Earlier this year I felt like my life was going into a vortex of doom. I had been date raped, my car was stolen, my mother abandoned my younger brother leaving him homeless, the love of my life( or so I thought) was no longer in love with me after six years. I felt displaced in every situation and I drowned myself in self loafing. I told myself I was stupid for trusting that guy, unlucky because out of all the nice cars in the lot the thieves decided to steal mine, I should have never left Ohio and that I was the reason my mother decided to leave,  and I was a horrible girlfriend that’s why my love left me.

I couldn’t grasp reality… between what was happening in real life and obsessively replaying events in my mind, I lost myself and I lost time.  It was November and I never actually stopped to recognize the Positive things that happened to me this year: I graduated Albany State University with my B.A. in Psychology, I got a full-time salary paying job with benefits, I got a new car, My brother moved to GA with me and was able to spend more time with him, I let go of an emotional roller-coaster relationship, I was granted a seat on the Board of Directors of the L.E.A.D Foundation, I was cast as an extra in a J.Lo movie, I took acting classes, I auditioned for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and not only got in but was offered a generous Scholarship, I started my first website and I met some wonderful people along the way.

Before I had this outer-body experience and realized the bigger picture of things I was sitting in solitude one day wondering why I was so unhappy and so unsuccessful, scanning my memory to a time when I was happy and excited about the future and I remembered reading this  book called The Ten Ancient Scrolls For Success by Og Mandino. I remembered I was about Thirteen or Fourteen when my Grandfather gave it to me to read. I remember that it was small and blue,the front cover was blank, had no more than 50 pages and I read it over and over again for about a week before I gave it back to my Grandfather.  I looked for the book at the library but I couldn’t find it so I went to Google and found just the Ten Scrolls and that was all I needed to unlock the things I learned from it years ago. I now have this printed on my desk at work to remind me everyday how important I am:

• Scroll I – Today I begin a new life.
• Scroll II – I will greet this day with love in my heart.
• Scroll III – I will persist until I succeed.
• Scroll IV – I am nature’s greatest miracle.
• Scroll V – I will live this day as if it is my last.
• Scroll VI – Today I will be master of my emotions.
• Scroll VII – I will laugh at the world (Keep perspective)
• Scroll VIII – Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.
• Scroll IX – I will act now, I will act now, I will act now.
• Scroll X – I will pray for guidance.

I recommend all of my fellow AberrantMuses to read The Ten Ancient Scrolls For Success: From The Greatest Salesman In The World by Og Mandino if for nothing more than a little bit of inspiration.

♥Chris

About Og Mandino:

Mandino’s main philosophical message is that every person on earth is a miracle and should choose to direct their life with confidence and congruent to the laws that govern abundance. He wrote in Scroll I, “I will not fail as the others, for in my hands I now hold the charts (the Ten Scrolls) which will guide me through perilous waters to shores which only yesterday seemed but a dream.” Og was also a proponent of taking action now. In Scroll IX, the phrase I will act now is written 18 times. He recognized that all successful people take on their own lives by “charting” or consciously choosing both the desired destination and the path to reach it. Mandino’s philosophical messages have Christian undertones. They are encouragements to build good habits, to live according to the laws that govern abundance and to find a vigor and joy in life as we learn to stand at the helm of our ship charting its course into the safety of the harbor instead of just waiting for someone else to bring it in.