Be generous with your thoughts.
When those who express kind, constructive, supportive thoughts are quiet, then our collective mind is taken over by those who spew overwhelming amounts of the opposite.
We may only be one, but we are connected to ten.
And so are they.
You don’t lose your power; you give your power away.
For what you hold in your hands can be ripped away; but, not what you hold in your heart.
What you keep within the walls of your house can be stolen; but, not what you protect within the walls of your character.
Even what you lock tightly inside the thickest of safes can be repossessed; but, not what you lock tightly inside the safe of your mind.
Within each of us is something great.
A heart, a mind, and a strength of character that has limitless potential. THAT is power. Not what you hold in your hands or protect in your house or stow away deep inside of a safe.
Remember this whenever anybody tries to take your power. They will try to seduce your heart, brainwash your mind, and manipulate your character for their own benefit.
They will try to convince you to voluntarily give your power away. Don’t let them. Protect your power as if it was the most important power you possessed in your life.
Because, quite frankly, it is.
You can always get up after you fall.
And you can always try again if you miss.
But you can’t ever recover hateful words after they’re spoken.
Nor can you undo harmful actions after they’re taken.
Lesson? Move quickly when you’re focused on growth and generosity.
And move slowly when you’re charged by emotion and hate.
You can’t just give love once and expect it to last.
…Or twice, or three times, or ten.
Love needs to be regularly renewed.
…Twice, three times, ten times per day!
…Or week or whatever works for you and yours.
But it will only last so long as it is renewed.
As soon as you stop renewing your love, like Netflix, it’ll only be a matter of time before it expires.
Most people try to harness their love and put it into a box so that they can give it to one specific person.
But love is not something that is put into a box. Nor is it something that’s given to only one specific person.
In fact, I would argue that a person who manipulates their expression of love from one person to the next, isn’t actually expressing love—they’re playing a game.
Like when the person you’re out to dinner with acts like the living embodiment of love to you, but then acts like the opposite to the waiter.
Hardly love if you ask me.
Love is something that overflows from the top of any of your boxes and touches all those with whom you connect with.
Love is patient; love is kind; and love radiates synonymously from one person to the next.
Love is not impatient; love is not rude; and love is not something that points only to certain people.
Which begs the question: what about intimate love?
When somebody else’s love touches you in a way that increases your expression of love (and so does yours for them) then you both may decide to intimately explore the merging of love.
And the difference becomes not the type of love you express (it’s still the same that you’d express to others), but the amount you can express when it has synergistically merged.
Which is why, when “true love” is found, you can’t help but overflow because the result is greater than the sum of the individual love—more than you could ever fit within some box.
What’s worse than not communicating?
Fragmented communication that gets misconstrued.
It gives the illusion that communication happened when really, it didn’t.
And what follows are actions that are taken on unclear, confused, incomplete information.
…What leads to fragmented communication? Fragmented listening.
What leads to fragmented listening? Fragmented attention.
And what leads to fragmented attention? A person’s belief in their ability to multi-task.
Here’s the thing: you can’t. So, don’t.
Start single-tasking your attention with those whom you’re speaking with.
And if you can’t single-task with them, then don’t even try or pretend to try to.
Fragmenting a conversation can do far more harm than not having the conversation at all.
Love is the foundation of all that is good.
Regardless of whatever it is you’re trying to improve, always revert back to love.
When your foundation is set solid with actions of love, like an engineer, the sky is your limit and you’ll have nothing but time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
But, when your foundation is seething with cracks of hate, what you decide to build will only be in vain. For collapse won’t be a matter of if, but of when. And collapse it will, affecting not just you, but everyone else involved in the surrounding process as well.
If what you’re building isn’t set with a foundation of love, maybe it’s time to stop building and start repairing.
Or, maybe even start fresh with a new foundation altogether. It could very well be the move you need to make in order to move forward into new heights in your life.