Ideas: For a Successful, Less Complicated Life!

Three Over-Looked Essentials for Success!

Here is a short article, I found, written by: Dr. Philip Humbert, as was posted on: The Wealthy Attitude Blog.

"This week I spoke to a group of professionals about achieving their goals and making more sales despite the recession this year. They wanted to focus on the "missing links" that prevent them from achieving the results they desire in business, and in life.

It was a challenging presentation because these are not "ordinary" people! They know all about written goals. They know about motivational seminars and using competitions to increase performance. And yet, like most people, they were frustrated. Like most of us, they have "tried" and they have "done the right things" and yet often fail to cross the finish line. What are the missing pieces?

After briefly reviewing the fundamentals of written goals, a clear strategy and intermediate benchmarks or "baby-steps" to move yourself forward, I gave them three suggestions to fill in the missing links and achieve their dreams:

1. Focus on Personal Development. I love Jim Rohn's quote that "everything changes when you change!" And I also note the corollary: "nothing changes until you change." To live a different life requires that you become a different person. There is no short-cut or exception to this rule. Our lives always reflect who we are, what we value, what we know (or don't know), and what we do with our time and energy.

If you want different results, it's never enough to focus only on the mechanics! We all know stories of people who win the lottery or have other huge changes in external circumstances, but within a short time their lives look remarkably the same. To achieve your goals, you must first become the person you want to be!

High achievers read different books. They watch different shows. They use time differently. They walk and talk and think differently. And so should you.

2. Change Your Eco-System. To a remarkable degree, we are creatures of our surroundings. It may sound odd, but our lives reflect our furniture! We all know our behavior changes in a fancy restaurant, or when visiting the boss, or our in-law's. We become a different person at a funeral compared to a ball game. Our behaviors are always a perfect reflection of our environment.

To achieve your dreams, create a world that supports you. Whether it's your office, your car or your kitchen, live in a world that reminds you of your priorities, a world that energizes you and pulls you forward. This doesn't necessarily require a major investment, but it does require attention to detail. I've written an entire e-book that you can get at no-cost. (And encourage your friends to get a copy, too.) It's at: http://www.philiphumbert.com/Eco-System.htm

3. Choose the Right Mentors. Over time, we become like our friends. Consciously and unconsciously we model our behavior after the people we admire and respect. Again, I've written an entire book on MasterMind groups and their power to transform our lives. Work with mentors! (Get it at: http://thenewmastermind.com/)

The way to learn new skills is to get around someone who can teach you! Learn from your friends, from colleagues, from competitors. By reading biographies, you can even learn from dead people! Winners hang out with and learn from winners. Surround yourself with wise and accomplished mentors!

Thousands of books have been written on goal-setting, motivation and achievement, but most of them focus on the easy part--developing written goals, setting deadlines and so forth.

Continue reading "Three Over-Looked Essentials for Success!" »

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Here is an article, I found on: "Why Trying to be Productive is a Huge Waste of Time", written by: Jonathan Mead, the creator of the: Illuminated Mind  (Blog).

"Most of the time, trying to be productive is pointless. In fact, it’s a big, fat waste of time. It’s kind of lame when time management (productivity techniques & hacks) ends up killing your time, huh? Here’s why this happens…

For a long time I’ve thought about why people are so crazy about productivity. I’ve wondered why I am so concerned with accomplishing and completing. I mean, when you get to the point of looking for more time-efficient ways to fold underwear, you might have a problem.

So why does productivity matter, anyway? What’s so important about achieving?

The answer… not much.

The feeling of needing to accomplish something stems from dissatisfaction with the present. With this mindset, the whole idea of achieving is to become something. On the surface, it may seem like you’re doing something positive, but there’s a subtle undercurrent of rejection of what is. Rejection of yourself.

Here are just a few of the things wrong with our definition of productivity:

Getting things done is associated with doing things you must do, out of a sense of drudgery.
Productivity is often related to filling quotas. It’s about how much you can do, not necessarily what you’re doing, or whether it really matters.

The whole notion of being more productive is doing more things in an equal amount of time.  Being too preoccupied with this makes it easy to lose sense of what’s important. It’s easy to have a productivity meltdown.

It’s completely time-based. It’s about measuring, quantifying and analyzing data. Productivity does a very poor job of taking into account things that can’t be boxed into time bubbles, such as relationships, quality time alone, relaxation, doing nothing (intentionally), and many creative-based pursuits.

Goals and being productive is strongly related to goals that are quantifiable. If you want to become a better write, you might make a goal to write 1500 words a day. This might help you become a better writer. But with goals like this, it’s so easy to get caught up in reaching the number and let obsession with completing your goal kill your initial passion.

Checking things off a To-Do list is rarely meaningful. Would you qualify volunteering your time to a worthy cause, giving food to a homeless person, or doing a good deed as “getting things done”?

Aiming to be productive usually doesn’t involve an inside out approach.
It’s associated with tolerating life, instead of living passionately. Getting by, rather than really living.

I know what you’re thinking… Does this mean productivity is bad? Does that mean following your dreams and seeking to accomplish is wrong. Of course not. It’s just that some things are really hard to schedule. And when you try to, it’s completely ruined.

Can you really schedule a time limit of quality time with your spouse?
Can you schedule following an unexpected route to solving a creative problem?
Can you set a timer for how much time you allow yourself to explore possibilities?
Can you program daydreaming and spacing out in your day planner? And if you do program it, doesn’t that completely kill it?

Check out this interesting article, I found, written by: Slade Roberson, the creator of: Shift Your Spirits  (Blog).

In my post on truths about relationships and soul mates, I included “Listen carefully when someone tells you she’s not good enough for you — this is truth straight from the source.”

I intended this statement to be ironic — and I maybe I was a bit too clipped and cheeky… The original post was a topics lists for other articles, and this particular statement seems to be the first many people wanted to discuss further. So, allow me to elaborate.

Three Potential Sources of Truth

You’ll note that I used smaller-case truth and source in the my thesis statement — not The Truth and not The Source.

Universal Source | Universal Reality | Universal Truth — it goes without saying the Universe (God, Spirit, Source, the Creator) does not allow for any individual to be more worthy than another.

Your Source | Your Reality | Your Truth – obviously, you’re not judging someone you love as not good enough for you — just the opposite. Your Truth reflects the Universal Truth.

His/Her Source | His/Her Reality | His/Her Truth — the only other facet of what is true for an individual, is what s/he believes.

We’re dealing with a three-legged stool here — a perfectly sturdy structure, unless one of the legs is broken. No matter how strong the other two legs are, they can not compensate for or bear the load for the whole, and by so doing un-break or fix the weak one. It must be mended, healed, corrected.

Relationships are synergies — where the total is greater than the sum of the individual parts. When I say “this is the truth” I mean you have been alerted to a powerful reality regarding the relationship.

