Keep It SIMPLE

WISDOM
"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."
Winston Churchill

"Follow your instincts. That's where true wisdom manifests itself."
Oprah Winfrey

"True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance."
Akhenaton

"Every man is a fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limits."
Elbert Hubbard

WORDS/VOCABULARY
"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."
Mother Teresa

"Vocabulary enables us to interpret and to express. If you have a limited vocabulary, you will also have a limited vision and a limited future."
Jim Rohn

"Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory."
Norman Vincent Peale

"Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs."
Pearl Strachan

WORRY/FEAR
"Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do."
Pope John XXIII

"The fear is worse than the pain."
Shannon Bahr

"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold."
Helen Keller

"Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile initially scared me to death."
Betty Bender

Life's Challenge: The challenge in life for most of us is that we are not 'on track' to achieve our full potential and our Life Purpose. We have fallen into the habit of living within our comfort zone, have lost sight of what is meaningful to us, and are often overwhelmed with just surviving in this hectic world. Few people have discovered their true Passion and Purpose, and many are feeling very unfulfilled, overwhelmed, and 'stuck'. It is like swimming upstream against the flow, which takes a lot of energy without really going anywhere. We often get tired, discouraged, and quit.

A Profound Solution: The solution to "being alive" is to rediscover our true Passion and Purpose in life.

People who have discovered and are living 'Their Purpose' experience deep meaning, fulfillment, love of life, and a knowingness that their life is on the right track. They are more confident, feeling unstoppable, energized, and inspired by a motivating goal. They experience synchronicity, harmony, ease of achievement, and financial abundance. They perform at their best and make a positive difference in others' lives and in the world.

It is like swimming downstream with the flow, which takes very little energy and much less struggle, perhaps no struggle at all. So we really need to know what our true Life Purpose is.

When we are clear about our Life Purpose, then our life flows almost perfectly. You have also had this life experience when you felt "On Purpose." We just need to rediscover it once again.

Your Life Purpose: The truth is that EVERYONE has a specific Life Purpose! Each and everyone one of us, YOU are here for a reason! Your life matters. The world needs men and women like you, to be "On-Purpose," fulfilling your important destiny, contributing your unique gifts in making a positive impact in this world.

Your Purpose is like a treasure buried in your backyard. You don't create the treasure; you simply need to uncover it. You don't create your Purpose; you simply discover it.

You begin to discover it by recognizing what you love to do the most, what you are most passionate about and are good at doing. Your passions are an excellent signpost to your true Life Purpose.

I define being 'On-Purpose' as: Living your greatest passion; living out those deep emotions of desire, joy, love, and conviction. Being and doing that which you love to do the most. It is living the perfect direction and course for your life that self-actualizes your Destiny. It is doing what you have been specifically designed to do and sharing your talents to serve and contribute to the world.

"Purpose is the most powerful motivator in the world." - Ghandi

"Everyone has their own specific mission in life to carry out, a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. You cannot be replaced, nor can your life be repeated. The world needs you! Thus, everyone's task is as unique as their specific opportunity to implement it." - Victor Frankel, "Man's Search for Meaning"

The world needs you to live and fulfill your purpose to make a positive difference.

Our years of experience have enabled us to distil down to a proven process of 'How to Rediscover and Act upon your True Life Purpose' which I am excited to share with you here:

The 7 Steps to Rediscover and Act upon your True Life Purpose --

Step 1: Clarify your Passion, Talents, and Values

Take inventory of what you love/passions. What you are designed to do. What you are best at. Assess your gifts/strengths/uniqueness. Clarify your values -- what is most important to you.

Step 2: Crystallize your WHY -- Your Purpose and Vision

Tap into your inner wisdom, your intuition, your Soul through meditation and closed eye visualization to capture your true Life Purpose. Crystallize this insight by writing your Purpose Statements. A good formula is to use a verb, noun, your skills, and expected positive impact. For example mine is "To Inspire 1000s to Rediscover & act upon their True Life Purpose, by using a proven process, so that they are On-Purpose inspiring 100s of others."

Step 3: Explore Possibilities and Alignment of the How

Brainstorm options -- what feels right? What is in alignment with True Life Purpose?

Step 4: Goals, Strategies, and Ownership

Select the option(s) or role that is most aligned with your Purpose. Set goals, strategies, and ownership.

Step 5: Operationalize into Daily Behaviors

Create priorities and a daily routine to 'walk your talk daily'. Make it a habit!

Step 6: Motivation, Risk Taking, and Commitment to Act

Raise your level of emotional commitment to act in the face of fear and ego's resistance.

Step 7: Ongoing Support and Action

Get an Accountability Success Partner to support you in staying on track.

