the music inside us …

“Most of us to go to our graves with our music still inside us.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

Are there things on your list of life that you haven’t given attention?  There are a lot of people who have their dreams bottled up inside of them.   They watch the days go buy with a dream, a powerful dream, stuck inside their heart, and stuck inside their minds.   The meaning of life trapped in a bottle waiting to be released, the genie lives inside of us waiting to get out.   We are that lamp; we are that vessel that holds the genie captive.   What would it take to let the genie out?   It is only then that the dreams that were meant to be lived out can be.

Let the genie out.   Let the music out.   Live your dreams and  live your dreams today.

take a break…

“Creativity is about play and a kind of willingness to go with your intuition. It’s crucial to an artist. If you know where you are going and what you are going to do, why do it? I think I learned that from the artists, from my grandmother, from all the creative people I’ve spent time with over the years”.

Frank O. Gehry

Take a break, take a couple minutes to take in a deep breath.   Now exhale.

When was the last time you had fun?   When was the last time you laughed so hard tears flowed?

Have you been taking life so seriously that you forgot to take some time to have fun and laugh?

What was the silliest thought you ever had?   What made it so silly?

Have fun, only if it is for a few minutes, have fun!

Take life a little bit less seriously, and enjoy life a lot more.

Continuously improve

 

Continuously improve. Increase your capabilities. Be a constant learner. Develop feedback systems—both formal and informal. Act on the feedback you receive. Thank people for feedback. Don’t consider yourself above feedback. Don’t assume today’s knowledge and skills will be sufficient for tomorrow’s challenges.”

Stephen M.R. Covey, The Speed of Trust

secret recipe

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.
 Napoleon Hill

Where does the journey start in making your dreams become a reality?   Are you living your dreams right now?   Do you want the formula for achieving your dreams?

What does your dream look like?   Have you written down in vivid detail where you want to be in one year or five years?   Is the dream so vivid that you can see it unfolding in your mind?   Can you see the activities that have to take place?

Here’s a recipe for realizing a dream.   Below are the ingredients that make dreams come true.   It’s not an easy recipe nor is it an impossible recipe.

1. Take responsibility for your life, 100% of your life belongs to you.
2. Create a plan
3. Live life with intention
4. Be willing to pay the price to achieve your dreams
5. Be focused
6. Become an expert
7. Stay the course
8. Start today

If the recipe looks like it would be too hard to do alone find someone to help you.  Find someone who can encourage you.   Find someone who will hold you accountable.

What will it take to start living your dream today?   What is stopping you?

challenge yourself

 

“Challenge yourself.
You may well surprise yourself at what
strengths you have, what you can accomplish.”
Cecil Springer

 

 

a mission worth …

Creating a creed that defines the set of rules you desire to live by.  It is almost a mission statement.   Marva Collins the headmaster at the Westminster Prep in Chicago wrote this one at her school.  From the book “Marva Collins way” by Marva Collins and Civia Tamarkin.

‘Society will draw a circle that shuts me out, but my superior thoughts will draw me in.  I was born to win if I do not spend too much time trying to fail.  I will ignore the tags and names given me to by society since only what I have the ability to become.

Failure is just as easy to combat as success is to obtain.  Education is painful and not gained by playing games.  Yet it is my privilege to destroy myself if that is what I choose to do.  I have the right to fail, but I do not have the right to take other people with me.  God made me the captain of only one life – my own.

It is my right to care nothing about myself, but I must be willing to accept the consequences for that failure and I must never think that those who have chosen to work, while I played, rested, and slept, will share their bounties with me.

My success and my education can be companions that no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, and no enemy can alienate.   Without education man is a slave,  a savage wandering from here to there believing whatever he is told.

Time and chance come to us all.  I can be either hesitant or courageous.  I can swiftly stand up and shout:  “This is my time and my place.  I will accept the challenge.”’

 

What would your creed say if you had one?

know the who …

Our roots must go deep before our souls can soar.

A tree grows higher when the roots of the tree go deeper.   In our lives we have to have solid roots beneath us before we can achieve the results we desire most in our lives.   We have to know “who” we are before we can become all that we were meant to be.   We have to know what our strengths and gifts are and believe in them before our tree can touch the skies without toppling over.

Without strong and deep roots it is easy for us to traverse life gaining more and more success only to find one morning that there is nothing supporting all that effort.  The roots of our tree are shallow and in a moment our life is toppling downward.

We can learn a lot from trees:  they’re always grounded but never stop reaching heavenward.  ~Everett Mámor

whatever is right …

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Philippians 4:8

Ancient wisdom that is still relevant and valuable today.  How much time do you spend thinking on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy?

It is so easy to get trapped into thinking of things that are negative, to think of things that are condemning rather than praiseworthy.

What do you think would happen to you if you focused on doing what is right, true, noble, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy each day?   What would that look like to those around you?  What would they see if you could communicate in such a way that those words became truth?   What would that feel like?   What would it sound like?

Confidently seek your dreams

“I have learned that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors  to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. “
Henry David Thoreau

Seek your dreams with passion.   Follow your dreams earnestly.   Never let go of your passions and dreams, let them blossom in their own time.

have a better day

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”-
Howard Thurman

What makes you come alive?

What one thing would make your today better for you?   What would raise your score from what it is right now (if you rated your day on the scale of 1-10, where one is not where I want to be to 10, maxxed out in life and happiness)?

What could you do to make your day better?

1. Thank someone (anyone really, yes really anyone).

2. Put a smile on!

3. Believe you can, you can!

4. Help someone who isn’t having a good day have a good day.

5.  Write a note of gratitude to someone you know.

What other suggestions do you have?   How would you help someone else have a better day?