Close your eyes and image you’re in the ocean, just past the breakers. As you stand there, you feel the swells lift you up, pass around you and set you back down. Each swell sets you down inches closer and closer to the breakers even though it feels like you’re lifted straight up and down. Eventually, you may find the swell shoving you forward. Or breaking on top of you and churning you like a washing machine before dumping you…
If you carry someone else’s fears and live by someone else’s values, you may find that you have lived their lives. ― Rachel Naomi Remen What is your greatest fear? Don’t give me some generic answer like death. What fear holds you back, keeps you in check, protects you? Fear of failure; fear of losing control; fear of being perceived as a fake; fear of not ‘doing’ something with your life? What are your most cherished values? Authenticity; accumulation of knowledge;…
Life of Ease Over the past three weeks, you have worked hard and learned a lot! This week, you’ll learn to cut yourself some slack and breath easy in serenity. Credo 4 The Serenity Prayer God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference. The key here is in the last line. Honestly, you cannot…
Ready for A Sweet Reward? You’ve spend the past couple weeks laughing over spilled milk and fantasizing about your worse-case scenarios. By now, you may be feeling a bit stretched. Maybe a little rattled. Perspective work is hard work! Hang in there; it gets easier. I promise. This week may offer a bit of relief. While this is still perspective work, complete with it’s own challenges, it’s also an uplifting exercise. This is where you take your power back. You…
Learning to Laugh I wonder how last week went for you. Were you able to laugh over the spilled milk of life? Chances are you’re still working on it. That’s OK. Life is and always will a work in process. We are continually growing, expanding, tweaking, changing directions. Our life is one long scientific experiment. But this is also what keeps us on our toes and makes life so interesting, is it not? Last week we talked about your assistant…
Stress No More! Do you have moments (or years) when it feels more like life is something being done to you rather than a series of incredible experiences? It’s human nature to stress. There are times and circumstances when this is a life-saving trait. Then there’s every other day. The idea of ‘taking control of your life’ can sound ominous and even laughable but seriously, it can and should be done. And it’s much simpler than you think. When…
Active Listening As you are likely well aware, not all listening is created equally. You may already be somewhat familiar with term Active Listening. Wikipedia defines active listening as: the listener fully concentrates, understands, responds and then remembers what is being said. As a lifelong listener yourself, I assume you are familiar with the acts of formulating your response. Perhaps you’re so engrossed in deciding what you want to say, that you miss crucial information. Or perhaps, you’re trying to pay…
Smarty Pants Knowledge, like last week’s post about beliefs, can cloud our judgment. I grew up hearing that educated people were ‘so smart they’re stupid’. It seems that phrase was often said defensively by people who maybe felt they themselves were under educated. Nevertheless, they have a point, just not quite the one they were trying to make. And it regards something we all do. Read this sentence: Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with…
Belief Awareness What are your beliefs? Can you even identify them? How are they impacting your life and driving your decisions? Beliefs can cloud your judgment. We tend to predict that most people believe the things we believe. I prefer wheat bread; most people prefer wheat bread. I find the ocean soothing; most people prefer to live by the ocean. I like a wide variety of music; most people are eclectic in their music tastes. While I can find statistics to…
False Hope Syndrome: What is it and how do you avoid it? False Hope Syndrome is defined as unrealistic expectations of self change by J. Polivy. We’ve all experienced it. You’ve had it! You’re sick of this problem, whether it’s a bad habit or something that’s missing in your life and you are going to do something about it. You’re fired up, gung-ho and laying down the law. You are going to do what you need to do and that’s…
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