Collecting Bad Wines

Learning to let go of the small stuff, to live in the moment and to really appreciate the people in our lives are all valuable lessons that may take us years to learn. For Ric Elias however, the change was easy. As he saw his life flash before his eyes while his plane was about to crash in the Hudson River in January 2009, he decided never to postpone his life again.... He decided to drink the good wine and only collect the bad. 

What went through his mind as the doomed plane went down? At TED, he tells his story publicly for the first time

http://www.ted.com/talks/ric_elias.html?ga_source=embed

PASSION

“If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you.” – T. Alan Armstrong

“A great leader's courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.” – John Maxwell

“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.” – Bertrand Russell
“Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.” – Angela Monet
“Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Attributed to Howard Thurman
“You taught me to be nice, so nice that now I am so full of niceness, I have no sense of right and wrong, no outrage, no passion.” – Garrison Keillor

“Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

“Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.” – Blaise Pascal

“Chase your passion, not your pension.” – Denis Waitley

Quotations – Opportunity Dances with...

“Indecision is the greatest thief of opportunity.” -- Robert Schuller

“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want." -- Ben Stein

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Opportunity dances with those who are already on the dance floor." -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision." -- The Principles of Psychology 1890

“The inability to make a decision is often described as patience – or ‘waiting on God.’” -- Dan Miller

“There is no more miserable human being than the one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.” -- William James

Poetry

Happy Friday!

Here is a lovely poem written by Sarah Kay, a young poet and performer from New York. I love this poem because it's passionate, sweet and very real! In her message, Sarah reminds us that in spite of life's hardships, character, perseverance and our connections with others will always see us through…especially that special connection that we have with our parents.

Enjoy and count your blessings!

If I should have a daughter, instead of Mom, she’s gonna call me Point B. Because that way she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me.

And I’m going to paint the solar systems on the backs of her hands, so she has to learn the entire Universe before she can say, “Oh, I know that like the back of my hand.”

And she’s going to learn that this life will hit you, hard, in the face, wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach, but getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.

There is hurt, here, that cannot be fixed by Band-Aids or poetry, so the first time she realizes that Wonder Woman isn’t coming, I’ll make sure she knows she doesn’t have to wear the cape all by herself.

'Cause no matter how wide you stretch your fingers, your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal, believe me, I’ve tried.

"And baby", I'll tell her, "don't keep your nose up in the air like that, I know that trick, I've done it a million times. You're just smelling for smoke, so you can follow the trail back to a burning house so you can find the boy who lost everything in the fire to see if you can save him, or else, find the boy who lit the fire in the first place to see if you can change him".

But I know she will anyway, so instead I'll always keep an extra supply of chocolate and rain boots nearby, because there is no heartbreak that chocolate can't fix. Okay. There’s a few heartbreaks that chocolate can't fix, but that's what the rain boots are for, because rain will wash away everything, if you let it.

I want her to look at the world through the underside of a glass-bottom boat, to look through a microscope at the Galaxies that exist on the pinpoint of a human mind, because that's the way my Mom taught me that there'll be days like this...

"There'll be days like this" my Mama said, when you open your hands to catch, and wind up with only blisters and bruises, when you step out of the phone booth and try to fly, and the very people you want to save are the ones standing on your cape, when your boots will fill with rain and you'll be up to your knees in disappointment, and those are the very days you have all the more reason to say "Thank you".
'Cause there's nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it's sent away.

You will put the win in win some, lose some, you will put the star in starting over, and over, and no matter how many land mines erupt in a minute, be sure your mind lands on the beauty of this funny place called Life.

And yes, on a scale from one to over-trusting, I am pretty damn naive, but I want her to know that this world is made out of sugar, it can crumble so easily, but don't be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it.

"Baby" I'll tell her "remember your Mama is a Warrior, and your Papa is a Warrior, and you are the girl with small hands and big eyes, who never stops asking for more.

Remember that good things come in threes, and so do bad things, and always apologize when you've done something wrong, but don't you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining.

Your voice is small, but don't ever stop singing, and when they finally hand you heartache, when they slip war and hatred under your door, and offer you handouts on street corners of cynicism and defeat, you tell them that they really ought to meet your Mother.

