Are You Living Your Life With Passion?

We all dream of living full, happy lives. In our minds, we see ourselves laughing through our days and feeling satisfied, free and fulfilled. How do I know this? Because whatever it is you may say you want - more money, more time, a better job or better health - the fact is that what lies underneath all of these desires are the same feelings we all want.

Once we acknowledge that it's fantastic feelings we're after, we can expand our means of receiving/creating them, and thus increase our chances of success. If it's time you took a good look at your own happiness quotient and gave it an overhaul, here's your next chance (there will always be more. Each moment is a new chance. Let's just say this is your next reminder, then). Make each moment count by actually putting into place the practices which will bring joy and rekindle the passion in your life. This has nothing to do with anyone else - it's all about YOU!

The following tips are designed to help you make the most of each day and ensure you are living your life to the fullest. They are not all positive and easy, but the results are: this is all about being effective. These few key areas are where you can put new practices into place and give yourself the gift of a happier, more satisfying life which is filled with passion and promise.

PRIORITIES: In these busy times, it is time to realize that we cannot do it all. We can create everything we want, but we each have only 24 hours in a day, and there will often be things that slip through the cracks.

Knowing this, we can acknowledge that the more we hone our focus and decide what our overall priorities are, the better we can live each day from that focus. We can accomplish more of the things that matter to us as individuals. This is not goal-setting. Goals arise from this work, and allow you to accomplish those things that you wish to. Inturn, you will live each day with a strong sense of purpose, aliveness and joy.

Invest the time to look at your life overall and decide what you want it to be about. A good way to think about this is to consider the end of your life. This may be difficult, but the charge it gives to your life NOW is well worth it. Ask yourself what you will regret most if you don't change it. What do you want said about you when you're gone? What kind of a legacy would you like to leave? What will you wish you had done?

GOALS: What do you want to accomplish? This list grows out of the introspection you undertook above, and the trick here is to make them YOURS. Not what your Mom wants, nor what your guidance counselor told you was right for you...but what YOU want.

Have you even thought about this lately? Many people have not thought about what they truly want in years. This is partially due to the vague notion that we carry around that says 'some day I'll have more time to figure it out and then I'll get what I want'. This is NOT how it works. SOME DAY IS NOW. Free yourself by realizing that today is all you have, and live it up! Dream with passion! PLAN to do things you love and which are fun for you. Only you can create those feelings of joy, satisfaction and fulfillment you seek.

Now you can tie your priorities and your goals together. The best two tips in this area I have heard in years are extremely simple, once you have an overarching plan:

1. Make a list every night of the five things you MUST accomplish tomorrow, and then DO THEM tomorrow, in the order of those you want to do least first.

2. Ask yourself each day: What can I do today that I'll be glad I did tomorrow? This one step is amazingly powerful, as you will see after a few days.

VISION: You may have heard that you must visualize what you want in order to get it. Did you know that in studies with Olympic-caliber athletes, tests have shown that they performed just as well after visualizing themselves going through the motions with precision, as when they actually practiced physically? Additionally, in brain and muscle tests, all the same neurons in the brain and muscle fibers in the body were activated during intense visualization as during the actual athletic endeavor.

Amazing? YES! Use this to your advantage in your own life. Practice and improve your ability to clearly and precisely picture yourself being in the situations you wish to create. There are some amazing guided meditations in the Wealth Beyond Reason program that I have found to be profoundly helpful with this process.

HEALTH: This has been addressed in many ways, from books to internet sites, and it bears repeating. My two best tips are:

1. Eat less, and more often. Studies have shown that those who eat less actually survive longer. Now that you are building this happy, passionate life, you'll want to prolong it as much as you can! Also, eating smaller amounts every three to four hours serves to boost your metabolism and burn more fat, helping you to be healthier and have more energy. Think of your metabolism like it's a fire...if you starve it or smother it, the results will be less to your liking. Consistently feed it small amounts and keep it on a low 'burn.'

2. The second tip is to get moving, and do it consistently. This one thing, if you are not already doing it, will make a huge difference for you. Go for walks, take up new sports - do whatever you have to do to stay active, and enjoy increased energy and stamina, with the added bonus of increased clarity in your thoughts.

ROLE MODELS: Get some new ones! Be on the lookout for people and situations that empower you, reminding you of the magnificence of the human spirit and bringing you a sense of possibility. This will lift you out of your narrow, everyday focus, and give you a broader perspective. One person who ispires me to a life of passion and a commitment to my own goals and accomplishments, for instance, is Anthony Robbins. His story is amazing, but more important to me is his attitude - his dedicated and passionate approach toward personal change and improvement.

There you have it...a few key ingredients to living a life with passion!

There are many more things you can do, of course, but it's important to put the fundamentals in place and really begin creating the energy, passion, happiness, and sense of purpose you seek.

Enjoy, and go create your dreams!

Are You Living Your Life With Passion?

Why You CAN'T Have What You Want

You want a perfect life! A great job, lots of money, a fantastic relationship or a trip around the world...Well, guess what? You can't have it!

