Are you living your life on the deferred plan? Some people are waiting for that special moment to be happy. Waiting for the perfect mate, waiting for the right job, waiting for the house to be paid off, waiting for the kids to finish college. If you keep waiting for the perfect moment to be happy, you will never be happy.

You have to be happy right now, in the present, then you will be happy in the future. Happiness is a mental habit, a mental attitude, and if it is not learned and practiced in the present, it will never be experienced.

Happiness cannot be waited upon until all problems are solved. Every time a problem is solved another one comes along. Life is a series of problems. If you are to be happy at all, you must be happy now, not because of.

Abraham Lincoln quoted: “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

We have let the little things make us unhappy for so long, it has become a habit to have frustrations, dissatisfaction and irritability. Things that make us that way are a blow to our self esteem, so we react as being unhappy.

You need to stop letting circumstances and other people dictate how you feel. Change your attitude, change your out look and change your feelings. Form the habit of reacting positively toward problems. Practice keeping a positive attitude. Continue to do this and you will be happy in the present and in the future.

“For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body”. This is contained in 2 Cor 4: 11. Relevant scriptures for this purposeful topic could be found in James 1: 2-4, Col 12: 4-29, 2:1-5.

Nobody will choose to suffer for nothing, that is, without a reason or attached reward. Christ chose to suffer in order that we may have life and have it in abundance. Paul suffered so that the lost may be saved. Stephen died for Christ. The sufferings of all other disciples cannot be all discussed here. They passed through ‘hell’ but they have their reasons for accepting the sufferings. The sufferings are significant. Nothing good comes without a price. James 1:2-4 sees sufferings (trials and temptation) as a pure joy and the testing of faith that produces perseverance. Paul suffered for the church and for Christ (Col 1:24-29). Whatever you passé through in the course of liberating some souls seen suffering for Christ, if only we could endure, we shall be glorified and receive reward from Christ. Christ is standing at the right hand side of God during your sufferings, trials, temptation, pains, agonies, etc. as in the case of Stephen, to see if you will fail Him and lose heart. The bible says, ‘if you fail in the time of adversity, your strength is mall’. The time allotted for the suffering is small, but the glory is great!

The present sufferings we Christians are passing through are very important one in the liberation of the creation and it is glory-rewarding, soul-winning and Christ- agony-sharing suffering. Our hope in times of trouble should be that our sufferings are not going unnoticed and will be adequately rewarded. More so that it helps us grow unto perfection, grants us in-depth knowledge about Christ and that at the end of it all, we shall have life, be saved and reign with Christ.

Can you take a pause and think on how you have suffered for Christ (if any)? Why did you choose to suffer at that particular time? Paul talked about boasting in his sufferings. What do you understand by that? It simply means that by so doing, we are helping others to grow in faith and be much stronger, encourage them; we give glory to God thus and make others praise Him. In all, our position/submission in times of trouble should be that such is a worthwhile one, it is meant for a short-while, it is needed for better society and in fact, it is our primary responsibility and service unto God.

In conclusion, the word ‘present’ in present suffering (Rom 8: 18a) denotes that the sufferings are just for a short time i.e. for now and more so, in the next few moment it will be story and then the glory and joy of sharing in the suffering of Christ will fill our heart. If Christ suffered to save you, don’t you see it as a great responsibility bestowed upon you to go out there and save others irrespective of the knowledge or unseen sufferings that are attached?

I just lost what I considered an inspired blog post by pushing a wrong button on my computer. Poof- gone, no thanks to autosave. I have to decide whether to reconstruct it or not. I know what it said and what message it conveyed, but I now get to reconsider whether I should rewrite it… Is the message worth conveying enough to take the time to do it?

Sometimes in life things, opportunities and people disappear- poof! and we don’t get that chance to interact with them again. Then we are left to wonder whether we have done enough so far anyway, or whether it’s worth doing it over again, if we can.

I guess to live a life with fewest regrets it comes down to living as fully in each moment as possible. Not always easy, even if we know the formula. It takes a fair amount of personal focus, mental discipline and emotional steadiness. And just plain old not being distracted; not an easy feat in our uber-tantalizing consumer oriented sound-bite society. I know in my case I can be fully present- in fact for me it’s part of getting into my creative flow zone….except I’m often present at multiple things at once. So….does that dilute the formula? Yes, AND I also experience lots more than many people. But I suspect there are trade-offs over time in depth of certain experiences. Mostly in relationships, or in any area where you desire mastery, because they take consistent investments of attention and intention over time.

Maybe I’m thinking of this because we recently passed the birthday of my now deceased older brother. He died rather suddenly, poof, and we never got a chance to say goodbye. No second chance, except in the vibrational world. Worse, we had assumed we’d both be there for each other for a long time, so unwittingly squandered the time we had. Oh well. I can’t rectify that relationship, but I bet I can do something with the ones in front of me now.

Regret is best designed out ahead of time and involves investment in being present in your chosen focus areas, be they relationships or projects. It takes mental discipline which must be built up over time, but the rewards are rich and well worth the investment.

Right now, set your timer for 2 minutes, then close your eyes, sit still, and breathe in slowly and deeply through your nose then slowly out your mouth. Pay attention to your body sensations, notice what sounds your hear in your environment, and tune in to how your mind is behaving. If you actually concentrate like this for 2 minutes a day, very soon you are thinking and acting from a more grounded position of power. Now that’s worth investing in!

When it comes to owning a dollar store there are certain things that can not be denied. For example, a top location is better than a 2nd or 3rd tier location. Being well funded is certainly more likely to support success than being underfunded. If you want to stack the deck in your favor, one area requiring focused effort is store presentation. That includes everything from the layout of your store to the management of dollar store merchandise. In this article I present 4 tips regarding superior presentation.

Tip #1) Your store layout is crucial to your business success. Don’t attempt to shortcut the time you invest to create the right store layout for the space you have available. Be sure to maximize the amount of gondola display area without sacrificing the wide-open appearance that is crucial. Leave enough space in aisles for shopping carts to easily pass. Be sure you don’t jeopardize store safety by creating blind corners or tight spaces. Leave enough room so all of your dollar store merchandise can be displayed. Be sure to maintain clutter-free product displays and that it is easy for customers to reach the products they seek.

Tip #2) Cleanliness can never be sacrificed. Consider store cleanliness during the initial set up of your business. Make it easy for employees to see shoppers throughout the store. Make it easy for employees to see when sweeping or clean up needs to be done. Make it a practice for employees to be alert to items left on the floor; always make it a priority that nothing is allowed to sit on the floor. Make it a priority to make certain floors are always clean.

Tip #3) Dollar store merchandise quality is especially important for those who shop at a dollar store. No matter how attractive the display, selling inferior products will drive customers away. Don’t expect to achieve success by saving a few pennies on items that fall apart as soon as shoppers leave the store.

Tip #4) Effective merchandising requires ongoing focused time and effort when you own a dollar store. Make sure shelves, displays and racks are kept full of dollar store merchandise. Make it a practice to routinely rotate your store inventory. Always include clearly visible signage on end caps and displays to draw attention to specials. Finally, meet the needs of your customers by carrying merchandise that is in demand.