Set Your Life On Fire

“The best thing you could do is MASTER the chaos in you.  You are not thrown into the fire.  YOU ARE THE FIRE” – Mama Indigo

The smallest spark ignites the fire of passion that lives deep within your soul.  When that passion bursts out, then anything is suddenly possible.  That passion says that you will not give up.  That you might get knocked down, but you will get back up.  That you might fail, but you will keep trying until you succeed.

It is in the trying, failing and trying again that you learn just what you are made up of.  It strips away the facades that you hide behind.  It exposes the bones of what you are made up of.

The fires don’t burn the true you,

only the parts that are not you.

The Cherokees teach that your ancient ancestors came from the stars.  Science has proven that your body contains stardust.  Like the stars you burn with an inner fire.

Your eyes, the windows of your soul, shine with that inner fire.  It is that inner focus that drives you forward.  That inner fire is like a forge, in that it will burn away all of the things that don’t belong, leaving the pure beauty of your soul’s core.

Focus is like a bellows, which supplies air to the fire so that it breathes.  That hot air rises to push you up out of the ashes.  It is in that place inside your heart, deep within the soul where joy burns away the pain.  Life isn’t ever what you thought it was.  It is in fact, all about what it is possible to become.  What you are truly capable of being.

“What you want to ignite in others must first burn inside yourself” – One PlanetOnePlanet.com

If you have ever heated your home with a wood fire, then you know the importance of banking the coals at night.  When you do that, then in the morning it is easy to get the fire going quickly.  You need to bank your inner fires when you are being hard pressed.  When you are going through the valley of death and darkness.  If you keep the inner core burning brightly, it doesn’t matter what happens outside of you.

• The burning embers of your dreams will burst into flames.
• You will rise up again.
• You shall escape the darkness.

You shall rise, lighting the way out of the darkness with a brightly burning all consuming passion, to change yourself and thereby change the world.

What matters most is your own self confidence.  Your own beliefs.  Your own self love and self-trust.  Because when the bridges are burning, sometimes that only way out is through.  When you have to walk down that road of fire, you are only going to be able to do it if you believe you can.

Sometimes in order to rise higher, you need to burn the boats containing plans B – Z and realize that plan A is the only option.   You have to be all in.  You have to surround yourself with those who will not be afraid of the changes you are going through, because they are transforming themselves.  People who will believe in your dreams and will fan the flames of your fire.  The chain reaction of one heart on fire lighting another, and another until there is light for all.

“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage – pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically – to say “no” to other things.  And the way to do that is by having a bigger “Yes” burning inside” – Stephen Covey

Seek that path that demands more from you than you currently know how to give.  Motivation comes from that fire within us, an awakened soul.

Be fearless

in seeking your transformation

You have the capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than all of your hopes, desires, dreams and inspirations.

Be Brave – Entertain The Uncomfortable And Shoot For The Stars

The Three C’s of Life:

Choices, Chances, Changes.

You must make a Choice to take a Chance or your life will never Change.

 – Zig Ziglar

They say that everything you have ever wanted is one step outside of your comfort zone.  If you are around my age, you may remember the day that the astronauts landed on the moon and took the first step onto the moons surface.  Everyone around the world that had access to a T.V. was watching.  No one said a word as they watched, holding their breath.  Then again, when the astronauts came back home and safely splashed into the water.  It was an amazing time, because something had happened, that couldn’t be believed.  They went to the moon, they walked on it and brought back space rocks.  They made it back safe and a boundary was forever broken that most of us believed wasn’t possible.  Sometimes I think that the one step outside your comfort zone is just like that first step onto the moons surface.  Because that first step in the direction of our dreams is soooo very hard to do.  It sometimes feels like we might not make it back alive, when we take that step.

You don’t get over the fear of doing something by not doing it.

 – Zero Dean

Stepping outside that circle begins with a vision.  Look at the stars colored into the lines.  Those are all of your dreams that you have been given to go out and bring into reality.  Each star is like the rest stop on a long road trip.  A safe place to stop and take a nap if you need it.  A place to refresh yourself as you get ready to get back on the freeway and travel to the next stop along your destination.  A place where they have a map that says, “you are here” and marks out places that you can go explore.  Some of them are located at landmarks, and some at scenic views.  You can meet people from other states.  You can talk to truck drivers who go from one side of the United States to the other, transporting everything that we have in our homes to the marketplace.  Step out onto to your first star.  Move from where you are, to where you need to be.

