Wise Advice for Waking Up to Your Life

Here’s a Damn Good Recipe for Failure & Unhappiness, for a life of misery.

Be self-righteous, wallow in self-pity, drown the day in fear and complacency. Look at your life and others with anxiety, jealousy, and hatred.

Now here’s a More Delicious Recipe for Harmony, Peace & Happiness, for an extraordinary life.

Take it on the chin. Be flexible, resilient, forgive more. Work smart and hard and always look at life with confidence and gratitude.

The Waking by Theodore Roethke

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.

I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?

I hear my being dance from ear to ear.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?

God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,

And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?

The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do

To you and me; so take the lively air,

And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.

What falls away is always. And is near.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I learn by going where I have to go.

Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke

When life feels like . . . .

Repeat this little prayer. . .

Right now I am frustrated because I am not taking better care of myself. Which got me wondering about the payoffs I experience for staying stuck in my progress. For not waking up more and doing what needs to be done to change what I don’t like about my life.

Dig deep for the payoffs for not moving towards your goals today. Ask yourself some BIG questions.

What am I avoiding? Hard work maybe? Self-discipline? A little pain now for bigger gains later?
Who am I punishing by staying this way?
Am I avoiding the true expression of my emotions? Are they too frightening to feel?
What if I am waiting for a guaranteed miracle? Who will bring it to me?
Perhaps being stuck is really manipulating myself and others?
Maybe I am looking for special attention? Wallowing in self-pity?
What will I miss most if I do succeed?

Understand the difference between I will try and I will find a way “Results are a function of your commitment. Most people are unaware that where they are is exactly where they want to be.”