Are you scared yet?

Fear is not the problem. You can have your fear and allow it to stop you, or you can have your fear and risk anyway. Either way, the fear is there. The choice is yours.

Are you discerning or...

Now here is the challenge. Life on this planet will require a great deal of discernment - wise evaluation of what is true, what is appropriate and what is for the highest good, both for yourself and for the planet.

In many ways discernment is similar to judgment. However, you will know when you are in judgment and when you have moved out of your heart when you are in a place of blame.

(author unknown)

This is the way to die!

Time values...

To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a final exam.

To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a still born.

To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize
The value of one hour:
Ask the lovers who are waiting to Meet.

To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
The value of one-second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident.

To realize
The value of one millisecond:
Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.

To realize the value of a friend:
Lose one.

Time waits For no one.
Treasure every moment you have.

(author unknown)

Just because it made me really chuckle!

I have 3 cats who think they should be obeyed at all times too! Laughing is good for the soul!

Be compassionate

If you see something you don't like about the way you are AND you beat your self up for it, pretty soon you will have trained yourself to stop looking!

Hating and rejecting myself in this moment is not good practice for loving and accepting myself in another.

Extracts from Cheri Huber

Truly, anything is possible!

What makes your success valid?

Sometimes I have to struggle to make the prize worthwhile. No pain no gain - kind of.
When the truth could also simply be - no pain, no pain!
Is my success less valid if it came easily?

So what is our excuse?

How Bill Gates did it....

"Our success has really been based on partnerships
from the very beginning."

- Bill Gates

I love that technology is moving so FAST!

If it was working....

It is good to keep in mind that if the answers you already have were working for you, you wouldn't still be looking.
It takes a lot of courage to step into uncharted territory. We are not going to say this journey won't be scary, but we can promise it will be worthwhile.
Cheri Huber - Being Present in the Darkness.

Listen up!

The way you listen to others becomes their opinion of
themselves. If you listen as though what you’re hearing is extraordinarily valuable, you make the other person feel extraordinarily valuable. What’s more, if you listen for extraordinary value, you hear it. In fact, the way you listen makes it extraordinarily valuable because you’re hearing things you would not otherwise have heard. You draw insights out of others they may not even know they had. Your listening expands them, their contribution and their connection with you. It’s a beautiful thing.

From Mike Lipkin.

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."

- Charles R. Swindoll

If you are the frog...

There is a great philosophy that says something to the effect of: Eat the frog first thing in the morning and then the rest of your day is easy!.

That said, if you are the frog.......

Don't hope - decide!

Don't Hope, Friend...Decide!
While waiting to pick up a friend at the airport in Portland, Oregon, I had one of those life changing experiences that you hear other people talk about. You know, the kind that sneaks up on you unexpectedly? Well, this one occurred a mere two feet away from me!

Straining to locate my friend among the passengers deplaning through the jetway, I noticed a man coming toward me carrying two light bags. He stopped right next to me to greet his family.

First, he motioned to his youngest son (maybe six years old) as he laid down his bags. They gave each other a long, and movingly loving hug. As they separated enough to look in each other's face, I heard the father say, "It's so good to see you, son. I missed you so much!" His son smiled somewhat shyly, diverted his eyes, and replied softly, "Me too, Dad!"

Then the man stood up, gazed in the eyes of his oldest son (maybe 9 or 10) and while cupping his son's face in his hands he said, "You're already quite the young man. I love you very much Zach!" They too hugged a most loving, tender hug. His son said nothing. No reply was necessary.

While this was happening, a baby girl (perhaps one or one and a half) was squirming excitedly in her mother's arms, never once taking her little eyes off the wonderful sight of her returning father. The man said, "Hi babygirl!" as he gently took the child from her mother. He quickly kissed her face all over and then held her close to his chest while rocking her from side to side. The little girl instantly relaxed and simply laid her head on his shoulder and remained motionless in total pure contentment.

After several moments, he handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared, "I've saved the best for last!" and proceeded to give his wife the longest, most passionate kiss I ever remember seeing. He gazed into her eyes for several seconds and then silently mouthed, "I love you so much!" They stared into each other's eyes, beaming big smiles at one another, while holding both hands. For an instant, they reminded me of newlyweds but I knew by the age of their kids that they couldn't be. I puzzled about it for a moment, then realized how totally engrossed I was in the wonderful display of unconditional love not more than an arm's length away from me. I suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if I were invading something sacred, but was amazed to hear my own voice nervously ask, "Wow! How long have you two been married?"

"Been together fourteen years total, married twelve of those," he replied without breaking his gaze from his lovely wife's face. "Well then, how long have you been away?" I asked. The man finally looked at me, still beaming his joyous smile and told me, "Two whole days!"

Two days?! I was stunned! I was certain by the intensity of the greeting I just witnessed that he'd been gone for at least several weeks, if not months, and I know my expression betrayed me. So I said almost offhandedly, hoping to end my intrusion with some semblance of grace (and to get back to searching for my friend), "I hope my marriage is still that passionate after twelve years!"

The man suddenly stopped smiling. He looked me straight in the eye, and with an intensity that burned right into my soul, he told me something that left me a different person. He told me, "Don't hope friend...decide." Then he flashed me his wonderful smile again, shook my hand and said, "God bless!" With that, he and his family turned and energetically strode away together.

