release your doubts

“Doubts and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination, which the steadfast heart will conquer, and the large mind transcend.”   Helen Keller

 

Doubt is a disease.   Doubt stops people in their tracks and keeps them from being all that they could be.  What are the doubts you carry around with you?   Do you doubt your abilities?   Do you doubt your imagination?

Doubt is an anchor for our soul, it is the padlock that holds us back from being free, and it is a cloud that hangs around us preventing us from seeing the horizon.   

“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor”   Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

What is holding you back from living your life as it was meant to be lived?   Is it a doubt?  Is it a doubt about your abilities?   

What are you doing to conquer your doubts?

Are you an artist?

What makes you standout above the crowd?

What makes your work a work of art? 

“He has a passion for his craft, but no real passion for spreading his ideas.  And if the ideas don’t spread, if no gift is recieved, then there is no art, only effort”, writes Seth Godin in his latest book, “Linchpin: Are you indispensable?”.

The question is, if you are an artist, if you create something unique of value to a business or anywhere else, who knows about it?   How are you changing the world with your art?   Art means any craft, a mental craft, a piece of software, a real piece of art,  or anything that separates you from the crowd.   What are you holding deep inside of you that is art.   Is your masterpiece just waiting to be born?

If everything looks the same, feels the same, smells the same, or tastes that same what is the risk in that?   Let your art show up in the world.   Words, craft, ideas, things, or whatever it is, let the world see it.   Let it be new, let it be striking and let it rattle the status quo.

Be a difference maker in a world that is all about being the same.

act on your dream today …

“The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.”

 George Bernard Shaw

 

What dreams, visions and goals have you passed by because you chose to wait another day?  How many more chances will you have to live out your purpose?   As each day ticks by another chance to make a difference ticks by as well.   Right now is the time to take action, to move forward in the direction of your dreams.

Let’s say you wait.   You think it is OK to wait another year, to put off what your heart desires for something else, something less important, something that does nothing for your being.  Then in nine months time something else happens and the dream starts to slip from a year to two years.   Before long the dream has slipped for five years and now you are looking back in regret that you didn’t take the time to make that dream real.

As time passes and your dream sits on pause the chains of life grow heavier and tighter around you.   The burdens of life grow, the dream shrinks, and shrinks and shrinks as does a part of your soul.

Do you have a dream that lives inside of you?   Is it big enough to live outside of you?  

Cogs in a machine … are you one of them?

The secrets to success have been well known for  years, and yet people shrink back from the opportunity for success for something else, mediocrity.  People live in work where replication is there day.   People live by habit, by doing the same things over and over again and eventually they become a cog in an infinite machine.   When the cog gets worn out it is replaced by a new shiny cog, but a cog none the less.

The world is filled with cog like things, fast food, where you can get identically shaped and prepared meals.   They look the same, they smell the same, because it is all the same.   The workers in a fast food restaurant need no special skills, they are just cogs in a machine.

Of course there are processes that need to be followed so that the outcomes of the process are consistent.   A car coming out of a production line missing various components would hardly be what anyone would want.

Think about your day.  Think about your habits, what do you do exactly the same day after day?  How is that helping you?   Are you moving forward in life or are you just becoming a cog?

Living in fear?

“You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith.”

Mary Manin Morrissey

How many dreams have you allowed to die a silent death because you feared that there was no way that the dream could come true?

How many regrets have you had when the dream slipped away?

Where are you standing now?   Are you standing for your dreams or against your dreams?

A dream is a vision of what you would like to come true.   Often those dreams sit idly by as the daily activities of life seep in and drain away the energy and passion to seek the dream.   It only takes a day and the days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months and months into years and years into decades and finally the dream and life slip away.

It only takes a moment to lose the dream and it only takes a moment to grab the dream in a tight embrace.   It is in the moment that you embrace the dream that the true passion of your soul awakens and something special begins to happen.  Your life suddenly takes on new meaning, new direction and new energy.   The dream when fully embraced allows you to move through obstacles and setbacks.  The dream brings you closer to your true self.

