Get busy living, or get busy dying - The Shawshank Redemption

How many of us have let life pass us by? I mean literally! You realise you are in your 30s or 40s or whatever age you are and you have little to show for your time here on earth. You sit down and reflect on where you are vs where you anticipated when 30 seemed old and 40 seemed older! You question yourself asking what have you have achieved, what contribution you have made, where do you fit in...

Time will pass regardless of whether we are conscious of it or not. So many of us check out of life and just Go through the motions. It all becomes habitual and routine and then you realise your teens are done, your 20s are done, your 30s, 40s.... and stop!

I have spent the last 3 days at home as I had a minor op on my eye. I have severe cabin fever and cannot wait to go to work tomorrow. I feel like I am suffocating. Yes I could have left the house, but I looked like I had been in a domestic abuse incident and I just could not deal with the stares. So I chose to stay home.

Nevertheless, it made me think about how horrid it would be to not be doing anything with the gift of life I have been blessed with, as well as how many of us are locked in a self inflicted prison and not living life to our full potential.

Admittedly I chose to rest and rest well after the operation and catch up on some serious sleep to alleviate the fatigue I have been overwhelmed with. However by the 3rd evening I really could not take it. Then it led me to thinking of those people that do nothing, be nothing and act like they are nothing - when the complete opposite is true.

We are all somebody, we all have potential and we all should get busy living our life before we die. I am not being morbid intentionally but do we really appreciate the propensity people have to not take life and all it's blessings seriously? So many people live with the regret of not taking a step, a risk, a chance. That is what I mean take a chance on life. On YOUR life.

There is so much to do, see, give, have and be in this world. No I am not talking about just material things. Giving your gift of time to others, having the best life you can, being a good person...

I sat here feeling a bit sorry for myself today another operation (second in 5 months), another pity party, blah blah blah and I realised that I am not dying. I am just taking time out and I need to make the most of it as one day I will be going, going, gone!

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned about being inspired. A key partner to that is being motivated. Be motivated to live a lot instead of a little. Take courage that failing is a magic step towards success. Know that we are all great and can be anything and don't let life pass by without trying.

Get busy living or you will inadvertently get busy dying.

Love & Happiness.

Scr1be

Respect yourself and others will respect you. ~ Confucius

The ultimate power one can own is the power to rule oneself. ~ Genevieve Behrend - Your invisible power. Never a true word spoken. Do you give yourself enough respect to warrant getting it from others?

Too many times we relinquish the role of taking responsibility for ourselves and who we become. What it often amounts to is a lack of self respect. Self respect is not just about pride in how you dress, look etc. Self respect is also about conducting yourself in a manner befitting your best self. Taking total ownership of the present and the future you.

It is about taking care of your physical and mental health, loving yourself enough to do what is right for you. Looking your best, feeling your best and ensuring that no matter how hard things are, you respect yourself enough to keep going, as you are worth it. Until you know your worth no one else will.

If you exude confidence and be an example of greatness, it will rub off on those around you. They will believe in you too. I am not talking about arrogance, I am talking about carrying yourself with confidence and doing so while maintaining respect for others.

We sometimes wonder why people do not treat us the way we think they should. Why our expectations are not met. However have you taken the time to consider it may be because you allow it?

Do you ever demonstrate how you should be treated? If you come across as someone that holds themself in high regard, takes care of business and has it together, people will treat you accordingly. They will feel compelled to even if they don't want to.

We may have someone in our life that fails us, or treats us in a way we did not expect. How you react to that is very important. If it does not bode well with you, how do you manage that situation? Do you stand up and tell them or do you let them do it time and time again? If your expectations are realistic (and we all know we can have unrealistic expectations on others that are just unfair), you can simply take them aside and respectfully explain that it is not appreciated or you can feel sorry for yourself and let it continue?

Guaranteed if you approach them in a respectful manner and explain that you deserve better treatment, they will discover a respect for you that clearly was lacking before. In saying that, there are some that just do not care and they repeatedly disrespect you for their own reasons. Respecting yourself is not accepting this.

There are so many examples I could recite around how we allow ourselves to be disrespected. However on the flip side we are showing a lack of self respect if we continually allow it to happen. You need to respect yourself to get it in return.

Blessings