The Four Agreements

So i was recommended this book by a close friend of mine and I couldn't put it down. The most beautiful words ever combined together and bound. The author is Don Miguel Ruiz a surgeon who has devoted himself to learning and teaching the Toltec practices.
Excellent read and only 140 pages.

The first agreement is:
Be Impeccable with Your Word
" The word is not just a sound or a written symbol. The word is a force; it is the power you have to express and communicate, to think, and thereby to create the events in your life. You can speak. What other animal on the planet can speak? The word is the most powerful tool you have as a human; it is the tool of magic. But like a sword with two edges, your word can create the most beautiful dream, or your word can destroy everything around you." - excerpt from the book

The second agreement is:
Don't Take Anything Personally
" Personal importance, or taking things personally, is the maximum expression of selfishness because we make the assumption that everything is about "me." During the period of our education, or our domestication, we learn to take everything personally. We think we are responsible for everything. Me, me, me, always me!
Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in. When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world." "When you take things personally, then you feel offended, and your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflicts. You make something big out of something so little, because you have the need to be right and make everybody else wrong. You also try hard to be right by giving them your own opinions. In the same way, whatever you feel and do is just a projection of your own personal dream, a reflection of your own agreements. What you say, what you do, and the opinions youhave are according to the agreements you have made- and these opinions have nothing to do with me. " - excerpts from book

The third agreement is:
Don't Make Assumptions
"We have the tendency to make assumptions about everything. The problem with making assumptions is that we believe they are the truth. We could swear they are real. We make assumptions about what others are doing or thinking- we take it personally - than we blame them and react by sending emotional poison with our word. That is why whenever we make assumptions, we're asking for problems. We make an assumption, we misunderstand, we take it personally, and we end up creating a whole big drama for nothing. All the sadness and drama you have lived in your life was rooted in making assumptions and taking things personally. Take a moment to consider the truth of this statement. The whole world of control between humans is about making assumptions and taking things personally. Our whole dream of hell is based on that. We create a lot of emotional poison just by making assumptions and taking it personally, because usually we start gossiping about our assumptions. Remember, gossiping is the way we communicate to each other in the dream of hell and transfer poison to one another. Because we are afraid to ask for clarification, we make assumptions, and believe we are right about the assumptions; then we defend our assumption and try to make someone else wrong. It is always better to ask questions than to make an assumption, because assumptions set us up for suferring. The big mitote in the human mind creates alot of chaos which causes us to misinterpret everything and misunderstand everything. We only see what we want to see and hear what we want to hear. We don't percieve things the way they are. We have the habit of dreaming with no basis in reality. We literally dream things up in our imaginations. Because we don't understand something, we make an assumption about the meaning, and when the truth comes out, the bubble of our dream pops and we find out it was not what we thought it was at all."- excerpt from the book

The fourth agreement is:
Always Do Your Best
" Under any circumstance, always do your best, no more and no less. But keep on mind that your best is never going to be the same from one moment to the next. Everything is alive and changing all the time, so your best will sometimes be high quality, and other times it will not be as good. When you wake up refreshed and energized in the morning, your best will be better than when you are tired at night. Your best will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick, or sober as opposed to drunk. your best will depend on whether you are feeling wonderful and happy, or upset, angry, or jealous." "Regardless of the quality, keep doing your best- no more and no less that your best. If you try too hard to do more than your best, you will spend more energy than is needed and in the end your best will not be enough. When you overdo, you deplete your body and go against yourself, and it will take you longer to accomplish your goal. But if you do less than your best, you subject yourself to frustrations, self judgement, guilt and regrets. Just do your best- in any circumstance in your life. It doesn't matter if you are sick or tired, if you always do your best there is no way you can judge yourself. And if you don't judge yourself there is no way you are going to suffer from guilt, blame, and self punishment. By always doing your best, you will break a big spell that you have been under." - excerpts from the book

And there you have it. Practice these four agreements and you are on your way to self happiness and self fulfillment. You will walk around like it's heaven on earth. The weight of the world will no longer be on your shoulders and you will breath, work, play and sleep alot better!!

Also READ THE BOOK!! So much more in there that I can't even begin to explain.

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man
stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit
belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by
dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short
again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and
spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at
the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place
shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor
defeat."
~Theodore Roosevelt
From a speech given in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1910

