Jonathan Fields

Uncertainty must be present in the quest to create anything deeply meaningful.
From Jonathan Fields new book Uncertainty

By Mary Jaksch

Do you have creative ideas – but find it hard to make them happen?

All human beings are born creative. We all have good ideas. But on the path from idea to creation we can be ambushed by fear, doubt, and uncertainty – and that often means that great ideas land up dead in the dust, instead of coming to fruition.

But here’s the good news …

Fear, doubt, and uncertainty are not the enemy of creativity. In fact, they are necessary for bringing your creative stirrings from the first idea right through into action.

There is a fantastic new resource that shows exactly how to turn fear and doubt into fuel for brilliance:

Jonathan Fields’ new book: Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance

Jonathan Fields is a good friend of mine. He’s insanely creative and what he produces is always of the highest quality. What I particularly appreciate is that  in everything Jonathan Fields writes, you can sense a deep wellspring of natural spirituality.

His new book, “Uncertainty”  is amazing!

It’s the first time I’ve come across an analysis of the creative process that really makes sense. In particular, I love the fact that Jonathan focuses on uncertainty as a key factor of the creative process.

I’m a compulsive creator and my best creations come from a deep sense of unknowing (what Jonathan calls ‘uncertainty’). When I feel that deep sense unknowing in my belly, I know that I’m ‘pregnant’ with a creative idea that has huge potential – and is going to be a struggle to bring into life.

The next steps of creation – after the good idea – are tricky, because fear and doubt kick in. “Will this really work?” we ask ourselves. Or, “Have I got what it takes?”

Such thoughts can easily derail the creative process. In fact, many people have brilliant ideas. But few pursue their great ideas and bring them into reality because they find it hard to bear the fear, doubt, and uncertainty.

This is the point where you need Jonathan’s book to guide you through this tricky territory. He maps out various routes to bring your idea to fruition.

Most of all, his book is a treasure-trove of inspiring stories. If you’re in the grip of ‘what-if gremlins’, the inspiring stories of others who struggles and finally burst into full creativity will keep you going.

Of course Jonathan himself is a shining example of someone who has harnessed his creativity. What he brings forth makes the world a better place. You can read more by Jonathan Fields on his blog, JonathanFields.com.

May suggestion is: treat yourself to Jonathan Fields’ book Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance. Your life will be enhanced!

Click here to Download the FREE first chapter of Start Over: Create the Life YOU Want

By Mary Jaksch

A short while ago, my friend Leo Babauta of Zen Habits recorded an interview with me about productivity for his great new book, The Little Guide to Un-Procrastination.

It brought home to me how much my long-time practice and teaching of Zen has boosted my productivity. Leo says I’m one of the most productive people he knows. But the funny thing is that there are some small pockets in my life where I’m also the world’s worst procrastinator. More about that below…

What is productivity?

Being productive means being able to create something with ease, steadiness, and joy.

In order to be productive, we need all our energy to be channeled. Think of a stream: when it flows freely, the water rushes along – right from the mountains to the sea. But if you build dams, divert the course of the stream, or choke it with rubble, the stream will have to use a lot of energy to circumvent or overcome the barriers in its way.

We all have access to the pure stream of creativity.

The problem is that many people throw up barriers that impede their natural productivity. The outcome can be stress, procrastination, and grief for lost dreams.

Yes, those lost dreams … Have you got dreams and even plans somewhere in the back of your mind that you’ve never realized? I bet you have.  It’s sad when we miss out on bringing our brainchildren into life. But it’s never too late to get pregnant with a great idea and give birth to a new brainchild!

So, let’s get cracking and take a look at how to crank up your productivity. But first a warning: if you’re looking for tips about dire stuff like making priority lists, or getting up a 3AM, you better read something else. My ninja recipe for productivity is Zen inspired and is not about getting things done.

The ninja thing

As many of you know, I’m a 4th Dan Blackbelt in karate in active training. One of the first things a martial artist learns, is that it’s better to go with an opponents energy, than to push against it. For example, if someone throws a punch at you, you can use your opponent’s forward energy to your advantage if you avoid or deflect the punch. And, once you’re more experienced, you learn to drop the idea of ‘opponent’, or of ‘self’ and ‘other’.

In terms of productivity, many books (but thankfully not Leo’s) espouse the use of inner force to conquer the nasty enemy of procrastination. Honestly, I don’t think it works. The Ninja approach of working with your inner opposing energy – instead of against it – is much more, well, productive.

How to stop self-doubts killing your productivity

Most people spend a lot of their creative energy fighting negative thoughts. These thoughts can range from downright ugly (‘You’re a loser!’) to fearful (‘What if I fail?’). Such thoughts can be deflating. You’re all pumped up to create something – and then those niggly, nasty self-doubts start attacking your confidence. Here’s a simple way to work with them:

Whenever you notice self-doubts in your mind, imagine a little green gremlin sitting on your left shoulder, whispering those nasty messages into your ear. Gently and calmly brush the gremlin off your shoulder with your right hand and say politely, “Not now, thank you!” (It will look as if you are brushing a piece of lint off your shoulder).

This may sound bizarre – but it works! The reason why it works is because it helps you to become aware of your negative messages. Often, these kind of doubts were implanted in us early on by parents, caregivers, or teachers. They are so deeply embedded that we are seduced into thinking that they are THE TRUTH about who you are, instead of habitual thought patterns that were originally someone else’s idea.

That’s where the Zen thing comes in. Through the practice of meditation, you learn to observe the mind, and to let go of prefabricated ideas of who you are. It frees you.

Connect with your core life force

The ancient Chinese called the core life force Chi or Ki. They imagined it coursing through the body along certain paths or meridians. I think they really knew something. In order to be more productive, you need to connect with the life force at the core of your being.

How to do it?

The ability to mobilize our life force is hardwired into each one of us. Just think about the amazing feats of survival human beings are capable of when life is threatened. What if you could harness that primal energy at will?

Two  ancient pathways to accessing and releasing your primal energy are meditation, and mindful exercise. In my own experience, for example, my productivity has increased significantly since returning to karate training a year ago. And of course my Zen practice underlies everything I do.

Life is short

Do you notice how fast – and faster – days, weeks, months, and years roll by? I remind myself of that every single day in order to appreciate the fleeting delights of each moment. The calm reflection that life is short is a great motivator for me. I have so many ideas I want to bring to fruition! ‘Now’ is all I have. ‘Tomorrow’ may not happen for me. Who knows?

If there is something you want to create, don’t wait until ‘later in life’! Start the journey of a 1000 miles today – just with one tiny step:  collect ideas; start making a plan; get excited.

The passion thing

I’m passionate about what I do! That’s why I’m so productive. I think passion is an expression of the life-force I was talking about earlier. When we’re passionate about what we’re doing, we’re fired up, and our energy is at our disposal.

Sometimes it can be difficult to find our passion, but it’s worthwhile finding out what really drives us.

Do more of what you love

If you look at your life, what percentage of your waking time is filled with activities you are passionate about? In my life, most of my waking time is spent doing things I love. I love being creative, so most parts of my work are also fun.

It pays to think carefully about your life. Are you enjoying it? Most of the time? Some of the time?

If you’re not enjoying your life, you need to change something fundamental about how you live. One of the changes can be to do more of what you love. But there is also another pathway, and that is exactly the opposite:

Love more of what you do

Let’s face it, in every project there are areas of work that are simply a drag. For example, I wake up to a deluge of emails with requests for help, niggles, comments, and so on, that all need to be answered. It takes me about 4 hours to hit them all on the head (the emails, not the people …). I used to feel resentful about this because mornings are my best writing time.

However, I’ve now changed the way I approach this task. I think of each interaction as an opportunity for connection. And – because I love connecting with others – the task that felt like a drag has now become meaningful.

Maybe you too can think about draggy tasks in a new way that infuses them with meaning.

Why everyone procrastinates – and it’s OK

There are some tasks that stay a drag – no matter how you look at them. And that’s were we tend to procrastinate. For example, I hate anything to do with accounting and tax. Mainly because I don’t really understand it, and that causes some fear. So, that’s an area where I’m the world’s worst procrastinator. I tend to leave business letters unopened for as long as possible. Oh, the tales my friends could tell…

If you have an area of procrastination like that, you need to call in the troops. For example, I’ve got a bookkeeper who collects my tax info electronically and then liaises with my accountant. I’ve asked her to ring me every three month and arrange a visit to collect all my statements. In this way, I’ve put a fail-safe system in place. Because that system is in place, I can forget about tax stuff most of the time because it takes care of itself more or less automatically.

So, if you tend to procrastinate in one particular area, call for help. Partner with someone who will remind you of deadlines and prod you kindly if you don’t deliver.

Does minimalist productivity work?

Some productivity gurus suggest paring down your activities in order to focus your energy on just one thing. Sounds good, eh? But it’s crap advice. The moment you start paring down, your whole energy flow can become disrupted. My advice is contrary: do too much! When you take on a bit too much, it heightens your productivity. Of course you have to be careful, because it’s important not to get overwhelmed.

How to overcome overwhelm

Do you sometimes get into a spin because there are just too many things you ‘should’ be doing? I’m sure you do. It happens to me too at times. We feel overwhelmed when we  hold too many different threads in our mind at one time. Here is how to deal with overwhelm:

Step 1: Wear an elastic wristband.

Step 2: Jot down all the tasks you are holding in your head.

Step 3: Focus on the task at hand.

Step 4: Whenever your mind slides off to other tasks, change the wristband to the other arm and refocus on your task at hand.

Step 5: Repeat as necessary.

Why productivity is important

Productivity is not really about producing something or being ‘valuable’ – it’s simply about having more joy in life. When you create something – whatever it may be – you’ll feel alive, and the joy of creation will pervade all areas of life.

If you want to learn more about how to be productive, I heartily recommend Leo Babauta’s new book, The Little Guide to Un-Procrastination It’s awesome! Leo shows how to emerge from the doldrums and crank up productivity in a way that’s both entertaining and inspiring. And you’ll get the interview with me as well..

What are your thoughts on productivity?

Click here to Download the FREE first chapter of Start Over: Create the Life YOU Want

A guest post by Gail Brenner of A Flourishing Life.

“Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.”
~Oscar Wilde

What is the inner light? We know it when we see it in others – a genuine sense of happiness and joy, enthusiasm that emanates, confidence in one’s unique expression. We feel drawn to people who naturally glow because they reflect the potential for our own inner light to shine.

And we all have that inner light. Within each of us is the capacity to be fully alive, to be infinitely creative, to radiate openness, availability, and love, to look forward with great interest to whatever the next moment brings. We can know ourselves as this light, but sometimes we get in our own way.

We unknowingly enact strategies and defenses that leave us hanging back in the shadows rather than allowing our gifts to shine. We lose our way and forget who we are.

Is it time to come out of hiding? Are you ripe for liberating your luminous, true, unobstructed self?

We dim our lights by taking on identities that mask our full potential. See if any of these sound familiar, and experiment with letting them be. Stop diminishing yourself. Pretend you are who you really are, and watch the masks fall away.

People Pleasing

Some of us betray ourselves by the need to seek approval from others. We don’t feel worthy of love on our own merits, so we morph ourselves – our precious lives – to conform to others’ expectations instead. We find ourselves in jobs and relationships that are a clear mismatch out of our need to be accepted. We abandon our happiness to keep the peace.

Do you want your light to shine? Stand in your own truth. Fess up to what you want, and risk the disapproval of those around you. Keep it simple, and stay close to what fires you up. You may not please everyone, but you can’t imagine how the possibilities for your life will open up once you decide to align yourself with the truth.

Victim Mentality

If we blame others for our problems, we are denying ourselves the clarity and groundedness that are rightfully ours. While we are stuck in a grudge or waiting for others to change, we passively let the moments of our lives tick away. “Poor me” just doesn’t cut it if we want to shine.

Instead of torturing yourself with endless stories of what should or shouldn’t have happened, use your most precious resource, your attention, to explore those places inside yourself that you have been avoiding. Be supremely kind as you open to painful feelings. Make the decision to take responsibility for your well being. Do this work no matter what it takes, and you will be surprised at how much positive energy is revealed as the mask of victimhood falls away.

Self-Criticism

Maybe you have convinced yourself that you are not good enough. Whatever form self-judgment takes, it keeps us boxed in and limited. Every time our inner light tries to glow, our minds react like a sledgehammer, with harsh thoughts that inhibit us from moving forward. How can we possibly express ourselves fully when we are shot down every step of the way by our own minds?

The inner critic is a jumble of thoughts that are propelled by fear. Learn to identify the fear, then look beneath it to discover your natural resilience, every time. Find the courage to let your whole self shine.

Neediness

Some of us live in a state of lack. We think we need what we don’t have – a relationship, a quality, a life circumstance – and we spend our time looking outward for fulfillment. This is an “if only” life, and it ignores the treasures that are already here.

Take an honest look at this very moment. If you stop buying into stories that run in your mind, is there anything missing? The universe is so abundant, giving us exactly what we need. When we realize the peace that comes from wanting what we are given, we surrender our ideas of lack, making space for our natural selves to shine.

When we recognize how we hold ourselves back, we have stepped onto the path that takes us back to ourselves. No matter how you feel in this moment, your inner light is shining. Pull away the veils, and let your whole self light up the world.

What holds you back? What has happened in your life when you let your light shine? I’d love to hear…

Gail Brenner is a psychologist with special expertise in untangling self-defeating habits and guiding people to live conscious lives of intelligence, fulfillment, and joy. She delights in offering inspiring articles and guided audio meditations at her blog, A Flourishing Life.

Click here to Download the FREE first chapter of Start Over: Create the Life YOU Want

A Guest Post by Diggy of Upgrade Reality

We are all indoctrinated to attain perfection. It starts in school where they teach us to get perfect grades or 100% for tests. Beauty magazines tell us to have blemish-free skin. The media tells us to have a spotlessly clean floor or house. In today’s society, perfection is the norm and anything less than that is just average.

Since perfection is pretty impossible to attain, “surprisingly” many of us never reach it. After all, which person is really perfect and who can do a job absolutely perfectly every single time? This is a big contributor to the depression and limiting beliefs in many people’s lives all around the world. If the expectation is ‘perfection’ but you can’t reach it, then there must be something wrong with you. From a logical deduction it must mean that you are a failure. (I feel that this is true only if you believe it to be true).

Perfection Extinguishes Creativity

Creativity is unique and original.

There are no set requirements or guidelines for how it should occur or take form. By placing an expectation on the end result (the expectation being perfection) and by turning creativity into a process it discourages us to try new methods or implement new ideas. The reason for this is simple: by venturing off into the unknown or the uncertain, perfection is far from guaranteed, so we take the most safe and known path to be able to reach perfection. (which is usually the monotonous and common path that everyone else takes).

The following is an extract from the book ‘Linchpin’ by Seth Godin:

A guy is riding in the first-class cabin of a train in Spain and to his delight, he notices that he is sitting next to Pablo Picasso. Gathering up his courage, he turns to the master and says,

“Senor Picasso, you are a great artist, but why is all your art, all modern art, so screwed up? Why don’t you paint reality instead of all these distortions?”

