Archive for August, 2010
Where is Happiness Hiding?
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- Image by ronsho © via Flickr
Whether or not we want to accept it, the world has changed dramatically and maybe forever.
For the generation now in their 80’s and 90’s happiness for their next generation was having a great job and paycheck. Being a professional would be a ticket to income and security. It wasn’t real happiness, it was just be happy where you are. Ask most lawyers how happy they are.
The boomers that followed would be happier now if their assets were in tact and they could have the retirement they expected.
The newest generation that is graduating or recently out of college wishes they could find employment in something that was fulfilling and not just exchanging hours for a paycheck.
Happiness seems to be a more relative term than an absolute.
But happiness can be an absolute. It is a matter of values.
The video I have attached is a great lesson in finding happiness in the right things. We have attached happiness to external realities. We have said happiness is a job, security, a home, or a BMW. In reality none of these have brought real happiness; more like satisfaction.
Happiness is in the same place it has always been. Appreciating that we are living on a beautiful planet, have evolved over 1,000 generations to have our few minutes, and have a body full of energy and love that can get naturally high by expressing who we are.
A job has to be seen as a paycheck unless it does express who you are. Otherwise it becomes an excuse to be bored.
Connecting with a great reason to be here and expressing who you are in a meaningful manner is where self esteem, appreciation, love, and happiness reside.
Many of us need more challenge. More challenge requires more courage. We have to be willing to change to get to a happier place. Happier isn’t really acquisition, it is self expression.
In a few E Books that you can download I can cover more about developing your personal leadership. You have to take charge of reaching your physical potential. This leads to stimulation of your brain, your spirit, and your self esteem, your courage, and your discipline.
When you are in charge of your physical and emotional attributes, you are a powerful weapon. You have the horsepower to push through resistance and obstacles. You can rise above what you now see as personal limitations to reaching your goals.
Taking charge may result in being more influential in your current circumstances, adding a new dimension to your life, or evolving into an entirely different life.
Happiness is not a summit. It is the act of summiting. . It is the act of becoming the highest form of you. The act is a summit on top of a summit on top of a summit.
Video: Life is Like a Cup Of Coffee http://youtu.be/U3NgzQ9Pcsg
The economic environment has changed. With the change, many of the old rules and goals for finding security and happiness have been destroyed. Companies are not employing. We need a new strategy for success in our work and have to redefine the meaning of happiness. This is a two part book and the first part is Free.
Part 1 Happiness and Work Free 8 page E Book. Download
Part 2 Life Begins at Inspiration 17 page E Book. See Below.
You are perfect and meant to be here now. You can find the right way to express who you are by using the energy that is waiting to pour through you. You have the same opportunity as the those achievers you admire most.
Download Free 17 Page E Book.
Does It Have to Be a BMW or Happiness?
Posted by: | CommentsThe BMW or Audi or MBZ are great rewards for our achievement.
I always loved buying myself nice presents. It made doing the work worth it, I thought. It was my self indulgence for the sacrifices. I had several nice presents including 3 Ferraris and a race car.
They were cheaper years ago.
The other part of the syndrome was selling my talents to the highest bidder. I had skills and talents and I was always looking to improve and get more for the time I had to offer. I wasn’t just doing it for the love of the work, I was doing it for the money.
In fact, in society the worst thing that could happen is we lose our position. Everything else can be second. Everyone and everything has to go towards us maintaining our ticket. We might lose our souls, our families, our pride, our health, and our joy to keep it going.
Sometimes our joy comes with excess celebration every Friday and Saturday night. We are feeding the machine that brings home the bacon.
Once we are in, it is hard to get out; especially once we have obligations.
Often we recognize the job for what it is. It is the paycheck to provide for our families, their education, and our retirement. We look forward to the days when our obligations will be almost finished and we can do what we want. In the meantime, we grind it out.
Would our lives change if we could get a different perspective earlier? What if we took a trip to outer space went through time travel and saw the earth back a million years evolving slowly. We followed life up through the millennia and man in the most recent centuries.
We saw how life got safer, but busier. We saw that two centuries ago man worked harder but had more free time and appreciation for simpler things. We saw that as man got busier his happiness got more complicated.
We saw from afar how we got attached to thinking more was better or necessary.
Inspiration on the other hand has nothing to do with materialism. It is attached to freedom of spirit. It is the appreciation of man for who he was in his first days on earth and how he was connected to all that was provided. Inspiration is attached to us expressing ourselves in the most meaningful ways.
Inspiration is a goal realized for when we are inspired we have arrived. We see clearly that happiness is in existence and sharing our good fortune with others. BMWs mean nothing. It is self realization that has the big pop.
