“If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans”. —My father

This morning I woke up to rain for sixth day in a row. It’s cold out. It’s end of May, it’s supposed to be spring. All of my vegetable seeds and young tomato and broccoli plants sit patiently in garage awaiting tilled earth. I was planning to use this 3-day holiday weekend to plant my garden. Now, I can’t!

Last weekend I went to visit my family in Florida. The trip was planned for months. I’d been looking forward to seeing my family and getting some well needed warmth and sunshine. Suddenly, two days into visit, my parents got called out of town for an emergency. Our visit got cut short.

Two disappointments. Two reasons to be grumpy and wonder, “why me?” I noticed a theme here. I was getting tweaked over plan changes.

With these disappointments, I realize, I have two choices, two opportunities to look and wonder what opportunity for growth and freedom might be.

YES YOU CAN! by Dr Kem Thompson (c)2003

If you could change one thing in your life today, what would it be? Why don't you have some of things you'd like to have, and why do you have some? What's reason for inconsistency?

Do you find yourself wondering what people think of you? Has that line of thinking ever made you doubt your abilities and your potential?

Do you ever catch yourself thinking 'I can't do that, I'm not good enough' or 'that level of success and prosperity is for them, not for poor old me', or other similar thoughts?

One thing you must realize is that your success in any venture starts with your thoughts about it. If you think you can succeed (in losing weight, stopping smoking, securing a high-income- paying job, finding your ideal partner, etc, etc), you're already on your way to getting what you want.

Someone once said (I forget who)'if you think you can or if you think you can't, you're probably right'. It's up to you to make things happen in your life.

The way your mind works, it accepts whatever you feed it as reality. So if you feed it with thoughts of success (eg 'I CAN lose weight healthily', 'I CAN stop smoking', 'I CAN find a high- income paying job, etc, etc), it will work to make it happen.

You'll become alert to opportunities (and they are all around you if you'd only open your eyes and look) to move you towards your desired results.

Conversely, if you feed your mind with negative thoughts such as ones above, your mind doesn't bother to find solutions to your problems. It closes up. You wouldn't recognize an opportunity to help you out if it slapped you in face.