Create a Life Story the Way You Want It

By Miami Phillips

If you could start your life all over what would be different? What would you change now if you were able to wave a magic wand and start from a scratch? Just imagine you have no ties, no burdens, no limits, no memories, and no past.

What would your life look like? If the answer that comes to your mind is different than what you are doing, why is that? Is it because of someone else’s opinion? A spouse, a parent or maybe your children?

The ultimate test of your life is to close your eyes and think of yourself on your deathbed. Lying there, preparing yourself to leave, look back at your life as you are currently living it. How do you feel? Are you satisfied you lived completely? Or do you wish you had done differently? Very few of our senior citizens look back on their life and say, “I sure wish I had spent more time at the office!” Nobody says, “I wish I had watched more TV!”

This is what they say, “I wish I had been bolder. I wish I had given more. I wish I had tried harder to see more, do more and feel more.” People wish that they had lived more. I, for one, have to admit to a certain amount of holding back on dreams and goals because of our two boys. As my life progresses I realise there is no reason to hold back.

We have not been exactly standing still either. We have done our best to live our dreams. We built a sailboat and sailed for seven years travelling on the open ocean. We lived in the snow in Aspen Colorado, and on the beach in South Carolina. An old brick mill was our home in Long Island, versus a boat dock in Palm Beach Florida. We are writers of books and music, actors in the theatre, and we have built a horse farm, and businesses! Yet, there is so much more we want to do!

It is a balancing act. We all must have sufficient finances to support a comfortable lifestyle (although most of us tend to spend excessively much on that)! Part of this balancing act is understanding what we are passionate about doing so that work becomes a joy instead of a job.

Is this not a major reason of lost dreams and goals? Many people find work, call it a job and make a living at it. But they begrudge every minute of it, going as far as using the job as a reason for playing the martyr. Find something else!

There are many, many teachers of the attraction philosophies of ‘making a life’. With as many opportunities today in every field imaginable, somewhere, something is calling to you. Another part of the balancing act is to include those around you in frank and open discussions in what it is you want. I find some of my coaching clients have kept their wants and needs bottled up inside them forever! They had already decided for the other person in their lives there was no interest in whatever it was they themselves wanted to do! How absurd! How can we possibly know what someone else wants!

Would it not be tragic to spend your life in a big city for 40 years, working at a job you despise because you thought your spouse liked it, even though you wanted to live in the country and be a farmer? Then one day you overhear your spouse tell her best friend all she ever wanted to do was live in the country? 40 years! Sure this is a bit far fetched — but you would be amazed at what I hear!

Make an attempt today to start with a brand new page of your life. Create your life story how you want it. If there are others in your life to be involved, have them do the same exercise. Then compare with your notes. If this matches your current life, congratulations! You are one of the few. Now make it better. However, if your written life stories sound like someone completely different, then you are living a life of conflict.

Here is the good news. Your life is your life. No one can take that away from you. You are not indentured. You are not a slave. You are free to go, do, and be whomever you wish. It might not be easy, but it sure might be worth it.

Be a Successful Juggler

Life is like a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. One ball is work, one family, one health, one friendship, and one spirit. It is surely no easy task to keep them all in the air.

Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls — family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they may be scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They may never be the same.

In order to be successful as a juggler, it is important to strive for balance in life. Remember your unique value and celebrate it by not comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Set your goal by what you know is best for you and not by what other people deem is important. Hold dear the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

Live life fully in this moment, it can slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life. Keep going, you will always have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

Be yourself, even if you are less than perfect. Imperfection is a fragile thread that binds us together. Be courageous, it may be necessary to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Have faith, find love by believing it is possible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give it; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give the freedom to be generously shared. Slow down, walk peacefully through life so as not to forget where you’ve been, and also where you are going.

Be grateful, forget not that a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated. Love to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily. Use time and words wisely. Neither can be retrieved. Cherish life, for it is not a race, but a journey to be savoured each step of the way.

Image: Simons Foundation

Believe in Yourself

By Eduardo Dominguez

You are super special! Believe in yourself! Certainly you can take action to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills and therefore to produce the desired results. You certainly can produce all the necessary results to reach your full potential, to fulfil your goals, and to build foundations under your dreams to make them a concrete reality.

Believe in yourself. Definitively, you can take actions and produce results. You can do it! Don ’t worry about being successful. Just do it! You are already a star since the day you were born. The real success is experienced during the process of doing, with passion and love, the task you commit to achieve. The rest is arrogance and vanity — don ’t play this game; it is not real and causes unhappiness and insecurity.

