Wild thing, you make my heart sing . . . .

.......and that's because wild things live lives of pure action. In his book, Reinventing Yourself, Steve Chandler writes......

Today, the more I remember to live like a wild thing, taking action instead of brooding on my sad self, the faster self-pity drops away. Chronic sadness seems to become a thing of the past. Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue. And fatigue, paradoxically, is almost always a result of living a life of too little action. The more action I build into my life, the better I sleep, and the less self-pity I feel. The better I sleep, the more energy I have. The more energy I have, the more will I have for taking action. And the more action I take, the happier I feel. The happier I feel, the better my relationships. The better my relationships, the better I sleep. It's the cycle of self-reinvention. 

From the book

Reinventing Yourself

by Steve Chandler

"Sometimes you just gotta give yourself 

what you wish someone else would give you."

Dr. Phil McGraw

Photo via flickr

by Anirudh Koul 

Passion and goals . . . .

I was reading a Tommy Gibbs article this morning that struck a passionate cord with me. He said, "There's a massive connection between passion and goals. If you don't have goals then it's pretty unlikely you will ever have a passion for anything. Your goals have to be constantly changing. Passionate people are not successful because they achieve their goals. They are successful because they keep changing their goals. Setting goals too low or too high doesn't work. Setting goals just a tick out of reach is the key. You hit that just out of reach goal, set another and the passion burns on."

I've written in the past about our comfort zone and how it can stifle us. We settle in, and our passion begins to fade. It's easy to say you're happy right where you are, and feel no need to change anything. And really.....it's not a bad thing if you're completely happy there. But if you're complaining about life, bashing other people's successes, feeling letdown, and doing nothing to create your own success, then it's probably time to get up off that chair and set a nice little goal for yourself. It doesn't have to be huge! Quite the contrary!! Don't set yourself up for failure right off the bat. Come up with a fairly easy to reach goal that will begin to spark your passion as to what can actually be done. You might surprise yourself! It can light a fire within you, which will lead to setting new goals for yourself, and more importantly, reaching them! Now that's living a passionate life!

"Until you discover your "fire within" you will remain condemned to a life only endured, not lived; to delicacies only tasted, not devoured; to joys only imagined, not experienced."

-Alister Cameron

Show 'em what you've got! . . . .

I hate to break it to you, but people aren't always really happy for you when you succeed. Please don't let them control you with jealousy. If you let them, they will define you in a way that is convenient and nonthreatening for them,..... which is completely unfair, don't you think? Don't let them dampen your spirit or your passion just because it works for them! You are alive for a special reason and that reason is to be the best that you can be. Do not allow anyone to take that responsibility from you, especially not for the sake of their own comfort. When you were a child, you couldn't stand up for your own authenticity, but you sure can now! The real you is set apart by all that is within you...... confidence, hope, optimism, joy and purpose. Show 'em what you've got!....... Rawr!

"Jealousy springs more from love of self 
than from love of another." 


-Francois de La Rochefoucauld

What can't you live without? . . . .

Valentino once said, 

"Enthusiasm is what I cannot live without. It gives me the joy of working and collecting the things I love. I cannot live, either, without passion.... I never want boredom to become part of my life."

What can't you live without?

Nurturing possible passions . . . .

I ran into a friend the other day and she was telling me that she walked into her 13-year old daughter's room, and found her cutting up her clothes. She was fitting them on to a little mannequin doll, pinning each one meticulously, and creating new outfits of her own. Hopefully these clothes were pieces that could have gone to the Good Will drop box!  Otherwise, many Mom's would have reacted in shock! Honestly, my first thought was that perhaps she had a fashion designer in the works. My friend agreed, and said she had already begun to research sewing lessons. I absolutley loved that she looked at it that way. I told her a similar story about my son, and about how dramatic he was as a child. Everything was bigger than it needed to be.  So I signed him up for theatre. He loved it and found himself in the lead role in several productions throughout his high school years. He moved to New York, got a fine arts degree in acting, has done television commercials, and even found himself in an off-Broadway production. Since then, he has found complete satisfaction behind the camera as a Photographer, still nurturing his creative side.  My point is this.......when you can recognize something in your child that is a possibility, nurture it. Don't let the opportunity of discovering a passion pass. Nurture it, and watch to see if that passion emerges. No worries if it doesn't work out. All you did was rule out one possible career, very likely creating a  hobby. Continue to watch & explore. Pay attention to all the possible passions that could be buried deep. When you find a passion, it releases energy, which in turn creates the biggest chance of success. 

