Okay, so you recognize that your life could be better if you did some things different financially speaking. That recognition is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Simply knowing that you need to do something different (and even knowing what to do) is not enough. You actually have to DO IT.
What would you like to do? Do you have ambitions to change the world? Do you aspire to make a difference? Start with yourself. Make a difference in yourself today. In previous posts I’ve talked about mindset and making changes. What does that mean to you? Does it mean that you have to learn something else before you can act? Maybe, but taking the time to learn something else may be a distraction from the underlying need to simply do something else.
Taking action, doing something, being different, are all surefire ways of interrupting your routine of sameness. Are you going to sit there and wish your life were different? Or are you going to take some different (only small) steps and make your life different? Sameness in action leads to sameness in results.
After I got laid off from my last job in a successful 35 year career, I knew I had to do something different. Indeed, I could well have just sat around and waited for the phone to ring. I also knew that that wasn’t going to happen — at least at my age. So I stepped out and did something different. I acquired a new skill set and I created a business that I’m proud of.
You can do that, too. You don’t have to go into it fulltime. You can start small — just a couple of hours a week, but those will be very important hours that can change your life. Follow this link and see if there’s something that speaks to you. Click here now to open the door to new opportunities. Make a difference — to yourself, to your family, to the world at large.
As I explained in an earlier post The Law of Attraction Primer, the Law of Attraction will help in manifesting anything you’ve awakened within yourself.
So, let’s say that you want improve the quality of your Family Life. That’s an admirable goal, but you have to be more specific. You know that there are lots of things you can work on when it comes to the family, so you have to get specific. You will need to think about what part of the family relationship that you need to work on and what it will take for you to bring the family closer to your own ideal.
The second part of the law of attraction is to learn how to let go of the negative energy and replace it with positive energy. Get everyone on board with the idea. Describe the vision as you see it. In GREAT detail. Know what it will look like when you have accomplished it. Get your family members to see it, too. A group change is easier if everyone in the group can see where this is going.
If you would really like to use the law of attraction in your family, then you will have to get everyone to give it a chance. Have every member of your family use the law of attraction in a way to achieve the family’s collective goal. You will want to make sure that no one’s goal conflicts with another because it will end up in conflict with the overall goal. You will want to make sure that you consider the way the family reacts to the law of attraction theory.
Moving on to the third step of the law of attraction, you all need to take action on the goal. That is, act like a family. This means that you will need to schedule your family nights and learn how to share time with each other. You will need to accept the fact that the family needs to start acting like a family. For example, you need to all sit down and eat dinner together. Talk at breakfast, work together, spend time together, and have some fun together. This is the step where you will need to act like you are family.
You will want to consider that there is a lot to do when it comes to working as a family and it is a long way down the road before your family is “perfect”. Achieving family togetherness and happiness is not (usually) a one-step process.
Be patient and remind each other of the vision with each other often. Keep the vision alive. It’ll work. You’ll see.
If stress is a particular problem in your family, have a look here.
Becoming a parent is a powerful and joyful experience, and it is a lot of responsibility as well. It’s hard work to raise even only one child, much less a family. And for all the effort it takes for two devoted adults to help their kids to grow, how much tougher is it for a single parent? Probably the biggest challenge in being a single parent is the conflict between needing to earn a decent living to support your kids and to spend meaningful time with them in the ways they deserve. I have great admiration for single parents. As a single parent you have to play the combined roles of father and mother.
The first and the most important thing is that the parent take responsibility for his or her duty to making a solid family life for the children. This means acknowledging the reality of the situation squarely. If this is a new situation, the children are usually emotional, hurt, and disturbed about whatever has happened that has resulted in this type of situation. They often blame themselves for the situation. Whether it is due to death or divorce, the single parent needs to take into account the effects of such trauma on the kids. Early on, it may be tough for the single parents to acknowledge, but they have to understand that their children harbor emotions that need to be dealt with.
A single parent can always help the kids grow into successful human beings by understanding their needs. Kids will demand more time than you may have or want to give, and they may well be a bit less understanding about the conflicts that you yourself are facing. Even so, you can make them feel loved and protected.
For a robust and healthy family life, you need to
- Make time for your children. You can arrange picnics and outdoor activities with your kids so that you can have fun together. This kind of fun will strengthen your family ties.
- Talk to them about their problems. If they are under the stress of the situation they will like to talk to you about it. Make them trust you. Once you develop this type of relationship with them you will be able to win their trust and overall you will be able to create a strong family unit for your children.
Deal with your stress or theirs. Click here to find out how.
