push the boundaries

We change our behavior when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. Consequences give us the pain that motivates us to change.” 
― Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend

Growth requires that you push yourself beyond the boundaries you have become comfortable with. It’s a new year, perhaps you have some goals that you’d like to focus on. Do those goals push you beyond what you have done before?

If you haven’t developed a set of personal goals or professional goals now is the time to create some. What are some things you could do to enhance your life?

1. How do you want to grow as a person?
2. How do you want to grow as a professional?

Thing big, Think bigger.

Find the thing within you that inspires and motivates you and then do something with that inspiration. Make something new. Make something happen. Start today.

how do you know?

“The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself.”
― C. JoyBell C.

How do you know if you are living your life in the best way possible?   Have you spent time evaluating your own progress through life or are you just going with the flow?

Have you thought about your life plan (if you have one)?

What do you think your purpose is?   Your purpose for work, life, relationships, personal growth, finances, health/fitness, relationships and spiritual perspective, have you defined what you want to be doing in those domains.

I think it is important to focus on those core life elements and strengthen them.   It helps create a greater sense of peace in your life so that you aren’t just existing, but existing with purpose.  With a well defined purpose you have a starting point from which to define goals that enable you to realize your purpose.

What are  your major goals that you want to achieve?

What is stopping you from setting new more powerful and exciting goals for your life?  When do you think you’ll take that step to define your future in a way that aligns with your purpose?

 

 

Finding meaning in joy and suffering

I don’t know how many people find meaning in suffering but it might just be that in suffering you discover more about yourself than you do when you are in a state of joy.   The questions are asked more often in suffering.  Questions of why – why me – why?  Perhaps that is the wrong question to ask.  When there is suffering the goal is to make it go away and that it does go away and in most cases it will.

When we experience joy more often than not we know it will subside overtime and go away.   It is unlikely that the question is asked how can I keep joy going when we are in a state of joy.   It seems as if we accept joy for what it is when it is present.

Business leaders try to examine the success of others so that they can apply that knowledge to their line of work in order to increase their chance of success or to increase their current success.  Now what would happen if individuals focused on improving their lives, their joy and their success, what do you think would happen?

Constant incremental improvement – constantly improve the joy in your life by focusing on what makes you filled with joy.

Try it!   Spend a few minutes each day and write down the things that were good – joyful.   Even if it is just one thing write it down and the next day try to find two things that were joyful.  You may have to work on making joy enter your life – try it!

In suffering try to find joy and it may mean helping someone else find joy.

You can

 

Do you believe that?  You can!  You will!

 

The power of positivity can transform a life.  The words we use – I can – I will – I am – are words of power.

Start your day with an action – “I will”, or “I can” or a belief “I am”.   Those are words that you own that can not be taken away from you.   I own my destination – I own this minute.  

I can make a difference.  You can!

I am and I will.

You might be missing one thing – a plan!   How will I do what I need to do?

What steps do you need to take to make it happen?

Here is a simple rule to apply to that plan.  Make it a SMART plan.

Make it Specific.

Make it Measureable.

Make it Actionable.

Make it Realistic.

Make it Timely.

That is right make a specific plan – focus.

Make it measurable – how are you going to know you are done?

Make it actionable – the plan has to be something doable.

Make it realistic – do something that is going to matter, has value, and meaning.

Make it timely – start today, and have a date to complete the plan.

Yes, you can!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

meaning

How do we view the word around us? When we look at something what we see with our eyes is translated from a form into a meaning. That is we attach meaning to things we see, we touch, we hear, we taste or we smell. For the most part we share that meaning with others at some level, but at another level we are highly individualistic in how we interpret what our senses are telling us. We impart meaning into those things we sense that is all our own.

If we can assign meaning to the things we sense that also means we can unassign meaning to those things. If we see a chair we can unassign the meaning of that chair so that it doesn’t mean anything.

Why would we do such a thing? Think about a time when you were upset at something. There was something there that had a meaning and most likely it only had meaning for you. We may have been upset with the meaning that the object had … “to get angry at a chair” for example means what? If we have the ability to remove meaning from an object we also have the ability to remove that which upset us – the meaning.

Where would it have practical application? What if you got mad at someone, I know that rarely happens, but what if it did? What if you took away the meaning of that event? What would you be angry at? If it is our assignment of meaning to things, events, or our senses then we can also change what that means.

Wouldn’t it be better if we could create peace in our own lives?

Ambition

“Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.”

–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What if we substituted “ambition” with “significance”, would that become a true and viable statement?

Is ambition the right thing to never be satisfied about? Certainly ambition is tied to achievement and measurable results. Without ambition what would ever get done? Is ambition such a powerful passion that it is unquenched in the soul of man?

Is significance more important than ambition? It is doing what matters rather than what doesn’t matter from a big picture perspective. What are your thoughts?

In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.
-Mother Teresa

Inspired change

“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” J.K. Rowling June 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech

“I like to think about the hero’s journey in other terms. I like to think about a little boy who is being encouraged to leave a safe, known and desirable place to journey to a place that he has only been told about. I like to think of those blue-collar laborer who, after an agonizing deliberation, decides to risk the job rather than follow an unethical behavior. I like to think about the hero’s journey in terms of you and me and our continual search for meaning and definition in life. “ R. E. Quinn “Deep Change”

Inspiration, risk and failure and come together when we decide we need to change. Fear inhibits us from being all that we can be. Inspiration informs of us of what we could be. Risk is the step we must take to become all that we can be.

How often do we operate in pretense? We have to know who we are and what we can do and that can be frightening if we hold doubt in our hands and let it overtake what we know and want to be true. It is so easy to talk ourselves out of change. It is so easy to quit the race.

When we set the goals, create the plan and begin to execute the plan we should have someone who is willing to hold us to those goals.

Read these words by Kierkegaard, “If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never.”

Seek the passion of the plan. Seek the passion of the goals. Seek the passion of realizing a dream. Begin now!