Who are you going to be today?

The desire that you have in your soul to become whatever you want to become is real. It's a part of you that is calling out to be seen, heard, felt and acted on. Whatever you want to become, know this: you ALREADY ARE.

So stop trying to become it. Instead, act as if you already are it and watch how magically life unfolds.

Instead of pining or buying into doubt - start TAKING ACTION as if you already are what you want to become.

In other words - BE WHAT YOU SEEK!

Start putting yourself in places and environments that are in alignment with your dreams. Want to be an actor? Get your ass to LA or NY and start doing what actors do. What to be a writer?  Start taking actions that writers write and be in environments that writers are in. What to get in shape? Put yourself in health and fitness environments. Stop hanging out at McDonalds and start hanging out at the gym. Don't bring unhealthy food into the house.

Our environment, far greater than anything else, dictates the quality AND trajectory of our life. If you want to be a painter, go be with painters and start creating rituals that a painter would have. If you want to start a business, be around other entrepreneurs, absorb news on entrepreneurs and get busy taking risks like entrepreneurs do.

Also, and this is VERY important - surround yourself with people who already have what you want. If you hang out with people who have never achieved the dream you're dreaming - they are probably going to give you bad advice. Most people aren't living their dream - most people are living their nightmare and so they will give you advice on how to live your nightmare, too.

Environment plays a major role in how your life will turn out - so does the types of people you are hanging with. If you want your dreams to come true, start hanging in places where they already are and with people who can help guide your way. It's possible to achieve your dreams; you just gotta make sure you are on the side of making them come true, instead of doubting that they exist. Show people who are living their nightmare that it's totally possible to live their dreams by showing them yours. Be a light.

Know that you already are the dream and start taking action until you produce the result in real life. Keep going. Try until it happens and don't stop until then.

Love & passion,

Mastin

Adoption Awareness: How much do you know?

Foster Care

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Over 500,000 children in the U.S. currently reside in some form of foster care. Placements in foster care have dramatically increased over the past 10 years. Despite the increasing numbers, children in foster care and foster parents are mostly invisible in communities and often lack many needed supports and resources. In situations of abuse and neglect, children may be removed from their parents home by a child welfare agency and placed in foster care. Other reasons for foster placement include severe behavioral problems in the child and/or a variety of parental problems, such as abandonment, illness (physical or emotional), incarceration, AIDS, alcohol/substance abuse, and death.
African-American children make up approximately two thirds of the foster care population and remain in care longer. Two out of three children who enter foster care are reunited with their birth parents within two years. A significant number, however, can spend long periods of time in care awaiting adoption or other permanent arrangement. Making decisions about the future for a child in foster care is called permanency planning. Options include: returning the child to his/her birth parents; termination of parental rights (a formal legal procedure) to be followed, hopefully, by adoption; or long-term care with foster parents or relatives. Most states encourage efforts to provide the birth parents with support and needed services (e.g. mental health or drug/alcohol treatment, parent skills, training and assistance with child care and/or adequate housing) so their child can be returned to them. When parental rights have been terminated by the court, most states will try to place children with relatives (kinship foster carerelative placement which may lead to adoption by the relative.
Being removed from their home and placed in foster care is a difficult and stressful experience for any child. Many of these children have suffered some form of serious abuse or neglect. About 30% of children in foster care have severe emotional, behavioral, or developmental problems. Physical health problems are also common. Most children, however, show remarkable resiliency and determination to go on with their lives. Children in foster care often struggle with the following issues:

• blaming themselves and feeling guilty about removal from their birth parents
• wishing to return to birth parents even if they were abused by them
• feeling unwanted if awaiting adoption for a long time
• feeling helpless about multiple changes in foster parents over time
• having mixed emotions about attaching to foster parents
• feeling insecure and uncertain about their future
• reluctantly acknowledging positive feelings for foster parents

Foster parents open their homes and hearts to children in need of temporary care, a task both rewarding and difficult. Unfortunately, there has been a decrease in the number of foster parents (non-relative) available to care for children over the past 10 years. This results in larger numbers of children remaining in institutional settings. The number of relative caregivers (kinship foster care), however, has increased.
Reimbursement rates for foster parents are lower in most states than the true costs of providing routine care for the child. Important challenges for foster parents include:

• recognizing the limits of their emotional attachment to the child
• understanding mixed feelings toward the childs birth parents
• recognizing their difficulties in letting the child return to birth parents
• dealing with the complex needs (emotional, physical, etc.) of children in their care
• working with sponsoring social agencies
• finding needed support services in the community
• dealing with the child's emotions and behavior following visits with birth parents

Children in foster care who have emotional or behavioral problems may be referred for a psychiatric evaluation. Some child and adolescent psychiatrists provide consultation to Juvenile/Family Courts and child welfare agencies. Child and adolescent psychiatrists also provide comprehensive evaluations including diagnosis and the development of treatment plans. They also provide direct treatment (e.g. psychotherapy, family therapy, psychiatric medication) to a child. Children in foster care have special and complex needs which are best addressed by a coordinated team which usually includes the birth parents, foster parents, mental health professionals (including child and adolescent psychiatrists) and child welfare staff.
For additional information about foster care contact the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) 440 First Street, NW, Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001-2085.
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) represents over 6,500 child and adolescent psychiatrists who are physicians with at least five years of additional training beyond medical school in general (adult) and child and adolescent psychiatry.

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Facts for Families is developed and distributed by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). Facts sheets may be reproduced for personal or educational use without written permission, but cannot be included in material presented for sale.

Affirmations:

I create enough time to make all my dreams come true.

I create & attract enough money to make my dreams come true.

I make the things I love a priority in my life.