But how do we get from one life to the other? The realization and asking the question is a good start. You can have both. It is the attachment to values that determine in which camp you are living.
Download “Inspiration and Leadership vs Boredom and Death” Free 11 page E Book
This is a great YouTube video that is very relevant http://youtu.be/U3NgzQ9Pcsg Life is Like a Cup Of Coffee
Brought to you by the Foundation for Personal Leadership
Inspired Living
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- Image via Wikipedia
People want to live with passion and they want to escape boredom.
What is the problem?
People don’t really want change.
What is the first requirement to find inspiration and escape boredom;
Courage, Discipline and Commitment.
Now those might sound like three words you are not up for today, but it is really easy if you want to be inspired everyday.
Passion and Inspiration work hand and hand. Both require movement to get you started.
So, that’s a lot of words. Let’s go back to the beginning and put them together. If you download the two Free EBooks at the bottom you can get more direction.
People don’t want to change but they don’t want to live bored. Courage and discipline move you out of the inert state. Exercise is a great way to get started. I find that when I push myself through the pain of physical exertion, my mind is more open to the fear of emotional risk.
I exercise a lot and I always increase my dose. I work hard and I always push for bolder results. Mentally the two work together. When I become responsible for my body, health, and mind, I have more entitlement to ask more of my work.
For example, I pushed the times I climbed 40 stairs to 60 and I created a blog challenging other people to grow. I didn’t ask for more than I was willing to demonstrate.
Discipline is keeping commitments and denying your self harmful or distracting activities or food. I call this Personal Leadership. If you can lead yourself through the mine field and push your goals, you will become better than you are.
Inspiration begins when you can’t wait to express yourself or improve to be a better you. I wake up 7 days a week wanting to write and exercise. I push both. I am inspired to go for the ride regardless of where they take me. The act is the inspiration.
Your personal leadership will soon attract others. That will give you more responsibility for your own results. If you can get others to follow your lead, you are taking them and you to a better place.
The world needs everyone to be like you.
If you are intrigued or excited, read the E Books and chart a new exciting path.
Free 11 page E Book “Inspiration and Leadership vs Boredom and Death” Download Now
Brought to you by the Foundation for Personal Leadership
The economic environment has changed. With the change, many of the old rules and goals for finding security and happiness have been destroyed. Companies are not employing. We need a new strategy for success in our work and have to redefine the meaning of happiness. This is a two part book and the first part is Free.
Part 1 Happiness and Work Free 8 page E Book. Download
Part 2 Life Begins at Inspiration Free 17 page E Book. See Below.
You are perfect and meant to be here now. You can find the right way to express who you are by using the energy that is waiting to pour through you. You have the same opportunity as the those achievers you admire most.
Download Free 17 Page E Book.
Growth Eliminates Boredom. Are You Up to It?
Posted by: | CommentsI have written a few posts on Boredom and received exceptional traffic.
It shows a lot of people are stuck.
Getting unstuck requires change and most people do not want change.
Change is scary; so we have the conundrum.
I wrote a new E book which allows me 11 pages in 14 pt type to treat the topic in more length; so it is still not too long.
“Inspiration and Leadership vs Boredom and Death”
Boredom is lack of courage. Death is failure to activate your spirit.
Together they are denial of your connection to 1,000 previous generations leading to your parents and then you. You have a heritage and responsibility to recognize who and what you are.
Wallace Waddles in “The Science of Getting Rich” written 50 years ago and read religiously since says “The universe is full of energy without form and all you have to do is form your idea in your mind to turn the energy into matter.”
It means you have to form your dreams and visions in your mind and take action to make them come true.
Man has evolved into a creature with three brains, the lizard, the limbic, and the cortex. The last two were formed in the most recent 100,000 years to give evolving man more choice than “fight or flight”.
Not only are you stopping evolution by remaining stuck in the lizard brain you are failing to fulfill your destiny by not reaching your full potential. You become the weak link in the evolutionary chain.
You have a responsibility to all those that struggled for survival before you to take the bull by the horns and take charge of your life.
Personal Leadership begins with mastering courage and discipline. Inspiration is the highest level of your earthly existence and allows you to experience the wonders of living here now.
Your energy mass in the form of your person has unlimited potential and connection to the past 500 to 1,000 generations that made you what you are today. You are the most evolved of all that came before you.
We were born perfect and with the potential to tap into our energy to express who we are. We have the responsibility to accept personal leadership in developing that potential.
Boredom is an unnecessary choice.
Download 11 page Free E Book “Inspiration and Leadership vs Boredom and Death”
Courage is Leadership
Posted by: | CommentsThere are several types of courage:
There is physical courage where one risks injury or death.
