Your Mind is a Toolbox

Inside our mind (brain) is a wealth of tools and resources to help move us forward.

When we’re stumped or in a difficult situation we can reach into our ‘toolbox’ and pull out a tool to help us! Sometimes we have to try several different tools to get the right one for that situation. As we mature in building our mind craft, we will notice other tools we’d like to add to our toolbox. We might see someone else successfully using a tool we don’t have and we’d like to work towards getting it.

Older tools, already in our toolbox, will need to be kept sharp, oiled, greased, polished etc. This is something we can do ourselves. But at times we’ll need to locate another craftsman to help us sharpen our tools.

‘Give me some examples of these tools and what they can do for me.’

  1. The plum-bob. An old-fashioned tool attached to a string to help us keep things straight up and down.
  2. The compass. Used by hikers and sea farers – keeps them going the right direction, so they don’t get lost or go adrift.
  3. The level. If things aren’t built level, gravity and wind will eventually blow them over.
  4. The hammer. We’ll need to keep pounding away through tough situations. Tenacity!
  5. The screwdriver. Needful to tighten down good habits.
  6. The sanding block. Smooths off rough edges that keep snagging us.
  7. The carpenter’s pencil. Used to mark points along the way showing progress.
  8. The crowbar. When we have hard things to pull out of our life, this will be handy.
  9. Clamps. These hold things in place while stuff adheres. Helpful in developing new habits.
  10. A resource guide. Will show you how to handle your tools for best results.

These are a smattering of tool choices. See which tools will benefit you. Some you rarely use, but when you need them, they’re good to have.

Be on the lookout for good tools. I like to go to second hand stores and find well-made, well-used older tools – proven over time to work and be effective.

Keep your toolbox cleaned out and organized…ready to use. You’ll be surprised what you can do!

The Eye of Beauty

Can you see it? See what? See beauty around you!

It’s not a foreign word, although in some ways it seems disregarded.

Just what is beauty? It is seen in many ways…

Calm; color; vibrancy; order; cleanliness; clarity; detail; simplicity…

Beauty comes by inspiration – meaning God-breathed. Everything God made was beautiful. It had order, rhyme and reason – purpose to it. He breathed it out with his words, and it became. He spoke us into existence and said, ‘Go tend the garden…you’re made in My image…make more life, perpetuate it. Feed it. Encourage it. Take it and make it wherever you go. Be inspired by what I’ve done. I will inspire you to make more beauty.’

If we look closely at what God made, we will develop an eye for beauty. True beauty lasts. It is deeper than looks only.

Beauty brings comfort, peace, calm, joy, hope, encouragement, trust, relaxation, contentment…

How do you feel when you look at something beautifully made? Does it inspire you to make something beautiful or do something beautiful? It can become contagious.

By beauty, I don’t mean pretty. Beauty has an uplifting element to it…a nobility if you will, in that it causes you to notice it, and brings a surge of hopefulness.

I don’t understand how it all works, but it does.

What do you see and how does it affect you?

Try!

Try, try again!

The best way to conquer fear of failure or failure itself is to try again. There’s nothing like a fresh start to get you moving again…to get your ideas flowing.

‘Yea, but I’ve tried and failed so many times, I feel shut down and tired of trying!’

I had an old car. It was a 1984 Audi 5000s… butter yellow. Loved it! But sometimes it took many times to get started. One sunny, bitter cold day in Chicago, I was leaving my son’s and sitting in the car working to get it started. It was a combination of pressing the gas pedal, while turning the engine and holding it just the right amount of time until the engine caught. I couldn’t try too many times in a row, or it’d flood the engine, but I did have to keep trying. After a number of times it finally started and kept running and I was able to drive home. I knew it would start eventually; I had been through this a number of times previously. But I had to try. It could have seemed easier to quit and say, ‘It’s not going to work’…and then I couldn’t go anywhere.

It’s the same way in life in so many other areas. We tend to give up too quickly. We need to develop our tenacity…we all have it, but it has to develop from its seed form.  Really, it’s part of growth. Try and grow a little bit. Try and fail and stop and think. Try again and move a step forward. Then again until it works, and you feel more confident.

Have you given up on something you need to try again?