Brad Baggett of Juice of Champions recently tagged me in a new meme about thinking differently that was started by Peter at I Will Change Your Life. 

It took me a while to get around to it because I wanted to make sure that if I got involved, I’d be bringing value to the readers of Adversity University.  Memes are a great way to build community and link love both of which are perfectly wonderful and valid reasons to start one.  However, there are some out there that I perceive as nothing more than empty vehicles focused solely on bringing the originator a lot of link love in the hopes of building traffic and more subscribers for their sites. 

Don’t get me wrong.  Memes are a great way of fostering interaction among readers and new visitors.  I even attempted a hand at it with “Secrets of Dealing with Adversity” several months ago.  It was a modest success and I’m even thinking of bringing it back now that the community at Adversity University has grown larger. 

But I still have to ask the question: “Does it provide value?”

With the “Think Different Challenge,” the answer is a resounding YES.  I believe it fits in perfectly at Adversity University.  If each and every one of us took just a minute to change our way of thinking, the world would be in a much higher state of vibration.  There would be less hate and prejudice, not to mention drama, stress and greed.         

According to Peter, we are free to write whatever comes to mind as long as it has something to do with thinking differently.  We are also left with the freedom of either tagging specific people to participate or making a blank statement of invitation to those who wish to join us.  I choose the latter.  For more information, check out Peter’s Think Different Challenge.

If this meme is of interest to you and you have a blog, then by all means please consider yourself tagged by me at Adversity University!   

Without further ado, here are 3 ways of thinking differently:  

Be Open to New Experiences:  Don’t be stuck in a routine - do something absolutely outrageous once in a while.  Many years ago while living in New York City, I decided to do something crazy one Saturday morning.  I was out for a stroll with a friend.  Weekend traffic had slowed to a trickle.  We were in the middle of crossing Fifth Avenue when I suddenly looked both ways, dropped down and proceeded to make an imaginary snowman on the asphalt, screaming, ”THANK YOU GOD FOR EVERYTHING!”  Har, har, har, was that quite liberating!

Perceive every single person as having a divine mission:  You cannot tell why others are here on this planet but they, including yourself, are destined to carry out a special role.  Next time you see a person with a disability, (perhaps someone like Nick Vujici who has no arms and no legs), instead of feeling sorry for him, why don’t you see him as an instrument of God, teaching all of us lessons about perserverance, overcoming adversity and the awesome power of the mind?  A homeless person?  My goodness, instead of spitting in disgust at the smell or sight of one, why not see him as an angel in disguise, reminding you to get out of the “God, my life is awful!!” club?  

Want to be more centered, calm?  Imagine yourself as the center of a record.  The grooves encircling you represents life’s major challenges but there you are, in a calm state of mind, totally unaffected by everything swirling around you. 

Two weeks ago I was volunteering my time on a church community project.  A ton of unopened boxes were strewn everywhere.  Adding to the mix were a couple of volunteers rushing around like mad, loudly barking out ideas for all to hear, telling others what to do and unraveling hours of hard work previously done by others.  Needless to say, this brought on a lot of unnecessary tension.  In the past, I would have gotten caught up in the drama.  But at one point while unpacking a box, I took a deep breath, shut my eyes and visualized being in the center of that record.  In my mind’s eye, I was enclosed in a protective bubble to ward off negative energy.  Then I took it one step further and imagined those volunteers as children of God who were simply all excited and meant well. 

The result? 

I got through the entire evening in a state of unruffled grace!   It was exhilarating - you should try it.  (Photo Credit:  Bear Clause)

Food for thought:  What are the ways you can think differently today?

If you liked this post and you want to be notified of the next one, subscribe via Email or Full Text RSS Feed. I would love to have you as part of the community!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite