Determined Optimism

I love numbers. I can remember lots of numbers, easily. Old phone numbers and addresses from way back in my childhood, my buddy's service number from when he joined the Army in 1968, long distance card pin numbers, bank account numbers, doesn't matter. If it is a number, I will remember it better than any other information.

I have favorite numbers, too. One is a good number. It signifies unity, individuality, beginnings. Two is better, in some ways. It signifies oppositions such as light and dark, truth and error, good and evil. Threes are great. Many things come in threes. Three things offer a greater range of choices, options, or possibilities. In its perfected triangular arrangement, threes imply success, achievement, order and integrity.

I have been thinking about overhauling my website. But, if I do, it has to become more easy to get around, simpler to find stuff. One thing I was thinking about was breaking the articles down into groups or categories. If I did, what would those groups be named, and how many should there be? I came up with three:

Simplify
Empower
Balance

I thought, what else is there? When it comes to any task, whether it is a work task on the job, life tasks in the process of everyday living, or those tasks and goals I set for myself when doing the "inner work" that is necessary to my healing, looking at each task in the light of these three things will clarify the importance of the task, and may be useful in scheduling, goal planning, and so on. These three could also be used to clarify the reward or payoff of an act or choice or task, the ease of achievement, the... whatever. Lots of ways to apply this, I thought.

Simplify had to be first, the prime or Alpha consideration. It's a lot easier to organize tasks or goals if there is less stuff to deal with. My early writings were simple, because simplicity was what was needed in my life at that time. Now that life has gotten a bit more complicated, I believe a little streamlining of the process is in order. Just keep it simple, wherever possible.

But, after simplifying something, there is a place beyond that, where thought, time or effort is required to act, to choose, to incorporate, to unify or provide some continuity in the application of knowledge gained from experience. If tasks, goals, or acts and choices are approached from a viewpoint of personal empowerment (as opposed to the acquisition of external power), they are more likely to be spiritually uplifting, beneficial to others, and to myself.

Through it all, the ultimate outcome should be to seek the balance of this task with that, balance between one goal and another. This is the Omega concept, the endgame, the pinnacle of doing things in the first place.

I have found that each day I rise and go to work, I start out with determined optimism. I discovered that arranging my time, my "To Do List," with these three things in mind has been the best tool to help me gauge the amount of determined optimism I should have for the day, weeks and months ahead of me.

This week, when something demands your time or attention, ask yourself, "How can I simplify this? How can I do this in an empowering way? How does this fit in with the balance of everything else on my schedule? Be optimistic, but use these three simple keywords to determine a realistic level of optimism.

Simplify, empower and balance. Here's to your ultimate success and triumph!