First let me start by saying how thankful I am that we did not suffer any significant damage or injury from Irene. My heart and prayers go out to those who did. This post is not intended in any way to take away from those who did!

As I waited and watched Irene yesterday, I couldn’t help but think “there are some life and business lessons here”.

Here are a few that I came up with, please feel free to add your own in the comments!

• You can have an expected path & plan, but they are always likely to change or “wiggle” off track
•  Be prepared, but also be prepared for those “wiggles” and detours!
• There is beauty in EVERYTHING! NO matter how ugly or horrible things may seem, look for the beauty and the blessings. They are always there.
• Often times ‘bad events’ bring out the best in people. Be one of those people, and acknowledge the others who are too.
• Be grateful! No matter what you have or don’t have, you have a LOT to be grateful for. I am a big believer in the power of gratitude!
• Storms in life will come and go [like it or not:)]. They happen for a reason. Be sure to look for and see the gift in them.
• Events like these have a way to bringing to light “what really matters” and what doesn’t. Try to keep that perspective in all that you do!
• If you are reading this, you are extremely lucky. You are alive, have power, a computer, and internet access. Count your blessings ALWAYS and be HAPPY!

What others would you add?

 

What if everything in your life was your fault?

What if there was no one else to blame?

Not exactly what most of us want to think about, but stay with me

First of all, I don’t believe in ‘blame’…taking responsibility, yes. Blame? No.

Most people fall into one of two categories:

1. they beat themselves up for EVERYTHING

2. they blame others for everything & spend their lives as “the victim”.

Neither are productive!

What if there was no blame. What if everything just ‘is’?

What if everything that has happened in your life has happened for a reason, and it is all part of the path to your ultimate potential?

I wholeheartedly believe that is true.

We all have the power to reach our ultimate potential!

Do we make mistakes? Take ‘wrong detours’?

Absolutely!

(I believe that often times those ‘detours’ are a big part of the process!)

If you think you’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way, I encourage you to get out a sheet of paper, or find some other place to make a list. Make a list of the mistakes you [think] you have made, or wish you had done differently and then make a list of the good things that came from it.

What did you learn?

Where did they lead you that you might not have gone?

Who did you meet that you wouldn’t have met otherwise?

What value did it bring to your life?

Then make a gratitude list. Consciously give thanks that all of those things happened. Be grateful that they led you to who and where you are today!

Forgive anyone who needs forgiving (including yourself:). Forget whether they ‘deserve it’ – forgiveness is a gift you give yourself, not them!

Now, move on!

Dream a little.

Spend a few minutes asking yourself:

Where has all of this led me?

If nothing was anyone else’s fault, and everything just”is”,  what could I do now to move toward where I want to be?

Here are a few more action steps to take:

Be sure to write down your thoughts, and add to them as they come to you!

Allow yourself to dream, and then write down the little baby steps that you could take to move toward them.

Create a vision board! Forget what you think you can have, or think you deserve, or whatever! Get out some magazines, or start printing from your computer and cut out pictures and words that represent who you want to be, what you want to do, what you want to have, the life you want to live. Glue them to a poster or foam board, or tack them to a cork board, tape them to the fridge – whatever works for you! Look at it every day. You’ll be amazed at the results

What are your thoughts on this?

What is your dream?

 

I recently posted this question on facebook:

I am looking for 10 people who are willing to spend 30 min/day or less to be ridiiculously off the charts happy and filled w/joy beyond their imagination. Who’s in?

Out of about 1000 people, I got about 20 who ‘raised their hand, YES!’

(You might think that is a silly question, but the truth is that we have all met people who are ‘too busy being miserable to be happy!”)

For the rest of us who really do want to be happy, and want it enough to be willing to do something to make it happen, it can  be achieved.

Unfortunately, we often dismiss things that are simple! We think ‘it can’t be that simple’, when in fact, it is!

I know some of you may be thinking “you don’t know my spouse, or my boss…” or have financial issues, health problems, etc., but you really can be happy no matter what is going on in your life!

