Law Of Averages - How To Be Successful In Anything You Do

I'M THE ONE - Les Brown (35 minutes of EPIC & PURE Motivation)

Book 2 (My Opinion, Your Self Is My Self) - Chapter 3, Part 4

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If we do not accept being labeled a certain way, then we should not choose to act a certain way. If we make certain choices, then we should accept certain reactions. If we choose to spend all our money on entertainment, we should not be surprised by the lack of any savings. If we choose to dress unconventionally, then we should not be surprised by the looks we may get. If we are unwilling to put in the effort of getting an education, we should not be surprised by the employment opportunities available or lack thereof. If we are unwilling to exercise, we should not be surprised by the excess weight. If we post on social media what prospective employers find unprofessional, we should not be surprised by their reaction. If we believe we can tell others how to live their lives, then we need to accept that someone can tell us how to live ours. If we are unwilling to accept control of our life, we should not be surprised when it doesn't work the way we want it to. If we do not like anything we need to accept, then we need to change what we choose.

Free choice comes hand in hand with the realization that all we can do at any moment is to choose what we do and to choose what we accept. Everything else that happens is what resonates. We choose to buy a lottery ticket, we accept the potentials of losing and winning. We choose to accept that we are in control of our lives, we choose to accept the potentials of making the right choices and of making mistakes. We choose to make our own decisions, we accept that others make their own decisions. We choose to have our own opinions, beliefs, and ideas, then we accept that others have their own. What happens afterwards is what we resonate with. Are we a winner, or are we a whiner? Are we afraid of the mistakes we might make, or are we loving that we are making the choices? Are our ideas worth making everyone hear them?

Book 2 (My Opinion, Your Self Is My Self) - Chapter 3, Part 2

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Finally came the technological evolution of the internet and with it social media. People are now able to say anything and reach anyone. There are no limitations on content, quantity or quality. People are now free to communicate as little or as much as they want to, and people are free to listen and pay attention to as little or as much as they want to. There is no such thing as too much information being shared. There is only the choice to accept the information or not. In order to accept the ideas we like, we allow our Self to accept them. We allow the ideas we like and allow what they may bring with them. There is the choice to allow the unknown an idea we like may bring with it. It is the age of free choice as “what” people have to say dictates whether anyone will listen. It is not up to the people looking to say “stop I don't want anymore”. It is up to them to say “I am not interested, this is not for me” and to look at something else. The people sharing don't have to listen to anyone saying “stop”, they only have to decide what message they want to be known by, to decide what to say.

We have come to the age when everyone can be heard, and their message determines if they will be listened to. Everyone has the freedom to proclaim “I want to build schools”, “I want war and famine”, “I want equality for all”, “I want a free car”, “I want others to take care of me”, “I want to offer one day out of every week to teach children to read”. Every one of these is valid as a statement, every one of these has its place. And everyone has the freedom to choose which of these messages to listen to. Which of these ideas they would like to incorporate into their life. We have come to the age when we hear everything, and we choose what to listen to. We have come to the age of “I have something to share” and the flip-side “I am willing to accept”. “I have something to say regardless of anyone listening”, matched by “I like what I'm hearing, I think I'll continue listening”. When everyone can be heard, the one with the idea which resonates best will have listeners, and the listeners will be the ones who resonate best with that idea. The art which resonates best with the viewers will have viewers for that art. The musician will have fans. Fans will find the musician they like best. The performer will have patrons. Patrons will find the performers they like. The guide on the path will have followers, all they have to do is choose whether to lead or not. When someone will look for guidance they will find it, all they have to do is choose to receive it or not. It is the age of choice. To perform or not, to attend or not. To teach or not, to learn or not. To do, or not. To share or not, to accept or not.