Do your best, with passion and love. Put your heart in everything you do, but don ’t ever worry if you make mistakes, miss, fail or fall on the road. No problem. That ’s OK! You are not better or worse than the rest of the people in the world, in reality nobody is!

In the beginning, no challenge is easy to cope with or else anybody would do it. If worthwhile things were easy to do, life would be meaningless and senseless. Mistakes or failures are there, and ever will be, to teach us, make us stronger, and help us to mature even more. Nobody is perfect. Mistakes or failures are part of the many teachers we will have during our short journey in the ‘university of life ’.

Have a blind faith and never, ever lose your hope because faith and hope are the energies that move our souls. Without faith and hope our lives are meaningless, gloomy, and painful. Inspire yourself by knowing, recognising, valuing, and embrancing your own greatness. You are special as you are, and you don ’t need to be like, or compare yourself with anybody else since you are perfectly unique.

You are super special! Yes you! Believe in yourself, Everybody has his or her own opinion about you and the world, but the most important opinion that you have of yourself. Nothing else matters but how you see yourself. The image you have about yourself is the image you are going to acquire and the life you will live; nothing more, nothing else.

If you don ’t believe how special, capable, intelligent, valuable, and blessed you are nobody else will. Love yourself and believe in yourself without being consumed by arrogance and greed because who ever is full of himself or herself leaves no room for anybody else in his or her heart.

Don ’t let anybody decide who you are and how far you can get by taking full control and responsibility of your life. Live your life with integrity — be honest and responsible for absolutely all your thoughts, all your actions, and all the consequences of such actions.

Do only what is right and fair. Take action based on your integrity because nothing tells more about who we are and what moves us inside but our daily actions. Our real personality is not expressed in words but in the quality of the actions we take and decisions we make. And only when we face difficulties is when we expose who we really are — our true personality.

It is a fact that nobody can change anybody. Our freedom, happiness, and peace depend on accepting people and life as they are, as well as accepting everything that expresses in life itself. Being honest and responsible gives us freedom, happiness, and peace; being honest provides us with emotional fulfilment and stability.

Instead of choosing to be right, choose to be happy, free, and peaceful. Freedom is being able to choose to do exactly what you want to do, without thinking what the rest of the world will think about us. A human being will only be able to make the right choice when he is in control of himself.

Remember that the quality of your thought determines the quality of your life — that the correct attitude is everything, and that love is the answer.

Image: The Life Fit

For Happy, Content Life

While thinking about life there are some things we should take into accounts. Here are sayings by Dalai Lama on what one should do for happy and content life.

• Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

• When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

• Follow the three R’s: Respect for self, Respect for others and Responsibility for all your actions.

• Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

• Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

• Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

• When you realise you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

• Spend some time alone every day.

• Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

• Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

• Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

• A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

• In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

• Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

• Be gentle with the earth.

• Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

• Remember that the best relationship is one in which you love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

• Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

• Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Let It Be

One day, Buddha was walking from one town to another with a few of his followers. While they were travelling, they happened to pass by a lake. They stopped to rest there and Buddha asked one of his disciples to get him some water from the lake.

A disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed some people were washing clothes in the water and, right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy. The disciple though, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink?”

So he came back and told Buddha, “The water in the lake is very muddy. I don’t think it is suitable to drink.”

After a while, Buddha again asked the same disciple again to go the lake and get him some water. The disciple went back to the lake. This time he found that the mud had settled down and the water was clean so he collected some in a pot and bought it to Buddha. Buddha then looked up at the disciple and said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be and the mud settled down on its own. It is also the same with your mind. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it little time and it will settle down on its own.”

Planting Positive Thoughts

By Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj ji

In school we all studied in Physics about ‘Newton’s Third Law Of Motion’ which states — For Every Action, There Is An Equal And Opposite Reaction. This principle is very important in humans as well, as it affects every area of our lives. It’s a natural thing that one can get back only those things s/he gives out. For example, if we plant mangoes we can’t expect oranges! If one reaches a level of success in his/her career, it’s because of years of hard work and continuous effort. It means whatever we are experiencing today in our life is the consequence of our previous actions.