There are lots of reasons for finding peace in family life and in maintaining good relationships with your entire family. As the bumper sticker says, “Be kind to your children. They are the ones who will pick your nursing home.” It is absolutely essential (as an adult) to be dependable, consistent and kind– even when you are feeling annoyed or even angry.
Regardless of your role in the family (father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or sister), you need to do everything in your power to be a good family member. By concentrating on making yourself the best person you can be, you can singlehandedly be the difference that makes the difference in the family dynamics.
First and foremost, cut everybody some slack. (Yes, even you control-freaks!) Learn to put up with some of the irritating things that your family does. Rap music? Classical? Heavy Metal? Too loud? Not loud enough? Just because you have needs doesn’t mean that you get to bully someone. (That goes for parents and kids!) We all have needs. There are lots of ways to deal with this. Check your attitude at the door. If the music is too loud, negotiate. Compromise. Make a deal. Go where the music isn’t. Heck, you could even learn to like it!
If your spouse has habits or preferences when it comes to cleanliness (or a lack thereof), start by acknowledging that you have differences. Don’t expect him or her to change just because you want it so. And don’t insist on being “right” or superior. If you want the house to be cleaner, then do it yourself. Maybe your spouse will catch on to your preference and agree to pitch in. If he or she doesn’t, don’t turn it into a weapon to beat them with.
Take the time to become closer to your family and get to know them better. Plan family outings, and eat dinner together on a nightly basis. Keep up with what is going on in the lives of your children and spouse. Take it all to heart, don’t just make empty small talk. Engaging in conversation over things that you find “trivial” may feel like a futile exercise, but by showing personal interest you will create bridges and make a stronger relationship. And who knows, you may even learn how to care about those “trivial” things because they are important to someone you love. Build some fun into your work activities, and build some work into your fun activities.
Family life is always something that can be improved. If you have been having troubles lately, take steps now to prevent things from getting worse. It may take some effort on your part, but you can get your family back to a healthy point, and from there you can live with your family in happiness and peace. If you think that things are beyond your ability to act, talk to a family therapist or counselor to get some advice or guidance.
When your family life is not peaceful, disastrous results may be just around the corner. It’s only common sense. The possible outcomes include dysfunction, divorce, and trouble with the law, to name a few. Stress is always a sign that something needs attention. Click here to find out how to deal with stress.
This is not going to be a lengthy post. The purpose for it is to introduce to my blog a concept that has been floating around widely in popular culture for the past couple of years (”The Law of Attraction”), and in order for me to use it in later posts, I think it would be a pretty good idea to define it in my terms.
So, exactly what is this “Law of Attraction”? The law of attraction is an ancient idea based on something that Buddha said. In a nutshell it is that you create your own reality through the energy (intention) you emanate. Another way to say it is that you get in life what you’re looking for.
Some say that the idea that we create our reality is “preposterous”. Others say that it cannot be proven.
I respectfully disagree. The nature of my disagreement with such naysayers may split hairs, but they are important hairs to split.
We create our reality every moment of every day by the choices we make. If I choose to act on one thing and not act on another, I’m taking steps that will have a direct (and potentially dramatic) impact on my life. For example, if I choose to ignore a stop sign or red traffic light when I’m driving my car, I am creating a “high-probability” chance of a different reality from the alternate reality of coming to a full stop at the appropriate place.
Now, if I make an intention (an intention is nothing more than a pre-made set of choices), and if I take actions consistent with that intention I am creating a reality for myself.
At the level of the brain, we have what is called the reticular cortex. The reticular cortex is our attention getter AND it is programmable. For example, your reticular cortex is programmed to respond when it identifies that someone is calling you by name. So, when you’re at a party and there’s lots of ambient noise. You could be shouting through the din in an attempt to make conversation. But if someone in the room whispers your name, your reticular cortex will have you up and looking around in an attempt to figure out who called you. Your conscious mind may wonder, “Did I just hear something?” but you have already responded to it before that question was formed.
The cool thing about this is the programmable feature. Have you ever noticed that when you decide that you want to buy a new car, say a SmartCar, you suddenly see them all over the place? Or when you learn a new word, like “crepuscular”, suddenly you’ll hear it in two or three places. That’s the newly programmed reticular cortex. It’s not that the SmartCar or “crepuscular” weren’t there before, it’s that you hadn’t programmed yourself to respond to them.
SO… this means that once you’ve added a new pattern to your programmable reticular cortex, it’s going to be looking for things that match the pattern. Thus, if you want to improve your spiritual growth, or your relationships, or your money situation, or your family life, you drop it into your reticular cortex, and you’ll be seeing things that might have been there all along, but that you weren’t attuned to.
In the New Testament, in the 11th Chapter of Luke, Jesus says, “ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Sure sounds like programming the reticular cortex to me.