When someone tells you she is not good enough for you, she is expressing her reality — in which case it is literally true — it becomes true — for her. When someone tells you he is not worthy of your esteem, he is alerting you to his perspective — the one from which he operates.

His motivations in communicating this may be:

• to warn you. His intentions to let you know who you’re dealing with may be lovingly motivated.
• to prompt your affirmation. He may need to hear the message that his self-judgment is wrong; but he is seeking an external source of personal power, where he will not find it.
• to manipulate you. He may consciously be playing you emotionally, in which case there are a million other problems with this relationship and you should certainly run like hell.

You are an individual expression of Divine Source; and so is anyone with whom you enter into a relationship. These sources are original, unique, yet identically balanced in their pure spirit forms. They have equal power to shape reality.

On February 17th 2009, I found this thought provoking article on: "How To Cope, The Next Time You Are Caught In Verbal Hurricane", written by: Shamelle Perera  the creator of: Enhance Life  (Blog).

"Arguments, are inevitable in life. There are times, when people don’t agree with what YOU want; what you do; what you say. In most situations, you can probably resolve the disagreement in an amicable manner. Other times, it brings out the worst in people.

Here are some tips to help you cope, the next time you are in a heated discussion.

1. Don’t let those words escape

During a verbal hurricane, your temperament usually boils over. You will have offensive things bubbling up in your throat, threatening to burst out of your mouth!
If you go ahead and say it anyway, you might regret it when you have calmed down. Or maybe, you agonize what you could have said. You might be able to apologize once the whole thing blows over, but you can't take your words back.

2. Ask yourself, “Is this really something worth arguing about”

By all means, I am not asking you to be a headless chicken! Sometimes, our ego gets in the way and somehow we NEED to prove that we are right! Arguments can stem from the prettiest of discussions. If it all started from playful banter, don't let it get out of hand.

3. Listen… (without interrupting)

It’s a natural human tendency to interrupt. Make an effort to be patient and let the other person finish the sentence. When you don’t let the other person speak, they tend to get frustrated.

4. Try to prevent any misunderstandings

Many arguments start where one person communicates in a fuzzy or unclear manner, which leads the other person to feel disrespected or hurt. Paraphrase what you have understood to prevent misunderstanding, miscommunication or incomplete communication.

5. “Package” your opinion/view point

Choose your words carefully. Try to stay away from sarcasm, insults etc.

6. Stay Calm

Try not to get “provoked”. Just because the other person raises the voice, doesn’t mean you have to. This is where your temperament will be tested. You can keep completely calm and dominate a conversation without even raising their voice.

What you NEED to remember, when you Don’t Remember the above!

When caught up in a heated conversation, it’s likely that you will not remember any of the above mention tips.

What you need to engrave in your mind is
* Your point of view is NOT the ONLY one (everyone should have)
* The way you argue, will determine how well the issue is resolved.

Are you finding yourself in a more disagreements than you prefer? How do you manage to stay calm through it all?

Check out this short thought provoking article written by:"Michael Miles",  the creator of: Effortless Abundance (Blog).

"From day one of our lives, we feel like we have to impress everyone we come in contact with. As an infant, Mom and Dad want us to walk, talk and be the cutest baby in town. That is a lot of pressure for someone who is barely a year old. Throughout our entire educational careers, we are afraid to disappoint our teachers by receiving that dreaded “F” grade. Our peers and friends expect us to be cool, hang out on the weekends and bend the rules for a little fun. As young adults we don’t want our personal trainers yelling at us for only doing forty-five minutes on the elliptical, and then there is our boss who expects free overtime hours from us. It appears to never stop even after retirement, with children and grandchildren always wanting and needing.

Letting our mothers or fathers down is one of the hardest things. We would never want them to think of themselves as a failure as a parent, or we do not love them. However, it is impossible to be perfect for them. This is not something to stress about. It could be something as simple as what you are going to wear to school that day. On the other hand, it could be something more complicated such as choosing where to go to college. Either way, they are decisions that you have to make. You are expressing who you are, or at least who you think you are. I know I let my parents down when I decided to go to school for musical theater, and even more so when after two weeks I dropped out of the program and switched majors. If I would have tried to make them happy, I would have let myself down.

Our teachers and our managers are authoritative figures in worst of circumstances and mentors in the best. Either way, we hate to disappoint these people; they control our professional success. Regardless, it is inevitable that we will not be able to fulfill their hopes for us. We realize that we cannot finish a paper on time because we are playing sports or in the school play. Sometimes we cannot come in to work on a Saturday since the family reunion has been planned for months. Although academics should come before extra curricular, these activities are important for us to form social bonds that are a release from the rigors of academics. Careers and economics are important factors in life, but family is obviously more important and it is key to keep these as closes as possible.

Friendships are often very complicated relationships. They can often be the most rewarding and the most difficult to maintain. Friends are random people that we run into through out life and somehow a bond is formed and it lasts no matter the distance or amount of time in between meetings. We are often asked to offer our opinion to friends, and we are scared to be honest. There is often a conflict between work and friends, family and friends or self and friends. We have to disappoint our friends to keep our selves sane, to stay employed or be there for loved ones. We expect our friends to understand, but sometimes they do not and there is nothing we can do.

I am not saying that we should not think twice about disappointing others. That would be reckless and devaluing our personal relationships. However, it is important that we accept the fact that we cannot please everyone. It is impossible, and it should not cause the amount of stress that we sometimes allow it to. Disappointment unfortunately is a part of life. If we can learn to accept it then it is possible to live a happier life."

Here is an thought provoking article, I found on: "Finding the Natural Rhythms and Flows of Working", written by:  Leo Babauta, the creator of on: Zen Habits.net  (Blog).

I’ve been self-employed and working from home for more than a year now, but even before that, when I worked in an office, I was experimenting with freer models of working, trying to break out of the mold of the 8-to-5-with-a-lunch-break model.

Being self-employed is definitely an experiment in working styles, as you learn by trial and error and figure out what works for you.

More and more I’ve been becoming a believer that forcing ourselves to work (or being forced to work by bosses) is detrimental — to our health, productivity, happiness, creativity.

Being forced to work, by ourselves or by others, makes work pure drudgery, and no matter how many productivity and motivational tricks we throw at this situation, it’s still drudgery. Sure, we’ll always have to do things we don’t like to do, but does that have to make up the main of our existence?

So why do we work like that?

I believe we put up with the status quo because that’s what we’ve been taught to believe, but it hasn’t always been like this. The working model of the last century hasn’t been the working model of the great part of human civilization, and certainly not of human existence. It came about because of the advent of the industrial age, when people we made to work in factories and when factory owners (and later, owners of businesses with office workers) tried to figure out how to squeeze the most out of their employees while paying the least amount possible.

