Category: Wisdom

On taking care of your self…

 

14/52/2012 Me To Infinity

C. M. MacNeil shares this from Melody Beattie…

Our most important focus during times of stress is taking care of ourselves. We are better able to cope with the most irregular circumstances; we are better able to be there for others if we’re caring for ourselves. We can ask ourselves regularly: What do we need to do to take care of ourselves? What might help us feel better or more comfortable?
Self-care may not come as easily during times of stress. Self-neglect may feel more comfortable. But taking care of us always works.

Today, I will remember that there is no situation that can’t be benefited by taking care of myself.

via April 14, 2012 – Today’s Gift from Hazelden « cmmacneil.

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Love what you’re doing and love it in front of others

“You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are.

The thing I remember best about successful people I’ve met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they’re doing and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they’re doing, and they love it in front of others.” ~ Fred Rogers

Source: Love What You’re Doing and Love it in Front of Others | Escape Adulthood with Kim & Jason

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On powerlessness and true power…

An interesting perspective from Gabrielle Bernstein…

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The fable of fear…

“Fear: False Evidence Appearing Real.” ~Unknown

Source: The Fable of Fear and 3 Simple Steps to Conquer It | Tiny Buddha: Wisdom Quotes, Letting Go, Letting Happiness In

Go to the source if you’d like to read the fable. I’m more interested in the ways author Barrie Davenport offers to overcome fear…

You can put Fear in a box. And let me tell you, once you do this, your life will turn around 180 degrees.

You will do things you never thought possible.

You will be bold and enthusiastic about life.

You will find passion in life and seize every opportunity.

If you want to start disempowering Fear right now, here are three things you can do today: Continue reading “The fable of fear…” →

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“Forgiveness”

I don’t care if you don’t like rap music! Listen and read along — this is good stuff…

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You can choose to be happy – 10 things to do, today!

Marie Wetmore says…

I say all the time: if you want to be happy, you have to choose to be happy. Sometimes it helps to stop thinking about happiness as a state of mind and instead think of it as an action. If you were to put happiness into action today, what would you do?Everyone’s answer is different, but I’ll share 10 things that have worked for me or my clients, so you can choose to be happy today!
via You Can Choose to Be Happy – 10 Things to Do, Today!.

Follow the ‘via’ link above to get the rest of Marie’s thoughts on the topic…

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An invocation for beginnings…

Not sure where to start? Not sure if you should? Crank up your speakers and click the play button. Warning: NSFW!

Anderson Layman’s Blog: …extend that generosity to myself…..

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Count your blessings…

Think your life sucks? Watch this and think again…

Anderson Layman’s Blog: Top 100 First World problems……

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If your ship does not come in…

Click the image to go to the source…

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Are you living up to your full potential?

Potential

“The potential of an average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good.”―Brian Tracy

It is generally believed that the average person uses only about ten percent of their potential. That is to say that the average person could be ten times more productive and successful than they currently are. Studies done at Stanford University Brain Institute are even less flattering. They claim that the average person only uses about two percent of their full potential. No matter which figure you agree with, it is clear that we perform far below what we are capable of.

According to Abraham Maslow we are consistently “selling ourselves short.” We concoct all kinds of reasons to rationalize and justify our poor performance and lack of success, ignoring the fact that we all have the ability to develop far beyond anything we have achieved so far.

Source: Are You Living Up to Your Full Potential? [BLOG] « Positively Positive

Go to the source for 3 ways you can start to reach your potential…

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Be uniquely you

Melody Beattie writes…

We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other peoples’ models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channels to open.

— Shakti Gawain

We have much in common with each other. And recovery, growth, and change are strengthened by honoring these similarities. But each of us is unique. We each have our own strengths, weaknesses, gifts, vulnerabilities—our own per­sonalities.

The purpose of spiritual growth is not to eliminate the personality. It is to refine and enhance it, and allow each of us to express ourselves creatively.

We are not meant to be just like anyone else. Comparison will leave us uncomfortable, either on the side of pride or of inadequacy.

You are you. The wonder of life comes in finding your own rhythm to the dance, your own way of seeing the world, your own brush stroke, phrase, or special combination.

Continue reading “Be uniquely you” →

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Choose Your Own Adventure

Paths

I get a variation on this email quite often: “I wish there was a job in social media for _____, because I’m really skilled in _____.” What’s fascinating is that the person is waiting for permission, and worse, waiting for someone else to create and open a role for them to fill. My first thought upon receiving this is to ask the person, “Who do you admire in life?” They often cite some famous person. I then ask, “Did someone make that job for them? Or did they choose an adventure that brought them there?” Sometimes, the light bulb goes on right then and there. Other times, well, bless your heart.