The most important thing about this law from human point of view is — it is about choosing to create a brighter future since the ‘seeds’ are in our hands. The law is fair and just, it only requires that we pay in advance to the mother nature because one cannot reap the fruit if one has not sown the seeds in right way. We first have to give to the nature, only then it would reward us with a bounty as mother nature is very generous. The practical proof of it is that when we plant one seed of pumpkin, in return, we get many pumpkins over several years.

Hence, the need of the hour is to till the soil of our minds, to remove the weeds of unwanted feelings and undesired outsomes, because we are the masters of our minds and thus we can choose to create the results we seek.

So, let us all plant seeds of positive and powerful thoughts to reap fresh fruits of peace and happiness.

The author is a writer at www.brahmakumaris.com. He can be reached at nikunjji@brahmakumaris.in.

Image: Web, BrowardPrevention

The Psychology of Entrepreneurship

Being an entrepreneur can feel like a rollercoaster ride. One with steep highs and lows, moments of intense adrenaline, exposure, and occasionally the sense that you have somehow arrived back where you started.

If your experience of being an entrepreneur includes moments of vulnerability, doubt, guilt, fear, and anxiety, the good news is — you are doing it right. It should feel like this. Why? Because many of the challenges that entrepreneurs face tap into some of the core psychological challenges that we all face.

Take identity, a person in employment is given a job specification, a piece of paper that says: “This is who we would like you to be.” In contrast, the entrepreneur gets a blank piece of paper. They need to operate without boundaries, guidance, or feedback on progress. They need to choose and create their business and themselves as business owners. That kind of choice comes with inevitable doubt, responsibility, guilt, and a strong desire for someone to reassure you that you are “Doing the right thing”.

These are challenges that all of us face in life. We can choose to create ourselves by making conscious choices about the kind of person we want to be. Or we can avoid the discomfort of making those kinds of choices by letting someone else tell us who we are. Identity is just part of the story; there is also vulnerability, risk, passion, failure — all human challenges and all part of the process of being an entrepreneur.

The ride that the entrepreneur is on feels intense because it is harder to avoid these human challenges when you choose to set up your own business. How can entrepreneurs survive the ride? The difference between someone who loves rollercoasters and someone who hates rollercoasters is their relationship with the experience. The very thing that one person doesn’t enjoy — a lack of control, the speed, the height, the disorientation — is exactly what the other person loves. It is the reason they queued up to go on the ride in the first place. — The Guardian

A New Beginning

Just when I found it unberable to fight
The flow of the saltly water made me feel light
Washed away all my frustration
Wiped out the feeling of humiliation
Erased one by one, all the confusion
Prepared to embrance devil and angel with arms open
The priceless emotion, rolling down
From the most sensible organ
It is called the tear
For me it is very near and dear
Which helps blow the heavier feelings into thin air
It is the new dawn today
Forgotten are the developments of the night yesterday
I am a bit excited at this point in time
Today I have a new task, a new level to climb
A new hope emerged beneath the core of my heart
It is the new beginning, yes! I am ready to restart
Restart the things I have experienced
Learning from the mistakes I have made
And to start a new day with bright twinkling light
Being able to see things differently
And it's the tear that wiped away all the vagueness
Making me clear on how to begin.

Words of Encouragement

When things go wrong as they sometimes will, we all need words of encouragement. To spring back again to complete our fight and move on towards the path of our life. And here are some words of encouragement you never know how can they affect your life.

• “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” — Henry Ford

• “One has to remember that every failure can be a stepping stone to something better.” — Col Harland Sanders

• “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the place and time that the tide will turn.” — Harriet Beecher Stowe

• “A diamond is merely a lump of coal that did well under pressure.” — Unknown

• “I am grateful for all of my problems. After each one was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties.” — James Cash Penney

• “A bend in the road is not the end of the road... unless you fail to make the turn.” — Unknown

• “Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.” — Henry Van Dyke

• “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do that by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

Are We Being ‘Stupid’ Too?

A butcher watching over his shop is really surprised when he sees a dog coming inside the shop. He shoos him away. But later, the dog is back again. So, he goes over to the dog and notices he has a note in his mouth. He takes the note and it reads, “Can I have 12 sausages and a leg of lamb, please. The dog has money in his mouth, as well.”

The butcher looks inside and, Io and behold, there is a $10 note there. So he takes the money and puts the sausages and lamb in a bag, placing it in the dog’s mouth. The butcher is so impressed, and since it’s about closing time, he decides to shut up shop and follow the dog.

