Category Archives: Goal Setting

Don’t Work for Money!?

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Money or Happiness with Barbara Talley

Money or Happiness. Barbara Talley invites you to ask the question.

SAY WHAT???  What if we instead sought happiness, first?  I know what you are thinking, Maslow’s Hierarchy (which has been challenged)? We can’t even think about happiness until we have enough money to pay for our basic needs: shelter, education, food, insurance, healthcare, clothes, transportation, travel, etc.

I too was once conditioned to believe that the primary reason you go to work is to make money. But Bob Proctor made a statement in one his ‘Science of Getting Rich’ program that caused me to rethink this commonly held paradigm. He asserts that the primary reason to work is to make a meaningful contribution by DOING WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY. (He also asserts that trading time for money is the worst way to earn wealth too, but that’s another article, and that wealth is not acquired by WHAT you do but instead by HOW you do what you do.)

On the surface it makes sense. Who wants to work for, with, promote, or even be around someone who is chronically unhappy and apathetic? It’s clear that we need money to have a quality life but couldn’t happiness derived from offering a worthy service be the first or at least an equal consideration?  Happiness puts us into a frequency that attracts more of what we are thinking about to us.

I do not believe that I am Pollyanna or naive in my view either. I know we have to have money to survive but should “making money” become the sole or  primary motive for working. Remember we are trading our lives for this money, so it should fulfill us!  I guess we have to think about what’s the MOST important, money, happiness, or both?  So few feel that they even have the choice.  They say, “I have to work, not I choose to work!”  They don’t believe they have a choice, so they never ask the question about what would really make them happy!  If you chose to have both, then you are among the minority.  A recent article in the New York daily News reported that “an alarming 70% of those surveyed in a recent Gallup poll either hate their jobs or are completely disengaged, and not even incentives and extras can extricate them from the working man’s blues.”How can an economy or society progress with this level of unhappy employees at this level of disengagement?  Everyone at some level is seeking happiness and you can’t give what you don’t possess yourself.

Here’s to your happiness.  At the very least, allow yourself to ponder the question, “What work or service would make me really happy?” I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.

Happy New Year!!!

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Happy New Year from Barbara Talley

Happy New Year from Barbara Talley, Speaker, Author, and Poet (The Poet Speaks)

How many times have you said, read, or heard this greeting, “Happy New Year?” Probably too many to count.  And yet, how many times have you stopped to think about what will actually make you happy in this coming new year?

When you stop to really think about it, these words offer a blessing and perhaps a promise to all that say, hear, and heed them.  Everyone has heard of the benefits inherent in affirmations. Well, “Happy New Year” is a wonderful affirmation. Most however don’t really think about the blessings and promises inherent in this familiar greeting.  But, let’s change that; let’s focus on these three simple words: three thoughts, three promises; three reminders for the coming year!

HAPPY

The first blessing, promise, or affirmation is to be happy. Each of us must be clear about what makes us happy and focus on doing more of that. To get the answer, we must first ask the question:

“What do I think (know) will make me happy?”  What you think about, you bring about!

Have you really thought about what makes you happy and allowed yourself to want it and bring it about? So many allow others to talk us out of our true dreams and desires. And, have you thought about how to make others happy? Too much thinking on only one’s own happiness can make you selfish.  Too much thinking on only what makes others happy can make you a resentful, unhappy sacrificial martyr. That doesn’t make you happy either. We have to have balance. Being aware and concerned about our own happiness and that of others is intertwined anyway.  Did you know that by being happy, you help others to be happy?  Happiness is just as contagious as unhappiness. Did you know that there is a science to being happy?

Deepak Chopra described two types of happiness, the first was the happiness that we get from “getting what we want.”  The second is the happiness we get from just “being our authentic spiritual selves” by acknowledging who we are and developing/sharing the gifts within us.  The first type of happiness is dependent on outside events, circumstances, and people; the second is independent of these and more stable. The Chopra Center is offering a free 8-week course on happiness.  You might want to check it out.  Because in the end, isn’t happiness our ultimate goal?

NEW

The second promise is NEW! Things, ideas, and people change and some no longer serve a useful purpose in your life.  Sometimes accepting the “new” means letting go of the “old”.  Isn’t it great that we get to learn from the past and start anew, building on the knowledge gained from the past?  Newness is built into the fabric of our universe. Each day when the sun rises we get a new day or gift of 24 brand new hours.  We get a new month twelve times a year.  And we get a new year every 12 months, 52 weeks, or 365 (approximate) days.

NEW implies a fresh opportunity. We get to start a new chapter in our lives.  Some people approach the “new” year with the same old fears, hangups, habits, limiting beliefs and baggage from the preceding year. This is an opportunity or milestone to ‘let go!” The new year is an opportunity to draw a line in the sand and to say, “I’m starting all over; letting go; or becoming more serious or committed to the dreams and aspirations I’ve chosen.  No one wants to feel like a quitter or that they are giving up, and making changes now helps you to avoid that stigma. A new year gives us that opportunity.  And while we don’t have to wait for the turning of the calendar page to turn over a new leaf, it is a special time that we have support, reminders, and the inspiration to do so.  Some things in your life need to be ‘new’ and some things needs to be “renewed”, reaffirmed and recommitted to.  You decide!

YEAR

2014 is the gift of another year to make our mark, to make a difference, and to make our lives and the lives of those around us more meaningful.  What do you want to accomplish this year?  What are you committing to accomplish this year?  What do you want to become?  What do you want to give?  What do you want to feel, attract, or experience? Bless yourself by taking some time right now (or carving out in the near future) to decide how you are going to spend this brand new year!  Make sure your goals are SMART. In my next post, I’ll share about how to make SMARTER GOALS. Until then, “Happy New Year!”

