Does everything really happen for a reason?
It was always my belief that things happen for a reason. That life hits us with events that we have no control over but when we look at the bigger picture there was always a reason for it happening, a lesson to learn.
Then last month I read something in the local paper that shocked me. A mother had lost her daughter. Her daughter threw herself off a building to her death. Why? Because she was mourning the loss of her sister. Two years before her young teenaged sister had been raped and then stabbed to death.
It made me think. Could I stand in front of this mother and tell her everything happens for a reason? The answer is no I could not. It made me question whether I had taken on believing something I read in a book that sounds great in theory but doesn’t always fit in practise.
I still believe that when an event happens to me personally I can take a look at that event and see how dealing with it will help me transform my way of thinking, feeling or behaving. But I have to admit that if something happened to my children I don’t think I could be that charitable.
I have become a woman who knows her place
I live to serve. I always knew that but now I realize that’s it is more than just that. I live to be of service to people, I really don’t need to be in the limelight, on the stage, out in the front. My place is in the back!
I tried discussing this with friends and their opinion seems to be that I am side stepping my role as a leader. That I don’t want to lead so I am stepping back but it isn’t that at all, I have become a woman who knows her place 
The thing to always remember is that being behind someone does not mean you are “less than” they are – in fact it is the complete opposite because it takes strength to serve and be in the back without the recognition and limelight of being in the front!
Finding Myself in Me
[RE-POSTED] This is an old blog post that I wrote back in August 2006 but I loved it so much I thought I would save it again today.
I can still recall the “AHA!” moment I had a few years ago when after years of searching for something and never knowing what it was I was searching for, after years of personal development seminars, books, CDs, and videos I finally realised all that time I was searching for myself! And this is a great story to illustrate that very fact.
An old Hindu legend tells of an ancient time when all human beings were gods. But the people so lacked appreciation of their divine nature, however, that the other Gods decided to take it away from them. Brahma, the supreme God, wanted to hide human divinity where people would never find it again, and asked his fellow gods to help him find the best place. One God suggested that they bury human divinity deep in the Earth, but Brahma thought they would surely dig deep enough to find it again. Another God wanted to sink it into the depths of the greatest ocean, but Brahma thought that humans would eventall learn to dive deep enough to find it and take it up again. Another God suggested they store it at the top of the highest mountain, but Brahma knew that people would eventually climb high enough to conquer every peak on Earth. Frustrated, the council of Gods decided that there wasn’t a single place on Earth that humans wouldn’t know and conquer, eventually. So Brahma himself began to think of ways to hid human divinity. He thought for a long time. Finally, he said “We cannot hide their divinity on Earth, for they are determined to own all the planet. But if we hid their divinity within their own being, they will never think to look for it there.”
We humans have been looking for our divinity ever since!
That extract was taken from the book Invisible Acts of Power by Caroline Myss
This is my year of letting go and clearing out!
No it’s not because Spring is on the way (although today’s cold high winds and pouring rain made me doubt that too) but because I am in the year of completion according to my numerology chart! I have been clearing the way for something new since November 08 to be honest and it felt really great a few months ago to get rid of a lot of stuff that was cluttering the house.
Now I am on to selling my house and ending that cycle too before I start a new cycle that involves moving to another country. It’s major and still to scary to talk about right now but I am ready to go do something different.
I am also busy writing so apologize for not sending a newsletter out recently but I have another great free ebook on it’s way that I have learnt about manifesting my intentions. I won’t spoil it for you but will say that God on His own doesn’t work. Me on my own doesn’t work but co-creating and working with God to bring what I want into my life is producing fantastic results!!!
Yes, this is a year of letting go, clearing out, shipping off and co-creating with God.
Give yourself permission to discover your greatness and succeed
When you embark on the journey towards discovering your greatness it is important to give yourself permission to succeed not only through words but also subconsciously.
Your subconscious mind is a powerful tool for allowing or not allowing the very thing you desire and you know whether yours is working towards helping you experience what you want (or don’t want) based on your results.
If you do not have what you want in life I would avoid thinking your subconcious mind is “against” you because what bad experiences work towards doing is teaching you a lesson of some kind. Always remember that in order to know and experience what you do want you have to understand what you don’t want too. In order to know who you truly are it helps to have some experience of who you are not!
If life is less than happy right now acknowledge and thank it as a lesson of what you don’t want and start turning that around by looking at what you do want. It really is that simple!
