Marcel Legros - Play the Game of Life

If you want to bring meaning and passion to your work and relationships, you need strong values - but are your values healthy or harmful? Are they rooted in a desire to improve the world, or are they based on ignorance, fear, and greed?

The Odd Couple

A few weeks ago U.S. President George W. Bush invited the Dalai Lama to the White House.

President Bush speaks of peace and goes to war; the Dalai Lama speaks of peace and lives in peace. What do you think each man’s lasting legacy will be? Who’s words carry more power to capture your imagination?

Armed with a strong set of beliefs, we all have the power to manifest peace and happiness or to create immense human suffering. Here are a few photos of famous people you may know. Each of these people were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were doing the right thing.

In your own life, in your own way, are you creating happiness or are you creating suffering?

Choose your values carefully.

Links to learn more about the people shown in this article:

The 14th Dalai Lama - Tenzin Gyatso

U.S. President George W. Bush

Mother Theresa

Adolf Hitler

Martin Luther King Jr.

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln

Joseph Stalin

Mahatma Gandhi

[Read more →]

Saintly patience doesn’t happen overnight - it’s like a muscle and needs to be exercised every day. You don’t just step into the gym and lift 500 pounds on your first day - you patiently work up to it. You build the strength and tolerance to lift 500 pounds over a long period of time by training your body every day. One day, after months or years of training, you are able to lift 500 pounds and everyone will be astounded by your strength. Instead of admiring your strength, they should be admiring the patience that allowed you to train so hard for so long.

Life gives you opportunities every day to exercise your patience, if you recognize them for an opportunity instead of an obstacle. I used to say, “I’d be more patient and calm if everyone else weren’t conspiring against me. The world just keeps throwing obstacles in front of me! Why are people so crazy, slow, dumb, difficult, etc.?” Now I try to look on every delay and every difficult situation as an opportunity to exercise my patience. I simply smile and recognize that the universe is giving me an opportunity to become a better, stronger person. It’s now become a challenge to see just how long I can drive in the city without throwing a fit and cursing out loud (I’m up to four hours now). Bring it on, old people, logging trucks, and red lights; I’m exercising my patience! Pretty soon I won’t be honking my horn and flipping you the bird; how are you going to piss me off then?

Patience Isn’t Inborn - Just Ask a Two Year-Old

I’m not a naturally patient person. In fact, I’ve gone through life continuously moving from one frustrating delay to another. I’m improving my patience by repeating the following phrase whenever I encounter delays and setbacks in my life.

Life’s delays aren’t life’s denials.

Just because you don’t get what you want immediately doesn’t mean you won’t get it eventually. If I’m stuck in a traffic jam and late for an appointment, my plans might not work out according to schedule. Getting angry and upset will do nothing to improve the situation - when I’m angry and impatient, bad things happen.

Develop Universal Patience

The power of water is an example of how patience can be applied to your life with amazing results. One drop of water falling on a stone does nothing but make it wet. But if that same drip is repeated over and over again for thousands of years, water will easily drill a hole right through the middle of the stone. Consider blogging: if you write three, five hundred word articles a week, for one year, you’ll have written an average length fiction novel at the end of that year. Just to give you perspective, J.R.R. Tolkien spent 14 years writing the Lord of the Rings; it’s word count is just over 300,000. If you apply the same blogging example above, you can easily write over 1,092,000 words - enough time to write two epic novels with room to spare!

Write your great novel one blog entry at a time.

[Read more →]

When things get crazy and life feels too much, I look forward to tomorrow and live today. Things might not get better tomorrow, but there is the great promise that it can. Maybe it will get worse - I don’t know. What matters is that I live today because there is no other time to live.

Nothing Can Harm You

When I’m experiencing pain or negativity I use try to remember to use my secret weapon - I imagine I’m a ghost. I let every emotion and experience pass deeply into me, and then through me, as if I’m perfectly invisible. I don’t ignore my pain but actually welcome it. I try to feel the pain as deeply as I can muster. Once I’ve felt it, I let it pass through and move on to whatever comes next. There is absolutely no emotion in this world that can harm you if you allow it to be, and then let it go.

Feel deeply, rinse, repeat…

[Read more →]

There are thousands of self development, self-help, psychology, motivational, and spiritual titles on the market today. Only a few rare authors make it to the best-sellers list. Even fewer build a successful, highly trafficked website with a dedicated readership. I can think of only 5 living self-development superstars:

1. Tony Robbins
2. Brian Tracy
3. Wayne Dyer
4. Deepak Chopra
5. Eckhart Tolle

How many high quality, best-selling authors of popular fiction can you name? The list in that category is massive by comparison.

Tony Robbins is heavily criticized for misrepresenting the truth and for his aggressive sales techniques. He was busy marketing products for the perfect marriage while going through a divorce. Deepak Chopra has also been criticized for writing questionable science.

Most self-development authors never achieve the kind of success they write about. They’re trying to teach us methods for success while they’re clearly not very good at it themselves. Where are all the great wisdom teachers?

Living in a Positive Thinking Bubble

Harsh criticism isn’t well accepted with this group. Peers don’t criticize for fear of losing credibility in their field. When someone does speak up and trashes the book or article, the criticism is denounced as being negative. Self-development authors need to be held accountable for the quality of their work just like everyone else. If the quality of my writing isn’t up to par, I have no chance for success by ignoring criticism. If my writing doesn’t sell, am I ahead of my time or living in denial?

You Can’t Sell Your Way Out of a Paper Bag

The most successful people in any field know how to sell their ideas. You must appeal to the customer’s desire for a solution to a problem. A best-selling author isn’t necessarily the best-writing author. You might be an excellent writer, but to reach your audience you must be able to sell your ideas. Take a sales course. Learn to appeal to your audience’s desire for answers and then deliver it to them in an approachable way.

The Field Is Crowded With Snake Oil Salesmen

Authors often sell their opinions as facts. Opinions are fallible; facts can be measured, proven, or demonstrated. How many times have you read titles like “43 Power Laws,” “7 Steps to Incredible Riches,” or “30 Secrets of Successful People?” Get rich quick schemes have damaged the whole genre. Anyone can make up a system of laws and principles for success but do they work? Where’s the proof? If those opinions and advice were factual, why is the author mired in obscurity and living in his parents’ basement?

People Want Progress, Not Perfection

Buddha, Jesus, Gandhi, and Mother Theresa all had their bad days. Someone burned their toast or stepped on their foot and they might have reacted with anger. Spiritual teachers and motivational coaches don’t like to talk about this, but every human being has negative thoughts and feelings. To deny one half of our nature is to deny reality. I believe in self-improvement but no one is perfect. People give up on a unrealistic systems that work only half of the time.

Measure Your Own Success Before Teaching It To Others:

* Do you have healthy relationships with your friends, family, and co-workers?
* Are you earning enough to support your needs? Are your finances in order?
* Do you receive positive results from the efforts of work and service? Are your customers happy?
* Are you physically healthy and free from life-draining addictions or habits?
* Are you happy and fulfilled?
* Are you living the life you dream about or only wishing for it to happen?
* Do you have goals and the plans to achieve them? Do you have faith that these goals and plans will succeed?
* Do you sincerely care for the welfare of all living things? Do your actions reflect your beliefs?

I’m writing this because people urgently want answers to their problems. We need real life skills, authentic wisdom, and inspired teachers who lead by example. Are you selling a hard-to-follow set of opinions or is it simple and accessible? People know the truth when they hear it. The truth sells, because it’s simple and it works.

[Read more →]