Picasso takes the photograph, looks at it, and grins. “Really? She’s very small. And flat, too.”

Let’s say as an example that you want to become a master painter like Pablo Picasso. You tell yourself that the only way to make great art is to paint a perfect replica of a photograph because if it is perfect it must be great art and skill and everybody will think that you are a master painter. If you follow this approach I am afraid that you will never become a great artist

Stop Being (Other People’s) Perfect

If you stop trying to please other people by trying to meet their definitions of perfect, you take a lot of weight off your shoulders. The expectation of making something perfect is a big stress that constantly eats away at you, thus using up emotional energy that you could put to much better use (for being creative and artistic).

You should do everything to the best standard that you can, so you are satisfied with your own work. Strive for your own definition of perfection (which may be totally the opposite of the general consensus). What I mean by this is that you should not do anything half-assed just because you are rebelling against perfection. You should work on something until you are totally satisfied with it and you have achieved the result that you wanted from it.

Let the artist and genius within you shine. You may not think you are a genius and you may not think you are an artist because you have told yourself this for many years. Maybe other people have told you that you are not a genius or an artist and you believed them.

I believe that everyone is good at something. Every single person has a unique gift or way of expressing themselves that will make a positive change on the life of at least one other person. However, if we never try new things and risk being laughed at or humiliated (or even risk being a total failure), we will never discover our true artist and genius within.

Some of the greatest people of all time (take the Wright Brothers for example) have been ridiculed for their ideas and their work in the initial stages. These people did not take it to heart and carried on with what they believed in and what they were passionate about and this led to them being truly remarkable

Be Creative For The Right Reasons

We all have a gift to be able to influence people in some unique way, whether it be through words, music, painting, sport, construction, food or anything else you can think of really, the list is endless. Even if you are not the best in the world at something, if you are really passionate about it, your passion can be an inspiration and motivation for others.

All this talk about being creative and artistic may have inspired you to stop following the rules so strictly and to question the expectation of perfection with everything that you do. You may want to explore the edges of the box you have been confined in up till now, which is the beginning of discovering the true artist and genius within you.

Here are some pointers about being creative:

• Don’t be creative because it is your job and it is expected of you.
• Don’t be creative for the want of financial or material gain.
• Becreative because it is your gift to the world. Make a difference with yourgenius and your art. ( I define art as making something out of nothing that will have a positive impact and change on someone).

The things you are going to create have the possibility to change the lives of others and the world as we know it today for the better. If you are creative because you enjoy the process of creating your form of art and you enjoy sharing it with others, then you may very well find that it will bring financial or material gain. You may become famous or rich as a result of the things you create, but that should not be the reason why you want to be creative.

Make The Choice

You have the choice to break free from the expected perfection in our society. You have the choice to not just follow a system where other people tell you how to live and what you can and cannot do. Allow your inner genius and artist to express themselves. At first it may seem difficult and it may feel like you are not creative at all, because you have been suppressing that inner artist for so many years.

Don’t let the self-limiting and false belief of “I am not talented or artistic” hold you back from expressing yourself. Find something that you enjoy doing and focus your energy and attention on it. Even if you suck at it initially, your passion and energy will let you keep going and keep trying. You will get better and better and eventually you will be able to create something that affects the lives of many people in a positive way.

All you have to do is make the decision that what I’m telling you is not utter nonsense and that you are going to stop living up to the expectations of other people. Don’t do it because I tell you to, do it for yourself. Live up to your own expectations and follow your heart and passion to allow you to express yourself in the way you were meant to.

Stop trying to be perfect and start being creative and artistic. Share your unique gift with the world.

Diggy writes all about self improvement and personal growth. Subscribe to his blog via RSS or Email

Click here to Download the FREE first chapter of Start Over: Create the Life YOU Want

By Mary Jaksch

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with everything you have to do – just in order to survive? It can feel like being a hamster in a treadmill: you run endlessly – but never get anywhere. Let’s look at how to change that. Because there is good news:

Each one of us can lead a life that feels fulfilled, joyful and creative.

All it takes is a radical change of mind and heart. Before I say more about this change of mind, let’s take a closer look at why we often feel overwhelmed.

In order to survive, we need the necessities of life. We need to earn money in order to feed ourselves and our loved ones. We need shelter, clothes, medicine. All of this takes a lot of time and work to procure. Apart from work, there is cleaning and tidying our home, cooking meals, filling out tax returns, paying bills – and all the other tasks that make a settled life possible. And if you have children there are lot more tasks to take care of.

When we are in that mindset, our mind is cluttered with thoughts about mundane tasks, and that there is no space to develop new ideas or create new patterns. In other words, there seems to be no opportunity to thrive.

When we look carefully at what makes us feel trapped by chores, is that they are repetitive. It’s not like we do them once – and that’s it. There’s a story in the Greek mythology that is a great expression of the burden of repetitive chores. It’s the story of Sisyphus.

