Woo Hoo

Life is NOT meant to be a journey to the grave
with the intention of arriving safely,
attractively coiffed,
perfectly manicured,
body weak and stymied,
wings down and tail dragging under,
but rather to skid in sideways,
hair flying in your wave,
wings fully un-furled,
chest up, eyes sparkling,
chocolate in one hand,
wine in the other,
body thoroughly enjoyed,
totally worn out
and screaming

WOO HOO what a ride!!

Original author unknown, circulated for years through the internet.

Be Aware of Routine Influences

When you commit to making a change in your life, by focusing on your desires and dedicating yourself to having them, you must also be aware of the routine influences in your life.

What music do you listen to? When you listen, how do you feel? What words echo in your mind?

If you are tempted to say “its only words, no big deal”. Think about this: If someone called you stupid, ugly or fat or slanderous and insulting words against your character, or worse – would they only be words?

Words have power over you - or words can work for you.

Learn from a champion

For years in my presentations and in my book It Works with Simple Keys, I stress the importance of writing down your goals, envisioning them and taking action.

This year Michael Phelps revealed how he had a piece of paper, his intention list in his bedroom and after his remarkable wins at the Olympics in an interview with Bob Costas: “What was on that much talked about piece of paper? You wish lost or your intention list?”

Phelps:” I think you saw it. It was all there, I think the only difference was the 200 fly, but other than that everything was pretty close to, pretty close to identical to what was written on the piece of paper.”

When you write down your goals and desires onto paper, and you embody them - your potential to achieve them substantially increases.

Phelps talks about using his imagination to fuel his goals:” The biggest thing that I've been thankful for is that I have been able to use my imagination. When some people said it's not possible and it can't be done, I think that's when my imagination came into play.“

"I think it really shows that no matter what you set your imagination to, anything can happen. If you dream as big as you can dream, anything is possible. I saw so many quotes saying it's impossible to duplicate it, it won't happen. It just shows you that anything can happen.

So after writing it down, and envisioning it – he did another critical step: He took action, he trained.

Phelps: “ I’ve been able to have a lot of hard work and Bob (his coach) and I have gone through a lot together. It's all paid off."

One more behavior he adopted was to only share his goals with the one person he trusted to maintain that vision (His coach). Doing this he could prevent naysayers from attempting to tell him why it couldn’t be accomplished and perhaps this also helped him to replace the message a middle-school English teacher once told him that he would never be successful.

Write it down
Read it daily – envision it
Take action
Accomplish your dreams

Express Gratitude

Some people say “I’ll be grateful when (fill in the blank) happens, or I get (fill in the blank), or when this (fill in the blank) does what I want…..”

If we hold Gratitude hostage until we get what we want we may never truly express Gratitude. You will be so focused on what you don’t have, that even when you get something you said you would be grateful for if it happened or you got it, you fly right on by Gratitude to your next wanting or next compliant.

Before doing anything else today, stop and take out a clean sheet of paper. Forget about what you think are problems or the work you think you have to do right now.

Take these next few minutes to recharge yourself.

Write down 3 things that you are honestly grateful for - right now in your day. Think beyond the platitudes or your usual response and find 3 gifts in life. Was it a friend who called at just the right time, a favorite food that was in the refrigerator, traffic that was in your favor on your way to work?

That's all - now continue with your day.

Just maybe, you might feel a little differently than you did before doing this exercise.

The Chicken and the Eagle

One day, a naturalist who was passing by a chicken farm was struck with curiosity.

He noticed an eagle, the king of all birds, living among the chickens.

He asked the farmer, "Why do you have this eagle confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens?" "Since I have given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it has never learned to fly," replied the farmer. "It behaves as chickens behave, so it is no longer an eagle." "Still," insisted the naturalist, "it has the heart of an eagle and can surely be taught to fly."

After talking it over, the two men agreed to find out whether this was possible. Gently, the naturalist took the eagle in his arms and said, "You belong to the sky and not the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly."

The eagle, however, was confused; he did not know who he was. He was comfortable with his life and was content with the farmer providing his food and being in the company of the chickens. Seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again.

Undismayed, the naturalist took the eagle on the following day up on the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, "You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly." But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self. He was afraid of the world he did not know. He was scared to fly. He jumped down once more for the chicken food.

On the next day, the naturalist rose early and took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There he held the king of birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, "You are an eagle. You belong to the sky as well as to the earth. Stretch forth your wings now and fly." The eagle looked back toward the barnyard. Then he looked up to the sky. He still did not fly. Then the naturalist lifted him straight toward the sun. The eagle looked up to the sky and began to tremble. Slowly he began to stretch his wings. He looked back once more to the barnyard and then fixed his gaze toward the sky.

At last . . . . With a triumphant cry he soared into the heavens.

From that moment on, the eagle was living life as an eagle.

Now it may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with a certain fondness and nostalgia. It may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to the barnyard to live the life of a chicken. He truly was an eagle, even though he had lived the life of a chicken.

Just like this eagle . . . . . people who have learned to think of themselves as something they are not can re-decide in favor of what they really are.

What are your personal values?

A person's got to have a code,
a creed to live by
~ John Wayne ~

In general, personal values evolve from circumstances with the external world and these can change over time. For many generations, most of us learned our values - sometimes referred to as morals, from parents, teachers and religious leaders. Family, country, generation, experience, historical environment and your perception of all of these, may also have an influence on the values you adopted. As we participated in life, the influence over our choice of values may have changed. Today, television, news opinions and the opinions of others, may have an influence over your choice of values.

Love, courage, bravery, honesty, integrity and compassion are examples of values. Many people are taught that certain behaviors have value and these behaviors also show value to ourselves and others.

Your personal values are implicitly related to choice - your choice, and they guide your decisions.

Do you keep them, or compromise them in order to get what you want in the moment or event? Do you ignore them in an attempt to make another person happy or influence someone else?

Anytime we compromise our personal values, for whatever reason, we are damaging our self-image and our self-esteem, as well as comprising our results. Some times this is referred to as “selling out” or “selling your soul”.

In order to be empowered by your values, you must be clear what they are. The more you recognize and honor your personal values, the more your self esteem benefits, your feelings of self value increase and the world sees the best of you.

What do your stand for?

What is important to you in your life?

What is important to you in a mate?

What is important to you in profession, your job or career?

Are you living the values that motivate you to feel good about yourself?

Right now, can you write down your 5 highest non-compromisable values?
These values that you will honor – no matter what ! No disclaimers or exceptions.

This can be tricky for some people. Some will write that "honesty" is one of their values. However, does this mean all the time, or to everyone except telemarketers and the IRS? Non-compromisable values are those values that you will honor without disclaimers or exceptions.

If you can start with only one - that's a start. If you don't have one, then choose the one you are willing to have and honor and start there. If you can write a list and know deep in your gut that you are honoring these values, then honor yourself for your commitment to your values and yourself.

Living your life through Gratitude

"Living your life through Gratitude, is seeing that the world would be missing something very valuable if you were not in it”

Unconditional Gratitude

"Look into the eyes of a devoted animal companion and you will see the pure unconditional Gratitude they feel for the opportunity they have to unconditionally love you."