There is emotional courage where on risks rejection
There is business courage where one risks loss
There is artistic courage where one risks judgment
There is athletic courage where one risks humiliation
There is even the courage to say no
And I am sure there are more.
What is courage? It is the confidence to push your personal limits. It is leaving the area of predictability for the realm of uncertainty. Sometimes it is flying on the trapeze without a net.
What are a few good paths that support the leap and the act of courage? I have always found that increasing physical fitness runs a close mental parallel to venturing into unknown arenas.
If you are a soldier or athlete, increasing physical fitness is a requirement because not only must you be fit to excel, you must be confident in your physical abilities.
I find this same confidence leads to increased self esteem. It leads to personal power in the physical realm. It is a reflection of your discipline.
Increasing discipline is also important for increasing courage and runs hand in hand with increasing physical conditioning.
It shows you can mentally push yourself to new levels of achievement. Discipline shows that you can deny yourself things that are detrimental which is another mental achievement. Discipline proves you can focus on a target and achieve short term goals.
Physical fitness and discipline allow you small victories which are on the path to greater victories. Courage is the willingness to step into the unknown and these smaller victories build steps of faith. .
Physical fitness, discipline and courage work together. They hone a mental attitude. A marine or an athlete are prepared in many ways to achieve victory. We have to be prepared mentally, but being prepared physically can help even with non physical feats.
Believing in our capabilities and being willing to demonstrate them is leadership. It first of all is personal leadership. If you cannot rule yourself, you cannot expect others to follow.
It creates a confidence that is noticeable to others. People are drawn to confidence. It gives them faith that following you is a good decision and gives them confidence in a positive outcome.
Being physically and mentally prepared gives you the confidence to take on the responsibility that leadership requires. An apt slogan for leadership is the “buck” stops here. You have to have the fortitude to accept criticism and the willingness to take someone into new territory.
In real estate, as a manager, I had difficulty getting new sales people to take listings on homes because they did not want the responsibility of perhaps failing and then getting scorned by the owners.
Achievement and leadership build on themselves. Each step you take gives you the confidence to take another step.
Brought to you by The Foundation for Personal Leadership
Boredom Buster
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- Image by DavidErickson via Flickr
The number one reason people are bored is they lack the courage to make positive change. Discipline is often the strategy for positive change. Discipline is difficult without first having the courage.
For example, you know that you should be in better physical condition. What’s holding you back? You say you don’t have the time. No. You don’t have the will. You say you don’t have the energy. No. Better conditioning creates stamina.
The truth is, you don’t want change. Change creates uncertainty and we are afraid of uncertainty. Our lizard brain says watch out.
Another example is you want to lose some weight. You say you can’t lose weight because at work you don’t have the opportunity to eat right. No. You don’t want to lose weight because you don’t want to eat less. You are afraid of how you will feel if you think you are starving. You lack the courage to face starvation or make a change.
But these were simple. Let’s look at the bigger picture. What are you doing with your life? You say you don’t have opportunity. No. You are afraid to contemplate rocking the boat. Sometimes this is smart. You don’t want to lose your job. But change doesn’t have to start that big.
How willing are you to change personally? Positive change can emanate from a new you. New opportunities can evolve from you developing personal leadership and responsibility for being more than you are.
The world can be an entirely different place from you connecting to it and knowing that you are here to express who you are. In your full potential, you are a powerful force. The force does not come from you learning karate. The force comes from connecting your emotions to a passion.
Does Brett Farve have more passion than the average quarterback? He is an emotional force with talent. We all have the same potential emotional force. It was given to us at birth. The passion helps develop the talent.
Whoa, you say. You are moving very fast. Well, this is a short essay.
When you realize that you have the potential to be inspired like any extremely accomplished person you know and that all you have to do is make the small commitment that you are the person you want to become, you have crossed the bridge. You are the person you want to become and only time and commitment separates you.
It is like grabbing the trailing reins of a horse moving at 30 mph and being whisked away. Are you ready for that change?
You can explore your potential by exploring Inspiration. I crossed the bridge from the world of motivation where boredom reined to the world of inspiration where boredom is a tool and not a way of life.
I offer you a Free 17 page E book “Life Begins at Inspiration” you can download. It is an opportunity for you to explore.
This is not an advertisement because I am giving it to you for free. I have nothing to sell to you. I would like to think I helped you become a center of influence to create positive energy in your own personal sphere.
It will take a little courage because it involves change.
The economic environment has changed. With the change, many of the old rules and goals for finding security and happiness have been destroyed. Companies are not employing. We need a new strategy for success in our work and have to redefine the meaning of happiness. This is a two part book and the first part is Free.