"Chase down your passion like 

it's the last bus of the night."

-Glade Byron Addams


Photo via Most Beautiful Darling

Honor yourself and your dreams . . . .

Can you believe that we are literally half-way through the year already? It has reminded me to think about the goals that we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year. How are you doing? Are you staying on track with the promises you made to yourself? Are you staying committed? ....honoring your passions, your dreams, and your heart? If you've not done so well, it's probably time to re-commit to those goals, or move on. Or perhaps you're sticking with your commitment, but just feel like you're not there yet. Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. Stay the course and remind yourself of the enthusiasm you felt at the beginning of the year when you made those resolutions. For me, I made a firm decision to stay active, honor the healthy habits that had finally become a lifestyle for me, and to reach for the next level of fitness. There is nothing so satisfying as reaching a personal goal, or following your dreams & your passions. I was also determined to stay committed to writing this blog 5 days a week, and I'm grateful there are not too many days when I don't feel inspired to share encouraging thoughts. It truly is a passion of mine. What is it for you?....your career, your fitness level, your relationships? What matters most to you? Honor that! .....and stay committed. Remind yourself that you can live the life you've always dreamed about! Your dreams are an expression of your heart and soul. It doesn't matter that half of the year has passed! It's a new day, and from this moment forward you can create a whole new life for yourself!

Any dream worth dreaming, 

is worth the effort to make it come true.

-Evan Gourley


Dreams Digital Print
by valentina design
via etsy

Supercoolhappy . . . .

How you feel is more important than anything else. 

And this is something you get to choose, 
moment by moment. 

Supercoolhappy 

works for me!

Happy Monday!

Make it a great week!

Via Notes from The Universe

Passion is energy . . . .

What puts a smile on your face? Is there a particular topic that excites you every time you think about it? Do you find yourself devouring certain magazines, or researching the same topic over and over again on the internet? Do you feel like you just can't get enough information about it? This is a good sign that you have a passion. Passion is experienced when you do what you love. Having a passion is what launches you out of bed in the morning, and puts a spring in your step for the day. Albert Einstein once said, "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." I love that! Passion is energy! It truly is. Once you determine what your passion is, and focus on that, I promise you, you will find new meaning in your life. We all want to live a life without regret, right? I believe there is nothing worse than arriving at the end of our life full of regrets. This is why realizing what your passion is, and doing everything in your power to make it a part of your journey is so important. Live your life so that you do not have regrets! 

"Find your passion, whatever it may be. 
Become it, and let it become you 

and you will find 

great things happen FOR you, 

TO you, and BECAUSE of you."

-T. Allen Armstrong

Stress: The enemy of passion . . . .

The one thing that robs more people of their passion more than anything else is stress......in all it's forms. Let's face it, life is full of stress! Unfortunately, there are several "enemies" that will steal every good thing you possess if given the opportunity. These "enemies" are everyday life experiences, forces, and people who are looking for every opportunity to steal our joy. 


A Readers Digest article documented that 90% of all doctors visits can be attributed, directly or indirectly, to stress. Stress suppresses the body's immune system, interrupts sleep, and makes you vulnerable to all manner of illnesses. You get sick and experience a whole host of other problems related to missing work and the inability to fulfill other responsibilities - and that just leads to more stress. Please understand that all stress is not bad. Stress in the form of adrenaline can work to our advantage. It's what causes us to flee a burning building, to jump out of the way of oncoming traffic, or to complete a project with a looming deadline. But when it's too frequent, it can destroy us by stealing our passion.

