Tuesday, March 5, 2013

JOYFUL WANDERING -- 46

+ updated at 2:54pm EST on Tuesday, March 5, 2013

+ Gratefulness.org offers a mini-course in grateful living by Patricia Campbell Carlson. Excerpt: "For most of us, awakenings come as glimpses.  A moment of supreme aliveness on a mountaintop can inform our experience for months or years, even though we wish we could recapture its initial vividness.  To hold on to that vividness requires practice." | Go to mini-course

+ "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." Rejoicing today, I celebrate my participation in 2 current internet courses I am taking, both challenging, informative, inspiring: "InterSpiritual Meditation" taught by Ed Bastian of Spiritual Paths and "Becoming a Wise Elder" taught by Angeles Arrien along with Mary Ann and Fred Brussat of Spirituality and Practice.
  
+ Another one of my favorite lists which did not get included in my recent post is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People of Stephen Covey. Here is a summary I just found in Wikipedia:

The First Three Habits surround moving from dependence to independence (i.e., self-mastery):
 
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Take initiative in life by realizing that your decisions (and how they align with life's principles) are the primary determining factor for effectiveness in your life. Take responsibility for your choices and the consequences that follow.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character values and life goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life. Create a mission statement.

Habit 3: Put First Things First
Prioritize, plan, and execute your week's tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluate whether your efforts exemplify your desired character values, propel you toward goals, and enrich the roles and relationships that were elaborated in Habit 2.

The next three have to do with Interdependence (i.e., working with others):
 
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Genuinely strive for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your relationships. Value and respect people by understanding a "win" for all is ultimately a better long-term resolution than if only one person in the situation had gotten his way.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
Use empathic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, and positive problem solving.

Habit 6: Synergize
Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone.

Change of attitude  When one works on attitude, nothing can be a hindrance to one's effectiveness in life.
 
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
Balance and renew your resources, energy, and health to create a sustainable, long-term, effective lifestyle. It primarily emphasizes exercise for physical renewal, prayer (meditation, yoga, etc.) and good reading for mental renewal. It also mentions service to society for spiritual renewal.


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