We must take adventures in order to know where we truly belong.

 – Unknown

Did you know that in order to write a single sentence, we need to have the ability to see the sentence in our minds?  That is how we start out when as a young child we start writing out sentences. Along the way, we do this by habit.  We begin with a vision.  Then we start building bridges along each step of the way.  We start coloring in the stars as far as we can reach.  And one day it happens, that in order to color in the next star, we have to take a step into the vision itself.  You will have to leave the place where you are in order to continue to give birth to the vision. It will mean that you feel lost, uncomfortable and awkward.  It will mean that you fail, not once or twice, but many times.  But once you get the hang of it, your life will change in the most amazing ways.

You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

 – Christopher Columbus

At some point we have to light our fire, our passion to overcome the fear of taking the step.  We have to want it more than we are afraid of it.  The greater the fear, the greater the growth.  If you have kids, you will have witnessed growth spurts.  I remember when my boys were little.  I always knew when a growth spurt was coming because they consumed food like they were vacuum cleaners and they would sleep longer.  Then practically overnight, I had to buy new clothes and shoes because nothing fit.  There is discomfort when we grow at first because everything that fit us yesterday, doesn’t fit us today.  But when we give it a little time and space, we grow comfortable again with a new favorite pair of favorite jeans or shoes.  We can’t let fears rule over us and make us afraid to walk into our future selves.  That is where the joy and adventure are waiting for us.  The “Stars” are calling us, we just have to take the call.

The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

 – Steven Pressfield

Courage is the realization that this fear of leaving the comfort zone is just a place marker.  It marks the place where you are about to do something that will shift your life into a totally new place.  Do you remember the first time that you moved?  If you were a kid, it meant a new neighborhood.  New friends.  New school.  Maybe the move was to go to college and you left your family behind to go to school in another state.  Or maybe your first move was out of state for a new job.   All very scary “new” things.  But kind of exciting too.   Because you didn’t have any idea who your new friends were going to be; who your new teachers would be; what your new home would look like.  You said goodbye to a lot of things, and at the same time you got to say hello to some new things.  The fears that we imagine are just there to let us know that something wonderful is coming our way.

If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone.

 – John Maxwell

Outside of that circle is where life really happens.  It is where the magic is – that is why the stars are there to guide us.  It is where we get to create our own life.  We can decide and choose who and what we want to become.  Keep walking, maybe even running sometimes to the destiny that you have been given.  Hold to your vision and don’t let anyone or anything keep you from it.  Trust in the process, remember to breathe, and if you haven’t got uncomfortable, then you haven’t left your comfort zone.  Your fears can be pretty tricky, and they will make it seem like you stepped out of the circle and onto one of the stars.  But do a gut check – no butterflies, no giddiness, no feeling of “What Did I Just Do” and you better check to see where those toes really landed.

Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

 – Les Brown

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Follow Your Inner Compass

“If you follow the inner path using truth and clarity as your compass points, the outer world cannot help but respond to your intention”  – Deepak Chopra

Years ago I used to travel with work three weeks of almost every month. I flew into or drove through almost every state except Alaska, Maine and Hawaii. The rental cars were charging extra for the GPS and my employer seldom got a rental car with one. It was printed directions from google maps or a similar program. My favorite saying was no trip was complete without at least one U-turn.

My husband swears that I have no sense of direction, and at some point in almost every trip I would get lost. Sometimes I thought I must have driven too far and would turn around, only to find the destination had been just a little further down the road. Other times I would drive around in circles. Did you know that in some places in New Jersey they don’t allow left hand turns? You have to do this weird three right turns so that you are on the street which crosses the intersection to the address you are looking for. It once took me 20 minutes to figure out what the directions were telling me to do.

“You inner voice always knows what to do, but it is a quiet voice.  You can only  hear the whisperings of your inner voice, your inner compass – when you turn down the volume of your fears, your regrets, your resentments, and the fear based advice your neighbors are so willing to give you” – Jonathon Lockwood Huie

So I have experience both literally and metaphysically with turning around because I am going in the wrong direction. The most interesting thing about it though, is how do you know when you are going in the wrong direction? How do you tell that it is time to turn around, because you will not be able to get to your destination on the road that you are traveling on? How do you know that you don’t just need to drive a little further down the road?

