Posts Tagged ‘Awareness’

What would you say to your 16 year old self if you could lovingly look back on the way you were and offer yourself some advice?  That’s exactly what dozens of people (most of them recognizable to everyone) decided to do in the book Dear Me:  A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self.  The advice was pretty amazing…

“You will literally wake up one day and realize you don’t have to impress anyone to have them like you.  Don’t try so hard, and things will get easier.” ~Seth Green Read the rest of this entry »

The inability to comprehend what is being said, rather than simply opening our ears, is becoming a prominent problem in our society. According to eHarmony, an online dating service, the number two cause of breakups and divorce in the United States is lack of communication. Intimate relationships with our fellow human beings are destroyed because we do not know how to listen to one another! In addition, effective communication skills are valued in employees. The number one reason people are fired is not their inability to learn, but their inability to communicate.

Our ability to selectively hear not only keep us consciously unaware, but also hurts our relationships to the point of decay. Listening can help us in our relationships, our Read the rest of this entry »

It’s that time of year when we all look back and evaluate.  I’m no exception.  I am sitting here attempting to figure out what happened during the last 365 days.  Where was I on New Year’s Eve 2009?  What successes have I enjoyed since then?  What about the challenges…there been a few.  More importantly, where do I want to be 365 days from now?  What leads to success?

I continue to be driven by a desire to help others.  For me it is all about service.  I truly believe I help myself by helping others.  Of course, helping others just for the payoff won’t work.  I find myself constantly looking for ways I can take the knowledge and experience I’ve gained throughout my life and use it to be of service to others. Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to share a story that I read today. The story has to do with the gift of listening…

“Decades ago the editors of Psychology Today magazine staged an experiment to establish the effects of listening and asking easy, probing questions. Staff members flew to LAX from New York. The editor flew in later, with the intention of meeting his seatmate and getting to know him on the five-hour flight. For the duration of the flight, the Psychology Today editor asked questions and listened. He asked more questions based on what he felt his seatmate wanted to talk more about, and avoided areas he felt he didn’t. His total “purpose for being” during the five hours, was to have the conversation be all about his seatmate.

As suspected, throughout the flight the seatmate never asked anything about the editor, not even his name. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves – regret for the past and fear of the future. – Fulton Ousler

If guilt is the most useless emotion, worry has to slide in as the second. The only reason we call guilt useless before worry is because it’s already in the past, where we are not. Worry is equally if not more pointless and detrimental to our lives. It can hold us back, scare us and can even have negative physical effects on us. Let’s take a look at worry and why we’re better off without it.

Worry likes to think of all the worst possible “what-if’s” about things that we have no control over and makes us believe we are subject to their outcome. It always looks to the negative side of things. While guilt tells us in the past we were totally in control and have messed up, worry plays the opposite hand and tries to show us that we are and will be Read the rest of this entry »