C+I+A=S

One of my new favorite authors is Stuart Wilde. I've been reading his book The Trick to Money Is Having Some and my inspiration for this post comes from Stuart. Stuart said on page 167, "I know that in old religions it is popular to think that God is up there pulling strings, deciding who's going to make it and who isn't. But that idea is tribal and childlike. The fact is, the Great Spirit is impartial and allows us to be as silly as we want to be for as long as we want. It does not decide for us. People who have clarity and intention make it in life, those who lack those qualities usually don't make it. It is as simple as that."

Clarity defined is being clear about something. If we are to achieve any level of success in our personal and professional lives, it's going to take clarity. Are you clear about your life and the kind of legacy you'd like to leave behind? What will you be remembered for? It's going to depend on the clarity you have right now ... or the lack thereof!

Intention is just as important as clarity. I think Stuart put those two words together to emphasize the importance of determination. And that makes good sense to me! Think about it, you can be crystal clear about what you want, but if you lack the determination to take action you're no different than the famous frogs on the lily pad story I often hear in seminars. It goes like this: 3 frogs were sitting on a lily pad. 1 decided to jump. How many were left on the lily pad? The answer? Three! You see, deciding and jumping are two different things.

The last part of this equation is action. Unfortunately, that's where many of us fizzle out! I know I do, sometimes! Like the frog, I'm still deciding instead of doing. Too afraid to just do something! But to overcome this, we simply have to do it afraid! In the words of Nike: "Just Do It!" Because I'm a big fan, my next read to help in this area is Do it Afraid!: Obeying God in the Face of Fear. I'll give you my thoughts on it after I read it.

Do you want real, tangible success? Follow this simple equation and watch your life explode with success: C (Clarity) + I (Intention) + A (Action) = S (Success).

Until next post,
Dr. Angela aka "The Purpose Professor"
"Life with no purpose is no life at all"
http://www.lifeonpurposellc.com/

Get Yourself A System

I heard a very wealthy person once say that to achieve any real level of success in our lives, we needed to have a blueprint -- a system. Then he went on to say a S-Y-S-T-E-M means: Save Yourself Time Energy and Money. However, most of us are constantly reinventing the wheel and working hard not smart because we don't have a system. Consequently, we don't see the value of a good book or an audio program designed to help accelerate our personal and professional growth.

Has anyone recommended a good book to you lately? Have you gotten an invite to a seminar or been invited to listen to a informational CD? I know you have because we are constantly being exposed to ways to change our lives; sadly, most of us are too busy to realize that the help we so desperately need keeps showing up -- we just don't recognize it!

Use the acrostic S-Y-S-T-E-M to increase your awareness and to put yourself on the fast track to living a purposefully rewarding life. The next time one of those books, invites, CDs or DVDs shows up, ask yourself if I read/listen/watch this is there a remote possibility that I may learn something that can save me time, energy and/or money? If the answer is yes, buy that dang book, listen to CD, and take the time to watch the DVD. Then put whatever you learned into action and watch your personal and professional life change for the better.

Remember ... "Life with no purpose is no life at all!"

Dr. Angela aka "The Purpose Professor"

The Power of Choice

Wow! I just finished listening to one of my mentors, Jonathan Budd, talking about the concept of self-worth, value and leadership. It was powerful and it made me think about the idea of choice.

In the end, our lives will all boil down to the choices we've made -- little choices like passing on that "sure-fire-gonna-make-you-rich-now" idea of your uncle's which turned out to be a ponzie scheme. Big choices like marrying him or her because no one else caused that lump to form in your throat or your heart to skip a beat like that. Medium choices like picking up a certain book from some obscure author that has revolutionized your life. Choices!

What all this means then, my friends, is that we must be careful with our choices, because like I said... in the end our lives will all boil down to the choices we've made!

Peace,
Dr. Angela aka "The Purpose Professor"
"Life with no purpose is no life at all!"
Life On Purpose LLC

Does Silence Have A Purpose?

In a world of iPhones, video blogs, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace -- all designed to get information to you f-a-s-t -- I think it's safe to say that we are a busy and noisy society. Plus, we are a very communicative society; we like to talk! So have you ever noticed how irritating silence can be? Or how much it bothers us when no one is talking? Or when we don't get that person on the phone immediately? Or ______ -- you just fill in the blank! It all boils down to noise. We like noise.

Is there a purpose in silence? I think so. In fact, I believe that learning to be silent is a prerequisite for learning how to listen. Because we like noise and we like to make noise, oftentimes we just flat out don't listen. To help us reframe our thoughts on silence, I offer you this tip: Cease to think of silence as irritating and start to think of silence as active listening.

Active listening defined is learning to tune in to the person speaking. An even broader definition is learning to tune in to our environment which may or may not include a person. Make a note of the five steps of active listening:

1. Ask yourself what is the real content here?
2. Ask yourself what is the real intent here?
3. Pay attention to the nonverbal cues of the person you're listening to.
4. Pay attention to your own nonverbal cues -- what vibes are you sending off?
5. Listen just to listen -- discard judgments and be emphathetic

When we learn to listen actively utilizing the five steps we will discover that silence does, indeed, have a purpose!

