Archive | July, 2009

When a Butterfly Flaps its Wings, Give Thanks

I recently celebrated my 40th birthday. It was a real challenge. Everyone tells me its just a number but I believe it is a significant milestone to reach in one’s life. Whilst being flooded with love and attention from family, friends and work colleagues, I took a few minutes out to visit my local animal shelter with food and toys to share my good fortune. I have been quietly giving thanks in this way for the past year. Very few people know that I do this, although by publishing this article I am probably about to change that. I am not looking for praise or credit for being “good”, I just want to share with you a simple little thing you can do to make a difference in your own life.

The Interconnectedness Of All Things

In early 2008 both my husband and I had a strong desire to change jobs. We were both ready for a change of career. This desire became a very strong intention for both of us. Before long we both got the new jobs we desired and started them on the same day.

Read full story · Comments { 12 }

The 5 Keys to Transformational Success

What separates the average person, from the super successful? I’ve spent most of my life uncovering the differences between the mighty and the mundane. I’ve discovered the following 5 keys which cause the great, to be great. I believe if you practice these keys they will literally transform your mind and your life.

1. Meditation, Affirmation, and Visualization – Every successful person I know either meditates, visualizes, or makes affirmations. If you want to see transformational change in your life, begin by taking 15 minutes to meditate, affirm and visualize the life you desire. This doesn’t work because of its strange “mystical” powers; it works because it reprograms your thinking. “As a man thinketh, so is he.”

Read full story · Comments { 18 }

How to Change for the Sake of Your Relationship: Why it’s Not as Taboo as You Think

We’ve been taught that changing for the sake of another person is in direct conflict to the preservation of our own identities. Changing to make someone else happy won’t make you happy, just as you can never truly change someone else to make yourself happy. But to sustain a mature, productive, long-term relationship with someone, both parties need to grow. Pride and stubbornness often get in the way of a relationship that still needs to develop in order to last, and if you’re unwilling to make a few changes in order to keep your loved ones close, you may end up losing them altogether.

The following are some tips on analyzing your personal development for the sake of your relationship, and reasons why making small changes for someone else isn’t as bad as you think.

Read full story · Comments { 15 }

Why You’re Staying Where You Are (& How to Move On)

Have you ever been in a situation in life where you weren’t happy with where you were at – but you somehow couldn’t get up the motivation to change? I don’t mean cases where there are good reasons (such as financial ones) to hold back from change, but when there’s not really anything stopping you except yourself.

Here are a few, very very common, examples of where you might be stuck.

Read full story · Comments { 17 }

How to Make Your Dreams a Reality: Forget About Them

All right, I know that title sounds massively depressing, but I wanted to get your attention. Because I’ve got something important to say, I promise.

If you’ve ever looked at the shelf of the self-help section in your bookstore, you’ve probably heard of a guy named Stephen Covey. He’s only slightly famous for writing The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People- voted #1 as one of the most influential books of the 20th Century.

So, in the book one of the habits is “Begin with the end in mind.” Good advice, no doubt. But there’s a slight problem — a simple misinterpretation really — when you take this advice too seriously.

Read full story · Comments { 23 }

How to Unleash Your Creative Brilliance

Creativity can save the world. Creativity can save your life. Yes it’s that powerful. It can make you a millionaire; enchant the lover of your dreams; take you around the world; or fill your days with joy and wonder. Creativity is one of the most in-demand skills required for the jobs of tomorrow. And yet we get almost no creativity training in school. It’s expected that you either have it, or you don’t. Read on to find a simple method to begin unleashing your own creative brilliance.

The Incredible Power of Creativity

First, let’s take a moment to look at the value of creativity. I consider creativity one of the biggest keys to living an extraordinary life. Creativity is essentially the ability to think about things in a new way – to take the available resources and find new ways to use them. It can be used in a variety of artistic ways to create profound new experiences for you and your audience. And it can also be used to solve difficult problems – like how to design an amazing new product, how to get out of debt, how to cure malaria or how to arrange the most memorable, romantic date ever. Whenever you have a goal, creativity can help you figure out how to get from here to there faster, cheaper and easier.

Read full story · Comments { 19 }