We do a daily call with our staff at 9:42am. The purpose of the call is to calibrate everyone's state and set our collective focus on solutions and what is right in the world. Today's call was led by Stacey and she shared with us an amazing project. Playing for Change is a collective of people all over the world who are united humanity through music. The episodes are powerful. I highly recommend you watch them. They will reset your focus on a global and scale and fill you heart with a knowing that all people basically want the same thing - love. Enjoy!
For those of you who think you are too old... For those of you who think it is too late... For those of you who think everyone will laugh... For those of you who have a dream... You're never too old! It's never too late! Who cares if they laugh? It's your dream!
Leveraging the Power of Crisis - Being Powerful in Hard Times
We can show you how that no one or nothing needs to change in the current times for you or your business to be successful. It all comes down to your state. You are either conciously directing your state to be one of peak performance or you are allowing the default state of the masses to dictate your state. Once you understand this dynamic then you can easily and effortlessly direct your energy towards outstanding results. Check it out and pass it on.
THE TIDES OF CHANGE FROM ORDINARY PEOPLE Today, we witnessed history as Barack Obama became the first African American man elected President of the United States. He represents the faith of millions that change is possible AND necessary. What I find intriguing are the statistics of his election. He won this election on the backs of women voters, young voters and minority voters -ordinary people who have been the subject of marginalization in our society for decades, even centuries.
In his victory speech, Barack told the story of a woman named Anne Nixon-Cooper. She is 106 today and has been alive to overcome two obstacles to voting in her life. Her obstacles included her gender and the colour of her skin. She has been alive to see ordinary people bring about the change necessary to allow women to cast their votes in the United States and then again to witness ordinary people lead the change to bring about full civil and voting rights to the African American population. She herself is an ordinary person. I find this incredibly inspiring.
Barack Obama represents the reality that it is ordinary people who make things better. It is ordinary people that accept responsibility for their actions. It is ordinary people that end wars, fix economies, repair relationships and it is ordinary people that take care of each other, listen to each other and love each other. There is no "other enemy out there" who is responsible for what happens or who decides what will happen. It is ordinary people. I am thankful that those ordinary people showed up, waited in line and cast their vote. I am grateful that there was finally a big enough impetus to motivate ordinary people to dig within themselves and find the courage to finally stand up and say "Yes, we can".
FAILURE-LESS DOES NOT EQUAL MORE SELF-ESTEEM My latest message in the arena of Successful Failing has been focused on children. In an effort to boost flailing self-esteem, a number of school boards have reduced or eliminated failure from the classroom and the playground. While I believe that they had the children's best interest in mind, I think that their approach will have the opposite effect.
Creating an artificial, failure-less environment will not boost self-esteem. Real self-esteem comes from reaching what you thought was your limit and discovering that you have more than you thought you did. Failure-less environments delay the inevitable life lessons that accompany failure until children are out of the nurturing environments of classroom and playground and out into the real world.
Schools (and parents and coaches) can do a great service to children by being by their side when they suffer life's failures. They can do a great service by helping them to pick up the pieces and build a stronger sense of self from the remains of a failure. Successful failing means learning how to view failure as feedback and to reframe the incident so that it becomes a powerful force in your life. Anyone can do this. It just takes practice and sometimes guidance.
I have just launched a new school program aimed at showing teachers, educators, parents, coaches and role-models how to teach children to pick themselves up when they fall. Remember, that failure is a sign of growth. Isn't that what we really want for our children (and ourselves)? That they be constantly growing and reaching new heights in their lives?
For more on my new program, click the link at the top of this page (look for "NEW").
