Be True To You

Project I’m Not There by photographer Pol Úbeda Hervàs (Creative Art Director, JWT Barcelona)

“The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.” - Socrates

Be true to yourself.

Be on the outside what you truly are on the inside. Do not hide who and what you are. The artistic you, the brave you, the numbers you, the one who is you and not a false mask upon you. Let your interior become the exterior of your life. Bring who you truly are to the outside.

Be true to yourself.

Allow yourself to be transformed into the real you. Life will change for the better. You will spend less time juggling the two 'you' which exist. You will become you as one.

Stay inspired my friends.

Rising Above Self

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Early in life, each of us live in the narrow vision of who we are and what we can do for ourselves. I am not really sure if that is a biological need for survival or a formed psychological response. But I do find that it seems to be a natural progression we take in life.

After some amount of time it can become and old and tired way of living life. What I am referring to is selfishness. Part of the maturing process in life is to get up above it or get out the way. Life is lived in community. It is lived in support of each other.

In turn, it truly becomes about us.

Some people call it "getting over yourself".

I simply call it becoming a part of life, of the bigger world. When you look beyond your own life, your world grows to greater wonders. There will be so much more that unfolds in front of you. Much more will come back to you when you get beyond self.

Rise above yourself, find something greater for your life and as always stay inspired my friends.

Your Limits

“Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon.” ― Paul Brandt

This story has circulated for many years and its author remains anonymous as much as I can tell. But it is a story that can teach us a point about us. It is a story that can help us focus on understanding what limits us many times.

~~~~~~

One day the employees of a very unusual company reached their office and saw a big sign on the front door which said,

Yesterday, the person who has been hindering your growth in this company passed away. We invite you to join the funeral memorial in the large meeting hall which has been prepared.

In the beginning, they were each sad for the death of one of their colleagues, but after a short while they started getting curious to know who was this person who had hindered the growth of colleagues and the company itself?

The excitement in the meeting hall was such that security agents were ordered to control the crowd within the room. The more people reached the coffin, the more the excitement heated up.

Everyone thought, "Who is this person who was hindering my progress?" One by one the intrigued employees got closer to the coffin, and when they looked inside they suddenly became speechless.

All got to stand near the coffin.

All ended up shocked and in silence.

It was as if someone had touched the deepest part of their soul.

There was a mirror inside the coffin: everyone who looked inside could see themselves! There was also a sign next to the mirror that said, "There is only one person who is capable of setting limits to your growth and IT IS YOU!'

Your life does not change when your boss changes, when your friends change, when your parents change, when your husband or wife changes, when your company changes, when your church changes, when your location changes, when your money changes, or when your status changes.

Your life changes when YOU change, when you go beyond your limiting beliefs.

Examine yourself, watch yourself. Don't be afraid of difficulties, impossibilities and losses. Be a winner, build yourself and your reality. It's the way you face life itself that makes the difference.

~~~~~~

Stay inspired my friends!

Measuring Your Success

"Success is not measured by money or fame but by how you feel about your own goals and accomplishments and the time and effort you put into them." - Willie Stargell

How are you feeling this week? Is failure or success your current mood as you work your way through the day?

Society would have us believe that our success is determined by the prestige of one's job, the amount of money you make or how much "stuff" you own.

Success isn't the new car with all of the latest gadgets. Success is not the 5-bedroom home with a large flat-screen television in every room. Success isn't being the most photographed person at a party.

Success is what you feel inside.

There are many people with all of those material things that define success in society, yet they do not feel successful. There are many people that have very little and they too feel unsuccessful.

It is within you that success is found.

This does not mean to cease moving your life towards being more successful. And the idea that having nothing is something you have to be content with. No, that is not what I am talking about.

What it means is to be content in yourself. If you are not content in self, your tendency will be to focus upon the discontentment. To be content frees up your energy and focus in order to achieve great things in your life.

Feel successful in your own self and watch as success becomes ever more present in your life.

Stay inspired my friends!

Check out this interview with Seth Godin by Jaime Tardy.

SETH GODIN INTERVIEW - HOW TO MEASURE SUCCESS AND YOUR MINDSET

New You

“How would your life be different if…You stopped allowing other people to dilute or poison your day with their words or opinions? Let today be the day…You stand strong in the truth of your beauty and journey through your day without attachment to the validation of others” ―Steve Maraboli

I do it.

You do it.

All of us do it.

Each and everyone of us self evaluate our own worth and value as humans. Researchers say this has to do with the various parts of our human make-up; self-esteem, self-image and simply knowing that we exist.