“You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible: – Deepak Chopra

The first thing that I had to do on my actual road trips was quit stressing about being late; about being lost; and just stop and get my bearings. When I stopped stressing and looked at the directions calmly I would usually see where I went the wrong way or what I misunderstood. Sometimes I had to humble myself and call the place I was trying to get to and ask for directions. Sometimes there was a nearby gas station to give me directions. The same is true on the metaphysical level.

“The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality” – Conan O’Brian

When you get grounded, release the stress, and get into that calm place – you can get your bearings. You just need to breathe, trust and let go. This gives your inner compass a chance to get your bearings and stop spinning wildly in circles. Your true north will always draw you to it.

“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition.  What you’ll discover will be wonderful.  What you’ll discover is yourself” – Alan Alda

Sometimes the issue isn’t that your lost. It is that you are living a life of holding your potential in check. You need to be brave and unleash the potential to start moving. You feel like if you claim that you are lost, you won’t run the risk of failure. By quitting you are playing it safe.

The truth is that whether you stay put or move forward, there is a price that is being paid. Since you are already paying for being stuck in place, why not go ahead and pay the price of moving forward – why not “RELEASE THE KRAKEN” and move forward?

“You gut is your inner compass.  Whenever you have to consult with other people for an answer, you’re headed in the wrong direction” – Oprah

Being lost is just a nuisance. There is no new discovery until you release the potential.  Your potential is revealed by your values, your purpose.  It is part of the souls journey.  So put on the backpack, grab the walking stick, partner with a trustworthy friend and get going. Risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight and discover what your human spirit is all about.

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Live An Extraordinary, Creative, Inventive Life

Divine Timing – Trust, Let Go And See What Happens

When you truly “let go and let God” you stop trying to make something happen by a certain time.

You stop pushing the stopwatch.

You stop pushing those goals which are like large boulders up the hill, only to have them roll back down to the bottom when you get distracted.

What will then happen, is that divine timing is allowed to work in its own way, its own time, and its own mysterious plans and ways.

Paths open up before you that take you places that you would never have chosen to go.  Places that open you up to something new and so delightful that you never want to leave.

“Patience is quieting the ego and trusting divine timing” – Dean Jackson

Divine timing has amazing short cuts.  Let’s say that you have on your bucket list to go to Mt. Kilimanjaro.  You have no money to finance this kind of trip.

In your hometown is a non-profit that you volunteer to work for.  One day this non-profit, along with other agencies get a call to provide relief supplies for some villages near the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  You volunteer to go and help to deliver the supplies.  The helicopter drops you off at the village.  You are now within immediate climbing distance of your goal.

Now they ask for some of you to go up towards the summit to deliver the supplies.  Divine timing has just express delivered a bucket list goal and all you had to do is say yes.

Now that story was totally made up, and you are probably saying, but that doesn’t really happen.  So, I want to share my own personal favorite story of divine timing happening in my own life, when I had no other choice but to let go and let God.

My middle son called me to tell me that he and his girlfriend were getting married.  I was so happy for them.  This was in January, and they had set the date for August.  I sat down and planned out what I could do to get enough money together to pay for their honeymoon.

If I was extremely budget conscious and could earn some extra commissions at work, I could just pay for the honeymoon that they wanted In Mexico.  The end of February they called with a new surprise; they had moved up the date to May.  I looked at my now destroyed plan and no matter how I moved the numbers, there was no way to pay for the honeymoon by the end of April.

So, I sat down and pulled out some paper and wrote a letter to myself in that moment in time, from myself in June.  I wrote how happy they were to go on their honeymoon.  They had a terrific time, and I poured every emotion and feeling of gratitude and happiness into this letter.  I wrote how amazed I was how unseen forces seemed to move my financial mountains to make it happen.  I wrote how I never could have foreseen the ability to make my dream of paying for their honeymoon happen, and how grateful I was to God for providing me with the funds.

Then I put the paper away, with no attachment to the outcome in a drawer and placed all of my faith in divine timing.  Two weeks later, I got a phone call from a neighbor who lived across the street from our second home in Upstate New York.  They wanted to know if I was interested in selling them 10 acres of our property. They would pay cash and we could close in two weeks.

Now when we had bought this house, it was on 20 acres.  I didn’t know why at that time, but I negotiated to cut the parcel in half and have 10 acres of land and 10 acres with the house.  We paid full price for the 10 acres with the house and $1.00 for the 10 acres of bare land.  So, I was able to say yes to the neighbor and we negotiated a fair price.  We closed the end of March and the first week of April I was able to fully pay for my son and daughter in-law’s honeymoon.