I won’t go into the mountains of research that proves it here, but the secret is…gratitude.

Yep, that’s it! Gratitude! Proven to be more powerful than love or any other emotion, gratitude is the golden goose, the holy grail, and the secret!

It’s not as easy as saying thank you here and there, or listing what you are grateful for at Thanksgiving, but it is simple nonetheless.

The key is to be in a state of gratitude. A state of feeling it, as well as thinking it.

(When you are in a state of gratitude you cannot be depressed, or sad, or angry. Both emotions simply cannot exist in the same place at the same time.)

So, I challenged those on Facebook who ‘raised their hand’, to try it!

Here is what I posted on Facebook:

This will sound absurdly simple – don’t dismiss it because of it’s simplicity!

As promised, this won’t cost you anything but a few minutes of your time a few minutes a day, but you HAVE to commit to it! Doing it once won’t work!

I have proven this method, and the person who shared it with me has proven it over and over and over. But you have to DO IT!
I absolutely promise you will notice a difference in just a week, and your life will change beyond belief if you do this for 30 days!

(You will not only be happier, but healthier, and wealthier too!)

The trick of course is sticking to it!

First you need a small notebook. Preferably one that you can carry w/you everywhere!

Write down on a scale of 1-10 how happy you feel right now in these areas:
personal/self
career/business
family/relationships
money/material things

Then,

Write down 10 things that you are grateful for 6 times/day.

That’s it!

Yes, I told you it was simple!
6 times a day takes commitment though!

• If you miss a few keep going! Try to do a minimum of 4
• It can be anything!
• You can repeat the same things,
• you can list things you don’t have yet, things others have received or not yet rec’d (for example ‘I am thankful for grandma being completely healed and well)
• The trick is you have to ‘feel’ the gratitude as you write!
• Yes you have to write it! thinking it isn’t enough

Please comment here if you are willing to take the challenge!

Do it! Start right now!
I absolutely promise you will be blown away by the power of it!

Are you in??

Click here if you would like to join in the facebook discussion as well!

 

I received this via Facebook this morning and thought that it was just a great little story worth posting.

A simple reminder that we can ALL make a difference!

So many people feel like they are stuck in “lack” or “scarcity” and have “nothing to give”.  We ALL have something! Even if it’s just a simple word of encouragement!

Good Morning Gratituders!
I came across this quote earlier this week and wanted to share:

“Look to the present. The great disease of ‘I will be happy
when …’ is sweeping the world. You know the symptoms.
You start thinking: I’ll be happy when I get that … BMW …
promotion … status … money. The only way to cure the
disease is to find happiness and meaning now.”
~ Marshall Goldsmith: a world authority in management

Hhhmmm….does this sound familiar? Know anyone like this? As most of you know, happiness comes first. What if we ALL, not just you guys in this group, but ALL of us just flipped our internal switch and chose to be happy and grateful, putting others first in our focus? People would stop fearing for their jobs. Companies would stop laying people off and continue with a ‘growth mindset’. Consumer confidence would rise and hence increase spending. Of course, then, the stock market would go up and everything would be ‘perfect’. Maybe those mortgage companies would think about their clients’ adjusting mortgages and not their executive bonuses. I know. I’m corny. I actually believe this could happen. It’s a simple choice. What if we ALL just decided today? yikes..

Let me leave you with this story. Whether you are Christian, spiritual, or not, there’s levels to this that apply to ALL of us. I have a family member that began to put Bible verses is her son’s lunch bag every day. Over time, she noticed he became more and more enthusiastic about these verses. “I need a powerful message today mom!” What? As is turns out, not only was he reading them for himself, but was sharing with his lunch table. Now, these are 12 and 13 yr old kids. Very soon, the word got around that he was doing this and other children from the lunch room would come by his table and encourage him to actually ‘preach’. Think about this. A 13yr old boy that could be focused on girls and gameboys is choosing to teach others about all the good. I could not have been more proud of this young man. I was almost speechless(believe me, takes a lot). This just fired me up to become more and more focused on making a difference and setting a good example for our future generations. Even within all of this ‘crap’, this child is choosing to rise above. What’s our excuse? Share the good. Share this group with people. Reach out to someone you have not spoken to in a while and find out how they are doing. You CAN make a difference.