Self-Sabotage
I thought I had cleared out everything I needed to in order to succeed and experience wealth yet my results were still very poor. I had put myself in debt and I was looking at having to sell everything I owned to clear it off. Then I had a powerful realization that I had put myself in that position so I could get myself out of it and that is when things changed. I also believe it is why I am so passionate about teaching it too because I can only teach what I have experienced (or I make a better teacher if I do that) and sharing what I know works towards helping others.
“Focus on what you want not on what you don’t want” became my mantra and I invite you to do the same no matter where you find yourself right now.
If you are saying affirmations (which do work by the way), meditating, praying and nothing is happening take a look at how you might be unconcisouly sabotaging your own success.
Find Your Team Supporters
Another thing that really helped was having “team supporters” a group of people who could all see how great I am. They all saw something in me that I was having trouble seeing in myself. I am blessed to have family members and a number of friends who believe in my ability to succeed
We dont always see how great we are but other people do and it will help you to discover your greatness if you focus on how people see you, especially when the image of how you see yourself isn’t great.
Who are your team supporters? Who believes in your ability to succeed? Can you spend some time looking at you from their eyes so you can see what they see which is just how great you truly are?
Why we need team supporters
How long will a football team last without supporters? If the team is losing a game and the supporters are shouting encouraging words in unison willing them to win it makes a huge difference to their morale. Similarly, if the supporters are frustrated by the fact that the team are losing and begin to shout negative comments and profanity the team find it difficult if not impossible to improve the way they are playing.
What we hear about ourselves is just as powerful as what we think about ourselves so while you are working on improving your thoughts add some extra “juice” to the whole thing by finding people who believe in you. Spend time around people who can already see your greatness.
A word of caution
While team supporters are a great addition to your tool belt in the steps towards discovering your greatness I would caution you on only relying on other peoples opinion of you all the time! Everything you do must work in balance.
It is good to experience and seek out people who believe you to be great but you cross the line when you become dependent on it, or it is the only way you can make yourself feel better about who you are!
What you are doing here is finding a team to support you when you don’t feel able to support yourself but ultimately the team of YOU is the best one you can have.
Activity
Spend some time thinking about and writing down who your team supporters are!
Who are the people that support you no matter what position you are in? Even if you only have one supporter that is a start.
If you don’t already spend more time with your team supporters so that you can experience the feeling of being with people who already believe you are great.
Take that feeling that being with them gives you and remember it. Use that feeling whenever you are not feeling great about yourself or you are feeling nervous about anything.
Also use it as you say affirmations about yourself. Affirmations work when you not only say the words but also use your emotions as you say the words. Take that feeling of being great and say your affirmations. You will find a huge difference to your results.
Three Instant Supporters For Your Team
If you are open to believing in something bigger than yourself then you have an instant supporter right there. Your biggest team supporter is God. No matter what you have done He will always be there with love and compassion and if you can turn to Him in times of trouble He will support you. Building my relationship with God (outside of religion – this is not about religion for me) has been one of the greatest gifts I have given myself. The sense of senerity and strength that comes from just connecting to Him is amazing.
Your second biggest team supporter really can be You and that is the journey you are on as you discover your own inner greatness. You can help by being open to supporting yourself. Here’s an affirmation that might help
“I am willing to look towards becoming one of my biggest supports of all time”
Repeat that affirmation often because by acknowleding your willingness you are already on your way to succeeding.
Your third supporter is ME! I may not even know you but I already know you are great because I believe there is greatness within us all. The difference between you and someone who may never discover theirs is your willingness to do the work that is needed to succeed at this. In my book that already makes you great. You are not passively accepting life as it is now but you are actively looking to make it better. That too makes you great in my book and I acknowledge you for being willing to do that. So put me down as one of your greatest supporters!
Giving yourself permission to succeed is essential in the journey towards discovering your greatness. Having a loving team of supporters who already see how great you are will also help to lessen the effects of the negative things you say about yourself. Building a relationship with God will help to add to you experiencing your greatness at a level that no man can match but ultimately your own thoughts, words and actions will determine what you will experience in your life.
Life really is simple. Either we experience what we don’t want or we experience what we want. Our job is to discover how we move from one to the other.
What Is Greatness?
Below is an extract from my new free personal growth ecourse Discovering Greatness Experiencing Joy. It’s the third in the series of lessons designed to get you thinking about greatness, ready for greatness and working towards whatever greatness means to you. If you enjoy reading this extract please sign up to receive each lesson.
