Inspiring advice – The forever wisdom

I have been on the road this week. Although I have been traveling quite a bit the last few years, this is the second work trip for me this year. With two little ones at home, hopefully my work travels will stay minimal this year. On Tuesday, my original flight out from Vancouver was delayed by 30 minutes before I stepped my foot in the airport. Since I only had less than 1 hour to transfer in Seattle, I immediately emailed the travel agent that we use for work to warn her about my situation. By the time I cleared security & customs and finally talked to the travel agent on the phone, the airline had re-booked me on a different flight. However, when I got to the boarding gate, Tripcase had warned me that this particular flight was delayed by 20 minutes. The delay got even longer because there was a mechanical issue. Knowing mechanical issue usually would take a while to fix, I called the travel agent to evaluate alternatives. I knew there was no way for me to catch my connection flight in Seattle, so we started looking at the next flight out of Seattle. Unfortunately that flight was completely sold out, meaning I would have to wait in Seattle for 4+ hours. I was quick to ask if there were other airports I could go instead. Portland was the next best option. Instead of re-booking the tickets right away, I asked for possible backup options in Portland to make sure I could get myself to my final destination before end of Tues if more delays were to happen. Luckily I made it to my final destination just fine. I was happy that I re-booked my flight and connected through Portland instead Seattle, especially considering the plane with mechanical problem did not even take off from Vancouver (flight got canceled). After my quick meeting with the customer, I’m now sitting in Seattle waiting for my return flight. Thanks to my luck, the flight is delayed. 🙁

Anyway, Mrs. T forwarded me this inspiring advice and makes me ponder a lot about how I deal with things in my life…

 

You always have options. In every situation, you can choose how you are going to deal with it and how you are going to feel about it. The word option is most important, since you will be encouraged to have an open mind about attitudes which may well have kept you closed to being creatively alive. Wherever you find yourself in your life, whatever the circumstances, you can make the situation into a learning or growing experience, and you can choose not to be emotionally immobilized. Whether you are in a hospital bed, a prison, a routine job, in Hogwart Junction, the New York City slums, Wide-Spot-in-the-Road, Missouri, or on a long trip – the setting is irrelevant. You can be alive enough to get something out of the experience, and you can either like where you are, or if you prefer, work at moving to another, more fulfilling place.

By “creative” I don’t mean having a specialized skill in the arts, or being able to create culturally. “Creative” here has nothing to do with music, literature, art, science, or any of the typical definitions attached to it. When it comes to aliveness, “creative” refers to the individual’s capacity to apply himself to any undertaking in the world. If you consult yourself rather than a manual or somebody else’s idea of how things should be done, you can be creative in doing anything.

Creative aliveness means looking around any setting where you find yourself and asking, “How can I make this into a terrific experience? What can I say, think, feel or do that will bring about learning and fulfillment for me?” This kind of an attitude is yours to have if you decide to want it, and to stop allowing yourself to be victimized by yourself or those around you.

Your capacity to be creatively alive in virtually all life circumstances will depend in large part upon the kind of attitude you choose for yourself. The most crucial test of your attitude development will be in the face of adversity, rather than while things are running smoothly.

You may find it much easier, albeit far more self-destructive, to give in to adversity and become a victim of your sour feelings. But if you are effective enough at not having victim expectations, you can also work at turning misfortune around and even making it work in your favor. The cornerstone of your attitude must be alertness for taking advantage of your situations, making your expectations revolve around wanting to emerge as a non-victim, and looking hard for the right kind of opportunity. Even if the opportunity does not surface, you can keep your attitude positive so that your glumness does not blind you to potential advantage.

You are the product of what you choose for yourself in every life situation. You do have the capacity to make healthy choices for yourself by changing your attitude to one of creative aliveness. By being ever alert for turning adversity around, by improving your attitudes and expectations for yourself, and by fearlessly implementing risk-taking alternatives, you’ll soon be gratified by the way your life can take a turn for the better. Be fully alive while you’re here on this planet; you’ll have an eternity to experience the opposite after you leave.

— Dr. Wayne W. Dyer (1940-2015)

 

So don’t be quick to take the negative route when facing with a challenging situation. You always have the choice on how you react to a negative situation. You do have the capacity to make healthy choices by changing your attitude. This is true for journey to financial independence as well. You may have debt, you may feel that you can’t save enough money toward retirement, you may be unsure about investing in the stock market, you may feel nervous investing 100% in equities, and etc. How you react is entirely your choice. You can choose to react negatively or you can choose to react positively.

