Best Life Tips

The Secret team has created a visualization tool, "The Secret to You", which you can view and play every day.

"The Secret to You" has been especially created to harness all the power of The Secret to transform your life into happiness, prosperity, health, love and joy.

To experience maximum power from the visualization tool, read the words and feel them with all your heart.

After viewing, click on the Comments link below and let me know what you think.

What is Body Centered Therapy?

I'm often asked about body centered therapy and its benifits.
  Therapy is first about discovering. It's about who you are and about what your   deepest emotional attitudes are. It's not just about who you think you are.   It's not opinion. It's not something you can know with the intellect. It's   about who you are in the very heart of yourself.

Read more about this effective therapy Link: The Hakomi Institute.

Rules for Survival

Here are 16 rules worth following if you're up to something big in life. Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy.com, shared his life and his 16 rules that he used for his survival. Go Daddy is well known domain name registration company.  With his permission, here are his 16 rules he tries to live by:

Here are the 16 rules I try to live by:

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not much happens of any significance when we're in our comfort zone. I hear people say, "But I'm concerned about security." My response to that is simple: "Security is for cadavers."

2. Never give up. Almost nothing works the first time it's attempted. Just because what you're doing does not seem to be working, doesn't mean it won't work. It just means that it might not work the way you're doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn't have an opportunity.

3. When you're ready to quit, you're closer than you think. There's an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: "The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed."

4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be. Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of "undefined consequences." My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, "Well, Robert, if it doesn't work, they can't eat you."

5. Focus on what you want to have happen. Remember that old saying, "As you think, so shall you be."

6. Take things a day at a time. No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don't look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.

7. Always be moving forward. Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.

8. Be quick to decide. Remember what the Union Civil War general, Tecumseh Sherman said: "A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow."

9. Measure everything of significance. I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.

10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate. If you want to uncover problems you don't know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven't examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.

11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you're doing.  When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.

12. Never let anybody push you around. In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you're doing as anyone else, provided that what you're doing is legal.

13. Never expect life to be fair. Life isn't fair. You make your own breaks. You'll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).

14. Solve your own problems. You'll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you'll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: "You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others." There's also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: "A wise man keeps his own counsel."

15. Don't take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.

16. There's always a reason to smile. Find it. After all, you're really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: "We're not here for a long time; we're here for a good time."

The above article is included with the permission of Bob Parsons (http://www.bobparsons.com) and is Copyright 2005 by Bob Parsons. All rights reserved."

Copyright © 2004 - 2005 Bob Parsons All rights reserved.

Why can't you pay attention anymore? | Newsmakers | CNET News.com

I don't know about you but I can relate to the idea about how we're becoming more distracted and less productive. I thought all this technology was going to make it easier for us to be more efficient with less effort.

Check out this interview with Dr. Edward Hallowell, a psychiatrist who's studied attention deficit disorder for more than a decade, has identified a related disorder he calls attention deficit trait, and he says it's reaching epidemic proportions in the corporate world.

What have you noticed about this dilemna in you own life?

Read the whole article here: Why can't you pay attention anymore? | Newsmakers | CNET News.com.

Five Myths About Changing Behavior

Check out these common myths about behavior change. They might surprise you.
Let me know what you think about them by clicking on the comments button.

Fast Company article Link: Five Myths About Changing Behavior.

Change or Die

Here's a thought provoking article from Fast Company magazine about change. Let me know what you think of it.

What if you were given that choice? For real. What if it weren't just the hyperbolic rhetoric that conflates corporate performance with life and death? Not the overblown exhortations of a rabid boss, or a slick motivational speaker, or a self-dramatizing CEO. We're talking actual life or death now. Your own life or death. What if a well-informed, trusted authority figure said you had to make difficult and enduring changes in the way you think and act? If you didn't, your time would end soon -- a lot sooner than it had to. Could you change when change really mattered? When it mattered most?

For the rest of the article click here: Change or Die.

It All Starts With Vision

Many people make shortsighted decisions in life that lead them
down side paths and into dead ends.  They don't determine
beforehand where it is that they really want to be.  It's like
starting on a journey without a roadmap, directions, or a clear
idea of a destination.  For an afternoon's adventure, this can be
entertaining, but if it's your approach to life, you end up going
nowhere, discontent and regretful.