According to legend, Sisyphus was the founder and king of Corinth – and a thoroughly nasty individual. The Gods finally brought him to justice and gave him a frustrating and painful punishment: For all eternity he had to roll a great boulder to the top of a hill. Only every time Sisyphus, by the greatest of exertion and toil, attained the summit, the darn thing rolled back down again.hat’s what it can feel like when we have to clean the kitchen floor over and over again, or fill in tax forms year after year!

We can learn to live a life where there are no ‘chores’.

We can enjoy a life that is spacious and invites inspiration. It’s not that we have got rid of the daily tasks – it’s that we experience them totally differently.

We can find joy in the depth of ordinary life.

The key to the change of heart and mind is learning to let go fully into the present moment. So, instead of washing dishes and being weighed down by all the thousand dishes you washed in the past, and will wash again in the future – you experience the magic of washing just this one plate. You feel the hot water running over you hands and admire the clean sparkle as you put the plate in the rack.

The secret is doing one thing at a time with full engagement. That sounds simple, but it’s not easy. Our mind tends to flit off into all kind of other directions. We start to think about what happened to a friend we loved ten years ago, or thinking about the grocery list, or planning our next holiday.

When we do that, we miss out on happiness. Yes, that’s right, happiness. Because what makes us truly happy is experiencing the moment now.
What about your life?

Are you inspired by what you do?

Click here to Download the FREE first chapter of Start Over: Create the Life YOU Want

Photo by h.koppdelaney

A guest post by Ryan Hurd .

Paying attention to your dreams is one of the easiest ways to be happier, more creative and more successful. Sounds like a bold claim, but it’s based on solid evidence from thousands of psychologists and dreamworkers. To make my case even plainer: bringing dreams back into your life put you on the fast track to learning what you really want in life and discovering the emotional blocks that are in your way.

Emotional blocks — the real obstacles

We are emotional creatures; it’s part of our mammalian heritage. The limbic brain still makes most of our decisions, even though we often tell ourselves how rational we are. Old hurts from the past, and the coping mechanisms we learned in defense of this pain, create emotional blocks that prevent us from seeing the world clearly. They keep us stuck in our ways, making the same old mistakes like we are living in a repetitive nightmare.

Photo by ViaMoi

These emotional landmines take a lot of energy to avoid, and —more than all the external causes put together— they rob us of our creativity, limiting our success and happiness.

That’s where dreaming comes in.

Dream science today

Modern dream science has come a long way from Freud’s cigar. Today, dreaming is known as a vital cognitive process that solidifies memory, enhances learning, and creates a safe haven for us to workshop the business of living in the privacy of our own minds.

Dreams meld today’s concerns with yesterday’s solutions. Because the rational mind is depressed in dreams, limbic system has a chance to integrate short- and long-term memories in its own fashion. In this way, dreams speak a different kind of language that is based not on reason but on emotional intelligence.

This is precisely why we dream about standing in the high school cafeteria, anxiously looking for a place to sit, again and again. That scene holds a private myth that is trying to sooth a present-day anxiety. It may seem bizarre to the rational mind, but emotionally the connection is strong and relevant. And that, in a nutshell, is how dreams can provide important clues to what we want and how to move past the fears in our path.

Why dream interpretation is over-rated

Before I go any further, let me say that “dream interpretation” is not really what I’m talking about here. Of course, we all have a natural curiosity about what a dream means, and the more we work with dreams the easier it is to make one-to-one connections. But keep in mind that dream dictionaries can only tell you about cultural symbols and some common bodily fears that we all share.

The problem with this cultural level of interpretation is that we all have our personal mythology at work in the dream, too.

Photo by ViaMoi

For example, a red rose may not remind you of a passionate rendezvous like the dream dictionary says, but, instead, of being abandoned by your father when you were 12. That’s your story, and no dream dictionary can anticipate that.

So, if you are new to dream work, stay close to the emotions in the dream instead of focusing on the translation of a particular dream image. It’s about building bridges between the emotions in a dream and the waking mind.

Don’t worry: the dream’s significance will become apparent as you learn to master the feelings that are connected to those bizarre dream images. That’s why only you will can know what a dream really means.

A Quick Method for Unlocking Dreams

Here is a quick method to harness the power of dreaming. This dream journaling exercise teaches you how to identify old emotional patterns, so can prevent those landmines from going off unexpectedly in your daily grind. That means a more courage work life, and more satisfying love life too.

1. Keep a dream journal.

If you don’t remember many dreams, keeping a dream journal is the quickest route to inviting them back. Record them in the morning when you take your tea. Describe not only what happened, but also how you felt during the dream. It’s also helpful to give each dream a title.

2. Sit with the feelings.

This next step works best with repetitive dreams. Recording it will naturally stir up strong emotions again. Take a couple minutes and try to locate where the feeling lives in your body. Is it in your belly or your chest? See if you can find a name for this feeling. This is a method discovered by psychologist Eugene Genlin, author of Focusing.

3. Watch for the feeling to re-emerge during your day.

Now that you’ve isolated a feeling and named it, that feeling is marked in your body map. Make an intention to notice the next time that feeling comes up in your waking life. You may be able to see the connection immediately, or you may have to wait a while.