That’s less than ideal for most of us.

The result has been an increase in working hours, a decrease in leisure time, a decrease in creativity and imagination, an increased focus on material goods and money. Again, less than ideal for most of us.

That’s been changing recently in all kinds of ways. The rise in people who are office nomads, self-employed, free-lancers, consultants, web workers, just knowledge workers in general, has led to changes in the ways people work. Sometimes it has meant they work more than ever. Other times it means they can work from wherever they want, setting their own schedule (but oftentimes still working as much or more than before).

For some of us, it has meant we’ve become our own bosses, while working collaboratively with others who are their own bosses. It has meant more freedom for some of us, with the ability not only to choose the location and time of our work, but the kind of work we do and the amount of work we do.

That’s amazingly liberating, and what’s more, I’ve found it to be amazing in many ways: I’ve found more time for what’s important to me (not just my work), I’ve found an increase in my love for my work, I’ve been happier and more creative and in general I think the quality of my work has increased.

I don’t produce more than ever before, but what I do produce is better, at least in my eyes.

Here is an interesting article, I found on: "Why Knowing When To Quit Can Lead You To Success", written by: Henrik Edberg, the creator of: The Positivity Blog.

Winners do quit and quitters do win

Whenever we start a new project or hobby, it is always going to be interesting and exciting. Who doesn’t love new things? The problem is every project or hobby that is new, always hit a low point at some time and then it doesn’t seems that fun anymore because the task seem more difficult now.

This is the time where the real challenges start. You are going to decide whether you are going to keep on at it or just quit the whole thing immediately.

When not to quit

Whenever we start a new hobby or project, the momentum we are gathering will help us to see the results fast but as the time goes by, we discovered that even though we had increased our effort, the results doesn’t seems to reflect that. This is the low point we will meet and it is this low point that separate the successful and the mediocre.

Who doesn’t want to be a CEO of a fortune 500 company, getting into Harvard or being drafted by a NBA team? We think of the easy life we can have when we reach the peak but it is the this low point that we must go through before we can hit the peak.

In order you to be drafted into the NBA, you need to spend countless of hours honing your skills and shooting the hoops, it is only if you can get through the hard part (the daily practices for years) then you are allowed to join the elites.

No matter what we do, we are bound to face the low point and most of the people quit at that point because things just seem so tough. Successful people knew that they are going to face the low point but they don’t quit, because they knew that the low point act as the separator for the mediocre and the successful.

If you want to be successful, it is silly to quit at the at that point because you know that in order to reap the rewards, you must go through the filtering system that separate the successful and the mediocre.

When To Quit?

The age old advice of telling you to stick to your task no matter what is useless in this modern world. Will you stick to your job if it is paying you 500 bucks a month when another employer is willing to offer you 5000 bucks a month? I bet that you will choose the 2nd option.

Whenever we start a new project or job, it is important for us to have a long term view of what is the reward in it and is it of a certain value that you think is worth going for. If you think that the long term value of the project is not worth the effort of going through the low point, then don’t even bother starting it.

Easy as it sound, but people are afraid of quitting dead end projects. The dead end projects that you will only see the same result (or worse) even though you are increasing your effort you put into it. People are afraid of quitting because quitting is a change and human do not like change. It also take lots of courage to quit doing the things that you had put so much effort into it because it will make you feel that you had wasted the energy you put in it in the past, but quitting a dead end project is going to free up your resources to do other things that provides more value in return.

Here is an interesting and thought provoking article, I found on: "Fear of Loss", written by: Scott H. Young

"Much of the depression and angst people face comes from one source: the inability to sit in the solitude of one’s own thoughts.

A few days ago, I had the privilege of doing nothing. Not something relaxing or unproductive, but nothing. I sat in a chair and just thought. At first it was uncomfortable, I felt I needed to be doing something, even if it was meaningless and distracting. But after close to an hour of nothingness, I started to think clearly and appreciate things in a new way.

Complete solitude, doing nothing, can’t be described as boring. Boredom requires an activity. Watching paint dry is an activity, if only defined by it’s complete lack of interesting qualities. Solitude, for most people, can be described only as terrifying or satisfying, with more people stuck with the former.

Solitude is the Foundation

Fear of solitude cripples your activity in other areas of life. If you can’t stand being alone or without activity, you’ll seek anything to fill that void, even if it isn’t healthy. If you’re hungry, you’ll buy groceries you don’t need and eat junk you don’t want. Similarly, if you can’t stand solitude, you’ll fill your life with meaningless relationships and activities. Often at the cost of something truly great.

Being unable to withstand solitude is like being unable to withstand poverty. Many of the experiences in life are only accessible if you’re willing to risk, or go without, a certain level of income. If you require $70,000 per year to be happy, you’ve just eliminated a wide range of possibilities. If you require constant companionship and activity, you’ll restrict yourself from new ideas, people or goals which require some solitude.

There are many goals that require some degree of solitude before they can start. It’s only after sitting alone with your thoughts for a few hours that you start to peel away some of the incorrect thinking that has been holding you back. If you don’t tolerate your naked thinking, you’ll never stumble on these new inspirations.

Solitude for New Ideas

I’ve done some form of meditation on and off for the last five years. Although many practitioners have elaborate rituals for meditating, I believe the real value is the absence of activity and allowing for unstructured, undistracted thought.

Depending on the state of mind you have when you enter, the first 15-30 minutes can be the incredibly difficult. The desire to get up and do something can be overwhelming. However, often after getting through this period, you start getting great ideas. Insights into previously intractable problems suddenly appear and difficult situations become simple.

Thriving in Solitude

Becoming comfortable with solitude doesn’t mean you need to isolate yourself into the mountains and become a hermit. It just means giving yourself a chance to be without people or activity for a few hours.

This can be difficult in a world crowded with people and activity. I like Brian Tracy’s suggestion to sit alone in your car. A small cubicle of isolated space, this can be a good strategy if you’re surrounded by people both at work and home.

Power of Solitude

When in complete solitude, you can honestly say you are content and at peace, you have an incredible power you take with you to every other aspect of life. You leave behind the taint of a person who craves something beyond just desiring it. Without this holding you back, you can approach each situation from strength, instead of desperation.

The person who enjoys solitude doesn’t need to remain in a relationship that isn’t satisfying. The person who enjoys solitude doesn’t need to spend time on a boring activity. The people who enjoy solitude don’t need to fill their lives with distractions.

Check out this thought provoking article, I found, on: "What’s Guiding Your Decisions - Your Head or Your Heart?", written by: Lorraine Cohen, the creator of: Powerfull Living (Blog).

Does it matter?

I’d say yes because when we make decisions without bringing our heart into the equation, the outcomes can be very different and less fulfilling.

For example, if you are feeling a lot of fear about the recession, you might be thinking, “Ok, what do I need to do for …myself, my family, my business, my future, my security, my sanity….. so I can be/feel peacefull, in control, responsible, safe…..?”

While that’s a logical question to consider, the energy and motivation behind your thinking and decision-making process is fear. Fear-based decisions rarely bring lasting peaceful and fulfilling results; they usually perpetuate more fear and can generate guilt, doubt, and regrets.

The key is listening to your inner wisdom; the voice that whispers to you, trying to get your attention over the noise in your head.

Do you listen?

When I was in LA a few weeks ago I realized I was out of alignment with many of the choices I had made with my business. A while back I made a conscious decision to bring spiritual principles into my business practices. What that meant was tuning into my soul’s intention and guidance for direction when making  business and life decisions. I wanted to be sure I was saying YES to the things that aligned with my spirit rather than what I thought I should be doing or what I was reacting to out of fear.

Discerning whether it is your head or your heart (soul, spirit, The Divine)  guiding you might seem tricky.

Here are some ways I can tell the difference

1. Do I feel excited and juiced? Am I rationalizing, trying to talk myself into something, reacting from fear or shoulds? Am I being influenced by the enthusiasm of someone else and getting caught up in their excitement and urgency, especially when there is money involved?  Now, I stop, take a few breaths, get quiet, tune into my body and “feel” into the idea. When I listen, I always know whether something is right for me.

2. It “feels right” and comes from an inner knowing that is very peaceful within me. I just know, period. No additional thought is needed. A decision that feels scary or uncomfortable is still the right choice when it comes from ”my gut” intuition and instinct.  The more I have tested and followed my intuition and had good results, the more I have come to trust it - like a muscle you develop.

How often have you jumped on board with an idea, program, or company in the hopes of making BIG BUCKS quickly? How many times have you had a feeling about something, a gut instinct that you ignored because you didn’t trust yourself, and went to others for advice only to realize your original feeling was the right one for you? Have you ever regretted a decision because you didn’t pay attention to your heart?

Continue reading "What Guides Your Decisions?" »

Here is an interesting article, I found on: "Are your desires matched on the micro and macro level?", written by: Lola Fayemi, the creator of: Nourishment For Your Spiritual Awakening  (Blog).

So you’ve got a dream, you’ve set a thrilling goal that will bring you much joy, you’ve got a direction and know where you’re heading, you may even know if you’re going to take baby steps or whopping great strides to get there BUT how are you really going to get there?

I’ll tell you how, by aligning with your goals on day-to-day basis. The vision you have is the macro level, the bigger picture. Someday, in the distant or not so distant future, you will achieve what you are working towards. The micro level is the everyday stuff, the smaller picture, the how are you going to get there?

Often I find clients’ desires on a macro and micro level to be mismatched. You know when you’re mismatched because it feels uncomfortable to say the least. You feel a million miles away from achieving what you want, frustrated by the absence of your desires and in a desperate state of wanting.

With my clients I’m like a broken record “it’s the what, not the how that’s important” I say over and over again. And yes, I stand by that but only because you can easily get lost in figuring out how you are going to reach attain your desire, not see a way and then find yourself in the energy of helplessness, paralysed into inaction.

That’s the how of what action you should be taking, the how ruled by your ego mind who wants to be in control and conclude that if you can’t see a way there is no way. The how which comes from your wiser self, your higher self or soul, however is important. This how tends to be more about your sense of being. What’s the best energy for you to be in while waiting for your desires to show up?

All goals set ultimately come down to a state of being you wish to achieve. Want more money? Or do you really want freedom, security or options? Want a loving partner? Or do you really want companionship, romance or love? You could get your money and be trapped in an undesired existence or get a loving partner that you do not love back in the same way so feel guilty, smothered and unhappy.

Some goals are being goals from the outset; you may want to shine, play big or have more ease in you life. Either way your goal at the macro level will be reached by achieving it on a micro level first. Eg, planning to shine on the macro and hiding out on the micro will not get you far, but finding ways to shine on a micro level will.

Whatever the bigger picture is of the goal you have, playing the same game on a smaller level will get you there. You are not going to achieve the state of freedom without any feelings of freedom being experienced first, ask yourself “how can I bring more freedom into my life” and get to it. Get the state of being at a micro level first and the macro will follow.

Questions

What do you really, really, really want?
How do you imagine you will feel when you have it?
What are the states of being you desire?
How are you living those states on a daily basis right now?

How can you bring more of those energies into your life today?"

Why Is Trying to be Productive a Time Waster?

Here is an article, I found on: "Why Trying to be Productive is a Huge Waste of Time", written by: Jonathan Mead, the creator of the: Illuminated Mind  (Blog).

"Most of the time, trying to be productive is pointless. In fact, it’s a big, fat waste of time. It’s kind of lame when time management (productivity techniques & hacks) ends up killing your time, huh? Here’s why this happens…

For a long time I’ve thought about why people are so crazy about productivity. I’ve wondered why I am so concerned with accomplishing and completing. I mean, when you get to the point of looking for more time-efficient ways to fold underwear, you might have a problem.

So why does productivity matter, anyway? What’s so important about achieving?

The answer… not much.

The feeling of needing to accomplish something stems from dissatisfaction with the present. With this mindset, the whole idea of achieving is to become something. On the surface, it may seem like you’re doing something positive, but there’s a subtle undercurrent of rejection of what is. Rejection of yourself.

Here are just a few of the things wrong with our definition of productivity:

Getting things done is associated with doing things you must do, out of a sense of drudgery.
Productivity is often related to filling quotas. It’s about how much you can do, not necessarily what you’re doing, or whether it really matters.

The whole notion of being more productive is doing more things in an equal amount of time.  Being too preoccupied with this makes it easy to lose sense of what’s important. It’s easy to have a productivity meltdown.

It’s completely time-based. It’s about measuring, quantifying and analyzing data. Productivity does a very poor job of taking into account things that can’t be boxed into time bubbles, such as relationships, quality time alone, relaxation, doing nothing (intentionally), and many creative-based pursuits.

Goals and being productive is strongly related to goals that are quantifiable. If you want to become a better write, you might make a goal to write 1500 words a day. This might help you become a better writer. But with goals like this, it’s so easy to get caught up in reaching the number and let obsession with completing your goal kill your initial passion.

Checking things off a To-Do list is rarely meaningful. Would you qualify volunteering your time to a worthy cause, giving food to a homeless person, or doing a good deed as “getting things done”?

Aiming to be productive usually doesn’t involve an inside out approach.
It’s associated with tolerating life, instead of living passionately. Getting by, rather than really living.

I know what you’re thinking… Does this mean productivity is bad? Does that mean following your dreams and seeking to accomplish is wrong. Of course not. It’s just that some things are really hard to schedule. And when you try to, it’s completely ruined.

