Earning confidence
Even the smallest accomplishment will boost your confidence level. And with increased confidence, you can set your sights on a larger accomplishment.
Confidence is not something that comes to just a lucky few. Confidence is not something that anyone else can simply hand over to you.
You can't buy confidence, you can't inherit it, and you cannot gain it by taking it away from others. Everyone who has real confidence has earned it, one accomplishment at a time.
Start with what you have, with what you know you can do, and then add a little challenge to it. Soon you'll know without a doubt that you can do even more.
As your confidence grows, so will your achievements, because the biggest achievements come to those who have the confidence to take on the most difficult challenges.
Confidence requires work, and it is well worth the effort. Use every opportunity to earn yourself more confidence, and many valuable doors will continue opening for you.
-- Ralph Marston
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The sun's the life giver. . . I talk to it like you would to a god.
--Peter Firth
Having a Power greater than ourselves to believe in is like knowing the sun is in the sky. There are days when the sun shines with a brilliance that lights up everything around us - tree branches, snowflakes, and the faces of our friends. When a seed is planted, it is the sun's warmth that invites it out of the ground to grow into a fruit or flower. The sun is the center the earth rotates around. The sun gives warmth and light to the earth, sometimes in ways we don't always notice.
There are days we do not see the sun - it is obscured by thick clouds. Yet even on these days, we know the sun's rays still reach the earth and nourish her.
A Higher power nourishes and warms our lives the same way the sun does the earth. Some days we easily see the presence of such a power in our lives, and other days we cannot see past the clouds. But that Higher Power gives our lives a light-filled center and nourishes us even on quiet cloudy days.
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Friendship and community are, first of all, inner qualities.
--Henri J. M. Nouwen
Many of us mistakenly search outside ourselves for answers. We feel small inside and not very powerful. Many of us men have tried to change our lives by affecting the people around us. Naturally, when we think of making friends, we assume we would start by getting a friend. But such beginnings often don't lead very far.
Friendship begins as an inward attitude or feeling before it is expressed outwardly. Perhaps we could first notice whom we feel friendly toward. Whom do we admire? Whom do we feel an affinity with? Let that friendliness exist within, and it will begin to express itself. Are we grasping for acceptance or response? Let us remain with our own goodwill and not return to old attempts to get someone else to change. Friendship exists as a feeling of admiration, of love, of fellowship, without demand. And when we are another man's friends, let us accept his friendship and enjoy it without trying to change it or him.
Today, I will simply notice my friendly feelings toward others.
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Powerless over Others
Stop making excuses for other people.
Stop making excuses for ourselves.
While it is our goal to develop compassion and achieve forgiveness, acceptance, and love, it is also our goal to accept reality and hold people accountable for their behavior. We can also hold ourselves accountable for our own behavior and, at the same time, have compassion and understanding for ourselves.
When we claim powerlessness, we are not claiming irresponsibility. We have no power to control others, what they do, what they did, or what they might do. We're stating that we are willing to end an ineffective life based on willpower and control. And we're beginning a spiritual, mental, and emotional journey in which we take responsibility for ourselves.
We are not victims. We are not helpless. Accepting powerlessness when that is appropriate enables us to begin owning our true power to take care of ourselves.
Today, I will avoid making excuses for my own or someone else's behavior. I will let consequences and responsibility fall where they belong.