What we have is choice. To be or not to be has already been answered by “I am”. Now the choice is to do or not to do? To act on a choice, or to accept the consequences. To do or not to do is the choice we are faced with every moment of our lives. Infinite choices to do or not to do. To be brave or to be afraid. To smile or not to smile. To smile or to frown. To be happy or not. To be sad or not. To go to work, or stay at home. To invest or not. To play with the child, or not. To help a friend, or not. To ignore an insult, or to react. To rise to the occasion, or to stay timid. Once the choice of doing is made, there is the infinite subdivision of the choice by “to do how”? To do with joy, or not. To do as best we can, or not. To go to work and work, or to go to work and slack off. To make the best effort, or just enough to skate by. We have the choice of going to work. Once we make the choice to go to work, we have the choice of driving or taking public transportation. Once we make the choice to drive we may have traffic, we have the choice of being bothered by the traffic or not. We have the choice of being in a rush, or enjoying the extra time to ourselves. Once we make the choice to be bothered by the traffic, we have the choice of letting it ruin our mood for the entire day or not. The next day we again have choices to make; to go to work or not, to accept a ruined mood or not, and everything in between. To keep doing the same thing while expecting a different result, in the words of Albert Einstein is insanity. To keep doing the same thing while expecting the same result, is a choice to accept the consequences.

To be continued...

Book 2 (My Opinion, Your Self Is My Self) - Chapter 3, Part 3

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Actions have reactions, and choices have results. If we are unsatisfied with the results and are unwilling to accept the consequences, we can backtrack to the choices which gave the result and decide what to choose instead. Playing the lottery may result in losing money. If we are unwilling to accept the possible consequences of losing, then the choice to play or not to play the lottery is not to play. Eating excessive amounts of sugar and fat may result in health issues. If we are unwilling to accept the possibility of health issues, we should not choose to eat excessive amounts of sugar and fat. If the result is being overweight, then we need to backtrack to the choices we make when we decide to eat and to exercise. If we are unwilling to accept the consequence of eating an entire pizza pie on our own, then we need to change the choice that leads to the consequence. If we are unwilling to accept the consequence that we are watching what we're eating, then we need to revisit the choice of to exercise or not. Avoiding work may result in termination. Making a high-risk investment may result in high losses. Being nasty to the staff at a restaurant may result in poor service. Being an unpleasant person may result in involuntary solitude. If we are unwilling to accept the results in our lives, we need to look at and change the choices we make. Perhaps if everyone acts in a way towards us we are unwilling to accept, it is an indication that we need to look at the choices we are making.

Every action has a reaction, it's not necessarily equal or opposite. Action causes reaction, and reaction has action that caused it. We choose which action to take, or which result to accept. We choose how to act, or how to react. The following questions and statements are caused by our not seeing the connection between our actions and the results we are seeing. “Why is this happening to me? What did I do to cause this? What can I do to change this? I don't like my manager. This is unfair to me. I do not want this. I don't like my house. I do not accept this. I don't have money. I don't like this. Someone is doing this to me. I don't like my life.” Choose to accept, or at least to notice, that the “I” is in every one of those sentences, even in the guise of me. Choose to accept, or at least notice, that there is an action or reaction that the “I” is choosing. Something that the “I” does, good or bad, and a reaction that the “I” has, be it like or dislike, of the result. Choose to accept, or at least notice, that the action the “I” is taking may possibly have a reaction that the “I” does not like. Choose to accept, or at least notice, that the reaction the “I” has of not liking something may be caused by an action the “I” takes. If the “I” does not like the result, then the “I” needs to change what it's doing, or start liking the result. Choose to accept, or at least notice, that whatever it is, may be caused by something the “I” did. What may the “I” have done, to cause whatever reaction the “I” is experiencing?

If we choose to continue living in an expensive city instead of moving somewhere cheaper, we need to choose to accept the income that remains. If we choose to keep the job we have instead of looking for something different, we need to choose to accept the conditions we receive. If we choose to keep silent when we witness injustice instead of doing what we think is right, we need to choose to accept the feelings we may feel. If we choose to be bold and brave, then we need to choose to accept the excitement and the uncertainty. If we choose to experience love, then we need to choose to accept that we are love able, or consider the word, lovable. If we choose to experience fear, then we need to choose to accept the limitations it brings. If we choose to be lazy, then we need to choose to accept that life pretty much stays the same. If we choose to be in control of our life, then we need to accept that we are responsible for our life.

To be continued...