The resistance from ego: In order for us to achieve Step 2, we need to be aware of and work with and around the ego. The ego's job is to protect us, and it will do everything possible to keep us in our comfort zone and not allow the message of truth about our Life Purpose to be revealed form our Soul/subconscious mind. Our Purpose is to be found within our Soul.

So the egoic mind puts up blocks and barriers to prevent us from easily making a change and knowing and acting upon our Life Purpose. Here are the 5 most common blocks:

5 Common Blocks to Clarity & Action:

1) Busyness: We don't spend or invest the time reflecting on our life. We may feel overwhelmed. We NEED to make the time and take more time out to reflect upon and plan our life.

2) What will other people think? Is often a big challenge in that we let other people's strong opinions (wife, kids, friends) influence what we think and what we 'should do'. We NEED to replace 'You Should' with what you value and want in your life.

3) I'm not _____ enough: Feeling not good enough, smart enough, rich enough, etc. We NEED to recognize that this is an erroneous belief. We need to look for and find the evidence in our life that shows that you are enough.

4) Fear: This is usually the biggest one, with ego operating full out on this one. Fear of failure, rejection, success, etc. We NEED to focus on the good of the goal making it stronger to outweigh the fear.

5) Not hearing your intuition: Some of us have a shallow relationship with our inner wisdom. We haven't valued our intuition or don't ask for its input. We NEED to ask it -- listen to it, follow it. When we do, we know that it is always the best decision for us.

Relationships are really what make the world go 'round, aren't they? I mean, good, positive, healthy and meaningful relationships provide us with the richest experiences we have here on this old earth of ours. Your loving spouse who shares everything with you; that best friend who connects with you like few others do; the people at work who appreciate you and help you to become the best that you can be. This is what brings joy to life!

But... relationships can also be the bane of our existence! What really brings more pain in this life than a broken relationship, especially when it isn't just broken but downright ugly!

So, it behooves us to do all that we can to keep our relationships zipping right along, doesn't it? If we put our very best into our relationships, we can almost guarantee getting the very best out of our relationships!

Through the years I have spent hundreds of hours working with people in their relationships: Marriages, friendships, working relationships and social relationships. Through it all I have seen some wonderful things and some terrible things. It truly is the good, the bad and the ugly!

But I have been able to find three core elements of successful relationships. These are things that, when done over time, begin to create for you the kinds of relationships that you truly desire. They are the kinds of relationships you have always dreamed of.

The key to remembering these three items is the acronym Z.I.P. Z.I.P. stands for three things you can do - and begin to do immediately - to improve any and all of your relationships. They are:

Put some ZEST into your relationships.
Cultivate more INTIMACY in your relationships.
Develop a PURPOSE in your relationships.

Let's take a closer look at each of these three:

Put some ZEST into your relationships.
By Zest, I primarily mean fun. Relationships were meant to be fun! We wouldn't have been made with the capacity to have fun if relationships weren't supposed to have a little zest in them!

Think about it: Don't you usually start out most healthy relationships with a lot of fun times. Whether it is going out to dinner or a ballgame, or spending time playing a game or even just a lively talk, you usually have fun as a major part of the relationship. Fun is some of the glue that bonds the relationship.

But as life goes on, specifically in a marriage, but in all relationships really, the fun starts to go by the wayside. More and more it is about getting the job done, whatever the job may be.

To restore the relationship, to put a little zip into it, we need to reintroduce the idea of "zest."

What about you? Have you lost the zest? What can you do to get it back? Think of a specific relationship you have: What were the fun things you did at the beginning of the relationship that acted as the glue that bonded you together? Now, commit to doing those again and see if your relationship doesn't begin to soar again! If you can, develop new fun things to do together so you can both start an adventure of fun together!

Cultivate more INTIMACY in your relationships.
First a couple of clarifications: One, I don't just mean intimacy in the currently common understanding, that is, sexual intimacy. I mean for all intents and purposes, taking your relationship to a deeper level. Second, I don't mean that you have to start doing group hugs with your workmates or having revelation sessions where the tissue flows freely.

What I do mean is that every relationship that is mutually satisfying has a level of depth to it that provides meaning. This is really what the search is for in our relationships: meaning.

Remember when you first started your relationship, whether with your spouse or friend. All of that time was spent opening up, telling who you are, where you were from, what your likes and dislikes are. There was a deep sense of satisfaction with the relationship - that is why it continued. You liked who they were and you enjoyed being known by them.

But then something happens. We get to a certain level and the pursuit of depth ends. We stop sharing feeling, likes, and dislikes. We stop sharing joys and dreams and fears. Instead, we settle into routine. The daily grind takes over and we stop knowing one another and we simply exist together. Now don't get me wrong, every time you get together doesn't have to be deep. Remember, I am the one who advocates in the previous paragraphs just having plain old fun sometimes. But there is a need for regular times of intimate connection where we go deeper with others.