Even if I had thought of selling the land to pay for the honeymoon, it is highly unlikely that we could have sold and closed on it in 30 days.  That time of year the area is still covered in snow.  But I believe that divine timing knew that when I bought that house five years previously, I was going to need to liquidate that land to pay for my son’s honeymoon.

Because I had listened to intuition and split the property, divine timing was able to maneuver into place a quick sale and funds to pay for that honeymoon.

An analogy of “letting go and letting God” is water.  Water always finds a way.  It might take a year, it might take a day, but what is meant to be will always find its own way to completion.

I always think of the Grand Canyon.  Water carved that canyon out of solid stone.  In one place within the canyon is a small island of stone in a perfect circle of water that wound around it.  I don’t know how that perfect circle of stone is still standing.   But the story my imagination tells me is that the stone was especially strong in that one spot and that it took water a lot of time and persistence, but it was able to carve away all of the parts that didn’t belong, until what was left, was what was supposed to be there.  A tall stone island in a perfect circle of water.

So, know that in your journey, you are always on perfect time, divine time.  You are not early; you are not late.  You are right now where you are supposed to be.

That goal, off in the distance that you are busy running to, will happen right on time.  It may be that like me, you don’t see any way that you can make it happen.  But if you are willing to listen to intuition; If you are willing to do things that may not make sense at the time you are doing them; like splitting up 20 acres into two 10-acre parcels, divine timing will place what you need into your hands, right on time.

• What are your dreams, visions, your life purpose?
• Are you on track to bring them into reality and complete them?
• Have you allowed distractions to sidetrack you?
• Are you unclear on what your life purpose is or how to bring it into reality?

We here at LemonadeMakers not only write about waking up to the reality of who you are and your life purpose and living up to your full potential.   We also are here to help you ask yourself the right questions to open up your mind to the possibilities of living the life you have always dreamed of.  Contact us anytime and we are happy to have that conversation.

Transformation Is A Major Part of Lifes Journey

Can you imagine the conversation that might take place between a butterfly and a caterpillar that is about to build their chrysalis? It might sound like that.

How would you explain this overwhelming need to your non-caterpillar friends that you have to get so totally wrapped up in your need to change and transform? The birds are not going to understand. The bees are not going to get it. None of the other kinds of insects and animals go through this type of change.

But you know that you just have to do it. There really is no other way to answer your soul’s calling. You have to completely transform. You have to let go of what is no longer serving you.

You are not a climber of leaves and branches any longer. You have this overwhelming desire to fly. To soar. You can’t put a name to this yet, because you haven’t experienced it. But you can feel this constant calling to shift and change. You don’t understand it, yet at a deeper level you know that this is why you were born and you have to go for it.

Nothing happens until the pain of remaining the same outweighs the pain of change.

 – Arthur Burt

I believe that the change doesn’t have to feel painful. I think that the emotion that we feel is fear. But if you really analyze this feeling that we get, isn’t it an awful lot like when you are riding in a roller coaster? You are nearing the top of the climb and about to go speeding down the other side, isn’t it that feeling?

What if this feeling, this fear, is really anticipation? I know that I love this feeling of riding a roller coaster. The screaming, laughter, and excitement. Not everyone does. But a lot of us do.

What if this is the feeling of fear of change, and we change our definition from fear to anticipation? If we can change the meaning of this kind of feeling then, when we enter the chrysalis, we are anticipating the feeling of spreading our wings. We are anticipating the feeling of the wind beneath our wings.

If we are anticipating these feelings, then transformation is exciting. It is something to be desired. We enter into a wonderful relationship with it.

Sound interesting? Want to explore this together in greater detail? Continue your journey to transformation with us.  We are having a free online event “A Conscious Conversation” where we will explore how to courageously transform our lives to fully live into our divine destiny.

Events

Don’t Be The Missing Piece In The Divine Puzzle

Unexplored Possibilities Are Waiting For You To Release Them

“Limitations live only in our minds.  But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless” – Jamie Paolinetti

Possibilities are like rabbits.  The more you think about them, the more they multiply.  Pretty soon you have a field full of them.  The trick is to turn them into probabilities.  Probabilities are a guide to enlightenment, in the journey of life.

It is the secret of how the Phoenix arises from the ashes and is reborn.  The Phoenix has coded in its DNA the belief of triumph over impossible odds.  So even when defeated, it rises once more from the ashes to achieve the impossible.

