As we in the US celebrate our freedom this summer I have been thinking about freedom as a state of mind. It is a way of looking at our choices. It is easy to forget that we have choices. We automatically think that there is no choice but to set that alarm, get up and then go to that workplace that is draining our life energy a bit more every day. Sometimes it just takes a small shift in […]
There has been a lot of press about Apple’s big milestone in May of becoming the largest technology company in the world at $50 billion plus (and only second in size to ExxonMobil in the U.S.). Recently a friend sent me Steve Job’s commencement speech from 2005 (linked). His messages are timeless; I am focusing on a just a couple of them below. Failure As I contemplated my departure from the corporate world to Entrepreneur it was a […]
To celebrate this year of blogging I reflected back on some of the obstacles I faced in writing it and hope that sharing these lessons will help you navigate to success (toward your dreams). Daunting This is the best word to describe how I felt as I looked at my new site with zero blog posts in June 2009. As I created my site, I had fun looking at different blog sites to clarify what I liked but I […]
It is unfortunate that one of our American idioms- curiosity killed the cat- is fear-based and encourages us to stay put. There is so much power and enjoyment in shifting to an inquisitive attitude that encourages new discoveries and an open mind. It is possible to grow your inquisitive skills through practice and shifting of your thoughts to become more curious. Use of these skills will make your path to success more interesting and enjoyable and may even shift […]
I read a couple posts this past week about keeping things simple and not grinding away at things (see links below). It is such a powerful (and simple!) message. I sometimes catch myself making something more complex that it needs to be or inviting struggle into a situation that does not need it or keeping stress levels higher through the constant checking of new e-mails on my phone during any moment of silence (or even sitting at a traffic […]
It is so powerful to use your gut instincts in pointing you in the right direction for success. Using your gut takes practice and is a bit of a challenge if you are used to using your logic or head to analyze and then re-analyze which way to go. This is my typical mode or logical process: look at all the pros and cons and set up a list of criteria and rate each criterion. Then logically review which […]
I scrapped my original topic idea this week due to something I witnessed. I was in the bulk food section of a local grocery store when it happened. An older woman, nicely dressed, lifted up the lid to the bulk cashews, scooped some nuts out into her hand and then proceeded to snack on them while she pushed her cart toward the deli section. I was amazed. The voice in my head began chattering: “Does she realize she just […]
…you had a million dollars or so in savings, and you already paid off all your debts? Stop and think about this a moment before you read more. What pops into your head? Are you sipping your favorite beverage on the beach? Have you purchased that big toy you always wanted? Did you think of things or activities or both? What is stopping you from doing some of those things now? You probably have a whole list of perfectly […]
Have you ever discovered that your assumptions were more like obstacles than tools on your path to your destination? Sometimes we have to make assumptions based on our experience but unfortunately these assumptions can also cause obstacles and challenges if they go unexamined. Or they are assumptions held deeply in our belief system and we do not even realize that they are there. Crystal Daigle is a local artist here in the Phoenix area; I recently attended her creativity […]
Focus is something I continue to work on; it is more challenging for some of us than others and I know for me it varies based on what I am doing. In our culture, many of us have the “shiny object syndrome”, jumping to the next interesting new e-mail, conversation, blog post, or video before the current task at hand is done. I recently heard that if a video on You-Tube is longer than two or three minutes […]
