Are You Living With Passion? By Jack Canfield

Are You Living With Passion? By Jack Canfield If you want to be fulfilled, happy, content, and experience inner peace and ultimate fulfillment, it's critical that you discover your purpose. Without a purpose as the compass to guide you, your goals and action plans may not ultimately fulfill you. I believe that each of us is born with a life purpose. Identifying, acknowledging, and honoring this purpose is perhaps the most important action successful people take. They take the time to understand what they're here to do - and then they pursue that with passion and enthusiasm. For some of us, our purpose is obvious and clear. We're born with a set of talents and through persistent practice, we develop our talents into skills. My children are prime examples. It was clear from the moment they got on the planet what they were interested in. One son wanted to draw all the time, and he is now in the art world. Another son was always tapping out rhythms on paint cans and dishes, and he's now in the music world, along with one of his brothers. My daughter is in the literary world, and my stepson is definitely in the business world. They had natural talents that were clear indicators for what they ended up ultimately being passionate about. For some people, though, it's not as easy to identify a passion. Alternatively, you may enjoy what you do, but on deeper exploration, discover that you're passionate about something altogether different than what you do. There are two processes that I've found to be extremely helpful in discovering - and living - your passion. The Life Purpose Exercise The Success Principles describes a simple process that can help you identify your passion in as little as 10 minutes. The process involves answering three questions: "What are two qualities I most love expressing in life?" For me, it would be love and joy. "What are two ways I most love expressing those qualities?" For me, it's inspiring people with stories like the Chicken Soup books and empowering people through my live trainings, home study courses, books, DVDs and teleseminars. "What would the world look like if it were perfect right now, according to me?" For me, it would be that everyone was living their highest vision in the context of love and joy. Once you have answers to all three questions, you can combine them into a single statement. My life purpose is to inspire and empower people to live their highest vision in the context of love and joy, and for the highest good of all concerned. To identify ways that you can live your passion, ask yourself this additional question: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how actively am I living this passion, or how actively am I living this purpose?" If your answer is anything less than a 10, ask yourself, "What would I have to do to make it a 10?" The answers that you come up with are the action steps you need to take so that you can begin living your passions on a day-to-day level. The Passion Test Developed by Chris and Janet Attwood, the passion test is a simple, yet elegant, process. You start by filling in the blank 15 times for the following statement: "When my life is ideal, I am ___." The word(s) you choose to fill in the blank must be a verb. When Janet took me through the process, my statements looked like this: My life is ideal when I'm being of service to massive numbers of people. My life is ideal when I'm helping people with their vision. My life is ideal when I'm speaking to large groups. My life is ideal when I'm being part of a spiritual leaders network. My life is ideal when I'm creating a core group of ongoing trainers who feel identified with my organization. Once you've created 15 statements, you identify the top 5 choices. To do this, you compare statements #1 and #2 to identify which is most important. Take the winner of that comparison and decide whether it's more or less important than statement #3. Then take the winner of that comparison, and decide whether it's more or less important than statement #4, and so on until you've identified the passion that is most meaningful to you. Repeat the process with the remaining 14 statements to identify your second choice. Then repeat the process until you've pinpointed your top 5 passions. Next, create markers for each of your top five passions, so that you can look at your life and easily tell whether you are living that passion. For me, a marker would be "When I'm helping people live their vision I'm giving at least 20 workshops a year for at least 10,000 people total, and at each event, people are coming up afterwards and saying, 'You've really empowered me to live my vision.'" One you know what your passions are and how your life will look when you are living them, you can create action plans to turn your dreams into reality. To learn more about this process, I highly recommend the Attwoods' book, "The Passion Test". Once you identify your passion, you don't need to overhaul your life completely and all at once. Instead, follow Success Principles #24 and "Lean into it." Start living your passion, and stay in tune to the feedback you're receiving and how you're feeling. Adjust how you're living your passion, until you feel that you're living in bliss.