The message of Life 101 is that life is stressful, but it can be managed so it doesn't rob us of our passion. So how do we keep stress from doing just that? Here are 6 ways to defend yourself against the attacks of stress:

1. WAIT TO WORRY

Many people rush to worry about situations before they have the facts. For instance, when our teenagers are not home by curfew, we become convinced there had been a car crash, only to have them walk in a few minutes late. Wait to worry. More often than not, you discover you are worrying about something that doesn't need to be worried about at all. Once you get the facts, you may be glad you waited.

2. STAY IN THE GAME

I'm pretty sure it is safe to say that nobody goes all the way through life without getting knocked down. Some people never get up, and some people get up so slowly it takes years and even a lifetime of anger & bitterness before they recover. People fall down. Winners get up. Getting up and back in the game removes the possibility of stress from long-term failure. Failure is not falling down - failure is not getting back up. When you are moving ahead confidently, you have no cause to be stressed.

3. INSIST ON INTEGRITY

You can make a conscious decision in your life to do everything with integrity. When you do that, you inoculate yourself against any stress arising from guilt or shame. I've heard it said by many people that the great thing about telling the truth (living with integrity) is that you never have to remember what you said. If you're the kind of person who tells one person this and another person that, you're setting yourself up for big-time stress. When you speak the truth, you speak and forget about it. It's amazing how much stress you avoid when you play it straight. Do things with integrity, know what is wrong, practice what is right, and make decisions accordingly. Your conscious will remain crystal clear, you'll live without regrets, and, as a result, your passion will remain alive and well.

4. STAY OUT OF DEBT

Keeping up with the Joneses puts us under mountains of stress. We go into debt in order to keep up with appearances and then worry because we can't pay what we owe. Eighty five percent of the conflicts in marriages today are caused by disagreements over finances. No one can live a passionate life when he is worried about bill collectors and bankruptcy. If you want to stay free of stress, stay out of debt. It may take months, even years, to get there. But the freedom of being debt free will allow you to unleash your passion in a way you'd forgotten could exist. 

5. FEAR NOT
The fears that lurk inside of us are the ones that keep us from launching ourselves into the great adventure called life! We fear failure, of course - perhaps most of all. But we also fear losing the security of our own inhibitions. We fear losing control, and we fear the future.  We fear living with the tension that exists between what we know and what we don't know - the security of the present versus the insecurity of the future. Some people just can't handle the unknown, so they remain confined to the reality of the past instead of the potential of the future. Life is often like having one foot on the dock and the other foot on a boat that is leaving. We want to leave, but our desire for the safety of the homeland keeps us tentative and indecisive - and often lands us in the water! Did you know the opposite of faith is fear? We have two choices for facing the future: we can face it with faith or with fear. The future is all about the unknown, and we can let that empower us or enslave us. We may not know what the future holds, but we definitely know Who holds the future. Your faith in God will allow your passion to be boundless.


6. HAVE THE FIRST LAUGH
Laughter is a great stress reducer. Next to love, laughter has been described as the second most powerful emotion we can express. It has been said that laughter is like internal jogging - it stimulates the respiratory system, oxygenates the body, relaxes tense muscles, and releases pleasure-producing chemicals in the brain. You cannot laugh and be mad, or laugh and be stressed. Laughter is low calorie, caffeine free, and has no salt, preservatives, or additives. It's 100% natural and one-size-fits-all. 
You can get high on laughter but never overdose. Laughter is contagious - once it starts, little can be done to stop it. Laughter never felt bad, committed a crime, started a war, or broke up a relationship. Laughter is shared by the giver and the receiver, and it's free! If we can find ways to laugh first thing in the morning, it may in fact set the tone for the rest of the day.


When you begin to practice these 6 ways to defend yourself against stress, passion is free to increase. And your life is free to become "better than good."

Condensed from the book 

BETTER THAN GOOD 

by Zig Zigler

I have a question for you. What are you doing to continually rekindle the passion of your life? What kind of inspiration are you providing for yourself that will keep you pursuing your dream? And if that passion dies, who's to blame? It's sad, but true.....passion will die without constant inspiration. In Zig Ziglar's book, "Better Than Good" he writes...... 