So off he goes. The dog is walking down the street when he comes to a crossing. The dog puts down the bag, jumps up and presses the button. Then he waits bag in mouth, for the lights to turn. They do, and he walks across the road, with the butcher following him. The dog then comes to a bus stop, and starts looking at the timetable.

The butcher is in awe at this stage. The dog checks out the times, and then sits on one of the seats provided. Along comes a bus. The dog walks around to the front, looks at the number, and goes back to his seat.

Another bus comes. Again the dog goes and looks at the number, notices it’s the right bus, and climbs on. The butcher follows him onto the bus.

The bus travels through the town and out into the suburbs. Eventually the dog gets up, and moves to the front of the bus. He stands on two back paws and pushes the button to stop the bus. Then he gets off, his groceries still in his mouth.

Well, dog and butcher are walking along the road, and then the dog turns into a house. He walks up the path, and drops the groceries on the step.

Then he walks back down the path, takes a big run, and throws himself against the door. He goes back down the path, runs up to the door and again, it throws himself against it. There’s no answer at the house, so the dog goes back down the path, jumps up on a narrow wall, and walks along the perimeter of the garden. He gets to the window, and beats his head against it several times, walks back, jumps off, and waits at the door.

The butcher watches as a big man opens the door, and starts abusing the dog, kicking him and punching him, and swearing at him. The butcher runs up, and stops the man.

“What in heaven’s name are you doing? The dog is a genius. He could be on TV, for the life of me!” to which the man responds, “You call this clever? This is the second time this week that this stupid dog has forgotten his key.”

Reflection: Looks like some people will never be satisfied with what they’ve got. When it comes to the workplace, employers do not kow to appreciate people who have served them loyally through the years. I’ve seen companies lose good people for the simple fact their leaders failed to show appreciation.

Employers with big egos enjoy the fact that they have more power and authority than others. They show, in the way they give orders and directions, that they think they are superior. They get a kick out of displaying this superiority. People who do this are fools. They are never satisfied because they could not be saisfied even if their people perform well. They don’t listen to the opinion and ideas of their subordinates. Why? Because of their stupid pride and insecurity!

Such will never be satisfied. Why? Because they are so busy wrapped up in themselves and, fact is, the self can never be satisfied. Happy and productive people are always those who are “others-centered” rather than “self-centered.” The greatest idea of leadership is not someone who throws his weight around. His joy is derived from delivering a job others benefit from his contribution. Aim for service and success will follow.

How to Break Bad News to Your Team

Delivering news about organisational change and redundancies is never easy. But how the process is managed can have a long-lasting impact on individuals and the organisation as a whole.

So, if you have got to break the news to the staff, it is vital you communicate well. Here are some tips on how best to talk to your team, sustain performance and keep staff motivated.

1. Develop a clear communication strategy: Have a clear and consistent message based on the business rationale for change. In a difficult situation, you might feel under pressure to move away from the corporate line to sound less formal, but it is crucial to stick to the leadership message.

2. Keep it simple: People need clarity and understanding about what the current situation is, how it affects them and what the next steps are. Be concise and stick to the facts.

3. Prepare and practice: If you are giving a speech to your staff, prepare a script and practice delivering it. Take time to become confident and comfortable with the words.

4. Listen: Delivering bad news can be stressful. When they are trying to stay in control, people often speak too much and do not listen enough. This is usually due to nerves, so practicing what you want to say can really help here.

5. Timing is critical: Let the people who are being made redundant know before the rest of the world. Make sure your internal and external communications are joined up.

6. Be compassionate: Some people think they cannot be compassionate because they have to remain professional. But telling somebody that they are about to lose their job always demands compassion. — The Guardian

What Your Sugar Rush Says About You

Nothing compares to the rush you get from a bunch of sugar! The sugar rush may not last long, but is there any yummier way to get some energy? Pick the sugar rush you like the best, and see what it says about you.

Ice-cream

You are inventive, creative, and completely ingenious. You are extremely gifted. You're not just a thinker, you're also a doer. You can put almost any idea into action. You are intensely curious and always exploring. You are understanding and perceptive. You get where others are comping from, even if you don't agree.

Milky/chocolate bar

You enjoy the path not taken. You are a natural strategist. You always like to formulate a plan of attack. You are brainy and you love difficult intellectual challenges. You don't shy away from difficulty. You are original and independent. You're making your own trends and carving your own path.

