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By Christopher R. Edgar

In this post, I’ll talk about something that doesn’t seem to make sense. Why is it that, when we’re working on a project that’s deeply important to us, we tend to procrastinate the most?

I’m sure you’ve experienced this while doing a task that seemed “make or break” to you. Maybe it was a project that was for an important client or worth a lot of money. Maybe it was a paper you were writing for school that was worth a big part of your grade. Whatever it was, I’ll bet you noticed yourself putting it off more often than your usual chores.

Why Procrastination Makes Sense

Why does this happen? In my experience, when a task seems really important, that usually means our ego is deeply invested in it. In other words, our self-worth is riding on how we perform. If the project goes well, we’ll think well of ourselves. But if we screw up, we’ll see ourselves as screwups. [Click here to read more →]

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By Mark Harrison

“Do not suffer life to stagnate; it will grow muddy for want of motion: commit yourself again to the current of the world.” – Samuel Johnson

Motion, or change, is the one constant in life.

We are always moving, whether it be forwards, backwards or in circles. Most of us would, I imagine, want to be moving forward – achieving something, becoming fitter, stronger, wealthier, more skillful, happier. Yet so many of us get stuck in a rut, going over the same ground like a mouse in a wheel.

Dreams

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” – T E Lawrence

All things start in the mind. The great cathedrals and mosques of the world, the pyramids, the modern world – cars, planes and space ships – all the wonders of the ancient and the modern worlds – they all started as ideas, dreams. The idea of a flying machine would have been astonishing to people a few hundred years ago – most people would have ridiculed such a notion – but someone dreamed about it and now planes are part of our daily life.

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By Tara Sophia Mohr

We’ve all seen friends there. We’ve all been there ourselves: overwhelmed, confused, lost in evaluating a big life dilemma.

What should I do with my life? What job should I take? Should I move or not? Should I stay with the good, secure option or take a riskier road that has the potential to be great?

Sometimes thinking about these questions leads us into a tearing-out-our-hair, overwhelmed, utterly confused state. Intricate pro and con arguments swirl through our heads. We’re swimming, unable to keep up with the multiplicity of factors to weigh and reason through, and fearful because we sense there is no way to rationally predict the best outcome. Thinking gets us more and more stressed, further and further away from a connection to our desires, our truths, to clarity.

There are many ways to get out of this stuckness. One of my favorites is what I call “the bottom line” test.

[Click here to read more →]

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By Patrick Mathieu

On October 10th, 2006, at the age of 36, I suffered a stroke. Thankfully, it wasn’t a major stroke and I was able to make a full recovery after spending a week in the hospital!

In the weeks that followed, I can’t count how many times I heard the phrase:

“But you’re too young to have a stroke!”

My answer to this was always the same:

“Really? What age is the right age to have a stroke?”

Time is such a funny illusion, isn’t it? You just can’t count on time to abide by your plans. Kids get cancer. People are always dying “before their time”. And 36 year-olds have strokes.

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This entry is filed under: Life, Meaning & Purpose - 22 Comments »

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By Ali Hale

I’ve been involved in the personal development world for several years, since I was in college. I believe that there’s a lot of good material – in blogs, in books, taught by coaches and trainers – which can help you to enjoy life more and to achieve your goals.

But what I’ve come to believe is that, on some deep level, we are who we are. However much you might envy Richard Branson or Steve Jobs or Oprah Winfrey or whoever your particular hero is, you are you.

Perhaps you’re reading this because you’re curious. Perhaps you want more from your life. Perhaps there’s something you’re desperately keen to change – your weight, your fitness, your financial status, your job, your happiness.

Hold up a second. Do you really want to make those changes … or are you trying to become someone you’re not?

[Click here to read more →]

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By Ivan Campuzano

Silence is truly a beautiful phenomenon with the power to transform you; it touches you to the very core of your being. This is the part of you that is connected to reality, existence itself. Silence is rejuvenation; it allows you to be yourself, to relax into yourself.

The reality for most of us, though, is that we never truly experience utter silence.

Why is it? The reason is that we have a mind that is conditioned to always be active. To experience silence you need to have an extremely quite and sensitive mind.

Try this little experiment, sit for two hours and do nothing. Just observe your mind – this will show you the level of your being. What do you notice? Is your mind constantly seeking something to do to stay occupied? Do this passively, don’t run away, remain a witness to your thought process.

You will see that most of us try to keep our minds occupied. We try because if we become empty, if we allow silence to penetrate us, it will mean the death of our mind, of our ego.

[Click here to read more →]

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