“I know that no matter where you are in life, you want more! No matter how well you’re already doing or how challenged you now may be, deep inside you there lies a belief that your experience of life can and will be much greater than it already is. You are destined for your own unique form of greatness…” –Anthony Robbins
What is greatness? I believe that this is a question we all need to answer for ourselves because greatness is something that is unique to us all. So spend time considering what greatness is for you after I share what greatness is for me.
For me greatness is a feeling that comes when I connect to the universal energy known as God (or Source/Creator), when I stand in complete faith and believe that whatever I have asked for will be delivered. When I pray for others and spend time making people laugh. My greatness isn’t one thing but a multitude of things that leave me feeling at peace, connected and always confident.
Fear and guilt can not live when my greatness is present. Scarcity and doubt stand no chance when I am connected to how great I am. I am vibrant and my natural energy (or aura) attracts people and things into my life like bees to a flower in bloom.
And the important thing to remember are the words ‘when I am connected’ because when I turn away from Source life just isn’t as joy filled as it usually is when greatness is present.
Worry becomes the ruler of my life, and fear about how things will turn out takes over. With worry and fear around situations in my life alter and all of a sudden life stops working out as well as it once was. Projects fall apart, money stops coming in and worry and fear begin to increase, which in turn brings more of the same.
The good news is that no matter where your life is right now, no matter how bad things have become, at any moment you can choose to turn it around with one simple thought “I can choose to be happy despite my current circumstances”
It was that one thought that began to turn my life around after two years of disconnecting from source to ‘do it my way’ and making a complete mess of it. I awoke one morning and a voice whispered ‘despite how bad you think things are you can still choose to be happy’ The simple act of choosing to be happy put me on the path of reconnecting back to everything I had turned away from.
I share that story to highlight that on your path to greatness there will be times when you turn away from what is working because you believe that you know best. Or perhaps everything is working fine and you think you are okay to do it alone, but if you are truly one who has had God in your life then He will patiently wait until you are ready to turn back to Him – and that is usually after messing everything up and landing in trouble!
The gold in this situation (because there always is a lesson to learn or “gold” in every situation) is that I experienced what I was like without greatness and it did not feel good. I had to experience who I do not want to be in order to know when I am experiencing who I do want to be, which is great.
What greatness means to you and why you would choose to begin the journey of discovering your greatness is something you and your Creator can answer together. It’s not an easy path. Challenges will be thrown at you thick and fast as a way to heal your past and highlight how and why you limit yourself. As you heal those past events and unblock your limiting behavior your life transforms.
Discovering greatness is a journey with no end because as soon as you feel you have found the greatness within you something will happen to show you there is still more greatness to find. It is our key to continually grow and develop towards self realization.
What I can tell you is that it will change your way of being in the world. You will enjoy a continuous feeling of joy – not fleeting happiness – but true long lasting joy no matter what circumstances come your way. Your life as you know it will never be the same.
Are you ready to be great?
It’s funny how easy we think it is to resist our own destiny rather than go for it!
I typed that line in an email I was sending today
“It’s funny how easy we think it is to resist our own destiny rather than go for it! “
I was talking about my on again off again journey with stepping forward to have my book published and to begin spreading the word of how joyful life can become when we take the time to discover the greatness within and spend time developing a relationship with God (or Source).
I have been one of the most stubborn advocates of that by continually moving away to do work that I decided was best for me and not thinking about Gods plan for my life, but the thing is it never went away. From the moment Inspirational Guidance came to life in 2000 and then I found my souls purpose of discovering greatness my calling has been to share this with the world but I’ve resisted.
The resistance came from not knowing how to share it, what to do, not wanting to be out there talking about it. The insecure child in me doesn’t like being looked at and doesn’t want to do it…… and yet there is a greater part of me that keeps getting called back. This is in my blood and I truly believe it is what God has planned for me.
There are 24 hours left of 2008 and I made a promise to God in April 2008 to do whatever he asked of me and in the last few days he has revealed His plan to me about what I need to do next about getting my book out into the world, which has excited and scared me all at the same time.
Discovering Greatness Experiencing Joy is about my journey towards self realization that I will share with you. It’s about how ultimately destiny will always call you no matter how much you resist and most of all it will be about how easy we think it is to resist our own destiny rather than go for it!
