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Videos for the Week of March 14, 2010

March 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

video6First Video – The Ancient Ruins of Puma Punku

If you begin to think that we are the most advanced civilization that has ever been on this planet, you might want to watch the video about Puma Punku. The Ruins of this civilization in Bolivia cannot be dated nor explained. This video will create more questions and give few answers but it will challenge your thinking and you ideas of our own culture.

If you are watching this video after the week of March 14, 2010, click here to view the video.

Second Video: Self-Awareness 101 Episode 11: The Four Agreements

If you are not familiar with the Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, this video is a “must watch.”  The transcript is below.

If you are watching this video after the week of March 14, 2010, click here to view the video.

http://www.yourdailylifecoach.com/four-agreements.html

Transcript:The

Several years ago I was invited to lead a book discussion group by the manager at a local Barnes and Noble’s. One of the first books that we discussed was “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz. I loved being involved in that book discussion group because when you have a group of people sharing their perceptions of the same topic, you become aware of perceptions that you never would have if not for another person’s point of view.

After reading and discussing this book, I choose to take the four agreements and integrate them into my life as a tool for daily living. And I believe as I share with you the simplicity and power of these four agreements, you may yourself see how it could dramatically impact your own life, and even the world if we all applied these in our day to day interactions.

The first of the four agreements is to be impeccable with your word. When you say something, mean it. Not only with your commitment to others but with your word to yourself. So often we agree to things, or say we will do things with no real intention of following through. Whether you plan on dieting, whether you plan on exercising, when you commit to anything be impeccable with your word.

Being impeccable with your word also means being honest. As a friend of mine, Gary King shares in his program The Power Of Truth, “There is no such thing as an inconsequential lie.” When we speak, do it honestly. Being impeccable with your word is also about being totally open in what you want to share with people, not being ambiguous. Be clear, and take away the potential for misrepresenting yourself. Being impeccable with your word is knowing that communication, that level of honesty and that level of commitment to follow through on your word, is so valuable.

The second commitment is to not take things personally. Now that can be a little tough in the beginning because we’ve all had experience where someone says something to us, maybe they even yell at us. We’ve all had those experiences where someone says something that really knocks us off guard and we’re thinking, “What the heck did I do?” We can choose to take that personally, but let me turn that around and ask you, have you ever lashed out at someone when they really weren’t the person you were angry at? Something to think about.

When we stop taking things personally and realize that the issue more than likely has nothing to do with us, then we’re actually able to listen to what the other person is saying and work on healing that communication, rather than inflaming it by becoming defensive.

The third agreement is to never assume. Think about this for a moment, we never have all of the information that we need to make a correct assumption. We have one perception, and a very limited perception at that. There’s an old saying that when you assume you make a ..(@!#).. out of you and me. Our assumptions are usually way off base because we simply haven’t gotten all the facts. So instead of assuming, why not ask questions that get you the more information and help you to see the full picture? By not assuming and asking questions you can actually be involved in communication rather than confusion.

The fourth agreement is to always do your best. People who know me, know that I have a very strong aversion to the word “try”. I say that because I believe that “try” is an excuse to fail. That when you say that you will “try” you don’t really have to apply yourself to doing anything. When you say that you will “try” you’re you’ve avoided making any kind of commitment to follow through on. But when you always commit to doing your best, that’s when you begin setting a standard for yourself. You’re committing that you will give 100 percent, no matter what. You may not succeed, you may make mistakes, you may fail; but you’re going to give everything you’ve got to following through.

Now, when you tie those four agreements together it becomes a very powerful way of living your life. Take a moment and think about what kind of person you would be by applying them.

The first one, be impeccable to your word, to others and to yourself.

The second is to not take things personally. This will allow you to free yourself from the judgment of being accepted or rejected.

The third is to never assume, but actually gather the information, gather the facts.

And the fourth is to always do your best. It’s an amazing feeling to go to bed at the end of the day, knowing that you could not have done any better than what you did.

I invite you right now to journal, or make some entries into the computer and list each of the agreements.

List all four, and then next to each one ask yourself … and be honest about it, ask yourself, “Where can I improve?”

