The first part of the text is entitled: "Identifying and Removing Habitual Thinking". The last time that I started this book I got through this part mostly, so I know it's good. Now I wonder if I can identify more or other thinking that is causing issues! I love the quote by Lao-tzu shared and will relate it here:
Every human being's essential nature is perfect and faultless, but after years of immersion in the world we easily forget our root and take on a counterfeit nature.Yes, you can change old habits...
Another quote to share: "An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie..." Alexander Pope
Really could it get any more succinct than that? I'll have to say that this also is all too true and I recall now why I love listening to and reading Dyer's words. For regardless of how they come to him they are related eloquently and to the point hitting right at the heart of what he's trying to get across to you. While I won't say he uses flowery language the quotes and specific phrasing he uses to make his meaning clear also wonderfully express his thoughts while also causing you to think!
Removing "old habits die hard" from my phraseology sounds like a really good idea as all this does is make things harder on me. And as I like to say so poignantly, "Things are never as hard as you make them." or "Things are only as hard (or easy) as you make them." Meaning if you think it will be next to impossible - it will be.
To read his words gives me hope as today (and in the most recent times) I have been struggling a lot. While I know there are excuses laced within my struggling many of them are so insidiously ingrained in my personality and mannerisms that I have a hard time even recognizing when I am using on of them. They, as with many adults, have become second nature - as automatic as breathing. So when you reflect on them you know you've breathed (used an excuse) but often times you are not aware of the fact when it's happening. This also brings up another point. Awareness of a problem makes it infinitely more manageable! It's hard to change something you can't "see"!
I noticed as I was reading in the top margin I had written a quote I had heard Dyer (or someone else) say:
Do you live in a hostile or friendly environment? Albert Einstein
To me this is an ultra important question. It hearkens back to my statement earlier that "things are only as hard (or easy) as you make them..." The premise behind it is that if you expect things will be a certain way that's just the way they will be. You will even seek such circumstances out to "prove" your theory! And when you search that diligently for negative outcomes and circumstances you will never cease to be disappointed! It also brings to bear a realization that I am making my life so much harder, with negative thinking and expectations, than it needs to be. That I am expecting that nothing will work out or that I have to struggle for everything...
I've come to the portion in the chapter where Dyer admits to two separate examples of memes in his life. Having shared his experiences he poses the question: Do I really want to hold on to these habitual behaviors that are ultimately capable of making me sick? While the obvious answer to this question seems to be no, we so often choose otherwise, by use of excuses. It's funny to reflect upon because quite honestly it's completely counterproductive and serves no good purpose. And yet...time and time again we fall "victim" to our minds and irrational thoughts and behaviors that we let control us, ceding our control rather than realizing that WE make the decision to feel, act, or be a certain way not the other way around!
Having just finished the first chapter it ended with yet another great quote. Reflecting on it all I feel more empowered and positive that I can "fix" my life now. I have had a bit of a rough day and it's been full of stress, fretting and general negativity (including fighting with my other half and desperately worrying about being to get money together for an e-course that will help me establish my businesses and also aid in "fixing" my life). It sapped my energy thinking and worrying and dealing with this negative energy so much that I actually became tired, like Dyer's example with his tantrum and the resulting stomachache I did something silly and physically paid the consequences for it!
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