Success and happiness are unarguably our Holy Grails, but the standards taught to find them are all wrong. We have been brainwashed into believing that the only way to achieve this elusive combination of success and happiness is through setting goals. This is simply not true. In fact, ... Views: 714
Have you ever lain awake at two o’clock in the morning, feeling stressed and overwhelmed because your dreams are not being accomplished? Do you constantly remind yourself that you have made mistakes in the past? Do you worry about whether or not you are making the right decisions about your ... Views: 1188
It happens between mothers and daughters, female coworkers, sisters and gal pals—women constantly comparing themselves to others. Whether consciously or unconsciously, most women question who is more beautiful, more successful, or has the most possessions.
At the root of a woman’s misguided ... Views: 1336
The generally accepted concept of success and failure is incorrect. People consider success and failure to be opposites. To understand why this is incorrect, consider the concept of failure: for many, failure is when we do not succeed at an assigned task, goal, project, or objective. The reality ... Views: 635
In school we learn a variety of math formulas. We learn how to convert temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius, we learn how to calculate the area of a triangle, and many more. The beauty of these formulas is the certainty that they provide. We know that if we know the formula and have the ... Views: 801
In March 1987, I launched a new magazine called Creating Excellence: Vermont’s Journal for People in Growing Businesses.
It was a very proud moment. The magazine was my baby—a beautiful baby. In fact, the cover of the invitation to the launch party read, “A Magazine is Born.”
I’d worked ... Views: 695
One of the quickest ways to improve your life is to decide that you are going to enjoy it. Enjoyment requires no complicated tools, no special training, and no expensive resources. In fact, enjoyment requires nothing more than your choice to allow it.
The rewards of that choice can be enormous. ... Views: 946
Energy psychology is a family of mind/body techniques that offers fast, new methods for reducing stress, achieving goals, and attaining peak performance. The methods are free, noninvasive, and easy to learn. They can benefit adults and children and can be used for self-help or integrated into a ... Views: 1489
A year before I got sick, I’d accumulated 37,888 frequent flier miles, made over 6,500 phone calls, booked $8,103,900 of new business for our company, and received an 18 percent raise. I’d skied 78 hours, hiked 41,420 vertical feet, swam 792 laps, spent 28 hours on the StairMaster®, biked 347 ... Views: 1077
One of the ways that we create disappointment and unhappiness is by holding on to limiting thoughts and feelings. When we suppress our emotions rather than experiencing them fully, they linger and make us uncomfortable. Through avoidance, we prevent our emotions from flowing through us, and it ... Views: 706
Dreams bring messages from deep inside, leading to self-understanding and transformation. Although dreams address all levels of consciousness, everyday dreams tend to focus on life’s unresolved emotional situations. Many of our emotional difficulties in life result from daily experiences that ... Views: 1522
Have you ever started to let yourself dream up something you wanted, only to hear that inner voice tell you all the reasons why you can’t get what you want? You say to yourself, “I’d love to start a new business because I just can’t afford to take any time off, and I’m sick of my job.” Then, ... Views: 1397
“Nothing is working—what should I do?”
Have you ever had this unsettling thought? What happens when you wake up and nothing seems to be working in your life? There is no immediate crisis, but you feel “out of step.” Because you are a doer, you will begin to take a mental inventory of your ... Views: 769
The strength of criticism lies in the weakness of the thing criticized.
–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Are the people who are close to you—your friends and family—preventing you from going after your dream of starting your own business? If so, you have a problem that is more common than you might ... Views: 909
You know that you are a creative being. We all have the ability to do original work and to make new connections between ideas, which is the key dynamic of the creative process. Yet, we are also well aware that sometimes, our creativity stalls, plays tricks on us, or appears to have vanished ... Views: 862
You’re on the way to the airport. You get on the plane with a book that you’ve been planning to read for quite some time. As you open your book, you glance at the person next to you. A few minutes later, you are asked a question, and you reluctantly answer. You lower your book a bit to be ... Views: 3320
Have you ever had the experience of making promises to yourself that you just didn’t keep? Most folks have, and most of us recognize the heaviness, the leaden quality, of the things we say we will do but don’t.
