Hold Fast To Your Dreams!

Fear is often seen as a weakness in our society. We perceive it as something we need to eradicate completely from our beings in order to be fulfilled, but you may be surprised that some of the most wise and righteous people in the history—the tzadikim— lived in fear.

The fear that haunted them: “Maybe I’m not doing enough.”

It’s the only thing that really frightens a truly spiritual person. It is written in Proverbs, “Joyous will be the man who is always afraid” because he knows that he has to work to receive the Light. The wicked, however, are neither fearful nor courageous; they’re simply indifferent.

By today’s standards however, having an air of indifference or seeming unaffected can be hailed as a quality of strength in an individual – an interesting play on what is real strength and what is weakness.

This teaches us that those on a spiritual path may appear weaker than those who are not, namely because they are not concerned with looking strong to anyone else. They just want to do the right thing! A righteous person will act with righteousness at all costs – even if it humiliates them, even if it makes them look like the lowliest person in the room!

My father, Rav Berg’s, teacher Rav Brandwein once told him: “When we come to the world of truth, we are asked to name the greatest accomplishment of our lives. Sometimes, people say, ‘Everybody loved me.’ But those people are deeply in error. They are saying that they did nothing in their lives except what others wanted them to do, and whatever that may have been, they were willing to do it.” We must learn to act always in accordance with the Light, even if the true nature of our actions may not be apparent to others.

Many of us try to live as if we were running for political office. To get as many votes as possible, we say only those things that we think others want to hear. So we should take ourselves “out of the running.”

We put so much energy into looking amazing, we forget to just go be amazing.

It’s time to start being less afraid of how we look to others and more concerned with if we’re doing all that we can. (Yehuda Berg)

An excerpt from
Own Your Dreams
by John Maxwell

What is your dream?

How will you achieve it?

The first question may be difficult to answer. You may have many dreams. Yet, there must be one that stands out above all others…one that inspires you, energizes you, and empowers you to do everything you can to achieve it.

The second question is the reason most people never realize their dreams. They have no strategy in place for attaining it, no knowledge of what is needed and must be sometimes sacrificed to have the dream come true.

Will you achieve your dreams in your lifetime?

I’m certain that you desire to. I’m sure you hope you will. But will you actually do it? What odds would you give yourself? One in five? One in a hundred? One in a million? How can you tell whether your chances are good or whether your dream will always remain exactly that—a dream?

Most people have no idea how to achieve their dreams. What they possess is a vague notion that there is something they would like to do someday or someone they would like to become. But they don’t know how to get from here to there. If that describes you, then you’ll be glad to know that there really is hope.

There is a story about a coup d’état that took place in a small kingdom. When the soldiers came looking for the king to kill him, he fled into the city and hid in a tailor shop. Immediately recognizing his important guest, the tailor, without so much as a question, shoved him under a large pile of clothing.

Shortly thereafter, soldiers stormed into the shop, swords in hand, shouting, “We know the king is hiding here!” Stabbing the pile of clothes repeatedly, they missed the king by mere inches. Finding nothing, the soldiers stalked out and into the next shop.

When the king emerged from under the clothes, he said to the kind old tailor, “Thank you. You saved my life. For this, I would like to grant you three wishes.” Surprised and excited, the humble tailor thought for a moment and asked, “First off, when your power is restored, I would like you to declare a National Tailors Day. Secondly, all tailors in the kingdom should be paid double. And thirdly…” he paused for a moment before saying, “I must say I am curious. I want to know something: How did you, the king, feel when these people were trying to kill you?”

“Done,” declared the king, and with that, he left the tailor’s shop.

The coup failed, and the king was returned to his throne. As his first order of business, he announced a National Tailors Day, also proclaiming that all tailors in the kingdom should be paid double. Then he ordered that the tailor be arrested and brought to the gallows. Terrified and bewildered, the tailor couldn’t imagine how and why he was being treated so badly. The noose was placed around the tailor’s neck, but just before the lever was pulled, the king intervened and shouted, “Release him!” The tailor turned to the king, still shaking with fear. When their eyes met, the king said quietly: “Now your third wish has been granted also. You now know what it feels like!”

The point of this story is that we may think we might know what others are going through, but until we walk in their shoes, we really don’t. This is why, when we are faced with a difficult person, it is wise to be compassionate and accepting.

Let’s face it. We all judge. We take a look at people and we judge them—by the way they dress, the way they walk, the way they speak. The problem is that sometimes we get so full of judgment that we leave no place for love. We get so full of ourselves—who we think we are, what we believe we are entitled to—that there is no space for others and there is no space for the Light.

This week, let’s remember that real spiritual growth happens when we grow our empathy, our ability to feel another’s pain. How? By opening up our hearts to care, rather than our minds to judge. After all, there is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with others.
(KB)

It is a common spiritual law that everything happens for a reason. It’s a tough pill to swallow sometimes. The reasons are not always clear, but the events of our lives appear because we deserve them and because they are designed to help us to transform and grow; and transformation brings us closer to a connection with the Light…which is always good!

This week, instead of meeting every seemingly negative situation with dismay, try to be mindful that there is a lesson in the circumstance and this lesson will take you to a better place ultimately, to a higher spiritual level. In moments of distress, as difficult as it is to see the reason for our hardship, find within yourself the strength to say, “For now I will accept this challenge, not knowing the reason but trusting the universe has sent this to me for my own good and that someday I will fully understand.”

It is this complete surrender to the Universe that connects us to Light.

