Do not waste your time chasing somebody else’s dream or goal or anything that is not given to you that you can’t claim first as your own. Use the talents you came in with or the ones you developed along the way.

You may become very good at something but you’ll never find true, lasting happiness with it if you cannot own it completely. You’ll always have to compensate with something else so as not to feel the void in your life – a void that is only filled by your own inherent strengths and talents.

If you do not know your talents and strengths, make getting to know them your major project in life. Use any tools you feel comfortable with. Try to find a way to dig deeper into yourself. This is your life – and you are worth it!

Recognize your unique blend of talents and gifts is the first step in discovering who you truly are. Think of your childhood dreams for clues about your early conditioning. Ask your friends to help you identify your gifts. Keep a journal of questions and answers and refer to it often as a way of focusing on the specific characteristics of yourself and the dreams you hold dear. Learn to use any tool that helps you find a way to dig deeper into yourself.

Finding The Courage to Step Out of Normal

If you’ve found your talents and strengths, you know you’re unique. It gives you confidence and a sense of stability. That does not mean that you go around telling individuals how different you are. It’s just a recognition of what you brought into this lifetime. Make a commitment to follow these gifts and talents; let them guide you. Do not let anyone tell you what you should do. Do not let anyone tell you that you’re not good enough to fulfill your dreams. Identify as much as possible with your dreams, as they’re the surest guides in your life. They’ll show you where to go. There’s no guarantee at all that everything will be fine and easy when you follow your dreams. It could be the opposite.

You may find yourself alone in the world with the feeling that everybody else is doing the right thing but you. Your gifts, talents and strengths are your ultimate potential, but they can also be your pitfalls. You’ll need to cultivate them over time. In the beginning, they are also your weaknesses and you’ll be tested by them. The more you withstand them, the stronger they grow inside you, until they become your life force.

Discovering your own unique blend of dreams and personal talents helps break loose layers of conditioning and initiates deep changes in your life. Realize that all change, whether positive or negative, is necessary and will in the end support you in ways that sustains your growth. Inner understanding is infinitely more significant than external accumulation. Be nonjudgmental – don’t impose artificial standards on yourself or on others.

Attention – The Infinite Source of Your Potential

Attention is probably the most crucial gift you possess. It’s the act of taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one of several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with other people. Our very perception of reality is tied closely to where we focus our attention. Only what we pay attention to seems real to us, where as whatever we ignore – no matter how important it may be – seems to fade into insignificance.

Each of us chooses, by our way of attending to things, the universe we inhabit and the people we encounter. But for most of us, this “choice” is unconscious, so it is not really a choice at all. When we think about who we are, we cannot possibly remember all the things we have experienced, all the behaviors and qualities we have exhibited. What comes to mind when we ask, “Who am I?” Those things consist of what we have been paying attention to over the years. The same goes for our impressions of others. The reality that appears to us is not so much what’s out there; as it’s those aspects of the world we have focused on.

What we look at may not be what we attend to. It’s possible to look in one direction but actually notice changes in another direction. Overt attention is the act of directing our eyes or ears towards a stimulus source. Covert attention is the act of mentally focusing on a particular stimulus. Basically, you are able to direct your attention towards the outside world or towards the world within. You are able to observe – attend to – your thoughts!

Mastering and controlling your attention gives you the freedom to choose what happens in your life. There are numerous things happening at the same time all over the world, however, as long as your attention isn’t directed to any of it – nothing really happens for you.

This is very important to understand. The more you are able to control your attention the more you attract only the things in your life that you really want. If you don’t pay attention to the crime scene on your television, it doesn’t create this reality for you. If you do not pay attention to negative things in your life, it won’t create that reality.

This does not mean you should ignore the parts of the world that don’t produce peace and happiness for you; it merely means not to give them too much attention. Do not get absorbed in them – decide when enough is enough and move on to something you want your attention to be focused on, for instance, the important goals and dreams of your life. Life isn’t what you see on TV nor what you hear and read in the news!