Karma

“When the Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes not that you won or lost, but how you played the Game.” Grantland Rice

Even though I may question or even not believe in a heaven, hell or an afterlife, I will live my life in a manner that is in keeping with how I want to be treated by others. It is not because I want to get into heaven or have a better experience in the afterlife, but simply because it is the right thing to do. I do not believe someone should be good only because they are afraid of going to hell, they should be good because it is what they want to do. Living in fear of your actions is not how I want to live my life. I would prefer to live my life the way I feel it should be lived and face the consequences, if there are any, rather than to live and act in fear of the consequences.

I do believe that any harm or ill will I do to others may come back to haunt me, not in an afterlife, but here, while still living. I will do my best not to intentionally harm others. If there comes a time where I do harm someone, I will do my best to reverse the damage, or to make retributions.

It’s you, your conscience and your faith that matters, not what others think.

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” Mother Teresa

There will always be people who’ll find fault with something which you’ve done or are doing or will do. Let them. It’s not their life, but yours, to live.

When you need people to be reasonable and to do something that doesn’t benefit them, they will disappoint you. You’ll find they will not listen to reason and will not help you, instead they will remain stubborn and selfish. It’s their nature and their business, so don’t hold it against them. In the long run, they will pay for that behavior, but it isn’t your place to judge them. Accept them for who they are, otherwise it will eat away at your insides, turning you into someone just like them.

When you’re kind to these people, they’ll think you have something up your sleeve, that you’re being sneaky. That’s because it’s something that they’d do if they were in your place. They can’t help themselves. They can’t be kind, unless they have an ulterior motive and think the same of everyone else. You have no ulterior motive, so be kind anyway.

When you’re honest, they’ll think you’re a push over and will try to cheat you. Fight this by being careful, not by becoming dishonest. Remain honest, yet watchful.

When you’re happy, those who can’t find happiness will be jealous. Don’t let their misery take away your happiness, but let your happiness infect their misery.

Few people remember acts of goodness and kindness, but we aren’t good or kind in order to be remembered. We do good and are kind simply because. That is it. There is no need to explain further than to simply say we choose to do good and to be kind.  It doesn’t matter that tomorrow it’ll be forgotten.

There will be times where your best won’t be good enough. Try anyway. What’s important is that you made the effort and didn’t give up. There will be other times where your best will be just enough. Rather than pick and choose, always give it your best effort.

Regardless of which God, Higher Being, or Afterlife you believe in, when the time comes, you will have to reconcile what you’ve done during your time here. Let others think what they want, because it’s you, your conscience and your faith that matters, not what they think.

No one is more cheated than a selfish person

“No man is more cheated than a selfish man.” Henry Ward Beecher

The selfish person looks at everything in terms of self. “What can I get out of this” or “What can I get out of that?” or “Why are they helping that person and not me?”

When a selfish person comes along someone who needs help, their first thought will be to ask themselves “what’s in it for me?” If they see no benefit to themselves, they will not provide assistance. When someone else comes along and provides assistance, the selfish person will think “If it was me who needed help, that person would not have stopped to help”. If the person who provided help gets rewarded, the selfish person will kick up a storm. “I saw that person first and was going to lend assistance when they jumped in ahead of me”

If someone at work gets promoted, the selfish person will feel cheated, that the promotion was gotten unfairly. If someone else gets any show of sympathy or kindness, the selfish person will grit their teeth, feeling nothing but resentment towards that person.

The selfish person can never be happy for someone else’s good fortune. The will feel cheated that the good fortune didn’t happen to them, that it was undeserved or unfairly gotten.

A selfish person will never be content or happy. They will always blame others for their situation. Regardless of what they do, or don’t do, they will feel cheated for not having gotten the same things that those around them have.

Two thoughts that are always on a selfish persons mind are: “What’s in it for me?” and “Why did that person get that and not me?”

The difference between greed and selfishness is that the greedy always want more, usually more than everyone else, will almost never share, and are usually willing to work for it. The selfish on the other hand, want what everyone else has, without having to earn it or work for it and will constantly feel cheated for not getting what everyone else has. Neither is a healthy trait.

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everything which happens to us and the things we come across all contribute to make us who we are. Each new experience builds on top of the old, forming the person that we are, and the person that we are to become.

If you’re happy with the person you are, and what you’ve accomplished, give thanks to all the good which has crossed your path.

If you aren’t happy with the what you’ve accomplished, give thanks to all the good which has crossed your path, for your journey isn’t over over yet.

If you aren’t happy with the person you are, think about this: you are reading this, which makes you more fortunate than millions of others. You should be thankful for that good fortune. You might have had more bad than good cross your path, but while your heart still beats, and your brain still works, it is within your power to become the person you should be. Start by looking at any good which happened to you, no matter how insignificant or how  far back. As you think back, you’ll come to realize that you have much more to be thankful for than you had originally thought. The more you give thanks for the good things, any bad which previously crossed your path will begin to diminish, to the point where it no longer has any control over the kind of person you are.