Unfortunately, our Desire to Receive for the Self Alone constantly seeks to distract us from having this consciousness. Instead we get in our own way, with worry and fret we make mountains out of hills. We want to fix the problem right now. We want to see the fruits of our work instantaneously. Sometimes we need to stay in the discomfort in order to reap the greatest benefit. So rather than asking for the pain to stop, ask to see what the pain is here to help you learn. Once you learn the lesson, there is no reason for the pain, right?

The Creator always has our best interest at heart. This week, we have the power to surrender to the moment, to choose to be patient, to look for the lesson and to allow the hidden gift to unfold before us.

All the best,

Yehuda
(taken from Yehuda Berg, Weekly Kabbalah)

What does it mean to reach our potential? Many believe that realizing our potential means that we hold certain positions, that we have the respect of many people, that we are charming or loved or powerful. But what we see this week is that the greatest attribute that Moses had was his humility. You may not know this, but it is actually written that Moses had a stutter. And you know what? It was this “setback” that allowed him to reach his potential. Why? Because he knew that in and of himself, he was nothing; his strength was his connection to the Light.

Like Moses, we all have setbacks of one sort or another; disappointments, things that we are not good at, times when we don’t feel as if we are in the right place at the right time. But what we need to realize is that these “setbacks” are what bring us to a special place—the place where we can ask, from the bottom of our hearts, for help from the universe to fulfill our potential, to become the people that we want to be. Reaching our potential is not a process that happens naturally. We have to choose it. Our potential is something that happens when we make a conscious choice to go to our next level.

So how do we do it? To strive for our potential is to be in a state where we are always open for change. Being open for change doesn’t mean that we wake up and go through our day to just do our job, fulfill our duties or reach a quota. As long as we think like this, we will stay in the same position. The only way that we will reach our next level is to think outside the box, to go beyond ourselves, and explore new avenues in which we can grow and do more positive actions in the world. Why? Because when we really open up to explore the world around us, we also research and connect with our own soul.

The reading this week, Exodus, is the first chapter in the second book of the Bible, and spiritually, it represents a new beginning. This is a week in which we can change our certainty. It is a week in which we can practice being open to the universe. This week, when we are really trying to do the right job and someone hands us a turn and we get baffled by it, we can say, “Wait a second. Maybe it’s not coming from them; maybe it is coming from the Light. Maybe there is something else I have to do to go to my next level.” (Karen Berg)

‘The Quitters’: this is the person who wants something for nothing. They come in with a lottery ticket mentality. They think that enrolling and being excited for a little while and maybe even talking to a couple of people is enough to win big. They often talk the loudest about their commitment and impending Success and will convince you that they are in it to win it! Shortly after you start to believe and invest in them, they quit. They disappear. You must understand that they are quiting on themselves, not you. Don’t take it personally, just know it’s part of the equation. ‘The Caretakers’: this is the person who truly loves people and wants to see EVERYONE Succeed. Unfortunately this person tends to spend a ridiculous amount of time nurturing and encouraging people who will NOT participate in their own rescue. Because they spend a lot of time with these kinds of people, they themselves do not make any progress either. Some come around, some don’t. Don’t take it personally, just know it’s part of the equation. ‘The Odds Makers’: this is the person who understands that most things in life are a numbers game and if they play enough numbers they know they can GUARANTEE their Success. This person figures that if there are 30 million people in the US alone who are classified as job/opportunity seekers and if they can expose just .5%, that’s HALF of ONE PERCENT, then they will have a minimum of 15,000 Team members/customers in their organization. Don’t take it personal, just KNOW it’s part of the equation. ‘The Lasters’: this is the person who will NEVER QUIT. They may make a lot of mistakes in the beginning, they may totally suck at every facet of the business in the beginning, but they keep plugging away! They keep learning, they keep digging and they simply out last all of their mistakes, all of their self imposed limitations, doubts and fears and all of the others of have come and gone. This person ALWAYS achieves Success. Don’t take it personal, just know it’s part of the equation. ‘The Masters’: this is the person that understands all of these Types. This is the person that recognizes each of these Types within. This is the person that sets their mark and goes about MAKING IT HAPPEN because they KNOW they are the ONE. This is the person who brings up other leaders and teaches others to do the same. Duplication, not innovation is their creed. Definitely take this personal because this Type should be YOU. It’s all an equation. Once you figure out the solution, 2+2=4 you just apply it over and over and over and over and over, because you KNOW the law will not change. You KNOW that when you apply it, it will ALWAYS reap results. You KNOW that repetition is the mother of skill.
(Ed Blunt)

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it”;
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

The school of life is no different than grade school, middle school, high school, or graduate school; you are constantly being introduced to a new curriculum of understanding.

In the study of the Law of Truth we learn to apply the Laws of life so that they will dissolve our adverse thoughts and conditions. First graders often think their curriculum is difficult. Eighth-graders think their classes are hard, and likewise, seniors in high-school think their classes are hard. But the high school student doesn’t think the eighth-grade curriculum is challenging and the eighth-grader doesn’t think the first grade curriculum is challenging.

The perfection of the Universe is that it has a magnificent way of keeping us on our green growing edges of our own life.

If you’re finding your “curriculum” particularly challenging, know that you are in the perfect place—the green growing edges of your own becoming. And who you are becoming is someone this Universe is so very proud of.

Hard curriculum is a compliment to your soul. You are more than you’ve known. (MM)

For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but whoever has not, from him even what he has shall be taken away.

What does this mean?

Whoever realizes he has abundance of any amount and is grateful for it will attract more to himself and he will have even more abundance. Whoever does not even realize he is wealthy and become grateful for whatever measure of abundance he does have, even what he has will slip away from him for like attracts like.

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