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``We've
got to be in the winning business, because without winning it's the
other guy, and the other guy's ideas, that prevail.''...
- Bill
Clinton, former U. S. President
Americans are watching more television than ever, according to a
report released Thursday by Nielsen Media Research. The average
amount of television watched by an individual viewer was also up by
three minutes, to a record four hours and 35 minutes a day. And in
most homes there are more television sets than people. This
increase in television viewing plus the increase in Internet access ...
gives us an idea of how people are using their personal time. And
it is not surprising that growing numbers of Americans are using
anti-depressant medications, anti-anxiety medications and medications
for high blood pressure and more.
People who seek to be entertained rather than
spending time thinking about, contemplating and planning their own
successes in life ... usually end up depressed because their success is
not being achieved. But ... we cannot fill our minds with the
nonsense dished out to us by the television and movie industries and
have use of the time it takes to truly build within ourselves a mental
equivalent of the successes that we want to experience. The bottom
line is ... do we want to be entertained by other people's ideas ... or
do we want to experience the happiness and feeling of accomplishment
that comes with demonstrating the success of our own ideas ... and are
we willing to take the time to delve within our own minds for these
ideas?
Life must be lived ... with enthusiasm and with excitement ...
and no matter how much we may find an interest in something outside of
our own personal experiences ... the inherent urge within us to
experience more and more of life will cause physical and emotional
disturbances if we suppress it. Expansion of happiness, love, joy,
harmony and abundance are inherent in Life ... and Life seeks to express
always something greater in our lives.
I know people who attach themselves to their routines
and to the people and things in their lives so steadfastly ... that they
have lost the winning spirit in their lives. The biggest change
they make in their lives is coloring the gray out of their hair.
Change must be a part of our lives ... otherwise we become complacent
... and complacent becomes stale ... and then depression creeps into our
mind. Nothing ages us quicker than complacency ... and signs of
aging appear differently in people who are adventurous and feel excited
about their lives than it does in people who have created dullness in
their lives by their complacency.
It is important that we examine how much
routine we have in our lives. How often do we experience real
change in our daily schedule? How much time do we spend thinking
about our personal success and accomplishments? How often do we
challenge ourselves to go beyond what we have experienced in the past to
experience something new ... especially those things that may, at first,
make us feel uncomfortable? How often do we find ourselves living
to other people's ideas for our lives ... and concerning ourselves with
other people's expectations of us ... rather than living up to our own
ideals and expectations of life? These are questions that we need
to ask ourselves ... with the television set turned off.
It is very easy to be distracted from achieving
our own success ... to be lulled into the illusion of enthusiasm and
excitement brought to us by the television networks. And for some
of us, we may be susceptible to being manipulated into spending our time
helping other people achieve their success rather than our own. We
cannot for long live to other people's ideas ... without falling into
the trap of complacency. We must develop our own winning spirit
and live to our own ideas. And to do this we must change.
From former President, Bill Clinton: "The
price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change."
And So It Is!
Maximum
Love,
Rev.
Bates
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