Part 1 Happiness and Work Free 8 page E Book. Download
Part 2 Life Begins at Inspiration 17 page E Book. See Below.
You are perfect and meant to be here now. You can find the right way to express who you are by using the energy that is waiting to pour through you. You have the same opportunity as the those achievers you admire most.
Download my 17 Page E Book. Only $4.99 See More
Brought to you by the Foundation for Personal Leadership
If you have questions or responses feel free to email me.
We Have to Overcome Fear of Success
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- Image by aldoaldoz via Flickr
We all have our comfort zones and 95% of the time we stay in them.
Very few people can be successful doing what they do naturally. What we do naturally is average and success requires exceptional performance. To be successful we don’t have to be the best there is but we have to be better than most.
We see successful people and think they did it without ever being scared. The fact is, successful people have learned to manage fear. Secondly, they probably get a rush off facing it and conquering it.
It is hard to be successful without the ability to challenge ourselves. It requires stepping out of our comfort zones and moving through acts that require personal courage.
Why do the acts require personal courage? Because we might not achieve each of our objectives. If we work up the courage to call on a big account at work and we can’t get in, have we failed?
And this is the first stigma we have to overcome. The stigma that to try something and not accomplish it is failure. The word should be banned from the English language. If we do not accomplish an objective we should develop a new strategy. If we never quit, we never fail.
We have a lifetime to achieve our objectives. We have to work on them everyday. We have to step out of our comfort zone. We have to be scared. We have to get high on managing our fear. Successful people are often petrified, but they know how to deal with it.
Let’s look at our brain structure. The lizard brain has been with us and every species for millions of years. It says run at the first impulse. 100,000 years ago man began to develop two new brains; the limbic and the cortex. These brains allow him to evaluate the stimulus and decide whether it is really life threatening.
The brains decide the level of threat based on our history. If we have never handled the threat, the brains are alarmed. If we have handled the threat the brains tell us we have handled this before and survived, so go ahead if you want to.
The more we push past the alarm buttons, the more comfort the brains have with more danger. I once tried to eliminate fear by sky diving. I figured, it scares me the most so when I learn to do it I will no longer have fear. I was wrong. It scarred the hell out of me, but I did learn I can manage that fear.
In reality we are not as afraid of success or failure as much as we are afraid of getting out of our comfort zones. We want to be like Clint Eastwood’s characters and just handle everything as though it was second nature. His characters are fictional.
How many people are bored? How many people think they are locked into something which they cannot escape? How many people think they are going no where? Their only crime is they are locked into their comfort zones and are afraid to take on real challenges.
Real challenges bring on change. Change brings on uncertainty. The lizard brain goes crazy with uncertainty. You need to build your tolerance to uncertainty and change. Success brings major change. You need to face challenges everyday and tell them, “You’re asking yourself right now whether I used five bullets or six, go ahead, make my day.”
Your First Goal Should Be Leadership
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- Image via Wikipedia
Most people want to blend in and connect. This is a natural human need.
But there is also a great need for leadership. Every person can blend in and be connected and lead.
We owe it to our sphere of influence to give them the best of ourselves. We owe it to ourselves to become the loving, inspired, passionate person that embodies the human spirit.
By challenging ourselves to reach our potential, we create an aura that influences those around us.
The path to leadership is self esteem, courage, discipline and inspiration.
We develop self esteem through the discipline of taking care of our bodies and minds. Looking and feeling good inspires others and influences them to do the same.
We challenge ourselves by having the courage to tackle achievements that scare us. They scare us because they they our testing our talent, our will, and our commitment to really be special. Showing courage to tackle the difficult inspires others to think about their own direction.
We look for our passion and have the courage to pursue it without concern for judgment. Everyone wants to be inspired. Everyone loves inspired people. Inspired people lead others to look for their own passions.
Finding your passion is feeling connection, purpose, love, and support. It is believing you are here to appreciate your life and express yourself in your strongest suit. Pursuing your passion will bring your sphere of influence into your wake and make them all better people.
Get inspired and start to lead your closest connections.
The economic environment has changed. With the change, many of the old rules and goals for finding security and happiness have been destroyed. Companies are not employing. We need a new strategy for success in our work and have to redefine the meaning of happiness. This is a two part book and the first part is Free.
Part 1 Happiness and Work Free 8 page E Book. Download
Part 2 Life Begins at Inspiration 17 page E Book. See Below.
You are perfect and meant to be here now. You can find the right way to express who you are by using the energy that is waiting to pour through you. You have the same opportunity as the those achievers you admire most.
Download my 17 Page E Book. Only $4.99 See More
Number One and Two Cures for Boredom
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- Image by Mr.Thomas via Flickr
Wikipedia Boredom is an emotional state experienced during periods lacking activity or when individuals are uninterested in the opportunities surrounding them.