Let’s go make a difference together,
Paul Patricelli

Join the Gratitude Group on Facebook!

 

Zig Ziglar said “Failure is merely an event…it adds to your experience…it is an attitude”. It seems like everywhere I turn these days I am coming across people who are having extremely hard times. We too are feeling VERY challenged right now.
Notice I said we are “feeling challenged”? You see, I refuse to state that anything in our lives is a “fact” or a “statement”. Why? Because how I see it, feel about it, and affirm it determines how it WILL be. You see, time moves along. So how things are in this moment does not determine how it will be an hour from now, or tomorrow, or the next day. MY attitude however, absolutely will!

Many people need lots of things right now, but I dare say that the fundamental need in our world right now is hope.

Faith is the only anecdote for failure!

We all get to choose whether we are going to think about how bad things are, or affirm that “they are getting better”. I know, “just saying it won’t change anything.” Actually, if you believe it, it will. If you really believe it, you will begin to look for ways to make it better! To paraphrase the great Zig Ziglar, “Do you believe that there is something that you could do today that would make your life worse? Then there MUST be something that you can do to make it better!”
But you won’t even try, if you don’t believe it is possible!

Think of the difficult times you have had in your life, that we as a country have had in our history. They have ALWAYS been temporary! They have always gotten better. These times will be no different.

Do you find it hard to have hope? Look for reasons to! You will always find what you are looking for! If you are looking for evidence that times are tough, you will always find it. If you look for reasons to hope, you will find those too!

Where to start?
1. Gratitude…
Not “I know, I know, I have a lot to be thankful for, but…”
Get a small notebook and write down 10 things that you have to be thankful for at least 3 times a day. Yes, at least 3 times a day, and yes, you have to write them down. Don’t believe it will work? Try it! The more that you are thankful for, the more you will be given to be thankful for!

2. Journal…about the times in your life that you had no hope and how amazing they turned out. Write about the wonderful things and people in your life that you never even imagined you would have.
If you are currently journaling about how tough things are, leave space at the end for the “rest of the story”. Leave “room” to come back and write about what a blessing it turned out to be. Then, take it one step further…imagine how amazing the “ending” could be. Go ahead and “make up the ending”.

3. Look for ways to help others. No matter how much you are struggling. or how little you have, there is ALWAYS something that you can give to someone else. Even if it is just a word of encouragement. This is truly powerful. Don’t disregard it! You will create an immediate shift in your thoughts, emotions and potential when you stop looking at yourself and start looking for ways to help others. Tell that pregnant girl who looks down how beautiful she is, ask that grumpy clerk “what’s wrong” and tell her that you believe that her day is going to get better. Tell that child that just made a huge mess “building something” what an “amazing imagination” they have and how “cool” that is!

4. Turn off the news! Stop feeding yourself “food” that makes you sick! Look for healthier choices! Find music, videos, and stories that will “feed your soul”. They are everywhere! I have a 9 yr old who is very sensitive and gets easily upset when someone says something ugly to him. We have secretly decided that “we have an invisible shield”. So when we are confronted (as we all inevitably are)with negative people, stories, etc., we imagine a clear shield coming over us (kind of like Buzz lightyears helmet). You CAN be standing in front of someone and not “really hear” what they are saying. You can! Just smile and go through your “thankful fors” in your head!

5. You can’t just eliminate negative thoughts. “The universe abhors a vacuum”. Make the conscious choice to affirm the way you want to be. If you tell yourself daily that you are “always late…totally stressed out…completely unorganized,etc”, you will be! Instead affirm to yourself that “I am getting better and better every day! I am getting more organized, more punctual, more successful” or whatever it is that you want to be. Imagine things the way that you want them to be! Visualize what that will “look like”. Visualization is far more powerful that I can cover here.

