What I’ve learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0053

2601.  Imagine the ideal you and the ideal scenario.  As long as it’s realistic, hold on to that image and make it happen.  If you prioritize your schedule and schedule your priorities, there’s almost no limit to what you can do.  But you have to make it happen;

2602.  When we eliminate any upward options from our mental maps, and worse, eliminate our motivation to search for them, we end up undermining our ability to tackle the challenge at hand;

2603.  When people feel helpless in one area of life, they not only give up in that one area; they often “overlearn” the lesson and apply it to other situations.  They become convinced that one dead-end path must be proof that all possible paths are dead ends;

2604.  Learned helplessness is endemic in inner city schools, prisons, and elsewhere;

2605.  When people don’t believe there is a way up, they have virtually no choice but to stay as down as they are;

2606.  When some people meet adversity, they simply stop looking for ways to turn failures into opportunities or negatives into positives.  Others—the most successful among us—know that it’s not the adversity itself, but what we do with it that determines our fate;

2607.  Just as personal crises can provide the foundation for positive individual growth, so can economic ones;

2608.  America’s top companies have often used recessions to reevaluate and improve their business practices;

2609.  As Time pointed out way back in 1958, “for every company that slims down its operation, another discovers new ways of doing things that should have been in effect for years but were overlooked during the boom;”

2610.  Economic adversity forces companies to find creative ways to cut costs and inspires management to get back in touch with the employees and operations on the ground floor;

2611.  Passion always trumps excuses;

2612.  The mere presence of passion within you is all you need to fulfill your dreams;

2613.  Passion is a feeling that tells you: This is the right thing to do.  Nothing can stand in my way.  It doesn’t matter what anyone else says.  This feeling is so good that it cannot be ignored.  I’m going to follow my bliss and act upon this glorious sensation of joy;

2614.  Never allow anyone else’s ideas of who you can or can’t become sully your dream or pollute your imagination;

2615.  If you want to find a deeper meaning in your life, you won’t find it in the opinions or the beliefs that have been handed to you.  Rather than trying to be what everyone else expects you to be, live your life by your own rules to be happy and find inner peace;

2616.  Australians don’t drink Foster’s.  They’d rather drink a Corona . . . or just about anything else;

2617.  A small soda in the U.S. is a large in Australia;

2618.  Watch out for drunk(en) Australian girls, they might head butt you;

2619.  Australian girls have hard heads;

2620.  The truth is that there is no actual stress or anxiety in the world; it’s your thoughts that create these false beliefs.  You can’t package stress, touch it or see it.  There are only people engaged in stressful thinking.  That pesky ego is at work when you’re experiencing stress or anxiety.  We speak of stress as if it were present in the world as something that attacks us.  But the stress in your body is rarely the result of external forces or entities attacking you; it’s the result of the weakened connection to Source caused by the belief that ego is who you are.  You are peace and joy, but you’ve allowed your ego to dominate your life;

2621.  Here’s a short list of stress-inducing thoughts that originate in your ego self: It’s more important to be right than to be happy; Winning is the only thing so when you lose, you should be stressed; Your reputation is more important than your relationship with your Source; Success is measured in dollars rather than in feeling happy and content; and Being superior to others is more important than being kind to others;

2622.  You aren’t your work, your accomplishments, your possessions, your home, your family . . . your anything.  You’re a creation of your Source, dressed in a physical human body intended to experience and enjoy life on Earth.  This is the intention that you want to bring to the presence of stress—your personal intention to be tranquil.  Stress and anxiety are choices that we make, ways that we choose to process events.  Each day, we have hundreds of opportunities to shift our thoughts and align with the Source that intended us for lives of joy and peace;

2623.  Maryland Live! Casino (MarylandLiveCasino.com) in Arundel Mills has a pretty good buffet.  It’s $14.99 for lunch (Monday through Saturday) and $17.99 for dinner (Sunday through Thursday) and Sunday champagne brunch;

2624.  Jane and Luisa think I need a bigger bed;

2625.  Don’t piss off Rashmi when she’s drunk. . . . Your (left) pinky will never be the same;

2626.  The Moulin Rouge was the first integrated hotel casino in Las Vegas . . . and (in) the U.S.;

2627.  Maurice Hines (i.e., the tap dancer and older brother of Gregory Hines) is almost 70;

2628.  A study published in “Evolution & Human Behavior” by Sarah Hill, a psychologist at the University of Texas, Austin, shows that people of both sexes reckon the sexual competition they face is stronger than it really is.  Dr. Hill showed heterosexual men and women photographs of people.  She asked them to rate both how attractive those of their own sex would be to the opposite sex and how attractive the members of the opposite sex were.  She then compared the scores for the former with the scores for the latter, seen from the other side.  Men thought that the men they were shown were more attractive to the women than they really were and women thought the same of the women;