Imagination is like turning on the faucet.  When you start imagining the possibilities, the water gets turned on and you start getting ideas.

The trick is to just start writing them down.  No judgement or editing or being critical.  Just put them down on paper, idea after idea.  Possibility after possibility.

Once you have wrung every last drop out of your faucet, then you start looking at each possibility and see how many of them can grow into a probability.

That is how the miracles are born.  It is looking for the one thing that leaps off the page, no matter how impossible it seems.  That is the one, the one that your inner guidance is calling out for.  That is the one that causes the Phoenix to rise up from the ashes.  Do not allow the critical, judgmental thinking to chain it from taking flight.

“Possibilities and miracles mean the same thing” – Prentice Mulford

So where does that critical judgmental thinking come from?  It comes from your own insecurities.  From every unkind word you have heard.   From every well-meaning person who said, “Oh no honey, you can’t do that”, girls aren’t good at sports, math, or science.  Or boys don’t playhouse or with dolls.  From every time you tried something, failed and walked away.  From every time you said you would do something and didn’t.

All of those negative experiences pile up in your mind and become these critical judgmental thinking machines.  They promise you safety, that you won’t get hurt if you listen to them, but in reality, they are the bars of a prison of your own making.

The trick is to not believe the magician with his sleight of hand tricks. Not becoming attached to those negative beliefs.  They can become chains linked to an anchor that you drag around.  Your imaginations can’t take flight with chains connected to an anchor keeping you bound to the earth.  You need to release all of those negative, judgmental thoughts, as they do not serve you.

They are limitations, illusions of the magician.  He tells you that if you leave his stage, you will be in darkness, no longer in the protection of his light.  If you build barricades from his illusions of danger, they will leave you exposed to having lived an “unlived” life.  A life lived without passion and purpose.  A life that doesn’t fulfill your divine destiny.

“Breathe in the sweet air of limitless possibility, and make life as rich as you know it can be” – Ralph Marston

 

Probability of Success

I won’t – 0%

I can’t – 10%

I don’t know how – 20%

I wish I could – 30%

I want to – 40%

I think I might – 50%

I might – 60%

I think I can – 70%

I can – 80%

I am – 90%

I did – 100%

Increase your chances of success by saying “I can, I am, and I did”.  What if you stopped saying, “I wish I could” and instead said, “Guess what I did today?”

We at LemonadeMakers would love to hear your stories.  Drop us an IM and share both your successes and not so successful stories.  And as always, let us know if we can assist you in burning those insecurities.  We love a good bonfire!

Live Your Truth, And Don’t Let Any Obstacle Get In Your Way

Years ago I was a loan processor for a company in Seattle.  I worked for a branch in an area called South Center, which was next to a shopping mall.  Most of the people there smoked and they would be out front every hour smoking a cigarette.  It worked out that they spent 10-15 minutes of every hour, out front smoking.  I didn’t smoke, and I didn’t feel right about spending “working” hours I got paid for, standing out front while everyone else smoked.

They gave me a bad time for the first few months I worked there and then gave up trying to convince me to be part of the crowd.  You have a moral code, you may have a very strict code, or not so strict.  To be other than average, you need to work hard to excel and be a master of your craft.  Spending 15 minutes of every hour for 8 hours means that you are working  only 6 hours.  A lot of work can be accomplished in those two hours.  Or you could just sit back and be average standing out front with the smokers – the choice is always yours to make.

“The only way to discover our true potential, is to clear out the clutter and focus on what matters”  – Unknown

Thinking back to that rock climber, each hand hold and each foot hold gets her closer to the top.  Her focus is solely on getting her to the top.  She isn’t thinking about the climb down, or the ride home, or going to work on Monday.  Every decision you make should be all about moving you one step closer to just today’s goals.  You don’t focus on the past or the future, just the next move for today.

“Each day, focus your attention on what you want.  Each day, take one step that will bring your closer to it.  All things are possible!  The key is to identify it, claim it for yourself, and believe that you are worthy to have it” – Iyanla Vanzant

The Best Things In Life Are The Moments When We See The Little Things Clearly

 Such a profound question – what is life?

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, that hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end.  Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.  Delicious Ambiguity.  

  – Gilda Radner

When you look around at your friends and family, how many people do you know that “just exist”? They are here. They wake up each day. They take in the breath of life, they eat, they go to work or school, they come home and watch a movie, TV, play video games. They are here, but what else is there in life, besides just being here?

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. 

