Be the Change You Want to See In Yourself

A friend posted the following quote, and I wrote the below in reaction.
--quote--
"Perhaps the source of your discontent lies in your attachment to how things should be instead of accepting how things are.”

--my response--
On many levels, I agree (that whole "be zen and accept where you are thing," yeah, that would be cool). On others, not so much. I feel like agitation or discontentment with what is often make for progress. When I don't like what is, I change it. If do nothing, then I (on some level) become part of the problem.

Now that I'm thinking about it ... yes, there are times when other people are involved that I land in positions where I can't do anything. I've said for a long time that you can't make someone feel something they don't. You can't make them love you. You can't make them feel sympathy for you. You can't make them feel sorry if they hurt you and don't feel sorry for having done so. But, when it is your life or your path you are discontented with, yeah, I think you have a responsibility to yourself to kick your own butt and make the changes you need to make to make things better. I have been going back to that one sentence I read recently that has made things so much more clear and accessible to me. "What is one thing I can do right now to improve my situation?" It might not fix things completely. It might not make a huge difference in the moment. But even a tiny action now can lead to a great shift later.

To me, that's critical.

I believe in those tiny shifts. I believe in becoming aware of patterns. I believe that the smallest action can be revolutionary if it changes how I perceive things because it will ultimately change I see the world and how I behave in it.

So that means I claim responsibility for myself. And that I'm at peace with.

Today's Tarot: Four of Pentacles (Control, taking stock, being possessive)

Today's Tarot: Four of Pentacles

(Control, Taking Stock, Being Possessive)

The Four of Pentacles always makes me think of grabbing my life's bull by its horns and the difference between how others view us and how we view ourselves. Let's take the words self-centered. In our society, we generally have a negative view of someone if we describe them as self-centered. To that, I say, exactly what is wrong with being centered on yourself? 

Certainly, we all have responsibilities and we all live up to them to varying degrees. However, we also have a responsibility to ourselves, to take care of ourselves, and to see to our own wellbeing. Many of us will put ourselves dead last as we try to satisfy the needs of those around us way before we ever look to see what we need.

So, today, I challenge all of us to be greedy. To be greedy with ourselves. I challenge each of us to evaluate what we need out of every situation and every interaction we have. And furthermore, I say we then act in that self-interest, not in a "I only care about myself" kind of way, but rather in a "I also care about myself" kind of way.

If we are possessive with our time, our energy, and our resources, if we dole them out in a manner that is mindful about what our needs are in the moment, then we will not only have more peace, but we will be able to do what needs doing from a place of giving rather than a place of obligation.

Giving selflessly because we have already taken care of our own needs (or are at least mindful of those needs), puts us in a place to really be present and helpful to those around us. On the other hand, when we give out of duty or obligation while disregarding our own needs, everything about our interactions has a pinched, closed quality and that trick never works (to quote a famous squirrel).

The goal: Being mindful of our needs

The Mission: Evaluate your needs and then act out of that place of being centered on yourself.