Jelly gummy bears

You see things how they are, and luckily, things are pretty great. You are an optimistic realist. You are honest, even if it costs you a friend. You want to live an authentic life. You are a good humoured and straightforward person. You can laugh at any situation, and you love to laugh at yourself. You're very blunt and honest, even if it means risking someone's feelings. You prefer to be straight with people.

Dark chocolate bar

You provide direction and leadership for others. People are looking to you to see what you'll do. You focus on goals rather than people. You've always been happiest looking out for yourself. You welcome new challenges without fear. You're ready for whatever comes your way. You are a very ambitious person.

Candy cane

You pride yourself on being easy to read. You think it's best to take the honest approach. You love to win for everyone, and your favourite successes are the ones you can share with your friends. You are a people's person. You are a total extrovert, and others energise you. You appreciate organisation and thrive under structure. You like to understand exactly what's going on.

Choco bar

You believe things need to change in this world. And you've got the guts to make those changes happen. You function well with heavy workloads. You like being and staying productive. You are an extreme risk taker. You love the rush that taking a gamble gives you. You do things your way, and you always get results. You'll work as hard and long as it takes.

Be Gentle

Pray, don’t find fault with the man that limps or stumbles along the road.
Unless you have worn the shoes he wears or struggled beneath his load
There may be tracks in his shoes that hurt through hidden away from view.
Or the burden he bears placed on your back might cause you to stumble too.

Don’t sneer at the man who’s down today unless you have felt the blow.
That caused his fall or felt the shame that only the fallen know.
You may be strong but still the blows that was his if dealt to you.
In the selfsame way, at the selfsame time might cause you to stagger too.

Don’t be too harsh with the man that sins or pelt him with word or stone.
Unless you are sure — yea, doubly sure — that you have no sins of your own.
For you know if the temper’s voice should whisper as soft to you.
As it did to him when he went astray it might cause you to falter too.

7 Tips for Becoming an Entrepreneur in College

Looking to start your own business? Have a dream or vision you want to pursue? Do not wait until after graduation to put your plans in motion. These tips will help guide you on your way to becoming a student entrepreneur.

1. Find something you are passionate about

Sit down for 20 minutes and brainstrom a list of everything you like to do. It can be silly, ridiculous and only half-interesting, but work on developing a comprehensive list of anything that brings you joy or happiness. Consolidate your list into a top few passions and figure out if there is anything you would want to pursue full time.

2. Brainstorm ideas for your start-up

Think about how you can incorporate your interests. Most innovative companies and successful start-ups differentiate themselves from the market with a special niche-combining interests is a great way to create specialisation. Make sure your idea is not too narrow, though. Then, consider the market. Is there room for your business? How are current companies within the same industry structured? How can you stand out?

3. Look for funding

Look into community-oriented sites, which allows visionaries to crowd fund money for their project or idea. One drawback is that for this particular site, it’s an all-or-nothing contribution — you either meet your funding goal entirely or lose out on the money people have pledged. But there are other sites that offer other options, of course.

Explore a local angel investor network. Most universities have connections to these types of resources and information can most likely be found on a university’s office of corporate relations site.

4. Check out university incubators

Often hosted through the university’s business school, student business incubators have many advantages. First, they offer free or cheap space to launch a business idea. Second, they usually have business experts available to work with you to develop a business plan. Third, it fosters a collaborative environment and allows you to work with other student entrepreneurs, often on your own campus.

5. Utilise local mentorship organisations

Many college towns have established professional start-up communities that house mentorship programs. These organisations exist simply to pair emerging entrepreneurs with recognised and respected mentors. This is a key step in ensuring longevity for your busienss that many student entrepreneurs overlook. Having a mentor is essential to a successful business launch and often can be the start of a lifelong friendship.

6. Promote your company

Be active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest and other social networking sites. Do not forget to start your own website, too. WordPress is a popular, inexpensive choice. Decide how you are going to advertise your company and put together a solid marketing plan. An overarching public relations strategy should include your marketing plan and your social media strategy. Also consider blogging, press releases and other media outreach to promote your brand and business.

7. Stay informed about the start-up community

Make sure you are reading industry news. Bookmark sites such as Entrepreneur Inc, Business Insider, TechCrunch and Technori. If you want your business to keep growing, make sure your mind is too. Challenge yourself to keep learning and consider taking a free courses.

Lastly, do not forget to keep networking. Attending business events to socialise and spread your message. Also, through industry conferences, local meet-ups and start-up groups, you can stay inspired to keep creating and dreaming, which, after all, is the core of a thriving start-up. — USA Today