4. Read the dream again.

Once you’ve made a connection between the feeling and waking life, go back and read the dream again. The dream may offer a clue that only you can recognize. Also, try to determine how old you are in the dream. This can be a further clue that you may be trying to solve a new problem in an old way. Is it effective or ineffective? By asking these kinds of questions, you are decoupling the waking life issue from your old habits and assumptions.

5. Track follow-up dreams.

Track your dreams over a month and watch for a repetition of this dream theme. You may notice a shift in attitude taking shape in the dream that can open up new possibilities, new joys, as well as opportunities to trust instead of fear.

This quick method is just scratching the surface of how dreams can power a creativity revolution. With some training, dreamwork can show not only the way back but also the way forward. It all starts with owning your emotional life, the key to every success story.

The best part: you’ll always know when a cigar is just a cigar.

Read more articles by Ryan Hurd on his blog DreamStudies.

Click here to Download the FREE first chapter of Start Over: Create the Life YOU Want

Has this ever happened to you? You get into the car, turned on the ignition and step on the gas. But the car doesn’t move. Because… you’ve left the handbrake on!

You might wonder what starting a car has to do with learning (almost) anything?

It’s difficult to learn if you leave the brakes on.

The brakes are our negative beliefs and preconceptions. When we find and release the brakes, learning becomes easy.

The human mind is a learning machine.

Consider toddlers for a moment. In a short time they learn two incredibly complex skills – talking and walking. And they learn them at the same time. Toddlers can even learn two or more different languages at once. (I grew up biligual and learned English and German right from the start.)

To learn with ease we need to be clear about the following four questions:

1. Who’s driving?
2. Have you released the brakes?
3. What’s your destination?
4. Where’s your map?

Let’s take up each question in turn.

1. Who’s driving?

This is about motivation. Is the skill you’re planning to learn something you ‘should’ do? If so, your motivation is external. It’s directed by other people. Or are you passionate about learning this new skill? In that case, your motivation is internal.

Your motivation needs to be internal because ‘shoulds’ have no power for sustained action. If your motivation is external, see if you can find some internal motivation to carry your learning forward. Ask yourself, ‘How will this new skill benefit me?’

2. Have you released the brakes?

Are your negative beliefs and your self-talk limiting your learning potential? It’s easy to find out: listen to what you thinking and saying.

In my case I noticed three negative beliefs that were putting the brakes on learning how to produce videos. They were: “I’m not good with technical stuff”, “I’m not good at learning to use new software”, and “I’m not a visual person.”

As you can imagine, these three negative beliefs made learning how produce a video nearly impossible! Each aspect was affected – from handling the camera to editing the video or publishing it on the Net. Once I noticed what I was doing, I changed my storylines. I told myself and others: “I can learn to operate cameras easily”, “I’m pretty good with new software”, and “My eye is getting better with practice.”

The result? I’ve surprised myself. I’m learning my new skill much faster than I expected!

3. What’s your destination?

In order to drive to your destination you need fuel. What fuels our learning journey are clear goals.

The key question is: Why do you want to learn a particular skill?

The more precisely you can answer that question, the easier it is to learn. Let’s take an example. As I said before, I’m learning video skills. If I phrased my goal like this: “I want to produce good videos to use on Goodlife Zen”, I would get no traction. Because the goal is to vague. In contrast, “I want to produce five videos on how to meditate”, gave me a clear destination for my journey of learning.

4. Where’s your map?

If you set out with a clear destination but without a map, you’ll run into problems. A map is important because it shows you how to get to your destination. So, how do we get a map? Well, we can develop parts of the map ourselves and then ask an instructor to fill in further details.

Our initial map could include:

• Answer questions one to four above
• Choose an instructor
• Find a buddy
• Start your learning journey
• Set and celebrate milestones

A map helps you when you lose your way. You can revisit it and look at how far you’ve come and plot your next phase of the journey.

In order to enjoy your learning journey and feel great, here are some important tips:

Choose good instruction

No matter what you want to learn, you’ll need to choose an instructor. This can be an instructor who works with you face-to-face, or it can be a book, articles on the net, or training programs.

Unfortunately most instructors don’t know how to teach beginners.

Their own experience as beginners lies so far back that they can’t remember it. What is clear to the instructor may be incomprehensible to a new student.

Tip: Choose an instructor who is able to guide you step by little step.

If you want to learn from a book, make sure that it’s written in a way that introduces you carefully to each new step. Personally, I tend to learn best from live instructors – whether I see them in real-time, or whether they run a program on the Net. The reason for that is that I need to be able to ask questions.

Sometimes we get stuck in the learning process because we don’t understand the next step. A question to an instructor can often see us right.

Good instruction can be expensive. Make sure you research the instructor thoroughly. Take a trial lesson if possible. And check out testimonials.

Buddy up

To learn on your own can be lonely. It’s important to share the highs and lows with other learners. Learning with others also keeps you up to the mark. This is the advantage of learning in a class. But even if you are learning in a virtual environment, finding a buddy is an important step.

Maybe your instructor can link you up with another learner. Or you can find someone in a forum who is on the same journey of learning.