Some commitments feel like lead. Something in us simply doesn’t believe we can (or ... Views: 1738
Imagine a best friend who wants nothing more than your complete success, who always listens with interest to what you have to say, and who gives you the feedback you need to make tough choices and changes. This is the essential job of a personal coach. Coaches believe that you already have the ... Views: 737
Do you have a feeling that something is wrong in your career, yet you have not done anything about it? Do you feel like something is missing in your career, but you’d prefer not to think about it?
This is called denial—when you know something is not right, but you are not acting to change it. ... Views: 646
Have you ever walked into a store and instantly felt a pleasing warmth and friendliness that made your shopping experience wonderful? Did you notice that something special was going on, but you couldn’t quite put your finger on it? I call this “something special feeling” the invisible ecology of ... Views: 854
A lot of people talk about owning their own businesses, working for themselves, or “going out on their own” in the small business world. Few people actually take action to establish a business, and an even smaller number of people sustain a small business past five years.
As I talk with ... Views: 875
Bullies are people we deal with 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They’re our coworkers, neighbors, acquaintances, strangers, and, yes, even family and friends slip on their bully masks from time to time. (Some more than others!) No matter who, where, or why, bullies can make you feel miserable and ... Views: 1182
Recently, an explosion of research explaining the intricate workings of the human brain has occurred. Neuroscientists are now able, using advanced equipment, to literally “see” how the brain responds to stimuli as they’re happening. This was never before possible and has provided astounding ... Views: 1603
In midwinter of 2000 I was conducting a seminar at a beautiful resort in southern Florida. The focus of the seminar was to break limiting beliefs and create new ones to bring prosperity and abundance into a person’s life.
At the end of the last day I went to my hotel room, and as I entered, I ... Views: 737
Belief is the basis of all action, and this being so, the belief that dominates the heart or mind is shown in the life.
–James Allen (Above Life’s Turmoil)
You will rarely attempt something that you don’t believe possible, and you will never give 100 percent of your ability to something in ... Views: 1479
Ah, today is a wonderful day. It’s a great day to be alive—to learn, to give, to grow, and to achieve your dreams.
Did you notice that? Those statements? They are statements of belief and of conviction—of affirmation. I also call them self-instructions because that describes what they do: they ... Views: 832
One of the biggest factors affecting whether or not a person will fail or succeed at any particular endeavor is the belief he holds in his mind when he embarks on it. My experience as a life coach is that most people have a remarkable knack for making assumptions about their goals that are just ... Views: 1403
You hate your supervisor. There—you finally said it. You’ve been pussyfooting around it (and her) for long enough now. That’s it, you’ve had it! Let the truth be told—you hate your boss.
Your reflection in the mirror scowls back at you. You sigh, stop waving your toothbrush around, and stick ... Views: 1245
Everyone wants to be beautiful, young, healthy, and fit. Available diets and workouts have no end. Yet, the most important diet has been overlooked—this is a diet that releases stress, lets you sleep soundly at night, reduces cravings, makes you feel young, and brings wonderful possibilities ... Views: 2341
What an awesome time to be Fabulous after 50! We are stepping over the threshold of the new millennium. The explosion of knowledge and communication will thrust us into new beginnings, adventures, and ways of thinking and living.
Age doesn’t dull one’s luster because the shine comes from ... Views: 2302
While living on this planet, you can count on one thing: adversity. Sooner or later, something is going to upset your applecart. The good news is that no event can add up to the end of the world unless you say so: adversity is inevitable and presents itself to test your inner strength and ... Views: 1492
Anyone who has lived with an addiction or has had a close-up experience with someone struggling to overcome addictive behaviors knows that all of the theories and research are of little consequence. The real-world, nitty-gritty fight to reclaim one’s life is beyond the lab, the classroom, or the ... Views: 1293
Routinely, I rise out of bed before the birds and watch the sunlight flood my office every morning. See, I love this time of day, but what I don’t love is being rudely rousted out of a deep sleep before my normal rise-and-shine time, and every day, for the past few months, I have been.
I sleep ... Views: 935
In today’s world of self-help gurus, celebrity help shows, and spiritual masters, we are inundated with all kinds of advice and preaching about how we should be in this world. We should be fearless. We should be authentic. We should be ethical. We should never be angry. We should always be ... Views: 925