Can you really schedule a time limit of quality time with your spouse?
Can you schedule following an unexpected route to solving a creative problem?
Can you set a timer for how much time you allow yourself to explore possibilities?
Can you program daydreaming and spacing out in your day planner? And if you do program it, doesn’t that completely kill it?

Self Esteem and Relationships!

Check out this interesting article, I found, written by: Slade Roberson, the creator of: Shift Your Spirits  (Blog).

In my post on truths about relationships and soul mates, I included “Listen carefully when someone tells you she’s not good enough for you — this is truth straight from the source.”

I intended this statement to be ironic — and I maybe I was a bit too clipped and cheeky… The original post was a topics lists for other articles, and this particular statement seems to be the first many people wanted to discuss further. So, allow me to elaborate.

Three Potential Sources of Truth

You’ll note that I used smaller-case truth and source in the my thesis statement — not The Truth and not The Source.

Universal Source | Universal Reality | Universal Truth — it goes without saying the Universe (God, Spirit, Source, the Creator) does not allow for any individual to be more worthy than another.

Your Source | Your Reality | Your Truth – obviously, you’re not judging someone you love as not good enough for you — just the opposite. Your Truth reflects the Universal Truth.

His/Her Source | His/Her Reality | His/Her Truth — the only other facet of what is true for an individual, is what s/he believes.

We’re dealing with a three-legged stool here — a perfectly sturdy structure, unless one of the legs is broken. No matter how strong the other two legs are, they can not compensate for or bear the load for the whole, and by so doing un-break or fix the weak one. It must be mended, healed, corrected.

Relationships are synergies — where the total is greater than the sum of the individual parts. When I say “this is the truth” I mean you have been alerted to a powerful reality regarding the relationship.

When someone tells you she is not good enough for you, she is expressing her reality — in which case it is literally true — it becomes true — for her. When someone tells you he is not worthy of your esteem, he is alerting you to his perspective — the one from which he operates.

His motivations in communicating this may be:

• to warn you. His intentions to let you know who you’re dealing with may be lovingly motivated.
• to prompt your affirmation. He may need to hear the message that his self-judgment is wrong; but he is seeking an external source of personal power, where he will not find it.
• to manipulate you. He may consciously be playing you emotionally, in which case there are a million other problems with this relationship and you should certainly run like hell.

You are an individual expression of Divine Source; and so is anyone with whom you enter into a relationship. These sources are original, unique, yet identically balanced in their pure spirit forms. They have equal power to shape reality.

Are You Caught In Verbal Hurricane? [shp] [el]

On February 17th 2009, I found this thought provoking article on: "How To Cope, The Next Time You Are Caught In Verbal Hurricane", written by: Shamelle Perera  the creator of: Enhance Life  (Blog).

"Arguments, are inevitable in life. There are times, when people don’t agree with what YOU want; what you do; what you say. In most situations, you can probably resolve the disagreement in an amicable manner. Other times, it brings out the worst in people.

Here are some tips to help you cope, the next time you are in a heated discussion.

1. Don’t let those words escape

During a verbal hurricane, your temperament usually boils over. You will have offensive things bubbling up in your throat, threatening to burst out of your mouth!
If you go ahead and say it anyway, you might regret it when you have calmed down. Or maybe, you agonize what you could have said. You might be able to apologize once the whole thing blows over, but you can't take your words back.

2. Ask yourself, “Is this really something worth arguing about”

By all means, I am not asking you to be a headless chicken! Sometimes, our ego gets in the way and somehow we NEED to prove that we are right! Arguments can stem from the prettiest of discussions. If it all started from playful banter, don't let it get out of hand.

3. Listen… (without interrupting)

It’s a natural human tendency to interrupt. Make an effort to be patient and let the other person finish the sentence. When you don’t let the other person speak, they tend to get frustrated.

4. Try to prevent any misunderstandings

Many arguments start where one person communicates in a fuzzy or unclear manner, which leads the other person to feel disrespected or hurt. Paraphrase what you have understood to prevent misunderstanding, miscommunication or incomplete communication.

5. “Package” your opinion/view point

Choose your words carefully. Try to stay away from sarcasm, insults etc.

6. Stay Calm

Try not to get “provoked”. Just because the other person raises the voice, doesn’t mean you have to. This is where your temperament will be tested. You can keep completely calm and dominate a conversation without even raising their voice.

What you NEED to remember, when you Don’t Remember the above!

When caught up in a heated conversation, it’s likely that you will not remember any of the above mention tips.

What you need to engrave in your mind is
* Your point of view is NOT the ONLY one (everyone should have)
* The way you argue, will determine how well the issue is resolved.

Are you finding yourself in a more disagreements than you prefer? How do you manage to stay calm through it all?

Disappointing Other People is a Fact of Life [mm] [ea]

Check out this short thought provoking article written by:"Michael Miles",  the creator of: Effortless Abundance (Blog).

"From day one of our lives, we feel like we have to impress everyone we come in contact with. As an infant, Mom and Dad want us to walk, talk and be the cutest baby in town. That is a lot of pressure for someone who is barely a year old. Throughout our entire educational careers, we are afraid to disappoint our teachers by receiving that dreaded “F” grade. Our peers and friends expect us to be cool, hang out on the weekends and bend the rules for a little fun. As young adults we don’t want our personal trainers yelling at us for only doing forty-five minutes on the elliptical, and then there is our boss who expects free overtime hours from us. It appears to never stop even after retirement, with children and grandchildren always wanting and needing.

Letting our mothers or fathers down is one of the hardest things. We would never want them to think of themselves as a failure as a parent, or we do not love them. However, it is impossible to be perfect for them. This is not something to stress about. It could be something as simple as what you are going to wear to school that day. On the other hand, it could be something more complicated such as choosing where to go to college. Either way, they are decisions that you have to make. You are expressing who you are, or at least who you think you are. I know I let my parents down when I decided to go to school for musical theater, and even more so when after two weeks I dropped out of the program and switched majors. If I would have tried to make them happy, I would have let myself down.

Our teachers and our managers are authoritative figures in worst of circumstances and mentors in the best. Either way, we hate to disappoint these people; they control our professional success. Regardless, it is inevitable that we will not be able to fulfill their hopes for us. We realize that we cannot finish a paper on time because we are playing sports or in the school play. Sometimes we cannot come in to work on a Saturday since the family reunion has been planned for months. Although academics should come before extra curricular, these activities are important for us to form social bonds that are a release from the rigors of academics. Careers and economics are important factors in life, but family is obviously more important and it is key to keep these as closes as possible.

Friendships are often very complicated relationships. They can often be the most rewarding and the most difficult to maintain. Friends are random people that we run into through out life and somehow a bond is formed and it lasts no matter the distance or amount of time in between meetings. We are often asked to offer our opinion to friends, and we are scared to be honest. There is often a conflict between work and friends, family and friends or self and friends. We have to disappoint our friends to keep our selves sane, to stay employed or be there for loved ones. We expect our friends to understand, but sometimes they do not and there is nothing we can do.