Where can you improve in regards to the commitments you make? Can you improve holding yourself accountable in those commitments? Can you improve the level of honesty in your communication?

Maybe you can think of specific relationships where you do tend to take things personally. Maybe its with your spouse, maybe its with a parent, maybe its with your boss where in your communication with them you often take things personally. Maybe by recognizing this you can distance yourself the next time it happens and say to yourself, “You know what… whatever is wrong with them more than likely… does not really have to deal with me.”

Ask yourself where are some situations where you can stop assuming and get more proactive in gaining the information you need to make communication more fruitful and less combative.

And ask yourself, where can you honestly raise your standards on doing your best, rather than just trying?

I look forward to hearing how you apply what we’ve shared in this episode. I look forward to your feedback and I definitely look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Have a great day.

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Videos for the Week of March 7, 2010

March 7, 2010 By 2 Comments

video4The first video is fascinating if you are interested at all in how what you eat affects your life.  Doctor Daphne Miller visits Google’s Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss her book, “The Jungle Effect.” This event took place on May 23, 2008, as part of the Authors@Google series. For more information about Dr. Miller, please visit http://www.drdaphne.com/

Dr. Daphne Miller undertook a worldwide quest to find diets that are both delicious and healthy. Written in a style reminiscent of Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver, The Jungle Effect is filled with inspiring stories from Dr. Miller’s patients, quirky travel adventures, interviews with world-renowned food experts, delicious (yet authentic) indigenous recipes, and valuable diet secrets that will stick with you for a lifetime.

Daphne Miller, MD, is a board-certified family physician in private practice in San Francisco. She is an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco, where she teaches nutrition and integrative medicine. A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Medical School, she did her residency at UCSF and an Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the University of Arizona. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, the architect Ross Levy, and her two children, Arlen and Emet.

If you are watching this vidoe after the week of March 7, click the following link to view the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zb_l5GpbFk&feature=digest

The Second Video continues our Self Awareness 101 With Willard Barth. This weeks subject is : When We Use Our Imagination, We Tap Into The Sources Of The Universe. The complete transcript is below. 

If you are watching this vidoe after the week of March 7, click the following link to view the video.

http://www.yourdailylifecoach.com/imagination.html

Today we’re going to explore the idea that when we use our imagination, we tap in to the most powerful forces of the Universe. We all have access to and contribute to a “Greater Mind”; all we need to do is ask the right questions.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed an answer, you needed a solution and you didn’t have the resources around you. There wasn’t another person you could reach out to for the answer that you needed. Then knowing you needed to find the answer, you asked yourself the question, and from somewhere, you immediately got the answer. And you knew inside of you, without any doubt, that it was the right answer. Then after you moved forward, you became amazed to find out that this information you that you had no past experience with, or reference for was the exact answer you needed.

Where did that come from?

Was it your creative imagination? Did you create the answer out of nowhere?

Was it “Divine inspiration”?

What exactly is imagination?

Some people look at imagination as being a collection of our past experiences, our perceptions, and our beliefs where we just mix them together and compile them in new ways to give us new possibilities.

Other people view imagination as being the ability to turn parts of your mind on like a radio receiver that allows you to tap into a greater mind, a larger self, a creative intelligence that exists outside of you.

There are also some people who see imagination as being Divine guidance. I’m not here to tell you that it is either one or the other. I’m here to invite you to open your mind to new possibilities by examining your own experiences and allowing you to decide which works best for you. I’m also looking to give you skills that will allow you to tap into more of your imagination, no matter which definition you think it is. Whether it’s something inside of your own head or whether it’s something outside, it is a muscle you can build when you actively work it.

You see whether it is internal, or something more “esoteric”, the reality is that we have access to every answer, to every question that we ask.

My personal belief is that as we become more self aware, we tap into our imagination more consistently because we open ourselves to more options. My personal belief is also that there is a field of consciousness that flows through all things. And as we expand our own consciousness, we tap into the “field” which also allows us to be more creative.

High School Science teaches that if you break everything down into its simplest form, beyond atoms, protons, electrons and neutrons, it is pure energy. Simple energy that is vibrating at different frequencies.