Because the book is about my own journey towards self realization I have to go through it in order to write about it and from the plan that was revealed I realized that I already have experienced a great deal of it and I am on the final part ….. being able to bring into reality everything I desire by thought, faith and action. This is the part I will focus on mastering on a consistent and regular basis. Manifesting what I intend not what life throws at me!
To help me with that I am re-listening to the Science of Getting Rich (which starts on this blog from January 1st 09) and I am also thinking about recording The Master Key by Charles Haanel which is a book in public domain (which means anyone can use it.) I am going to look at putting it on audio and breaking it down one chapter at a time. The Master Key is the book that inspired the movie The Secret and is all about the law of attraction but I prefer to call that the manifestation of our intentions.
Your intentions are powerful. What you intend to bring into your life through your thoughts will always appear so intend great things for yourself.
My desire for you as we leave 2008 and start 2009 is that you receive everything you desire so think positive and dream big.
I want to leave you with the words of Dr Wayne Dyer from his EXCELLENT book “The Power of Intention” and I leave them for anyone who has a desire they have yet to see fulfilled.
“The book that you’re now holding in your hands [The Power of Intention] and all the information it contains, was once a formless idea residing in the invisible domain of the field of intention. I managed to make my own vibrational energy march up to the all creating Source, and allowed these words and ideas to flow through me directly to you. You’re holding in your hands evidence that anything we can conceive of in our minds – while staying in harmony with the universal all-creating Source – can and must come to pass”
Dr Wayne Dyer from his book The Power Of Intention
The Power Is In Your Hands
One of the things I said alot in the past is
“This book changed my life”
Eventually I realized that when I said that I was putting all of the power into the hands of the book. It wasn’t actually the book that changed my life but my willingness to make changes and take action. By naming the book as the thing that changed my life I wasn’t praising myself for what I had done.
I soon changed that to “I changed my life by reading this book”
Which then puts the power firmly in my hands because I did the work necessary to make the changes.
Now of course I realise that it’s not me alone. God plays a big part in helping me to change my life but again I still put emphasis on the fact that it is with God’s love, guidance and support that my life changes.
If I went around believing that God changed my life that would mean when things got tough that I will also believe that God is making life difficult for me – which of course is not true.
Remember at all times YOU are the driving force that is behind how your life is turning out and the books, seminars, CDs and everything else including God are there to support you on that journey.
Part of discovering greatness is taking full responsibility for your life and your current circumstances. Sometimes things happen that we have no control over and at the hands of other people. I understand that but it’s our reaction to it and how we choose to let it impact our life that matters most and that is something we do have control over.
Also remember this is my personal perspective!
Free Personal Growth eCourse
My free personal growth eCourse for 2009 is called “Discovering Greatness Experiencing Joy” and I am now one step closer to delivering it after completing the graphics and some of the content.
I included the words “experiencing joy” because that is exactly what happens when you live from your greatness. The only time I don’t feel as if life has anything worth celebrating is when I forget to connect to my greatness. It will focus heavily on the spiritual side of connecting to a Higher Power that I will call God and the benefits that I have experienced from knowing Him as a new believer.
This free faith based eCourse will take you on a journey of questions, quotes, affirmations and stories that will help you begin to look within for your own greatness but only if you are proactive in how you use it. If you read each lesson and do nothing then your result will be nothing. Instead take each lesson and write out the affirmation or spend time thinking about the question and see how it applies to your life.
What I am asking you to do is actively engage yourself in this eCourse and remember our motto….. free equals high value! This is a high value eCourse that I have given to you free of charge. If you find it easier to stick to things when you pay for them then feel free to send in a donation
Watch out for the restarting of teleseminars with myself on this topic but also with other experts in the personal development field.
I want to help at least 500 people discover their greatness and enjoy living in faith in 2009 but I can’t play this game alone. Wanna play with me ???
Diane
P.S. How did I discover my greatness today….. well I created a new cover for my eCourse (above) but usually my covers are without images because I just haven’t been able to work out how to add them….. until today!
but ive been done seen bout everything….
I consider myself as open minded as they come and I thought nothing would surprise me. I also knew that you can sell ANYTHING on the internet. So there I was taking a look at LULU.com because I am looking at putting together a year long inspirational journal (it’s one of the things on my must do list I am finally doing!) and came across this book….. brace yourself…..
Natural Harvest – A Collection of Semen-Based Recipes
Know anyone that might love one of these for Christmas?????
First comes the free ecourse for personal growth and then the journal so watch out for it. It will include a collection of images that I have put together myself including this one