I was still watching that exceptional man and his special family walk just out of sight when my friend came up to me and asked, "What'cha looking at?" Without hesitating, and with a curious sense of certainty, I replied, "My future!"

Michael D. Hargrove
© Copyright 1997 by Michael D. Hargrove. All rights reserved. Used with author's permission. Visit Michael's website at: www.bluinc.com

When to share your dreams

Truly useful words from Greg Mooers:

Never share your dreams with people who don't have the power or resources to make them come true.
Share your dreams everyday with one person who has the desire and the resources to make them come true.

Proof of a bad cause

It is the proof of a bad cause when it is applauded by the mob.
Seneca

Whoooo Hooo!

“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the
intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well
preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways,
chocolate in one hand, champagne in the other, body
thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming
“WOO HOO what a ride!”

Deathbed regrets

Some of the most common ones are:
I wish I had:
spent more time in reflection
taken more risks
left a valuable legacy
said more "I love you"'s
had laughed more

No-one says - I wish I had spent more time at the office! More time stressing and worrying.
Been safer or more serious.

This is not a dress rehearsal.
There is no do-over.
This is your moment - Laugh! Live! Love! Create! Learn!(reading this blog does count:)

Decide on your desired outcomes.
Consider all your options.
Choose a set of actions.
Get out there and do it!
Receive the feedback, use it to aim better and do it some more!

When are you living?

My darling coach, Nada, had me put stickies all over my home with that question on it.

It became instantly obvious that anytime I was scared - I had my full attention on the future.
Anytime I was sad or angry - I was focusing on the past.

There are many good things to remember and delight in from the past and many exciting things to anticipate in the future.

If I want to feel more powerful and alive, I focus on the now.

We can only experience this moment - now. And then this one - now.
We can never experience the ones that have passed or the ones to come. Feeling regret, anger and fear is me using this moment thinking about one that is now entirely in my mind.

Less than the highest and best use of my moment, wouldn't you say?

Want to be fulfilled?

Getting more and better stuff aint gonna do it!
Fulfillment blossoms inside you and cannot be painted on, tacked on or piled on the outside!

Can you just be with people?

It is an empowering belief that people are whole and just exactly right.
On an existential level, their entire life is exactly what they went to enormous effort to create. This is their creation to experience.
How astonishingly arrogant of me to assume there is something wrong with them or their life!
I have no need or right to go in and try to change things for them.

On the contrary this is an opportunity for me to admire how completely and excellently they created their world.

Does this mean that I never help or support another person? Of course not.
They are in my life for my experience. I can offer any sort of support that I choose to, to create my experience. I just need to remember that I am doing it for me, because I wish to support and not because they are broken.

Also, I can only offer it.
I cannot force them to change in anyway.

Are you breaking people?

In order to believe that people need help we must first believe they are "help-less"!
To believe they need to be fixed in some way, we must believe they are broken!

People are astonishingly obliging. They will live into your story.
Make it a good story!

Get your heart's desire

The yearning for things in your life (like: sympathy, love, confidence) is your soul communicating to you that that is your special gift to the world!
Be the wellspring of that sympathy, love, inspiration, (fill in the blank) for the people around you.
Call it forth from deep inside you. Give it away.
Understand that to give it away......you had to have it first!

An understanding highlighted by Greg Mooers.

"Get" your to do list!

My mother (fabulous woman) had a lovely saying - if everything on your "to do" list is done - you are probably dead.

I have sometimes wondered about how that works and came across a great explanation!
Like gravity, there is a force of nature Greg Mooers named "Evolity" This is the constant yearning in the human to always improve - themselves, their environment, the people around them :)

Since you are never going to be "done" there is no point in racing to get it " all done".

The doing is the only thing. There is no final destination - only the journey.

Get over it and start enjoying the ride.

Your health may be at risk

There is a placebo effect. We know it well. If you believe the pill will help - it will, regardless.
There is also it's opposite, the nocebo effect. If you believe you will be harmed - you will, regardless of whether that is true or not.

What have you been believing recently that may be dramatically affecting your health and happiness?

Thanks Greg Mooers!

Ideas about Listening

Listening is like a muscle - exercise it!
When people stop listening, stop talking.
Listening heals "psycho-sclerosis - hardening of the attitudes.
Listening is the opposite of knowing.
Listening teaches others from the inside-out.

Beautiful definition of listening - How I express myself through you.
Think about it.


Ideas from Greg Mooers book - Heart Virtues.

What really and truly motivates you?

Understanding us:
Our behaviours come from our beliefs - internal source.
Going deeper: Beliefs are born out of our values - internal source again.

Going still deeper: Values....these come from our family, friends, society, environment, religion, education - EXTERNAL source!!^^%@~!

How deeply considering what your most essential values really are? Make NO assumptions!
Start living from the inside -out!

I have just finished reading Greg Mooers' book Heart Virtues and am fascinated by the concepts like this one!

" There once was an old man who had many troubles. Life seemed to hand him one difficulty after another, but he faced each obstacle with a smile and a cheery disposition. An acquaintance of the man's finally asked him how he managed to stay so happy despite his hardships. The old man quickly answered: "Well, the Bible often says, 'And it came to pass,' but never once does it say, 'It came to stay.'"
Excerpt from Harvey Mackay's newsletter

So, how are you beautiful?

"When you get right down to the root of the meaning of the word 'succeed,' you find that it simply means to follow through."

- F. W. Nichol

"First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination."

- Napoleon Hill