Source: Choose Your Own Adventure

Go to the source if you’d like the rest of Chris Brogan’s thoughts on the topic…

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Don’t look back in anger!

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The era of prosperity-on-auto-pilot is over

David Kanigan curated this quote from Hugh MacLeod about the current economy…

“Hardly a mor­ning goes by these days without me hea­ring some story…about Ame­ri­can eco­no­mic woe…

The Great Con­ver­gence is upon us, and our friend, the Inter­net is acce­le­ra­ting the pro­cess…

The good news is, if you have a talent, the world wants it, and it has never been so easy to show your talent to the world…

The bad news is, espe­cially for us fat & lazy Ame­ri­cans, is that the great, century-long era of Prosperity-on-Autopilot  is over…

The world still wants serious talent. And it still wants peo­ple doing the grunt work: pushing mops, dig­ging ditches, wai­ting tables, ans­we­ring pho­nes, flip­ping bur­gers etc…

Learn how to work hard, work long hours. Find something you love, and then excel at it. Above all else, learn how to create, learn how to invent. That’s your only hope, really.

Source: The Era of Prosperity-on-Auto-Pilot Is Over – Lead.Learn.Live.

Continue reading “The era of prosperity-on-auto-pilot is over” →

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That other “F” word

Adaptation of above image illustrating an Inte...

Nicholas Bate talks about failure…

We need courage to help us with failure. There: we’ve said it. Failure which is often harder to drop into a conversation than the term explicit sex. But we do need failure. Not failure the result: losing the business, losing the girl, failing the interview. But failure the process: learning, improving, iterating, removing slack, becoming lean, becoming fighting-fit, installing effectiveness, developing wired-in muscle memory, just knowing, getting really really good, broadening, widening, gaining wisdom, picking yourself up and smiling and trying once again. Yeah, that. The whole process requires lots and lots of crappy failure. And we don’t like it: we want approval, we want love, we want accolades. But hang on a minute: no, you don’t. You really want to grow, you really want to discover who the heck you are, you really want to see just what your limits are. You want to start creating your personal greatest works. And you do all of that by failing. Repeatedly. With tears at times. With jeers at others. But stay in the game. The right girl is quietly noting you. The rumours are reaching that elusive agent. Quarter 4 target was a bit of a breeze; just don’t tell HQ in California. The thing is you will fail at whatever you try to be good at, be it juggling (balls will drop) to blogging (posts will bore) to interviews (CVs will fail to impress) to start up pitches (we’ve heard it all before). But from failure you will learn so much more, so much more than success. You really do need courage to stay in the game. It’ll be worth it when you get a real score, a real success. Fail enough and you will get what you want and you will become free. Plus you will get the girl who wants to hang out with a grown-up. Not a kid in a wannabee T-shirt.

Source: That Other F Word – Nicholas Bate

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More on being your own hero…

Kute Blackson’s post made me think of another epic post on ‘being your own hero’ written by friend, client and Harvard Business Review author Nilofer Merchant on the deification of Steve Jobs and the lessons it holds for us…

So, it’s with that life context that I am watching the beatification of Steve Jobs. Google the term, “Steve Jobs tribute” and you get back 5 million plus results. And I’m fairly sure that’s an undercount. There’s a good reason for this; the Hero Narrative has deep roots in our culture. We find it in history books and religions, in our sports teams and, yes, even in our corporate cultures. We obsess. We deify, as if there is a single defining idea of how innovation works, what makes a leader great, or how success happens.

This is not new. It is the idea of The One and it shows up in many ways: Who will be the next leader of the free world? What nation will be the next superpower? Which visionary company is the single conqueror of industry? (It’s Amazon, it’s Google, it’s Facebook, it’s Apple!). And we have it in management disciplines with debates like: isn’t it better to have one smart person than lots of ordinary people working for our organizations?

But I wonder if this framework is wrong.

Continue reading “More on being your own hero…” →

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There is a hero inside you

Hero

Lifecoach Kute Blackson writes…

Real heroes aren’t angels in the sky. They don’t float amidst cotton candy clouds. Real heroes don’t need to climb Mt. Everest, jump from planes, or walk on fire to prove their strength. Real heroes aren’t named Woods, Kobe, or Cruise. They don’t run from life in order to find peace. Real heroes deal. They know how to take responsibility for whatever befalls them—or whatever they’ve caused.