Book 2 (My Opinion, Your Self Is My Self) - Chapter 3, Part 1

Free will, free choice, freedom. The ability to make your own decisions. The ability to make your own mistakes. The ability to choose not to listen to advice. The ability to have your own opinions while everyone else has theirs. Not having your life forcibly tied to anyone or anything else. To be sovereign. To be the master of your domain, and to accept that others are the masters of theirs. Everyone keeping their opinions to themselves when they disagree with another's choices that do not affect them. Doing because you want to, not because you have to. To follow others because you believe their way is better than the one you have found. To have others follow you because they believe your way is better.

At first when personal communications were limited, people needed to be selective in what they chose to “transmit”. Letters had limited space, and a long transit time, necessitating certain limitations on what could be said. Then the telegraph evolved and became available. Speed increased dramatically, but cost was prohibitive and as such, people had to pick and choose their words very carefully. Again limiting what could be said. In time, the telegraph was replaced by the telephone. At first, cost was prohibitive and the telephone was available only to a small number of people. But over time it became available in every household, limited only by cost. As the telephone was supplemented and then replaced by cellular phones and their unlimited usage, there was no longer a limit on what a person could communicate. The only limit that remained on inter-personal communications was the time someone had to listen.

At the same time as the telegraph, there was the beginning of mass media; newspapers, information for the many. In time mass media became just that, available to the masses. The early newspapers were limited by the printing equipment. Additionally, limitations in the development of transportation, limited the distribution. As technology advanced, newspapers began reaching a wider audience, the only limitation being cost. People had to pay for them. As technology progressed further there came the radio and then the television. Mass communications could now reach a very wide audience. The only limitation was that the information was presented by the few, and access to broadcast was not available to the public for various reasons. There was a division of mass media communications and inter-personal communications. What individuals wanted to communicate had a limited audience, and individuals had no input into what was being presented by mass media.

To be continued...

Book 2 (My Opinion, Your Self Is My Self) - Chapter 2, Part 4

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An acquaintance didn't feel well as they were walking home, and had an accident. Afterwards that acquaintance still had to walk a few blocks before reaching home. The worst part was described as the thought “what if someone will walk next to me right now. How embarrassing!” Here is the question that in my opinion we should all ask ourselves; why was there any shame at all? Why was there any embarrassment? Why was there an expectation of judgement, or rather why did they care? We all have accidents. We all have days when we are not feeling well. Why then do we feel like we have somehow done something wrong? In my opinion the acquaintance should have focused on “why am I not feeling well? What should, or could I do to make me feel better?” How others were going to react should have been the last thing on their mind, if at all. Instead of being first, the “I” was the last to be thought of. The last to be concerned about. The last to be cared for.

If in this situation it was easy to see how the person should have been more concerned with themselves. Or you find yourself thinking “yeah, who cares about someone walking by”. Consider all of the times and situations in which you were more concerned with what those around you would think than with yourself. All of those times and situations in which you were more concerned with the opinions of those around you than with what you needed. Consider all of the times and situations when you were more concerned with the opinions about you, rather than you. Consider now, that there were two main opinions or thoughts possible. Thought one “I'm not feeling well, I might need help”, and thought two “I had an accident, how embarrassing I hope no one sees me”. Likewise, two types of people may have been attracted to cross the acquaintance's path. Someone who would have been concerned and asked if they needed assistance, or someone who would have possibly made a face and or a comment. Consider that the people in both cases would simply be mirroring what the acquaintance was feeling. They would merely be mirroring the person. Why then choose to have shame reflected back?

Speaking of attracting interactions. A neighborhood will be as safe or as dangerous as we want it to be. Two people may live in the same neighborhood, on the same street, and even on the same block. One person believes that the neighborhood is a safe and wonderful area. A second person believes that it is unsafe and that sooner or later something bad is going to happen. The only reason person number two doesn't move is because they believe that they can't and that they are stuck. They believe that they are stuck, despite the fact that they feel unsafe and that something bad is just a matter of time away. Sooner or later the second person's belief will attract a mugger onto their street. The mugger is passing through and the meeting with the second person is just a “coincidence”, otherwise known as synchronicity. The mugger does what he does and does something “bad” to the person who was “just waiting for it”, thus validating the person's beliefs and opinion of the neighborhood. The first person comes home some time later when everything is calm. To them there was no mugging. They are not acquainted with person number two and thus never find out about the event. Not caring about the statistics, which can be seen as records of manifestations, they never find out about the mugger. To person number one, the neighborhood remains safe and just as they have always perceived it. Each person has their opinion reflected back to them.