Just do it!

Imagine what you could do if you didn’t believe that you couldn’t! Do you believe that you “can’t” because of a lack of money, or college education? Watch this…

teen millionaires

 

This time of year we all reflect on what we are thankful for. Even though many are facing challenging times, the luckiest of us have the capacity to be thankful. Few however, know how incredibly powerful gratitude can be. Gratitude is nature’s greatest equalizer. No matter who you are, how much you have, where you came from, you can conquer sadness, depression and stress (among other things) by choosing to be thankful. Greater than any antidepressant, gratitude is the ultimate cure because sadness and gratitude cannot coexist in the same space at the same time. In other words, sadness cannot exist in a grateful heart.
Gratitude also puts us on a path to attract abundance unlike anything else.

Hope is sometimes more challenging for us. We are often bombarded by the “news” and it’s “predictions” of extended recessions, increasing layoffs, disappointing shopping seasons, and the like. It’s easy to not only lose sight of what we have to be thankful for, but to find hope of greater things to come.

I think Andy Andrews says it best (from AndyAndrews.com)

In addition, I have discovered proof of hope that has consistently lifted my heart, mind, and spirit to a point of forward motion. Very simply, it is this:

* Even in the worst of times, I must remember that I am still breathing.
* If I am still breathing, that means that I am still here.
* If I am still here, that means that I have not completed what I was put here to do.
* If I have not completed what I was put here to do, that means that my very purpose has not been fulfilled.
* If my very purpose has not been fulfilled, that means that the most important part of my life has yet to be lived.
* If the most important part of my life has yet to be lived, then it doesn’t really matter how old I am or how broke I am, how long I’ve tried or how depressed I might be … Here, at last, is proof that the best part of my life is ahead of me! Without a doubt, there is more laughter to come, more success in my future, more children to teach, more friends to influence. There is more.

There is more … and the promise is proven by the simple fact that I am still breathing. I am still here.

for this perspective, for this hope, and for the generosity of Andy Andrews for posting it, and my ability to receive it, I am thankful.

 

This time of year we all reflect on what we are thankful for. Even though many are facing challenging times, the luckiest of us have the capacity to be thankful. Few however, know how incredibly powerful gratitude can be. Gratitude is nature’s greatest equalizer. No matter who you are, how much you have, where you came from, you can conquer sadness, depression and stress (among other things) by choosing to be thankful. Greater than any antidepressant, gratitude is the ultimate cure because sadness and gratitude cannot coexist in the same space at the same time. In other words, sadness cannot exist in a grateful heart.
Gratitude also puts us on a path to attract abundance unlike anything else.

Hope is sometimes more challenging for us. We are often bombarded by the “news” and it’s “predictions” of extended recessions, increasing layoffs, disappointing shopping seasons, and the like. It’s easy to not only lose sight of what we have to be thankful for, but to find hope of greater things to come.

I think Andy Andrews says it best (from AndyAndrews.com)

In addition, I have discovered proof of hope that has consistently lifted my heart, mind, and spirit to a point of forward motion. Very simply, it is this:

* Even in the worst of times, I must remember that I am still breathing.
* If I am still breathing, that means that I am still here.
* If I am still here, that means that I have not completed what I was put here to do.
* If I have not completed what I was put here to do, that means that my very purpose has not been fulfilled.
* If my very purpose has not been fulfilled, that means that the most important part of my life has yet to be lived.
* If the most important part of my life has yet to be lived, then it doesn’t really matter how old I am or how broke I am, how long I’ve tried or how depressed I might be … Here, at last, is proof that the best part of my life is ahead of me! Without a doubt, there is more laughter to come, more success in my future, more children to teach, more friends to influence. There is more.

There is more … and the promise is proven by the simple fact that I am still breathing. I am still here.

for this perspective, for this hope, and for the generosity of Andy Andrews for posting it, and my ability to receive it, I am thankful.