Source: http://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_if_i_should_have_a_daughter.html

Tips to unlock your creativity

From the 48days newsletter...always informative and inspiring:

1. You need to “sit” longer.

2. Get away from your normal routine.

3. Go for a long walk, exercise more

4. Take an art (woodworking, sculpture, gardening) class

5. Put yourself around people who are high performers.

Henry Ford once said he didn’t want executives who had to work all the time. He insisted that those who were always in a flurry of activity at their desks were not being the most productive. He wanted people who would clear their desks, prop their feet up and dream some fresh dreams. His philosophy was that only he who has the luxury of time can originate a creative thought.

Wow! When’s the last time your boss told you to quit working and do more dreaming? Unfortunately, our culture glamorizes being under time pressure. Having too much to do with too little time is a badge of “success.” Or is it?

If you are feeling stuck, your solution may not be in doing more, but in taking a break from the “busyness” of life. Want to be more productive — try doing less. Go “sit” somewhere for a while!”

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” – Henry David Thoreau

Quotations - Begin Again

“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches.” -- Rainer Maria Rilke

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing.  The worst thing you can do is nothing." -- Theodore Roosevelt

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” -- Mark Twain

“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” -- Henry Ford

"Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals." -- Jim Rohn

Quotes-Aim High

“The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach, and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand.  They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration.” - Ernest Newman, Writer
 
"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it. But that it is too low... and we reach it." - Michelangelo, 1475-1564 Italian Sculptor, Painter, Architect and Poet
 
"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand." - Woodrow Wilson
 
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say:  Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quotes - Moving Forward

"If you want something you have never had, be prepared to do something you have never done" -- Author unknown
"Your most powerful weapon against limiting thoughts is your willingness to clarify and envision what you truly want for your life." -- David McNally

"One of the most common precursors of cancer is a feeling of emptiness in one's life." -- Dr. Bernie Siegal
"Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have." -- Doris Mortman

"Evermore people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for." -- Viktor Frankl

Stop Doing That!

Hello Everyone :) It's been a while since I posted! I guess I was going through an extensive holiday slump. But here I am and it's a new year! 2011 presents a new opportunity to accomplish our dreams and to continue investing our time,energy and love in the things that matter and make us happy! Speaking of that... How are those new year resolutions going? Like most of you, I've made a  list of my own and have been tackling it full force (on most days). Nonetheless I do struggle with "finding" time to devote to the things I want to accomplish.  With that in mind, I want to share this small article I came across from the 48Days newsletter which discusses very wisely the subject of priorities and time management.

Enjoy! 

STOP DOING THAT!

If there’s one reason I hear more than any other for failed New Year’s resolutions, it’s “I just didn’t have the time.” Many times success in goals comes not by adding more to our busy lives, but by deciding what we’re going to STOP doing. When I stopped serving on boards and going to civic and committee meetings it freed up significant time that I now spend writing – which I consider my #1 priority.

What can you STOP doing to accomplish your goals?

“Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

OUR SOUL

"Souls too, like rivulets and plants, needed a different kind of rain: hope, faith, a reason to live. When this did not come to pass, everything in that soul died, even if the body went on living; and the people could say: "Here in this body there was once a man." --Paulo Coelho, The Fifth Mountain

Quotes- Your life story

"You must have control of the authorship of your own destiny. The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand." - Irene C. Kassorla

"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it." - James Matthew Barrie

"Strange as it may seem, my life is based on a true story." - Ashleigh Brilliant

"She realized as a girl of eight that if she sat down and wrote her stories, she could escape the parts of life she didn't like, embroider the parts she did and thus control the life she had." - Dudley Clendinen

"Live your life from your heart. Share from your heart. And your story will touch and heal people's souls." - Melody Beattie

"Each person's life is a story that is telling itself in the living." - William Throsby Bridges

"I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure"

From the 48days newsletter:

don't know of anything that can cripple hope and the possibility of success more than indecision.


I get rather impatient with some people when the mortgage is due, the children are hungry and the lights are about to be cut off and they are still just praying about what to do. I know what to do; quit hiding behind your pious excuse for inactivity - and start moving.

"Indecision and delays are the parents of failure." - George Canning, English statesman

One of Zig Ziglar's famous stories is of a childhood neighbor lady who pulled some biscuits out of the oven that were no thicker than silver dollars. When little Zig asked what happened, the cook laughed and said, "Well, those biscuits squatted to rise, but they just got cooked in the squat."

I see people who have gotten "cooked in the squat." They are going to do something just as soon as they gather all the necessary information. But weeks, months and then years slip by. Protected in the safety of gathering more information they miss new opportunities all together. A client told me he had gone to work at the local bank - just as a temporary position until he could do a little research about which career field to really pursue. Guess what? That was 17 years ago and he's still at the bank. The acceptable illusion of still getting ready robbed him of 17 years of his life.