If you think of passion as the flame that burns white hot in the heart of every person, inspiration is the fuel that keeps that flame alive. Often I meet people in whom the fire of passion seems to have gone out. You can see it in their eyes---there's no spark of life! It's like someone came along and flipped off the passion switch while they weren't looking. The big mistake is thinking that regaining passion is a passive event--something we just have to wait for until we're moved once more to become passionate about life. Not so! Passion is a flame that has to be fed in order to keep it burning bright. And inspiration is the fuel that keeps the fire alive. 

Who is responsible for feeding inspiration to the flame of passion? You are! And if you don't, trust me--passion will, over time, become a distant and only occasional visitor to the house of your heart.

Here are 4 practical ways to inspire yourself--to feed the fires of passion burning within:

1. INVEST IN INSPIRATION

The more time, talent, and treasure you invest in your passion, the more you will fight for it, defend it, and protect it from everyone and everything that would attempt to steal it from you. Let's say your passion is to own your own flower shop someday. Right now, you're not involved with flowers except as a hobby. If I were to come to your house and spend an hour talking with you about your passion, I'd be looking for signs that you're investing your time, talent, and treasure. I'd be looking for bookshelves full books on flowers, books on running a small business, magazine subscriptions on the same subjects, your class schedule for the course on entrepreneurship and small-business management, check stubs from your payment of dues to the appropriate floral associations, your applications to several local flower shops where you plan to work as an apprentice in order to get experience. . . . . and on and on.

2. INQUIRE FOR INSPIRATION

Find a mentor--someone who has the same passion--and make some kind of arrangement to meet with that person on a regular basis for inspiration. There is nothing more inspiring than meeting with someone who is already successful at what I have a passion to do. Inspiration is caught better than it is taught.

3. GET INVOLVED TO FIND INSPIRATION

Sometimes we have to get up and get involved in order to find inspiration and keep passion alive. And the bigger the movement is in which we choose to get involved, the more inspired we are. Which inspires you more--being the only person sitting in a football stadium or being one of seventy thousand screaming fans who are just as excited as you are about the same home team? The bigger the crowd, the more inspired you are. Why? Because you feed off the energy of the thousands of people who are looking for the same things in life that you are: success, inspiration, encouragement, and motivation. If you are passionate about writing, attend writers conferences where new books are displayed. Join a writers group, attend book signings or readings, or volunteer at your public library. Whatever your passion, get involved in it at a level that is bigger than you are. When you become part of something bigger than you are, you become accountable. You become inspired to do your best. You become motivated to not let others down. And that fuels your passion in ways that can't be described--it can only be experienced.

4. IMAGINE FOR INSPIRATION

The power of imagination is one of the greatest untapped resources in the human tool kit. It's amazing that mental images have such power--but they do. Some people are born with more of an imagination than others, but it can, by hard work be cultivated--not by mere daydreaming, not by lazy wondering, but by hard study and earnest thought. Whatever your passion is, turn your imagination loose and let it inspire you to keep working to make your dreams become reality. 

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."

-Jack London

Happy Friday!

Wishing you 

an inspirational weekend!

You have the power . . . .

Passion, excitement, and confidence are the important medicines that we need every day. At some time or another, all of us have encountered people who seemed to be larger than life somehow, people whose experience of life was filled with color and excitement. In short, they were excited about life and were having a ball. Through them we catch a glimpse of what the authentic life is like. Is it possible that you are an excitingly unique individual with the need to do and be all of who you are, yet you are denying that powerful individuality, and you remain bogged down and buried in a world of "responsibility traps" and "don't make waves" conformity? Think back to when your own life was the most interesting one you knew, and you couldn't wait to see what would happen next. Perhaps most important was the fact that you accepted your self for who and what you were. Whether you know it or not, you will always have a tremendous power to determine your life. You can make your life hum if you will link up your true self and your world. To do that you have to get intimately in touch with you. As you address the question of you, starting now, stop dealing in opinions or assumptions, and start dealing in facts. That fact is, it takes so much energy to be what you are not, and it takes so little to be what you truly are.

Compiled from a Self Matters calendar
Photo via Google Images