“Change Your Habits Change Your Life”

Posted in Getting Organized, Goals, Life, Love, relationships by Carol Medlock

A major key to experiencing success in our lives is found in making good habits, and breaking bad ones. In other words it’s a “make or break” principle for us. We all have habits. Some of them are good and some are bad. The good ones benefit us and add joy and power to our lives, while the bad ones do nothing but steal our peace and joy and prevent our success.

The truth is we all have things about ourselves we’d like to change. And no matter what they are e, when we can’t seem to stop or even slow down unwanted habits, it can be very discouraging. Some people respond to this discouragement by making excuses for why they can’t change.

Others decide that they’ve failed because they didn’t read the right book or on the right program. And some just give up and refuse to try again.

I want to give you a fresh perspective today it’s not a new one, in fact it goes all the way back to the beginning of time and hopefully you’ll experience an aha moment like I did when I read this.

The entire Bible takes place in an agricultural world . . . that’s why Jesus used so many examples about farming, planting and gardening.

For example, a farmer goes to bed every night trusting that the seed he planted in the ground will produce fruit. His life depends on it. No matter how great last season’s harvest was, his future depends on his seed producing again this season. It may seem simple, but he knows if he plants corn, he’ll get corn. If he plants wheat, he’ll get wheat. And if he doesn’t plant at all, he won’t get a crop.

Here’s how this principle works in our lives . . .

Today, we can get so busy that our days turn into weeks . . . weeks turn into months . . . and months turn into years as we cruise along without realizing that we either aren’t planting for the future or we’re planting things that won’t yield a good “crop” in our lives.

Sometimes we can become discouraged by current situations in life without realizing we’re simply reaping what we’ve sown. If this is the case for you . . . there is hope for change and for letting go of the old habits and that have keep you from the life you long for.

Good habits lay the foundation for any other habit we need or want to develop. What is your number one priority ? Is it your job, children, looks, material things, or taking care of a loved one? These are all important and honorable.

In order to be successful in developing good habits, it’s going to require commitment on your part to do whatever it takes to succeed and start planting the right seeds into your life.

As you do this each day, you’ll find focusing on good habits not only establishes good behaviors you want in your life but also helps you break the bad habits in the process. As you are thinking about your choices remember that God has a plan for your life and wants you to prosper.

What’s your motivation to change a bad habit to a good habit is it health, money, love, children, material things, ego or God? The right kind of “farming” starts with planting the right seeds.

What seeds are you planting are they seeds of love or seeds of selfishness? Where does your love, health, money, children, material things, ego come from?

3Jul2012

Start Where You Are

Posted in Dreams, Life, Love, Quotes, relationships, Women by Carol Medlock

Start where you are when you have been blind-sided by a sudden crises, tragedy, or an unwanted break up. Unplug the TV, put away the to-do lists, turn off the computer playing in your mind, and find some quiet time alone and meditate about how you are going to start where you are now.

You may be wondering what does daffodils have to do with starting where you are? Look at this photo of daffodils field do you realize it started with just one bulb? “Start Where You Are ” one bulb at a time!

This is a lovely story about a woman who planted one of the most beautiful displays of daffodils ever seen, high up on a mountain peak surrounding her small A-frame home.

There were five acres of flowers planted in “majestic”, swirling patterns with great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow.”

A poster on her patio of her home read: “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking.” The first was “50,000 bulbs.” The second answer was, “Began in 1958 planting one bulb at a time, year after year for more than forty years, this woman had created something of indescribable magnificence, beauty and inspiration.

Sometimes we find ourselves at cross roads, no longer willing to do things the same old way. It may arise out of a need, an answer to a problem, or a deep soul desire felt within. You find yourself bewildered and wondering where do I start? You’ve been so devastated that you could hardly breathe and at moments you felt crushed?

Maybe you were broken-hearted because the man you thought you were going ot marry, your soul mate ended your relationship or maybe you married him and it didn’t work out. And to make matters worse,you worked for him.

A few years ago my friend Linda was in that exact situation her fiancé broke up with her and she worked with him. Needles say she was feeling devastated so she called a dear friend and asked her, Where do I start?

This was the advice her friend gave her. First, if she was going to survive, the most important thing was to go to bed every night before 10:00.

She knew from her study of health that every hour of sleep we get before midnight is worth two hours after that time. She also knew that staying rested was far the most effective way to deal with stress. Anyone who’s ever gotten up in the morning without having had enough sleep knows how hard life can be when we’re tired. When challenges are accompanied by fatigue, we can feel hopeless. Linda knew she needed to be alert in order to cope with the humiliation she experienced and the demands of her work schedule.

Linda’s friend suggested that the second thing she should do was to focus on the things she had to be grateful for. Every night before falling asleep, she started writing down at least five good things that had happened to her each day and as time went by the grew and grew.

Linda’s friend also explained this simple principle to her: When we focus on darkness, we usually allow ourselves to be taken into deeper darkness. When we focus on light meaning all that is good in our lives we attract more and more light. It’s a powerful truth: Whatever you put your attention on grows stronger in your life.