   – Marcel Proust

There is something about asking questions that opens life up.  About being curious.  Asking yourself the questions that you are afraid to ask, afraid of how the answers might change your life.  Questions like, “Why am I not happy with who I am”?

Be not afraid of life.  Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

  – William James 

I think that there is more to life, than just existing. I think of some of the stories that I love best. They are made up of characters that progress down a timeline, the hero’s journey. They are walking along a path and something happens. Things go wrong, they change to meet the challenges and come out the other end a different person than the one we met in the beginning of the story.

Time is like a river, you cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again.  Enjoy every moment of life . . . ,

  – Unknown

They discover things about themselves during the journey. They discover the “fire in the belly”, passion. They learn to speak up and speak out. They learn that they have courage to fight for truth, justice, life and liberty. We root for them to beat the odds and win. Take the first “Rocky” movie.  He is employed in a sketchy business as a collector for a loan shark..  He boxes and  is made fun of, nothing but a loser and a bum.  He dreams of a better life and thinks that fighting in the ring, could be his ticket to be somebody. He gets a one in a million shot at it, wins against the heavyweight champion, falls in love.

Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. 

  – Unknown

Boxing was his passion.  He learned to have self confidence in his talent.  He learned that we can all be somebody if we are willing to pay the price of hard work to make it happen.  If we are willing to not give up when it looks hopeless.  As the rest of the series of movies show, transformation is an ongoing process.  We will learn valuable and painful lessons when we don’t remain conscious of who we are and where we are going in life.

Most of us have been through some sort of personal hero’s journey in our life.

Someday everything will make perfect sense. So, for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears and keep reminding yourself that EVERYTHING happens for a reason. 

  – Unknown 

What did we discover about ourselves? Brendon Buchard tells a story about his own personal journey when he was in college. He had a bad breakup with his girlfriend.  She was the one he was going to spend the rest of his life with.  So to try and get out of his depression he went on a trip with a college friend to South America.  They were driving in a rural mountainous area on a narrow road.  The road turned out to be a hairpin curve.  His friend lost control of the car, and they went tumbling off the mountain.  When he came to he was bleeding.  They had fallen down a ravine.  He thought that he was dying.  In despair he asked himself three questions – Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter?

Thankfully they didn’t die.  They both got medical attention, and when he returned to the United States he was a different person.  He is an international bestseller with multiple  books; he is the founder of Experts Academy and High Performance Academy and is a sought after motivational speaker.  How was his life impacted from getting a broken heart?  From an auto accident that could have ended his life?  We never know how the painful experiences of our life, will be positively used for the rest of our lives.

Life has many ways of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen at once. 

  – Paulo Coelho

I think that we all want to live a life that results in great friends and family that love us.  That results in us being happy and passionate about what we do with our days and nights.  That results in knowing that we had a positive impact in the world. But sometimes we fall asleep to those dreams.  Sometimes we get so beaten down by our hero’s journey, that we give the dream up as being impossible.  What I have discovered in life is that we tend to do one of two things.  We act without thinking our decision all of the way through and so we end up paying the bill of “unintended  consequences”.  Or we think about it, and think about it, and do nothing about it.  Why?  Because we can’t face our fears about “what if?”.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.  Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow.  Let reality be reality.  Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they life. 

  – Lao Tzo

So each morning, what if the first question we ask ourselves is:

If my life is a story, what can I do today to make it a New York Times Bestseller?

What could I do today, that a movie producer would want to make my life into an inspirational movie?

What can I do today that uses up all the best parts of me (my talents), to inspire the world around me to be a better place?

What can I do today that makes people laugh, smile and be more joyful?

Death is not the greatest loss in life.  The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live. 

  – Norman Cousins

They have a saying, that the best stories are in the graveyard.  There are books that never got written; apologies and forgiveness that were said in their heart, but never left their lips.  Millions of secret recipes that never got passed on.  Don’t wait for the end to ask, “Did I live, love and matter”, but instead ask it each night.  Ask if you showed love, and gave love to others each night. Ask if you were able to do one small thing today that mattered to someone. If you can say yes, to these questions each night, you have a wonderful life. You inspire me to try harder, to be better, to live fully in the present. To lose myself in the sunset.

Never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun. 

  – Randy Pausch

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You Were Born With Wings…, Use Them And Fly

“Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right” – Charles Spurgeon

This is such an interesting quote.  It is easy to tell what is right and wrong in most cases.  So many things are literally black and white morally or ethically.  It is the right, and the almost right – that tricky gray area that gets you into predicaments. 

