HAPPY 2013: Commitment is the key to a successful life

The best thing you can do for yourselves is to spend an hour between today and tomorrow with a pen and a piece of paper or its equivalent to reflect on your life. The best place to go is your library or wherever you can find quietness.

Lay the foundation for your 2013. Your best investment for 2013 would be an hour invested in yourselves and your family. The best way to go about is, to have an attitude, whether you achieve or not, but you are going to have a blue print as a guidance, rather than a stick to beat yourselves up.

When you draw the outlines tonight, at least you know where you are going, because you wrote it down instead of “I know it-I know it- bullshit” – let’s bring some discipline in our lives.
Yasmeen and I will be doing this tonight and asking our family and friends, and the people we know to make that effort, we are asking you to do the same tonight or tomorrow.

Write 7 headlines and start filling bullets in to each item

1) Health: broad and narrow goals with possible contingencies

2) Family: Time for each other, family and friends – an approximation of time you will spend per day, week or year. You will find pleasant surprises.

3) Income: all the work, education, business, professional activities that add to your income

4) Volunteer: It would enrich your life, if you can give at least 1 hour a week, three hours a week would be ideal. You can double your joy if you serve others, that is volunteer at a school, hospital, city hall, shelter, goodwill, salvation army, soup kitchens, church, temple, synagogue or Mosque, and make sure you don’t belong to the group or faith you are serving. There should be nothing in return to be true service.

5) Spirituality – Time for reflection about life, God, religious and humanitarian services.

6) Self-improvement – Reading books, taking courses to make yourselves an all round person.

7) Questions – No matter what you are reading or hearing, including religious, business or political talk, unless you question and see another point of view, your life would be incomplete if you do not see another point of view.

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The next step is to review last year’s high and low points within each one of the headings, and if you don't like to see the low points again, write down, and if you want a few changes for 2013, make notes and then ponder how you can get there. There is nothing more peaceful than knowing yourselves, make the commitment and just do it.

Thanks for the friendship, and thanks for sharing your thoughts, ideas, likes, comments in 2012. For some of us, thank God 2012 is over and for some, it was a great year.

I hope you find the following message meaningful. If you have the space, please feel free to share on your facebook, twitter, like and comment.- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/charting-a-successful-life-in-2013-with-a-firm-commitment_b_2372394.html?utm_hp_ref=email_share

Wish you and your loved ones, the very best of 2013.

Please review the work we do at– www.americaTogetherfoundation.com and www.FoundationforPluralism.com and if you like what we are doing, please consider contributing $50, $100, $1000, $5000 or whatever your budget allows, we all can aspire to build a great society. Please Donate: www.AmericatogetherFoundation.com/donate



We are committed to build a cohesive America, where no one has to live in apprehension, discomfort or fear of the other.

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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place and standing up for others as an activist. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News, fortnightly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes everything you want to know about him.

Texas Faith: What did the 2012 election results mean for people of faith?

This election is an endorsement of separation of church and state, and complies with the First Amendment. The November ballot has produced two clear outcomes: A loss of control and start of Armageddon countdown for conservatives. And the beginning of freedom enshrined in our constitution for the moderate majority - Mike Ghouse

Continued at:http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2012/11/texas-faith-what-did-2012-election.html
Published in Dallas Morning News on November 13, 2012

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Texas Faith: What did the 2012 election results mean for people of faith?

By Bill McKenzie, Dallas Morning News

Before we move away from the election, I would like to ask you another question stemming from last week’s results:

What do the outcomes at the ballot box mean for people of faith?

That question may sound broad, but look at some of the issues:

Not only did we have a president reelected with an agenda of middle-class economics, but we had states both ratifying and defeating gay marriage amendments and approving and disapproving the use of marijuana. We also had two Senate races determined in part by the way candidates talked about God and rape.

What’s more, we had a Mormon heading a ticket for the first time. We had one party in the unusual position of not having a Protestant running for president or vice president. And we had minority voters who once had been on the fringe of society sharply shaping the outcome of a presidential election. 

Mercifully, we had little religious skirmishing during the general election. But there were plenty of religious-themed issues in play.

Published in Dallas Morning News in the Texas Faith column, about ten panelists share their thoughts at: http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/2012/11/texas-faith-what-did-the-2012-election-results-mean-for-people-of-faith.html/

 

MIKE GHOUSE, President, Foundation for Pluralism, Dallas

This election is an endorsement of separation of church and state, and complies with the First Amendment.

The November ballot has produced two clear outcomes: A loss of control and start of Armageddon countdown for conservatives. And the beginning of freedom enshrined in our constitution for the moderate majority.

The idea of end days is common among Christian and Muslim fundamentalists, but no stranger to other traditions either.

Abortion is a major issue, and it is appalling to many conservatives that we are going against God and listening to Satan. Seven candidates lost election on this count. We may disagree with them, but that is their belief and we have to honor that, as long as it is not imposed on others. 

Same-sex marriage continues to be a difficult issue and every conservative has his own understanding of Sodom and Gomorrah at the tip of their tongue. And a few of them have blamed Katrina, Haiti and other disasters as God’s punishment.

The moderate majority sees this as reaffirmation of our Founding Fathers dream: “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

As a pluralist, I don’t see it as liberals ganging up on conservatives, but rather seeking their God-given freedom to live in pursuit of their happiness, without imposing it on those who believe otherwise.

Even God did not impose his will on Adam, he gave him the choice to eat the forbidden fruit or not, and when the choice was made, God did not slap Adam or Eve for making the wrong choice. Thank God for that, I would not have wanted to miss experiencing the joy of living on the earth. 

My religious beliefs are for me to practice and not impose on others. Each one of us has to live by our own moral compass. 

This vision was expressed by President Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address: “This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Did Lincoln ever mean government of clergy for the people?

. . . . . .

The Texas Faith blog is a discussion among formal and informal religious leaders whose faith traditions express a belief in a transcendent power – or the possibility of one. While all readers are invited to participate in this blog, by responding in the comments section, discussion leaders are those whose religion involves belief in a divine higher power or those who may not believe in a transcendent power but leave room for the possibility of one. Within this framework, moderators William McKenzie and Wayne Slater seek to bring a diversity of thinkers onto the Texas Faith panels.

MikeGhouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace making, foreign policy, Islam, interfaith, and cohesion at work place or social settings. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. Mike has a strong presence on national local TV, Radio and Print Media, and is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News, fortnightly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes everything you want to know about him