My daughter Alex is a senior in college and facing a bleak employment picture when she graduates. She is also looking for a passion. Reading so much of my stuff she believes that great things can happen when we believe in ourselves.

She likes to point at things I do like learning to surf and learning how to get my websites to page one Google on the internet. I enjoy most of my own accomplishments because I learn how to do things myself and I would never think of quitting.

Therefore it is only a matter of how much time it takes to learn.

I am not sure she really feels her own connection or whether her self belief is intellectual.

There is one way to make a belief a reality. Don’t ever quit. If you know you will never quit you have time to make progress. The goal has to have personal long term value.

If you don’t reach short term objectives you have to create a new strategy. If you don’t want to pursue the goal any further, consider whether it was a real goal or just something you were going to try.

Trying is never inspiration.

If the purpose of a goal is to acquire something, it will never be an inspiration. For one, it will die after we acquire or don’t acquire the materialistic end. An inspiration is expressing who we are. It is not buying things.

We have to make a lot of decisions based on money. But we can be connected and still make money decisions. We have to realize where the necessity for money fits into our plan.

If I want to be an astronomer, I might have to work various jobs until I get the necessary knowledge or training to do what I want. As long as I don’t want to be an astronomer by next week, I can fulfill my dream.

Inspiration calls to action self belief, faith, commitment, and love for the opportunity.

If your dream cannot include these emotions, it is not big enough.

My goal in surfing, for example, is to be on a short board and carving it up like the experienced surfers. I am some steps away, but I have already envisioned my self doing what I want. Never getting there is not really as important as the desire to continue the effort and the participation.

I can be an inspired surfer without having to do it for a living.

People who want to climb Mt Everest are inspired and committed. It is a worthwhile goal that has great personal meaning. It certainly expresses to themselves who they are. Many die in their commitment. That is serious inspiration.

Achieving the summit doesn’t define them, their effort and willingness to train defines them. Those who don’t make it will try again or climb other mountains.

Inspiration is more than success. Inspiration is an expression of who we are and has no counterpart in failure. The act of expressing who we are is the success. It includes our need for self belief, faith, courage, and commitment. We have already envisioned and become our end.

Download my Free 17 page E Book “Life Begins at Inspiration”

See an inspirational video   http://youtu.be/U3NgzQ9Pcsg Life is Like a Cup Of Coffee

I hadn’t exercised in a few days and knew I needed it. I like to run up the 40 wooden stairs between my street and the beach. I can look at the surf while I’m working out and see everyone biking and walking their dogs on the boardwalk below.

As I started, my mind said this wasn’t going to be a good day and I probably wouldn’t be able to do the stairs many times. I attributed it to just my body being out of rhythm or tired although I felt it shouldn’t be with the two days rest.

As I kept repeating the climbs I was thinking my body felt fine regardless of the cautions my mind was throwing at me. I soon went past 20 climbs which is my average and decided to try 40. I soon went past 40 and headed for my record 60. I decided to prove my mind really didn’t know what it was talking about and set a new record at 80.

I was somewhat inspired by my daughter Alex who recently tried out for her college travel soccer team that is one of the best in the nation. She made it and just wanted to prove to herself that she could.  We are continuously testing ourselves to prove we can achieve and break the shackles of our mind’s limitations.

The mind can be a natural inhibitor. It wants to sit on the couch at home and watch TV rather than try something new and adventurous that could result in failure. Its basis is the lizard brain which warns of danger, warns of starvation when you diet, is worried about rejection if you want to meet someone, and is worried about getting tired if you want to push your body.

The mind has limited energy and courage.

The Spirit is connected to endless energy. The earth is part of the endless energy of the universe that has planets spinning and orbiting and bodies of water charging and receding.  There is power in hurricanes, tornados, lightening, and earthquakes.

Man is capable of vision and dreams and power that can connects him to the energy that is constantly flowing in waves through our atmosphere. He has an emotional energy that when properly connected can push him to phenomenal heights of physical and artistic achievement.

