Sunday, 29 October 2017

Chains



“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” - Rosa Luxemburg

I have a challenge in that I will go to bed in a healthy and positive mindset and yet wake in a mindset that is not so much… I realize I am “consciously aware of being in a negative vibration” and immediately change.

I think my biggest challenge is I DO move and threrfore I DO notice my chains. And I am allowing myself become frustrated. At least first thing in the morning. I can then move my vibration into a positive one.

Distractions – holy Hannah. More and more distractions every day. Keep focused. Stay on point.

And people who do not see their chains. Frustrating. I KNOW that 95% of all the people are going quietly to their graves. I do not want to do that. Hell I am NOT doing that. In think that is one of the main reason I teach. I want to help people wake up to their own potentialities.

I had a class last winter. There are a few groups of students I get.

The Keeners – these people want to have the highest marks. They came through The System thinking that the more right answers they have the better a person they have. They are remnants of the current educational system. The System is focused on parroting “stuff” and giving right answers. They do not realize they have chains on even though they move around. They are like trained elephants, they know just how far they can go without fear of reprisal. They know where to go to get praise – their report card. When they are at work they get a huge boost from “atta boys”. I’d say these people are about 5% of the group.

The Just-Get-By-ers – these people do just enough so they are not kicked out of school. They do not care about praise. In fact, The System has trained them to not be brainiacs. Brainiacs are ostracized by others in this group. They like to know they had low marks. I think these people see The Keeners and wish they were like them not realizing they could be. I believe that with very few exceptions we are all born with the same potential as everyone else. This group of people just do not believe they can do it. At wrk hey do just enough not to get fired and their employer pays them just enough so they do not quit. These people are about 80% of the group.

The Quiet Ones – these people are very hard to understand and yet very easy to understand. Some have excellent marks and some do not. They all have one thing in common -  a lack of self confidence. They do not answer questions in class. EVEN when I can see in their face they know the answer. Even if I call on them they either flub the answer or say they do not know. They have been beaten down by The System and their classmates. They may have been or are being bullied. They may just be going through a pile of shit at home or work. When they are at work they do what they are told – usually very well – but they eschew and opportunity to lead. These are about 5% of my classes.

The Hiders – I am very frustrated by these people. They are the people who zone out on Netflix in class. They are the ones that go and get drunk or stoned at lunch. They are the ones that get home and fall into some sort of stupor – drugs and alcohol or just avoidance – and don’t complete homework. Some have tremendous talent in my class but they just “don’t care”. The System has allowed this because they can function to a degree and may even eke through the course. They see NO future for themselves other than whatever they are doing. They work all week counting down to the weekend so they can party, get drunk or stoned and then spend Sunday recouperating. These people are about 5% of the group.

The Leaders – this group sees and feel the chains. They have talents in landscaping or horticulture and are in my class to maximize their talents to maximize their life’s potential. The System is scared of these people. They do not want to participate in a system that demands their compliance. They want to control their destiny. These people may participate by being an employee but they will be an intrapreneur – someone working within an organization to maximize their own and the organizations potential. They may end up owning their own company. They want to control their own destiny from now until the grave. They are the leaders of our society and are either getting very good marks or average marks. They are not driven by the scale of their marks but by the results of their education. They recognize they need a certification to be more easily able to open the first few doors they face. These people are a dream to teach. These people recognize The System and know they have to work within it to get without it. 5% of the people are LEADERS.

So please, please, please MOVE and find your chains. You may have to move a long way. But the chains are there. It takes a lot of work and thinking and learning to break those chains. The more you learn the more you will realize the chains are within yourself. As you learn more you will start to think more. As you think more you will start to change your paradigms.

Enjoy life – it is yours to live.

Matt

Saturday, 21 October 2017

Happiness in an Inside Job



“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

And there he is again….

And wow…..

True happiness lies within. It comes from within as well. In the past few decades I have realized that more and more. Even when I was a child I realized there was more joy in giving than in receiving.

I also realized that happiness cannot be forced. You can make yourself happy but you cannot force yourself into a state of happiness. In fact, happiness sometimes just creeps up on you and bites you in the arse.
Some people get happiness from looking at things like butterflies. They are pretty to be sure. But true happiness comes from service to others.

It is amazing how happy you can make other people by being useful, honourable and compassionate. It does not matter what your skills are it matters that you use them honourably and with compassion. I am a horticulturist. I use my skills in horticulture to change other people’s lives. That is an amazing feeling.

