Emptiness is a symptom that you are not living
creatively. You either have no goal
that is important enough to you, or you are not using your talents and efforts
in striving toward an important goal.
that is important enough to you, or you are not using your talents and efforts
in striving toward an important goal.
Maxwell Maltz
* * * * *
Today's Meditation:
* * * * *
Today's Meditation:
Whether or not we're working towards something that's important to
us always is a question of choice. It may be that our jobs don't allow us
a lot of opportunity to be creative and daring, but we don't live our whole
lives at our jobs. Life is about giving and sharing, after all, and it's
important that we find every opportunity that we can to do so, or else we will
feel that sense of emptiness that Maxwell is talking about.
Some of the happiest people I've ever known have been those who have set up a
shop or a crafts room where they can pursue things that interest them, things
that they can share with others. In this way, they're able to use their
talents on something productive, something that calls to them most days and says,
"Come make use of those great talents that you have!" I read an
article once about a woman who started propagating and growing flowers and
houseplants for shut-ins, and just this new hobby of hers pulled her back from
depression and despair and gave her something to look forward to in life.
Perhaps you don't have a goal like that college degree that could help you get
a promotion, or a certain sales figure, or a certain amount of money in savings
by a certain time. Perhaps instead you'd like to meet a certain number of people
in the next few months, or finish that short story or poem or novel by a
certain date. If this is the case, then make concrete goals out of these
things, and pursue them as important, vital goals.
We spend far too much time looking outside of ourselves for reasons to
thrive. Such a strategy really doesn't do much for us--we each have our
own unique gifts and talents, and it's when we actually put them to use that
we're able to benefit from them with a happier and more fulfilling life.
* * * * *
Questions to consider:
* * * * *
Questions to consider:
Why do so many people neglect to make goals or work with their own special
gifts?
What are some of your unique gifts? How might you put them to use to add
a dynamic aspect to your life?
What's one important goal that you haven't made yet because you're afraid you
won't be able to reach it?
* * * * *
For further thought:
* * * * *
For further thought:
If you observe really happy people you will find them
building a boat, writing a symphony, educating their children,
growing double dahlias in their gardens, or looking for
dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. They will not be searching
for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled
under the radiator. They will not be striving for it as a goal
in itself. They will have become aware that they are happy
in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day.
building a boat, writing a symphony, educating their children,
growing double dahlias in their gardens, or looking for
dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. They will not be searching
for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled
under the radiator. They will not be striving for it as a goal
in itself. They will have become aware that they are happy
in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day.
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