It’s easy to want to blame or fault others when certain aspects of our lives aren’t going the way we want, especially when it comes to love and accountability. And yet few people embrace the concept that we are 100% responsible for the results we attain in our lives. This includes our thoughts, actions, and emotional well being. Accountability begins when we take 100% responsibility for every aspect of our lives … accountability begins with you!
Sometimes it takes losing something or someone to help us gain clarity on what we value in life. One way to prevent this from happening is making sure our values are in alignment with our actions, in other words … internal and external integrity. If I asked you to make a list of the 5 things you value most in life … what would be on your list? If I asked you how much time and attention you devote to those things or people on your list … what would you say?
In 1984 the band Chicago was a leader in their industry when they released Chicago 17 which included the popular song, Hard Habit to Break. The song is a love ballad about a man who is ruminating over a failed relationship. He took her for granted and is now wishing he had her back. But as love stories sometimes go … she left.
It’s easy to get caught up in the barrage of divisiveness that seems to be running rampant in our world. The politicians in Washington D.C. can’t seem to get pass the bipartisanism that divides us … even when the future of our country is at stake. And if you consider the magnification of this divisiveness by the media who seems hell bent on exaggerating either the US side or the THEM side, it could lead you to feel quite hopeless … if you let it.
Recently, a friend of mind and I were discussing the topic of commitment. I was sharing a situation where I felt that I needed to be ‘all in’ or not. Fence-sitting for too long can be uncomfortable. Let me add here, that at times, I have been known to analyze, scrutinize, and over-think, a situation to death … and this was one of those times!
Sometimes in the heat of an unfavorable situation we wish things were different. We wish that the circumstances unfolding in our life were unfolding in a different manner … preferably in someone else’s life. And yet how many times, after the fact, after time had passed, were you able to see the good that resulted from the situation? The very same situation you were cursing a day, a week, or a few months ago!
In the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon plays a tough, wise-cracking, but emotionally scarred math genius named, Will Hunting. And although he is extremely brilliant he is working (hiding) as a night janitor at Harvard.Robin Williams play a therapist who attempts to help Will go inside of himself in order to own the truth about his abusive past and discover his authentic self.
How do you define quality? Is it something that you value when buying goods or services? What about when it comes to your qualities, how would you define your qualities? Quality when used as either an adjective or a noun pertains to excellence or value. I once had the opportunity to listen to a speaker present who was extremely intelligent and very much a self-described introvert.
The other day I was conversing with a colleague and fellow coach by the name of Barry Zweibel. We’ve been friends and have had a Mastermind of sorts since the day we met about 12 years ago. We were talking about life in general when Barry, as only Barry can do, pulled out a 2 x 4 and walloped me upside the head with a question that challenged what I believed about my purpose in life. He was challenging me to embrace my purpose at a much higher level.
Every since the beginning of time humans have searched to find their purpose in life. Thousands of books have been written and hundreds of thousand of speeches, lectures, and discussions have been given on the topic of purpose. And yet, how many people do you know, if asked, could succinctly complete the following sentence, “My purpose in life is to …”