Why Your Vision Trumps Your Sight

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone.
I can see all the obstacles in my way.
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind.
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) Sun-Shiny day.
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) Sun-Shiny day.

~Johnny Nash (1972)

Where The Mind Goes, The Body Will Follow

We can all agree that we all have a brain…right? It’s that three pounds of gray matter behind our skull. However, what distinguishes us all is what rests in our mind. It is what makes us as unique as the color of our skin. Our ethnicity. Our culture and our personal background. Nonetheless, our mind is what determines our actions, hence…

3 Steps to Expecting Your Best

Expect to Be Your Best

Do you ever find yourself getting stuck in negative thought patterns and expecting the worst possible outcome in every (or most) situation?  Not out of the ordinary in today’s world. It’s a common mindset that proves difficult to change when you finally decide you’ve had enough.  Unfortunately, negative thoughts tend to breed and multiply on their own – even when you’re not consciously trying to think negatively.

The good news is that turning a negative outlook into a positive one just takes a bit of patience and persistence until the positive thoughts begin to take over. Below you’ll find three simple steps to begin forming positive expectations on a daily basis:

The Secret to Personal Growth

Helen Keller said, “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.”

So you hate the hard times you’ve passed through? Maybe you need to think again.

Your Character Fuels Your Reputation

There is A Strong Link Between Character and Reputation

Here’s a not-so-revelation for you: WHEREVER YOU GO YOU’RE THERE! See, I told you. Nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary. Just a simple truth regarding your daily life. Another simple truth is in the heading above…Your Character Fuels Your Reputation. Now that you know of this truth, what do you do or how do you create and build your character?

You Can Disagree Without Disliking

Have you ever heard the saying, “it’s alright to disagree without being disagreeable?” Well, I want to implore to you that you can also disagree without disliking. In my short time on this earth I have encountered numerous times when individuals were engaged in conversation that led to a disagreement…or even an argument and as a result of the disagreement one, or both, participants came to dislike one or the other.

Grow Yourself to Know Yourself

“Get busy living or get busy dying.” ~Andy Dufresne from Shawshank Redemption

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins, 1994, (c) Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection

This is one of my favorite quotations from one of my favorite movies, Shawshank , starring Morgan Freeman (Red) and Tim Robbins (Andy). The scene in which this is told to Red is after both men has served many years in a maximum security prison somewhere in New England. During their conversation of the impact of being institutionalized, Red mentions to Andy that when they give you life in prison that is exactly what they get…your life. Well, by this point of the movie Andy has about had enough of the prison life and espoused a few more of his philosophical musings to Red that concluded with, “you can either get busy living or get busy dying.”

From a personal growth perspective, I believe you can have a similar scenario…

Failure Does Not Exist

Have you ever held back on doing something because you were afraid of failure?  Most people have!  Let’s face it; no one likes to fail.  None of us like to feel like we’re ineffective, weak or lacking in any way, and that’s exactly how failure makes us feel.

However, you may be surprised to know that failure doesn’t exist – until YOU say it does.  In the dictionary, failure has several definitions:  1) a failing to do or perform 2) a state of inability to perform a normal function adequately 3) a fracturing or giving way under stress 4) a lack of success.

Give Thanks

Here is just a short message to keep things in perspective.

If you are reading this article online, then you have access to technology.

Give thanks!

You woke up today and saw the sun rise.

Change Is A Good Thing

We have all heard the old adage, change is constant. That means we and the world in which we exist are always in a constant state of changing. Though this may be the case, we only have control of change as it relates to us. We can’t change other people nor can we change other people’s minds. Regardless of what is happening around us we cannot change their minds however, we may be able to influence it.

There may be things we say or do and the end result is them “changing” their mind, however we didn’t change it – they had to consciously and actively do it themselves.