This is particularly hard for many of the male species like me, but it is not only possible but healthy and needed! If we want to have the kinds of relationship we were made to have, we have to open ourselves up to having others know us and for us to know others.

True meaningful relationships come when we are loved and accepted for who we are at our core, not simply for acting the right way in our relationships so as to keep the other person in it.

Think about the relationships you would like to see improvement in. Take some time in the coming weeks and months to spend time just talking and getting to a deeper level in your relationship. Specifically, let the other person deeper into your world. You can't force the other person to be more intimate and you certainly can't say, "Let's get together and have an intimate conversation," because that would be too contrived. But you can make a decision for yourself that you will let others into your world. Perhaps this will be the catalyst for them doing the same.

You can guard yourself from intimacy but then you won't go much deeper and you will feel a longing in your heart for more, or you can begin the deepening process and see your relationships change for the better.

Develop a PURPOSE in your relationships.
The most meaningful relationships we have are those that are held together by a common purpose and vision for what the relationship can accomplish, not only for those involved but also for a greater good.

Let's face it, when people have a common purpose they feel like they are part of a team and they feel bound together in that relationship. Even when people may be disappointed in the people they are in relationship with, if they have a purpose, such as raising the children, they are much more likely to stick it out. Purpose creates bonds.

So what happens if we are proactively involved in seeking out a common purpose with those who we want to have a relationship with or those who we already have a relationship with but we would like to see it go deeper with? Well, it gets better and stronger.

Think about your strongest relationships. Aren't they centered on at least one area of purpose or a common goal?

What about a relationship that has cooled? Think back and see if perhaps you used to have a common purpose but it has gone by the wayside.

And what of your desire to see a relationship grow? Take some time to begin to cultivate a common purpose. Sit down with that person and tell them that you would like to have some common goals, some purposes that you pursue together. As you develop these, you will see your relationship strengthen in ways you never imagined!

Let's recap: You want your relationships to show a little "zip?" Then put a little Z.I.P. in them:

Put some ZEST into your relationships.
Cultivate more INTIMACY in your relationships.
Develop a PURPOSE in your relationships.

by Chris Widener

What do you believe about failure?

The ego wounded part of ourselves, the left-brain part of ourselves that has been programmed with many false beliefs, often believes that:

"If I fail, I am a failure."
"If I fail, I am stupid."
"If I fail, no one will like me or value me."
"If I fail, then there is no point in ever trying again."
"If I fail, it brands me for life as incompetent."
"If I fail, then everyone who thought I was smart will now think I am stupid."
"If I fail, I will have made a fool of myself."

On the other hand, the loving adult part of us -- our right brain, open, creative, and learning part of us -- generally believes that:

"If I fail, then I just need to work harder, to put in more effort."
"If I fail, I will have learned valuable lessons that will eventually lead to success."
"Failure is a part of life. No one succeeds without some failure."
"Failure does not at all reflect on my worth as a person. I am intrinsically worthy, regardless of success or failure."
"Failure offers me incredible opportunities to think outside the box, to think creatively. Let's get to work!"
"I love learning, and I love challenges. What I do is not about success or failure -- it is about the joy of creativity, learning, and expressing who I am."

Which way of thinking prevails within you? What are the consequences to you of allowing yourself to think from your wounded self instead of from your loving adult?

Failure - A Part of Life

The fact is that mistakes and failure ARE a part of life. Instead of fearing them, why not make it okay to make mistakes and to fail? Why not take the onus off of failure? Why not embrace the process of learning and growing instead of only being focused on the outcome of your efforts? Why not focus on enjoying the process of learning and creating something that is important to you?

People who don't worry about success or failure, who instead are excited about their learning and growing process, generally find their way to succeed. The reason for this is that they don't let failure stop them. Instead, failure spurs them on to work harder, to put forth even more effort to learn what they need to learn to succeed.

On the other hand, even very smart people, who are dominated by their ego-wounded selves, generally allow failure to derail them. Believing they ARE a failure if they fail, they become too afraid to make more effort. In addition, they often believe that success or failure is not dependent on effort, but on ability. When this is their belief, they often give up at the first sign of failure, fearing that, if their natural intelligence and ability is not leading to success, then there is no point in trying harder.

Creating Success

Every successful person knows that effort, creativity, openness to learning, and perseverance are what create success, not necessarily high intelligence, talent, or ability. Every truly successful person is someone who has not allowed failure to stop him or her from forging ahead with passion and purpose.

I encourage you to tell yourself that it is okay to make mistakes and okay to fail. I encourage you to see mistakes and failures as wonderful learning opportunities for growth. I encourage you to let go of the outcome and allow yourself to become fully excited about the process of learning, of growth, and of creation. Being fully present and excited for the process is what life is all about!

by Margaret Paul, Ph.D