A far more energizing plan to reach life satisfaction is to begin
with a vision, "a mental picture of a future outcome, which
inspires definite and sustained action toward its realization." 
All accomplishment and productivity start with a mental image
that inspires and motivates us.  It gives us something to aim
for, something to live for.  It stirs the sense of wonder and
creativity that we knew as children. 

In addition to being a focal point and an impetus to action, a
vision can also be a dynamic planning tool.  Once you know
exactly what you want to create in life, you can begin to do
"back-engineering."  If engineers saw a finished product that
they wanted to replicate, they would break it down into its
component parts to see how it was made and figure out the steps
to reproduce it.  This is exactly what you can do with your
vision.

Once my clients are clear abut their visions, we co-create the
strategies that close the gaps between where they are now and
where they want to be.  The vision supports right action and
allows us to mentally reconstruct the steps you'd need to take to
create it.  At key points where you have to make decisions,
you're far more likely to recognize the path that will lead to
your goal.

In working with clients over the past thirteen years, I've found
that by helping them clarify their vision and core values, they
find the unique expression of their best selves.  This leads to
the confidence and inspiration they need to take action.  And
what's truly exciting about this process is that its effects are
farther reaching than the client may have ever imagined.  It
changes not only their lives, but the lives of family, friends,
and colleagues. It opens the possibility for a passionate
connection to their life's purpose and it enhances all their
relationships.

FOCUS ON YOUR JOY

All too often we spend a lot of our resources on improving our weaknesses through therapy, self help books, workshops, and seminars and completely overlook our brilliance, gifts and strengths.  Those qualities that make us most who we are are left in the closet while we go out striving to improve our so-called weakness so that we feel more presentable.  We fail to realize that we are all gifted with natural strengths, and talents.  What if we were to put the same energy that we have used to strive, improve, or push ourselves to enjoying our natural talents and gifts?

    Most of the research conducted by psychologists over the years has focused on what makes people sad or anxious. That is why psychological journals over the last 30 years have published 45,000 articles on depression but only 400 on joy.  Of course, joy is not covered by insurance.

    We're working too hard to be healthy, says Paul Pearsall, author of The Pleasure Principle and The Heart’s Code. He says we’re suffering from too much undeserved guilt and taking the fun out of life.   He states that when we aren’t getting delight in our life, our body starves for spiritual nutrients.  He asks his patients to ask themselves this question each morning and evening, “Has today been a delight for me and everyone around me?”

     Since identifying and expressing our values leads to a more joy-filled life, it would benefit you to list your core values, those qualities that you are most attracted to;  for example: spirituality, creativity, adventure, beauty, or connection. (For a free Value Identification Program e-mail me) Some people whom I’ve assisted through this process have noticed that they just needed to change some small aspect of their work or home life to put it in line with their values.  The result is more joy.

    Some other tips to help keep the focus on joy are: Hang out with others who seem joyful.  Make a list of 100 big and small things that bring you joy. It could be appreciating beauty or connecting with nature. Identify those activities are that you enjoy and do one at least once everyday.

    I’ll close with a lyric from Kathy Matea, “Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like no one is watching.”

Positive Attitude

We can all use a little sunshine. Dan's caught a few rays and made them into a manifesto you can take with you wherever you go. He hopes it makes you smile.

Download 14.05.PositiveAttitude.pdf

USATODAY.com - Yep, life'll burst that self-esteem bubble

Link: USATODAY.com - Yep, life'll burst that self-esteem bubble.

Now, the tides have turned. Schools teach the basics to improve performance on standardized tests, and self-esteem programs have evolved from phony praise to deserved recognition for a job well-done.

Girl Scouts of the USA promotes self-esteem by emphasizing strengths and skills while encouraging feelings of competence, says developmental psychologist Harriet Mosatche, senior director of research and program. "It used to be, 'Whatever you do is great.' That old-fashioned misuse of the notion of self-esteem is not positive. It's unrealistic, and not helpful," she says.