The mix-up that you may have seen at the academy awards is a small example of this principle.  Warren Beatty saw the card, read it a couple of times, and in his gut knew that something wasn’t right.  But he let his head override his intuition.  And the result was a mix up that certainly wasn’t his fault, but which he contributed to because he felt that he couldn’t interrupt the show to confirm his suspicions. 

How many times in your life, have you second guessed something?  Knew that something wasn’t quite right, but allowed your mind to convince you to go ahead?

One of the hardest things to do, is to identify the true nature of your spirit . . ., to know when you are losing your center and how to find it again. When the whole world seems to be literally falling apart, it is so easy to let the chaos around you take you off center. 

“When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way” – Paulo Coelho

When you are trying to live a conscious life; to live to your full potential, you have to exercise extreme caution.  It is imperative to have those little alarm bells ringing, when you go off course. 

“So, it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last works of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains” – Lucretius

You could be moving along, with everything in life going perfectly.  You are in the flow or zone, and it almost feels like life is finally going right where you want it to go.  You got the new job or promotion . . ., family life is moving smoothly . . ., your home is finally decorated perfectly . . ., then a ball drops.  It could be a health issue, or your spouse could ask for a divorce out of the blue, something strikes out at you and turns you off center. 

It is the flash point of wisdom to see things from the viewpoint of the heart and soul . . ., to be able to see what is both true and lasting, from what is not.  With every season in your life, there is a shift and a change.  A moving forward in your journey along the path you have chosen.  To transforming in line with what has been shifting and changing around you.  

“The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path”– Jim Rohn

It takes discernment to see what direction your life path is taking you.  You will need to constantly re-determine what is still valid in your life.  It becomes time to do some interior house cleaning.  To release what no longer fits in your life – things you have outgrown and no longer serve any useful benefit. What items shift with you, versus what you have moved beyond.  What needs to be left behind?

“We have to be the women we want our daughters to be” – Brene Brown

Just remember, as you are taking stock of your life – you will never have to sacrifice your dignity, for your destiny.  Whenever someone or something makes you feel that way, it is time to leave that mess behind you too.  Walk away . . ., breathe and let it go . . ., and reconnect to your center. 

Discernment refreshes your soul.  Discernment helps you to understand the deeper reasons of why things happen.  The power of spiritual perception into deeper meanings, the ability to tell what is actually going on.  Don’t let fear choose your destiny.  There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.  Recognize inconsistencies, the half-truths, the misapplied truths, or false truths – what is genuine versus self-deception. 

Playing chess teaches you discernment.  You learn how to plan out your moves ahead of time.  See how each possible move affects your game.  You learn to sift and identify what appears to be a good move, but in reality, is a bad move.  To see when a move will put you into a possible trap later in the game. 

You have the innate power to shape and change your life by tearing off the mask of half-truths and self-deception.  To draw down into the depths of your heart, to who you are meant to be.  Your life has immeasurable potentiality for greatness.

“Discernment is a light of protection and direction in a world that grows increasingly dark” – Elder Bednar

Discernment is saying the right thing in the perfect moment and biting your tongue to not say the wrong thing at this most tempting moment.  To realize that sarcasm and scathing remarks do not serve your purpose, no matter how much you want to put someone in their place.  Instead of feeding the fire, you learn how to use it to your advantage. 

“Align yourself with people that you can learn from, people who want more out of life, people who are stretching and searching and seeking higher ground in life” – Les Brown

It doesn’t mean that you are not going to make mistakes.  We are all imperfect.  But you can look at your imperfections and know that true wisdom is the acknowledgement of them. You can live a life of integrity. 

Let people be inspired by that fact that even though you don’t have all of the answers, you are still willing to get up every morning and do the best job you can.  Instead of saying “I can’t because . . ., ” say, “there are endless possibilities in front of me and if this path doesn’t take me where I want to go, I know that another one will show up that will”. 

Show your social circle that living a life of integrity is how you find the right path to accomplish your dreams.   

It is an interesting fact of life, that when you raise up others, you rise too.  On this path what you discover is that when you have the courage to risk making mistakes, your life becomes a series of miracles. 

The problem is that when you are busy fighting the chaos, you forget to take a moment to notice the miracles.  You don’t see your own value shining in the eyes of those that know and love you.  You forget to be grateful for the many daily miracles in your life. 

You don’t see how you are modeling for your daughters and your sisters, that they can be successful without being in competition with other women. 

