Where Do You Stand?

If you want light to come into your life, you need to stand where it is shining. – Guy Finley

Literally and figuratively.

Where do you stand?

*  *  *

In terms of the literal bit, where are you?

Are you doing work you care about? In a place and with people that connect you with your you-ness? (Hint: in one sense, it doesn’t really matter who they are or what they do, just how you choose to perceive them . . . unless they are truly toxic.)

Who are your friends? Do they help to build you up? Help you remember the better parts of yourself? Do they support you? (Or do you need to continually make excuses and allowances for their views and behavior? If you’re the most realistically optimistic person in the room it might be time for a new room.)

What about home? Do you enjoy the environment you live in? Does where you live make you feel better, even if only slightly, or worse?

What about your family? Are you paying attention to those you love and care about? Loving them unconditionally and being a model of positive human behavior? If you have children, are you teaching and disciplining them in age-appropriate ways?

*  *  *

What about the figurative bit?

What do you stand for?

When push comes to shove, what do you fight for?

What are your values? How do you make your decisions? Big and small?

If you don’t have quick, clear answers to these questions, 1) you’re not alone and 2) you’re living by default.

When you develop your answers to these questions regularly and develop the clarity and awareness that such examination yields, your life changes. It changes in some really positive and profound ways.

But not until you develop and maintain that clarity.

Similar Posts

  • Everyone Has A Ceiling

    The level to which your career or business develops will never be higher than the level of your personal development. If you want more success: more money, more time, more energy, you must develop yourself. *  *  * Believe it or not the title of this blog post was difficult for me to write. I am…

  • Conceiving *and* Believing

    Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. – Napoleon Hill Napoleon Hill is a giant in the self-development canon. He is revered, and oft-quoted, by many. But many mis-understand – and un-duly dismiss – one of his more famous quotes. When Hill says anything we can conceive and believe, we can achieve, people scoff…

  • Cognitive and Physical Knowledge

    There’s a difference between cognitive knowledge (facts, ideas, etc., in your brain) and physical knowledge (being able to perform certain actions to achieve a result). And both are important. To know something cognitively is to study it in-depth: to read books from experts, consult with people who have experience and understand the component parts of…

  • Are You Floating, or Improving?

    However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. – Winston Churchill We often think we have the right strategy, usually because it isn’t creating something painful or terrible, but don’t regularly examine our results. It’s a form of floating through life that’s really just avoiding pain. Sure, we make some plans and…

  • Seeing Things Anew

    “Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.” – Jonathan Swift This reminds me of an oft-quoted line: when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Both are excellent reminders that our perceptions and ways of seeing things are habits (that…