Start your learning journey NOW

Once you’ve identified your initial map and found instruction, you need to start your learning journey without delay. If you’re not sure how to start, ask yourself a question:

“What is the smallest step in my learning journey that I can take right now?” Then follow through.

Keep going

It’s easy to give up. I’m sure all of us have experience of giving up. Why do we give up? It may be that we haven’t released our brakes, or the learning journey seems too difficult.

If you feel like giving up, check out the following questions:

• Have I released the brakes?
• What is the step I’m struggling with?
• Am I still focused on my destination?

You may find that your negative self-talk reappears when you strike a difficulty on your learning journey. Make sure that you replace your negative view with a positive one.

If you are struggling with your learning material, try to pinpoint where the difficulty lies. Maybe you can formulate a question that you can ask your instructor, your buddy or on the Net.

If you feel like giving up, remind yourself of your destination. Write you goals on big sheets of paper and hang them up in your home.

Celebrate milestones

Celebrating achievement is what makes us feel great about learning. Make sure you identify milestones and celebrate them!

Human beings are designed for life-long learning. Each new skill will enrich your life and make you feel good about yourself. The great thing is that with each positive learning experience, the next one becomes easier.

What is your experience with learning journeys? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

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By Janice Hunter of Sharing the Journey

The only difference between an extraordinary life and an ordinary one is the extraordinary pleasures you find in ordinary things. ~ Veronique Vienne.

I stood at the kitchen sink, robotically washing dishes. I paused, my gaze landing on a hand-painted jug on the window ledge, raindrops running down the glass.

I clung to the sink with soapy hands, hunched forward, eyes clenched shut, terrified that I might miss another deadline, that I’d never have another moment of revelation, the inspiration that flows in and fills me up then spills over into my writing and my online coaching.

Washed out and weary, worried about money, unable to capture moments of fleeting inspiration as they flit and dance through my day, just out of reach, I stood, suds dripping, tears running down my face.

A quick wipe with the back of my hand, all traces gone, I picked up a tea towel and started to dry the dishes. Plates, bowls and jugs from our years in Greece and Portugal, all different sizes, shapes and designs.

I looked again at the small jug on the window ledge. Cobalt blue and bottle green, ringed in bands of yellow and rusty red hearts. Sometimes I use it for flowers; most often, it stays empty, reminding me to be present, to stay open to inspiration and abundance. I looked down at the draining board and suddenly realised that not only do I have a lot of jugs, I seem to have been collecting and cherishing them all my life.

There’s a porcelain one from Portugal, hand-painted with deer and flowers which we only use for gravy on feast days and holidays.

There’s a little pastel-coloured striped one with a flat bottom that’s used for milk when we have visitors; it’s the kind a sailor’s wife would keep on her window ledge, filled with snowdrops. A round-bellied classic white jug for water. A sturdy terracotta one decorated with a blue glaze and white slip. A spout-less pink tin cylinder for Greek retsina. An elegant, clear glass bottle with a gem-blue glass stopper that I use on warm days to keep water cold in the fridge.

Pencils in a chipped, speckled stoneware jug. A spider plant in a blue teapot. I rushed to the dining room and stared at what I now saw was a collection in my cabinet, in among all the other mismatched crockery.

There, in pride of place, a single-setting tea service with sugar bowl and milk jug, painted decades ago by my mum’s elderly cousin, the artist who never married after her fiancé died in World War Two. We used to give my mum breakfast in bed every year on Mother’s Day, the tea tray laid with an embroidered cloth and those same dishes.

I remembered my grandmother pouring milk from a blue and white pitcher and friends’ birthday parties with ice cream and jelly and always large glass jugs of sparkling lemonade and orange juice. Always a woman somewhere, carrying a jug, offering something, pouring something.

All of my jugs are beautiful. They’re all unique and chosen, loved and special for something. They’re not meant to be permanently full; they’re designed to be filled and emptied as they pour.

Like us, they’re beautiful just as they are, even when all they hold are memories and promise and a little bit of now.

I took the tea towel and lovingly dried and put away my crockery, went into the garden and found a few rain-drenched miniature daffodils and a spray of fragrant white hyacinth to put in my little heart jug at the window.

Sometimes we wait knowingly, patiently, for inspiration to fill us to overflowing. Sometimes, we simply need to love ourselves enough.

Janice Hunter is a writer and certified life coach whose blog Sharing the Journey provides soul food and support for writers, coaches, parents and home-based workers. This piece first appeared in her Coaching Moments column, the monthly newsletter of The International Association of Coaching.

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“Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.”

Read this amazing talk by Paul Hawken:

Commencement Address to the Class of 2009

University of Portland

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.

But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation – but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement.

Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food – but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote,

“So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.”

There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen.

Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true.

“Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider.”

“One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown – Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood – and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty.

But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non-governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled inhistory.

“The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart.”

What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets.

Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet.

At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells.

Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe – exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”

So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation.

You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

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By Mary Jaksch

Confidence doesn’t happen. We create it. Even though in the past other people may have knocked our confidence, we can change how we feel right now. Here are some trick and tips to show you how to make that change happen.

We can expand our circle of confidence.

