Forgiveness

“Forgiveness is the greatest healer of all.” – Gerald Jampolsky and Diane Cirincione

I understand that forgiveness is no easy task. This is espescially true of the most important aspect of real forgiveness: forgiveness of self.

The ego screams loudly and clearly that we should focus on all the wrongdoers in our lives. I can assure you from personal experience that if you are able to hod up a mirror and be forgiving to yourself, you are on the path to true freedom. You will be unable to move forward on your path to real personal growth if you are full of blame and condemnation.

The path to peace of mind and optimistic living has its foundation in forgiveness above all else. Holding on to resentment is like taking poison and hoping the other person will die.

It is always about you.

It is your responsibility to move out of past hurts and into the true bliss of the present; without the excess baggage of condemnation.

Forgive and forget.

Have a beautiful weekend.

It’s All About The Journey

The past few days have been very busy for me. I’ve done workshops with 3 sports teams and a major hospital in Philadelphia.  I also conducted four sessions with a few different departments at the Borgata/Water Club Casino Hotel.

I did “Sports Gone Wild” yesterday and it went really well. My guests were great and the conversation was quite spirited.  My main argument was that there is too much of an emphasis on the outcome, while not enough of it is placed  on the journey when it comes to sports nowadays.  It is important to set outcome goals, but the real valuable lessons for personal growth are attained during the journey itself. Regardless of the end result.

Whether the ultimate goal is higher profits or being number one, the  focus should be placed on what we learn about ourselves along the way.  With every challenge that is faced, an individual either takes a step forward (a win) or a step backward (a loss).

Reaching an undesired outcome doesn’t have to negate the learning that has taken place.

What do you think?

Your Life’s Vision

Most people think that having a vision is about the future. However, to truly make your vision powerful, it is important to bring the feeling state you desire for it, into the present. Present-day life planning is much more focused when it is a natural extension of our vision of the future. This is especially true when you are able to access the feeling state that the future can provide, right here, right now.

Let your vision fly; do not block its path with limitations based on past experience.

When you have a clear vision for your career path, relationships, family and community, it is easier to develop a day-to-day life plan. It is important to step “out of the box” of your present circumstance when envisioning your future.

Visioning is about creating a new, fresh reality. The sky is the limit. You do not need to fixate on one single vision. Play with it and have fun. Your vision and life plan will evolve and become an absolute reality if you live in the present moment.

Start today.

Have a great Monday!

Identifying and Achieving Goals

It is very important to set attainable goals.  Setting goals that are too high can lead to a tremendous amount of frustration and ultimately, failure. No one wants that.

A good way to experience success and strengthen the goal-setting muscle is to use a three-step creative goal setting approach. Set and monitor long-term goals or outcome goals and do the same for mid-term or performance goals and short-term or task goals.

While setting goals, look at the end or outcome first and then work backwards.

Performance goals are important for consistent measurements of whether or not you are giving yourself the maximum chance of achieving outcome goals.

Task goals are where champions live and breathe.

What do you think? How do you set goals and how do you know if they’re good?

Values & Priorities

Most people are not clear on what is truly important to them. Because almost every life decision is guided by our values, it is imperative to identify them. Your personal power, self-esteem, and ability to build a strong personal foundation are derived from having your life values and life actions in alignment.

When you identify your core values and begin to live by them, you can reach the deepest level of personal fulfillment. There is a tremendous power in living your life by your highest ideals. Inner peace, long range happiness, and a sense of certain direction are all results of knowing what is important in your life.

In case you are not entirely sure as to what your core values are, here are a few questions that could help you identify them:

1) What are the most important things in your life?

2) In what ways is your decision-making process affected by your values?

3) What do you think your values need to be in order to create the personal empowerment you need to reach your ultimate goals in life?

4) Whom do you admire and what values do they exemplify?

Being able to answer those questions will enable you to make decisions that are a better reflection of who you are.

Got Powerful Living?

I assure you that I am not 100% happy and smiling all the time. I have challenging days; but when you live your life with an optimist’s outlook, those rough spots seem so much smoother!

Permanent optimism comes from knowing that there is not a situation in your life that has not been invited to the party by you. When you assume 100% of the responsibility, you are adopting a formula for powerful living.

Our ego likes to tell us that we are only in charge of the good stuff, while the challenging things are brought on by others. The ego likes to justify.

We have to stop making excuses though. We have to take charge. We must embrace the power of knowing that we are in control of our lives.

That’s powerful living.

The Inside Job

Feeling great is an inside job. It happens inside the core of our souls. It happens when we stop allowing the situations and conditions of life to dictate the way we feel inside.

Developing an optimistic nature can help you stay centered when life happens, because you’d be cheating yourself if you were only grateful for the good things in life. It is very important to be in a constant state of appreciation and gratitude, regardless of the circumstances we face. Having such an outlook is essential because many of the unfortunate situations we come accross, mask the pearls of personal growth.

On that note, I’ll leave you with a very powerful and beautiful quote from S. Heller:

“A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear that results from the injury of the oyster. The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life. If we had not been wounded, if we had not been injured,  we would not have produced the pearl.”

Find the pearls and cherish them.

The Glass is Half-Full

Life is about choices. Some are more important than others, but they all play a role in shaping us.

We choose to act one way or another. We choose to treat people the right way or not, and most importantly, we choose to think positively or negatively. Our perception affects how we act which in turn affects how we feel. The power to feel good and do great lies in our minds.

I gave a workshop this past Friday about looking at life through optimistic lenses. It always amazes me how so many of us truly want to achieve a “glass is half-full” state of mind. A lot of people genuinely hope to think better thoughts on a regular basis, but they just don’t think it could be possible. They feel that reality will ultimately burst their optimistic bubble and bring an abrupt end to their positive outlook.

The thing is, the bubble will only burst if you let it.

It is within everyone’s reach to make the decision to feel good. Period. It is a choice after all. So make the right choice for yourself right now.

Sports Has Gone Wild!

There are many factors that have led us to the place where sports are out of control. In essence, SPORTS HAS GONE WILD! I am not going to point fingers at coaches, parents or players specifically. Each of these groups are contributing to the problems. The condition of sports today is a vicious cycle. There are no points to a circle, so the issues are interlocked. The basic underlying motivation in sports today is ego driven. The ego is in charge, justifying the end at the sacrifice of the means, is behind the actions of the principles involved. There are a few major changes over the past twenty years that contribute to the fact that sports has gone wild. They are parental involvement, the college recruiting craze and the players lack of self-responsibility. In general, there is a lack of civility existing in the year 2008 that is unprecedented.

Happy Monday!

Good afternoon everybody. I hope everyone had a great weekend during which work-week stresses were cast aside and quality time was spent with loved ones. In these troubling social, political and economic times, it is important to have strong support systems where worries can be shared, and spiritual/emotional batteries recharged.

Negative energy tends to accumulate during the week, this can sometimes be an inevitable by-product of living in society. Nevertheless we must NEVER let them carry-over to the weekend.Those two days must be your “happy time”.

When spending a weekend in your “happy space” (both mental and physical), you are able to create a distance between yourself and the challenges from the past week, along with those of the upcoming one. This distance is important as it preserves your sanity and allows you to be sharper when the Monday morning alarm starts ringing.

With that said, I hope you have a great week, keep a smile on your faces and approach every challenge and battle with the conviction that you’ll come out on top.

To share is to care, so please, do share some wisdom on how you try to start your week on the right foot.