Today we have Quantum physics which has explored this deeper level of the physical world, and actually there is a new field developing beyond Quantum physics called Zero Point Field Theory; Lynne McTaggart discusses this in great detail in a book called “The Field Updated Ed: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe“. Scientific research now proves that the thoughts of an individual can now be broadcast and received thousands of miles away. Studies have also shown how a group of people focusing on a specific object can affect how that object reacts.

That means that when someone sets an intention; when someone thinks about something or asks a question, it can have an effect on something or someone on the other side of the world. Scientists all over the world, working on non-related research came together and shared their results, proving that this Field of energy in essence is a source of communication between all things.

Again, I’m not trying to change your mind or convince you that your imagination is something that’s divine or etheric; but what I do want to open you up to the possibility of, is that you stop yourself from tapping into whatever that source is, by the language you use with yourself.

Two things that will prevent you from coming up with any type of solution are the words, “I can’t” and the words, “I don’t know”. When you say those phrases, you instantly shut down the part of your brain that pulls together the resources for you to find those answers. Your brain is the most powerful supercomputer on the planet. And just like a computer, it can only follow the commands that you give it. It doesn’t here the command and say, “Oh, what you really mean is… “. It takes the command and follows the action. So when you say, “I can’t” or “I don’t know”, your brain goes, “Ok, no need for me to do anything with this”.

Tony Robbins does a great example when he asks a question and someone says, “I don’t know” his response is, “I know you don’t know, but if you did know, what would the answer be?” Just by redirecting the question, automatically they turn that part of the brain back on that accesses the answers. Whether it’s internal imagination or external guidance… and the answer comes to them.

Try it, I’m sure you’ll be amazed at how it works. What I want to offer you at the moment is that you truly do have access to more potential than you give yourself credit for. The challenge is, we’ve usually got so much stuff going on inside of our heads, that we can’t hear the answers.

To help with this, there is an exercise I want to share with you. It comes from a woman named Julia Cameron, who wrote a book called “The Artist’s Way” and it’s called a brain dump. I personally use this process and one of the things it helped me create is software called “The Desktop Life Coach” that I should have had no idea how to create. But by doing the brain dump I wound up being receptive, getting the clutter out of my mind so that when I asked the questions, I was able to hear the answers and ultimately find the solutions.

Quite simply, the brain dump is to sit down with a notebook, you know the standard 8 1/2 by 11 notebook; and for three pages you want to write, without stopping, any thought that comes into your mind. If your mind seems to go blank, keep writing anyway. You may just be writing, “I can’t think of anything, I’m not thinking of anything.” And also, you don’t have to write complete sentences, just thoughts, words, get it all out. Keep writing until you’ve reached the third page. Then stop.

After you have emptied your thoughts in those three pages, ask yourself the question that you’ve been looking for the solution for. Then just open yourself and be receptive.

My experience with this is that it has always has worked when I applied it. I do the brain dump, clear the junk out of my mind, open myself up to the reception of the idea, open myself up to the possibility that it may not initially make sense, and I have always found the answers I’m looking for when I’ve done this. I’ve also gotten great results using the brain dump to start my day.

Take a moment now and experiment with it. Do a brain dump. Three pages, any thought that are on your mind. Again, these don’t have to be complete sentences, just use the pen and notebook to get the thoughts out of your mind so that you are clear headed. Then put yourself in a very receptive state of mind and ask the question. Then just sit back and be open to receive the answer.

I look forward to hearing what your results are in using this. I know its a little bit “out there” compared to some of the other things we’ve talked about. And for me it has worked every time and I believe if you practice it, you’ll get the same kind of results.

I look forward to seeing you soon.

Continue on with our Series to learn about The Four Agreements.

Join the discussion about this article on Using Your Imagination in our Forums

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Videos for the Week of Februrary 28, 2010

February 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

video71st Video – More Jeanne Robertson and more laughs

Don’t Send a Man to the Grocery Store

This is a companion to Don’t Go Bungee Jumping Naked. I think it’s even funnier. So if you need a good  laugh, look at this. If you’ve already seen it, watch again and laugh again.