Real heroes are those who dare to enter situations fully, carrying peace with them. Real heroes are those who have the courage to love, laugh, and live full tilt. Despite the hand they’re dealt. Despite who did what to them. Real heroes are those who dare to live larger than what scares them, embracing their brothers and sisters with open hearts.

There is a HERO inside you.

Deep in our hearts we all have a longing to: Play like Mozart did at four. Play like Miles Davis jazzed. Play like Michael Jordan jumped. Play like Martin Luther King peaced. What would happen if you played like that? What would your life look like if you played like Nelson Mandela persevered? Or like Einstein intuited, Buddha meditated, Mother Theresa loved, Picasso painted, Jesus miracled, Janis Joplin crooned, Barishnikov danced, and Pele played? What could you do? Who would you be if you didn’t let your fear, your past, or your limitations stop you?

It’s your time. It’s your life. NOW.

Real heroes know that no one’s coming.

Because they’re already there.

Because you’re already here.

You are the hero you’ve been waiting for.

I dare you.

Source: There is a Hero Inside You [Blog] « Positively Positive

No one is coming. How will YOU respond?

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On technology and relationships…

Ouch! I started watching this TEDtalk thinking this didn’t apply to me but the longer Sherry Turkle talked the more I heard her describing me…

Our fantasies of substitution (with tech) have cost us… – Lead.Learn.Live.

To illustrate her point, I find myself posting this video before I’ve even heard her conclusion and I’m tweaking this post while I could be sitting in bed with my wife drinking coffee…

“Let him who has ears to hear“…

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Discover what works for you

Melody Beattie writes:

There is no quick fix, no panacea that will work for every person. Success rarely happens overnight or in five days. Even the Twelve Steps are only suggestions. Although proven to work, the details and decisions about how we apply those Steps in our lives are left to each one of us.

And few things happen overnight, except the beginning of a new day.

Listen to your mentors. Examine what’s been tried and true, and has worked and helped countless others along their paths. The Twelve Steps are one of those approaches. But don’t be taken in by false claims of overnight success and instant enlightenment along your path.

True change takes time and effort, especially when were changing and tackling big issues. We can often get exactly the help we need at times from a therapist, book, or seminar— the best things in life really are free and available to each one of us. The Twelve Steps, again, qualify in this area.

Discover what works for you.

Trust that you’ll be guided along your path and receive exactly the help and guidance you need. Then give it time. There really isn’t an easier, softer way.

God, give me perseverance to tackle my problems.

Source: April 8: Discover What Works for You | Language of Letting Go

Melody Beattie’s work on codependency works for me and has been a tremendous help over the past year as a supplement to the work I am doing in Celebrate Recovery. What is working for you this Easter as you think about resurrection and rebirth?

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Tackle “impossible” with this three-pronged approach

Im-possible Goals

Philip McCluskey shares an inspirational story of attacking goals from a physical, spiritual and mental perspective in his post with a focus on

  • Taking responsibility for your power
  • Believing you are worth it
  • Creating your own good days
  • and trusting the Universe.

Go to the source if it sounds interesting to you; Tackle “Impossible” with This Three-Pronged Approach [BLOG] « Positively Positive

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Your starting place does not define you

Personal Best

“Your story is where you take it to, not where you start.”―Tony Robbins

Let’s be honest and get a few things out on the table:

Your starting point does not define you.

Your starting point is a neutral data point.

What matters is where you want to go rather than where you are right now.

Your starting place is just that—where you start. Nothing more and nothing less. It’s neutral.

Jeff Bezos started Amazon in a garage. Steve Jobs started Apple in a garage. Many people think a garage is a pretty terrible place to start a business. However, both visionaries built incredibly successful companies that have since changed the world and our view of what’s possible.

Iyanla Vanzant, an author and self-help guru, went through a divorce, lost her daughter to cancer, and lost her home. She is now a NY Times bestselling author and will soon have a self-empowerment show on Oprah’s network (OWN). Although, we tend to classify our starting place in an extreme way, it’s just a starting place. No need to be dramatic.

“We can think, speak, and bring the best possible outcome into existence by focusing on where we are going, not on where we think we are.”—Iyanla Vanzant

Do yourself and everyone around you a favor, please stop being so tough on yourself because your starting place is difficult…

Source: Your Starting Place Does Not Define You [BLOG] « Positively Positive

Go to the source if you want more…

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