Get into the habit of being grateful for every good thing that crosses your path, and give thanks continuously. It is a simple thing to do, but yields great returns. Not only will you notice more good than bad crossing your path, you’ll be happy with the person you’ve become, and so will those around you.

Do you agree with Marilyn Monroe that everything happens for a reason?

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” Marilyn Monroe

Everything that happens in one way or another has a direct impact on who you are. How you look at and react to everything that happens around you goes into defining who you are, and the outlook you’ll have on life.

Some people were always meant to be together, and never change. Other people change constantly, never giving enough time for a bond to fully develop. If the person you love now is different than the person you initially met, it becomes easier to let go, to move on.

There are some people, and you’ve met them, who’ve had the perfect life. Everything has always gone right for them. A good number of those people are usually unhappy. They may put on a happy exterior, but when you get to know them, you find out they don’t appreciate anything that they have. Everything has always gone right for them. You look at them and think how lucky they are. They look at themselves and think they’ve been cursed. They can’t appreciate what they have because it came too easy. They’ve never had anything go wrong to make them appreciate what they have.

Experience teaches us not to trust anyone, until they have proven themselves. It is mainly by trusting everyone, and getting lied to enough times, that you learn. If you never experience lies, you begin to trust everyone. In the end you become gullible, a perfect victim for con artists.

Sometimes, when everything seems to be going perfect, they suddenly fall apart. Your resolve and your faith get tested. You feel like giving up. You question how this could happen to you, after all of the struggles you’ve gone through to get to this point.

Being the kind of person you are, who’s suffered one tragedy after another to get to reach that happy place, you pick up the pieces and start rebuilding. But something changes. You try to duplicate what you had, but for some reason, things happen on their own. Initially you question this, blinded by your anger.

It doesn’t become apparent until you’ve finished rebuilding what fell apart that you realize that it was meant to be. That what you’ve had, what you thought was good, pales in comparison to what you have now. You realize that if things didn’t fall apart, you wouldn’t have found what you have now. It could be the person you thought you loved has left you. You don’t realize it was just an infatuation until your perfect mate, your true love, comes along. If the other person never left, you would never have found your perfect love. It could be a job you thought was good, that suddenly isn’t there. You realize you never really loved that job, until you come across a job that you look forward to each morning, and hesitate to leave each afternoon.

When you begin to understand that everything happens for a reason, that bad things don’t just happen to you, is when you really begin to understand and appreciate life. When you understand people change one way, while you change a different way, so you can each go separate ways. It doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you. It only meant the two of you weren’t meant for each other. It is when you come across someone who changes with you, who makes changes that compliment your changes, that things fall together better than before.

Know that every bad experience happens for a reason, and will eventually make you one of the happiest people on this planet.

Never utter these words: I don’t deserve this!

“Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian.” Dennis Wholey

So, you think because you’re a good person, the world owes you? Think again. The person who’s going to get the glory and the rewards meant for you is the prick who was supposedly helping you. The person announcing what you did, appearing to be your friend, is the person who gets the glory. The lying thieves, who make it look like they inspired you to do what you did, get the credit and the glory.

The world does not owe anything to anyone. Life is not fair to anyone. In fact, expect the complete opposite: nice people get trampled on while the lying, thieving, greedy ones get to the top.

Do you deserve what you got? Do they deserve what they got? It doesn’t matter. You will get what you put your mind and your talents against.

Go ahead and tell the bull you’re a vegetarian and see how far that gets you. You overcome the bulls attack by being a matador, using your skill, not hoping life will take care of you. Life takes care of no one, unless they take care of themselves.

The lying thief doesn’t deserve to be rich, and the generous, nice person doesn’t deserve to be poor, but hey, shit happens. Deal with it and go after what you think you ‘deserve’. No one will just hand it to you, that is until you die, at which point you will most likely get what you deserve, but who wants to wait that long?

 

No matter how far the apple falls, it still came from that tree

“Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.” John Locke

What this quote means is that parents are ultimately responsible for how their children grow up and how they act and think. Whether or not parents know it, or acknowledge it, how children turn out is heavily dependent on how the parents raise them.

Many parents question why a child turned out the way he or she did, claiming they did the best they could. In reality, the child turned out a particular way because of the parents, because of what they did, or in most cases, what they didn’t do.

Peer pressure, illness and other things may affect what happens to a child, but the child’s character and inner soul are molded by actions, or inactions of the parents

Your true character

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What this quote means is that a person shows their true self when they are interacting with people who cannot help them in any way. There are those who are very cordial to those who can help them, then impatient and nasty to those who can’t do anything for them. That is their true character.