You may believe success lies in getting results. Believe it or not, success is not always about winning. Success comes from doing your best. But, that doesn’t mean that you have to be the best in your field to succeed. It means you just to be the best at what you are best at doing.

Success is not driving the most expensive car or having millions of dollars in the bank. True success goes far beyond material things or your bank balance. Here are the four things you need to do to find true success:

- Live your life to the fullest
- Live life on your own terms
- Give everything you do your all
- Live without regret

These four things sound extremely simple. But, while many people understand what they mean, only a small minority ever realize all, if any, of these concepts. Let’s look at what it takes to meet each of these four things in daily life.

Life Your Life to the Fullest

While highly cliched, the core message of this phrase is still good. Always find a way to make the most of every day. No, you may not be highly productive or even accomplish something significant every day. What you can do is always find a way to improve yourself. That may just be reading something interesting, helping out a friend, or finding a recreational activity that you enjoy that also allows you to recharge.

Basically, don’t just sit around and wait for things to happen. Make things happen. They won’t always work out well. But, as long as you keep moving, you’ll always find ways to make the most of each day and spare moment that you have. That's how you start living life to the fullest!

Life Life on Your Own Terms

Don’t let people tell you how to live your life. There is no ONE best way to live. You need to discover for yourself what your best life looks like.

Many people believe that living life on your own terms means being your own boss and setting off on your own. While that's true to a degree, you can still find yourself subject to the whims of others. That's true even if you run your own successful business.

Living life on your own terms actually means being self-aware and self-confident enough to know when compromise is worth it in order to achieve success. You also have to recognize when it will only hold you back. You need to know yourself well enough to know when you are no longer moving forward, then are willing to take the risks and steps necessary to continue to grow. These steps are rarely easy, but no one ever said success was easy.

Give Everything You Do Your All

It’s actually very common for us to just do the minimum amount of work required to perform a certain task.  It actually is better to give full effort to each thing that you set yourself to doing. That's because then you will naturally do the best job that you can.

It becomes a good habit to pour yourself into each task. Even the seemingly most mundane tasks have their purpose. In the process, you may find ways to make mundane tasks easier to do or even fun. So, giving your all has its benefits.

Live Without Regret

Regret is powerful, especially when you regret opportunities you could’ve taken better advantage of at the time or missed entirely. This is why it’s important to give your all and take full advantage of each opportunity as it comes.

Yes, regret is often the hardest of our emotions to overcome. That's why being able to put regret into proper perspective is so important. Once you are able to understand why it exists, you can gain a lot of power from that knowledge.

In applying these concepts to your daily life, you will find your own version of success. Even in failure, by doing these things, you will still find yourself still moving forward. You may well find success in ways you couldn’t have even imagined.

How can you apply these concepts to your  daily life today?

Starting over elsewhere may be exactly what you need to get out of the rut you seem to be stuck in lately. Sometimes, just going where someone doesn’t know your past mistakes can help you heal more than therapy. Trying to live with everyone's constant judgement can weigh you down with guilt over your past mistakes. How can you move forward when no one will allow you to escape the guilt and shame?

Stop letting people disappoint you and talk down to you, just because they have not forgiven you. Admitting you made a bad choice and work on changing your life. Start by evaluating your close friends and family, in order to decide who you want to be in your life. If you need to move, then create a plan to begin transitioning to your new place. Decide what you will tolerate and what you won't tolerate, as you begin picking up the pieces of your life.

You have to believe in your own self and stay positive, while trying to rebuild your life. No one has a right to put you down or degrade you. So, with that said, be careful who you allow into your personal space. Don't let anyone who is toxic in your circle of friends and family. This will keep you on the right track as you moved forward in your journey to recovery. Additionally, pick up hobbies that you enjoy and try to stay out of your own head.

Copyrighted 2019

PS; I am not a licensed Therapist. Based on personal experience.

Most of us inherently multitask; juggling between things comes easy to us. Like talking over the phone while typing an email, watching TV and checking our social media updates, eating and driving and so on. This ability or rather this need to multi-task comes from an innate urge to complete all the tasks within our jam-packed daily schedules. It also gives us a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of being highly productive individuals.