I think most of us would like to react positively as that will make our life way more pleasant. It’s simple in concept but not always easy to do. All we can do is continue practicing our way of dealing challenging situations and improving ourselves as human beings.

Dear readers, what did you get out of Dr. Wayne Dyer’s inspiring advice?

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23 thoughts on “Inspiring advice – The forever wisdom”

  1. I try to live by: “if you can’t to anything to change a situation, it’s not worth worrying about” That helps to narrow down the things I could be stressing about, and allows me to focus my efforts on things I can have an influence on

    Reply
    • That’s a good way to see thing. I learned that we worry/stress about the future. However we shouldn’t worry/stress about things out of our control since we can’t do anything. We also shouldn’t worry/stress about things that we can control as we are able to change the outcome.

      Reply
  2. Oh, the joys of travel. I have had long periods of intense travel. Most recently, until about a year ago, I was traveling 40 or more weeks a year.

    When you’re traveling, it’s so important not to let all the setbacks get to you. Keeping a positive attitude and realizing there’s usually not much you can do to improve your situation. Remain flexible.

    Reply
  3. You’re so busy, Tawcan. I am glad that rebooking your flight went well. And, thanks for sharing that inspiring advice.

    Reply
  4. Nice advice Tawcan, it goes to show that life doesn’t have to be predetermined. You could have just sat there and felt sorry for yourself, but no, you changed the situation so you still got to your destination.

    This is what we must do with our lives and finances. If there is a roadblock, complaining about it will not fix it – we must work out how to adapt.

    Tristan

    Reply
    • Exactly Tristan. We can either sit there and feel sorry for ourselves, or we can pick it up and move forward. It’s up to us to decide how we move forward.

      Reply
  5. Amazing advice. The negative route is the easy route, that’s for sure. But the beauty of it all is that you have the power to over come this and look for the positive in every situation. You can control how you handle the situation. You can determine if you make the most out of every situation and find the fun in it. For me, I try to always make the most out of every situation and remain positive. But man can it be hard and aggravating sometimes! Especially with airlines…ugh! Anyway, I’m sorry that you were stuck in that shmucky situation. That was great advice that your wife gave you and it is a story/lesson I am going to remember when I stare a situation like this in the face.

    Bert

    Reply
    • The negative route is definitely easier to take but in the long run it won’t do you any good. Like I said earlier in another comment, staying positive is continuous life long practice. 🙂

      Reply
  6. I have a bad habit of getting frustrated easily and worry to much about an outcome that i can’t really control. I know that I can control my emotions if I just focus and just need to teach myself to go with whatever happens. If i allow i,t my mind will run all over the place. With awareness I can keep it in the moment and slow things down and things seem a lot better then. It’s all about attitude and mind control for me.

    Reply
  7. IT is a great article to read. Personally, I have short version I like: It goes something like this: It does not matter what happened, it is the next step you take that counts. (No idea who this is from)
    To me, it means that you can complain whatever you want on the situation you are in. It does not help. Take action to fix it!

    Reply
  8. “You are the product of what you choose for yourself in every life situation”

    Great quote all around, but that is my favorite part, we are a product of our decisions – you can shift your attitude by altering how you view the world around you

    Reply
  9. Great job sorting things out promptly. Some people are really great at achieving things when under pressure and it seems that you are one of them 🙂

    Reply
  10. I can definitely relate, just last week my wife, our two year old and I were stuck in Chicago O’Hare for over 9 hours because of various delays. It was insane. But I’m proud to say that we both were calm over the matter, made the best of a bad situation, and got through it just fine. Thanks for the inspiring quote!

    Reply
  11. NIce quote Tawcan. I didn’t actually realize Mr Dyer had died last year. While I think he is a fantastically arrogant man, seriously watch some of his presentations, I think this quote is outstanding. It speaks to accountability, effort, and being a problem solver. Typically, when we give and quit, we lose. It hardly matters the situation. Keep thinking, trying, striving, and above all…..be accountable and self aware. If you can do those things…..you’ll always feel alright about the outcome.

    Thank you for sharing. Hope you’re home for a while
    -Bryan

    Reply
    • Hmm why do you think he was arrogant? That isn’t the image I get after reading his books and watching a few of his presentations. He was an amazing speaker.

      Reply

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