People that live inspired lives use boredom to refresh their batteries. Kind of ironic, no?
But this is about creating excitement without having to be inspired.
Strangely enough, at the core of the boredom issue is adrenaline.
We are often bored because we live with too much negative adrenaline.
City life sterilizes our existence; removes the danger and excitement of the real struggle for survival. The lizard brain which has produced all the excitement we have needed for a million years is sound asleep.
The kind of adrenaline we have replaced lizard brain activity with is stress.
- Too much on our minds
- Too busy of agendas
- Too much responsibility
- Too much noise
- Too many people
- Too many worries
- Too many goals
Then when we have a few minutes of free time, we are checking our I-phones for messages or sending them. When we have an opportunity for down time we fill it up with activities to get a boost like smoking, coffee, or texting.
What happens to the brain when it has too much unfocused, multitasking, over load is that it loses memory like a computer. When it loses memory power, it loses the ability to focus. When you can’t focus you lose the ability and desire to work on meaningful tasks or projects.
The first cure is to live inspired, but that is a whole other topic. (E book attached)
The next opportunity is to incorporate Courage and Discipline into your life; two great Cures.
People are bored because there is no challenge, no risk, and no positive adrenaline. So we want to create positive not self destructive adrenaline.
Two ways to get your adrenaline pumping are to focus on activities that require personal courage, not necessarily physical courage. This can be accomplished by creating personal challenges everyday and a list of personal goals that require discipline.
Set daily goals that will make you a more powerful person as an influencer, leader, friend, mate, parent, employee, boss, or community icon.
The first and most important is to become an influencer. This is a person who lives in an admirable fashion and acts, thinks, and speaks on a cutting edge. How do you get in this mode? Anyone can do it right now. Start doing things that require personal courage.
- In Sales, Who could I call right now that could be a difference maker?
- In school, what activity could I do right now that would be challenging and make me a better hire in the future? What could I study, learn, or begin that scares me because of the difficulty?
- In a relationship, what could I tell my mate that would give them a better insight into how I think? What am I most afraid to tell my mate that could make our relationship better?
- Own a company, what direction could I take us that would create a new niche without risking the whole enterprise? What claim of our expertise would make us a player? How do I deliver it?
In other words, what could I do everyday that would be a difference making activity? What could I start becoming everyday that would make people stand up and notice? What goal could I start working on right now that scares me but would make my life a lot more meaningful or incredible?
The second way to pump up your life is with more discipline for personal goals.
- Create a solid plan to get in better shape
- Create a solid plan to eat better
- Create a solid plan to lose weight
- Create a plan to read better material
- Get more organized
- Create deeper relationships
- Maintain extreme cleanliness, hygiene, and neatness
These items not only give you a higher quality life and build solid self esteem, but they will give you confidence that you can tackle more difficult challenges. You really have to have your life together and have discipline to achieve greatness. Do not let yourself off the hook or rationalize shortcomings. This leads to boredom.
I always found the more I could force improvement in exercise, the more I could tackle challenges that require more fortitude or courage.
I get bored, but I purposely plan it into my day so that I can refresh. One reason people are exhausted and then bored is they don’t allow any downtime. I am up at 4 or 5 a.m. because I am refreshed and it is quiet. I take three breaks during the day to surf, nap, and/or sit in the sun at the beach. I have three work sessions surrounding these breaks.
Each work session is challenging. I don’t need much sleep because my planned down time relaxes my nervous system.
Sleep is mostly about calming the nervous system. If you have no down time, your system will not recover. If you have too much alcohol, you cannot sleep. If you never have exercise, your brain is not functioning to optimum. Alpha and beta waves that power concentration and creativeness need aerobic activity at least every other day.
The brain also needs lots of protein, lots of omega 3 fatty acids, and lots of water.
It doesn’t need refined carbohydrates (sugar) or bad fats (Omega 6, mayonnaise, cooking oil, fried foods).
So if you don’t give the brain the things it needs, you will not be able to concentrate and do important work and you will be bored with what you feel like doing.
Do what Seth Godin says and always be shipping. This means you are always producing remarkable products, ideas, thoughts, and results.
If you want to live inspired, that is a whole new ball game but I offer a free e book you can download to explore.
Free Download “Life Begins at Inspiration”
What If You Could Change Your Life?
Posted by: | CommentsOne way to change your life is to change other people’s lives.
The most popular websites are the ones that allow consumers to interact with each other. These sites as you know are Google, Face Book, YouTube, Twitter, Ebay, and Craigs List to name a few.
The college guys who created Google and Face Book (now the movie) changed their lives by changing other people’s lives.