However, with the advancement in cognitive studies and increased awareness on self-development, there have been many researches recently on the human ability to multitask. Most of these studies have found that multitasking is in fact bad for our mental health as it taxes the brain unnecessarily.

As humans we are not conditioned to multitask, hopping from one task to another or doing two things at the same time is not ideal for our stress levels.

Why I decided to ditch multitasking?

Being adept at multitasking I have always advocated its merits. I firmly believed multitasking is an art of utilizing time more efficiently. To be honest I was skeptical whenever I came across such expert claims deriding the benefits of multitasking, after all I was pretty efficient both at home and in my office.

But at the same time I had these nagging thoughts creeping in my mind pertaining to the mistakes I had made while trying to do too many things at once. Like a certain typo in an official email because I was also eating at the same time or the countless moments I struggled to keep up at a conversation because I was busy checking my WhatsApp.

So for me, what started as a reluctant effort to stop multitasking and concentrate on just one task at a time has now turned into a healthy habit and actually increased my productivity.

Read these points below as to why you should stop multitasking.

Multitasking Tires Your Brain Quickly:

Research says human brain is essentially designed to mono task which means doing just one work at one time. When we try to do two or more things simultaneously our brains exerts itself to concentrate but cannot fully focus on any particular thing.

Like for example you are organizing your room while talking to a friend over the phone and watching TV. During this process your brain is constantly shuffling between all three tasks.

Normally, to move from one task to another your brain needs that fraction of time to focus its attention on the new task but if you are constantly moving between tasks, your brain cannot fully comprehend because the moment it starts focusing on one thing you may start doing something else. This multitasking tires your brain and eventually you will feel the stress too.

Hampers Productivity:

This is something I pointed out earlier in the post, multitasking is not equal to being more productive rather it might increase the chances of making mistakes. Since the brain is processing too much information it cannot fully register each and everything. This can result in overlapping of information leading to mistakes.

For example: Sending a text message to a wrong recipient because you were watching TV. Sounds familiar?

Additionally, in their bid to do too many things, multitasking individuals may end up having several incomplete tasks.

Increases Distraction:

Multitasking has an adverse effect on your attentiveness to a task. The focus span gets severely limited when you are multitasking. You may get bored easily doing something and search avenues for instant gratification. You may even abandon or neglect a task altogether.

For example you are writing your college assignment but somehow you cannot focus so unintentionally you start checking your social media feed, or you leave your room and head to the kitchen to eat something, or start listening to music. In this case you are ignoring your task because it doesn’t stimulate you enough.

But eventually you will also get tired of continuously checking all your social media feeds or binge eating or listening to that music and you will start doing something else or maybe go back to do you college assignment.

It is important to note that in all these cases you are creating one work loop after another but not fully settling down and paying attention to just one specific thing.

Struggling to be in the present:

Most multitasking individuals have a common problem. They struggle to live in the present moment. Their brain is forever drifting back and forth between incomplete tasks and it is difficult for them to shut that down. Even during a conversation their minds are not fully present in the process. They may not be attentive listeners. They also experience difficulty in registering what the other person is trying to communicate.

This is not exactly a healthy thing for any relationship.

Slow Progress:

Multitasking affects your output and slows down the work process. When you are typing an official report on your laptop and checking your mobile every 5 minutes it not only slows down your typing speed but also obstructs the flow of your thoughts. This leads to two results a.) It considerably increases you task duration and its completion b.) It may affect your the quality of your work.

Increases Stress and Anxiety:

People who multitask lack patience to complete a job properly; most of the time they are in a hurry to get a job done. They may not do it intentionally, it just becomes their nature. Thus they get anxious if something takes too long and since they try to complete many things they get stressed out easily.


How to stop multitasking?

Limit your time on social media:

You might wonder why in all my examples I emphasized on social media. This is because these days most of our multitasking happens while managing social media. Monitor your time spent on social media and then set a limit for yourself as to how long you want to stay connected to the web.

This is the biggest favor you can do to yourself. I am not saying it will be easy but start with simple steps like checking your mobile 30 minutes after you wake-up and setting aside all electronic gadgets 30 minutes prior to bedtime.

