About 1000 years ago, a sage was drawn to a construction site. He watched from the edge of a clearing(?) in the forest as the workmen bent over their individual tasks.Finally his curiosity drove him to one workman at the edge of the site, whom he asked "What are you doing, my good man?" The workman looked up briefly and went back to his work "I'm working" he said curtly.

Not satisfied with the answer, the sage approached a second workman to ask him the same question. "You can see I'm breaking stones" he replied. 

The sage was made of stern stuff and he wasn't leaving without an answer, so he walked over to a third workman with the question. "I'm building a temple" replied this workman smilingly.

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The incident opened the sage's eyes, because all three of them were breaking boulders into smaller stones, but in their minds they were not doing the same jobs.

The third workman was working for a cause much larger than himself and it showed in his approach to work.

You can just do a day's work, or build a career, a team, an organization, or a nation
An individual's overpowering ambition can be the glue that holds together and powers forward a team, an army or a country.

This has been proven time and again by various leaders from history. Alexander The Great, and Gandhi are just two names from the past.

If we look at corporate today, examples abound of ambitious leaders who built great institutions. Narayana Murthy of Infosys enjoys creating millionaires in his organization. When he could have focused on making himself a billionaire and then a trillionaire. Can _____choose your perspective and your role in life. Be the one who builds the temple.

"Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made." - Dr. Wayne Dyer

"One of the most courageous things you can do is to identify yourself, know who you are, what you believe in, and where you want to go." - Sheila Murray Bethel

"Awareness is the catalyst for change. Change is the predecessor of growth. Growth is why we are here." - J.J.

Life brings opportunities, and from these opportunities comes growth.  To some "opportunities" are seen as problems, and not as the building blocks for growth they can be, forming the foundations for positive change.

Change can either be embraced or rejected, the choice is ours. When life - the universe - brings us challenges and obstacles, we can choose to embrace each opportunity as spirit works and discovers what riches it may contain.

Sometimes, we must pause in the dark corners of our soul in order to shed light on what is hidden behind the curtain of our fear.

However, we can also choose to turn a blind eye to what benefits may be offered, hide from potential pain, and become paralyzed by our own timidity.

If we choose to embrace that fear, and pass through it, while searching for the gifts - opportunities for growth - it contains, then we choose to accept life and all it offers, which in turn helps us to become the positive light-bearing individuals we are meant to be.

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If, on the other hand, we choose to close our eyes to our pain, and throw away the box, shielding our inner vision from what it may contain, then we choose to live our life as half a person; eventually closing ourselves off to even positive emotions. By living as "half a person," we become people constantly seeking to fill our other halves with material comforts, which bring only temporary relief and fleeting satisfaction.

When we choose to embrace our personal pain and experience the grief and the joy that life offers; we choose to live our life to the fullest and accept all the universe has to offer.  When we allow the universe to work with us, accepting everything it has to offer, choose to make things happen for us, instead of letting things happen to us.  The universe is not your enemy, God does not choose to make us miserable; only to further our capacities for love by providing opportunities for enlightenment and growth.

We make ourselves miserable by remaining stuck in the problem, or lingering in those dark corners, and constantly complaining about our lives; rather than striving to overcome our difficulties, embracing our pain, and moving beyond it into the shining beacon of acceptance and personal growth.