Giving Your Gift

"Every person of every degree, state, sex, or condition without exception must have some personal and particular calling to walk in.” - William Perkins

Your life has a calling or vocation that reflects your talents. It is a gift life has given you. A gift only meant for you. Do you struggle with acceptance of your gift?

John G. Agno wrote, “A life signature is the tracing of the talents we are given and how we express them in our lives.” It is your life and talent to share with the world while you are here.

Some people keep the gift to themselves, forever protecting it from the outside world. They keep their gifts wrapped up neatly and stored away. Why do they fail to see how much greater the gift becomes when shared.

Your gift can have a tremendous impact on the lives of others. When you share your talent, your gift, it becomes more about those around you and less about you. Regardless of what you think, your life has a talent to it.

Release your talent and release it for others. The impact you have on others will create greatness in your life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Out Of The Comfort Zone

"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself." - Alan Alda

It is easy to become confined within the everyday sameness of life. We repeat everything over and over because it is what we do. There is comfort in doing the same thing over and over again. So we train ourselves to get into these patterns and work to avoid any surprises.

When something outside of that comfort zone occurs, it surprises us, we shriek and complain. But our comfort zone is there and we expend our efforts to returning to our singular place of comfort.

The problem is the comfort zone will never help you reach goals.

I read an article called Stepping out of My Comfort Zone. The writer describes a life of running nearly every day. The same thing, over and over again. It was a life pretty much confined to what was comfortable. As life often does, a knee problem arose which was not completely debilitating, but presented a need to make new choices.

Choices are there if we are willing to look for them.

We often have the sameness of our daily lives upset by little circumstances. Our nature is to work hard to get back into our old comfort zone; onto that same Hot Wheels(R) track.

So what choice do you have?

For the writer above, the choice might be to have surgery, physical therapy and lots of training to get back into running form. This can be done with no guarantee other than knowing when done you will be at the same place you started. Don't get me wrong as there are plenty of cases where this is the right decision.

Just bear with me as I make my point.

Working hard to get back to the same place you started does not stop time. We end up back on the same treadmill running in place; in place within our comfort zone. Is that we wanted to simply return to where we were?

Our second choice is to take the change as opportunity. We could choose to use the diversion as a way to propel us to something new and greater. The runner mentioned above pushed herself to try something different. She got off that straight track and out of her comfort zone. She is still physically active but became involved in an organization dear to her heart.

Her life stepped forward to something greater; find something greater.

Life will tend to "push us out the door" of our comfort zone at various times. Will we turn and rush back inside? Or will we choose to observe life by looking towards the future horizon?

Let life push you off the couch and out into the wilderness.

Be amazed by what you will find out there ... you.

Stay inspired my friends!

Chasing Greatness

“Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are great chase scenes such as Cary Grant getting chased by an airplane in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 movie North By Northwest.

And than there is the video below which is labeled as the world's worst chase scene. It might just be once you have watched it.

But are you chasing greatness only to find you can never catch it?

Do the common and simple things in life. Be kind and helpful to others. Work hard at your job and with your family and friends.

Greatness will find you.

Stay inspired my friends.

Regain Your Life

"Tenacity is key because it keeps you going during tough times, but it must be tempered because sometimes you need to back down or walk away."
- John Stollenwerk

Many people including myself, become very wrapped up in our jobs. Our ability to take time away to relax has been usurped by technology. There are many types of mobile devices, cellphones, satellite and globalization of everything which make it difficult to 'not be available.'

Suddenly you realize it was "picture day" at school.

I call it this because your child had pictures taken at school today and you forgot about it. The pictures still got taken but likely they did not look very good. Or maybe you suddenly find that you missed planning an important birthday or other family event.

It could be time to look at the priorities in your life.

Family or personal events which get pushed to the bottom of the list happen when work becomes all consuming. And when it does happen, you need to realize it and then set some boundaries which will allow you to balance your life in a better manner.

A few rules to consider;

- Turn off technology whenever you can.
Even if you have to start slowly by blocking off Sunday morning as a 'no-cell-phone' or 'no-PC' time zone.

- Send less, get less.
It is said that if you send 20 percent less email, you'll receive 10 percent less. Cut out the quick thank you replies and don't hit "reply all" unless absolutely necessary.

- Make your boundaries known.
You have to be very clear in the workplace that 'no, you are not available on weekends.' When you do this in the beginning and you draw the line, expectations can be managed.

- Don't send email on weekends
Others are also trying to find their own balance. Be respectful of their weekend and others will begin to do the same of your weekend.

- Figure out your own rules, don't adopt somebody else's.
In example, if it is in the service of relaxation (taking electronics on vacation), it can actually help. You start to realize that "ok, I'm not missing anything critical."

The question becomes, what is going to make you more relaxed? Speculating about what might be piling up in your inbox or just doing some sort of check. You figure it out.

Start to regain some sort of balance in your life.

Only then will you regain your life.

Stay inspired my friends!