If you reading this after  the week of February 28, click the link below to watch the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch#v=-YFRUSTiFUs&feature=related

The 2nd Video – Expectations and Desires by Willard Barth.  Willard discusses that when we have expectations and preconceived ideas of how things “ought to be”, we limit the possibility for deep communication and for improving our relationships. By opening ourselves to the present moment, we create new opportunities for deeper understanding and more honest communication when we become “present” with those around us.

If you reading this after  the week of February 28, click the link below to watch the video. http://www.yourdailylifecoach.com/expectations.html

Transcript:

Today we’re going to discuss a quote by Ram Dass, “As long as you have certain desires, about how it OUGHT to be, you can’t SEE how it is“.

One of the challenges I’ve had in my own journey of personal development and self-awareness is, really learning to… strip away expectations… strip away past associations, and allow myself to be present, in the moment. What specifically do I mean by that?

As an example, I can stand on stage or have business communications where I am completely aware, completely present. I am fully engaged in the conversation, listening to what’s going on. I take in what the other person is saying with my attention on how I can make sure that I fully understand their perspective and give them the best feedback possible.

Yet when it comes to my family, as an example my mother specifically, over time I have become so conditioned to believing I know how she is going to communicate based on past experiences. I have “expectations” as to how she is going to react. Because of these beliefs and expectations, I really run into challenges in being present and experiencing that new opportunity for communication with her.

So why is this important? Only by being present can I truly experience the connection with another person and allow myself to understand what they are truly saying and feeling. If I come into communication, bringing past associations, bringing in expectations, I am not present for the conversation that is going on. If I am expecting them to act and react in specific ways. I’m not really listening to what’s being said. I’m actually just waiting and preparing for my defense, or to make sure my point is being brought across.

Coming from a place of expectation is a really, really bad place to try and build a relationship from, of any type. A personal relationship or a business relationship.

So since most of us spend our lives in what I would call a “reactive mode”, how do we get to the point, of being in the present moment, of being aware? One of my mentors, Wayne Dyer, says that the way you allow yourself to be present in the moment is to do two things: tame the ego, and release the past.

Taming the ego to me, means letting go of having to be right. Being willing to say I’m wrong. Being willing to say, “I don’t know”. When you set the ego aside, you give yourself the ability to “be there” to be present, to be with the person that you’re communicating with. As some would say, by taming the ego, you can listen without prejudice.

Being able to release the past means that what happened yesterday, what happened a month ago, what happened a year ago, does not mean its going to happen again. Yet many of us live connected to those past experiences and “react” based on the past rather than what is happening in the present moment.

Research has shown that every experience that we have, shapes our life, it shapes our belief systems, it shapes our communication. So the experiences that we have today, will ultimately affect how we act tomorrow. This happens at an unconscious level.

This applies to everybody. Meaning, if I’m sitting down with a family member that I haven’t seen for a day, or a week, or a month; they’ve had experiences, just as I have, that have reshaped their ideas, it might not have happened consciously, but on an unconscious level, they have had experiences that have caused changes in their perceptions. This change in perceptions will also have the potential to change their communications with me. By remaining aware of this, I allow them to present themselves the way they’ve changed and they’ve grown rather than holding them to expectations of how they will respond based on what I remember them from our last communication. By becoming aware of this I also allow myself to actually enter into communication, rather than just repeat old cycles.

So, I invite you to think about this question, when you are interacting with somebody, are you interacting in the present moment, or are you basing your communication on expectations and past experiences? Also, take a moment and think about how you can apply this in future communications.

I invite you to take a moment, right now, think about the quote we talked about today; think about how my experiences may be similar to yours. If you have a journal, make some notes that can help you become more aware of your communication in the future which will help your relationships become stronger and more fluid.

I also invite you to check back soon, because we’ve got more episodes on the way.

Take Care.

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Videos for the Week of February 21, 2010

February 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

videoThe First Video is just for laughs.

Jeanne Robertson  is a professional speaker who specializes in hilarious humor based on her life experiences. Speaking  to thousands of people annually, she utilizes her positively funny style to illustrate that a sense of humor is much more than a laughing matter. It is a strategy for success.

