Five Rules of Successful Growth Derived from Puppies

The Five Rules of Successful Growth

What could we possibly learn from puppies about success? They are adorable, no question about that, but what qualities intrinsic to successful growth do they possess?

1. Puppies are openhearted to the world. Puppies invoke a positive response in almost everyone they meet. This is indisputably a quality worth emulating. An approach which invokes negative responses in everyone is hardly going to inspire cooperation or consideration and greatly curtails opportunities.

2. Puppies are inquisitive. They seek to know everything they encounter. This vigorous curiosity leads to constant new discoveries. On the galactic scale, we know as little as puppies know on the human scale, so enthusiastically exploring new possibilities is a limitless opportunity for all of us.

3. Puppies know when to be active and when to rest. A natural rhythm of activity alternated with times of quiet assimilation and rest promotes healthy growth in a puppy, or any other being. We often get caught in too much action and not enough quiet incubation of what we have discovered. Maintaining this creative balance is essential for successful growth on many levels.

4. Puppies forget negatives quickly. Puppies thoroughly live in the now and all the misadventures and accidents they encounter are quickly forgotten. Puppies do not carry loads of negative baggage. Neither should we.

5. Puppies embrace life from a deep well of internal vigor. Holding a puppy puts one immediately in contact with that reservoir of inner strength and youthful energy. Remembering and nurturing those qualities in ourselves creates vital well being. These qualities contribute both to healthy longevity and a lively attitude happily engaged with all our pursuits.

Self Examination for Successful Growth

Unlike puppies we have the capacity for self examination, an oft underused capacity, but one available to us nonetheless. A fruitful exercise is to take each of these five rules for successful growth and examine ourselves to see what we might discover.

1. In what ways will being more openhearted bring more opportunities in life? Where are our own personal stumbling blocks and fears about being openhearted? How can we take steps to overcome those stumbling blocks and fears? Most important, are we willing to make that effort?

2. How do we exercise a healthy curiosity about life? Do we dull our sensibilities with mindless television entertainment? Do we think we are too busy to learn anything new? How can we rediscover our own inherent inquisitiveness about life?

3. Are we in balance with rest and activity in our lives? If we are too frenetic, what changes can we make to create that balance? Are we willing to make even small changes to bring more health to that balance in our lives, such as taking a few minutes in the morning to be quiet and reflective?

4. Do we quickly release negatives? Do we instead treasure and preserve them? Are we willing to dig underneath the negative baggage we carry and discover the truth our emotions are trying to tell us about them? When we find that truth we are freed from our baggage and can travel through life unencumbered by endless yesterdays.

5. Are we in touch with our own core vitality and well being? If not, where do we remember having it in our lives? How can we bring it back to our daily awareness? This can only be discovered within oneself, not in the external events and relationships of our lives.

An Exercise for Successful Growth

A useful way to explore these five rules of successful growth is to write to oneself about one rule each day for a few minutes. After the first five days, start back over and write to oneself about one rule each day in another five day cycle. If this is done four or five cycles through the rules, interesting perceptions and understandings will appear in your conversation with yourself as deeper insights are brought to the surface.

Try it and let me know what you discover for yourself!
This post is now included in the Carnival of Powerful Living hosted by Verve Coaching. Check out the other posts in the carnival too, they provide a variety of useful information.

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