It’s no surprise that when we focus on the negative, that’s all we can see. How often have you had five great things happen to you in your day, but when a friend asked you how it’s going, you immediately told her about the one thing that didn’t go so well? As Linda’s dear friend said to her, “The more you believe somethings matters, the more solid and tangible they become.”

Sometimes we get so involved thinking about the past or the future that we simply forget what’s going on right in front of us. At times like these, I find it valuable to remember the advice my friend Linda applied to her situation when her life was turned up side down. She didn’t know what was going to happen down the road, but she knew she had to breathe, eat and go to work everyday. The first thing Linda did was post a sign on her refrigerator that said, Start Where You Are” one bulb at a time.

As a result Linda resigned from her job and became an owner of a flower shop where she met and married a terrific guy who is a publisher. And Linda’s list of good things that happened to her everyday grew to 365 good things that happened today and her husband published it. Linda still keeps a sign on their refrigerator that says, “Start Where You Are” one bulb at a time.

17Apr2012

Ready Set Grow

Posted in Chidren, family, grandkids, Grandparenting, Life, Mentoring by Carol Medlock

Every grandparent enjoys a unique position in their grandchildren‘s lives. You don’t have to strive to be special. You’re special by definition. You can come into your own as a grandparent, if you put your own distinctive stamp on your role by being inimitably who you are. If you do, you’ll find you have a devoted fan in your grandchildren. Start sharing an activity that you enjoy (gardening) or a hobby (bird watching) or you may have a particular skill (perhaps drawing, knotting, needlework, or playing tennis), which you can share with your grandchildren. This can provide an opportunity for them to go with you into a world all of your own, one that only you can introduce them to.

The great thing is that you will have boundless enthusiasm for the activity. That’s infectious, and your enthusiasm will rub off on to your grandchildren.You will communicate that energy to your grandchildren so that it becomes a thrilling journey you take together, with you as benevolent teacher and your grandchildren as willing students.

If you enjoy activities together when your grandchildren are very young, they’ll grow up thinking of you as an exciting companion, someone special who shares special pleasures with them. Children are very sensitive to this act of joyful discovery and, as soon as they’re able, they start to bring little gifts of that same kind to you.

You form your own virtuous circle, where you respect what each can teach the other, and it will probably last for life. In my experiences I’m constantly surprised and delighted by the way my grandchildren push my interests further than I could have taken them on my own. Right now it’s The Cat In The Hat… Go Go Go on an adventure with my grandson’s Jeremy and Jesse!

And of course you open up your grandchildren’s world in a way that’s special to you. It can be anything, from finding out about insects to stamp collecting or jewelry making. The possibilities are endless. Aren’t they?

Encourage your grandchildren in all sorts of different activities. It’ the doing it together that counts.Grandchildren enjoy putting a plant seed in a used yogurt container, or a small plastic tray is fine for planting seeds together. You can teach your grandchildren what plants need to grow.

They can help you water them and you can show them where the perfect place is for the seeds to get the right amount of sun, soil, and you can track the seeds’ growth at each visit. Choose seeds that grow quickly and dramatically, like purple flowering morning glory’s.

Even better collect the seeds from seed heads in your garden and plant them. Then your grandchildren can get the idea of the circle of life in a very simple way. When the seeds turn into flowers you can let the flowers dry out and use a flower press and turn them into a dry flower collage for the whole family to admire.

Grandchildren also enjoy looking at things under a microscope. Dead insects and spiders that they find are a particular favorite. But so are plants.The underside of the leaf of a fern with all the rows of seeds is very exciting when seen in up close. Even newsprint looks thrilling through a microscope. The things grandparents do out of love! There is no one else except my grandson’s that could get me to look at dead insects much less spiders under a microscope. Oh! That’s just gross isn’t it?

2Feb2012

The Sweet Bliss Of Rose Petals

Posted in Brides, Dreams, Life, Love, relationships, Romace, Women by Carol Medlock

Come lie with me in the rose petals in the sweet bliss of their petals. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you had rose petals to lie in? Wouldn’t it be exciting if you had enough time to lie down, sweetly, deliciously, in them? Do you wish that you had the beautiful imagination to whisper such words in the first place?

To be able to say such words would mean that some wonderful things had already happened to you.

It might mean that your spirit is already free, that your heart is open and clear, that you already have been touched so deeply, so dearly, by someone who you could want to lie down in a bed of rose petals with him, with her. The two of you feeling the texture, breathing the fragrance, savoring the mystic effervescence, that you have arranged your life, your day, your way of being so that, in fact you could partake of your own wise and wild invitation.

To say, “Come lie with me in the rose petals and let us bow down to the scent of the roses, performing our sorrows, diminishing the grasp of all our tragedies, unraveling the grip of all the ordinary awful tasks that bind us, dull us, and so tediously unshine us. Let us slip for a moment into the sweet bliss of roses, into a breathless bevy kisses, of magic, of always.

How long has it been since you’ve spoken such courtly, majestic, and fanciful words if ever? There is no time like the moment. There are no words more special than the ones you feel moved to utter, no risk more worthy than the one you fancy taking, to move you farther, move you deeply, into the sweet bliss of love.

Therefore, take courage, be a jester and a hero, and say to your darling beloved (while the sun watches, while the moon hovers, while the birds sing), “Come lie with me in rose petals, and let us rejoice in our love.”