Greetings from Gregory:
Welcome to the first Newsletter from Gregory in several Years. I hope you find something of value in this newsletter and I appreciate your taking the time to read it. Sandie and I hope you’re enjoying your life and that the challenges you’re facing are helping you to learn! Blessings!
News!
1. We are now able to send your private session recording over the internet. Our new service means you receive a link at your e-mail address and then you have seven days to download the file. You can choose to have a CD sent by mail or you can choose to have your session sent electronically.
2. For upcoming events; go to www.gregorypossman.com and click on the calendar. Place your cursor over any given event on the calendar and you’ll see a description. Click on the calendar event and more options will appear.
Lao Tzu, the Swine Flu and the Global Financial Crisis
Or Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
Lao Tzu once said “What a caterpillar considers the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly. The television networks, the radio and the newspapers are constantly barraging us with more bad news including the Swine Flu outbreak, the global financial crisis and anything else they can report. With all of the bad news, we could have difficulty getting enough motivation to get out of bed in the morning. To have compassion for those who have succumbed to the Swine Flu is important. To have compassion for those who have lost their jobs, lost their retirement pensions, or lost their investments is important. The statistics don’t lie. Unemployment is hitting record levels in many countries. National debt is also hitting record levels in many countries. In the USA, it’s estimated that for every dollar the Federal Government spends, it borrows .46 cents. That means the government is borrowing 46 percent of all the money it spends. As an entrepreneur myself, I would be awfully nervous if I were borrowing 46 percent of every dollar I spent. I doubt if my business would last very long if I were to continue such a spending pattern. Is it a planetary crisis? Are the prophets who are predicting Armageddon correct? Is this the beginning of the end? Of course it is, if you believe it is. The key is to look at what’s happening in your own life and in your mind rather than focusing on the unconscious collective’s bleak outlook. When we step back, and see the good in our lives, this time of challenge becomes a wondrous time to test our belief systems and to take inventory of our strength. Perhaps we can all ask ourselves if we’re the eternal optimist, seeing the opportunities in our lives, or are we listening to the news every day, playing the eternal pessimist, waiting for the next crisis in our life to present itself. Indeed, if you’re looking for the crisis, you will certainly create it. On the other hand, if you’re seeing the glass half full, rather than half empty, then your focus on optimism will create wonderful opportunities for you.
Some tools to make this happen. 1. Adapt an attitude of gratitude. Emphasize and intensify your gratefulness for all you are, all you do and all you have. This is a key to seeing the opportunities in our lives. When our ego begins comparing what we had, who we were or where we worked, to the current situation in our lives, we are distracted and everything begins looking like a dark cloud overhead. Staying in the past is the best way to destroy our ability to create a bright future. We can’t identify our possibilities in life when all we can think of is how it should have, would have or could have been. By being grateful for what and whom we have in our life, we must focus on the present. 2 We can become acutely aware of when we’re fantasizing and redirect our attention to the present. What difference does it make, pondering the way things could have turned out? Those are fantasies. None of those situations even approach reality. To believe in oneself and one’s ability to create whatever one desires, is an approach that few in life are able to maintain. Stop hoping for a future, rather, create that future. 3. Take action now and stop procrastinating. Make the phone call, speak to the person who can help you and stop making up reasons in your mind why things won’t work. When we concentrate on them, they become our reality. Not many on our planet have the confidence to shoot for the stars and perhaps achieve the moon. The moon is not such a humble objective when you start your journey on the Earth. Will you be considered a ‘dreamer”? No doubt! Will people criticize you and mock you. No doubt! When they do, and they will, that can motivate you even more to dig deep inside, seeking your courage, your conviction and your commitment. Spend time with those who believe in you and leave your critics behind. Listen to those who tell you how you can and not those who tell you why you can’t! Many on the planet believe nothing will ever work. What doesn’t work in their life has nothing to do with yours, unless you let it. Life is like the lottery, there’s no guarantee you’ll win if you play but you’re guaranteed not to win if you don’t buy a ticket. Are you playing to win, or playing not to lose?
Decide to leave your caterpillar self and become the butterfly that Lao Tzu talks about. The world’s financial crisis isn’t your crisis. Our future is so bright we need shades! People are wonderful, business is great and I love my life. Change your attitude and you change your reality. Try it for one day. If you can’t last a whole day, try it for an hour, tomorrow, two hours and keep adding more time every day. It will work. People around you will ask you what you’re doing and why you’re different. That’s the barometer that tells you its working. You will become one of the most beautiful butterflies on the planet and the last thing you will think about is the Swine Flu or the Global Financial Crisis!