Move Your Money: Invest in a New World

Nearly a decade ago, we threw a party on Wall Street where we gave away $10,000 outside the Stock Exchange. The money had formerly been invested in stocks but was divested, broken into thousands of small bills and coins that were dumped at the NYSE entrance, where we invited homeless folks from around New York to join the party.

As the opening bell kicked off the day's trading, we blew a ram's horn and announced the Jubilee vision, and money fell from the sky. You can catch a few glimpses of it here:

The ancient Jubilee was God's alternative to the patterns of inequality. It was a systematic interruption of injustice -- where property was redistributed, debts were forgiven, and slaves were set free. It was God's way of making sure masses of people do not live in poverty while a handful of folks live however they wish.
No doubt Wall Street has some things to learn about Jubilee. Jubilee was God's alternative to the patterns of Wall Street.
As the Occupy Wall Street movement catches the world's attention, those of us who are critical of Wall Street have a responsibility. We can't just be defined by what we are against, but should be known by what we are for.
After all, the word "protest" originally meant "public declaration". It wasn't just about being against something, but it was about declaring something new and better. "Protest" shares the same root as "testify".
It's time to protest-ify.
Gandhi spoke about the need for a "constructive program" -- insisting that the best critique of what is wrong is the practice of something better. So his movement started making their own clothes and marching to the sea to get their own salt. They were building a new society in the shell of the old one.
I think the Occupy movement is off to a good start, and will continue to be a catalyst for change … as long as it stays nonviolent and humble.
The Occupy folks may not have all the answers but they are stirring up the right questions. Saying "no" to the way things are is the first step towards a better future.
Something is wrong with a world that continues to privatize wealth and subsidize debt.
There is an entire generation that is saying no to a world where the average worker makes $7 an hour while the average CEO makes over $1500 an hour.
The world is saying no to the patterns where 1% of the world is using up 36% of its wealth.
We can do better. And we must.
But saying no to Wall Street is only the beginning. We need to create alternatives to Wall Street.
I got excited this week when I heard about "Move Your Money Day," one of the concrete constructive-program suggestions coming out of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
On Nov. 5 folks all over the world will divest from Wall Street and its banks … in order to invest in a better world.
Ideologies alone are not enough. There came a point in the movement to abolish slavery where ideology required responsibility. As one abolitionist said, "The only way to be a good slave-owner is to refuse to be a slave-owner." To truly be against slavery also meant that you didn't drink sugar in your tea, because sugar was produced with slave labor.
So on November 5, my wife and I will be joining the "Move Your Money" celebration, moving our money from Bank of America to the non-profit credit union here in Philadelphia.
It is one small step away from the vicious cycle that continues to see money transfer from the increasingly poor to the increasingly rich.
It is trying to take to heart Jesus' command to "Get the log out" of my own eye.
It is a move towards Gandhi's call to "Be the change you want to see in the world."
It's one little step towards being less of a hypocrite tomorrow than I am today.
Although moving our $2,000 savings may not break the Bank, we realize that we are one little drop in what we hope is becoming a river of justice flowing through the streets of New York City and 1,000 cities around the world.
Enough small things can become a tipping point for massive change. When Rosa Parks decided not to move from her seat on that bus in Montgomery, she said one little, "No" that changed the world. So can we.
Can you imagine if the universities started relocating their endowments?
What if religious denominations moved their retirement funds?
It would be an honor to be a member of the post-Wall-Street Jubilee generation.
Shane Claiborne is a Red Letter Christian and a founding partner of The Simple Way community, a radical faith community that lives among and serves the homeless in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. He is the co-author, with Chris Haw, of Jesus for President.

Time...

Let's get something straight right now - you and me - we have the EXACT same amount of time as Shakespeare, Einstein, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson or any other genius who has ever lived. We breathe the same air. We see the same Sun.

If we want to become true MASTERS of our lives - we must begin to master ourselves and master our TIME.

TIME and MONEY are two things people ALWAYS use as excuses for why their life isn't the way that it is. And you know what - I say that if you don't have the TIME or the MONEY - then it's about TIME to start CREATING the TIME and MONEY.

People who achieve amazing things have the same amount of time as people who don't. There are many things that go into being a master, that go into standing out, but one of the most important ingredients is TIME.
So today I want to talk about scheduling. Scheduling sounds simple - and it is. If we truly want to create our day, change our life and live life on our terms, we MUST learn how to master time. This is a MUST - not a should. If it's should, you will end up shoulding all over yourself!

Think about the things that you want to do. Look at your schedule. Then MAKE the time. You may have to give up social engagements or sacrifice other things - but isn't it worth it?

If you want to lose weight - MAKE TIME and SCHEDULE your workouts ahead of time. Schedule time to cook and go shopping. Schedule time to learn about how to be healthy. If you want to be a writer - WRITE. I schedule at LEAST 27 hours a week to write. It's a MUST for me. Even if you only schedule an hour a day and write a page a day in one year you will have written 365 pages.

If we are going to take our lives to the next level, it's time to knock off the excuse of not having enough time, get clear about our priorities and then SCHEDULE the things that matter most.

The TRUTH is that you CAN HAVE IT ALL. And it starts with mastering your time. Master your TIME and you begin to master your DESTINY. Busy people make time work for them; people who are frustrated try to work for their time. Flip the switch today and take control of your schedule.

We all have the same amount of TIME; what separates us in the end is how WE CHOOSE to use it!
 
Love,

Mastin

Affirmations:

My future is BRIGHT and I create it today!

I let go of the past by accepting it. I create the future by acting today!

There is Hope. I am Hope. There is Grace. I am Grace. There is Love. I am Love.

Today...

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze that it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.