My daughter, Margo, came into the kitchen where my wife and I were talking.  The look on her face was a clear indicator that something had happened.  She explained that her twin sister, Josie, had crashed her bike.  Before we had time to respond, Josie gingerly walked into the kitchen carrying her helmet.  She had road rash head to knee.  Her cheekbone, lip, and nose all had a visible injury.  My wife quickly took charge with the antiseptic spray and shower to wash the wounds.

Altering Reality

Margo and I remained in the kitchen.  I asked her what had occurred and she began to explain.  Josie was on the sidewalk, heading down our steep neighborhood hill.  Her speed exceeded her ability.  She lost control, hit the curb, and flew off of her bike head first.  Margo had attempted to immediately come to retrieve us but Josie asked her not to do so.  She had a plan.  Turns out, she had not been wearing her helmet.  If...

Each morning, I take a few minutes to write a paragraph about someone or something I am grateful for in my life.  Recently, I wrote about how grateful I am to be a father.  I asked myself how I could be a better father and what my children should expect of me.  It occurred to me that I had not been intentional about the values and qualities of character I most desired to develop in my children.  So I started writing and came up with 11 values and qualities that resonated with me.  My reason for sharing these qualities with you is in hopes of inspiring you to take the time to write down the qualities of character you most hope to inspire in your children.  The next level is to intentionally role model those qualities every day for your children.

Unusual Kindness

I want my daughters to have a big heart and a strong desire to help others.  The essence of kindness is generosity toward others.  I want their kindness to shine through in every action...

What do you want?  What is preventing you from pursuing what you want?  These are two very potent questions that if asked regularly can mean the difference between a life well-lived or an average life.  My hope is that every person reading this article desires more out of life than to just get by.  We are responsible for our lives.  We are responsible for our happiness.  We are responsible for our success and our failure.  The news media, government, educational system, and many other social networks would like for us all to believe we are helpless victims.  They use the “everyone is a victim” strategy to keep us watching and their advertisers paying.  I do not blame them because it works.

Someone told me several years ago that this life was mine to own and this meant I made up the rules.  If I was not happy with an aspect of my life, I needed to change the rules and not wait for the rules to change.  This concept...

During the last six months, I have been orchestrating a shift in my business strategy and focus.  I keep asking myself – Why?  Why would I change?  Why should I change?  Why do I need more?  Why am I so obsessed with growth?  Sometimes I just do not have an answer for why.  I guess that is okay.  Do you ask yourself why regularly?  Such a simple question can trigger a profound shift in our perspective.  Why do we have to do it this way?  Why am I going to work?  Why do we teach our kids the way we teach them?

THWL

The more often we ask “Why” the better are our chances of avoiding “The Hamster Wheel of Life” (THWL).  Maybe you are not familiar with THWL.  Here is a typical day on THWL – Get up after hitting snooze multiple times, rush to get the kids ready for school and ourselves ready for work (this is not without teeth gnashing and maybe some yelling), work all day in a job...

Unconditional means “not subject to any conditions”.  Do you unconditionally love your spouse?  Do you unconditionally love your children?  Do you truly want to experience happiness and joy?  If you are being honest with yourself, the answer is no.  Our level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our lives and relationships is directly tied to conditions.  If you disagree, do this exercise right now.  Create a list of relationships and scenarios in which you DO NOT base your satisfaction on an expectation.  We expect our spouse to act in a certain way and become disappointed or frustrated when they don’t act according to our expectations.  We expect our boss to treat us a certain way but they don’t so we become unsatisfied with the relationship.  We go out to dinner expecting a specific experience but the service or food is inconsistent with our expectations, leaving us frustrated and disappointed.

The...

What is time?  Turns out there are multiple answers to this questions and the topic can get quite philosophical.  For purposes of this article, let's consider time to be the connection between the past, present, and future - specifically relevant to us and Earth.  I know…my brain almost hurts considering even this lame conceptual reference.  For us, time is finite.  We will not get more of it.  We can potentially affect our longevity with healthy choices, however the law of averages will eventually have its way with us.  This is not to say that we should not do everything possible to be healthy, but realistic about our actual “choice” in the matter.

So time is finite and it consists of events and moments.  In general we might agree that a “good life” means we used our time wisely and in ways that improved something.  The something could be our financial position, societal position, our community, our...

Ask yourself right now “Am I living to my TRUE potential?”  True potential is obtainable and sustainable for all who use these three ingredients – time, effort, and discipline.

Several years ago, a good friend of mine became disgusted with his physical health.  One day he decided he was not living his true potential in this area of his life and began to set time aside in his calendar for exercise.  He made an effort to run and each day made it a little further before stopping.  He changed his diet, choosing the salad versus the cheeseburger (discipline).  He signed up for a 5K, 10K, half marathon, and has now completed several full marathons.  Here is a situation in which he grew his capacity and potential through time, effort, and discipline.

Time – We all have the same amount of time.  There are 86,400 seconds in a day.  The question is how are we investing this most precious commodity we call...

Last week, we talked about fixed versus growth mindset.  Adopting and living in a growth mindset is the first step to manifesting anything you want in your life.  If you are skeptical of this claim, you just might still be in a fixed mindset.  Here are five steps that will help you manifest anything in life:

Choose a growth mindset.  If you want to manifest anything in your life, you will need to choose growth mode over fixed mode.  It is just that straight forward.  If you are in fixed mode, it won’t be easy to break free.  You have likely had years of programming.  Here are a few ideas to help you begin to shift your mode:

Personal Narrative – You are going to need to take control of that voice inside your head.  This is the voice that seeks validation at every turn.  This is what recalls failures, transgressions, and broken dreams from our past.  This personal narrative chooses to use the past...

I recently read a book by Carol Dweck called Mindset.  In this book, Professor Dweck describes that there are only two types of mindset: fixed and growth.  Studies in human behavior have also determined that these are the two types of mindsets within humanity.  Each is described below, but first, let's define mindset – mindsets are beliefs about yourself and your most fundamental qualities such as intelligence, talents, and personality.  Let’s explore the two types:

The Fixed Mindset – This is the person that believes their intelligence or talents are fixed traits.  They focus on measuring their intelligence or talent instead of cultivating and developing each.  They believe that talent alone will determine their success.  This belief couldn't be further from reality.  Fixed mindset are the glass half-empty, “it is what it is” type of people.  They are the killjoys of the world.  Limited...

In the beginning, there was darkness.  Then there was an explosion and you burst onto the scene.  From the beginning, you have been living your story.  Since you began to experience the world, you have been telling yourself stories.  Let’s face it, you have mainly been lying to yourself.  Trapped inside ourselves, we are obsessed with ourselves.  I call these stories or lies, our personal narratives.  Our craving for significance triggers our ego to inflate the importance of the encounter or experience.  We want validation and recognition from others for the challenges we have faced.  The cultural narrative has shifted from personal responsibility to abdication of responsibility.  The media, government, and business communities tirelessly work to propagate this abdication of responsibility.  They can’t be blamed for this behavior because they bought the story too!  If they realized that the narrative they spread...