When the going gets tough!

No matter how careful and calculated you are, it is impossible to avoid unforeseen challenges and inconvenient events in life. I also contend that life is not about playing it safe or focusing on avoiding challenges and setbacks. Let’s face it, no matter how hard we try to avoid them, they always seem to come up. Life is about playing all out and giving all you have to everything you do. Life is about how powerful you are in confronting, conquering, and adapting to those challenges. A mentor of mine told me “A master prefers what occurs.” In other words, when you become a master of your life, it does not matter what happens to you, because you see an opportunity in everything you face. Some of you may be facing financial challenges in the current state of economic uncertainty in the world. Some of you may be facing a health challenge that seems insurmountable. Some may be overwhelmed and underappreciated at your job or at home with your family. Every one of these situations has a hidden gift for you to grow into a more powerful and better version of yourself. You must be open to seeing it. When we open our minds and our hearts to experience the gifts that every situation has to offer, we start to look at our lives and the world much differently. Embrace change. Become bigger than the challenges you are facing. Live with passion and see the gifts that every situation brings to you!

What is a key ingredient to successful relationships?

So I just finished watching 7 Pounds and I just felt compelled to sit down and write. It was by far the most emotionally pressing movie I have ever seen. Will Smith was brilliant in the movie and the adversity he had to face was seemingly insurmountable for him. I am not going to ruin the movie for those who have not seen it by discussing the details but I am going to comment on what the movie brought out of me. The most powerful thing I got out of the movie is the power of presence and love. More often than I care to admit I get caught up in my own daily struggles and I do not take the time to tell the people who mean the most to me how much I love them. I do not focus on what and who I am so incredibly grateful for in my life. Love is one of those things that is so difficult to describe. A definition can be explained through logic and reason, however, the true essence of love can only be experienced through personal experience. For example, you can explain and describe the action of waves crashing on a deserted moonlit beach, but you never fully appreciate it until you experience it first hand. If I had to explain love, I would describe it as this: Love is the moment, whether for a period in time or a lifetime, where your core values synergize into a “whole is greater than the sum of the parts” experience which results in a paradox of a peaceful calm and a rush of excitement and energy at the same time. At this moment you have a heightened awareness of your senses and there is a deep burning appreciation and gratitude for the beauty of life. This moment can only be achieved through a presence that is so present that it is as if time stops. You are so focused on the moment and all of the experiences it has to offer, it is as if time does not exist. You feel it. The people around you feel it. Your children and your spouse feel it. What would your life look like if you brought more love and presence into everything you do? How would your relationship with your son or daughter or wife or husband look? In this day and age with so many distractions, people are yearning for your presence. Tell an important person in your life today how much you love them. Do it from a place of sincerity and present time consciousness that you have never done before and feel the words as you say them. Do this and watch how your life and the lives around you transform.