Barbara

Be a Better Bouncer: Control Your Thoughts

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MY TIMEBe Armed and Ready Each Morning to Direct Your Own Thoughts

Each morning when we awake, the world is ready to present to us what it wants us to focus on. The newscasters, marketers, reporters, and radio personalities have been up before the crack of dawn determining what they want us to think about.  What we think about, we help to bring about! They know that some will start their days with the television (even before prayer and meditation). Others will start with family demands, coffee and a newspaper, or perhaps with the phone calls, video games, social media, email, or the dramatic issues of those people around them. That is why it is so critical that we each learn to guard and direct our own thoughts!  If we don’t; others will!

What the world presents to us, we tend to see and think about. Thoughts lead to action.  Wallace D. Wattles, author of The Science of Getting Rich, warns that the hardest thing for human beings to do is to think their own thoughts and to hold a sustained and consecutive thought in their minds. He understood the destructive power of suggestions and distractions.  A confused and overwhelmed mind has very little power. All of this “information” we take in may seem harmless, but the sheer volume of these unplanned thought suggestions at their worst dishearten, discourage, and distract us from focusing on and creating the reality that we wish to see and manifest. We must control the journey our mind takes each day.

bouncer-droidWe each have been given a distinct calling and the creative tools to manifest whatever we focus our powerful thoughts on.

We must learn to guard your thoughts like bouncers guard the entry into exclusive clubs. They have a list. If you are not on the list, you don’t get in. Our values, beliefs, and goals serve as our list. But, these goals must be clear and we must be consciously vigilant to protect them because our minds don’t discriminate and will pay attention to whatever thoughts get there first.

You and I have the power and the responsibility (like a bouncer in a club) to determine what thoughts get in. We are thinking creatures and whatever thoughts get to our minds first take over.  Even if we manage to push them out, all thoughts still  leave their traces.

Other thoughts (perhaps your own) have to work harder to displace those lingering competing thoughts. That is why it is critical that we have our own clear goals! Write them out each night and reflect on before you go to sleep. This allows our subconscious mind to work on them while we sleep. Then, when we open our eyes each morning, we are ready to manifest our own dreams.Our internal bouncer has it’s own priority list.  However, if we don’t have specific goals and the self control to direct our own thoughts, these competing thoughts will continue to take over or distract us from making our own dreams come true.

Barbara

What You See Is What You Get!

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abstract-19141The moment you open your eyes each day, the world is ready with all its enticing entrapments to seize and take hold of your thoughts. Whatever and whoever controls your thoughts, controls you! We are first and foremost thinking creatures and what we see, we think about. AND, WHAT WE THINK ABOUT WE HELP TO BRING ABOUT! You may not realize it, but you may be unwittingly helping to bring about things you detest or are against, because what you think about, you give energy to. What you give energy to gains power.

Our brains are obedient and neutral and will focus on and try to make sense out of whatever is presented before it. It cares little if the thoughts are empowering (about abundance, joy, and hope), or destructive causing you to think about gloom, doom, and hopelessness.  Empowered human beings have learned that they must protect their thoughts by controlling what they see, hear, and think about.  They have learned that every thought influences their emotions and every emotion influences their actions, and actions are what create reality.  So the question is:

“Are you a responsible caretaker of your thoughts? Do you spend more time seeing, describing and focusing on what you see in your own visions, or like most people, do you spend the majority of your time focusing on, talking (or complaining about), and trying to understand what the world presents and describes as important each day.”

It is true, “What you see is what you get!” BUT, WHAT DO YOU SEE?

Each of us has a powerful brain which only we should have dominion over.  If you like what you are getting, chances are that you have been using your powerful creative energies to focus your thoughts on what matters to you.  On the other hand, if the images, thoughts, and words you see and hear cause you to be angry, fearful, or unhappy, then you have allowed destructive thoughts to take control. We only create reality in the current moment and if we allow ourselves to be distracted, our precious creative power is dispersed trying to describe and understand other people’s goals and perceptions. Some things presented to us educate, inspire, and uplift us; but the majority of useless thoughts lead us like a horse with a noose down the path of destruction.

To be at our best and be true to our own dreams, desires, and visions, we must learn to see beyond what is presented to us. The most important work you must ever do is to learn to take control of your thoughts despite what is before you. We must have clearly defined goals and learn to follow our own scripts, goals, or plans.  Therein lies our power!

Barbara

LIVE YOUR LIFE LIKE A BEATIFUL PRAYER~

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Strive that your actions day by day may be beautiful prayers.

We are what we think, feel, talk about, and DO every day. The sum of our actions determine our character and highlight what is valuable to us.  Most people say that their spiritual life (worship) is the most important part of their existence.

But, what does worship really mean to you? Is it something you do on a specific day of the week or is it a part of your daily habit or lifestyle?

To be truly effective, worship has to become a daily habit or a way of life that arises from our deep desire to love and serve our Creator. And be clear, the Most Great Spirit does not need us; we need that abundant grace. We show our gratitude for life and the ceaseless blessings bestowed upon us by habitually serving humanity.  Each of us must extend the love, grace, forgiveness, generosity, patience, encouragement, and justice to others that we want for ourselves. What we send out, we bring about. And this way of life has to become a habit.  It should not be something we only do on a specific day and time that is limited to only certain people or under certain conditions.  We must each strive to live in such a way that every moment of our lives is lived like beautiful prayers.

Barbara