Do you have a daily/weekly/life plan?

Conrad

You mention self help books.

I saw an outstanding BBC documentary on these 'guru' books a few weeks back entitled 'imagine' - I think.

P McKenna and his ilk did not come out well, nor did any of the leading American gurus.
The person that came out best was Budhist monks essays on life - truly life changing stuff and nothing to do with religion.

He made the likes of P McKenna seem banal and inconsequential.

The problem with self help gurus is they start with the premise we can all be super human if we only tell ourselves so!
This is rarley the case, and you end up empty and feel a failure.

The Budhist guy got you to think about life like this (this is my clumsy attempt and not a patch on the real thing):

"When I sit and eat some bread,........ I take my time,..... I imagine the whole cosmos has bought me to where I am now and is suppoting me right now,......I enjoy each minute and think about how wonderful it is to simply eat this bread and behold the world around me"

I think what he is getting at is this; We all are made of atoms and ALL of the atoms in the universe came from exploding stars (that is a fact), and yet here are you today a collection of those same atoms, able to sit here and ponder life - this is truly astounding and makes just living itsself an amazing thing to have enjoyed.

99.9999999999% of all the atoms will never be alive, despite those atoms being the same atoms that makes you - just basically carbon, alluminium and so on.

Am I getting too deep.

daisykinn1

I have a monthy budget, I got the template from my Word application, just clicked New and had a look through the Finance templates, fiddled with the formulas a bit so it all added up! I'm a total geek!

But I may start a Spendholics (BBC3 show) type budget and take out cash for the week then once it's spent I can't have anymore.

crawley_girl

I'm liking the bit about being made from an exploding star... very, very lovely thought!

GeorgeUK

I'm liking the bit about being made from an exploding star... very, very lovely thought!

It is a good thought - and shows how lucky we really are to be here at all, but cynical me would think "Bugga - did i screw that up too? "

crawley_girl

GeorgeUK wrote: »

It is a good thought - and shows how lucky we really are to be here at all, but cynical me would think "Bugga - did i screw that up too? "

PMA mate... PMA!

Conrad

Here's another life enhancing thought;

You mum produced thousands of eggs yet 99%+ never made it.

Your mums mum did the same so now the odds of you being alive are thousands to one.

Her mum did the same and so on right back to the earliest Hominids.

Before the first true humans a hige chain of mamals proceeded your family line.

Before that trillions of simpler organisms going right back to the very earlist single celled organisms all had to survive long enough to pass on the DNA and material THAT EVENTUALLY LEAD TO YOU.

I often wonder whether suicidal people ever think about the absolute astounding odds they were up against to even get here and that if they kill themselves prior to passing on thier DNA they will bring to an end a particular chain of trillions of amazing lives that lead to them.

Sorry, wayy tooo deep.

crawley_girl

Conrad wrote: »

I often wonder whether suicidal people ever think about the absolute astounding odds they were up against to even get here and that if they kill themselves prior to passing on thier DNA they will bring to an end a particular chain of trillions of amazing lives that lead to them.

I think that is far from someone's mind! Can I be a bit pedantic... some people commit suicide and some have suicidal thoughts and tendancies, but just because someone experiences these issues, they shouldn't be described as that or their health condition. For example, someone who has cancer, is not known as 'cancer person'... did i make sense?

I don't mean to jump down your throat - please don't see it like that, it's just a bug-bear of mine and I am on my one-woman crusade to fix the world!

Sassers

Wow - what a lot of inspiring posts! Thanks everyone so far.....Crawley Girl, George, Conrad, Daisy and Itm...........some of the things you have mentioned have really got me thinking.....

1.Yes little things at a time to achieve one big goal
2. Count your blessings but don't stop trying
3. Be kind to yourself
4. The worst things will pass
5. Have a tidy sock drawer (must start somewhere! brilliant).

Actually, Conrad, you really got me thinking....when I was 12 I bunked off school, was window shopping and went into what I thought was a toy shop when, in fact, it was a buddhist shrine!
Being a precocious little so-and-so having read a book about cults, I was very scared when a lady asked me if I wanted to pray! She must have seen how frightened I looked as she explained what they were and what they did and wrote out a little prayer for me( which I carried around for months in my school uniform pocket).
I went to the library and did lots of research and then about 18 months later decided if not to became a buddhist then be as good as I could be to that.
I was 14. I am now 37.
And what I have just realised through Conrad's post is, although I'm not at all super religious, I lost my faith last year with the breakdown. I let people bully me into nothingness at work and it affected my relationships, my mind and my life.
I stopped being kind and liking people. Isn't it awful when a place of work is so bad, it makes you ill and hurts you? And hurts other people?
I feel guilty that four really good friends I made there are also being treated like I was and I can't help them.

I'm coming back slowly from the brink but it has taken a long time. Hence the need for a plan or scheme of some sort, although I agree perhaps writing down the negatives to solve into positives isn't the most brilliant way forward!

sorry for the rambling post - love
Sassers x x x

Conrad

ltm07 wrote: »

move to a lovely house in the countryside overlooking fields!

Yes, this is what its all about - learning to really appreciate simple 'real' things. I get all excited walking up no matter what the weather just sucking in 'life' and being astounded just by simple things like rain or the scent of pine or bird song.

LIFE PLAN;
The OP mentions having a small side business. I have found this is hard to pull off as most good things take total dedication.
All I can say is do the things every minute that sucesfull people do. That means making yourself be fussy with an attention to detail - customers wont pay you for your service unless they percieve an added extra value - thats why the best chefs are all fussy by nature and the worst pubs are run by people without an attention to detail (they would let dust build up on a light or above a door frame - and this same attitude permiates everything they do / dont do).

Lots of people start small side bsuiness's but most fail. SO NUMBER ONE IS TO PROGAMM YOUR BRAIN TO DO THE THINGS THAT WILL GUARANTEE SUCCESS.

My dad has retired and has found he is inundated with work for his side business which started as a hobby, which is creating websites. Now here's the thing; Others much younger who have tried to do this as a business have failed, so why is this?

Again its the attention to detail thing. My dad will stay on the computer till 6am sometimes trying to get something right. In this way all these day to day inputs produce an outcome that customers will queue up for.

So work out exactly who your customer is and what will make him part with his cash.
Decide if you can meet this customers expectations. TYou must be better than all those thousands of slack pub people that always seem to fail when it comes to food (as an example)

Sassers

All round is haste, confusion, noise.
For power and wealth men stretch the day
From dawn till dusk.
But quietly I go my way.
For glitter, show, to taunt the crowd,
Desire-tossed in wild dismay,
Men sell their souls.
But quietly I go my way.
The green of all the fields is mine;
The stars, the night, the wind at play,
A peaceful heart, while quietly
I go my way.

Max Ehrmann
1872-1945

Sorry I just remembered this and thought I'd share....