If you choose to indulge in self defeating thoughts and depressive emotions, then expect your surroundings to be with same like minded people. Competing with one another “who’s life is worse”. Do you ever come off feeling good after a conversation like that anyway?

I know which avenue I choose…

I choose to make my surroundings positive, I choose to find positive in everything no matter how bleak situation may look to others, I choose to continuously look for more new fresh positive ways to influence my life.

And for anyone who says that’s all good and well for a day or so but how can you manage to do that consistently then, I want you to consider this quote, and you can choose how to interpret it in any fashion you desire:

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily." – Zig Ziglar © Joanne King - http://www.anxiety-panic-free.com

Finding right path or way of life is no easy task. Jean Houston’s book Jump Time has an interesting take on how one must act or how to find this enigmatic Path. I think Jean confronted me once in a bar in Lakewood, California. It was not as long a meeting as it should have been but it was (in retrospect) as important as day she met Teilhard de Chardin in New York’s Central Park. Whatever success my life may have in eyes of others I now know I have found right Path or Field for me. It was an arduous fight against what my Purpose on earth should always have been and I love hearing about others who experienced a major turning-point in their lives. Here is one such story that involves one of many people The Charmed Circle reached out to tap on shoulder.

“Her discovery of right field came in 1923 and seems to have been entirely serendipitous. The famous photographer Man Ray needed an assistant, but insisted on one without previous knowledge of craft. Young expatriates must eat, and Abbott applied. Her lack of knowledge qualified her for job. Soon she was printing for Man Ray and discovering that she immensely enjoyed doing darkroom work. Later, at his suggestion, Abbott began to take her own first photographs. Both were surprised to discover how good she was. By 1925, with aid of loans from Peggy Guggenheim and from Robert McAlmon (one of "charmed circle" surrounding Gertrude Stein), she had set up her own studio on Left Bank. There she pursued portrait photography which absorbed her at that time.” (2)

1) The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, by Gertrude Stein, 1933 first publication, 1966 Penguin Edition, New York and London, pg. 133. 2) http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?StartRow=1&ID=5