Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich wrote “thoughts are things, and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material objects.”
Famous motivational speaker, Earl Nightingale repeatedly said “we become what we think about all day long.”
The degree of success that we will achieve is determined by and will equal our level of self-esteem but we must decide if we’re worth the energy needed to succeed.
The problem of crime, broken homes, unemployment and our economic level may be directly linked to how we visualize ourselves as others will only see us in the same lot that we see ourselves.
I believe the image that we give off may be increased or lowered by how we see ourselves.
As ones with the spark of divinity are we willing to settle for anything less than doing our best but why do we worry so much about what our neighbors think as we try to “out do the Jones” at all cost not worrying about how we might even be cheating our own family just to make a show?
I think sometimes those who have the lowest self-esteem will go to any means to making a show no matter who we have to rob to create this show but we can’t control what others do we can only control what goes on within our mind.
Self-esteem may be the life force that gets us up, bouncing back, resilient fueling our urge to not give up but to keep trying to develop our gifts however we can, reaching out, helping others to their feet with words of encouragement and through what only we can give to the work place or in our homes.
It’s this inner drive of being obsessed to fulfill our needs that determines what the quality of our needs are. Our self-worth gets us up — out into the community to be a “Pathfinder” as Gail Sheehy wrote about in her book by the same title. It’s what drives us to make a difference in each others lives.
We can only offer praise or pleasure to another if we possess a level of high self-esteem or we will be as threatened by someone’s successes which I suspect is the reason behind childhood and even adult bullies in politics.
Awakening energized, reaching for the stars, willing our dreams into reality, is far more exciting than living from day to day, simply keeping our bodies fed.
But there are some dreams that have no dollar value because who can put a price on leaving a legacy for your family and those who pay attention to what we say?
These intangible benefits that we leave our children may not be felt until many years after we are gone but our words may inspire future generations and be just the inspiration our great grandchildren need to believe in themselves.
We never know what tragedies may befall our children. Life is so uncertain. I speak from experience when I look into the eyes of a great grandfather who became a doctor or another, fourteen generations back, the first governor of New Jersey, I am inspired — or when I envision my poor twenty-five year old grandmother who died in an underground dwelling during the Land Rush in Oklahoma, leaving behind two orphaned girls, my mother and aunt Gladys.
Life is a real trip and we always receive far more than we can ever repay.
Contact Sarah at [email protected]