Plan your day:

Plan your day and be practical regarding how much you can work in a day. If you keep your to-do list small you will be able to concentrate better and be more productive. If possible, set a time for yourself where you can just relax doing nothing. This duration can be as little as 5 minutes. Just sit or lie quietly during this time. It will calm down your mind.

Work in a distraction free environment

Try to work in a distraction free environment to give your full concentration to the job at hand. Keep all distractions like your mobile phones (especially your mobile phone), chit-chatting colleagues, family and friends at bay. Good concentration improves your work quality and you may also complete a job earlier than expected.

Just keep just a simple thought in mind – quality always scores over quantity – It’s not about how much we work but how good we work.

In this blog, I hope to introduce ideas that help to promote mental health for whoever reads them.  I am not an expert or a mental health professional, but my intention is to introduce helpful ideas, thoughts, practices, or strategies that you can follow up on by seeking out authors and professionals who might be able to better educate you on how you can apply such tools to improve your own mental health.

For the time being, I wanted to recommend contemplation of the idea of gratitude.  The idea of gratitude has presented itself to me as one very important to a person's mental health.  Can one be happy without gratitude?  I would have to say that a person who is ungrateful and unthankful for anything almost by definition cannot be happy.  If I am not grateful, how can I possibly be happy?  And if I am happy, wouldn't I at least be grateful for my happiness?

In thinking about gratitude, I have a glimpse that there is much depth and richness to this reality of gratitude.  Just the act of thinking about and acknowledging what I have to be grateful for is a practice which produces joy.  And when in difficult times, trying to think of what I have to be grateful for is very powerful in getting myself through struggles.

Searching Amazon and my local library's catalog, there are many books about gratitude and thankfulness.  I recommend searching for and obtaining some books on them.  I want to recommend all to practice gratitude, to think about what it means to be grateful, and to consciously incorporate gratitude more fully into your mental life.  I am going to be reading more about the subject, talking about it, and trying to practice it and express it.  If anything, be grateful for the people in your life.  Isn't it amazing how just the act of thanking someone and being grateful for them in your life, can turn someone's day around?

Also, I think that practicing gratitude is something that is crucial, especially during difficult times.  We need to have something positive in our lives, and we need to recognize the positives, especially when there is so much pain and negative aspects in our lives.  Appreciating and acknowledging the good in your life, or the potential for growth and improvement is essential.  Recognizing the good, and knowing that things can and will get better is important to make any progress.  Also, being thankful makes room for improvement.  So many people are not thankful for what is good in their lives, and they wonder why things don't improve.  We need to make room for what we don't yet have by being grateful for what we do. 

If you want good for someone, and you give them so much, and they aren't grateful for what they have, and you keep giving to them, and they don't even thank you or appreciate what you do for them, how likely are you to keep giving to the unappreciative person?  Life is like this.  The more thankful we are, the more appreciative of the good we have, the more will be bestowed on us.  And not that we are just going to be saturated with whatever we want.  Being grateful isn't some kind of magic spell that will win us the lottery and give us all we dream of, but the opposite is true.  Being ungrateful is a sure way to sabotage any chance we have of getting better.

Try gratitude.  If you already do, great!  But if you have been neglecting the practice of gratitude, start today!

Originally published at the General Mental Health Journal

On the journey to and through adulthood, many individuals wonder what it would take to become the best versions of themselves. Following some advice can help you to tackle these existential questions and to bring that person into fruition.

Know What Your Goals Are

Sometimes, it is easy to get caught up in what other people think about what you should do. For example, maybe you showed artistic skills at a young age and your parents have encouraged you to pursue a career in the arts. However, perhaps you’re more interested in finance but have pursued art to please your parents. On the other hand, you may have friends who dissuade you from living in a certain neighborhood or going on a particular trip because they had a negative experience. Get these other people’s voice out of your mind. Determine what it is that you want.

Sleep Enough

When you’re exhausted, it’s difficult to know what you want, and even if you can figure out your goals for the day or week, you may feel too drained to pursue them in any fashion. Aiming for around seven or eight hours of sleep per night is a smart move. Still though, different people have varying needs. An example is if you have a certain medical condition; you might need more sleep. Speak to your doctor to determine what the best amount is for you. You should also articulate any troubles you have with sleeping to your health care professional.