I am not saying that we should not think twice about disappointing others. That would be reckless and devaluing our personal relationships. However, it is important that we accept the fact that we cannot please everyone. It is impossible, and it should not cause the amount of stress that we sometimes allow it to. Disappointment unfortunately is a part of life. If we can learn to accept it then it is possible to live a happier life."

What Are Natural Rhythms and Flows of Working?

Here is an thought provoking article, I found on: "Finding the Natural Rhythms and Flows of Working", written by:  Leo Babauta, the creator of on: Zen Habits.net  (Blog).

I’ve been self-employed and working from home for more than a year now, but even before that, when I worked in an office, I was experimenting with freer models of working, trying to break out of the mold of the 8-to-5-with-a-lunch-break model.

Being self-employed is definitely an experiment in working styles, as you learn by trial and error and figure out what works for you.

More and more I’ve been becoming a believer that forcing ourselves to work (or being forced to work by bosses) is detrimental — to our health, productivity, happiness, creativity.

Being forced to work, by ourselves or by others, makes work pure drudgery, and no matter how many productivity and motivational tricks we throw at this situation, it’s still drudgery. Sure, we’ll always have to do things we don’t like to do, but does that have to make up the main of our existence?

So why do we work like that?

I believe we put up with the status quo because that’s what we’ve been taught to believe, but it hasn’t always been like this. The working model of the last century hasn’t been the working model of the great part of human civilization, and certainly not of human existence. It came about because of the advent of the industrial age, when people we made to work in factories and when factory owners (and later, owners of businesses with office workers) tried to figure out how to squeeze the most out of their employees while paying the least amount possible.

That’s less than ideal for most of us.

The result has been an increase in working hours, a decrease in leisure time, a decrease in creativity and imagination, an increased focus on material goods and money. Again, less than ideal for most of us.

That’s been changing recently in all kinds of ways. The rise in people who are office nomads, self-employed, free-lancers, consultants, web workers, just knowledge workers in general, has led to changes in the ways people work. Sometimes it has meant they work more than ever. Other times it means they can work from wherever they want, setting their own schedule (but oftentimes still working as much or more than before).

For some of us, it has meant we’ve become our own bosses, while working collaboratively with others who are their own bosses. It has meant more freedom for some of us, with the ability not only to choose the location and time of our work, but the kind of work we do and the amount of work we do.

That’s amazingly liberating, and what’s more, I’ve found it to be amazing in many ways: I’ve found more time for what’s important to me (not just my work), I’ve found an increase in my love for my work, I’ve been happier and more creative and in general I think the quality of my work has increased.

I don’t produce more than ever before, but what I do produce is better, at least in my eyes.

Success is Knowing When To Quit!

Here is an interesting article, I found on: "Why Knowing When To Quit Can Lead You To Success", written by: Henrik Edberg, the creator of: The Positivity Blog.

Winners do quit and quitters do win

Whenever we start a new project or hobby, it is always going to be interesting and exciting. Who doesn’t love new things? The problem is every project or hobby that is new, always hit a low point at some time and then it doesn’t seems that fun anymore because the task seem more difficult now.

This is the time where the real challenges start. You are going to decide whether you are going to keep on at it or just quit the whole thing immediately.

When not to quit

Whenever we start a new hobby or project, the momentum we are gathering will help us to see the results fast but as the time goes by, we discovered that even though we had increased our effort, the results doesn’t seems to reflect that. This is the low point we will meet and it is this low point that separate the successful and the mediocre.

Who doesn’t want to be a CEO of a fortune 500 company, getting into Harvard or being drafted by a NBA team? We think of the easy life we can have when we reach the peak but it is the this low point that we must go through before we can hit the peak.

In order you to be drafted into the NBA, you need to spend countless of hours honing your skills and shooting the hoops, it is only if you can get through the hard part (the daily practices for years) then you are allowed to join the elites.

No matter what we do, we are bound to face the low point and most of the people quit at that point because things just seem so tough. Successful people knew that they are going to face the low point but they don’t quit, because they knew that the low point act as the separator for the mediocre and the successful.

If you want to be successful, it is silly to quit at the at that point because you know that in order to reap the rewards, you must go through the filtering system that separate the successful and the mediocre.

When To Quit?

The age old advice of telling you to stick to your task no matter what is useless in this modern world. Will you stick to your job if it is paying you 500 bucks a month when another employer is willing to offer you 5000 bucks a month? I bet that you will choose the 2nd option.

Whenever we start a new project or job, it is important for us to have a long term view of what is the reward in it and is it of a certain value that you think is worth going for. If you think that the long term value of the project is not worth the effort of going through the low point, then don’t even bother starting it.

Easy as it sound, but people are afraid of quitting dead end projects. The dead end projects that you will only see the same result (or worse) even though you are increasing your effort you put into it. People are afraid of quitting because quitting is a change and human do not like change. It also take lots of courage to quit doing the things that you had put so much effort into it because it will make you feel that you had wasted the energy you put in it in the past, but quitting a dead end project is going to free up your resources to do other things that provides more value in return.

In Praise of Solitude!

Here is an interesting and thought provoking article, I found on: "Fear of Loss", written by: Scott H. Young

"Much of the depression and angst people face comes from one source: the inability to sit in the solitude of one’s own thoughts.

A few days ago, I had the privilege of doing nothing. Not something relaxing or unproductive, but nothing. I sat in a chair and just thought. At first it was uncomfortable, I felt I needed to be doing something, even if it was meaningless and distracting. But after close to an hour of nothingness, I started to think clearly and appreciate things in a new way.

Complete solitude, doing nothing, can’t be described as boring. Boredom requires an activity. Watching paint dry is an activity, if only defined by it’s complete lack of interesting qualities. Solitude, for most people, can be described only as terrifying or satisfying, with more people stuck with the former.

Solitude is the Foundation

Fear of solitude cripples your activity in other areas of life. If you can’t stand being alone or without activity, you’ll seek anything to fill that void, even if it isn’t healthy. If you’re hungry, you’ll buy groceries you don’t need and eat junk you don’t want. Similarly, if you can’t stand solitude, you’ll fill your life with meaningless relationships and activities. Often at the cost of something truly great.

Being unable to withstand solitude is like being unable to withstand poverty. Many of the experiences in life are only accessible if you’re willing to risk, or go without, a certain level of income. If you require $70,000 per year to be happy, you’ve just eliminated a wide range of possibilities. If you require constant companionship and activity, you’ll restrict yourself from new ideas, people or goals which require some solitude.