Tremendously Important Ways That Gratitude Can Change Your Life By Leo Babauta

8 Tremendously Important Ways That Gratitude Can Change Your Life By Leo Babauta It's amazing how one simple, easy, positive action can change so much in a person's life. One of the things that has had the biggest effect on my life is the realization of the power of gratitude. Simply giving thanks. It has affected everything. It has made me a more positive person. A more productive person. A better achiever. A better husband and father and son and brother (at least, I like to think so). A happier person. I'm not perfect, but gratitude has made me better. Can it change your life as well? I can guarantee it. You might not get the exact same benefits as I have, but there's no doubt in my mind that the simple act of gratitude on a regular basis will change anyone's life, positively and immediately. How many other changes can claim to be that quick, that easy, and that profound? Let's take a look at some of the ways you can incorporate gratitude into your life, and how it will change your life. These are just some examples, based on my experience and the experiences of others I've talked with, and not all will apply to your life. But pick and choose the ones you think will work for you. 1. Have a morning gratitude session. Take one minute in the morning (make it a daily ritual) to think of the people who have done something nice for you, to think of all the things in your life you're grateful for. You won't get to everything in one minute, but it's enough. And it will instantly make your day better, and help you start your day off right. Can you think of a better use of one minute? 2. When you're having a hard day ... make a gratitude list. We all have those bad days sometimes. We are stressed out from work. We get yelled at by someone. We lose a loved one. We hurt a loved one. We lose a contract or do poorly on a project. One of the things that can make a bad day much better is making a list of all the things you're thankful for. There are always things to be thankful for -- loved ones, health, having a job, having a roof over your head and clothes on your back, life itself. 3. Instead of getting mad at someone, show gratitude. That's a major switching of attitudes -- actually a complete flip. And so this isn't always easy to do. But I can promise you that it's a great thing to do. If you get mad at your co-worker, for example, because of something he or she did ... bite your tongue and don't react in anger. Instead, take some deep breaths, calm down, and try to think of reasons you're grateful for that person. Has that person done anything nice for you? Has that person ever done a good job? Find something, anything, even if it's difficult. Focus on those things that make you grateful. It will slowly change your mood. And if you get in a good enough mood, show your gratitude to that person. It will improve your mood, your relationship, and help make things better. After showing gratitude, you can ask for a favor -- can he please refrain from shredding your important documents in the future? And in the context of your gratitude, such a favor isn't such a hard thing for the co-worker to grant. 4. Instead of criticizing your significant other, show gratitude. This is basically the same as the above tactic, but I wanted to point out how gratitude can transform a marriage or relationship. If you constantly criticize your spouse, your marriage will slowly deteriorate -- I promise you. It's important to be able to talk out problems, but no one likes to be criticized all the time. Instead, when you find yourself feeling the urge to criticize, stop and take a deep breath. Calm down, and think about all the reasons you're grateful for your spouse. Then share that gratitude, as soon as possible. Your relationship will become stronger. Your spouse will learn from your example -- especially if you do this all the time. Your love will grow, and all will be right in the world. 5. Instead of complaining about your kids, be grateful for them. Many parents (myself included) get frustrated with their children. They are too slow to do things, they have a bad attitude, they can't clean up after themselves, and they pick their nose too much. Unfortunately, sometimes parents will communicate that frustration to their children too often, and the kids will begin to feel bad about themselves. Many parents have done this, and while it's not perfect, it's a part of parenthood. But there's a better way: follow the method above of calming down when you're frustrated, and thinking of reasons you're grateful to your child. Share these reasons with your child. And then take the opportunity to teach them, instead of criticizing them. 6. When you face a major challenge, be grateful for it. Many people will see something difficult as a bad thing. If something goes wrong, it's a reason to complain, it's a time of self-pity. That won't get you anywhere. Instead, learn to be grateful for the challenge -- it's an opportunity to grow, to learn, to get better at something. This will transform you from a complainer into a positive person who only continues to improve. People will like you better and you'll improve your career. Not too shabby. 7. When you suffer a tragedy, be grateful for the life you still have. I've recently lost an aunt, and my children recently lost a grandmother. These tragedies can be crippling if you let them overcome you. And while I'm not saying you shouldn't grieve -- of course you should -- you can also take away something even greater from these tragedies: gratitude for the life you still have. Appreciation for the fleeting beauty of life itself. Love for the people who are still in your life. Take this opportunity to show appreciation to these people, and to enjoy life while you can. 8. Instead of looking at what you don't have, look at what you do have. Have you ever looked around you and bemoaned how little you have? How the place you live isn't your dream house, or the car you drive isn't as nice as you'd like, or your peers have cooler gadgets or better jobs? If so, that's an opportunity to be grateful for what you already have. It's easy to forget that there are billions of people worse off than you -- who don't have much in the way of shelter or clothes, who don't own a car and never will, who don't own a gadget or even know what one is, who don't have a job at all or only have very menial, miserable jobs in sweatshop conditions. Compare your life to these people's lives, and be grateful for the life you have. And realize that it's already more than enough, that happiness is not a destination -- it's already here.