Balance Your Life

Having too much of anything in your life can lead you to get lost in that one area. For example, if you spend virtually all of your time working and miss out on many social opportunities, you essentially become the job. On the other hand, you may surrender valuable possibilities at work if you are more concerned with going out most nights of the week. You also need to find time to prepare healthy meals, get in exercise and pursue hobbies. Planning out a schedule can help you to fit in these assorted tasks.

Set Actual Goals

Saying that you want to become the best version of yourself is a goal, but you need to make your plans more tangible. Once you have decided what the best version of yourself looks and feels like, write down those goals. For example, you may want to return to school to obtain a graduate degree, or you may want to purchase a new home. Once you have your goals written out, you can start to make a list of steps to take to achieve your goals. While harsh deadlines can impede your progress, setting reasonable ones encouraging you to move forward.

Seek Guidance

When you’re working on yourself, you may feel as though you have to pursue this path without assistance. However, plenty of professionals are available to guide you through the process. If you are trying to lose weight, you can work with a nutritionist and a personal trainer; if you are trying to save more money, you can speak with a financial adviser or an accountant.

On the other hand, when you want to get back to going to school, you could speak with an admissions representative. Talking to other people gives you a sense of what you need to do. You also have support when questions come up. Instead of just imagining what the answers are in your mind, you can get real answers.

Dallin Larsen said “A life of significance is a byproduct of making the ‘best’ choices”. Becoming the best version of yourself is a task that you can achieve by striving to make those same choices. When you want to improve who you are as a person, you can implement these steps and work toward a more fulfilling existence.

by Sharon Sherbina, NYR Organic

It’s a dark and stormy night on the island of Oahu.  The surf breaks harshly on the plank of a pier jutting out determinedly into Maunalua Bay.  The dark clouds overhead eerily reflect the light pollution of the nearby shopping districts of Honolulu and Waikiki, where the conversion of paper dollars into stuffed, plastic logo bags is in full swing.  In the distance you can hear a gorgeously wrought cover of Israel Kamakawiwo’Ole’s, “Maui Hawaiian Sup’pa Man”.

When you get to the end of the wicked finger-like pier, it feels as if you’re at the end of the universe, looking out into the dark expanse of the unknown, the peaked and turgid waters all around you.  And, if in that moment, your spirit happens to be troubled, look no further than the ‘alamihi crab skittering purposefully out of your way.

The ‘alamihi crab (metopograpsus thukuhar) is worthy of watching and reflecting upon, although maybe under safer circumstances.  The ‘alamihi keep to the low-tide shallows, much like humanity, and clambers about on the exposed rocks, stones and piers.  They are quintessential self-preservationists.

Is your self-care actually self-preservation, instinctive and reactive?  Or, do you practice it with intention and reflection?  Are you actively planning on how to weather the next storm?  Are you in the middle of a storm now?

It’s anecdotally shared, that when faced with the imminent threat of a collision in a moving vehicle, you clench every muscle you have including the tongue.  This leads to more sustained injuries, and a lengthier recovery time, if your situation is recoverable.  Life is filled with collisions.  There are minor ones like disagreements at work over processes or miscommunications on the homefront with partners and children.  Or there are major ones like the sudden loss of child, getting an unexpected diagnosis for a serious health issue, and losing your job.  What if you could live life unclenched?  Would it matter?

It’s important to be of a positive mindset, but it’s of even greater importance to be of a realistic mindset with a positive response.  The shock is greater to your being, when your first response is, “I never thought something like this could happen to me!”  Why not?  Why, based on all the evidence around you, the rise and fall of civilizations, the ebb and flow of humanity, would you sail through this existence unscathed?

We have a cognitive capacity that way exceeds the ‘alamihi crab.  We can do more than furtively scramble out of the way in the darkness.  We can plan, conditionally, lest Robert Burns’ words come back to pinch us.  We can form intention now.  We can unclench.  We can know for certain that the storms are coming, but that they can be faced.  And some storms may even be dissipated with the right actions.


*This piece was written in the aftermath of the “false alert” January 13, 2018, where thousands of people on the island of Oahu received notification that there was an incoming ICBM missile, and to take shelter.  The beach where the ‘alamihi crabs were observed was the same beach that had hundreds of screaming people running anywhere they could to find shelter, under lifeguard stands, in bathrooms.  In many cases mothers and fathers had their children lie on the ground and they covered their children with their own bodies.

