Marcel Legros - Play the Game of Life

Each day the media floods us with bad news, because bad news sells, and those of us looking for good news are in the minority. So you have to be your own TV show, your own newspaper, etc. Keep you eyes open for positive, uplifting stories, so all the bad news people want us to hear, doesn’t carry you away. You will keep your spirits up and be able to stay motivated to accomplish the things you want to in this life. Cut down on the amount of news you take in, particularly first thing in the morning, or just before you go to bed. The news in newspapers, on radio and television, etc, tends to be negative and is probably things you can’t control anyway. Negative news of this type, saps your energy, makes you nervous, etc, and rarely has any positive use. So to keep your morale and productivity up, limit the amount of news you take in during the course of the day.

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Look at something you think you can’t do and ask yourself if someone else told you, you can’t do it, or if you told yourself you can’t do it. Most of our limitations are self-imposed, and we don’t even realize it. Look for things you can’t do and take another look at why you can’t do them, and ask why. Better yet, try them, what is the worst that can happen? So stop letting you hold yourself back and do things you thought you couldn’t do.

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When something aggravating, such as a siren, car alarm, etc, bothers you, that is a good time to check to see if what you were doing at that moment, was something that will take you away from your aggravations and towards your goals. So the next time something aggravates you, use that as a check to see if you actions are going in the right direction, or not. In that way, life’s aggravations can become good reminders to stay on the course towards a better life.

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Know the reason you have a goal and keep reminding yourself of those reasons. Having a goal is great, but what you really want to have is the reasons you want the goal. The reasons will give you the fuel to survive the setbacks that are bound to happen. Develop the reasons why you want to accomplish, what you want to accomplish. This will give you the discipline and desire to accomplish what you want.

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Don’t try to go it alone, become part of a team and you will make it to your goal faster. Form a T.E.A.M. (Together Everyone Achieves More) that takes advantage of everyone’s special abilities, and the sum will be greater than the parts, resulting in bigger payoffs for all concerned. One way to do this is to form a Mastermind Group, that brings a group of people together, on a regular basis, to talk about each person’s particular goals, and then the rest of the Mastermind Group, gives that person feedback and suggestions to help them attain it. Remember, none of us is as smart as all of us.

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Saintly patience doesn’t happen overnight - it’s like a muscle and needs to be exercised every day. You don’t just step into the gym and lift 500 pounds on your first day - you patiently work up to it. You build the strength and tolerance to lift 500 pounds over a long period of time by training your body every day. One day, after months or years of training, you are able to lift 500 pounds and everyone will be astounded by your strength. Instead of admiring your strength, they should be admiring the patience that allowed you to train so hard for so long.

Life gives you opportunities every day to exercise your patience, if you recognize them for an opportunity instead of an obstacle. I used to say, “I’d be more patient and calm if everyone else weren’t conspiring against me. The world just keeps throwing obstacles in front of me! Why are people so crazy, slow, dumb, difficult, etc.?” Now I try to look on every delay and every difficult situation as an opportunity to exercise my patience. I simply smile and recognize that the universe is giving me an opportunity to become a better, stronger person. It’s now become a challenge to see just how long I can drive in the city without throwing a fit and cursing out loud (I’m up to four hours now). Bring it on, old people, logging trucks, and red lights; I’m exercising my patience! Pretty soon I won’t be honking my horn and flipping you the bird; how are you going to piss me off then?

Patience Isn’t Inborn - Just Ask a Two Year-Old

I’m not a naturally patient person. In fact, I’ve gone through life continuously moving from one frustrating delay to another. I’m improving my patience by repeating the following phrase whenever I encounter delays and setbacks in my life.

Life’s delays aren’t life’s denials.

Just because you don’t get what you want immediately doesn’t mean you won’t get it eventually. If I’m stuck in a traffic jam and late for an appointment, my plans might not work out according to schedule. Getting angry and upset will do nothing to improve the situation - when I’m angry and impatient, bad things happen.

Develop Universal Patience

The power of water is an example of how patience can be applied to your life with amazing results. One drop of water falling on a stone does nothing but make it wet. But if that same drip is repeated over and over again for thousands of years, water will easily drill a hole right through the middle of the stone. Consider blogging: if you write three, five hundred word articles a week, for one year, you’ll have written an average length fiction novel at the end of that year. Just to give you perspective, J.R.R. Tolkien spent 14 years writing the Lord of the Rings; it’s word count is just over 300,000. If you apply the same blogging example above, you can easily write over 1,092,000 words - enough time to write two epic novels with room to spare!

Write your great novel one blog entry at a time.

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Use a “surveillance” camera to help you perform at a higher level. One trick to help you stay productive is to imagine that you have a surveillance camera recording your every move, as you go through the day. As you do things that might not look so good when the tape is played back, you will find yourself aware of it, and you will stop it. So fool yourself with a “surveillance” camera, and you will find yourself staying on track.

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If you think it is difficult to do the right thing with your life, think about how difficult it will be to live your life doing the wrong things. Many people think doing the right thing is hard, and I agree with them, it is hard. On the other hand, doing the wrong thing seems easy, but boy, oh boy, does it get hard fast. And undoing the wrong thing seems to take a lot more time and energy than we thought, all the while taking this effort away from doing the right thing. So before you go for that easy, comfortable wrong thing, take a second look at what will be involved in undoing it, and then do the right thing. Believe it or not, doing the right thing turns out to be doing the easiest thing.

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You can tell a lot about a person by the way they build a snowman. My wife was going through some old family photos and she came across two pictures of snowmen we built one winter’s evening. I have to laugh because it’s obvious to me, one builder has OCD while the other is an alcoholic.

Can you tell which is which?

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Be careful whom you follow and pattern yourself after. Who are you following today? Are you following the people that are going for their dreams, or are you following people that have given up on their dreams. Are you in competition with someone? If so, what is the competition leading to, a better job, better health, etc, or will it lead to hurting your chances of success, or hurting your body? Ask yourself whom you are paying attention to and whom are you following, and where will it lead?

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