But most people are trapped in smaller sphere’s where there is little chance to influence a lot of people. For the most part people are working in a small niche where most of the known information is already available. Secondly, people are working for a company where their job description limits the audience.
Most people are charged with creating solutions or helping people accomplish particular tasks. Few of these assignments have the opportunity for earth shaking change.
Therefore it seems that in your present frame of mind and occupation, you have limited opportunity to bring change to others.
The second opportunity would be change your own life.
You would need to change your belief system. Most people are locked into a belief system about who they are, their level of capability, the value of their knowledge, their tolerance for risk, and the likelihood of sudden new change.
Most people are bored and spend a lot of time in activities to relieve that boredom. They now look at their cell phones a 1,000 times a day to see if someone is contacting them. They go to their favorite internet sites to read someone else’s views. They plan what they are going to do when they get out of work.
They no longer look inside for change, they look outside.
What if you could reassess who you are and why you are here and could make a new plan for how you were going to live your life.
You can change your life by changing other lives or you can change your life by changing yours. What is the difference between the normal existence of 90% of the population and the existence of the 10% that are inspired?
Inspiration is belief system. In this system there is little boredom. Inspiration changes the life of the person that is inspired. It may then affect others, but that is not the primary purpose.
What kind of people are inspired; people with passion. Passion is the yin and yang of boredom. Passion is the emotional link that takes one from hum drum to this life is amazing, I am amazing, and my opportunity is amazing.
It is the source of the indefatigable energy some people have that everyone else wants; but their energy is taking them somewhere. Most of us lost our passion after 6 years old when people started laying expectation and responsibility on us.
And you are saying, fine, but I still don’t see the solution for me. Most people say, I don’t have a passion to pursue.
I think every one does, but it is covered with layers of traditional beliefs. What if I said here is a billion dollars, you are through working, go play? I bet you would find plenty of passions. See you just haven’t been creative.
Now what you need is the link to your passion. But it might disturb all your currently locked in place behavior guiding mechanisms. Unlocking those is the price to escape boredom and to find out who you are.
Inspiration doesn’t mean you will find success. It means you will find excitement.
Very few well known or famous people, however, are not without Inspiration. It is hard to break through that which everyone has already done -without having passion.
Listening to sports announcers for a TV NFL football game they made the statement that it is hard to be an outstanding NFL player without passion. It is hard to be anything special without passion.
But to get there you have to connect to a different belief system and connect with what I call the Four Foundations of Inspiration.
I can’t do it all here, but I offer you a Free E Book that will spend another 17 pages getting you from here to there. After that I have a second Free E Book that will take you one more step.
I am not looking for anything from you. I am giving it away. Maybe at some point I will have something to sell, but you are safe for the moment. At this point, I would rather you be passionate.
Free Down load. The E Book “Life Begins at Inspiration”
Dependability Allows Us to Move to the Next Step
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- Image by Thai Jasmine (Take good care
) via Flickr
Every morning I get up I first look out my window. I want to see the new day.
I’m glad that it is there every morning. It means it is time to get on with my day.
We place a high value on dependable. What would I do if I looked outside and it was like a TV screen that had gone fuzzy. A message that you better call someone, today didn’t arrive.
We need this reliability from nature. When a big earthquake occurred in Los Angeles in the early 90’s a lot of people left their apartments without packing and fled the state. Psychologists say that people lose all faith when they cannot even depend on mother nature or the Earth to be predictable.
Business relationships are started when the customer believes they cab rely on the Seller to deliver a good product or a service. What kind of questions do we have when we buy tires or a new car? Can I rely on them?
What about human relationships? Do you take this man in health and in sickness forever? Why can we get a divorce for infidelity; when we get married the person pledges to be loyal everyday.
This relates to something primitive and basic even in insects about who is the mate that is entitled to pass on the seed. Male insects have instruments that clean out a female before sex so that the male can be sure the progeny is his. We know that a male will even suffer beheading in one species to ensure he has created the next generation.
A relationship grows deeper when two people feel they can depend on each other through thick and thin. The bond between mother and child is so strong death means very little to save a life. You might say a creator created some strong emotions to ensure the continuity of life.
You promised. You said you would be there. You said you would do it. You said you would come back. You said I could have it. You gave it to me.
Do you ever realize what kind of bond you break, what kind of history you have violated, what kind of natural instincts you have scorched when you break your word or lie? Do have any idea how deep the need for dependability, reliability and truth lies in our psyche, in the natural order of things?
Nature tosses and it shakes and it throws violent storms and lightening that kills, but have you ever woken up and not seen a new day? Dependability is built into our natural order. You violate this you have committed an unnatural act. And then you wonder why someone is so stunned. You have violated the most important basic feature of character.
