“I discovered that people are not really afraid of dying; they’re afraid of not ever having lived, not ever having deeply considered their life’s higher purpose, and not ever having stepped into that purpose and at least tried to make a difference in this world.” – Joseph Jaworski
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop” – Rumi
What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies inside us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is one of my favourite quotes.
The message contained within the words resonate at a deep level inside me.
I’m fortunate in that I have a career where I get reminded of the amazing potential inside human beings every single day.
“The smallest change in perspective can transform a life.” – Oprah Winfrey
“To a mind that is still the whole universe surrenders.” – Lao Tzu.
“It’s just the price you have to pay”.
So said the ‘successful’ business person sitting in front of me.
We were talking about the pervasiveness of busyness in the modern world – or more specifically, the pervasiveness of a busy mind.
I used to believe the same thing.
I don’t any more. I can’t from what I’ve seen with clients and with myself.
The truth is you can be busy in your world BUT have a calm mind. And that makes a world of a difference to everything. Your energy, your clarity, your mood, your communication, your thinking, your creativity and your results.
“I’m not addicted to reading. I can stop as soon as I finish the next chapter.”
I love learning – particularly new and interesting information that expands my horizons.
But for a long time it was in an unhealthy way.
The truth is that for many years I was an information junkie. In a way, it was to be expected because that is the model of the current educational system in the Western World – learning is consuming and retaining information.
And while I made very positive improvements to my life because of new learnings, I knew I wasn’t applying everything I knew – but I didn’t know why.
“Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’m possible!” – Audrey Hepburn
What do you do when you feel stuck?
What do you do when you lose sight of the mountain you’ve been climbing?
One thing you can do is to make space to dig into interesting questions with an open mind:
Here’s one:
“What now is impossible, but if it could happen, it would change everything?”
I got this email from someone over the summer that I hadn’t seen in a while:
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“What’s the best way to start your day?”
I’ve been asked this question many times and my honest answer is:
“Whatever gives YOU the best start to your day”
This is because we’re all different and it’s up to you to figure out what really works for you. But I do know that what won’t give you the best start to your day includes:
“If you don’t change your belief, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?” – W. Somerset Maugham
“This isn’t going to work for me, I’m just not a numbers person”.
These were the words spoken by a smart entrepreneurial woman who was adamant that she couldn’t understand the financials of her business.
This was a problem because I’d been asked to help her turn the business around from a difficult financial situation. Yet the one area she didn’t want to talk about was the numbers!
“If you lower anxiety one notch, it’s a better world.” – Murray Bowen, pioneer of family therapy
Anxiety is a word you rarely hear leaders speaking about in relation to themselves, especially men, probably because of perceived negative stigma. Yet it is more prevalent than you might imagine.
Stress, anger, frustration, doubt, insecurity, mental fog and dis-satisfaction are all symptoms of anxiety.
Don’t be fooled by what you see.
It’s very common for outwardly successful people to be inwardly crippled with high levels of anxiety at times – it doesn’t stop them being good at what they do but often it causes major blips in performance and severely hampers their ability to enjoy life.
