agree that we cannot believe everything we read, we cannot believe everything we hear and we cannot believe everything we see, like optical illusions.
 
If we can’t believe all that we read, hear and see, we certainly can’t believe everything we think. Consider the common experience of ‘if I only knew then what I know now’ an experience we’ll have again and again throughout our life. One of my favorite sayings is that there are only two types of people on earth, those who are humble and those who are about to be. Life is an awesome teacher - it would be wise for us all to stay students.

When shouldn’t you believe everything you think? Mostly when you think that not all is well- don’t believe it. Have you ever considered that the Sun doesn’t set - but rather we just turn away from it?
Hmm - it all comes down to perspective.
Does life happen for us or to us?
Did you not grow through your trials and tribulations? Did you not develop your character as a result? How else are we to develop our values and character if not through difficulty? Remember Dr. Elko’s gratitude statement “I am not where I want to be, yet, but thank God I’m not where I used to be.”
Resistance to WHAT IS hampers our learning. Dr. Roger Hall recently asked me, “Would you rather live a pleasant lie or live with the unpleasant truth?” Hmm..
Lies have to be protected to keep them alive, the truth sets us free.

Do you believe that something in your past that happened should not have happened? Wayne Dyer often taught, “Don’t Should on Yourself!”
Resisting “What Is” is the primary source of our self-inflicted emotional pain. We can miss the lesson, become bitter, not better and as a result more likely to repeat the lesson.
Sure, grieve the perceived loss, that’s completely natural and to be expected. But after a time, get up and get back at it. You lost a leg? Find other ways to run.  Inspirational people abound all around us; literally running with no legs.
   

You get to decide what you want to think. You are not a victim unless that is what you choose to think and act like. Life has only been-for-you if you stay a student. Class isn’t dismissed until we die - and only then as far as we know. What learning may you receive today and how might it grow you? How might it help develop your grit, your perseverance, giving you more insight into your capabilities? And how might it all be transformed into good for you and for others. If you’re still alive, you still have what matters most: a Purpose (even though you may not fully know what it is yet). My Mother believed that until the day she died. She often comforted my sister and I with an insight we used to comfort her in her final days - whispering to her as she smiled in return:
“All is Well and All Will Be Well”

So find your purpose and live it.
Live believing you’re alive for a reason. Stay a student, open to the teaching, knowing that all that comes your way, your perceived good and perceived bad is there to grow you. The trees provide oxygen, how do you serve? Find it, do it, and notice how you’ll grow stronger like the trees, trees that are also strengthened by the wind.
True living is living ON PURPOSE.
Live On Purpose, 
Work On Purpose, 
Retire On Purpose.
A must read is Richard Leider’s best selling book: “The Power of Purpose”.
There is no greater power to fuel an abundant life, a life worth living, for yourself and for others than living a life of purpose. Grow and Give as Richard so often says.
 
All is Well and All will be Well!
Stay a student!
Be On Purpose 
and you’ll no doubt make it a great week, month, year and life!
 
Steve Luckenbach