The Evolution of Every Day

Last Updated on Wednesday, 5 May 2010 03:06 Written by Kyra Wednesday, 5 May 2010 02:41

Life is in constant motion. Every day we have chances and every day we make choices. At the same time, the chances (or opportunities) we take, the second (or third, or fourth etc) chances we ask for, and the conscious or unconscious choices we make affect others, therefore keeping life in motion and contributing to the daily evolution of ourselves, those around us, and the intermingled web of relationships impacting our lives and ultimately the world.

What are chances? These opportunities we’re faced with on a daily basis? The risks we take or avoid? We cannot continue to ask for more chances to make up for the choices we’ve made in the past. What we can do is use the chances we have in the present to make better choices now instead of dwelling on missed opportunities.

Everyone goes through life at their own pace. Oftentimes friendships or relationships drift apart as individuals move down their own separate paths of growing, figuring things out, and evolving into their own best self. What happens if one person wants to get back on the old path while the other is still paving their way? Is it fair to stir up old feelings because we want another chance to make a different choice? Does life give us room for second chances?

The short answer is yes, but second chances are not always as obvious as we would all like to hope. Involving others in our own healing/growing process can seem like a good idea, but we can never know where the other person is in their own life. Sometimes, the other person has already made the choice to move on and create new chances in their life. People can change, bounce back, and be better because of choices they’ve made, in which case a reunion could occur as long as two people are on an intersecting path.

However, these second (or third, or fourth etc) chances we sometimes wish we had do not always occur in the form of a reunion or even a sense of closure. When people are on different paths, we have to be our own creator of chance and take the lessons we’ve learned from the choices we’ve made to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes in our present lives. It is not up to another person to give you a second chance. You are in charge of your own path, your own chances, your own choices, and your own successes.

Every day be aware of your choices, take your chances, and be the best you, because at the end of the day we’re all on our own paths pursuing our own destinies. Every day keep growing, keep evolving, and keep loving.

Momentum: How To Get It and Keep It Going

Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 May 2010 09:26 Written by Rima Tuesday, 4 May 2010 09:05

This is a summary of what went down at The MarketPlace Chicago (Depaul Loop Campus) meeting:

1-on-1 conversation

who are you?

passion

i will not sacrifice my passion for drudgery

I will stay in my strengths

focus on your brilliance

reference: marcus buckingham’s strengths finder

do things in joy so that you feel gfood and make others feel good

3 daily statements (from Tiffany)

just do it…(no more hesitation)

invite others to benefit from your strengths and fill in for your weaknesses

What habits have you created that empower you?

ask questions, hard questions that no one else is asking of yourself

ask yourself questions that even challenge your values and asumptions

unlearn your learning

take away the fear of trying new things by staying open to possibilities

newsweek reference: arrogance = ignorance

humility opens doors

pay attention to that little voice

replace the negative inner thoughts with what You WANT to hear

trust your intuition, tension, restriction, nervousness—redirect that energy by listening to Your spirit

be clear on Who You Are..humility..know who you are NOT…humility

When we are truly humble, there is not competitions or rightness necessary, only collaborations

create and action column during notetaking sessions that will trigger accountability later

deny the habit of labeling people and see them for who they really are

brian tracy- maximizing your potential

2010: The Year of BE-ing Dangerous

Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 April 2010 12:53 Written by MP Concierge Thursday, 31 December 2009 11:59

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.”

I’ve always loved that quote from the beginning of T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Somehow it clearly distinguished for me those who were asleep and those who were awake. Conscious dreamers change their world and create new possibilities.

But conscious dreamers often face the rhetoric of realists and pragmatists who see “what is” and the inherent limitations of our culture, political system or power structure..more commonly referred to as “the man.” Where great potential abounds great cynicism abounds as well. There’s enough cynicism in the world that if we could put it into oil barrels and convert it to clean energy we’d have an abundant supply of power for generations to come.

But let’s face it; it’s so much easier to be a critic. Critics don’t have to struggle for funding or convince anyone of their ideas. They don’t have to create something out of thin air and build value into it. They confidently point out the flaws in someone else’s plan, stealing the wind from the sails of many entrepreneurial spirits and taking great joy in their prowess. There’s nothing dangerous about hating on another person’s vision. But they secretly are envious of the Conscious Dreamer.

The Conscious Dreamer takes raw materials, ideas, scraps of paper, or perhaps a paintbrush and blank canvas and changes their space. The spaces of a Conscious Dreamer become arenas of innovation and the birthplace of breakthroughs. Envision Da Vinci’s studio full of contraptions and rough sketches of things far ahead of their time. Imagine Edison’s laboratory, where he often slept during feverish testing of the incandescent light bulb and hundreds of ideas that never made it to the marketplace. Consider George Washington Carver’s mastery of the ground and exhaustive inventiveness with the simple peanut. History tells us they had considerable criticism, made great sacrifices and loss of reputation for the sake of their ideas.

Now….what are those critics’ names?

“The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad”
President of Michigan Savings Bank, 1901 (notice there’s no name attributed)

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting for the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates

All change is a cycle. Loss. Doubt. Discomfort. Discovery. Understanding. Integration. We experience it in every area of our lives whether we like it or not. It will happen without our consent or input. Life only asks us to be awake when it happens; to be aware of the shifts and conscious of the implications and inherent opportunities. Where there seems to be chaos, there are always new possibilities, and there will always be critics.

Today no one cares about who criticized Edison for trying to create the light bulb. No one gives a rip about who discouraged the Wright brothers from trying to fly. There’s no monument to the critic who said humans weren’t meant to move faster than 25 mph and that our necks would break in such a vehicle. No one applauds the folks who said Marconi was insane to think we could communicate by invisible waves in the air. We simply clap, flip a switch or enter a room and light turns on. We book a flight online and go across the country in a few hours. We drive 80 in the 55mph zone on heated ergonomic seats while listening to our iPod that connects to our car audio system via Bluetooth and get our directions from the built-in GPS all while talking to our relatives in Texas on our Blackberry. The critics were right. Impossible.

So here’s to you….a Conscious Dreamer. You who dare to dream wide awake and enter into a new year with an action plan, a strategy, and enthusiasm. Do not be discouraged by the critics. Use criticism to feed your creation and strengthen it. Never let anyone steal your dream. If your idea will bless the world, the world will bless you right back. Make it possible.

“If one advances confidently in the direction of one’s dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau

In 100 years, your children’s children may remember you for what you do today. What will that be? What will you dare to accomplish? Who will you be one year from today? All the answers are within you. Dig deep. Live full on.

Here’s to being dangerous in 2010,

Kevin