We all do it. We all lie, disappoint, fail to show up when expected, fail to do the right thing, and fail to be dependable. It is a human flaw. But maybe we should at least be aware of what we violate when we do it.
P.S.
Did you know that if you Google God there are 487,000,000 pages
If you Google Dependability there are 18,700,000 pages
If you Google Nature there are 606,000,000 pages
Use of Technology Erodes Brain Capacity
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- Image via Wikipedia
In a NY Times Technology article, 5 neuroscientists on a river trip in Utah discuss the erosion of memory and focus by over use of technology.
The group has proponents and skeptics. One group says the use of technology and multitasking should build the brain muscle and make it stronger like exercise. The other group says those two erode the brain’s memory capacity like on a computer and exhaust the brain’s ability to focus, analyze and be creative.
Vacations refresh the brain if you allow yourself to remove the stimulus like cell phones and computers. These days people jump to their cell phones when they are bored, so the brain has little down time to relax.
City life creates more over stimulus. If you think driving on the freeway makes you exhausted, you have part of the picture. Now if you add multi tasking, all your technology and digital connections, responsibilities and anxieties its no wonder people have difficulty relaxing.
This has become such a sizzling field of research that two years ago the National Institutes of Health established a division to support studies of the parts of the brain involved with focus.
“If we can find out that people are walking around fatigued and not realizing their cognitive potential,” Mr. Braver says, then pauses and adds: “What can we do to get us back to our full potential?”
Mr. Braver says that when he retrieved his phone the night before, it dawned on him how much he turns to it in tiny moments of boredom: “Sometimes I do use it as an excuse to be antisocial.”
Mr. Strayer, the trip leader, argues that nature can refresh the brain. “Our senses change. They kind of recalibrate — you notice sounds, like these crickets chirping; you hear the river, the sounds, the smells, you become more connected to the physical environment, the earth, rather than the artificial environment.”
It seems pretty clear, even if not proven, that it pays to turn it all off and retreat to the hills to give the brain and nervous system some down time. It also helps sleep and will generate more creative thinking.
What is Wrong with Work?
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- Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr
The title says it all.
The moment we say I am going to work or I am at work today, or I just got off work, we start the mental classification of something we might loathe.
Work has deep roots in manual labor. Wage labor is defined as selling labor to an employer who buys it.
You do this for me and I will pay you this amount; a bartering of effort for wages.
1>Sometimes it’s good. You have a great talent for doing something you like and an employer is willing to pay a lot to have you on his team. This might be the result of following a passion and developing exactly the role you picture for yourself.
2>Sometimes you don’t really have an above minimum wage marketable talent but you talk your way into a job you can do. This means that regardless of your great personality, you are trading your hours for pay. A few generations ago, this would have been manual labor. That was real work. Now you are just mentally captive.
How do we get on the path to get the first type of job?
We make decisions early in life and they may have a big impact. Sometimes we have no choice without big consequences or confrontations. We decide to follow the path urged by our mentors to paint inside the lines, not rock the boat, and do as everyone says.
This leads to college, a major, and then graduation to competing with everyone just like us for real cookie cutter positions that businesses need to run their operations. Oh yes, human resources is a valuable facet of corporate life and pays well, but you can predict where it leads.
On the other hand, you decide early you don’t fit the cookie cutter mentality. You see the path but you have a wild streak, a maverick mentality, an I don’t care what you think attitude, a I can do something better than anyone outlook. You decide to deviate from the path and damn the torpedos you are going to do what you like. Your parents may have said they don’t know what to do with you.
Or at some point you are inspired by something that feels like your soul mate. We know people that have cooking in their blood; that love computers and gaming, that love a sport, that love to build, or that want to make T-Shirts.
Some people just want to be in business for themselves and will find a way to do it.
It’s the mentality of safety that makes the difference. People who need safety are most likely the people going to work. People who are willing to pit their will against the world for the risk of not surviving are not going to work.
People who are engaged in something that inspires them, put in more hours than people who go to work, but the inspired don’t see it as work; it’s the labor of love not the labor for money..
There is a big gamble to do something you love. You will work longer hours, you don’t have a guarantee of survival or of any income, you may not have any work benefits, and there is no safety net.
Yet, you have freedom of hours, you don’t have to answer to the machine, and you get to keep the glory and income of your production.
On the other hand when you go to work, someone else is probably deciding what the customers want and how to market to them and produce what is necessary and collect the money due.
When you work on your own you may have to fulfill all the functions. You may have to determine the market, how to produce, how to sell, how to ship, how to collect, and how to grow the enterprise. And yet these people may not consider this work.
