I admit it, I fall for the click-bait titles now and again.  Sure, some are annoying, but every once in a while you find a gem.

I’m a Tony Robbins fan to be sure, but I certainly have seen my fair share of click-bait surrounding him even from his own facebook ads.

So I was torn between intrigue and skepticism when I saw this title: Is This the Next Tony Robbins? The Purpose-Filled Rise of Mastin Kipp.

Clearly intrigue won or we wouldn’t be having this interaction., but here’s the thing.  It’s a really good article.
I had never seen Mastin Kipp’s videos before but sought them out after reading the article.

The focus of Mr. Kipp’s message is helping you to find your PURPOSE.
Turns out, even Martin Kipp uses questions.

According to this article the key to finding your purpose lies in asking two questions, and those two questions are really powerful. The whole article is worth reading, but I know you want to see those powerful questions, so here they are.

“How do I want to feel?”
“How do I want those I serve to feel?”

Think about that for a moment. If you ask those two questions to determine your purpose, your answer will lead you to a powerful purpose for your life.
Then again if you ask the second question every day in your business and life it will drastically improve the way you live.

Either way, those two questions can have a dramatic impact on all that you do.

Do you have powerful questions you believe can help others as well?

Sara Blakely, the billionaire founder of Spanx, knows a thing or two about questions.

I ran across this article about 2 Questions That Will Help You Think Like an Entrepreneur and of course I was intrigued.  Don’t be fooled by the title though, these questions really aren’t solely aimed at Entrepreneurs, in fact, you could argue that they’re aimed at the majority of people who aren’t Entrepreneurs.

The article is short.  It even includes a link to the video interview of Ms. Blakely, but I know some of you aren’t crazy about having to click through to yet another article to read so I’ll share her 2 questions here just for you.

1. How you would be doing your job if nobody had showed you how to do it? If you want to rethink your work from the bottom up and come up with real, fresh solutions, Blakely suggests spending some time pondering this question.
2. How could that be better? This is another way to “get off autopilot,” according to Blakely. “Look at everything, every object in your life, the way that you do things,” she says. “When you get up and brush your teeth, is there a better way to brush your teeth? Is it the right way to be doing it? And see what comes.”

So, there you have it.  Simple, easy, straight-forward and they apply to us all.

Do you have a question you think can help anyone no matter what career path they’ve chosen?  I’d love to know what it is.

I found this article about why “colleges are broken“, and it resonated deeply with me.

I have long felt that our education system, from top to bottom, is broken.  Not because teachers don’t care but because we’ve been using the same basic system to educate our children for decades, even centuries, and yet the world around us continues to change.  Sure, we try new approaches, no child left behind, common core, all in an attempt to “fix the problem” but the problem is the system itself.

And I’m not talking about k-12 either.  As the article points out:

For every 100 kids who start college, just 25 get degrees and attractive jobs. Some 45 drop out, and another 30 graduate but end up under- or unemployed.

What’s fascinating about this article is the varied number of people referenced in it, many well known names and thought leaders not to mention Google, all take issue with how we educate and what that education means.

That, perhaps, is my biggest complaint.  We put so much emphasis on that piece of paper when we have so many needs in our ‘workforce’ that that ‘paper’ can’t solve.

Finally, what I like about this article is that not everyone has the same solution and I think that’s the point.  We have evolved in our learning of how children, and adults, learn to have reached the point where we now know that not everyone learns the same way.  So why do we teach everyone the same way?

I don’t believe there is one solution to the education problem we face.  Nor do I think one silver bullet can come along and be the end all be all creative solution for everyone.  We need new, better, creative, and out of the box approaches to all levels of our education system.  The more we focus on the varied and different ways we all learn perhaps the more we’ll realize that that standard piece of ‘paper’ everyone chases has less to do with learning than we think, and perhaps then we can get down to solving the real issue.

One final note.  There is a powerful TEDx talk on The Future of Smart by Ulcca Joshi Hansen which again shows a new approach to education and is well worth watching.

It’s that time of year right?  Time to make your New Year’s Resolutions!

According to FORBES only 8% of people are successful in their New Years Resolutions.  So maybe you don’t need Resolutions.

Webster’s defines the word Resolutions in many ways, one of which is: “the act of determining”.  Makes sense, and without questions being determined to achieve something is a great place to start.  Having that ‘resolve’ to achieve whatever it is you want to achieve is great… but it’s not enough.

You need a plan.  Saying, “I’m going to lose weight” or “I’m going to stop drinking” or “I’m going to quit smoking” is all well and good, and having a firm resolve, a determination to achieve your wish is fantastic but without a plan that’s all it is… a wish.

