Welcome to the very first Abundant Life News!
By pure coincidence this is being sent out on Good Friday, so I hope you have a good Easter weekend.
The Abundant Life News will be a mix of things which Bernard (who was Bernard), the originator of Thought Bricks used to send out in his Bernard’s Weekly News (it later became Bernard’s World News). I have a stack of old BWN’s and I will look for relevant articles to extract and will some add some topical comments too. I am planning to eventually send these out once per week, but it might take me a wee while to get into the rhythm of it.
Enjoying the Success of Others
In the Thought Bricks material Bernard put a lot of emphasis on delighting in the success of other students. There are very important reasons why. Indeed, it is fundamental to our own success in creating the life we want.
I must admit I was not very good at that part in the beginning. I suppose I felt daunted by the successes that people were reporting in the BWN. When I read about some wonderful new job, relationship, or new house, or whatever, that someone gained while doing the course, I took no real pleasure from it. At that time I would feel, “That is all right for them, but what about me?…” I felt that their successes were nothing to do with me.
It eventually dawned on me how wrong my thinking was. By thinking like that I was separating myself from the successful students and separating myself from success. I was seeing them as different from me. If in my thinking, they are “successful” and I am “different” then what am I? “Not-successful” is the obvious answer. It showed me that I had attitudes and beliefs which were holding me back from success and holding me back from enjoying the success of others. More than this, it showed me that those beliefs which held me back from enjoying the success of others were the same ones which held me back from my own success.
There is a wonderful principle behind being able to be glad about another’s success. It aligns us with the attitude and beliefs which created their success. It puts us in harmony with the level of abundance which they are achieving and makes it more likely similar things will come our way. Anything else means that we believe too much in lack and limitations and that we assume that another’s success is at our expense. That is not the way of the Wonder Workers, that we can become.
I highly recommend looking around you for people who already have something that you want. Get into the habit of being glad for them. Think to yourself “If they can do it, I can do it”. Think about how they felt when the go it, and how you will feel when you get it. Think about how their success is an example of what can be done. Think about how they are helping you by reminding you of what you want and showing you that it is achievable. Put aside any thoughts that they are any better than you.
Also consider the damaging affects of resentment. Resentment is transmitted by our body language, attitude and tone of voice. Resentment stops people from helping us, because they see that we are not open to them. People who might like to help us achieve what we want will stay away, if we are resentful. There are many who are only too delighted to help others gain the abundance which they have achieved. In fact for some this is one of their greatest joys. Yet, resentment will keep them away. Also, of course, resentment is a negation of the Spirit within us. It is a denial of the good which is coming to us.
Resentment is a sign of how little we know. After all if you knew (really knew) that wonderful things were coming into your life, what would you have to be resentful about? If you knew that the source of abundance is within you, you would have no reason to resent anyone. Resentment becomes redundant when we really come to know the source of prosperity which lives within us.
By changing my attitude in this way, I became more and more able to enjoy the successes of others. I came to delight in reading about the prosperity others were achieving in BWN and in seeing it in the lives of those around me. Of course, my own level of abundance came along in leaps and bounds at the same time. When you feel glad for another’s success – then you have that success. It may take another form, more suited to your needs, but you will have the equivalent.
That is why Bernard put so much emphasis on enjoying the success of other student. It is a fast track to our own success.
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Blessings of an Abundant Life to you,
William M.
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