Create “Knee Shaking” Goals and ASPIRE Higher in 2014!

Posted on by January 5, 2014
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Knee Shaking GoalsHappy 2014 My ASPIRING Friends!

A few days before the New Year, I began to reflect on my failures, successes and lessons learned in 2013.  As I began preparing and planning for 2014, I reviewed my goals and made the necessary adjustments.  Upon finalizing my goals, I felt pretty good…UNTIL…my conference call with Paul Martinelli, president of the John Maxwell Team.

On the first conference call of the New Year, Saturday, January 4, Paul addressed some of the issues we encounter when establishing goals.  When Paul said, “we have a tendency to lower our goals to what we think we can achieve,” an alarm went off in my head.  Immediately, I became aware of how I’ve been limiting my growth.  Consciously, I believed that I was establishing big, audacious and “knee shaking” goals.  However, I now realize that I was creating goals based on my current conditions, what I believed I could achieve.  Let me ask you, “When was the last time you created a goal that seemed unattainable, impossible or unimaginable?”  Can you imagine the level of transformation you would undergo as you strive to reach this type of goal?  Hurry and read the rest of the post 🙂

Experiencing Joy In Ordinary Moments

Posted on by October 16, 2013
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joyful moments“Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.” ~ Marianne Williamson

Many of us have bought into the idea that we can only experience joy when something extraordinary happens.  Is this really true?  I believe joy can be found in the simplicity of life; ordinary moments.

As I reflect on my week, much of my joy has been derived from ordinary moments.  In fact, some of these joyful moments are found in my daily routines.  I am quite sure that you can find joy in some of your “routine” ordinary moments as well.  Oftentimes, I believe these moments are missed because we’ve become so distracted with the busyness of life.  We’re not stopping long enough to smell the roses.  Instead, we’re stopping just long enough to identify the next task or the next fire to put out.

As I write this post, I am sitting in the dining room, watching Gabriella run around in the back yard.  She is pushing the swing back and forth and dodging it to prevent from being hit…LOL!  I experience great joy when I watch my daughter running around playing by herself.  I love her independence, energy and forms of expression. There are so many children in this world that are sickly and are unable to run around in their backyard experiencing the wind blowing through their hair and the sun beaming down on their face.  Lord, thank you; I am so grateful that my child is healthy and happy.  Here are a few more ordinary moments I experienced this week that brought me great joy: Hurry and read the rest of the post 🙂

Never Give Up On Your Vision!

Posted on by October 16, 2013
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Never Give Up On Your Vision“When the world says, ‘Give up,’ Hope whispers, ‘Try it one more time.’” ~ Author Unknown

What do you do when you have an amazing vision, and are challenged to make it a reality? Answer…NEVER GIVE UP!

Do you remember the initial excitement –which lasted for months—that you experienced about your vision?  Do you remember the many sleepless nights, due to the excitement and anticipation of things to come?  Do you remember cramped fingers, as you filled your pad with thoughts and ideas?  Do you remember words of inspiration flowing through your veins and spilling into your voice recorder at 2:00 a.m.?  Do you remember the initial days of planning and the timeline that revealed when things were going to happen?

Do you remember feeling like, this is never going to happen?  Well, I do.  Navigating the seas of uncertainty, doubt and feelings of failure can be very challenging.  As we travel the path to making our vision a reality, the journey is often filled with obstacles, detours, delays and questioning one’s ability to accomplish the vision.  Sometimes, these impediments can cause one to throw in the towel due to feelings of overwhelm and failure.  In this moment, we can find comfort in the scripture, “And then God answered: “Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run.  This vision-message is a witness pointing to what’s coming. It aches for the coming – it can hardly wait! And it doesn’t lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It’s on its way. It will come right on time.”  Boy…PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING!  This scripture is GREAT NEWS!  No matter the challenges, we are reminded that our vision WILL happen at the appointed time.  Hurry and read the rest of the post 🙂

A Moment of Transparency #3: Growing Can Be Painful

Posted on by August 28, 2013
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sad woman“Life is constantly presenting us with opportunities to grow and to aspire to greatness.  Yet we fall short in rising to the occasion, because we were trained at an early age to resist anything that feels uncomfortable.  Hence, we miss the opportunity to grow and therefore remain as we are; dead to our potential.” ~ Rosalynd M. Rambert

In this season of my life, I am holding myself accountable to LIVE. DO. BE. THINK. HIGHER!  This declaration is no easy task; as it has required me to explore who I am on a deeper level.  Like any exploration, one never knows what will surface.  What an interesting discovery it’s been!  Exploring yourself on a deeper level compels you to ask probing questions about who you “really” are and what you really want.   Just when you think you have answered the question, you’re confronted with a deeper and more profound question.  Additionally, you must reckon with the belief systems of your childhood, carried with you into adulthood, that you continue to embrace as your own, but they really aren’t.  Yes, I can hear you saying, “What the heck is she saying?”  Essentially, what I am saying is that most of what we believe are not really our beliefs; they were inherited and accepted as our truths.  Hence, when we begin to awaken to who we “really” are, our new-found thinking and beliefs conflict with our limited and negative beliefs.  This can be extremely challenging.

Think about it for a moment.  How often do we challenge what we believe and why we believe it? Interestingly enough, when someone else challenges our beliefs we will defend the beliefs as if we’re engaged in a war.  Yet, we don’t exercise the same energy in answering the question, “Why do I believe what I believe?  On the path of awakening, you are forced to wrestle with the truths about who you really are, what you believe and what you really desire from life.  Sometimes, the wrestling can take days, months and even years.  Embracing who you really are requires courage.

Hurry and read the rest of the post 🙂

Are Your Beliefs Preventing You From Accomplishing Your Goals?

Posted on by August 23, 2013
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accomplishing your goalsIt’s been said, “You are what you believe.” If you believe you are a winner…you will win.  If you believe you are a failure…you will fail.  If you believe you are successful…you will attain success.  If you believe you can do it…you will.  If you believe you can never lose weight…you will remain overweight.  If you believe you can’t find a wonderful person to spend the rest of your life with…you won’t.

Your belief helps to create the fact.  Hence, be careful what you believe because that is what you will experience. Your world is a manifestation of your belief system, which is driven by your desires and controlled by your thoughts and actions. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”

What do you desire….really and truly? Often people do not have a clue about what they really want, but they have a good idea about what they do not want. Now is a good time to assess the quality of your life, evaluate your goals and determine the end result you want to achieve. Put your goals in writing and place them where you can see them throughout the day.  

Here are three powerful tips to help you accomplish your goals: Hurry and read the rest of the post 🙂

Are You Doing What You Love?

Posted on by August 23, 2013
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“There is no greatness without a passion to be great, whether it’s the aspiration of an athlete
or an artist, a scientist, a parent, or a businessperson.” ~ Anthony Robbins

Are You Doing What You Love?

IT’S TIME TO DO WHAT YOU LOVE!

Does this question sound familiar, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I’m sure you were asked this question dozens of times during your youth. What was your response?  When asked the question, without hesitation I would exclaim “I want to be a teacher!”

At 8 years old, I enjoyed tutoring and instructing my siblings who were 7, 6 and 5 years of age.  I digress for a moment as I recall the looks and comments I have received over the years, when I share the ages of me and my siblings.  We are stair steps—literally, 10-12 months apart.  All I can say is that my parents were excited about creating a family :).  So now, back to my story.

Playing teacher with my siblings was so exciting and rewarding.  Watching their little faces light up when they answered a question correctly or came to understand a concept that once challenged them, gave me so much joy.  I felt that I was making a difference.  I remember tutoring students in math and rejoicing with them when they grasped and/or solved a math problem that they once thought was beyond their comprehension.  For me, being a teacher was my calling. Hurry and read the rest of the post 🙂

What Else Could It Mean?

Posted on by July 1, 2013
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Businesswoman Reading Paperwork“When someone behaves in a way that is disagreeable to you, before you jump to the wrong conclusion, ask yourself, ‘What else could it mean?’” How many times have you been guilty of jumping to the wrong conclusion because you did not clearly examine all the facts? But rather, you accepted the first answer your mind provided. Here’s a side note, we must remember that the way we process and filter information is based upon our own experiences and view of the world. So, what does this mean? Our view is distorted. Therefore, it’s important to obtain pertinent information before reaching a conclusion.

As human beings, nearly all of us have a tendency to want to be right. Consequently, we will examine a situation; reach a conclusion; and then accept it as truth without considering all the facts. Clearly, reviewing the facts about a situation can help shed some light on our “perceived” truth. Hurry and read the rest of the post 🙂

ASPIRE TO GREATNESS…What Does It Really Mean?

Posted on by July 1, 2013
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ASPIRING IS A JOURNEY

ASPIRE TO GREATNESS IS A MINDSET!

Greatnes...just aheadThroughout my lifetime, I never recall hearing the term “aspire to greatness,” with respect to what I could be or achieve as a person.  I recall using this term for the first time, in February 1999 when I wrote the Director of Continuing Education at Hudson County Community College a “Thank You Letter” for affording me the opportunity to inspire the students to “aspire to greatness” through the professional development training programs I was facilitating.  Who knew, what would be birthed 13 years later.

Whenever I observed the word “greatness” being used to describe a person, it was typically associated with famous actors and actresses, the wealthy, a famous doctor who discovered a cure or world-renowned artists and authors, just to name a few. This has left many of us feeling that unless we accomplished something noteworthy, or bore a last name like “Kennedy,” “Rockefeller,” “Hilton,” or “Obama,”  that greatness was out of reach. Well, I’m about to make your day…your year…hopefully, completely change your life. I want to give you another perspective on what it means to “ASPIRE TO GREATNESS.” Hurry and read the rest of the post 🙂