Author Bio:

I’m opposed to author bios, for much the same reason that I’m opposed to framing artwork. Intellectually we know that art goes beyond the frame, and that the frame is an artificial construct.  My husband says that I “sure am a piece of work”, but he has never, (nor has anyone else) ever referred to me as a piece of art… 

So, right now I am bouncing back and forth between the beautiful and troubled island paradise of Oahu, and our home base in deep rural Missouri.  Subjects of interest for contemplation and writing include nature, sustainability, primitive skills and traditions, kindness, unconditional positive regard, all the big whys and hows, movement disorders, the juxtaposition of science and religion, education, second language acquisition, holistic skin care, and cats.  I fail to practice much of what I preach, and greet each day as a challenge, and consider each night before I go to bed an exercise in self-grace.

 
Oahu is beautiful.  There are sunsets that will suck the breath right out of your chest.  The massive banyan trees look like they could pick up root and lumber down the way if you took your eyes off of them.  Sometimes you startle a flock of yellow-fronted canaries, and then they startle you with their breathtaking upflight into the sunlight.

While walking one afternoon, I stopped and looked closely at the trunk of this papaya tree.  All around the trunk, every foot and a half, are a half dozen heart-shaped scars.  I looked fifteen feet above me to see what might be making these beautiful scars on the tree.  At first observation, it appears that when each generation of fruit comes to bear, the large leaves that nestled that fruit begin to wither and die.  Eventually the heavy, dead leaves drop off to the fertile ground below.  They decompose into the soil and cyclically nourish the tree in their demise.  When the leaves drop off, they leave behind the mark of a heart on the trunk. Every.  Single. Time.

The papaya (botanical name, Carica papaya) is a powerhouse of nutrition and medicine.

See here  for the full break down (PDF).

And like most plants and trees, every single part of it is useful.  It’s a perfect tree to use to illustrate a life of intention and purpose, a life with ruts and hardship, a life with joys and mountain-top experiences.  It’s also an ideal cosmic model for resiliency and adaptation at the personal level.

Where is your life at this moment?  Where is it in the life cycle of the papaya?  Is it fruitful and protected by stalwart leaves, and safe from the buffeting of strong tropical winds?  Have you just made it through the most difficult ordeal of your life, and are shedding the dead leaves of your experiences to the ground below you?  Will your hardship nourish and benefit the next generation?  Or are you still somewhere in the middle of the storm, with your desiccated leaves hanging all about you, a semblance of protection until the storm passes.  What shape are your scars?

Author Bio:

I’m opposed to author bios, for much the same reason that I’m opposed to framing artwork. Intellectually we know that art goes beyond the frame, and that the frame is an artificial construct.  My husband says that I “sure am a piece of work”, but he has never, (nor has anyone else) ever referred to me as a piece of art… 

So, right now I am bouncing back and forth between the beautiful and troubled island paradise of Oahu, and our home base in deep rural Missouri.  Subjects of interest for contemplation and writing include nature, sustainability, primitive skills and traditions, kindness, unconditional positive regard, all the big whys and hows, movement disorders, the juxtaposition of science and religion, education, second language acquisition, holistic skin care, and cats.  I fail to practice much of what I preach, and greet each day as a challenge, and consider each night before I go to bed an exercise in self-grace.

Author Bio

Kara Masterson is a freelance writer from West Jordan, Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah and enjoys writing and spending time with her dog, Max.

by Kara Masterson, Contributing Writer

Positive thought is more powerful than you can ever imagine, and the science supports this. It gives you a significant boost in productivity, improves your physical and mental health and helps you achieve the success you seek. These are five points everyone should read about why the power of positive thinking is both strong and important, and how you can harness it to succeed in your own life.

It Benefits You in Numerous Ways

Positive thinking has been proven to have a number of benefits for your mind and your body. For example, people with a more positive outlook are less likely to develop heart conditions, experience less stress and ultimately live longer lives. It sounds bogus, but plenty of scientific studies have backed it up over the years. Positive thinking is inextricably linked to good health. It turns you into someone people will actually want to be around and gives you a better ability to cope with stress and hardships in life.