There are many goals that require some degree of solitude before they can start. It’s only after sitting alone with your thoughts for a few hours that you start to peel away some of the incorrect thinking that has been holding you back. If you don’t tolerate your naked thinking, you’ll never stumble on these new inspirations.

Solitude for New Ideas

I’ve done some form of meditation on and off for the last five years. Although many practitioners have elaborate rituals for meditating, I believe the real value is the absence of activity and allowing for unstructured, undistracted thought.

Depending on the state of mind you have when you enter, the first 15-30 minutes can be the incredibly difficult. The desire to get up and do something can be overwhelming. However, often after getting through this period, you start getting great ideas. Insights into previously intractable problems suddenly appear and difficult situations become simple.

Thriving in Solitude

Becoming comfortable with solitude doesn’t mean you need to isolate yourself into the mountains and become a hermit. It just means giving yourself a chance to be without people or activity for a few hours.

This can be difficult in a world crowded with people and activity. I like Brian Tracy’s suggestion to sit alone in your car. A small cubicle of isolated space, this can be a good strategy if you’re surrounded by people both at work and home.

Power of Solitude

When in complete solitude, you can honestly say you are content and at peace, you have an incredible power you take with you to every other aspect of life. You leave behind the taint of a person who craves something beyond just desiring it. Without this holding you back, you can approach each situation from strength, instead of desperation.

The person who enjoys solitude doesn’t need to remain in a relationship that isn’t satisfying. The person who enjoys solitude doesn’t need to spend time on a boring activity. The people who enjoy solitude don’t need to fill their lives with distractions.

Check out this thought provoking article, I found, on: "What’s Guiding Your Decisions - Your Head or Your Heart?", written by: Lorraine Cohen, the creator of: Powerfull Living (Blog).

Does it matter?

I’d say yes because when we make decisions without bringing our heart into the equation, the outcomes can be very different and less fulfilling.

For example, if you are feeling a lot of fear about the recession, you might be thinking, “Ok, what do I need to do for …myself, my family, my business, my future, my security, my sanity….. so I can be/feel peacefull, in control, responsible, safe…..?”

While that’s a logical question to consider, the energy and motivation behind your thinking and decision-making process is fear. Fear-based decisions rarely bring lasting peaceful and fulfilling results; they usually perpetuate more fear and can generate guilt, doubt, and regrets.

The key is listening to your inner wisdom; the voice that whispers to you, trying to get your attention over the noise in your head.

Do you listen?

When I was in LA a few weeks ago I realized I was out of alignment with many of the choices I had made with my business. A while back I made a conscious decision to bring spiritual principles into my business practices. What that meant was tuning into my soul’s intention and guidance for direction when making  business and life decisions. I wanted to be sure I was saying YES to the things that aligned with my spirit rather than what I thought I should be doing or what I was reacting to out of fear.

Discerning whether it is your head or your heart (soul, spirit, The Divine)  guiding you might seem tricky.

Here are some ways I can tell the difference

1. Do I feel excited and juiced? Am I rationalizing, trying to talk myself into something, reacting from fear or shoulds? Am I being influenced by the enthusiasm of someone else and getting caught up in their excitement and urgency, especially when there is money involved?  Now, I stop, take a few breaths, get quiet, tune into my body and “feel” into the idea. When I listen, I always know whether something is right for me.

2. It “feels right” and comes from an inner knowing that is very peaceful within me. I just know, period. No additional thought is needed. A decision that feels scary or uncomfortable is still the right choice when it comes from ”my gut” intuition and instinct.  The more I have tested and followed my intuition and had good results, the more I have come to trust it - like a muscle you develop.

How often have you jumped on board with an idea, program, or company in the hopes of making BIG BUCKS quickly? How many times have you had a feeling about something, a gut instinct that you ignored because you didn’t trust yourself, and went to others for advice only to realize your original feeling was the right one for you? Have you ever regretted a decision because you didn’t pay attention to your heart?

Continue reading "What Guides Your Decisions?" »

Here is an interesting article, I found on: "Are your desires matched on the micro and macro level?", written by: Lola Fayemi, the creator of: Nourishment For Your Spiritual Awakening  (Blog).

So you’ve got a dream, you’ve set a thrilling goal that will bring you much joy, you’ve got a direction and know where you’re heading, you may even know if you’re going to take baby steps or whopping great strides to get there BUT how are you really going to get there?

I’ll tell you how, by aligning with your goals on day-to-day basis. The vision you have is the macro level, the bigger picture. Someday, in the distant or not so distant future, you will achieve what you are working towards. The micro level is the everyday stuff, the smaller picture, the how are you going to get there?

Often I find clients’ desires on a macro and micro level to be mismatched. You know when you’re mismatched because it feels uncomfortable to say the least. You feel a million miles away from achieving what you want, frustrated by the absence of your desires and in a desperate state of wanting.

With my clients I’m like a broken record “it’s the what, not the how that’s important” I say over and over again. And yes, I stand by that but only because you can easily get lost in figuring out how you are going to reach attain your desire, not see a way and then find yourself in the energy of helplessness, paralysed into inaction.

That’s the how of what action you should be taking, the how ruled by your ego mind who wants to be in control and conclude that if you can’t see a way there is no way. The how which comes from your wiser self, your higher self or soul, however is important. This how tends to be more about your sense of being. What’s the best energy for you to be in while waiting for your desires to show up?

All goals set ultimately come down to a state of being you wish to achieve. Want more money? Or do you really want freedom, security or options? Want a loving partner? Or do you really want companionship, romance or love? You could get your money and be trapped in an undesired existence or get a loving partner that you do not love back in the same way so feel guilty, smothered and unhappy.

Some goals are being goals from the outset; you may want to shine, play big or have more ease in you life. Either way your goal at the macro level will be reached by achieving it on a micro level first. Eg, planning to shine on the macro and hiding out on the micro will not get you far, but finding ways to shine on a micro level will.

Whatever the bigger picture is of the goal you have, playing the same game on a smaller level will get you there. You are not going to achieve the state of freedom without any feelings of freedom being experienced first, ask yourself “how can I bring more freedom into my life” and get to it. Get the state of being at a micro level first and the macro will follow.

Questions

What do you really, really, really want?
How do you imagine you will feel when you have it?
What are the states of being you desire?
How are you living those states on a daily basis right now?

How can you bring more of those energies into your life today?"

What Guides Your Decisions?

Check out this thought provoking article, I found, on: "What’s Guiding Your Decisions - Your Head or Your Heart?", written by: Lorraine Cohen, the creator of: Powerfull Living (Blog).

Does it matter?

I’d say yes because when we make decisions without bringing our heart into the equation, the outcomes can be very different and less fulfilling.

For example, if you are feeling a lot of fear about the recession, you might be thinking, “Ok, what do I need to do for …myself, my family, my business, my future, my security, my sanity….. so I can be/feel peacefull, in control, responsible, safe…..?”

