Today was my 10th day since I began keeping daily appointments with myself. By now, the appointment has proved itself a valuable habit and I’m actually starting to feel excited every morning before the appointment.
Waking up excited every morning
Image by: Anna Bialkowska
Until now, I have managed to keep my daily appointment every day, 10 days in a row. One remarkable thing has happened to me while keeping these appointments: I feel excited every morning.
Before I started the daily appointments I had mornings when I just didn’t seem to get myself out of bed. Even if I wanted to wake up early, the warmth of the bed felt like a better option than getting up.
Now it has become far more easier to get up. When the alarm rings, I immediately start to think about the appointment and I feel excited about it, while thinking what to focus on this time.
It makes waking up easier.
Using your imagination can be fun
Image by lscan
Today, I focused on visualizing how my life would be at its best. While I truly concentrated on the picture and imagined myself in it, I could feel myself already living that kind of life.
For a moment, I already felt the joy of owning a sporty Corolla Verso, spending time travelling around Spain with my family and sensed the warm coastal wind blowing to our luxury house in the hills Andalucia.
The picture I painted in my mind became so real that it almost felt that I was already there.
I suggest you try it too, if you already haven’t.
Tags: daily appointment
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:53 am
Imagination is a great thing, isn’t it
Good to hear that your efforts are starting to pay off.
Maybe I should create a morning habit as well?
Or maybe I’ll still wait until you’ve gone the whole month and
see how you are fairing then
You’re can kind of be my test puppet in this. If it works, I’ll try it.
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:44 pm
@Aki-Matti: Yes, you should create a morning habit too! But I’m happy to be your test puppet first.
Today, I woke up 5:30 and used my appointment to read an old book. I made note of two great sentences I found there:
“Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself”
“Man do not attract that which they want, but that which they are”
Wise words. Never blame circumstances of who you are and what you ultimately get.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
@Lauri: Maybe I’m just simpleminded but I have no idea what those sentences mean.
October 2nd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
@Aki-Matti: Haha!
I bet they are hard to understand out of their context..
But simply put, the first quote means that you are not who you are because of your circumstances, but vice versa. By looking your circumstances you see yourself - who you are.
The second quote is about getting what you want in life. Just saying out loud what you want doesn’t get you there, unless you change yourself - and that’s exactly what I’m doing with this blog: Changing myself to change my life.
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I have to agree with Aki-Matti… I had no clue what the quotes meant
Now that you described them, I have to say that I can’t agree totally. Yes, you’re right in saying that circumstances can’t explain all that you are. But no, you are not completely unaffected either. Just think about it: if you were born to a poor family in African countryside, I’m rather sure that you wouldn’t be the same man as you are now.
The second one is true. You need to act upon your goals - otherwise you won’t reach them.
Good to see that you’re happy with your daily appointment, though! And reading is always good (even if I don’t agree with everything
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 am
@Jarkko && @Lauri: Okay, now I understand the quotes a bit better. I also concur with Jarkko about the first one, that the circumstances do define us somewhat. After all, we grow and develop against the circumstances we are in. If your parents die in a car accident, it changes you as a person to a different one compared to a version of you who’s parents didn’t die in a car accident. Just because you would have to deal with the loss.
Jarkko greatly simplified the idea on the second one. I can finally understand it. Though it was quite a long road from
“Man do not attract that which they want, but that which they are”
to
“You need to act upon your goals - otherwise you won’t reach them.”
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Hehe, actually, I found the “You need to act upon your goals - otherwise you won’t reach them” idea from Lauri’s explanation and how I understood it.
I still don’t understand the original quote
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
…and now I’m starting to think that “You need to act upon your goals - otherwise you won’t reach them.” is a misinterpretation. That’s probably not what the original quote meant to say.
October 5th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
You guys have some good discussion going on here! Great points about the circumstances too.
I think you are right. It is indeed true that our circumstances affect us. But as I have come to understand it, it can only affect us to the degree we let them to.
To see the point James Allen is making in the quotes, you have to see the link between your thoughts and actions and how they define who you are.
All actions start with a thought in your conscious or subconscious mind. And as you have full control over your conscious thoughts, you can choose your thoughts and that way affect your actions, which in turn determines the circumstances you get yourself into.
For example, take a man who always gets dumped in relationships. Isn’t it because of something he does wrong with women? And why is that? I say the root to the wrong actions is his wrong thoughts about himself or the relationship. If he would alter his thoughts, the circumstances would change. Next time it would work out.
This, I think, is what the first quote is all about. The circumstances you’re in, reveals your innermost thought to you, and that way it reveals who you are.
October 5th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I see the second quote is a bit tricky to understand, but I’ll try to make it more clear with a couple questions.
According to the first quote, what determines your results in life? That’s right: your actions. As Jarkko said it, you have to act upon your goals to reach them.
Well, what makes you do the right actions then? According to the first quote, as I just explained it, it’s your thoughts.
And what determines your thoughts? In a way, your desires and wishes sure affect your thoughts, but they can be strong enough only by making them part of who you are.
We can also put it this way: Which one is more likely to receive love in relationships, a loving man or a man who only wants to be loved?
That’s right.
If you want to receive love, be loving.
If you want to receive forgiveness, be forgiving.
If you want to receive help, be helpful.
If you want to receive money, be rich.