Book 2 (My Opinion, Your Self Is My Self) - Chapter 2, Part 3

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When magnets are placed next to each other out of alignment they repel each other. We consider this normal, and there is no surprise. People similar to magnets have a charge, but when they repel this somehow means that “they need to learn to get along”. Perhaps this means they have to learn how not to interact, while allowing the other person the ability and freedom to be themselves. We wouldn’t keep trying to force two magnets together, and we shouldn’t keep trying to force two people together. If we don’t like someone we should just stop interacting with them. If that’s not an option, find something to love about them. Don’t forget that they are impersonating our own opinions. Figure out what is aggravating about them and consider that this may be something we do not like about ourselves, or something that we ourselves do. Perhaps we have to accept that even though we may not like this sort of behavior, it has its place in our personalities. We are who we are by having the behaviors as a part of us, and perhaps the other person is merely reflecting them. Once we realize and accept this we may be surprised to see those around us behaving in a new way. This is because we no longer need them to impersonate the specific opinions that we wanted to observe and choose to no longer interact with. The person may begin to impersonate other opinions, or the interaction may cease completely as there may be nothing else for them to impersonate. They may be the wrong actor to play out the other opinions we have. It’s alright, they’ve done what we needed them to do, we shouldn’t expect them to impersonate something that they may not be able to. Would we want someone who's broke impersonating or reflecting back our financial ideas?

Ever notice that husbands and wives, after years of marriage, look and act like each other? Consider that every individual is a “mirror” for AESA, but we are not exclusive and we also reflect one another. Husbands and wives, or other significant others, are “mirrors” who constantly adjust and entrain themselves to each other, reflecting one another year, after wonderful year, together. The reflections are pleasant to one another to begin with. Make no mistake, opposites do not attract, an intellectual pacifist homebody does not get together with an ignorant crude abuser. Not without some other catalyst forcing the bond. Alcohol has forced many such bonds. So when the reflections are pleasant to begin with, there is nothing to change, nothing to adjust. The reflection of one person gets combined with the reflection of the other person and the two reflections continuously bounce back and forth. The reflections amplify as each partner keeps bringing more and more of themselves into alignment, enjoying the “view” and adding more and more joy to the image being reflected. There is a resonance as the “mirrors” amplify and reflect each other, while becoming more and more alike. This is not limited to “husbands” and “wives”. This is the resonance of any couple or group. Lifelong friends will be alike, domestic partners, business partners, and any people in close proximity for extended periods of time. This is of course providing that they were similar or compatible in the first place. Then again they wouldn't have connected or become “entangled” if there hadn't been an initial similarity. “Show me who your friends are, and I'll show you who you are” could be restated as “show me who your friends are, and I'll show you whom and what they are reflecting”.

As we change and decide what we would like to experience friends and acquaintances may come into and go out of our lives. This may be misunderstood as dislike, indifference, a happy reunion, or a lucky coincidence, but it is simply the attraction of compatible reflections and mirrors. As we change, the people in our lives will be dragged along for the ride. Some may be more in alignment and will be along for more of the journey, while others will disappear. This may appear normal or confusing at the time. Some will move away for work while keeping in touch. Others may suddenly stop calling or responding to calls, making us think it was something we did. Friends we had not heard from for years may suddenly reappear in our lives. “Show me who your friends are...” much like “lead by example” are both examples of what we choose to have reflected. As we choose who we wish to be, and what experience we choose to have, we attract others to reflect our choices back to us. We don't lead anyone anywhere; the other people simply reflect back where it is that we are. With our friends, as with anyone else around us, if we don't like what we're seeing we should change what we are showing. If we don't like the reflection, we should change what we are showing the “mirror”.

To be continued...