2629.  When you think about what confidence actually is you realize that it’s simply doing something that you’ve done enough times to be comfortable with.  It’s only when we’re thrown into situations that are unfamiliar to us that we start to lose confidence in ourselves;

2630.  As soon as you start blaming people, you’re missing the point.  Focus on yourself;

2631.  You are what you do;

2632.  See anything you want to change about yourself?  That’s where you start;

2633.  Taking care of yourself on the outside helps on the inside;

2634.  You are not the moral conscience of the world.  No one cares about your strongly held negative opinions of the guy down the street.  Drop it and try to do something positive with your day;

2635.  Negativity isn’t sexy or a rational response to the world.  You’re closer to death one day at a time.  Enjoy your time – it’s the one resource (unlike money, etc.) that’s not replenishable;

2636.  The “Mango & Lime” peri peri sauce at Nando’s Peri-Peri (NandosPeriPeri.com) is pretty tasty;

2637.  If you’re going to Nando’s Peri-Peri with a friend, consider splitting the “Full Platter.”  For $24.95, you’ll get twice the amount of food (i.e., two legs and thighs, two breasts and wings and two large sides that’ll feed four) for just a little (bit) more (money) than you’d spend getting two legs and thighs or two breasts and wings with two sides each (i.e., $17.70 and $18.70, respectively);

2638.  Emotions from one source can be transferred (i.e., misattributed) to another source;

2639.  Emotions have two parts: Physiological (i.e., in the body); and Cognitive (i.e., in the mind);

2640.  The shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald (by Jack Ruby) was the first live broadcast of a murder on TV;

2641.  If you like Asian fusion, The Source (WolfgangPuck.com/Restaurants/Fine-Dining/3941) in D.C. has a really good Saturday dim sum brunch from 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM. . . . The noodle and salad dishes give you the most food;

2642.  A(ccording to Starbucks, a) “Caffè Americano” is (a shot of) espresso (diluted) with hot water. . . . A “Caffè/espresso macchiato” is (a shot of) espresso with steamed milk foam. . . . And a “Caffè latte” is (a shot of) espresso in steamed milk, (lightly) topped with foam;

2643.  With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself, or treat what has happened as a gift.  Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing.  You get to choose;

2644.  Everything in this physical universe of ours is in some way connected to everything else.  When we attempt to isolate anything, we find that it is in some way part of everything else in the universe.  Just as it is absurd for a single wave to see itself as separate from the ocean, so it is for any of us not to recognize our oneness with all creation;

2645.  No one is capable of making you upset without your consent, so if you begin practicing the intention to be authentic and peaceful with everyone, you connect to peace itself–and gain the power to change the energy of your relationships with family and friends;

2646.  In order to change the nature of family relationships, you’ll have to change your mind about them and consider that you are the source of the anguish in your relationships, rather than the individual whom you’ve pegged as the most outrageous, the most despicable, or the most infuriating.  Over the years, all of these individuals have been treating you exactly as you’ve allowed them to with your reactions and behaviors.  This can miraculously change when you choose to be at peace with everyone in your life–most particularly, your relatives;

2647.  If the focus of your inner dialogue about your family members is on what they're doing that's wrong, then that’s precisely how your relationship with them will be experienced.  If your inner speech centers on what’s annoying about them, that’s what you'll notice.  But if you're thinking, I am authentic and peaceful with this relative, then that’s what you’ll experience–even if that relative continues to be exactly the way he or she has always been;

2648.  The key to having peace in all your family relationships is forgiveness.  Your relatives are simply doing what they’ve been taught to do over a lifetime and the lifetimes of many of their ancestors.  Shower them with understanding and forgiveness from your heart.  Rather than being in a state of non-peace concerning any family members, say a prayer of gratitude for their presence in your life and all that they have come to teach you;

2649.  If you don’t love yourself, nobody else will.  Not only that, you won’t be good at loving anyone else.  Loving starts with the self;

2650.  Notice each day whether you are choosing to live in fear or love.  Fear can keep you disconnected from the loving presence inside of you;