Personal development: Waiting hopefully for opportunities October 5, 2018
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Goal Setting and Realization.Tags: achieving goals, action steps, getting things done, goal setting, inspiration, life, opportunity, philosophy, psychology, self-actualization, writing
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In our efforts to improve ourselves, whether in financial matters, emotional balance, or adding to our accomplishments in general, we may turn to such assists as affirmations, statements of intent and purpose, and goal planning in order to succeed.
Essentially, we are looking for opportunities.
And the key process lever for prying loose those opportunities is action.
Why is action so important?
Because the opportunities made available to us, or sent our way, do not wake-up those who are asleep. (1)
We ensure that we are awake and alert to incoming opportunities by making sure we take action steps towards our goals and do not spend excessive time in planning and other non-action steps.
Planning and similar activities are important, but usually comfortable.
Taking action is hard, and scary.
But it’s the only route to really getting things done.
(1) Paraphrased from a quote by Richard Templar
Dennis Mellersh
Tao Te Ching: Making mistakes, growing, not blaming May 9, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Tao Te Ching.Tags: blaming, failure, Lao-tzu, life, opportunity, personal development, personal growth, philosophy, Tao Te Ching, writing
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The ancient wisdom of Lao-tzu, as expressed in the 81 chapters or verses of the Tao Te Ching, is able to express and make understandable highly complex principles within the confines of just a few words.
The same concepts the Tao Te Ching so concisely elucidates may take up hundreds of words of commentary in contemporary personal growth and self-improvement media.
Consider the power of these 40 words in Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Chapter 79:
Failure is an opportunity.
If you blame someone else
there is no end to the blame.
Therefore the Master
fulfills her* own obligations
and corrects her own mistakes.
She does what she needs to do
and demands nothing of others (1)
* Because the personal pronoun in the Tao is not gender specific, Mitchell alternates between male and female versions of the Master
(1) Tao Te Ching: A New English Version, as translated/interpreted by Stephen Mitchell, HarperPerennial, A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, 1991
— Dennis Mellersh
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