I belong to a group called Landscape Ontario. The executive director, Tony Di Giovanni has a great video about how we are the only industry in the WORLD that can make peoples’ lives better. Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X78LODGxy7E Every customer we have we try to make their lives better. Honestly, the bulk of our business is simply cutting lawns.

I have one customer in particular who comes out to speak with us every week we are at his house. He walks around with his hands in his pockets and you can see the look of satisfaction in his face. And that brings me happiness.

And it is not only about me. The guys that work for me get so much happiness from this one customer we have made him our last stop of the entire week.

We have a lot of customers that our staff really enjoy working at. We have a few they do not. I have challenged them to make the ones they do not enjoy into the best clients we have. They approach each client with the idea we are going to change their life. And we often can. 
One of our clients we are "working" on!

I have found that there is more personal growth in fixing problems than is in just doing the day to day.Someone said that you will be remembered for one of two things; yhe problems you make or the problems you solve.

One of my favourite snippets of poetry is by Rabindranath Tagore - "I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was duty. I acted and behold, service was joy."

Be of service. In any way you can.

Matt

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rabindrana134933.html
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rabindrana134933.html
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rabindrana134933.html



Thursday, 19 October 2017

What Lies Inside You



“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

What a great way to start the day. RWE is one of my favourite philosophers. I cannot remember when I discovered him or even why. I do remember a student of mine telling me more about Emerson than I had ever known. I have read some of his writings but MAN OH MAN is that hard,

What lies behind you….. pales in comparison…. Why? Too many people spend so much time remembering and reliving the past. I try to use the past as a guide for the present and even the future. I do not dwell in the past. Dwell, to live,… Some people I know LIVE for their memories of high school. To be honest, they seem t have peaked in high school.

Living in the past is like trying to drive down the highway by looking in your rear view mirrors. Its OK until you hit a really curvy patch. Then you’ll be in the ditch or worse, driving headlong into oncoming traffic.

What lies in front of you….. pales in comparison. What is meant when you are looking ahead? Honestly, either I am worried about something or am gleefully awaiting something that may or may not happen.

Look to the future with EXPECTATION to be sure. Expect good things to happen and they will. Expect bad things and they will happen as well. I see a lot of people who “hope and pray” things get better and do absolutely nothing to get there, Nothing.

SO let’s take a look at what Mr. Emerson is saying. …pales in comparison to what lies inside of you….

It is a wonderful thing to have a positive mind set but that alone will do you no service. You must always guard your heart, keep negativity at bay, stay positive. But there also needs to be a healthy level of realism. I love the rain. A lot of those I work with hate the rain. Nevertheless our work must be completed outside. And regardless of whether or not you like rain, you can be positive. Realize it is raining and have at ‘er.

What you cultivate inside of you will indeed structure your future. Life throws all sorts of things at you. It is not what happens to you that matters but how you respond to what happens. What is inside of you will pretty much dictate what happens to you. As long as you are working to a worthy end. 
A Butterfly represents the future potential of the caterpillar. A butterfly in October is a sure sign of a positive attitude, it has to get to Mexico before the snow starts flying!

So do this…. Focus on gratitude. Every morning as you wake and your mind is coming back from the subconscious go over a gratitude list. What and who you are grateful for. And really FEEL grateful. Once you do this a few mornings you will approach the day with a really good attitude.

And do this… Ever evening as you are falling asleep go over a gratitude list again. It may be different than your morning list – that doesn’t matter. And again, really FEEL grateful. As you drift off to sleep your subconscious mind will marinate in that feeling of gratitude. When you wake you will find yourself starting o feel grateful even before you start to review your gratitude list. You will be changing one of your thought paradigms. Do this for a month or so and you’ll be amazed at the changes you will see in your life.

Take care of yourself and have a wonderful day.

Matt

Tuesday, 17 October 2017

Give Your Best



“Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves." - Dale Carnegie

Do your best – every time. I was not always in this mind set and have been doing this as a habit for a while now. Its funny though, teaching people to do the little stuff really well the big stuff really does take care of itself.

The way I look at it is even the largest of tasks is made of a number of small tasks. If we approach every task as the important task it is, then all of those small tasks put together make up one large fantastically performed task.

Right now I am struggling with getting a number of projects completed and completed well. I have broken my day into smaller segments of time seemingly wandering from job to job. What I am really doing is working on smaller tasks within the large projects. I have put time limits on every segment so I do not loose myself in one task preferentially over another task.

I think I may have taken on yet another project today. I won’t elaborate other than to say I will have to be fanatically obsessed with my scheduling. So I commit to doing the small tasks with an obsessive view to excellence. What do you think?