Haven't you noticed that you DON'T have it yet?...What makes you think things are going to change?

News flash: things WON'T change, unless YOU do!

This saying has become a cliché, but it's REALLY true. Our outer worlds reflect our deepest thoughts and beliefs, and all we need to do is look around to see the results of our dominant thought patterns of late.

Some beliefs take longer to manifest than others, but everything forms itself around your internal world eventually. The world responds according to how you expect it to respond. For instance, have you ever noticed that when you 'woke up' in a really great mood, you ran into cheery, happy people who smiled back at you as you went through your day?

It's not only people who respond to the underlying vibration you are sending out...it's the whole world. With this in mind, below are seven key reasons you CAN'T have what you want. Read them, and then change your mind about them, and watch the world change!

1. You Don't Believe it's Possible: Isn't this true, to some extent? This is the main stumbling block for many people. Perhaps you have some grandiose dreams, and you may have even spent some time creating pictures in your head, or goal-setting around the things you want. However, deep inside there is a part of you which feels like all of this may be just wishful thinking; that you are really just dreaming, and it'll never happen.
   
   Well, wake up! What a nightmare. Until you truly believe that what you want can be done, BY YOU, then your mind will not keep its' motivation, and you will experience frustration and disappointment.
   
   


2. You Are Focused on What You Don't Want: Although you may have heard this before, have you really taken the time to think about how it applies in your life? To do so, you must vow to notice how you respond to input during your day.
   
   For every little event, from traffic lights to workplace and family conversations, you experience a reaction. What are you saying to yourself? Unless you sail about your day thinking - and really believing - only thoughts such as 'things always go well for me,' 'I love the way I get along with everyone I meet,' and 'I am meeting all my goals and I'm so happy and excited!!!', you may be focusing on what you DON'T want. This is typical for all of us, and takes work to overcome. Of course, the rewards in your quality of life and how things begin to fall into place when you do so are very much worth the effort.
   


3. You Don't Know What You Want: Most people do not really know what they want. When questioned, they use phrases like financial freedom, or happiness, or a better relationship, which are all very vague. In order to move into the lives we wish to have, we have to define them - specifically. Invest some time and get really specific about what you want, and equally important, your reasons for your desires. The more you can delve into your reasons behind your want list, the more you will begin to see and define clearly what it is you REALLY want...which may not be what you think!



4. You Are Immersed in Lack Mentality: While no one likes to believe this applies to them, we are all susceptible. Lack mentality is so pervasive and so insidious that it goes undetected. Our deep-seated beliefs about money and life affect every decision we make, however, and because of this it is worth trying to find and change them. One great way to do this is to simply notice your reactions to situations that involve the concept of 'plenty.' For instance, when you see someone else with plenty of money, or a brand new car, or going on a wonderful trip, how do you feel? Anything other than joy and happiness for that person, which stems from your knowledge that you, too, can enjoy such abundance, indicates some deep lack mentality. This is good! Only once you notice something can you change it.
   
   


5. You Want It: Aha! This seems like the opposite of learning to know what you want, but it isn't. You can't have what you want!
   
   As long as you feel yearning for things, you are separated from them. How can you have it if you are separate from it? The things themselves do not come to you...you must attract them to you. In so doing, you become the person who has these things - not wants - and then you can have them! By the way, the first book in the Conversations With God trilogy does a great job of explaining this concept in more depth, as does the content in Bob Doyle's amazing Wealth Beyond Reason program. These resources would be a good start for understanding this important concept more fully and your life.
   


6. Your Perceptions About Yourself Are Limiting You: We all carry around beliefs about who we are and what we are capable of based on our background and environment. When you were a child and your mind was like a sponge, you internalized much of what you were told about your own nature, regardless of whether or not it was true. Many people do not question these beliefs or even realize they are there; they simply make judgments and decisions based on 'who they are.'
   
   Who you are is FAR more flexible than you realize, however. You are not your cultural background, for instance; you are not good or bad at math naturally. If you are like most people, your life results are based not so much on your innate abilities so much as your focus and what you have been taught. What you have been focusing on and practising on a daily basis has been determining what your life looks like. Maybe it's time you changed who and what you are listening to...
   


7. You Don't Consistently Hold it in Your Mind: Last but in no way least, there is the concept of consistentcy. In Joe Vitale's book The Attractor Factor (formerly Spiritual Marketing), changing your mind all the time is akin to ordering soup at a restaurant and then changing our order many times. Joe has us picture ordering a certain type of soup, and then continually changing our minds before the waiter or kitchen can bring us our order - of course we can never get what we want! We must learn to define it, then hold it in our minds as if it is already true, until our lives conform to look like what is in our minds.

Notice that NONE of these points has anything to do with how capable you are (or are not) or the actual possibility of something happening. ANYTHING is possible, and in this post I hope to help you feel a little more flexible, and realize that you can literally put your mind to anything, and achieve it.

Why You CAN'T Have What You Want