Have you ever wondered where true happiness comes from?

Have you ever wondered how two people can grow up in similar surroundings with similar influences and one person becomes outrageously happy and successful whereas their equal counterpart lives a life of misery and insignificance? What causes one person to come from nothing or bounce back from heartache, despair, and hardship whereas another person in a similar situation becomes bruised, beat-down, and permanently scarred? Is it pure and random luck or is there a key component that an individual possesses that allows them to bounce back and create a life of happiness and significance? Before we answer that question, let’s discuss what I mean by happiness. I do not mean a superficial, short-lived sense of joy that comes from buying the latest HD television or Prada bag. The happiness I am talking about is a deep, burning joy for the life you have created and continue to create for yourself. It is a raging passion that drives everything you do and gives your life significance. So where does that kind of happiness come from? That happiness comes from creating a sense of purpose in your life. It comes from developing a sense of purpose that is congruent with the values and standards you have created for yourself and drives everything you do.

We are about to step into a new year, and for some of you, a new life. Now is the time to wipe the slate clean and begin to design the life you would love to live. Now is the time to develop a true sense of purpose that is congruent with your values yet extends beyond yourself to change the lives of those around you. Now is the time to evolve and increase the standards you have set for yourself. As Michelangelo has said: “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” Do not settle anymore for a life of mediocrity. Settle for nothing less than the best because you deserve it. Think you are not worth it? Think you are not strong enough? Think again! There is no difference between you and the greats like Mother Theresa and Ghandi. The only thing that sets them apart is they took a stand for what they believe in, developed an unwavering purpose, and made a unconquerable commitment to living out their life’s purpose. They saw what others did not see. They believed more than others believed. They had a desire to become more than other people were willing to become. Maybe you have no desire to have an influence like Mother Theresa or Ghandi but you do have a desire to be the best you possible. You must begin to see what others are unwilling to see and to do what others are unwilling to do. Michelangelo stated about his Statue of David: “I saw an angel in the block of marble and I just chiseled 'til I set him free.” Become your own Statue of David. See yourself as a block of marble just waiting to chip away the block until you have created a masterpiece within yourself. This can only begin by developing a deep sense of purpose and committing everyday to living out that purpose. You find your life’s purpose and devote your life to living out that purpose, you will not only create a life filled with joy, happiness, and fulfillment but you will also create a life of significance that will have in impact on the people around you and for people for generations to come.

What are you going to do with this gift called life?

People come into our lives to teach us the lessons and give us the insight that we are unable to gain any other way. In life there are no do-overs, rewinds, or pauses. There are no take-backs, fast-forwards, or skips. All there is and all there will be is the present. The past is gone and the future has yet to be reached so why place our focus on what has been or what will be when the past cannot be changed and the future is dependent on our presence in the present. Being present in the present allows us to open our hearts to experience the magnificence of what life has to offer. It allows us to engage fully in new relationships and strengthen old ones. It allows us to share ourselves with those around us and learn, what I believe to be ones of life’s greatest lessons: to be more connected to who we are as individuals and learn how to fully self-express ourselves with the people we care about the most. After all, what is life without sharing it with the ones who are most important to us? What is life without the heartache of losing someone you care about? What is life without taking a risk at fully devoting yourself to the fullest expression of yourself and opening yourself up to sharing that experience with someone else?

I think all too many people have lost sight of what relationships are all about. Relationships are not about two incomplete people coming together to complete each other. I disagree with Jerry Maguire that “you complete me.” I think it is a cancer to a relationship to complete someone. My idea of a relationship is two whole and complete people coming together to create a whole-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-the-parts experience where instead of two people completing each other, rather the two people synergize to create a relationship whose combination is seemingly mathematically unfeasible. This synergy creates an explosion of emotion and passion where you can lose yourself in the eyes of the other person. Where it is almost as if time stands still and the world around just seems to slow down. Where your heart is racing yet simultaneously there is a calmness that overcomes you. Where you open yourself up to a vulnerable state where you allow someone to see your true self while you are able to see theirs.

All of us have been given this gift called life. It is up to you to decide what you are going to do with it. Are you going to open yourself up and allow yourself to experience the greatness of what lies ahead of you or because of fear, are you going close yourself off to the experiences of what lie in front of you? Are you going hold back from fear of hurt and anguish or are you going to plow ahead with a full-knowing that greatness is lingering at your fingertips just waiting for you to grab hold? Are you going to live your life for the consequences of tomorrow or are you going to live in the present and make every second count? "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

Is this the missing link between you and success?

As I wrap up my weekend, I am about to begin another week doing what I love and sharing the ideas of health, wealth, and abundance with the lives I have the privilege of touching everyday in the office. I know how powerful of an impact these concepts and universal principles have had on my life, and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to share these concepts with the plethora of people I come into contact with everyday. Every day I have the opportunity to transforms peoples’ lives. Every day I get to unlock the infinite healing potential each person has to express greater levels of health, energy, and vitality through the chiropractic adjustment. Every day I have the opportunity to educate and inspire people to see the good in their life rather than the bad; the abundance rather than the lack; the love rather than the hate; the gratitude rather than the want. Every day I am continually working on becoming a better communicator, a better adjustor, and a better person so I have a better ability to touch and transform lives. The reality is if you are not able to transform your life, how can you ever expect yourself to transform others lives? You can’t! It all begins with you. If begins with the commitment to excellence in your life. It begins with being a role model for other people and setting an example other people can follow. It comes from a regular process of introspection. Analyzing your strengths and your weaknesses and determining where progress can be made.

I have read many person development and success books and some say to work on your strengths and others say to focus on your weaknesses. Some say to only focus on your strengths and hire people to take care of your weaknesses and others say to focus on your weaknesses because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. I tend to resonate more with the concept of focusing on your strengths but I believe a very important component is being left out. What if you only focus on your strengths but you have a weakness that is critical to your position, job or career? For example, if I am a chiropractor and I am the world’s greatest adjustor but I am unable to communicate what I do effectively, am I ever going to reach my full potential in the amount of lives I am able to impact? I love the concept of focusing on your strengths and hiring people whose greatest strengths are your weaknesses, but make sure that the weaknesses are not a vital component to you doing your job to the greatest degree. I find it very easy to focus on my strengths and disregard my weakness but I am realizing more and more it is going to create a ceiling for my success. The only way I can raise that ceiling is by continuing to focus on my strengths but also work on my weaknesses that I am unable to pass on to anybody else. What have you been avoiding in your life that is crucial to your success? What may be the missing link that if corrected may be the piece that synergizes all of your strengths into an unstoppable force? Find that connection and live with an attitude of gratitude and be astounded by direction your life begins to take.

Do You Ever Find Yourself Stuck in a Rut?

As I sit here and stare at a blank computer screen, I begin to ask myself some very serious questions. Who am I and who do I want to be for the world? There are many times when I fall into an internal dialogue where I am so focused on myself and my own problems. I beat myself up about not meeting or exceeding certain arbitrary goals I have set for myself. I set my focus on areas in my life that I am not happy about and instead of doing something about it, I get “stuck” and perpetuate the type of negative thinking that manifests more of the same. How many of you find yourself “stuck” in a rut you just cannot seem to get out of? How many of you are going through life feeling like something is missing? This type of thinking happens to the best of us. The real key to personal power comes from getting really good at recognizing these behavior patterns as self-limiting and getting quicker and quicker at seeing it and shifting to an empowering mindset.

Many of us define our lives by what we do, what we have, or how much we have made? We feel good about ourselves to the extent that we have reached whatever arbitrary expectations we have set for ourselves. It is when we are able to transform our focus from this narrow mindset to one where we ask the questions of who am I and what contribution can I make on the world that our life makes a dramatic and powerful shift. When we come from a place of being purpose driven, we begin to step off of the emotional rollercoaster that comes from focusing on what we have or do not have. In conclusion, I think it is only fair that I answer the questions I proposed to you for myself:

1) Who am I? I am a role model. I am a loving partner, friend, and confidant. I am a beacon of light for everyone around me and a pillar of inspiration for people to see the amazing possibilities they have to express a life of abundance – physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and, spiritually; to dream bigger than they ever thought possible; to create more fulfillment in their lives; to be more loving fathers, mothers, children, and friends; to see the implicate beauty in everything around them; to live a fully present life where every moment counts.

2) What contribution can I make on the world? My contribution to the world is to be a source of inspiration for everyone around me; to transform the health and quality of life of first my community and then the world; to create a legacy focused on living a life of abundant health and self-expression that continues to be source of empowerment for millions of people for many generations to come.

As I continue to grow, reinvent myself, and discover who I am, I am always asking myself these questions. Who am I? What is my purpose in life? How can I be a better role model for society? Who do I want to be for the world? As many of you know by now, I love quotes so I am going to leave you with one of my favorite ones by Karen Ravn: “Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.”

The Ultimate Key to Transforming Your Life!

How many of you are aware that over 2/3 of Americans are either overweight or obese? How many of you are also aware that we spend over $35 billion per year on the diet industry and in weight loss yet our collective weight as a country continues to climb? Words like “Adult-Onset Diabetes” are rapidly becoming extinct. A translation for “Adult-Onset Diabetes” would look like this: The continual choosing of poor lifestyle choices long enough to fry your insulin receptors and maintain an increased level of blood sugar in order to function in the pathological environment you have placed yourself in for an extended period of time. It was called “Adult-Onset Diabetes” because it took years and years for this to happen and was finally expressed as an adult, hence the name. “Adult-Onset Diabetes” is no longer being used and is being replaced solely with “Type 2 Diabetes” because we are destroying our bodies at such an alarming rate that kids are getting it and can no longer be called “Adult Onset.” Does anybody see something wrong with this picture?

When are we going to wake up and realize our health and quality of life is something we need to take responsibility for? What we need to understand is our quality of life is determined by the quality of questions we ask ourselves. If you want a successful marriage, are you going to study people who have been divorced multiple times and people who are unhappily married and find out what they do wrong, or are you going to study people who have been happily married for 30, 40 or 50 years? If you want to become rich, are you going to study people who are broke and find out what they do wrong and what mistakes they make, or are you going to study people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet? Now for the third and final question: If you want to be healthy, are you going to study sick people and find out what they do wrong or are you going to study healthy people and find out what they do right? I hope the answer is obvious. The problem with our health care system is not a lack of technology because we have more technology than any country in the world. The problem is not a lack of money because we are the richest country in world. The problem lies in that we are asking the wrong questions! Our entire health care system is based on determining how to improve our health by studying sick people. The only way to improve our health, transform our quality of life, and create all the success we have always dreamed about is by asking better questions. What we have been asking ourselves are things like what’s wrong with me and how do I treat it, but what we should be asking ourselves is where does health come from and what are all of the requirements I need to express abundant health, energy, and vitality. This simple yet powerful shift in your mindset will produce unfathomable life-changing results. I’d like to close out with a quote by Anthony Robbins:

“You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully.”

From Ordinary to Extraordinary!

After a brief hiatus from my weekly blogging, I felt compelled today to sit down and write. Over the past month, I have had quite a bit happen in my life which I have allowed to derail me from my commitment to posting regular blogs. I would like to share one of these experiences with you.

A few weeks ago I left the office as usual and headed to the gym for my daily evening workout. After I finished a great yoga class and a solid work out, I left the gym feeling energized and rejuvenated. As I walked out and approached my car, I knew something was not right. I had one of those eerie sixth-sense feelings where I knew I was approaching a precarious situation. As I moved toward my car, I noticed the rear driver-side window was smashed in. As I peered through the empty hole in the side of my car, the thing I feared worst came to fruition: my computer which contained all of my life’s work including pictures, presentations, and writings as well as my wallet and iPod were all stolen. Everything was gone.

Why do I share this story with you? I share this story to illustrate that we cannot always control what happens to us or around us. We cannot prepare for all of life’s variables nor can we prevent all hardships or unfortunate events. Our life is not determined by what happens to us but rather what happens within us. I read a great quote by William F. Halsey which states, "There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet." Men and women are not born extraordinary but are rather created and developed by how ordinary men and women respond to extraordinary circumstances. Do you face a formidable challenge with a self-defeating attitude or do you muster up the fortitude within yourself to overcome great challenges? Do you allow your life to just happen to you or do you choose to be bigger and stronger than any challenge that comes between you and your destiny?

I had to make a choice how I was going to respond to the situation I was faced with. Was I going to play the victim or was I going to use it as a learning experience to propel my growth and development as a person? I chose the latter and I have since used that experience to inspire hundreds of people through my health talks in the office and the community. Always remember and carry with you this, “You cannot always control what happens to you. What you can always control is how you respond to the situations that are placed in front of you.” I hope you choose to be powerful in the face of adversity and take your life from ordinary to extraordinary.

Where can you have the greatest conversations in the world?

One the things I am most grateful for in my life is having had the opportunity to listen and learn from some of the most successful people in history. I have had conversations with greats such as Warren Buffet, Ayn Rand, Jim Collins, Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King, Jr, Abraham Lincoln, and many others. I am sure by now you are thinking I have gone off the deep end. I could not possibly have had a conversation with Martin Luther King, right? Wrong! These conversations have not taken place face-to-face or even over the telephone. These conversations that have shaped my life have not been accomplished in the form of the spoken word but have done so in the form of the written word.

As with anything in life, you can choose to be an observing bystander or engage as a player. Many people read a book as if they are a spectator. They observe the stories, lessons, and advice and do not take much more away from the experience than temporary satisfaction. There are no lessons learned or eye opening experiences gained. If this pertains to you then you are missing out on so much more of what books have to offer. They give us the amazing opportunity to learn and converse with some of the most amazing people and ideas known to man. They give us a glimpse into the inner workings, thoughts, and insights of the brightest minds in the world. You have the opportunity to ask questions and get those questions answered in the form of the written word. Have you ever read the “I Have a Dream” speech by MLK? It is absolutely brilliant and nothing short of sensational. Through reading that speech, I was able to connect with a man who inspired a nation to demand a deeper and more profound respect for all of mankind regardless of the color of their skin, beliefs, or background.

Success leaves clues and many of those clues can be found in the written word of the greats that have changed the world. The key is to be engaged. Do not just be a spectator when you are reading. Do not read a book only for pure entertainment. Engage in the ideas and concepts of the author. Ask questions and look for answers. Apply the principles you learn to your own life. How about putting on a pot of tea, having a seat in your favorite chair, and become moved and inspired by a conversation you are privileged to have with Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Theresa, or Napoleon Hill?