Inspiration Archives - Monty Winters

Open Your Heart And Look Around

December 9, 2017 By montywinters Leave a Comment

December Prayer – Idina Menzel

In the touch of a friend, in the breath of a child,
In the eyes of a soldier coming home to his mother’s grateful smile,
In the sight of falling snow, and the memories it brings,
In the season when you find some peace, in the simple tender things,
Open your heart and look around, listen listen

Hear the song within the silence,
See the beauty when there’s nothing there,
Sing a song within a silence that hope and love are everywhere,
And when the quiet night is falling watch an angel dancing in the air
To the song, the song within the silence a December Prayer,
A December Prayer.

~”Open your heart and look around, listen, listen.”
I like this song. It gave me “all the feels”. Good memories of Christmas with my family.

Merry Christmas everyone!
Love & Respect

Monty

A Gift For My Daughter

December 3, 2014 By montywinters Leave a Comment

Today is my daughter Kristin’s birthday. She turned 28 and I have really enjoyed viewing old family pictures while reflecting on so many precious memories in her life. I am proud of the incredible young woman she has grown up to be. She is wise beyond her years, has a compassionate caring heart, and is truly beautiful inside and out. I read this letter recently and thought it would be a great gift to give Kristin on her birthday.

(This letter was originally published in a syndicated newspaper column by Harry Browne. It was dedicated to his 9-year-old daughter.)

It’s Christmas and I have the usual problem of deciding what to give you. I know you might enjoy many things — books, games, clothes.

But I’m very selfish. I want to give you something that will stay with you for more than a few months or years. I want to give you a gift that might remind you of me every Christmas.

If I could give you just one thing, I’d want it to be a simple truth that took me many years to learn. If you learn it now, it may enrich your life in hundreds of ways. And it may prevent you from facing many problems that have hurt people who have never learned it.

The truth is simply this:

No one owes you anything.

Significance

How could such a simple statement be important? It may not seem so, but understanding it can bless your entire life.

No one owes you anything.

It means that no one else is living for you, my child. Because no one is you. Each person is living for himself; his own happiness is all he can ever personally feel.

When you realize that no one owes you happiness or anything else, you’ll be freed from expecting what isn’t likely to be.

It means no one has to love you. If someone loves you, it’s because there’s something special about you that gives him happiness. Find out what that something special is and try to make it stronger in you, so that you’ll be loved even more.

When people do things for you, it’s because they want to — because you, in some way, give them something meaningful that makes them want to please you, not because anyone owes you anything.

No one has to like you. If your friends want to be with you, it’s not out of duty. Find out what makes others happy so they’ll want to be near you.

No one has to respect you. Some people may even be unkind to you. But once you realize that people don’t have to be good to you, and may not be good to you, you’ll learn to avoid those who would harm you. For you don’t owe them anything either.

Living your Life

No one owes you anything.

You owe it to yourself to be the best person possible. Because if you are, others will want to be with you, want to provide you with the things you want in exchange for what you’re giving to them.

Some people will choose not to be with you for reasons that have nothing to do with you. When that happens, look elsewhere for the relationships you want. Don’t make someone else’s problem your problem.

Once you learn that you must earn the love and respect of others, you’ll never expect the impossible and you won’t be disappointed. Others don’t have to share their property with you, nor their feelings or thoughts.

If they do, it’s because you’ve earned these things. And you have every reason to be proud of the love you receive, your friends’ respect, the property you’ve earned. But don’t ever take them for granted. If you do, you could lose them. They’re not yours by right; you must always earn them.

My Experience

A great burden was lifted from my shoulders the day I realized that no one owes me anything. For so long as I’d thought there were things I was entitled to, I’d been wearing myself out — physically and emotionally — trying to collect them.

No one owes me moral conduct, respect, friendship, love, courtesy, or intelligence. And once I recognized that, all my relationships became far more satisfying. I’ve focused on being with people who want to do the things I want them to do.

That understanding has served me well with friends, business associates, lovers, sales prospects, and strangers. It constantly reminds me that I can get what I want only if I can enter the other person’s world. I must try to understand how he thinks, what he believes to be important, what he wants. Only then can I appeal to someone in ways that will bring me what I want.

And only then can I tell whether I really want to be involved with someone. And I can save the important relationships for those with whom I have the most in common.

It’s not easy to sum up in a few words what has taken me years to learn. But maybe if you re-read this gift each Christmas, the meaning will become a little clearer every year.

I hope so, for I want more than anything else for you to understand this simple truth that can set you free:

No one owes you anything.

~ Happy Birthday sweetheart. You rock. I love you.

xoxo Dad

You Are Important

March 4, 2013 By montywinters Leave a Comment

In my experience, I can always tell when I am reading brilliance. I do a doubletake, re-read it, then another time, then I just sit back and soak it up. This is definitely one of those times. Kudos to Chelsea Fagan, you friggin moved me. Brilliant writing! I had to share this, please pass it on. Enjoy.

