―Zig Ziglar

I wonder what the world would be like if every person lived by this quote.

It doesn’t take much: a conversation, a good deed, a song, a smile, a kiss, a good movie or song or book.

I believe that each of these small instances are worth remembering. We just have to recognize them as such. We get so caught up in “what’s next?” that we fail to appreciate the simple, yet profoundly powerful, things in our lives.

Take this a step further and you have the chance every day to do something to make the world and your life a little bit better than it was before. You have a chance to remember something worth remembering every day.

This has go to be the most powerful concept in a human being’s life. 

Perception is reality. I say that a lot. Rightly so because it’s true.

But I don’t think people really understand what it means.

It means that the thoughts in your head are what form the world you see through your eyes. Think about that for a second.

The only reason you hear a sound is because a sound wave is interpreted by your ear drums which sends a signal to your brain.

The only reason you feel something is because of the same process when your nerve endings are stimulating by something external. 

This is easy to understand because it’s physical, but what about the thoughts that dictate how you feel based on what happens to you in life in the nonphysical realm? 

Most people are used to responding emotionally to whatever happens to them while failing to realize that they have the power to control these responses. 

To put it more simply: You have the power to control exactly what the world is to you.

And most people have been conditioned to be a rule-following “good” boy or girl. They have been programmed to take things at face value; to fear what they don’t know; to think in groups; basically, to live a life just like everyone else as just another sheep in a flock.

And so, for these people, life is just a series of random events that they think they have some say in when, in reality, they are just a pinball being bounced around inside the arcade game of life by random forces of nature and happenstance. 

The worst part of this all is they have no clue as to the power they possess if they were to learn and channel it.

We have the power to see the world in whatever way we want. We can be optimistic or pessimistic or somewhere in the middle. We can see everything as an opportunity for growth and a chance to get better, or we can bitch, cry, complain and moan about our “bad luck.”

We can take risks or we can seek comfort. We can ask for a raise or we can hope it will happen to us. We can share our feelings with that other person or we can hope they will say something first. We can ask for permission or we can ask for forgiveness. We can take action or we can wait for action to happen to us. We can see the world in a way that brings joy and happiness or we can see it in a way that is depressing and glum.

We can choose what we get or we can let the randomness of the universe choose for us.

Hint: Choose the former.