While that’s a logical question to consider, the energy and motivation behind your thinking and decision-making process is fear. Fear-based decisions rarely bring lasting peaceful and fulfilling results; they usually perpetuate more fear and can generate guilt, doubt, and regrets.

The key is listening to your inner wisdom; the voice that whispers to you, trying to get your attention over the noise in your head.

Do you listen?

When I was in LA a few weeks ago I realized I was out of alignment with many of the choices I had made with my business. A while back I made a conscious decision to bring spiritual principles into my business practices. What that meant was tuning into my soul’s intention and guidance for direction when making  business and life decisions. I wanted to be sure I was saying YES to the things that aligned with my spirit rather than what I thought I should be doing or what I was reacting to out of fear.

Discerning whether it is your head or your heart (soul, spirit, The Divine)  guiding you might seem tricky.

Here are some ways I can tell the difference

1. Do I feel excited and juiced? Am I rationalizing, trying to talk myself into something, reacting from fear or shoulds? Am I being influenced by the enthusiasm of someone else and getting caught up in their excitement and urgency, especially when there is money involved?  Now, I stop, take a few breaths, get quiet, tune into my body and “feel” into the idea. When I listen, I always know whether something is right for me.

2. It “feels right” and comes from an inner knowing that is very peaceful within me. I just know, period. No additional thought is needed. A decision that feels scary or uncomfortable is still the right choice when it comes from ”my gut” intuition and instinct.  The more I have tested and followed my intuition and had good results, the more I have come to trust it - like a muscle you develop.

How often have you jumped on board with an idea, program, or company in the hopes of making BIG BUCKS quickly? How many times have you had a feeling about something, a gut instinct that you ignored because you didn’t trust yourself, and went to others for advice only to realize your original feeling was the right one for you? Have you ever regretted a decision because you didn’t pay attention to your heart?

Continue reading "What Guides Your Decisions?" »

Here is an interesting article, I found on: "Are your desires matched on the micro and macro level?", written by: Lola Fayemi, the creator of: Nourishment For Your Spiritual Awakening  (Blog).

So you’ve got a dream, you’ve set a thrilling goal that will bring you much joy, you’ve got a direction and know where you’re heading, you may even know if you’re going to take baby steps or whopping great strides to get there BUT how are you really going to get there?

I’ll tell you how, by aligning with your goals on day-to-day basis. The vision you have is the macro level, the bigger picture. Someday, in the distant or not so distant future, you will achieve what you are working towards. The micro level is the everyday stuff, the smaller picture, the how are you going to get there?

Often I find clients’ desires on a macro and micro level to be mismatched. You know when you’re mismatched because it feels uncomfortable to say the least. You feel a million miles away from achieving what you want, frustrated by the absence of your desires and in a desperate state of wanting.

With my clients I’m like a broken record “it’s the what, not the how that’s important” I say over and over again. And yes, I stand by that but only because you can easily get lost in figuring out how you are going to reach attain your desire, not see a way and then find yourself in the energy of helplessness, paralysed into inaction.

That’s the how of what action you should be taking, the how ruled by your ego mind who wants to be in control and conclude that if you can’t see a way there is no way. The how which comes from your wiser self, your higher self or soul, however is important. This how tends to be more about your sense of being. What’s the best energy for you to be in while waiting for your desires to show up?

All goals set ultimately come down to a state of being you wish to achieve. Want more money? Or do you really want freedom, security or options? Want a loving partner? Or do you really want companionship, romance or love? You could get your money and be trapped in an undesired existence or get a loving partner that you do not love back in the same way so feel guilty, smothered and unhappy.

Some goals are being goals from the outset; you may want to shine, play big or have more ease in you life. Either way your goal at the macro level will be reached by achieving it on a micro level first. Eg, planning to shine on the macro and hiding out on the micro will not get you far, but finding ways to shine on a micro level will.

Whatever the bigger picture is of the goal you have, playing the same game on a smaller level will get you there. You are not going to achieve the state of freedom without any feelings of freedom being experienced first, ask yourself “how can I bring more freedom into my life” and get to it. Get the state of being at a micro level first and the macro will follow.

Questions

What do you really, really, really want?
How do you imagine you will feel when you have it?
What are the states of being you desire?
How are you living those states on a daily basis right now?

How can you bring more of those energies into your life today?"

Matching Your Desires on the Micro & Macro level!

Here is an interesting article, I found on: "Are your desires matched on the micro and macro level?", written by: Lola Fayemi, the creator of: Nourishment For Your Spiritual Awakening  (Blog).

So you’ve got a dream, you’ve set a thrilling goal that will bring you much joy, you’ve got a direction and know where you’re heading, you may even know if you’re going to take baby steps or whopping great strides to get there BUT how are you really going to get there?

I’ll tell you how, by aligning with your goals on day-to-day basis. The vision you have is the macro level, the bigger picture. Someday, in the distant or not so distant future, you will achieve what you are working towards. The micro level is the everyday stuff, the smaller picture, the how are you going to get there?

Often I find clients’ desires on a macro and micro level to be mismatched. You know when you’re mismatched because it feels uncomfortable to say the least. You feel a million miles away from achieving what you want, frustrated by the absence of your desires and in a desperate state of wanting.

With my clients I’m like a broken record “it’s the what, not the how that’s important” I say over and over again. And yes, I stand by that but only because you can easily get lost in figuring out how you are going to reach attain your desire, not see a way and then find yourself in the energy of helplessness, paralysed into inaction.

That’s the how of what action you should be taking, the how ruled by your ego mind who wants to be in control and conclude that if you can’t see a way there is no way. The how which comes from your wiser self, your higher self or soul, however is important. This how tends to be more about your sense of being. What’s the best energy for you to be in while waiting for your desires to show up?

All goals set ultimately come down to a state of being you wish to achieve. Want more money? Or do you really want freedom, security or options? Want a loving partner? Or do you really want companionship, romance or love? You could get your money and be trapped in an undesired existence or get a loving partner that you do not love back in the same way so feel guilty, smothered and unhappy.

Some goals are being goals from the outset; you may want to shine, play big or have more ease in you life. Either way your goal at the macro level will be reached by achieving it on a micro level first. Eg, planning to shine on the macro and hiding out on the micro will not get you far, but finding ways to shine on a micro level will.

Whatever the bigger picture is of the goal you have, playing the same game on a smaller level will get you there. You are not going to achieve the state of freedom without any feelings of freedom being experienced first, ask yourself “how can I bring more freedom into my life” and get to it. Get the state of being at a micro level first and the macro will follow.

Questions

What do you really, really, really want?
How do you imagine you will feel when you have it?
What are the states of being you desire?
How are you living those states on a daily basis right now?

How can you bring more of those energies into your life today?"