It Is Infectious

One great thing about positive thinking is that it is infectious. It influences the lives of those around you for the better. Think about it: aren’t you happier when you are around other people who are happy? You can be that person for others. Improving the lives of those around you is always a noble goal, and if you can do so while improving your own life, what are you waiting for?

Have Goals and Strive to Meet Them

In order to keep yourself optimistic but still realistic, setting goals and then mapping out ways to reach them is an important step in harnessing the power of your positive thinking in order to succeed. All the positive thinking in the world won’t have an impact on your life unless you act upon it. Rather than waiting for a problem to resolve itself or thinking it will never go away when it actually can, you need to take action to do better. Successful actions beget positive thought, because you will now know that such achievements are possible.

Surrounding Yourself with Positive People Is Key

Surrounding yourself with positive people can, understandably, increase your own positive thinking. You should always be looking to cut negative and toxic people out of your life. If you cannot, you will have to find ways to manage it so their moods do not affect yours. However, it is still advised to distance yourself from these people, no matter how close to them you are.

When surrounded by positive people both in your work and personal life, you will feel better and more valued, like you can conquer the challenges of life. You can also attend seminars and listen to motivational speakers like Dallin Larsen and others. Take steps to bring positive people into your life in any way possible.

Learn to Identify and Manage Negative Thoughts

You are going to have a more difficult time harnessing the power of positive thought if you are unable to recognize and deal with negative thoughts in a healthy manner. For example, when something bad happens, we tend to blame ourselves. This is a type of negative thought called personalization and can be dealt with by working to realize that many bad things that happen in our lives are beyond our control.

Another example is when you focus only on the negative elements of a situation and not the positive ones, or when you always assume the worst is going to happen. Once you identify these negative thoughts, you can learn to manage them and replace them with positive thoughts instead.

Positive thinking affects far more than your mood. It also affects your physical and mental health, the way others see you, your job performance and so much more. Everyone, but especially proud pessimists, need to read and seriously consider the preceding five points on positive thinking. It’s a powerful tool you can add to your arsenal in order to succeed both professionally and in everyday life.

Author Bio

Kara Masterson is a freelance writer from West Jordan, Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah and enjoys writing and spending time with her dog, Max.

by Phoenix Desertsong

Have you ever felt like your life is getting a bit too repetitive? I've been thinking a lot lately about the "rat race" and pondering that oft-repeated quote, "Even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat." The definition of the rat race, according to Wikipedia, is thus:
 
"A rat race is an endless, self-defeating, or pointless pursuit. It conjures up the image of lab rats racing through a maze to get the "cheese" much like society racing to get ahead financially.
 
"The term is commonly associated with an exhausting, repetitive lifestyle that leaves no time for relaxation or enjoyment."

 I'm quite certain that most people don't get caught up in a "rat race" on purpose. It's easy for people to fall into routines. There's nothing wrong with going to the same job every day. But everyone needs some sort of relaxation or enjoyment. How does someone fit this into their everyday life if you're going through the same exhausting motions every day?

 Each day is an experiment.

 That's right. Every day is a new day in which you can try something new. The most important thing about human beings is our capacity to learn and innovate. If we don't consistently find ways to improve upon what we do, we will feel exhausted and unfulfilled.
 
So perhaps, it's time for the "rats" to do their own experiments!
 
Sometimes, the daily experiment you might make is something seemingly trivial. Should I switch up my breakfast this morning? Should I try a new way to get to work? There are a lot of little ways to alter our routines to try something new. While some may not, some changes just might work better than what we did before.
 
The reason to try something new every day and experiment is pretty simple. If you keep doing the same thing over and over, you can't reasonably expect a different result. Some days are going to be better than others, of course. You'll have failed experiments. But having tried is the point. You may think that maybe not every vocation gives you much room for innovation. But truthfully, there is always some process or task that can be done just a bit better no matter what it is.
 
By doing a little experiment every day, even if it seems outrageous at first, you expand your horizons. Sometimes all you need is just a little bit of creativity to spark something new in your life. You never know what you'll find through experiments.
 
Keep in mind that some accidents turn into brilliant things and failed experiments can turn into world-altering discoveries. You may not think you can change the world, but you can do a lot more than you might think. All you have to do is experiment. Just try to be safe about it!