Other speakers might be as witty as Jeanne. Some might even be as tall. (Barefooted withher hair “mashed” down, she’s 6’2″ in her size 11B stocking feet.) But nowhere will you find a speaker so adept at turning personal experiences into funny material that does more than elicit laughter. This Miss Congeniality winner in the Miss America Pageant, “Yearrrrrrrrrrrs ago,” quoting Jeanne, uses her down-home Southern drawl to leave her audiences laughing
. . . and thinking about her message.

Jeanne’s success as a humorous speaker has not gone unnoticed by her peers. She has been awarded every top honor in her profession. They like her back home too. The NC Press Association named Jeanne 2001 North Carolinian of the Year.

You may have seen this Hall of Fame speaker being interviewed by CBS correspondent Morley Safer on “60 Minutes” . . . or watched one of the six humor DVDs she has produced in the last eleven years . . . or heard her daily on Sirius/XM Radio’s Family Comedy Channels . . . or seen a YouTube clip that had over two million hits in two months. But only if
you’ve seen Jeanne in person at one of the thousands of speeches she has given over the past 45 years can you really appreciate why she stands at the top of her profession.

Jeanne Robertson is funny. Oh my, yes. She also knows that her job is far more than being funny. Her message is that a sense of humor is an attitude, an approach toward working with people. She believes that this humor attitude can be developed and improved, and she outlines how to do so while captivating audiences with funny, original stories.

If you are reading this after the week of February 21, click the following link to view the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1_W0LCHwK4&feature=email

Transcript
A little over a week before filming this episode, I was on my way into NYC, and the tone on my blackberry went off to let me know that I had an email.
Now, I don’t know about you, but up until 1992, I had never touched a computer and I swore I wouldn’t. Today I have two laptops, two desktops, and I walk around with a blackberry strapped to my side.
I bought into the whole idea that technology was going to make life easier and that it was going to help me stay connected. Actually, what I have personally found is that it has just given me more time, to be busier.
I don’t know if it’s the same for you, maybe it’s just me. But, I’ve actually become less connected with the people and the things that are most important to me because of technology allowing me to do more “things”. I really have tried making time to stay connected. At least twice a year, I will do a mass email to pretty much everyone in my address book. Just an email reaching out to say, “Hey, I haven’t seen or heard from you in a while. I wanted to reconnect and see if we can commit to staying in touch more.” Sometimes on a long drive, I’ll go through my cell phone book making time to call people to try and connect; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But I was always able to say “I tried”.
I do realize that as we go through this journey in life, that people will enter our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime. Many of you may have become aware of an email that goes around describing how the people who come into our lives don’t always stay as long as we like. Some are around for only a reason; helping us learn something about ourselves, or we are helping them learn something about themselves.
Some people enter our lives for a season; where we help each other grow and transition. Then a small number actually stay with us for a lifetime. I do actually understand that some of those people in my address book are no longer on that part of the journey with me. We have connected for a specific experience, and that time has passed.
The reason that we’re shooting this episode today is the email that I got that morning on my way to work was about the passing of a very dear friend. Somebody who, for whatever reasons, fell off that list of things that were important enough to make sure I was staying connected with.
The person was Nancy McKowen. She was very important person, in a very unique circle of friends that I connected with between 1998 and around 2000. This group of friends did some amazing things. We all supported each other in a spectacular growth period. We supported each other, and we reached out to support our communities. I can say that everyone who was in that circle made quantum leaps in our own personal and spiritual development because of the support that we gave each other and the experiences we shared.
Then about five years ago I ended up moving from New Jersey where this group was located back to Pennsylvania and fell out of contact with a lot of people. I mean, when I lived in NJ I would see these people weekly. We were always making time to do something together, meetings, book discussions, charitable causes and just hanging out. After I moved back to PA these gatherings became less frequent. I think the last contact I had with Nancy was probably five years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I understand these things happen.
It was just that in the email they told me that she had been struggling with cancer for quite some time. As I went through the day I struggled with a lot of different emotions, and I couldn’t figure out why. I’m pretty grounded in my Spiritual beliefs, and when someone passes, even a close relative or friend, I’m not usually shaken up. Then I had a realization of what was bothering me so much. It was that I was not making time and had dropped the ball on what’s truly important to me.
I’ve had some great accomplishments in my life. I’ve succeeded in many areas and overcome a lot of things. And we’ve all heard the saying that when a person gets to the last moment of their lives it’s not about the successes they had or the money they earned. It’s about the relationships that they nurtured. It’s about the moments they shared with loved ones. It’s about the times they spent actually “living” life. The email about Nancy’s passing drove that home for me.
So, what did I learn from that experience?
Well, for me I’ve decided that I’m raising my standards of making time for what is important and how I’m going to stay in contact or at least let the people in my life who are important to me, know that they are. I’m making time to make sure that those emails individually go out, rather than a mass email, weekly. I’m going to make phone calls weekly. I’m stepping up my commitment because these people are what’s important in my life, and I want to let them know. Even if I don’t hear back from them; them reaching back to me… that’s not the point. This is not about them reciprocating. It is about me reaching out to let other people know that they’re important.
In the past, whenever I’ve sent those emails or made those phone calls, I had this belief system that said if I don’t hear back, it was okay. I’d say to myself, “I know they care, and they know I care, we’re just… busy.”
That excuse isn’t good enough anymore for me. I need to make sure that I let the people know that they are important. I’m making sure that I make the time, and what I would like to ask you to do for yourself and those that you care about, is to have you ask yourself, “What can I do today, to let the people who are important to me know that they are?” Not to just assume they know, but really let them know that you care. What is something you can do to connect with them?
I hope you don’t have to have the same experience I have had with the loss of a very dear friend to make you realize the need for making time for what is important.
Thanks and we look forward to seeing you again soon.
Dedicated to Nancy Marie McKowen
8-8-1960 to 5-9-2009
Thank you for bringing love and light to this world.
Love and Respect
Willard
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Videos for the Week of January 10, 2010