You Are Important

I wish I could have met everyone you know. I wish I could have been there to hear everything everyone ever said to you, from the grandiose proclamations to the offhanded commentary. I wish I could have written it all down for later speculation, saved it somewhere I would have been able to reference whenever needed. Then, at least, I would know who told you. I would know if it was one person or a hundred, a school bully from across the playground or a past love who wanted to hurt you one last time before you went your separate ways. Because someone told you — convinced you, even, and it seems not to have been so hard-won — that you are not important.

You apologize for things which are not your fault, even for things which hurt no one. You will bump into a table and mutter that you are sorry to have hurt it, you will excuse yourself. If you happened to cross a stream of particularly rude passerby, you would hold the door open for hours on end, never entering the building yourself. There is a part of you which seems embarrassed to take up space, as though you don’t deserve the things you touch, the air you breathe, the chairs you sit on. You feel as though there is always a way to be more accommodating, less of an intrusion. But you are not intruding, you know. You never are. There is a way you move, a way you take up your space in this world (the space to which each of us is entitled, never more) that makes me wish I could be more like you. I feel boisterous, even occasionally oppressive. You are always kind, always humble, always so deserving of being there.

We are undeserving. It is we who are graced by your presence, and your generosity. You feel as though you need to give more to this world to earn your keep — that your being a kind person and deferring to others is somehow not enough — but that is ridiculous. It seems that you are just one of those rare, beautiful people who err a bit on the shy side, who assume the best in people, and who always move just slightly to the side of the stage so as not to compete for the spotlight. But you should have the spotlight, it should be turned to you. Its glow should cradle your face, and there should be a round of eager applause for you being here. When you step into a coffee shop, or a party, or a crowded commuter bus — I am glad you are there.

There are those among us who will be crippled by our delusions of importance, who tend to absorb the room as we walk in and push the furniture to the sides so as to better accommodate our presence. But there are also those who feel, often from being unjustly led to believe as much at some point in early life, that they have no importance. They feel that they are a burden of some kind, and are willing to accept being treated as a bit of relatively drab set decoration. You can see in their eyes that they nearly flinch with apology at the end of declarative statements, that their opinions are always tempered in a bit of empathetic softness. They are always doing on behalf of others, putting a million kinds of happiness before their own.

But you are important. You are important in a way that many people will never acknowledge, because they are too consumed with their image in the mirror or their voice on a recording to notice that they share the world with people around them. But you are important because you are good, because you look at your surroundings with tenderness and understanding. You don’t step on flowers when you walk, you allow a housepet to come to your hand instead of roughly insisting on your touch, you leave messages and wait for people to call you back at their convenience. You treat people with respect, and so rarely ask it for yourself. But you should. Because you matter. You matter to me, you matter to the woman you held the elevator for, and you matter to the friend you listened to while they unloaded the problems the world had put on them. You are more important than you will ever know, and never let anyone tell you that your economy of words is a stinginess of character. You are overflowing with love, and we can see it from a mile away.

~ Chelsea Fagan

Source: You Are Important – Chelsea Fagan

Limitless – Yes, You ARE

February 12, 2013 By montywinters Leave a Comment

You Were Created Limitless.

There is nothing you cannot achieve.

NOTHING.

The limit of your present understanding..

Is NOT the limit of your possibilities.

Limitations live only in your mind. (Read again please)

Use your Imagination..

Then your possibilities become LIMITLESS.

~ Love this video, check it out. You Are Limitless

All We Want

December 17, 2012 By montywinters Leave a Comment

What is it that you want?

One can be asked what one wants a thousand times, yet the words remain impotent. Unheard among the deafening echoes of our modern age.

And then one day, the world quiets. And those very same words find their way to the attention of your soul.

Watch this film at a pace that befits a meaningful answer, and in the quiet of your own imagination.

Thanks to my friend Nic Askew, Soul Biographies, who continues to inspire me with his creative and transformational use of film.

He Rocks!

Monty

Think Different, Change The World

December 8, 2012 By montywinters Leave a Comment

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

~ Apple, Inc.

This favorite quote encapsulates the way I roll. This is why I chose it for my first post. It not only resonates deeply but also inspires and motivates me.

I am curious, I listen, I observe intently. I see things differently. I have also been somewhat of a rebel all my life, I think it is in my blood.

I am that round peg in the square hole, I think status quos are made to be broken, and as far as rules go, if you tell me I can’t do something, normally my response is either “Why?” or “Watch Me!”.

Ignore me? Not a chance. Love me, hate me, the route of indifference is not an option.

I shoot from the hip. I will tell you the way it is. It may not set well, but that is OK.

You see this is the way I gently shake the world. This is what I came here for. It is what I do best.

What I Do

Welcome to my website. This is the culmination of a lifelong dream for me. I am finally getting back to my roots:

I am a Coach.
I see things in people.
I reveal their excellence.
I teach people to live at their highest potential, moment to moment to moment.

Here’s the real deal:

What we can be, We must be. Period.

I get it. The people below definitely got it. I really think it is time you got it too. When? Now.