Life is a journey

When your good friend is down with problems, how do you react? When your good friend is burstling with good news, do you share their joy?

When you youself face some obstacles or problems in life, how do you treat yourself? When you are bleaming with joy and excitement, how do you share or celebrate your joy?

Guess sometimes we tend to forget to give ourselves good advice and/or pat on our back. We understand our good friends well and more then often we can visualise their problems and provide apt advice, solutions or simply words to brighten up their days. However, on the contrary, we failed to replicate such performances for ourselves.

These could be due to the higher standards we placed on ourselves. We get too self critical and push ourselves to the limit. You thought you are doing yourself good bcos your motive is simply to improve yourself. However if you stop, ponder and perhaps do a comparison in the way you treat yourself and your good friends..there might just be these stark difference. Even when you are also seeking to help your friend to improve, you will know when to back off and let the beholder do the final judgement call (i.e. you cannot fish for them but just show them the rope) However for yourself, the distinction is not there.

You are the teacher as well as the man learning to fish. How strict is strict? When is the time to let go and give yourself a pat on your back? When is the time to give advise and push yourself abit further?

Guess it is good to remember, be your own friend and maybe one day you will appreciate yourself more.

1. Definiteness of purpose. Knowing what one wants is the first and, perhaps, the most important step towards the development of persistence. A strong  motive forces one to surmount many difficulties.

2. Desire. It is comparatively easy to acquire and to maintain persistence in pursuing the object of intense desire.

3. Self-reliance. Belief in one’s ability to carry out a plan encourages one to follow the plan through with persistence.

4. Definiteness of plans. Organized plans, even though they may be weak and entirely impractical, encourage persistence.

5. Accurate knowledge. Knowing that one’s plans are sound, based upon experience or observation, encourages persistence; "guessing" instead of "knowing" destroys persistence.

6. Cooperation. Sympathy, understanding and harmonious cooperation with others tend to develop persistence.

7. Will-power. The habit of concentrating one’s thoughts upon the building of plans for the attainment of a a definite purpose leads to persistence.

8. Habit. Persistence is the direct result of habit. The mind absorbs and becomes a part of the daily experiences upon which it feeds.

Continue from previous post, things are never so simple. It requires conscious effort to make adjustments and adaptation bit by bit..Sometimes, the situation can seem so bleak that communication seems like an uphill task but other times, it seem so sweet and encouraging.

Guess its human nature that we have to go thru some tough and unhappy times before we will cherish and enjoy more of the happier days.

But when will the balance beam be equalized?

When will the dosage of unhappy times be sufficiently enough for us to appreciate the good things in life and yet not plunged us into the valley of negativity?

And when will the happy times be so substantiate that we start to take things for granted?

How to be content with what you have? Must we all lock our fate to some holy being (assuming you believe in this holy being) then you will abide by the rules of engagement/ way of accommodating and living together? Even that has no guarantee.

There is always room for improvement and the pace of improvement differs and varies from person to person. How do you know when your fate is seal?

Is compassionate love (in Buddhist teaching) the answer to some of the mysteries?