Your circle of confidence is what you think you can do. For some people, this circle is very tight and there are only a few aspects of life where they feel confident. For others, the circle of confidence is large and contains many different skills.

Be that as it may, everyone can benefit from enlarging one’s circle of confidence.

A few days ago a friend of mine, Dr. Yashu Wheeler, who is an experienced NLP trainer led me through an interesting exercise to show me what happens when we let go of limiting thoughts. Here is the exercise, step by step:

1. Stand and  hold your arms out horizontal
2. Turn to the right as far as you can go
3. Check the farthest point on the wall you can see to the right
4. Come back to centre, release your arms and close your eyes
5. Keep eyes closed and visualize being able to turn further with ease and looking at a point 60cm further than before.
6. Now open your eyes and repeat the initial exercise

How far are you able to turn this time?

When I repeated the exercise after the visualization, I was amazed to see that I could now see a spot on the wall that was really 60cm further on. And I could turn with ease. My body was suddenly much more flexible.

Just imagine if we applied this method to every aspect of our life!

What holds us back the most are our own critical judgments. All of us have a cutting little voice that tends to whisper nasty things into our ear. Things like, “You’re hopeless!” or, “You’re stupid!”.

Say ‘no’ to your gremlin

Next time you hear your own judgmental thoughts telling you that you’re no good, imagine a little gremlin sitting on your left shoulder. What does it look like? What color is it? Maybe you can imagine it in some way that makes you smile.

Whenever you notice negative self-talk, imagine the gremlin sitting there and say to it firmly, “Not now!” Then carefully wipe it off your shoulder. (To others it’ll look as if you’re brushing lint off your clothes.)

In the following there are some ways to help you to expand your circle of confidence:

• Find role models

The way human beings develop and grow is through following role models. It’s useful to find a role model you want to follow. Keep in mind that if someone is successful in one particular area, it doesn’t make them a saint! Read what they have to say. Your main focus need to be: “He/she did it, and I can do it too!” Remember that all successful people were unknown and unimportant at some point in their life.

• Use affirmations

Affirmations are great tools to change the way we see ourselves. Put stickers on your mirror and in unexpected places, saying “I am getting stronger every day!” Make sure that what you say is believable. “I am the greatest!” may have worked for Cassius Clay, but it may not work for you. Personally, I prefer affirmations that honor growth, like “I am becoming more … every day!”

• Choose baby steps

If you have a grand goal it may seem overwhelming. But every grand goal can be chunked down into small segments. It doesn’t matter how small your steps are, all that matters is that you put one foot in front of the other.

• Eliminate negative self-talk

Everyone of us has a lot more negative self-talk going on then we think we have. Here’s an experiment to prove my point. Get yourself wide a rubber band that fits comfortably around your wrist. Now change that rubber band to the other wrist every time you notice negative self-talk. I was surprised – in the first hour of wearing the wristband, it flew from side to side! And I thought I’m a pretty positive person… You try and see how you go.

• Get up when you fall
  We all fall down at times. In fact, failure is a built-in factor of success. Getting up after a fall is crucial.  Here’s a  story about falling and getting up:
  A monk looking for some guidance and encouragement goes to Abba Sisoius and asks:
  “What am I to do since I have fallen?”
  The Abba replies: “Get up.”
  “I did get up, but I fell again.”
  “Get up again.”
  “I did, but I must admit that I fell once again. So what should I do?”
  “Do not fall down without getting back up.”

When we widen our circle of confidence, we tend to stumble and fall along the way. Just think back to when you learned to ride a bike. Maybe you were a genius at riding a bike. I wasn’t. But I was determined to learn – mainly to get even with my older brother!

• Celebrate achievements

Have you ever been successful? I don’t mean the kind of big successes that others applaud. I mean simple successes. Like, have you ever made a tasty meal? Or have you ever been able to mend something that was broken? Was there a time that you achieved something that seemed impossible to you?

Did you find it difficult to come up with your successes? I’m sure that if I had asked you about your failures, you would been able to reel them off easily. It’s quite strange how we tend to store memories of failures so well, and tend to forget about successes.

My suggestion is to make a conscious effort to call to mind times when things went well for you. The more you remember what went well, the better you will do in the future.

• Associate with positive people

Confidence is infectious! If you hang out with people who are positive and can see your potential, it helps you to see your own potential.

The interesting thing is that when our confidence grows in one area, it also infects other areas. It’s like a confidence virus!

Let me give you an example: one of my areas of growing confidence is the technical aspect of blogging (I’m trying to say as positively as possible that I suck at techie stuff). What is really helping me there is – wait for it – cooking. My son Sebastian gave me Jamie Oliver’s cookbook ‘Jamie’s Ministry’ and I’m slowly  working my way through it. The recipe’s are easy and I often invite friends to be try my meals.

The success I have whenever I try one of Jamie’s recipes seems to rub off on my technical ability. Whenever I struggle with a particular technical challenge, I remind myself of my new cooking skills, and I suddenly feel more confident.

Yes, confidence is infectious.

Let’s create a goodlife pandemic: let’s all infect each other with confidence!

You can use the comment section to release the virus
Photo by mahalie

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