The mind feels most comfortable coloring inside the lines. Wonder where that came from? Coloring outside the lines is throwing caution to the wind.

To really find out who we are, we have to get outside of our minds. We have to connect to the boundless energy of mother nature and let her help us express ourselves. We are the wind and the tides but we can cook and write and paint and dance and sing and whatever it is we want to do.

The next time your mind says you can’t do something, try not listening.

Download Free E Book “Life Begins at Inspiration” 17 pages

Download Video   http://youtu.be/VkCFeNeqyHk Don’t Ever Quit

Where as you and I might never tackle a big guy, the loss of spirit could keep one from getting out of bed in the morning or all day.

Nothing can pin a big man down as fast as the loss of spirit.

It is powerful.

It is hard to believe the highs and lows that can be created by Spirit. It isn’t just brain power.

When we connect to our force, it can push us beyond human expectations or endurance. It can push through unbelievable challenges. We might attribute great feats to adrenaline or emotional desire, but the will is behind any great feats.

And yet a few unkind words can wreck a spirit. We humans don’t really understand our power. We don’t understand energy.

We are like a million volt transformer that is or is not plugged in. With all the power of nature that could be harnessed and channeled through our will, some still stay stuck with boring jobs and not hooked up to the available  juice.

The emotions are hooked to the brain, but spirit can connect us to revelation, vision, and dreams, that harness emotion and create powerful energy.

I watched waves yesterday come to the shore and release the energy that had been in their swell maybe from across the ocean. A swell has great energy that reaches the shore and dances for a few minutes as a wave and then the energy is gone; forever.

It’s like humans. We are born perfect with the ability to tap an emotional energy that is connected to the power of the universe. And then we are gone. We are born and we have time to dance if you choose.

It is a shame if you don’t tap into expressing who you are. It is where your joy and real happiness lay hidden. The other day I was out with 25 surfers enjoying great waves in the sun and I thought this is a real play ground. Time after time we harnessed the waves for a big smile into shore.

I have noticed how even Seagulls and Pelicans revel in the energy of the wind often sailing down the coast at 30 mph without having to flick a feather.  They are enjoying a gift.

The earth and life are like that. You have to kick up your heels and overcome all the reasons that would keep you stuck. You have to forget judgment. You have to find someone who really supports you and tell them what outrageous goals you have.

All the stars are playing in the Universe and you are entitled to shine for a few minutes.

See a great video on Inspiraton   http://youtu.be/dCgYXAJOvkk Inspiration

Download a Free E Book on Inspiration   Life Begins at Inspiration

Purchase and Download my new E Book   “Happiness is Balancing Values” Only $2.99  See More It is about redefining our purpose and ignoring current economic realities to rediscover who we are. Happiness has to move to a new paradigm untapped by the last few generations.  Read A Sample Chapter

This is an introduction to a new E Book I just completed. I have written so much about inspiration and realize the hunger for Inspiration and flight from Boredom have a lot to do with our pursuit of happiness.

The problem is partly with the definition we have grown up with for happiness. Happiness has so often been defined as the result of something else happening first.

In the past 50 years, life was more predictable and we created paths and goals. It was clear if our parents worked hard they could have a good life for themselves and their children.

More recently it has been touted that if you got good grades and went to college you could get a good job and have a better life than your parents.

But everything is gone. Parents have seen their investments halved and retirement plans often scuttled. College graduates can’t find quality jobs that have real personal meaning.

The future is extremely uncertain.

Now what is happiness?

It has to be redefined. But the glass can be seen as half full. This is a real opportunity to find the true meaning of happiness.

Happiness is not really the result of an event or accomplishment that creates happiness. That, at the most is temporary satisfaction. If our happiness is a function of an event, then we will soon be looking for another buzz.  Even a QB winning the Super Bowl soon wants to win another one.

Happiness is a constant state of mind that says we are happy with who we are and why we are here. It is not job related and we are not our jobs. At the most our job might be an expression of who we are but it is not a definition of who we are.

We have to see a larger picture.