Perhaps instead of making your resolution about the end goal, perhaps you should resolve to put together a plan.  Sit down and take at least as much time as you scroll through Facebook every day to map out HOW you’re going to make your wish come true.

Here are 5 strategies you can use to help you:

1. Don’t try to do it all at once.  Set a realistic goal for when you want your wish to come true.  Something that you know you can do.
2. Break it down into action steps you can take each day, each week, each month.
3. Give yourself milestones.  Set mini goals along the way that when you achieve them, when you hit that milestone, you have a mini celebration to keep you motivated.
4. Don’t do it alone.  Who do you know who has been successful at what you’re trying to do?  Ask them to mentor you.  Ask them for advice.  Don’t reinvent the wheel, do research and arm yourself with all the various ways in which you can be successful.
5. Most important of all WRITE IT DOWN!  Don’t type it into your phone, tablet, or computer.  Write everything down BY HAND.  Write down your ultimate wish.  Write down your time frame.  Write down your milestones.  Write down your plan.  There is an immense power that takes place in your brain when you write something down with your hand, taking the time to form the words on paper.  Try it, you’ll be surprised at how much of a head start it gives you.

So be determined, yes.  By all means be resolute.  But don’t just wish your dreams to come true, plan for them.  As the saying goes, if you don’t know where you’re going, any direction will do, but even with a direction in mind, you still have to chart a course.

Today is the first day of a brand new year.  Take the time to chart the course for your year ahead and move firmly and confidently in the direction of your Dreams.

It’s that time of year when social media explodes with all the things we’re thankful for and pictures of delicious food, family gatherings, and visits from faraway friends; oh and did I mention food?

Of course, there’s the ever-familiar refrain of “pass the potatoes” and “how many servings of Turkey did YOU eat this year”, and lest we forget “How many helpings of pumpkin/pecan pie did you have?’

Which got me to thinking.

Servings and Service are quite similar.

Helpings and Helping too.

Which then led me to reflect on all the people who AREN’T celebrating Thanksgiving because they SERVE and HELP others.

Hospital Staff.

The Police.

The Fire Department.

Our Utility workers keeping the lights on, the gas working, the water flowing.

The Grocery Store employees who are there when you remember what you forgot?

Restaurant employees who serve Thanksgiving meals.

Movie Theater Employees

Last but certainly not least, everyone serving in the Military.

I’m sure there are plenty of other professions I haven’t listed who work in a field that is open/running 365 days a year, and while I admit I don’t often think of their sacrifices every day, on this day, I just wanted to take a moment and say Thank You.

I’m very grateful for all that you do, even if it doesn’t directly affect me.  Someone, somewhere, needs you and your sacrifice is much appreciated.

Earlier this year Seth Godin posted a really interesting blog post titled Your Mood vs. Your Reality.

One of the questions he poses is “Does something have to happen in the outside world for you to be happy inside?”

He goes on to point out the various economic/marketing connections to ‘happiness’ which is interesting, and ultimately concludes that “Happiness, for most of us, is a choice. Reality is not. It seems, though, that choosing to be happy ends up changing the reality that we keep track of.”

I couldn’t agree more.  To a very great extent we choose our reality.  We may not be able to choose what happens to us, but we can, as the saying goes, choose  how we react to what happens to us; and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the super secret sauce to life.

How we choose to interpret our reality, or put another way, how we choose to process our experience of life is a matter of our minds.  It is, in the final analysis, a matter of that internal conversation going on in our minds when something, good or bad, happens in our environment or our experience of living.

Of course, that internal conversation, is nothing more than answers to the questions our mind is posing.  “Is this good or bad?” and “should I be happy about this or not?”.

For most of us, this happens almost instantaneously, and without governance as our mind directs the brains storehouse of knowledge to evaluate what happened and filter it through our own experience to come up with an answer.

Imagine if you could direct those questions, filter them before they rule your reaction to an experience?  Imagine if you could take control and decide that you want to experience your life on your terms, not someone else’s?  The fact is, you can.

What questions could you ask to end up with, as Seth eluded in his post, “That’s interesting,” instead of “that’s terrible.”?

All you have to do, is ASK.

A Journey Institute Press Imprint

Storytellers
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General Non-Fiction

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After her husband was given a job for a year in Italy, Andrea and the rest of their family joined him on the adventure; and what an adventure it was. Often trying to do the simplest of things, her story captures the hilarity of an American in Italy trying to navigate a country that seems as foreign as should be familiar. 

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I miss Honor.

I miss the honor and camaraderie that we see depicted in movies like The Three Musketeers or the jedi knights of Star Wars.

The kind of Honor where people stood for something that mattered.  Something good.  Something just.

It used to exist in America and England and France.  It was called Patriotism.

It seems that now we are more divided than united.  More worried about immigration and political views, more divided over the 1% and the state of unrest in various parts of the world than we are united in ways we can make this world a better place.

Honor was about believing in something bigger than ourselves.

People seem more concerned with themselves now than ever before; more concerned with passing blame than working together on solutions.

We’ve lost our Honor, our Respect, our US.

We need to stop focusing on I and Me, and get back to US and WE.
We are all together in whatever ‘this’ is.

I miss the time when honorable people did honorable things, together, for all of us.

A Journey Institute Press Imprint

Curious Adventures
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Childrens

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Meet Kaci the Pirate and her chocolate eating pet crocodile Nizel-Kabo as they embark on a brave adventure to the island of chocolate delights.

Available March 28, 2023

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“Bodhi Cheetah Always Wins” is a children’s exploration of the principle of Bodhicitta, a profound wish to help sentient beings overcome their suffering. We are walked through a day in the life of Bodhi, whom everyone wants to race and prove they are faster than the fastest animal in the Savannah.

Join Zuri the Zebra and her friends who live in a Zoo where there isn’t much to do. Until Zuri decides to do something that will forever change the lives of all the animals who live there.

Available Holidays 2023

It’s an interesting idea.  Ask questions to determine if you should trust someone’s advice.

At least that’s what Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert wrote on Oprah.com with Elizabeth Gilbert’s 4-Question Test to Know Whom to Trust

I’m not sure I buy it though.  (This coming from the guy who lives and breathes questions, I KNOW, right?)

It even seemed a little contradictory when she says “Doing what you love — even if other people don’t like the end product — counts for something, too.”
So, ask the four questions but if it’s something you love do it anyway?

Sorry, I digressed a little.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for asking questions to determine if the advice you’re being given is worth taking, but I’m not sure there are 4 magic questions that work for anyone and everyone.
There’s nothing wrong, per se, in the questions Elizabeth Gilbert uses, but I think how one person determines the validity of advice can be drastically different for another and the same is true of the people giving the advice.  There’s far more to it than that.

What do you think?

I love card decks.

Magic Cards, Angel Cards, Playing Cards, it doesn’t matter, I just love the portability of bringing information with you.

It’s why I created my own QWIP’s Cards to help people with my concept of Motivestions.

SO, when I came across this article: The Genious Deck Helps Reset Your Brain When You’re Stuck on a Problem you can bet I was intrigued.  I love the simplicity of this and while it’s a ‘virtual’ deck I still love the idea of it.

To recap:

• Cards.
• Easy to use.
• Virtual (access from any device).
• Free.
• Helps you get unstuck when you have a problem.

Uhm.. YEAH.  What are you waiting for?

What other ideas do you have for tools to help you solve problems when you’re stuck?

Lest you think I only post my view of life in this blog and live in a ‘bubble’ of single-sourced knowledge I offer you the following.

As often as not, I come across posts, stories, and articles that completely disagree with my view, my perspective, or my philosophy; and I read them.  Not because I enjoy being told I’m wrong but because I’m not egotistical enough to believe I have all the answers.  So, I read to enlighten myself.  Sometimes it serves to reinforce that my perspective makes more sense and other times it makes me question my own beliefs and dig deeper.  Either way, it’s time well spent.

Recently, I posted a BLOG about ‘mindfulness’.  In my first book ASK: The Questions to Empower Your Life, I spoke of ‘Carpe Momento’ as a better life view than ‘Carpe Diem”.
When I found this ARTICLE |Actually Let’s Not Be in the Moment, which not only seemed disgusted with the idea of mindfulness, but also seemed to attack the very notion of living in the moment (Carpe Momento), I had to take a look.

At one point in the piece I read “This judgmental tone is part of a long history of self-help-based cultural thought policing” and I knew that I just wasn’t ever going to agree with the author of the article, but here’s the thing.  The point the author is making wasn’t all bad, they just had a presupposition that led to an all or nothing stance.  Basically, the point of the article was that life is complicated and the idea that ‘mindfulness’ is a way to deal with that complication is absurd and it goes on to say that mindfulness practitioners are trying to blame YOU for the problems and not the normal ups and downs of life.  By itself, that makes sense.  But mindfulness isn’t the end all be all cure to the challenges that we all face, nor does lack of mindfulness mean YOU are the problem; it is simply a tool.  One of many tools that we can use to HELP us navigate the hurdles that life throws at us.

So while I disagree with this article because of it’s ‘all or nothing’ stance, it’s worth a read if only to help us remember that mindfulness, like all ‘self help’ tools are simply that; tools in our toolbox.  Use the tools correctly, in conjunction with all the other tools, and you will build the life you dream of having, A Better Life.

Let me know what you think of the article and if I missed something.