In an article by Leon Pomeroy, Ph.D., George Mason University, he asks the question, "Must we be habitual self-evaluators? Cultural conditioning makes it likely! However, we have a choice! We can choose to go through life striving to be a success for all the wrong reasons; or we can accept that we are unconditionally worthwhile, and strive for success for all the right reasons."

The hardest part for many is to simply accept we are worthwhile in and of ourselves. We struggle with a constant inner voice berating and putting us down. For each of us to overcome is to find out the reason for the voice and destroy it. Maybe it was a very poor parent, teacher or person of authority in their life that engrained it so much the voice lives on. Those with this voice feed it daily and keep it strong in their life.

One needs to learn how to choke off the life of that negative voice and find a new inner voice to feed. But just how does one do that? In several articles I have read over the years, it tends to boil down to these basic ideas to turn your world around

1. Take inventory of yourself: It is said, "You can’t fix what you don’t know." Take a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle and on one side write: “Strengths” and on the other write: “Weaknesses.” Make a list of ten items in each column. Now you know what things you have to change and those you need to work on. Just make sure you do something with the list; strengthen the strengths and weaken the weaknesses.

2. Explore Yourself: You may know about yourself due to step one above, but you must also open yourself to new opportunities, new thoughts, a new way of doing things. This could be new opinions, new friendships or new vision of where you want to be in life.

3. Set Realistic Expectations: Nothing harm your self-esteem more than setting unrealistic expectations. Setting attainable and stretch goals will help you end negative thinking about yourself that reinforces negative self-esteem.

4. Stop Comparing Yourself to Others: Nothing hurts our self-esteem more than unfair comparisons. this can be difficult to do, but stop comparing yourself to others. You are them and they are not you. Challenge yourself to be the best you can be by raising a BAR of expectation in your life.

5. Set Aside Perfection, Grab a Hold of Accomplishments: Perfection is not attainable despite all of the air-brushed models in advertisements or perfection of families on television may seem. None of us are ever going to be perfect. Take those accomplishments (large or small) and revel in each one of them as you achieve them.

6. Be Willing to Adjust: Self-esteem is useless if it’s based upon an older version of you that no longer exists. Keep adjusting your self-image and self-esteem to match your current abilities and skills, not those of your past.

For me, there is a God factor in all of this as well. Yet it is for you to find that aspect of your existence. Additionally, all of this is going to take time. There will be points of great strides forth and times of falling backwards. The point is to move in a positive direct and over time you will find yourself like yourself a lot more.

Stay inspired my friends.

Look in the Mirror

“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.”
-Jean Paul Sartre

There will be many with varying opinions regarding Mahatma Gandhi, but one of his self-effacing views was that the most important battle he had to fight was in overcoming his own demons, fears and insecurities. He thought it was all too easy to blame people, governing powers or enemies for his personal actions and well-being. Gandhi said that the solution to these types of problems can normally be found just by looking in the mirror.

Take note that the point being made is that it begins with you. Personal responsibility for ones own actions and attitudes is the first step in changing for the better.

Take a look in the mirror first and by all means, stay inspired my friends.

Comfortable Skin

"I'm okay in my skin, you know... I'm okay with who I am." ~Dana Plato

So many years ago, I had quite a bit of shyness in my personality. I'm not quite sure where it came from as I remember in my mind not being that way in the early days of elementary school. Then for some unknown (and not really important) reason I remember third grade being the point of rising shyness.

I think much of it came from becoming self-consciousness. I know I had become aware around that time of many physical differences being pointed out by other kids. And no, I'm not blaming anything in my life on my childhood or others. It is a realization that came to me sometime back that actually helped me put it all to rest.

The bright red hair I had became a source of discomfort and torment. Although the 'old women' always thought it was cute. My thin and gangly body that really was not athletic despite my best efforts added to the discomfort of growing up.

One could probably say that I developed very thin skin over those years. It also was the excuse I used for not enjoying so many of those years in my youth. Wasted time, wasted opportunity as I look back on it. I only have myself to point at for those years gone by. But when the day came that I let it go, that I became "comfortable in my own skin" was the day that life changed.

We each can become comfortable by better understanding ourself. The more you understand why you react, why you feel, why you are who you are, then the comfort begins to take over. I guess a lot of that really causes one to become more self-confident which then brings on the comfort.

In Psychology Today there is an article by Barton Goldsmith that provides ten steps to help you build that confidence. And as I say, you can read these articles over and over, but until you start moving or actually doing these things, nothing will change.

Today I still have tendencies to be shy and lacking confidence, but I have also learned to recognize these things. And in knowing that, I can quickly work to overcome them so that I never miss another day to enjoy. Become comfortable with who you are and enjoy each of your days as well.