January 10, 2010 By 1 Comment

video3This week we have two fantastic videos.

The first video is the first of a series called Self Awareness 1o1 by Willard Barth – “The Only Way We Truly Learn Is We Learn From Mistakes… We Learn By Failing.” We are also spotlighting him and his series in the featured article. Be sure and see the video there as well, because it introduces his series. You can also find him at http://www.yourdailylifecoach.com/ If you are reading this after January 10 you can view the video at http://www.yourdailylifecoach.com/learn-from-mistakes.html The transcript for this video is below.

Have you ever avoided even attempting to do something you really wanted to do… something you were passionate about… just because you were concerned you would make a mistake? You thought you would fail? Or maybe you thought you would just look silly? Did you even wonder what you could learn from mistakes you made?

Our culture has conditioned us to have this idea of perfection in everything we do. We believe that we must be perfect, whether it’s the perfect look, the perfect hair, the perfect speech, the perfect presentation. And we end up using the excuse that we aren’t perfect to prevent us from even trying. We’re so afraid of failing, that we just make excuses of how we don’t have the skill, the time, the money and then accept our “lot in life”.

Think about it. How many people do you know that stay in relationships, in jobs, in situations that are not healthy for them, because they fear making a bigger mistake?

The reality is that the only way we ever truly learn something is to learn from mistakes. No one does something “perfectly” the first time they try. Not even the most gifted person in the world. Failing, making mistakes, and taking the opportunity to learn from mistakes, gives us the opportunity to uncover areas we can work on improving that we never knew existed before we failed.

I’ll give you an example for me personally. In 1998, I left a very well paid position as a DJ in NYC to start a new career as a professional speaker and a coach. I had no experience in business. I didn’t know how to market; I didn’t know how to find clients. I didn’t know how to do the finances for a business. It was totally new opportunity, something I had never done before, but I was so excited about it that I went out and just “did it”. I jumped in with both feet… and I failed miserably. Within 2 years, I was considering leaving the industry. I went in debt, I lost my apartment, I sold pretty much everything I owned just to survive. This happened because of making bad decisions in regards to partnerships, mistakes in how I marketed myself or more to the point mistakes in the lack of marketing and just bad decisions financially over all that led my early attempts at business to failure. It completely put me in a bad place financially for a very long time. And even more it really did damage to my confidence level. But it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life as I look back, because the only way that we truly learn, is to learn from mistakes.