When do you have enough knowledge to start something new? When you decide to take action! The baby eagle learns how to fly as he is heading straight toward the rocks below, not while sitting on the edge of the nest. The business owner learns while hiring, buying, and making mistakes more than while sitting in a classroom. The unemployed person approaches success while knocking on doors, making phone calls, and getting repeated rejections, not while scanning the Internet and reading textbooks.

"There is no more miserable human being than the one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision." William James

Don't get "cooked in the squat." It will cripple you!

Share your comments here

Want to be intelligent and average or creative and successful?

Article from the 48 days newsletter. WOW! Does it ring a bell? It definitely resonates with me... 

Studies over the last 50 years show children increasing in IQ. But since 1990, scores of creativity have gone down. Our children, and adults, are becoming less creative.

The accepted definition of creativity is production of something original and useful. Too much TV, video games and time indoors can be blamed. But standardized tests and the push to accumulate facts have added to the decline.

As adults, creativity will open opportunities more than intelligence. The average GPA of decamillionaires in America is 2.7. A 4.0 GPA can lead to very common jobs and careers. A lower IQ may allow for a more authentic and successful career path.

Here are some things we can do as adults to kill or increase our creativity.

Ways to kill creativity and idea generation:

1. Wallowing in self-pity

2. Blaming others

3. Giving up on dreams

4. Overreacting to criticism

5. Underestimating your opportunities

Ways to increase creativity:

1. Laugh out loud every day

2. Break familiar routines

3. Say to yourself, "I can do this."

4. Set aside 15 minutes daily for "thinking."

5. Read one non-fiction book a month

"A lot of what we think of as neurosis in this country is simply people who are unhappy because they�re not using their creative resources." Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way)

Free Will

Everything is permissible for me - but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me - but I will not be mastered by anything..
I Corinthians 6:12

Spiritual Snobbery?

"Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God - the rest will be given." -- Mother Teresa

"You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don't make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you." -- Maya Angelou

"What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us." -- Julia Cameron

"You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you." -- Ruth Smeltzer

"If you want to see what God thinks of money, just look at all the people He gave it to." -- Dorothy Parker

"I don't pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages." -- Robert Bosch

"Money is like love; it kills slowly and painfully the one who withholds it, and enlivens the other who turns it on his fellow man." -- Kahlil Gibran

"It's a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money." -- Albert Camus

"If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability." -- Henry Ford

"Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it." -- Henry David Thoreau

No Perfect Answers

True freedom lies in the realization and calm acceptance of the fact that there may very well be no perfect answer.

Our decisions are not always tidy. There are loose ends. There are wants and needs unmet. We make a compromise. That's okay. Whether we're looking for the perfect job or working through a family conflict, we experience situations in which we cannot get all our own way at the same time. Our life here is not Utopian. It is collaborative though, and that can be satisfying.

When I accept there is not going to be an answer that makes everyone 100 percent happy, I free myself to consider a multitude of options for compromise.

Measuring what makes life worthwhile

The CEO of a very successful hotel chain gives an interesting talk about "Gross National Happiness" or GNH and why it's a much more meaningful way of counting what really matters to a country, organization and individual. He suggests that if we focus on what inspires us and makes us happy, success will inevitably be a byproduct.
Very interesting concept! Enjoy :)

Quotations - Share your greatness

"If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you." -- T. Alan Armstrong

"A man's dreams are an index to his greatness." -- Zadok Rabinwitz

"An ignorance of means may minister to greatness, but an ignorance of aims make it impossible to be great at all." -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." -- Albert Einstein

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." -- Mark Twain

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us." -- Marianne Williamson

Thoughts by Maya Angelou

"I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life. I've learned that making a "living" is not the same thing as making a "life." I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one. I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I've learned that I still have a lot to learn. I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
— Maya Angelou
"Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise."
— Maya Angelou

Giving to our children

"A man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them better than by giving them fortune." -- Richard Whately

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one." -- Mother Teresa

"If you have much, give of your wealth; If you have little, give of your heart." -- Arab Proverb

"The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving." -- Albert Einstein

"Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more." -- Anthony Robbins

"Do not stand on a high pedestal and take 5 cents in your hand and say, 'here, my poor man,' but be grateful that the poor man is there, so by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed, but it is the giver. Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and perfect." -- Swami Vivekananda

"Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson