July 4, 2015 - Above all else.....

Guard Your Heart

I think I have written about Guard Your Heart before but thought I should write about it again as I thinking about it while walking my dog this morning.

The proverb is “Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.” Solomon

I am sitting at the edge of Temperance Lake, having my coffee and planning my day. I am building my business and take a few moments every morning to do some personal mind training. I like Dennis Waitley’s slogan. “No train. No gain.” I am following Robin Sharma’s 20-20-20 rule. Wake up at 4:45. Out the door at 5:00 for 20 minutes of aerobic exercise, then 20 minutes of persona development and then 20 minutes of planning and structuring of my day.

Bosley tired after walk:

 

Today my schedule is a little off as I did not plan well earlier in the week. I don’t have a whole lot to read for development although I am re-reading “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.

Guard your heart….. Rings true for me. I am staying at my mother-in-law’s place. She is an extremely negative person. I have to guard my heart. I also have to stop and think about why she is negative. When I try to understand her, I understand myself a little better too. Here are my thoughts. Actually they are not all my thoughts. Many conclusions I have drawn with the help of my mentor, Todd Baranowski.

First of all, she is of the negative generation. That generation (m parents too) were brought up to get training, get a job, work, retire, die. She and her husband did that. She was mainly a stay-at-home mom, although trained as a registered nurse. They worked (he, the majority of his career at IBM). They retired. They travelled a bit and then he died. Hey, what can I say, the plan worked for them.

That brings me to number two on the list of causal factors for her negativity. He died. She is a very sad person. They had built a very nice retirement house. That is where I am sitting right now. They were supposed to have shared the remaining years together enjoying this. In fact, I am pretty sure she would have me trade places with her husband… I’m not planning on letting that happen.

Number three – she is lonely. She lives in the country and really doesn’t have a huge circle of friends to draw on. She used to go to church and a service club and dropped both.

Number four – she is jealous. She is jealous of people like me who are trying to seek out their dreams and passions and enjoy their life. 

I also try to remember - Hurting people hurt people.

There is one simple thing I do every morning as I awake and every evening as I go to bed. I “count my blessings”. Gratitude is the word that I am building the rest of my life on. I am very grateful to have the life I have, the country I am living in, the family I have, the friends I have and the material possessions I have. I am able to pay my bills, eat well and sleep in relative comfort. 

Who could not be grateful when this awaits those who look for it. I am an extremely fortunate person.

 

I guard my heart. As Jim Rhon says, I take sword to those enemies that wish to destroy me from within. Its not easy. Those horsemen of my personal apocalypse almost won over me. Its been a long, long battle but I am prevailing.

My life today is better than my life yesterday and not as good as tomorrow’s will be. But I live for today as Emerson said (and I paraphrase), “live today as if today was King. As if today was doomsday (the last day of your life)”. And I try to do so.

Someone asked me something along the lines of “Do you always have good days?”. To which I replied yes. Then they asked “How?”. And I said, because I refuse to have bad days. Happiness is a choice.

Please, above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.