“Your life does not get better by chance; it gets better by change” – Jim Rohn

It goes along with the saying, that if it is important, you will find a way to do it, and if it isn’t you will find an excuse as to why you can’t do it.  “I know” is different from “I can” . . ., because “I can” has the energy of action contained within it.  You can intellectually know something, like you know how to make homemade bread, because you watched some cooking show telling you how.  To “I can” make homemade bread, because I have done it before. 

Put your journey on the “express train”, otherwise you will find yourself on the slow boat to nowhere. 

“May every word that is ever spoken by our mouths or typed by our fingers be words that lift up, and never words that tear down” – BraveGirlsClub

The Secrets Of The Universe Are Imprinted Within Your Soul

 The signs and guidance that you seek are all around you.  The Universe works through people and if you stop to pay attention, there’s a theme that emerges from interactions, blog posts, quotes on social media and even the movies or shows you watch.  Get out of your head and start paying attention.

  –  Stephenie Zamora. 

So many times what we want is for the limo to arrive at our doorstop, to drop us off at the Academy Awards, to just have to walk up on stage and accept the Best Actress Award.  Forget the 10,000 hours to master the craft.  Forget the lumps and bumps of lessons along the way.  Forget the time it takes to make the right connections, to promote ourselves, to find an agent, to go on casting call after casting call, hearing “sorry, but your not what we are looking for”. 

The universe is not outside of you.  Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you already are.

  – Rumi

The thought that we have to do something perfectly the first time is such a lie.  If you love music and you want to be a concert pianist, the first time you sit at a piano or a keyboard, you are not going to play Chopin perfectly.  Never abandon your dreams, just because they will take time and lots of practice to transform you into who you dream of being. 

You are more than your thoughts, your body or your feelings.  You are a swirling vortex of limitless potential who is here to shake things up and create something new that the universe has never seen.

  –  Dr. Richard Barlett

The universe doesn’t give you what you ask for with your thoughts; it gives you what you demand with your actions.

  –   Dr. Steve Maraboli

It is making choices by taking the scary actions that make our heart beat so loud that everyone can hear it.  It is taking action, stepping on the stage of real life with the possible rejections, that will bring the universe into concerted action on our behalf.  We might feel that we should just want to hold the dream in the safe mode, where no one can poke holes in it, or damage and dent it.  But what is required in our actions, is to dig deep within us.  To find that place of strength and conviction in our dreams.  To mine for the gold, polish it up and display it for all to see.  To keep walking across that stage even if our heart stops.  Even if our entire body goes numb.  Even if we don’t think we can take another breath, we inhale a deep breath and we keep walking. 

The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.

  –  Elizabeth Gilbert

The universe has shaken you, to awaken you.  

 –  Mastin Kipp

A couple of weeks ago I had this dream.  I was driving down the 101 Freeway.  I was exactly in the middle lane, with two lanes on either side of me.  All of a sudden there was a car in my lane coming straight towards me, driving the wrong way.  I jerked awake as I heard these words, “Wake Up”.  I have thought a lot about this dream.  I sometimes have these dreams where I know that my soul is speaking to me.  That the divine is leading me.  I know they have an impact and meaning in my life, although I am not always sure what.  But they set me to looking for signs to their meaning.  What I took from this dream is that a big change is coming into my life – but I will only see it if I am awake and ready to take advantage of it.  As the weeks have passed, I think that I am seeing some possibilities of what it all means.  Some possibilities that profoundly scare me, because they are such a leap from where I am at, and that is usually a good sign. 

She knows it’s time to make a change.  She feels it on an energetic level that she can’t quite describe and maybe doesn’t even want to put into words.  It is a personal and sacred language, an inner message between her and her soul.

  – Molly McChord

Rarely do we realize that we are in the midst of the extraordinary.  Miracles occur all around us, signs from God show us the way, angels plead to be heard, but we pay little attention to them because we have been taught that we must follow certain formulas and rules if we want to find God.  We do not realize that God is wherever we allow him/her to enter.”

  –  Paulo Coelho

Relax.  Let go of the expectations,  Stop pushing what you want to happen, and release all anxiety.  Trust in your dreams.  Trust in the Divine.  Know in your heart that sometimes impossible things just happen and we call them miracles.  It happens when we let go of how we think it should work and just let it happen in the biggest, fastest way possible. 

Your best life is achieved by listening to the wisest part of you – what you know to be true.

  –  Cheryl Richardson

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