"Study these thieves closely and catch them in the act of stealing your chances for Higher Life as they drain away your vital life forces.
1. All forms of useless talking
2. Being wrongly involved in the life of anyone else
3. Daydreams of any nature
4. Using excessive emotions
5. Keeping "accounts" on those who have displeased you
6. Sitting in judgment of anyone for any reason
7. Becoming identified with anything
8. Useless thinking, such as speculating "why?"
9. Overindulging yourself
10. Resisting your environment or the unpleasant manifestations of others
11. Being concerned with how others see you
12. Defending yourself from imagined enemies, as with quips or sarcasm
13. Puttering around in order to keep yourself feeling productive
14. Any form of sexual imagination
15. Rushing through or to anything
16. All forms of frustration, including impatience and anger
17. Doing anything in half measures, or leaving things hanging
18. Telling "little" lies
19. Taking part in any dialogue with yourself
20. Seeking any form of vengeance or retribution, embracing resentment
21. Wrestling with anxious feelings and trying to think your way out of pain
For extra benefit, make a list of ways you suspect your own vital forces are being wasted. Then stop throwing away your chance to know Real Life! -- Guy Finley"
So many of these ring a bell. From time to time we find ourselves thinking about the "what ifs"; or rehearsing the circumstance of some offence we received; or what we would like to say to someone that hurt us; or spending time in fear or worry over something that likely wouldn't happen anyway and we can't change by thinking this way. If we eliminate this kind of wasted time and do the best we can with the time we have, we will feel more joy, satisfaction and accomplishment for the time we do have. We often state that we don't have enough time. Many times that is simply an excuse for lack of motivation. If we need rest, then let's rest without guilt. If we need to do a task, do it with all of our might. I learned, while at the law office buried in stacks of files of work to do, stacks that went as tall as they could before falling over, stacks that went out into the hallway, that when an "ugly" file came along, to just DO IT. This eliminates the hours of dread if you put it aside. The same is true for some household task or anything that we would continually put off until another time. It was inevitable that it had to be done so doing the dreaded thing right away gives you freedom all the rest of the day. It was a great lesson learned.
I hope this list gives insight into the little thieves that rob us of the joy of living a quality life.
Have a wonderful day!
