Marcel Legros - Play the Game of Life

Welcome to the Third Edition of the “Meaning of Life” Carnival.

This is the third edition of this weekly carnival. We had quite a lot of submissions this week but I was exceptionally picky as well, so I narrowed it down to the best six out of all entries. Even if I get 500 entries in one week, I will only choose the best entries and never have more than 10 entries for any given carnival. This ensures the highest possible quality and relevance. The deadline for each edition is Saturday night and is published on Sunday. It’s a little late this week because I’m traveling and had to find a high-speed access point for my laptop to put this all together. Thanks for your patience.

Thank you to every author who submitted an entry whether it was accepted, or not. If you didn’t make it this week, try again next week! Please start a discussion by leaving a comment, and don’t forget to Stumble this post or submit it to Digg, so that your work will reach the largest possible audience. I appreciate all the great writing you’ve submitted - I really enjoy reading it.

Christmas is Near - Bring on the Cheer!

1. Steve Pavlina has been one of my favorite personal development writers for years and today I’m happy to include his article Career Transitions in my carnival roster. If you haven’t already found Steve’s site - Personal Development for Smart People, I highly recommend it. Good work Steve!
2. Albert Foong at Urban Monk submitted another phenomenal essay this week entitled, Psychology’s unique contribution to your Compassion and Self-Esteem. I really enjoy Albert’s writing style and depth and in a very short time we’ve developed a mutual friendship. I think we’ll be seeing a lot of good things from him in the future. What’s Christmas like “down under”, Albert?
3. Warren Wong submits, Conversation Skills / Tips: How To Have A Good Conversation. Hey, who doesn’t want to have a great conversation? Sometimes the simple things are left undone, and I’m glad guys like Warren are covering all the bases. Now, if I only had someone to talk to…
4. Tupelo Kenyon writes, Consciously Programming Your Subconscious Mind Before Sleep. I like the ideas behind the article and it’s well written. When I travel, I play audio books on my laptop at low volume while I sleep and set it on ‘repeat’. The next day, I listen to the same passages and whether it’s my imagination or not - they sink in a lot faster. This is a great way to learn new material. Tupelo has captured the negative side to this - don’t go to sleep with ugly content streaming into your brain. Garbage in - garbage out, folks!
5. Shaun Connell is also a repeater with the following essay titled, The Pursuit of Happiness. I agree with you Shaun - happiness is found in a lot of different ways, but without emotion and reason, it’s not going to stick. Well put, my friend.
6. Matthew Spears rounds out this week’s carnival with Interconnectedness of Being. This article is fantastic and captures the truth that every wisdom in life can be found within the boundaries of your own mind and body. I love your writing and respect your wisdom Matthew. Thanks for sharing again this week.

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Welcome to the second edition of the “Meaning of Life” Carnival.

I think we’ve all asked at one point, “Why am I here? What will become of me when I go? What am I meant to do now that I’m here? What’s the meaning of it all?” So we strive to find the answers. We hope that one day we’ll ‘get it right,’ but often we never do. Let’s all raise a glass to getting it right and praise all those who’ve gotten it wrong. We couldn’t have done it without you.

This is the second edition of a weekly carnival with even more great articles than last week. The deadline for each edition is Saturday night and is published on Sunday.

Thank you to every author who submitted an entry whether it was accepted, or not. If you didn’t make it this week, try again next week! Please start a discussion by leaving a comment, and don’t forget to Stumble this post or submit it to Digg, so that your work will reach the largest possible audience. Thanks for the great work, and we’ll see you all next week.

Good Reading to Warm the Winter Blues

1. Edith Yeung submitted, “What Would Make You Smile?” This article made me smile, Edith. Nice work.
2. Matthew Spears essay, “Emotions as Beauty Itself,” deals with a different way of looking at intense emotions, especially those related to past sexual abuse. Thanks for submitting this one Matthew. I wish you well in your healing process.
3. Warren Wong explores hidden reality in, “Why Your Thoughts Create Reality - Thought, Energy, and Matter.”
4. Tupelo Kenyon writes, “Integrity Through Self-Reliance.” This is a great article with a lot of insight.
5. Steve H Joseph submitted, “Learning to Ask Better Questions About Life.” Steve brings some personal insight into our ego-dominated pursuit of always having to be right. Here’s something I learned a long time ago Steve; please let me share it and add to your ideas - “You can be right, or you can be married.”
6. SJ Yee offers a moving video from a speech made by Jim Valvano back in 1993. The title of the post, “How to live each day and get from where you are to where you want to go,” is meandering, but the SJ Yee’s recap, and the video itself is very moving.
7. Patricia’s article, “How to Start Over: Rebuild or Just Remodel,” is my favorite this week. It’s well written, insightful, and emotional. Very gutsy article, Patricia!
8. Alex Blackwell posted, “The Most Dangerous Word.” I like this article a lot. I won’t ruin the suspense for you all, but I’ll give you a hint: the most dangerous word starts with a “T.”
9. Karen Lynch submits, “How Do You Do?” This essay is based on the idea of acting without action, a core principle in the Tao Te Ching. It’s funny that Karen submitted her article this week; I just finished reading the Tao Teh Ching this week. I read Dr. Wayne Dyer’s book “Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life,” based on the Tao Teh Ching, last week.

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Play the Game of Life is a blog about personal development, spirituality, and self-actualization. People go about living their lives in so many different ways but we’re all looking for the same things - happiness, peace of mind, and fulfillment. I think we’ve all asked at one point, “Why am I here? What will become of me when I go? What am I meant to do now that I’m here? What’s the meaning of it all?” So we strive to find the answers. We hope that one day we’ll ‘get it right,’ but often we never do.

Finding the answers isn’t so much where you look, but what questions you’re asking. The only way to figure out what the right questions are, is to admit you don’t know and ask people wiser than yourself. I certainly don’t have it figured out yet, but with the help of wise teachers that came before me and the wisdom of people around me, I might. I hope you find your answers too.

This is the first edition of a weekly carnival with contributions from any author who wishes to join in the conversation. The deadline for each edition will be Saturday night and published every Sunday.

I am indebted to each author who submitted an entry. If you didn’t make it this week, try again next week! There’s some really good material here and I really enjoyed reading them all. Please start a discussion by leaving a comment, and don’t forget to Stumble this post or submit it to Digg, so that your work will reach the largest possible audience. Thanks, and see you next week!

Albert Foong writes, “Love and Aloneness - Unravelling the Ego and Pride.” This is my favorite entry this week. He provides some invaluable thoughts the difference between being alone and being lonely. I really appreciate your work and hope you enter another article next week Albert!

Alex Blackwell entices us to ask, “What Would You Say Today?” His thoughts on relationships and human connection is very insightful. I love this article.

Alvaro Fernandez submits, “Enhance Happiness and Health by Cultivating Gratitude: Interview with Robert Emmons.” Can we enhance our happiness and health by cultivating gratitude? You bet we can! Thanks Alvaro, for sharing this with us.

Tejvan Pettinger gives us a few suggestions on how to get a fresh look at the direction of your life with, “Where is Your Life Heading?”

Jeremy Neal explains in, “You Are a History Maker”, that every one of us, in our own way, is making history every day of our lives.

Shaun Connell submitted a late entry early this morning but I wanted to include it this week because it was so direct and unapologetic. His entry, “Cold Reason” is exactly how I feel some days. Thanks for posting Shaun, even if it was a little late - I won’t hold it against you.

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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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