You can read every book in the world that you want about how to build a business or about how to sky dive or about how to do anything that you want to do, but its not until you actually step into the experience, until you actually apply yourself, until you actually make mistakes then learn from mistakes that you made that your behavior changes and you implement what you have learned. You can’t learn how to course correct, how to adjust, and how to succeed at whatever it is you are choosing to do, until you make mistakes first.

I’ll give you an example, walking. Pretty much everybody that you know, unless limited by some disability, walks. And I’m willing to bet that pretty much everybody that you know did not succeed the first time they tried to walk. Most people were barely able to get off their butt the first time before they fell down. And then they had to adjust, internally they had to think, “What was wrong? Why did I fall? What happened with my balance? What do I need to change? What can I learn from mistakes that I just made?” They do this unconsciously… and then they make the adjustments and get up a little farther before they fall again. And they repeat the internal process, failing, evaluating, and adjusting. And then finally after three or four tries (many more for most of us), they finally got to point where they were able to stand… for 2 seconds… and then they fall.

Can you even begin to count how many times a baby falls before it actually takes its first step? There is no fear of failing. It’s all about how they learn from mistakes they made, and then making adjustments based on what they learned that allows them to actually achieve the outcome.

Over time, we’ve become conditioned to fear failing. Whether it’s from school, whether it’s from well meaning adults, or from friends who just enjoyed laughing at us, we get scared to even try something, because we don’t want to look silly. We don’t want to make a mistake because we’ve been taught that making a mistake makes us “less than”.

Or again, because our culture conditions us to believe that we must be perfect. We see so much on TV, the perfect wardrobe, the perfect body style, the perfect words being spoken at the perfect moment… we think that is the way we have to be… perfect, the first time, and no mistakes. The viewer doesn’t see how many times we had to shoot this little 4 minute episode to get it right. And it’s still not “perfect”.

What if we were conditioned in a new way? Instead of getting the red mark on our paper, whenever we did it wrong. Or what if instead of when we got the laughter, the embarrassments, what if we decided to learn from mistake and were instead conditioned for success? Knowing that mistakes are going to happen, that failures are going to happen, and rather than looking at the downside, we ask ourselves, “What did I learn? What did I do right? What can I do better next time?”

That experience of failing in business put me in really bad shape financially, mentally and emotionally. AND it also opened up the opportunity for me to study with some of the great leaders in business. It forced me to learn how to market myself more effectively, how to manage my finances better as well as made me grow overall as a person. I wouldn’t be who I am; I wouldn’t do things the way that I do now, if I wouldn’t have made those mistakes. I did learn from mistakes to achieve this.

So I invite you to think back in your past. What’s something that you are very accomplished at now, that the first time that you tried, you failed miserably? Give yourself the gift of coming up with a couple of ideas, a couple of experiences because this will give you unconscious references for the future.

The next thing I want you to think about is, what’s something you’ve been avoiding doing, because you’ve feared making a mistake or failing, or just that you will look silly? Make a list of two or three of those big and small things you may have been avoiding.

And finally, what is ONE STEP that you can take, right now, towards achieving one of these things you’ve been putting off? I can pretty much guarantee you that you are going to make mistakes. And when you do, pick up that earlier list I asked you to make, of the things you are accomplished at now, that you failed at when you first began, and use that as a resource to push you past the fear. It’s simply about remembering how we succeeded in the past. Fail, learn from mistakes that led to failing, make the adjustments from what we learned and move forward… that’s truly the only way we ever achieve the outcome we are ultimately shooting for.

So again, I wish you the very best, make sure to write in your journal, or leave some notes here. And feel free to share these ideas with other people.

We look forward to seeing you again.

Take Care.

The second video is “Music of Opportunity and the Sound of Potential” featuring Patrick Henry Hughes – a young man who was born blind and physically handicapped. Unable to walk or see,he demonstrated a remarkable talent for music before the age of two . With a parents who loved him unconditionally and worked with him tirelessly, he developed these talents and what you see in this video is the remarkable outcome of talent combined with the selfless dedication of his parents.

This family was featured on Extreme Makeover, Home Edition after this video was made. You might want  view that as well.

This is a love story of the truest kind.

If you are reading this after the week of January 10, you can view this video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xwCG0Ey2Mg

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