personal development | Rick Manelius

A Point of View Is a View from a Point

What would your life be like if you were born in a different city? A different state? A different country?

What would your life be like if you were born into a family that was rich? A family that was poor? A family that was homeless?

What would your life be like if you were born as a different gender? As a different race? As a different religion?

What would your life be like if you lived your entire life in a rainforest? In a desert? In a city?

What were your views on the world when you were just a baby? When you became a teenager? What are they now?

Watching TV recursively - flickr - Yann!s

Don't Live Vicariously Through Others; Live Victoriously Through Yourself!

A friendly recently asked me how I was doing I immediately and enthusiastically rattled off the following highlights:

My wife was about to return to college a second time to pursue her true passion and calling—music.
My brother was starting up his second leg of his 10+ month journey through Central and South America.
My friend Ben was about to take a bold first step in launching his new company to follow his dream.

80/20 is Always Plenty (An Affirmation for Perfectionists)

Perfectionism has killed more goals and dreams than the most intimidating teachers, the most oppressive governments, and the worst economic conditions.

Perfectionism is that incessant voice in your head that has the audacity to nitpick and dwell on insignificant details contained within your most impressive creations.

Perfectionism is that sucking sound in your head trying to siphon away the meaning out of your 100+ victories while placing a magnifying glass over your one defeat. And finally, perfection

Not Everything Has to Be "Epic" in Order to Matter

Sometimes we get so worked up over making something perfect, unique, or special that we open the door for resistance, perfectionism, and self sabotage to come in and kill off an idea before it even gets birthed into this world.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

Sometimes a simple thank you and a hug is more important than the most extravagant present.

Sometimes a little encouragement is all that is needed to lift someone up enough for them to walk on their own two feet.

What Exactly is a "Blessing in Disguise"?

Often, the greatest miracles that occur in our lives initially show up as something ominous, dangerous, and negative. But we are but one set of eyes among 7 billion and an almost infinite number of moving parts that make up our universe. From our vantage point, who knows what’s really good and bad? If only we could peer over the shoulder of God and see the great cosmic game of chess from his perspective. Maybe then we’d realize what is good and bad can change in an instant, depending on the contextual lens we are using in that brief moment in time.

Your Thoughts Can Paralyze You

People often equate power with the physical plane of existence. If you have enough money, you’ll be safe from a life of poverty. If you can bench 400 pounds, you can win any physical confrontation and be safe from harm. If you are in perfect health, you’ll outwit mother nature and live to be 120+ and be safe from a loss in your quality of life. Yes, our physical possessions, strengths, and health can give us a tremendous sense of power in shaping the life we live.

But all this "physical power" pales in comparison to the power we derive from our emotional and mental states of being.

Do You Dread Emails?

I don’t know when this started, but lately I’ve found myself holding my breath, tensing my shoulders, or cringing every time I see the little red alert appears on my apple mail application, notifying me that a another email just hit my inbox.

Questions immediately flood my mind. Is it good news? Did I just land a new contract for my company? Did I get some positive feedback from a reader? Or is it bad news? Did a server just crash? Do I need to drop everything right this second and go put out some fire/emergency/issue?

One flower standing out with a red petal

The Lie of Averages

“The Economy” is merely a label that we give to describe the wealth and/or success of large groups of people. And when the economy tanks, it’s easy to make a logical fallacy by assuming that every individual person must experience their equal share of this pain. If the economy is bad, no one can make money, get a good job, etc. Such is the fate of the ~~law~~ lie of averages.

Momentum

Although my family didn’t have a lot of money, we always splurged on those $200 above ground swimming pools that you could pop up in a couple of hours. And we got every dollars worth of entertainment out of those pools: WWF-style wrestling matches, full speed swan dives from the grass, and the occasional cannon ball initiated from atop the flimsy ladder that came with the set. During a hot NY summer, it was heaven.

And then there was the momentum game…

A jigsaw puzzle showing tears as puzzle pieces

The Pity Party Greatest Hits

I threw a huge pity party for myself last week. It was ~~awesome~~ awful. I let these debilitating thoughts play in my head over and over again until I made myself sick and puked. It was like a college party without the fun of the buzz.

Then I changed my attitude and (surprise) everything got better. Instead of worrying about all the todo’s on my plate, I simply sat down and knocked them out (and ahead of schedule). Problem solved.