Landmark Education - BUT vs AND

A dear fellow life-contemplation friend of mine invited me to a "Landmark Education" forum this evening and after about 3.25 hours of reflecting and crying, I'd like to share some of the enriching contents I learned with you:

1. Have you ever had your heart broken? (yes) Have you ever been rejected? (yes) This knowledge is what's weighing you down. It leads to living in the past and a fear of being fully open to new life experiences.
   
   
2. Have you ever told yourself "I want to stop hurting?" or "I want these hardships to end"? When you stop running into hardship, you stop experiencing and learning from all that life has to offer.
   
   
3. Problems are just "boxes" of how you look at life. And it's how you approach these problems that can either empower or weaken you. One way this can be explained is how you express your "problems" and the big word that weakens you is the word "BUT".
   

For example, fill in these blanks:

I want _____________, 'BUT' _________________.

"I want my relationship to be better with this person, 'BUT' they are narrow-minded."

"I want to fall in love again, 'BUT' I'm not meeting the right person."

"I want to travel, 'BUT' I'm broke."

"I want to get in shape, 'BUT' I don't want to exercise."

Now....let's convert the word 'BUT' to 'AND'.

"I want my relationship to be better with this person, 'AND' they are narrow-minded."

"I want to fall in love again, 'AND' I'm not meeting the right person."

"I want to travel, 'AND' I'm broke."

"I want to get in shape, 'AND' I don't want to exercise."

By simply changing your wording...your view and interpretation of the so-called "problem", you find that your problems are NOT definitive. When we say 'BUT', we automatically link what we want with another statement that negates our true potential. When we say 'AND', the two statements become completely separate facts and as a result, your WANT becomes something you CAN control.

Thus...step 1: is to change our approach and attitude towards what is thrown to us and how we want to shape our lives.

AND with that said...I'm going to take the next week to practice substituting my "BUT's with "AND"s.

:)