Making way for success

Do you live in a state of mental and physical clutter? Do you have a bunch of unfinished business lurking around every corner? Incomplete projects, unfinished business, and piles of cluttered messes can weigh you down and take away from the energy you have to move forward toward your goals. When you don't complete tasks, you can't be fully prepared to move into the present, let alone your new future. When your brain is keeping track of all the unfinished business you still have at hand, you simply can't be effective in embracing new tasks that are in line with your vision. Old "incompletes" can show up in your life in lots of different ways... like not having clarity, procrastination, emotional energy blocks and even illness. Blocked energy is wasted, and a build up of that energy can really leave you stymied. Throw-out all the clutter and FEEL how much easier it is to think! Make a list of areas in your life (both personal and professional) where you have uncompleted tasks and messes, then develop a plan to deal with them once and for all. Fix and organize the things that annoy you. Take your final steps in bringing closure to outstanding projects. Make that difficult phone call. Delegate time-wasting tasks that you've let build up. Some incompletions come from simply not having adequate systems, knowledge, or expertise for handling these tasks. Others pile up because of bad work habits. Get into completion consciousness by continually asking yourself...What does it take to actually get this task completed? Only then can you begin to consciously take that next step of filing completed documents, mailing in the forms required, or reporting back to your boss that the project has been completed. The truth is that 20 things completed have more power than 50 things that are half-way finished. Finishing writing a book, for instance, that can go out and influence the world is better than 13 books you're in the process of writing. When you free yourself from the mental burden of incompletes and messes, you'll be AMAZED at how quickly the things you do want in life arrive. Another area where you'll find incompletes in your life is in your emotions. Are you holding on to old hurts, resentments, and pain? Just like the physical clutter and incompletes, your energy is being drained by holding on to and reliving past pain and anger. Remember, you'll attract whatever feelings you're experiencing. So, if you're stuck in vengeful thinking, you can't possibly be directing energy toward a positive future. You need to let go of the past in order to embrace the future. Letting go involves forgiveness and moving on. By forgiving you aren't releasing the other person from their transgression as much as you're freeing yourself from their transgression. You don't have to condone their behavior, trust them, or even maintain a relationship with them. However, you DO have to free yourself from the anger, from the pain, and from the resentment once and for all. When learning to forgive, make sure to complete the cycle. Acknowledge your anger, your pain, and your fear. But also own up to any part you've played in allowing it to happen or continue. Make sure to express whatever it was that you wanted from that person, and then see the whole event from the others point of view. Allow yourself to wonder what that person was going through and what kind of needs he/she was trying to fulfill at the time. Finally, let go and move on. Every time you go through this process you're learning how to avoid letting it happen again.

The 5 Principles of a Profound Workday

The 5 Principles of a Profound Workday By Leo Babauta Let us toss out all we know for a moment. Toss notions of productivity, time management, efficiency, and the bottom line. Empty our workdays of all we've packed them with, and sit still with an empty room. What should we put in this room? Do we want to spend our limited space on busy-ness, on making money, on quick transactions and calculated meetings? What if we put into it only that which matters? What if we left everything else out? We would be left with a workday that was poetry, profoundly beautiful. The Profound Workday In my life I have deliberately cultivated a workday that is flexible, simplified, slow, mindful, creative. The exact opposite of my previous life: a hurried, anxious, complicated, dull workday. What I've curated is not difficult, but it is the perfect environment for creating work that is profoundly different from my previous accomplishments. I've created this flow using some key principles. You might not be able to implement all of them right away, but it's my hope that you'll find the principles useful. 1. Empty: In Silence and Solitude. When your schedule is full, you have no room for change. When your day is full of noise, you have no space to think. Empty your day. When you have an empty space, you can fill it with anything. Only with this emptiness can you create something truly different. Clear your schedule. Find space for silence and solitude. With this space you'll be free, to hear your thoughts, to see the truth, to create beauty. 2. Slow and Mindful. Rushing paradoxically leaves us with less time -- the speed means we don't pay attention, and so the day disappears rapidly and leaves us before we notice. Slow down, and pay attention. You'll be able to focus on your creative tasks more, and though you'll do less, you'll accomplish things that are more profound. Be mindful of every activity, small or large. Enjoy every motion. When you are done with a task, wash your bowl. Then move to the next. 3. Profoundly Creative. Don't use the gift of your day for mindless repetitive tasks. Don't end the day with nothing to show for your work. Start each day by creating. Make the space at the beginning of your day to create, before you get lost in emails and online networking and reading. Create something amazing. Delight your audience. Leave them amazed, wanting to do your marketing for you. Make a difference. 4. Simplified. The principles for a profound workday might seem impractical to most people, because there just isn't the time or space to implement them. The only way to create this type of workday is to simplify. It's the key to everything else. Subtract. Pare everything down to its essence. What's on your desk right now? What are the three items that actually need to be there? Remove everything else. What's on your schedule for today? What are the three tasks that would really make a difference in your life? Eliminate everything else that you possibly can. What do you do every day? How many of those things can be eventually pared down? How much do you do online? Could you do without it? Simplify, and you'll be able to find emptiness, solitude, silence, slowness, mindfulness. 5. Flexible and Natural. This type of workday might start to sound rigid, but in truth when you create space you also allow yourself the flexibility to deal in the moment with any change. The natural flow of things is change, and if we are rigid we aren't able to deal with changes. We become frustrated, anxious, angry, flustered. If instead we have no expectations of what will happen each day, and deal with changes as they come, we let go of that frustration and anxiety. Be open to whatever happens. Be flexible. Deal with change as it happens, and you'll find true profoundness doesn't come from within us, or from external sources, but in the space between the two. "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry