| |
| |
|
Inspirational Information |
|
|
|
Trust Yourself - The Hero's Way!
Buying a VCR may not seem like a noteworthy purchase in a high-tech world yet it proved to be a worthy blessing offering much learning. Boxes filled with VHS recordings were unearthed from dark recesses where they had hidden for over a decade. Replaying some old home videos for the first time in fourteen years eerily pulled us back to witness a much younger self - long ago left behind. One of our time-travels took us back to 1991 to perhaps the first workshop I publicly presented called "Being Your Best, Inside and Out." There I stood, so very polished, professional, all-knowing; assuredly directing people how to think and present themselves correctly in order to have successful lives. Barely a chink showed in that professional armor. Self-Help Sledge Hammer I shuddered to hear myself assuredly espouse the latest personal development philosophies without fully evaluating how those words might affect others. I had not considered how people might feel after being told "You must do this/do that, strive for more, set the right goals, live with passion, avoid mediocrity, change your thinking, be a peak performer etc? to be successful." How carelessly back then I said, "If you think you have a comfortable life, are comfortable with your job, home, family this is the death rattle. To be comfortable is a death. We must always be reaching for more?" Now, through living a much kinder approach to life I know this endless striving for more is often a compensation for feeling inadequate - not good enough. Now I know that calling anything short of peak performance - mediocrity - hurts us. This "self-help hammer" devalues our human journey. The same night we were reviewing my past "self-help" seminars we were called to pick up our fifteen year old boy from a Friday night party. The parents wanted us to know they had found bottles of vodka and some kids had been drinking. We managed to handle that volatile situation with enough love and understanding to hear the entire truth from our teen. (Quite a different story from the cover-up being told at the party!) The Heroic Journey Doing our best to be good human beings; loving our children, spouses, making a decent home and livelihood is a heroic journey! Any philosophy that intimates we are failures or are living lives of mediocrity if we work in a job that is not our passion is the antithesis of self-help. Perhaps the job is not our greatest love but often we do it out of love for our homes and families and in this, there is great honor and humility. Of course, this excludes forcing ourselves to work somewhere that is toxic or making us sick. Nor am I advocating ignoring our dreams or the changes we long for. Rather, I am suggesting we put more trust in ourselves and our God for our answers than in latest "How to Achieve" philosophies or shallow societal values. Grow Self-Trust Our self trust grows the more we notice how we are feeling after hearing, reading or watching something. Do we feel a little bigger and better about ourselves? Or do we feel less-than if we do not comply with the message? We need to look inside for our truth rather than blindly striving to follow the latest guru of the day. As our teenage son remarked about my canned "self-help" video given so long ago, "I didn't know you were one of those phony people who go around telling people what to do!" To be fair to myself those workshops back then were an excellent experience for me, offered with good intention and some pearls. However, at that time I had not come to realize how damaging this continual striving and pushing to do more, be more, change more, is to our precious selves. Back then, I worked over-time to hide my feelings of inadequacy and mostly commandeered my world from my head. Now, I do my best to live and speak from my heart? to live a much kinder life philosophy. So my heroic friends be kind to yourselves, trust your own inner wisdom, and know you ARE worthy just by being! Teresa Proudlove has been inspiring, supporting, and guiding over 3000 people upon their career and life work path for over fourteen years - with compassion and heart. Teresa's workshops and writing, offer a deeper understanding and respect for ourselves, for others, and for our lifework path. This entrepreneurial woman also owned and successfully operated two women's retail boutiques for ten years. For over twelve years, Teresa was a well-read newspaper columnist. Visit Teresa at http://www.yourlifework.com; listen to your inner guidance and navigate through life and work with more meaning, acceptance and peace.
