TheLeaderInside.com

As I was walking into the room where I do my work everyday, I looked out the window and saw this young deer attempting to get some bird seed out of one of the feeders in the backyard. I thought, “How beautiful is that?” There was something indescribable about that picture.

That got me to thinking about beauty — and how each of us thinks of beauty. We are always enticed by it. Beauty has a way of making us stare, mesmerized, at the object we see as beautiful. It seduces us. It has a way of pulling us into itself. It might be the striking good looks of a man or woman, or it might be the charm of the eyes of that young deer as it looks about to ensure its own safety.

Beauty can be anywhere and everywhere. It can be in that post yesterday by Bentley. (Thank you, Bentley — that was truly beautiful!) It can be in a sunrise or a sunset. It can be in the smile of a shy child. It can be the flash of a male cardinal as it chases after its mate through the trees. We can see beauty — we can smell it — we can even taste it at times. It can be found in the scent of a beautiful rose or in the sounds of the piano coming out of our CD player.

Sometimes when we anticipate that something will be beautiful, we get fooled. That has happened to me when I went to see an art exhibit expecting to see paintings that would fill my senses with beauty, only to be disappointed by the intrusions of the crowds that prevented being able to ponder and enjoy the selections that were offered. Even though I’m not an opera buff, I’ve met people who have gone to an opera performance expecting to find beauty, only to be bored and disappointed, while at the same time, the person sitting next to them could have been enthralled with the beauty of the performance.

Therein lies the meaning of the famous quotation, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!”

And yet, beauty is everywhere — it can be in a color, in a flavor, in a scent or in a texture. Beauty doesn’t care if you’re rich or you’re poor — it doesn’t care where you live — or what language you speak — or what set of beliefs you may follow — beauty is available to all. All we have to do is keep our eyes, ears, and all our other senses open and beauty will find us — it will be there.

I have another quote for you …

~~~ DBL-R

Good people deserve to succeed - there’s NO doubt about it; and if there is one individual I know who epitomizes the ‘good person’ ideal, it’s Ron Rink! To know Ron is to like Ron - plain and simple! Although I’ve only ever communicated with him electronically (and only for the past year or so), his warmth, honesty, and desire to help others has been a constant - regardless of any stress and frustration he may be facing on a day to day basis.

‘The Leader Inside’ was an idea I came up with quite some time ago. Having a passion for leadership and personal development in general, I thought it would be a fun project - something to keep me continually focused on my own personal improvement.

After getting to know Ron for a number of months, via various online forums, and seeing that he had a big heart and a desire to improve himself (and of course help others), I just KNEW I had to ask him to join TLI!

Thankfully he accepted, and it was from that moment on that the project was in good hands!

Ever since then Ron’s dedication to TLI has been utterly awe-inspiring! With little more than a desire to see the blog get noticed and appreciated, he’s continued to post his top notch articles day after day after day - with little to NO help from me, I might add!

To top it off, not once has he ever voiced frustration or had a harsh word to say to me about my lack of participation in “our” project (and I certainly deserve more than a few harsh emails by now!!).

To say Ron has a heart of gold is a vast understatement!

Needless to say, I’m proud to call him a friend, and very proud of what he has done with TLI!

Thanks Ron - you are truly an inspiration!

~BC

One of the needless things that I’ve been doing too much of lately, is worrying. I could easily be accused of being a chronic worrier. This morning I was especially filled with worry about a variety of “somethings”. I won’t go into those “somethings” in this article — rather I want to talk about the subject of “worry” itself.

Worry can put a person through a time of complete frustration. It is nothing more than fear — our fear that something bad is going to happen — or something that we need to happen, won’t be happening — or that something that someone is going to do for us, won’t get done. The list of things to worry about can go on for pages and pages. Worry is always about something that hasn’t happened yet — so — by definition — worry is a fantasy. Deep down, we all know this is true — yet we continue to worry.

Most of the time when we worry it’s about something over which we have little or no control. One of the prime examples of the futility of worry is when you find yourself fretting about the safety of someone close to you — perhaps they are traveling by air and you’ve heard that the weather is not good where they will be flying — or you may have heard a recent news broadcast about some terrorist activity in an airport. You sit on “pins and needles” until you finally hear that they have arrived at their destination safe and sound.

What did your worry accomplish? Did it ensure that the plane would arrive safely? Of course not. You had no control over that situation. What it did was create an unpleasant stressful effect on your own body, mind and spirit.

What can be done to avoid this useless exercise? One thing comes to mind — when you catch yourself beginning to worry about something, consciously turn those negative thoughts into positive ones. Instead of imagining the worst case scenario, imagine the opposite. In our example above, visualize the plane having a smooth flight and see it landing safely at its destination. Imagine angels or guiding hands watching over the flight and all those on board. You still won’t have control over the situation, however, you’ll feel better and your body will welcome the less stressful mindset.

There are times when we worry about something that we could have control over. This could be a task that we’re procrastinating over starting — or maybe you have a test that you need to study for. In these cases, the best way to alleviate that worry is to take the action needed to solve the problem. Do the task — study for the test — and soon you’ll have no reason to continue worrying.

~~~ DBL-R