These people are expressing themselves because they have the desire to know who they are and what they can achieve all on their own. They recognize that humans have an unlimited ability to take on responsibility, plan, produce and enjoy. This energy has more primitive roots from when man was more self reliant and self sufficient.
The modern society has created the safety net, but there is a trade off or a price to pay.
Life Begins at Inspiration
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- Image by wallyg via Flickr
Life changes from third gear to overdrive when you wake up inspired instead of motivated. What is the difference?
When we are young we are offered dessert if we finish our dinner. We are offered a prize for good grades from our parents. College becomes the motivation for good grades in high school. The boss offers a bonus or the ability to keep our jobs for reaching the company goals.
Happiness occurs when we become rich.
These are all good. They lead to good things. What happens when we don’t reach our goals as fast as we like or live up to other’s expectations or don’t become who we wanted to be or if there is not the big bang at the end of the achievement? How much frustration do people live with for hitting snags in their plans?
How do we feel when others have things we don’t and realize we have to work harder to get what we want? How come someone else has better than what we have or bigger and our next goal is to get something that is better and bigger? Isn’t that how most people spend their day dreams; pining for more?
Isn’t there a saying that “he wins who dies with the most toys?
I listened to a speaker explain how quantum physics explains successful practices. Most people do not achieve their dreams because they are always trying. Motivation is what keeps us trying.
Success is determined by our intention. If we intend to have a result, time is the only separation; the outcome is certain. It is a combination of vision, will, and commitment. There is no quitting.
Inspiration is the act of being instantly. Inspiration is the declaration that I already am. There is no need to try, there is no need for a pay off. The act of being is the payoff and the act of declaring I am is already the goal. Now you get the enjoyment of expressing yourself from already being the goal.
You, of course, see the disconnect. If you wanted to be the office manager or the first string quarterback, how could you now say that you are, when you are not?
And that is why you have to make the shift out of living in the box to living what I call outside the box. Living in the box is living for all the things that require motivation or goals; the things you are trying to be or achieve.
Inspired people are already living what they want to be and they are expressing it. The act of being what they want to be is the end. It is happiness. They get to live everyday being what they want to be. The act of expressing it is their pay off and joy.
It might require sacrifices and courage to move from the inside box to outside the box. But you will either experience your joy now or realize later you missed it. What do I mean?
Carlos Burle is one of the founders of the World Big Surf Tournament where people get points for riding the biggest waves. I am talking about the 50 to 100 foot waves. He started as a young surfer and realized that is all he ever wanted to be. He did what ever he had to do to keep surfing. There were hard times and struggles but the fact he was a surfer for life was never in doubt.
Van Gogh was a painter. He starved all his life, but the fact he was a painter was never in doubt. We could say the same for a Mozart, Rembrant, and other well known artists and personalities.
You know people who are expressing what they are by what they do. There is a difference between living in the box and outside the box. It is a declaration. Peyton Manning and Eli Manning are motivated to win the Super Bowl, but is there any doubt that they are anything but quarterbacks and have been all their lives?
Do you wake up thinking that today you will be expressing who you are or are you trying to reach a goal to get a great payoff? Are you trying to be or are you already? Are you working toward or are you expressing who you are?
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Monday Night Football and Our Need to Compete
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- Image via Wikipedia
Man is a gladiator. Even if we are not, we want to be.
We all have that instinct and deep burning desire to go out and kill something to survive. These days we do it with corporate takeovers. Our eyes are in front which means we are natural predators.
There are very few civilizations that have not been excited by violence and excellence, and competition all put together.
These football players had to go through 8 years of lifting weights 365 days a year. Then they go through the shredder to get to the NFL and have the opportunity to hit people with the force of a car traveling 25 mph. They have passion.
We live vicariously. We want to do it on the field too and we want to do it in our business careers.
There were the Romans who loved feeding people to the lions and having gladiators fight to the death.
The real violence is illegal today, although movies allow us to experience gore in chain saw massacres or just the ordinary shooting and knifing.
In hereditary years, the Romans were yesterday. We have sublimated it, but not lost it.
We’re still animals by nature. Violence still arouses primitive instincts. Competition is civil expression of our desire to fight and conquer; of the need to feel victorious, and give the high five. Women are the same. At their roots they are lionesses who kill for the pride.
Women now lead in almost every employment, professional and management category. In a few generations they will be the overwhelming leaders. They adapt better and have more sensitivity to complement their predatory desires.
In every species, the males are driven to prove their superiority and entitlement to lead the pack or herd. The females choose the best males to strengthen the species.
We really get it on in the work place. Exercise is a way to exorcise the demons
And Monday Night does a little bet of everything.