Fear however reduces the dream to a mere speck, just a small flicker of light that reminds you what could have been.   The dream appears out of reach and perhaps too small to bring to life.  Sadly the dream falls out of your hands and lives no more.   Fear can do that, fear can silence the flame, fear can silence the imagination, and fear can put you into a box in which you only hear the echoes of your voice … my dream, my dream, my dream.

What then can replace fear?   What will allow you to reach out and touch your dreams?

What new belief must you have to overcome your fear?

What are you doing to overcome your fears?

Living in integrity

“To attain inner peace you must actually give your life, not just your possessions. When you at last give your life – bringing into alignment your beliefs and the way you live then, and only then, can you begin to find inner peace. “
Peace Pilgrim

Integrity is alignment with who you are, with what you think and what you do.  When all of those are in perfect alignment you are living in integrity.   For so many people life isn’t that way.   Many people  live a life which grates at the soul that is fractured by the grinding of the beliefs they have and the life they live out.   When those are not in alignment there is friction which comes across to others in variety of ways.

You are less powerful when you are not living in your full integrity.   You are less happy when you can’t honor you beliefs, thoughts and actions.  It isn’t always easy to align your beliefs, thoughts and actions.  It takes a willingness to embrace the fact that integrity is important to living a life of significance.

Most people will take their car into the auto shop to get their wheels on their car aligned so that the tires don’t wear so quickly and so that their car handles correctly.   Alignment of the wheels makes sense, it saves money, provides for better handling and is safer.

Our lives need alignment and sometimes it takes a bit of courage to realize that we need to align our lives.   When we do, we can live with greater awareness, greater satisfaction, better results, improved happiness, better relationships, and a more rewarding career.

How much wear and tear are we willing to put up with before we go see the mechanic and get our lives aligned?

Start living in integrity today … make the shift and start living a better life.

begin the shift

Do you have something you want to change or achieve in your life?

Maybe you you’d like to start a new business, a new career, a new relationship, lose weight, or something else.

The road to success and change all share the same properties.

1. Be clear on what you want in your life.
2. Perspective, often people have difficulty understanding what they need to change.   Someone else can help you find perspective, usually it takes someone who isn’t a close friend or family member.
3. Get Support, find someone who can help you, and support you.

What do you want to change most today?

Have you tried to change before?

On a scale of 1-10 how did it work for you?

Why do you think the change didn’t work as well as you wanted?

Are you ready for change?

“Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith.”
Margaret Shepherd

Contact me today and start the journey to a life that allows you to live out your dreams.

Go to the contact page on my website and sign in.

the how of happiness

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” Declaration of Independence

We were given that phrase in 1776 which now stands as a guiding light for American society.   Happiness statistics around the globe show that the US stands in 13^th place with regards to happiness.       Where does your happiness index stand right now?   What would it take to raise your level of happiness?

Some people would say that a good mood is a good path to happiness.

What are some good methods to get into a good mood?

Studies indicate that choosing the right career will boost your happiness.  How is the career that you have today helping you become happy?

Albert Schweitzer wrote, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” , and that seems to match the outcome of the studies.   A good career choice will make you happier.

What tips do you have to make life happier?

set the intention

What dreams are sitting unattended to right now?

What five things do you want to accomplish, “big hairy audacious goals”, in your life?

Write those down.   The next thing to do is to announce those goals to others, make it big and tell everyone you top five goals for your life.   Start to breathe those goals.  Start to taste those goals.  Start to hear those goals.   Start to see those goals.  

The big goals will then need to be broken down into smaller goals, yearly goals, monthly goals and weekly goals.  The plan is to achieve the big goal but first the goals need to be more manageable and attainable.

Use the very big goals as a means of setting your intention, which is like setting your compass.  You know you want to head north and along the way you know there are going to be things you have to do.  You are going to have to cross mountains, rivers, and you’ll have to face your own lions, tigers and bears.

“Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

It will take time and effort to realize the dream, so set the intention today so that the dream can take shape tomorrow.

seagull wisdom