In the attached video from YouTube, “Life is Like a Cup of Coffee” the producer makes the point that we often miss the real significance because we seek happiness in things.

Real happiness would be a revelation to most people or an aha, if they had not stumbled on it before. It has to be acceptance of the fact we are perfect as we are. We are not really more perfect in the Universal sense if we lose 10 pounds; that is vanity.

Real happiness is having the opportunity to express our appreciation of who we are. Inspired chefs, football players, writers, singers, have a passion for what they do. They are happy expressing themselves in the most complete manner they can muster.

The modern world has minimized and trivialized who we are. We have often become widgets. We are destroyed by the economy because our happiness is tied to our surroundings and possessions.

Before modern times, man was self sufficient. He was connected to nature. He understood the order of things. It is time to regress to our feelings of self sufficiency but incorporate the advantages of the modern era to express ourselves.

We don’t need to kill wooly mammoths anymore, partly because since then, evolution gave us two additional brains; the limbic and frontal cortex. Now we can muster our courage, develop discipline, and use our brains to create someone that has a new perspective.

We can develop personal leadership where we grow and then  we inspire those in our closest circle.

It is time to break the chains and reclaim our entitlement.

New E Book “Happiness is Balancing Values” only $2.99  See two sample chapters

http://youtu.be/U3NgzQ9Pcsg Life is Like a Cup Of Coffee

The secret to losing weight has never changed. Eat less.

The real secret is the realization that we don’t need as much as we think.

The real obstacle is the lizard brain that for a million years won’t let us starve ourselves. In fact, when it senses we are getting less calories than we are burning, it shuts down our calorie burning metabolism.

It’s us vs the lizard brain. Who will win?

I have never been one to starve myself. No one in my family is anorexic, but everyone believes in fitness and weight control.

In the last 6 years I have dropped 30 pounds. I have had to convince myself that I could live off less. I have always had an active physical fitness program. It has never been the secret to losing weight.

I have generally cut down my intake in phases. Each phase resulted in a loss of another 10 pounds.

If you make a leap of faith that you don’t need as much as you eat, but instill balance you could lose weight very fast without starving.

What do I eat now? I wake at 5 a.m. and start writing. I have two cups of coffee and a smoothie with fruit and protein. I make a smoothie that has at least 4 glasses that I consume during the day. Between 9 and 10 I run 1,000  steps at the beach and may run a half mile on the hard sand. I exercise 5 days and take two days off in between days. Several days a week I will surf for half an hour.

If you are comparing your consumption also consider I weigh 190 pounds.

I write again in the late morning and then again at night.

Somewhere in mid morning I will make half a tuna melt or a fish taco. In the afternoon I may have some chips or more smoothie. For dinner I have a vegetable salad with more tuna. I have half a Snickers bar for dessert. Before I go to bed I have a bowl of oat meal with some cantaloupe.

You can have light snacks during the day as you need them. No Big Macs.

I haven’t had cooked meat in three months.

In the first two months of this diet I lost 7 pounds. I never starved.  My weight has since stabilized.

What I have learned is that my body doesn’t need much and enjoys consuming less. I have the energy to keep increasing my exercise and to write with focused attention.

The important ingredients to keep alert are minimum food and few carbohydrates other than fruit or vegetables and no bad fats or refined sugar. No soda. Protein, hydration, and Omega 3 are the brain’s best friends.

Everyday I exercise, write for several hours, and sleep well.

The more weight I lose the easier it is on my body to exercise and the better I feel. The less I eat, the better my brain functions. I am never sick and haven’t been for at least 5 years.

Over all fitness, performance, and self esteem can grow tremendously when you slay the lizard brain.

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

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 “Life Begins at Inspiration” Free 17 page E Book

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

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 17 page E Book  “Life Begins at Inspiration“  Download Now

Free 11 page E Book  “Inspiration and Leadership vs Boredom and Death” Download Now

Brought to you by the Foundation for Personal Leadership

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 unnecesary choice.

Download 11 page Free E Book “Inspiration and Leadership vs Boredom and Death”

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