If your ego wants you to do something, don't do it. If you soul wants you to do something, go for it!

So, how does one know if its ego, or if its soul that is guiding you? That is a topic for a whole book, but I'll do my best in this brief blog to give you some understanding.

Your ego functions in the gimme, me-me-me, spotlight on me mentality.
Your soul functions in the, is what I doing in service of others mentality.

If your want puffs you up and makes you feel like you are better than others, that is ego.
If your want makes you feel like you are at peace with yourself and others, that is soul.

An ego roars inside your mind drowning out your soul's whisper.
A soul is that niggly feeling you get sometimes that wants you to pause.

I could go on and on, but to keep this simplified, if you hear noise in your mind, you need to pause and learn to calm the roar (ego) to be able to hear the whisper of your soul. If you have tamed the roar (ego) and you are aware that you can control the roar, keep going, your journey will require less baggage as you go! <3

If you want different, you have to be different. The key word in that sentence is...you.

You have to be ready for what you want. If you are not ready, "it" is not going to come to you no matter how much you pray for it or try to manifest it. That is the truth.

Ask yourself, why would my higher power give me something that I'm not capable of managing? Our ego lulls us into thinking that we are deserving, when we are not yet deserving. Our ego refuses to recognize our flaws that need repair and pushes us towards what which we are not yet ready to receive. 

Our soul, which is ignored most of the time, knows when you are ready. It knows you are ready, because you chose to listen to it over ego. It knows the difficulty you had hearing the whisper of the soul over the roar of the ego and it rewards you for that. It knows that you dared to defy the "norm" and trust in it, so therefore it must give you what you desire. 

Your body is the canoe. Your ego is a slow leak. Your soul is the oars. Find your shore. <3

We are all just one thought away from understanding the depths of the transformative power that each of us holds. 

There is a misunderstanding by us imperfect humans that the way we think allows us to be righteous over one another, especially in the areas of religion, politics, economics, and prejudice. All four of these areas were taught to us and can be changed by us at any time. 

Fear can keep imperfect humans fixated on a belief that has no merit. The fear is having to admit that what you understood to be true is no longer the truth. Us humans dislike the thought of being incorrect and exposing ourselves as being the imperfect species that we are. 

As A Man Thinketh by James Allen (Published 1903)
Mind is the master power that molds and makes, and man is mind, and evermore he takes the tool of thought, and shaping what he wills, brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills: - He thinks in secret and it comes to pass: environment is but his looking glass.

This is what I know for sure: pure intentions = a thousand joys, impure intentions = a thousand ills. Weigh out your joys and your ills to determine how you are using the power of your mind. <3

When you're ready, God is ready. I am well aware of the frustration that these words can generate for believers and non-believers. 

Believers think that they have the inside track on faith and things should come easily for them.
Non-believers feel like they are on the outside track and use that as a reason to not believe.

What does it mean to be ready? It means you have found your soul. The journey to one's soul isn't done solely with faith, its done with knowledge. When you have successfully found your soul, you will have found God, Creator, Universe, Higher Power. It is then that faith is required.

The truth of the matter is is that every moment of everyday you have the ability to harness energy that will bring you your heart's desires. Discovering this energy doesn't come from simply believing in God, Creator, Universe, Higher Power. It can only be accessed with the willingness to do the mind work of an imperfect being that involves releasing the ego. 

When you have released your ego, the focus can remain on your soul. Your soul is where God, Creator, Universe, Higher Power is housed. It is via this energy that you will be able to access dreams and goals that your ego riddled mind wouldn't let you fathom. 

When you're ready, God is ready means that, when you can override your ego it is then that God, Creator, Universe, Higher Power trusts that you can handle that which you truly desire. <3

You are loved. This statement fills me with warmth when I conjure up in my mind all the people that I am aware of who genuinely love me. This includes myself.

It was not an easy journey to love the person looking back at me in the mirror everyday. A lot of soul searching had to take place as to why I wasn't overly happy with what I saw there. My aha moment for my unhappiness was profound. I didn't like me because other imperfect beings had taught me to not like me.

I was thinking and feeling about myself what others wanted me to think and feel about myself. Their reality was being forced into my reality. My discontent wasn't with myself, it was with whoever had convinced me to be untrue to my soul. 

Make up and designer clothing don't make you beautiful. Millions of dollars, square footage, and the latest "toys" won't make you beautiful. Beauty truly is skin deep. When you love yourself you can roll out of bed, look in the mirror, and only see beauty there. True beauty comes from loving oneself as the imperfect being you are and will always be. 

There isn't a human yet who has been able to achieve perfection. It is an impossible task and relentlessly striving for it brings the "ugliness" that is seen in the mirror. All souls are beautiful. If you look in the mirror and see anything other than beauty, you are using the mirror incorrectly. <3

Discipline: control gained by enforcing obedience or order; orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior; self-control.

I grew up in a time where discipline was enforced with severe punishment. Reflecting back on this means of "control" I can safely say it made me afraid of myself. It taught me to doubt my abilities and had me second guessing everything I did. My love for life was slowly beaten out of me.

The story about the sun and wind is one of my favorites. They made a bet that they would each be able to remove the coat of a man walking down the street. The wind blew furiously, but the man tightened his grip on his coat and help on to it with all he had. When it was the sun's turn, it beamed gently down on the man who eventually had to remove his coat because the heat was too much.  

It is impossible to change behaviour with force. Change has to happen because it is welcomed. Discipline has to willingly come from within one's self, not from the force of others. 

When we get busy trying to control others using "discipline" (ego's mind games), we lose sight of our most most valuable assets: our mind, heart, soul, body, six senses, and character. To have discipline means that you are able to control each of these on your own without accepting critiques from others. 

Self-control is the only thing that we need to achieve in our lifetime. It requires gentle discipline for you to genuinely love yourself in order to have the peace that is desired by all imperfect humans. This means that you live each day with your purpose and your passion. This means that you trust yourself over the well-meaning support from others. There is no one alive who will be able to give you what you can give to yourself freely every moment of everyday. <3

If you are doing what you love it never feels like work. I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a secretary. When I was in my 20's I took a Secretarial Studies course and launched a thirty year career in the administrative field that has never felt like work. In fact, I was in awe sometimes that I was getting paid to do what I love! A career choice such as this wouldn't let me stay in the role as a secretary and inevitably I rose to the top of my profession as an Executive Director. 

Today I am President of my private foundation, RJ Streetz Foundation Inc., and this role too never feels like work because it is my passion. It is what I am meant to be doing. 

Life is way too short to be doing anything that doesn't bring you joy. If this is you, ask yourself why am I settling when I know there is "something" else out there for me? Is it because I'm trying to please everyone, but me? Is it because fear, which is an illusion, is holding me back? Is it because I don't want to disappoint anyone...or myself?

I'm going to let you in on a well kept secret: You are where you are because you want to be there, ...good or bad. The truth is, it doesn't matter one iota what anyone else in your life expects from you. It only matters what you want to exist for you. 

When you figure this out for yourself, you will be able to spend all 24 hours of your day doing what you love. <3