IMPACT OF KINDNESS

When you express kindness toward another person, you positively  impact there gene expression to promote new brain cell growth, release brain chemicals  that increase confidence, creativity and courage and YOU get these same things too. Choose to be a beneficial presence on the planet today. 

GRADUATION

"The highest reward for man's toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it."

As High School, Trade School and College graduates embark on life time careers, may they heed this counsel. A career inconsistent with ones core values is never worth whatever it may pay. 'If it takes you away from your family and friends, it will leave you alone in the end.'

FINDING PEACE

Sometimes finding peace in life comes from subtracting people or things from your life, not by adding people or things. 

PERSPECTIVE

Two buckets met at the well in the center of town. One of the buckets was down and depressed. "What's wrong?" the other bucket asked concerned. "I can't take it any longer," said the depressed bucket, " I get so tired being dragged to the well everyday. No matter how full I am when I leave here I always come back here completely empty. I find it depressing."  "If you look at it that way, no wonder you're depressed," the second bucket said. "The way I see it is that no matter how empty I am when I come back here I always leave here completely full. I find it so invigorating!"

"You are 100% responsible for how you choose to respond to everything that happens in your life!"

WORDS LIKE LIGHTNING

Words when thought, read or spoken ignite with 'meaning' within each of us and trigger emotion in a FLASH like lightning. These same words echo in our lives and the lives of those around us like thunder in a valley. Are your words creating a bright flash and comforting thunderous  roar like a gentle Spring rain storm or are they blinding others and in stilling fear and dread like a severe damaging storm?  

Choose your words carefully. You can choose your words but cannot control their impact. 

A MOMENT TO REASSESS

As human beings we have learned that no response, experience, or behavior is meaningful outside of the context in which it was established, or the response it elicits next. In short, all meaning is context dependent. 

You're thinking, 'Okay... What? Here's an example. I once had a client who had an ongoing feud with her husband and children about their living room carpet. She adored her family and also loved keeping the living room carpet smooth with straight lines from the vacuum cleaner and no foot or hand impressions left on the carpet. I asked what the smooth carpet meant to her. She shared that it was visual evidence that she loved her husband and kids and was conveying  that by keeping that carpet so perfect. I asked what the foot and hand impressions in the carpet meant to her, she explained that it symbolized chaos, noise, and work to do again. 

It was time to reassess or Reframe. I asked that she give me descriptors for the smooth carpet again, "quiet, order, untouched, taking care of things for the family, being a good Mom." I asked her to focus on the smooth carpet again and said, "look, no foot or hand impressions. Listen, no talking, no laughter, no playing, you're all alone. No one is here. No sharing of the smooth carpet." She became tearful and observed that the prints on the carpet actually meant she was surrounded by and spending time with the people she loves most. The always smooth carpet was pushing away what she wanted most, being with her family. 

Taking some time to reassess / Reframe situations in our lives can instantly change a liability to an asset, a burden to a blessing! REASSESS REFRAME

HOUDINI'S IMPOSSIBLE LOCK!

It's fascinating to read the stories, many of them legendary, about the late Houdini. That masterful magician was probably a better locksmith than he was a magician. He had a standing challenge that he could get out of any locked jail in 60 minutes, providing they would let him enter in his regular street clothes and not watch him work. 

One of the stories is about a little town in the British Isles that decided to challenge (and perhaps embarrass) the great Houdini. This town had just completed an escape-proof jail, and so the townsfolk invited Houdini to come see of he could break out. 

He accepted the challenge. He was allowed to enter the jail in his street clothes. People said they saw the locksmith turn the lock some strange way, and then with the clang of steel, everybody turned their backs and left him alone to work. Houdini had hidden a long flexible steel rod in his belt, which is what he used to try to trip the lock. He worked for 30 minutes. He kept his ear close to the lock - 45 minutes, and then an hour passed, he was perspiring. After two hours, he was exhausted. He leaned against the door, and to his amazement, it fell open. They had never locked the door! It was their trick on the great Houdini!

The door was locked ONLY in Houdini's mind. That's the ONLY place it was locked. Sometimes we may think we can't overcome our problems or succeed at something. The only place where it is impossible is in our thinking. That's the ONLY thing that's locked! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?