MORE RESOURCES:
Inspirational - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Dreams Do Come True Experience has made a lot of folks to consider dreams to be fantasies, unattainable, galaxies away from reality.Some folks believe dreams do come true. Realistic Living " The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he purposes to remove." - Samuel JohnsonThe one person, who is of more importance to you than anyone else in the world, is just - YOU. The Theft of Fire "Igne Natura Renovatur Integra" (By fire is nature renewed whole.) -Alchemical maxim"The whole idea [of the hero's journey] is that you've got to bring out again that which you went to recover, the unrealized, unutilized potential in yourself. How To Be Secure In An Insecure World Most of us believe that our happiness and security are dependent upon our relationships, work, income and the external events that take place in our lives. When things are going well there is a sense of well-being and safety. Spring Quotations - Top 30 Quotations About Spring Time "Is it so small a thing To have enjoy'd the sun, To have lived light in the spring, To have loved, to have thought, to have done.. The Monkey With The Wooden Apples There once was a happy monkey wandering the jungle, eating delicious fruit when hungry, and resting when tired. One day he came upon a house, where he saw a bowl of the most beautiful apples. An Extraordinary Person I am not going to tell you the story of an extraordinary person, who did remarkable things in life. Why should I? Are you not an extraordinary person? What do you think about yourself? You possess all the assets of an extraordinary person but, unfortunately, you are not an extraordinary person because you don't think so. Dream Board DREAM IT, CREATE IT, BECOME ITIf you've been reading my newsletter for awhile, you know that I continue to incorporate and teach the 'how to' principles behind successfully achieving our goals and dreams. One important piece of wisdom I've gained is that nothing happens, no forward steps are taken until we first have a dream. Believe In Yourself And Become a Winner: Lessons from Hollywood Copyright 2004 Priya Shah A while ago I made it a point to watch the movie "Legally Blonde." Not just for the bright, chirpy and eminently watchable Reese Witherspoon, but also because I loved the message it sent out. A Life Touched Direct Answers - Column for the week of February 17, 2003Back when I was in grammar school, every once and awhile I would meet up with a girl my age and talk. Lisa never was around much, but she was always very sweet and nice. Its Not Always About the Benjamins, Baby Often when I receive emails from this list with folks, Telling me that they have discovered their life's purpose but they don't have the money to do what they need to start living their purpose.Please, please, please do not let your lack of money stand in the way of you living the life that God has planned for you to live. Inside Secrets On How To Stay Afloat During Tough Times Do you find yourself asking questions when tough times come like, 'Why has this come my way?' or 'What did I do to deserve it?' It has sometimes crossed my mind, 'Why me?' when I'm faced with what seemed like an insurmountable problem.Never allow negative thoughts to rule when you have the temptation to quit!I have learnt not to dwell on negative thoughts when I am tempted to quit. Where Do You Go For Your Intellectual Feast? (excerpted from Leading an Inspired Life)Pity the man who has a favorite restaurant, but not a favorite author. He's picked out a favorite place to feed his body, but he doesn't have a favorite place to feed his mind!Why would this be? Have you heard about the accelerated learning curve? From birth, up until the time we are about eighteen, our learning curve is dramatic, and our capacity to learn during this period is just staggering. Dream Lover Direct Answers - Column for the week of September 1, 2003I met my wife a dozen years ago and her best friend shortly thereafter. I was always fond of my wife's friend. Fighting Grief: The Time To Show You Care The news came as a shock to us all. He who had been ill for days had been taken to the hospital. Misplaced Allegiance Direct Answers - Column for the week of June 23, 2003I am male, 30, married for seven years. I have two small children. Inspiration: A Few More Things Ive Noticed Along the Road So Far Here's a quote from the late great columnist Sydney Harris that I believe says much about the state of marriage in our culture: "Almost no one is foolish enough to imagine that they automatically deserve great success in any field of activity; yet almost everyone believes they automatically deserve success in marriage."One of the best unexpected blessings of marriage is to count the parents of your spouse among your friends. Whats Simple? If you walk up to a stranger in the grocery store and ask them to define "simple," as in "simple life," they'll probably say something like "having less stuff." Or they might hit you with a frozen turkey. The Challenge To Succeed So much has been written about success that one often gets confused about what success is all about. Success is such a personal thing that it may mean different things to different people. Taking Life Head On "We are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve." - Maxwell Maltz in Psycho-Cybernetics (1960)I have always taken life head on because I had no choice.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