When the well runs dry and you're thirsty for inspiration, find a new watering hole. Find a new stream, river, lake or pond to sit by and ponder.

When the train of thought runs out of steam, and you're running on fumes, you may need a better fuel. The one you're using may be too much of a polluter and you need a cleaner alternative. And one that packs more of a punch.

When your thought stream hits an unexpected dam, don't let yourself get flooded. Find a new course. The water always seems to find a way. No sense in backing up.

But sometimes a flood is inevitable and it will come if a way isn't quickly found. Just keep your head above water and eventually you'll find safety.

Droughts and floods are inevitabilities of nature. Life is all about navigating these extremes in search of equilibrium, where there is a steady flow and a calm reservoir.

How have you navigated the dry spells and the floods in your life? Are you finding yourself dying of thirst or struggling to keep your head above water? Perhaps even both, as strange as that sounds?

Just stay the course. Eventually, you'll find the happy middle if you keep it in your sights.

~ Phoenix <3

by Phoenix A. Desertsong, Staff Writer, Healer & Advocate

“One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.” - Nikola Tesla

Have you ever thought too deeply about something? I certainly have. Doing so can drive you mad. Sometimes you have to learn to step away from things before you can make any real progress.

As Nikola Tesla said, thinking deeply and thinking clearly are definitely not the same thing. I could also bring up Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity: trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Look at how many storybook villains work so hard, but forever fruitlessly, towards an impossible goal. You can't blame them for not thinking deeply and being persistent. But, clarity of thought certainly isn't in their repertoire. It's tragic, really.

Personally, I prefer villains who can in fact think clearly. Those tend to be the most dangerous and fascinating ones for me. Exercises in futility get tiresome for me after awhile.

Sadly enough, real life people exercise futility far too often. I most certainly am guilty of exercising insane levels of futility. If you start thinking too deeply about something that can unfortunately mess you up fairly badly.

If you start finding your thinking derailing, take a break. No matter how urgent something might be, take what time you can. You're better off finding a moment of clarity than sinking into hours of deep thought that could just send you down a deep dark tunnel of insanity.

Back when Tesla first said this quote, he felt that the scientists of his day were thinking more deeply than clearly. With how many “experts” and highly specialized fields we have today, it’s easier than ever to think a bit too deeply about something. It’s easy when studying something too closely to lose perspective. He's still right and this advice is still very good.

Clear thinking is the best way to go. If you find yourself lost in thought, then perhaps you’ve been on that track a bit too long. Shift gears, then come back with a clearer head. You and your exploits will be better off for it.

~ Phoenix <3

Ever sit and wonder what it would be like to hit the lottery for $5 million and then try and convince yourself that it wouldn’t change a single thing about you? I chose the amount of $5 million because how you react to becoming an instant millionaire will reach down into your soul and find the real you. Would you want to live your life in the manner that you live it now, or would you want to change your lifestyle? Remember that "a fool and his money are soon parted" so while $5 million may sound like a lot of money, foolish spending could eat it up in a heartbeat.

The lottery has given the average person that one in a ten million shot to change their lifestyle, and for the ones who say that winning it wouldn’t change anything about them I say good luck with that and here’s why. I can tell you that the first thing that will change about you will be that you will no longer require employment. If you’ve been one of those people who had to set the alarm clock to get up at 5 AM for the last 10 years, you can believe your lifestyle is about to change. You might think that the first thing that comes to the mind of the newly minted millionaire is a new house or car, but you’d be wrong. The very first thought is "I don’t have to work anymore" with a "Yee-Haw" thrown in for extra measure.

Since you’re not going to be working, you’ll need a nice quiet place to spend your days and living next door to Spanky and his band of lunatic friends just won’t cut the mustard. You find a nice place in the suburbs and suddenly instead of a three bedroom house on a dusty lot, you’ve got a 5 bedroom ranch house on 40 acres of land. So while you may insist that hitting the lottery for $5 million wouldn’t change a thing about you, it would change your circumstances. And while one may like their life the way it is right now, it is human nature to want to upgrade to a better lifestyle. Truth be told.

- DLTPONCH33

*I originally published this via Yahoo Contributor Network