Meditations on God

Lessons For Progress
Failure is only failure if there is no lesson in it.

It is up to you to figure out what that lesson is.

It may not be obvious or may be as simple as needing to be better prepared, to try harder, or to pursue a different course of action in the future.

This is not a prescription for delusion or groundless optimism, however.

Some failures are difficult to reconcile.

Simply looking for the bright side is not the same as being honest with yourself, digging into the root cause of your failure, and doing the necessary work to make failure’s lessons worthwhile.

But as long as you can find some way to turn your failure into fodder for growth, you have made progress.

And in the end, progress is all that any of us can really hope for.
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December 10, 2023

failure, growth, improvement, lessons, progress
What You Can
It is okay to dream beyond your means.

Doing so can give you the hope and motivation you need to work toward a better life.

You do not have to stay where you are.

Nor do you have to accept the life you have been given as your fate.

But is also okay to simply do what you can, in this moment, with what you have.

If aspiring beyond what you can do now causes you stress, frustration, or despair, it is not useful to do so.

As long as you are making progress by doing what you can, there is no sense in making yourself feel bad for what you cannot.
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December 9, 2023

aspirations, dreams, hopes
Working On Yourself
Every time you focus on someone else’s shortcomings, you miss an opportunity to work on your own.

No one is perfect.

Every one is extremely, perhaps tragically, flawed.

You are no exception.

And no matter how hard you try, you will never be perfect.

Regardless of how much you work on yourself, you will always come up short in some way.

This is as true for you as it is for everyone else.

The time and energy you spend focusing on someone else’s mistakes, flaws, and shortcomings is time and energy you will never get back.

It is also time and energy spent not working on yourself, trying to improve upon your mistakes, flaws, and shortcomings.

Of course, you should be helpful wherever and whenever possible, but there is a big difference between being helpful and being unnecessarily critical or judgmental.

Next time you feel tempted to point out where someone else is wrong, ask yourself if your time and energy would be more wisely used working on yourself.
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December 8, 2023

criticism, judgemental, self care, self improvement
Misdirected Energy
There is no use in being mad at people who do not even know you exist.

They do not feel your unhappiness.

They will not notice your displeasure.

They are not affected by your animosity.

You, on the other hand, must live with these feelings.

You have to carry their burden with you wherever you go.

And the people around you are in the unfortunate position of living with you living with this resentment.

Not only does it make your experience of life less enjoyable, but it also makes you unpleasant to be around.

Your anger spills over into other areas of your life and the person or persons you are upset with still do not even know that you are upset.

You are far better off letting go of your anger and focusing on how you can make your life, and the lives of those around you, better.

Take the energy you have been wasting on being mad at people you have never even met, and turn it toward something positive and constructive.

Stop wasting your time on people who do not matter and to whom you do not either, and live the life in front of you with all of your energy and attention.
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December 7, 2023

anger, energy, resentment
Approaching Belief
Once a person is committed to a certain belief, it can be difficult to change their mind.

This is true even if their belief is illogical.

Beliefs are more often tied to emotions than logic, after all.

The stronger a person feels about what they believe, the less logic, or even truth, matter.

Once their identity is tied to a certain belief, debating or arguing with them is not going to get you very far.

In fact, the harder you try to push them to change their mind, the harder they will resist.

It takes a lot of humility for a person to admit that their beliefs are based on flawed or incomplete information.

Pride and vanity are powerful and obstructive forces, and humility is often hard to come by.

One thing is for certain, however, if you attempt to combat pride and vanity with more pride and vanity, you will likely only make things worse.

Your only hope for helping others to see things from your perspective is to first see things from their perspective.

This means that you have to start from a place of humility, even if they do not.
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December 6, 2023

belief, compassion, humility, open mindedness, pride

Lessons For Progress

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What You Can

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Working On Yourself

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Misdirected Energy

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Approaching Belief

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