Finding the Good Life

Pop cans have been sharing one of life’s most powerful lessons for years: No Deposit, No Return. Yet, millions of people sit on the sidelines wishing that something good will fall from the sky.

A deposit is something constructive that we do for ourselves or someone else. It can be as simple as picking up trash, taking a class, or reading a self-help book. Self-help books are not a sign of weakness - - they are a sign of strength. Strength is required to admit we need help. Courage is required to look deeply into a mirror. And self-discipline is needed to open our minds and explore the thoughts we’ve been thinking.

Most people refuse to look deeply into a mirror and explore their thoughts until all other options have been tried. It’s that, “I’m going to blame it on something else or someone else” until I run out of things to blame. Life is a classroom and as we have already heard, “Until the student is ready, what matter the teacher appear.”

Each of us will either get honest with ourselves or avoid it. It is never easy to admit that we are the problem. Yet, until that gets done, any changes we try to make just dance around the cause. In all cases of discontent there is a primary cause and in almost all cases the primary cause is lack of self-honesty. To get real and get on with putting our life together we must be willing to walk away from the life we’ve been living.

That change is more than most people are willing to make. They have done what they have always do for so long that their destructive habits have them trapped. When pushed to explain why they won’t let go, their words make it clear that they believe the good life has passed them by.

No matter how down and out, broke or broken, or sick and tired, every person who is still breathing has a shot at putting their life together. As history proves, the most successful human beings who ever lived, those achieving the most happiness and peace of mind, have all climbed out of nasty cesspools of their own. In terms of wisdom, adversity is the only teacher.

Being down is not the same thing as being out. To get on with our life we must be willing to climb and climbing results from making constructive deposits. It’s a service before self - - a karma sort of thing.

The good life has never passed anyone by. Lazy people simply let it slip away.