Author Archives: Guus

Meaning

At the beginning of Inspiration for Success I was researching for it and subscribed to several ‘self help’ type sites. One that stuck with me was and is the site of Morty Lefkoe and today I found a link to his post from yesterday. I like the ideas of Morty Lefkoe as it seems they are really true and can help people to, well, suffer less or lead more happy lives.

His post from today was about how humans suffer from giving meaning to events, not the events themselves. And just before there were two events I did not like, which was part of the reason why I clicked on the link in his e-mail. So I tried the suggestion of Morty Lefkoe to separate the events from the meaning I gave to them and it gave me some relief. I’m still a bit anxious though, as I did not feel OK today and those two little events I didn’t like upset me more than usual. So I’ll just do the exercise here below for my two events, for myself as to quiet my nerves, but also for you, so you’ll have a sample.

The first event was one of our dogs, Adam, crying, make a sound like having pain. And this has a long history, as Adam has had a very bad skin disease (mange) for years and we were never able to have it cured for as far as we know it’s a combination of his weak immune system together with the mites being resistant to treatment with Ivermectin, the best treatment we know about for this type of disease. So Adam is in very bad shape and continuously scratching and licking himself as the disease causes very bad itch. So the event is ‘Adam is crying because he has hurt himself again licking or something’. And the second event is my partner reminding me that he wants to euthanize Adam, which I am too scared of deciding on and doing. And this whole thing triggers an enormous amount of thoughts. So these thoughts create an awful lot of meaning to this simple event of a dog crying and make me suffer a lot. Thoughts like ‘I should have treated him better’ or ‘maybe my partner is right’. Also thoughts like ‘I should have found ways to earn more so we could have treated him’. So while writing this, the main meaning I give to this event is an enormous amount of guilt, an enormous amount of ‘should haves’.

And now I don’t know how to continue as I’m not writing anymore about separating the event of a dog crying from the meaning I gave to the event. So for those interested in that, better check site of Morty Lefkoe as he has very good ideas about ‘separating meaning from events’ and what I know him most for: getting rid of limiting beliefs.

So how to go from here, as I feel very anxious now and I’m not sure how to convert that into something inspiring for you, which is still my intention with this site, even with my blog items. And well, when I am in a state like this I often refer to the internet, just start searching for something like ‘how to turn anxiety into excitement’. So I just did and I found this, even though I remember some other post from a while ago I like better. Useful suggestions though and I like most the end of the post (she’s was in acting school): “Your audience wants you to succeed.”. How true is the last. No one wants another person to fail, everybody wants everybody else (also) to succeed.

And there are some other pages about this and, I think unfortunately, the page on ask-gratitude is a bit lower in the search results, but it gave me good tools before to turn my anxiety into excitement.

The main thing though with this kind of (negative) feelings is to start just accepting them, letting them be there. Keep in mind they’re just your feelings. And they’re yours, they’re you. And there is nothing wrong with you, you’re OK as you are, whatever situation or state you’re in.

Patience and time

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I was just thinking that nothing much was moving here, on the site Inspiration for Success.And then I realized I just found the following quote and even copied it to Facebook (it was even still in my copy cache):

Patience and time do more than strength or passion. – Jean de La Fontaine

So maybe just be patient then for now. And it’s very late, so I’ll leave it with this. Guess it’s Infinite Intelligence telling me it’s enough for now.

Inspiration to forgive

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Today I wrote a post in my personal blog on how deep I have fallen financially over the last few years. And that was what I thought I was very good at, taking care of my personal finance. But I found out, yes the hard way now, that when you find yourself in a certain position, in certain circumstances, you are capable of doing many things, I’m even starting to believe ‘virtually anything’ or even ‘anything’.

And while writing this I remember an experiment that was done quite a while ago where a random group of students were divided in two groups, where one group was assigned as ‘prisoners’ and the other group as ‘prison guards’. I don’t know the exact experiment, but somehow the experiment was set up that the situation would get ‘bad’, so there would be two camps or something or there would be internal fighting in the groups or something.

Anyhow, I know half way the experiment was canceled as the whole situation got out of hand. Participants in the experiment might have been injured or even died, that’s how bad it got. The ‘groups’ really behaved like they were ‘supposed to behave’, no matter how bad the situation was and no matter that it was just a bunch of students randomly chosen and randomly assigned into each of the groups.