Other Worlds

Have you ever stopped to wonder what the rest of the world is like? What an average person's day is in China maybe? Perhaps you've thought about how Iraq and it's people are doing? No? Okay, well what about cousin Zeek in Oklahoma? Uncle Tony in New York? Maybe you should. Have you ever stopped to think about what our worlds have become? I mean really what are we fighting about (talking about this war going on since 9/11)? Is politics really like the movie "Wag the Dog" with Dustin Hoffman & Robert De Niro? Have the public really become this sidetracked that they can't see what's happening? This life is a game. It's up to you to figure it out and win, or lose. You decision, journey, choices and story. If you're the main character in your story don't you think that you should at the very least build yourself up a bit more? I have been very lucky to travel and see other countries, states, people and lives. It varies like the array of people we live with. No one chose what family, city, country or life that they were brought into but they did choose what lives paths to take. Everyone chooses for themselves (unless you live somewhere that you live held up at gunpoint from sun up to sun down). Places like that do exist believe it or not. You should be very thankful and cherish your life. Since obviously you have the luxury of internet since you're reading this blog. If you can believe there are people on this Earth who have never heard of the internet, Crazy!, I know right? No ipods, cell phones, toys even no roof over there head! "Nancy, No?" You say but it's true. So the next time you want to overindulge on that expenditure, extra dessert, or just some dollar item bullshit that's just going to create more crap and clutter in your life and in your house, do something nice for some one other than yourself, say a stranger perhaps? You never know people's life stories and that extra dollar, gesture or compliment could really make the difference to their lives. Maybe not so much yours, but theirs. And you're a giver aren't you? Currently you are lending me your time & attention and mind so I thank you. And I hope you appreciate me as much as I appreciate you. Not more, not less. . . . . unless you feel like doing extra!

"Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others." ~ Barbara Bush (This was before her taking stage she and family are currently in.)

No Excuses!

I am on a roll!! Just got approached a business oppurtunity that might go hand and hand nicely with my current project and I am very excited. Progress is kind of like weight loss I'm coming to realize. You're only going to get results if you put in the work. Sometimes you get lucky and have the flu. . . lol (easy come, easy go)

What have you always been wanting to do? Why aren't you doing it? Think about it. You only have one life as far as you know. Who knows if there is a heaven or hell? Who knows what comes after death. Not one person can tell you. (Those national inquiriers might, but how reliable is that information?) If you don't start what you want in life than how will you be satisfied? I'm not saying leave your spouse, spend all your savings or drink your life into a stupor. I am saying that all the things you've wanted to say to people, say them. (They'll appreciate the honesty) All the things you wanted to do, try & see. Make it happen! Those "special" items you buy and want to use, buy, or wear; Use them, buy them and wear them. The goals you have set for later ("I want to go back to school", "after the kids grow up", "once i get a raise", "when I retire") no more excuses! Like Nike's tagline says "Just do it!" You will definately thank yourself later. You control you & your future. Set up a goal and visualize it, smell it, taste it! Keep it in the front of your mind and YOU WILL GET THERE! I PROMISE!!

Instead of giving myself reasons why I can't, I give myself reasons why I can. ~ Unknown Author

It doesn't matter how many say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it before; it's important to realize that whatever you're doing, it's your first attempt at it. ~ Wally Amos

Artists Wanted: Contact me!

Hello all,

I am still looking for an artist to bring my children's book characters to life. If you or someone you know does exceptional drawings please send them my way. I am hoping to have these printed by September for a trade show. Email me at luvly2438@yahoo.com with any interest, leads or you can leave a comment below. Thank you for your attention and have a great day!!

"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Mirrors aren't just for faces

The only service a friend
can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror
in which you can see a noble image of yourself.
— George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish Playwright


Imagine, you hold a mirror up to you all day? I'm sure you would change everything about yourself. Or at least recognize those traits, habits, faces, attitudes; which you could do without.

Who or what could you become? The possibilities are endless. .. . . . . .. . . . ... .. . . .. .

We can often do more for other men by trying to correct our
own faults than by trying to correct theirs.
-- -- Francois Fenelon

Take that to the bank and deposit it!!

So little time,so much to do

Geez! So I'm researching how to get my empire going and I think to myself, I'm a writer? That's crazy. It all makes sense now. I've always loved to read and have had an appreciation for words. I use to say "People should pay for their words" meaning that if words cost money, there'd be a lot less B.S. out there and people would really focus on how to convey what they really want to say. So I figure I'll blog as often as I can. I can vent, learn and hopefully create my own following of fans. What is it that we are really suppose to do here on this Earth? Survive til we die? I think not. I'm still growing and learning and hopeful that one day everyone will be able to not have worries so that we can enjoy our lives instead of take the joy out of it.
*sarcasm* Thanks America for taking the joy out of people's lives. Great job!

I'm not saying that the U.S. is great nor is it horrible. What I am saying is that it should be better. Way better!

Fine tuning the writing skills.

It's interesing how I ended up here. I started off wanting to be a lawyer when I grew up. In high school I joined the Mock Trial club that would go act out a case that is real and tried and give the best performance possible as you are graded by judges. After I graduated I wanted a career that I could pursue while having a family. I went into the real estate business which was very lucrative at the time. The industry of real estate is now in its low and well I figured "No better time than now to make my dream come true". About 2 years ago I came up with a concept of Children's writing. Not just stories for fun and entertainment, but for money, education, fun and entertainment. I hooked up with my close friend and we've been working real hard and hardly working at the same time. I am just feeling a sense of hurriedness to complete my series, since it's needed in this economy more than ever. I hope to revolutionize the world with my products and services. I just wanted to briefly inform you of what's going on at the moment and add another entry to our blog. Amazing!! This world and life are Amazing!!