Posts by Pat:
Have a rule in place
The reason is simple…personal rules give us a foundational structure by which we can live our lives.
They eradicate indecision, temptation, and distraction and (paradoxically) create more freedom for us to do the things we love.
It’s one of the reasons why I respect vegetarians who live by the personal rule that “Under no circumstances will I ever eat meat.”
It’s not, “Well, I probably shouldn’t eat meat…but everyone else is having a burger so I’ll indulge just this once.”
When we have the personal rule that we don’t hit the snooze button (and truly live by that rule), we never have to be in bed and negotiate “just five more minutes” with ourselves.
We wake up, turn off the alarm, and get going. Period.
There’s this 75-year-old man named Eddie. And Eddie has a rule. The rule is: If it’s not raining, I’m going for a walk. See hou uncomplicated that is? If it’s cold, windy or sunny, you can be sure that Eddie will be on the street. Rain? Well, he’s at home sipping hot tea.
When we take the time to develop our own rules to live by, everything in life becomes easier. We no longer have to ‘think’ about the decisions and opportunities in our lives…instead we have a clear set of operating priciples that make everything automatic.
And self-discipline means having a few simple, non-negotiable rules! And though I know this, I’m still challenged by actually doing it!
How about you?
2 intriguing thoughts on money…
I’ve found two very different thoughts on money that I want to share here! Number one: I read somewhere that money is “frozen time.” That the “stuff” we buy is free…that what we pay for is the peoples’ time to mine/grow/finance/ manufacture/manage/transport the stuff to us. Number two: what money can and does for us! […]
This old house…
A story is told about John Quincy Adams that strikes a special chord with me after my career in real estate and my ever-increasing age! When a friend asked 80-year-old Adams how he was, he replied, “John is very well, thank you. But the house he lives in is sadly dilapidated. It is tottering on […]
Questions that haunt me…
If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, then doesn’t it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed? Why, in winter, do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat? How can a […]
Paws with perspective…
Murphy the Dog shares some delightful thoughts in his monthly column Murphy’s Dogma in the Science of Mind Magazine. I think you will enjoy this one! (And maybe see a lesson in it to be learned?) I have had some long talks with birds. All of them seem glad to have wings and beaks, and […]
Choosing can be hard
One of the most confusing issues we face today is choice. We want choice, but choice can be more difficult than we think, because it works on a simple principle. And the principle runs like this: In order to choose something we have to eliminate everything else. This means that if we have 20 ice-cream […]
Have to or…get to?
Every day you “have to” wake up, maybe you have to get dressed, have to go to work, and have to do a bunch of other things. What if you did not “have to” do any of it? There is one word that can change the whole way you think, act and live your life! […]
It’s a noisy world…
We live in a crazy and noisy world. Every time we get in the car, we turn on the radio or CD. When we are home, we watch TV or get on the computer. The traffic going by on the street seems louder than ever. We live in a sensory overloaded world. When we are […]
Ben Franklin’s Wisdom
Benjamin Franklin was a pretty amazing guy, the quintessential Renaissance Man: scientist, inventor, author, musician, scholar, business man and politician. (Bifocals, anyone?) There’s one story from his life in particular that demonstrates his astute understand of human behavior. This story became so well-known it became known as The Benjamin Franklin Effect and was even cited […]
Like riding a bike..?
People talk about bike riding when they want to remind us that some things, once learned, are not forgotten. What they don’t mention is how we learned. No one learns to ride a bike from a book, or even a video. We learn it by doing it. Actually by not doing it. We learn by […]