So yes, I already knew to be careful with judgement about other people and other peoples behavior and so do you probably. And I know now and know now better and for real that in the right circumstances you might just behave as the thing you opposed so much before.

So let’s not judge each other. Better inspire and support or help. And don’t forget to forgive, no matter how bad it was.

Inspirational team meeting

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Wow, I’m still happy with my Master Mind group for this project, for the project IFS. For learning how to be or become a leader, where I’m starting to understand that leadership is also or maybe about listening, but somehow also by deciding, taking charge. And yes, team and Master Mind seems to have been my main weakness, knowing everything myself, knowing everything better. And I may know a lot and I may know how I want it or how something could or should be done, but doing it alone is impossible, without other people supporting and doing part, or in most cases the majority, of the work you cannot achieve something big, something significant, something that ‘makes a dent in the world’ as Seth Godin states it.

And I ‘know’ that other people also know a lot, can do a lot. But somehow I still feel something like ‘I can do it better’, even though I’m starting to realize that’s not true. Cars and planes were invented and built and mass produced ‘without me’. Men flew to the moon without me. Most of the daily stuff I’m using and eating I wouldn’t even know how to produce or how to get here. And nothing, literally nothing of anythings serious I could do alone. It’s all already there, invented and made by other people and produced and brought to me by ‘organized effort’.

So again, what’s my role, what could I do, what should I do? Just be part of the system? That’s not my nature I guess. So yes, I guess I’ll have to take that leadership role, make something happen, start or continue the projects I believe in. And try to make other people believe in it too and make something happen in the world, something new, something that add value, not only for me, but also for all other people involved, maybe even to everybody in the world.

So yes, maybe finally I’m learning what I needed to learn all my life and what i never understood. Take my role and make it work.

Inspiration vs. motivation

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Lately I don’t feel very inspired. And I don’t feel very motivated. And I don’t seem to succeed to inspire people, to motivate people to do things I have in mind. And I’m kind of OK with it, as this whole feeling of mine goes back the the roots, to the origins of this site, the site Inspiration for Success. So it helps me to move on, to improve, do something.

And a few days ago I wrote the post What inspires you. And I put some Tweets in Twitter with the same question. And I put the same question in Facebook. And until now I didn’t get any reply, any feedback. And when searching for ‘inspiration‘ and ‘motivation‘ and ‘success‘ and combinations of those in Google I mostly end up in work related sites. Yes, of course, as the internet has commercialized very fast the last few years, so business type sites will show often show high in the search results as they have the budget to ‘advertize’ their sites, promote their sites. So from an internet perspective ‘success’ mostly has to do with career, with money, with being successful as ‘the world’ sees success. And from an internet perspective inspiration seems to be something like ‘motivation for success’. Or, as I found in the site related to my post What inspires you to creative inspiration.

So yes, I think the site Inspiration for Success as I have it in mind certainly has value, can add something to people, can add something to the world. As I didn’t find anywhere yet the type of thing I want to, well, convey or something, the thing I’m looking for.

You see, I just want to inspire you to be passionate, to fulfill your dreams, to live life to the fullest. And not from a ‘worldly’ perspective, but from your, well, deepest being, from who you really are, not from what the world expects from you. And it seems so few people find that, do that, find that inner power to really be themselves as they are meant to be.

And I struggle with it, as I see myself NOT having achieved that yet, not living life to the fullest, even though I know I have the power to do that, I have this feeling inside me I can be who I really am and show it to the world and be successful…

And I guess this is what all the successful people talk about, radiate, do. And that this is also the secret that is hidden in, indeed in The Secret, but also in Think and Grow Rich.

So where did I lose it, when did I lose it, as I know I had it, somewhere, some time when I was young. And where did you lose it, as you also had it, somewhere, some time.

And more important, how to claim it back, how to become the person we really are, we are really supposed to be meant to be.

Yes, that’s what I want this site to be, to inspire you to become whole again, to become you again, to become the real you again. Without holding back, without all the limitations that the world has put on you or you think the world has put on you.

Yes, that is what I want…