Until next post,

Dr. Angela aka "The Purpose Professor"
http://www.lifeonpurposellc.com"Life with no purpose is no life at all!"

One Way To Deal With Change

I'm sure you know as well as I that change is inevitable, it's continuous and it cannot be ignored. That being said, why is it so difficult for us to deal with it?

Well, this is certainly not a scientific answer, but I think we are such creatures of habit until we just hate disturbing the status quo. The vast majority of us do certain things a certain way all of the time. To suggest doing those things differently is to upset our apple cart, so to speak, and we resist it.

Maybe change wouldn't be so hard to deal with if we were to examine and adjust (change?) our view and attitude. Let me explain, change has the potential to bring some wonderful opportunities into our lives. For example, losing a job could result in someone going back to school and getting a degree.

So, here's one little tidbit of information to help you handle change more effectively: find a way to focus on the gift inherent in the change, rather than the negativity attached to it. Evaluate the change and determine how will it affect you. This will help to remove the emotionalism and replace it with rationalism.

Change happens, but it's up to us to see the potential otherwise we're sure to fall into the pothole!

The Art of Self-Discipline

If you recall, I blogged a few months ago about small changes making a big difference. Well, I have to admit that I failed to follow my own advice after a while, and that same principle started to work adversely! My small change was a large Peanut Butter Avalanche every day from The Dairy Bar. In a matter of one month, I packed on a whopping 10 pounds! It certainly made a big difference! So that's what leads me to today's blog post -- self-discipline.

Self-discipline takes a made up mind. Speakers and trainers often refer to Benjamin Franklin and his famous 13 virtues he committed to work on all of his life. Key word committed. You may be familiar with his story, but here goes in case you're not. A young Franklin first pinpointed his weaknesses then he set out to strengthen them. His thinking was left unchecked his weaknesses would ultimately lead to a life of failure. How true!

Deciding the qualities most important to cultivate, he created a daily log and focused on a different virtue every week. His list: Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity and Humility. Then he set out to work on that virtue, ultimately seeking to have a "check-free" record each week which signified his success at practicing that particular virtue. It's been said that Franklin is the father of self-improvement. He certainly set the tone for self-discipline.

What Ben Franklin teaches us is this:

• We can change
• We have to stay focused on what we want to change
• Self-discipline is an art to be practiced, otherwise the habit of failure will kick in

Hey, I'm preaching to me today, friends! Are you up for the challenge of perfecting this art form? I am!

Until next post,

Dr. Angela aka "The Purpose Professor"

"Life with no purpose is no life at all!"

The Power of Forgiveness

I preached a sermon once called, Forgiveness: From Scabs to Scars based on the very graphic illustration of picking at a wound and not allowing it to heal. When we leave it alone it scabs over and heals itself naturally, then the scab falls off leaving a scar. The scar says, "I got wounded, but I'm healed and it doesn't hurt anymore!" How many of us, though, keep picking at the wound refusing to let it heal?

The other side to that is choosing to forgive, to let something go and move on. Those of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook know that I'm shouting from the rooftop about my uncle, Ronald Cotton and his new book, Picking Cotton. You also know that Uncle Ron was positively identifed as a rapist. He spent 11 years in the NC prison system before DNA helped to free him.

What impresses me most about my uncle is his ability to forgive. He could have been a bitter man, and hated Jennifer Thompson-Cannino (the woman who accused him). Think about it. Because of her positive I.D. and eye-witness testimony he spent 11 years in jail. Instead, he forgave her. He let the wound turn into a scab so that it could turn into a scar. His forgiveness has been so powerful it has perpelled them into a world neither of them ever thought they would be in, i.e., motivational speakers, best-selling authors, and friends.

Who do you need to forgive? Yeah, I know it hurt. Yeah, I know you can't believe they would do something like that to you -- but they did -- they wounded you. But will you keep picking at it or will you let it scab over so that it can become a scar ... a badge of honor, if you will, that says, "Hey, World! I got hurt, but I got over it!"

Until next post,
Dr. Angela aka "The Purpose Professor"
"Life with no purpose is no life at all"

Plug In Your G.P.S.!

As many of you know, I travel a great deal. I would be lost (literally) without my handy Garmin Nuvi. Whenever I'm in a state and city I know very little about, I just put in an address and within a matter of seconds Nuvi begins to direct to my destination. How cool!

Well, what about life's destinations, otherwise known as goals? Where do you want to go in your life? How will you get there? I'm a big Brian Tracy fan and in his program, The Psychology of Achievement, he says that "less than 3 percent of Americans have written goals, and less than 1 percent review and rewrite their goals on a daily basis." In other words, 97-98 percent of us (if you're American) have no clue as to where we're going. We're just going -- moving along in life without a real destination. Then we find ourselves in the "coulda, shoulda, woulda" mindset looking back over a life partially lived. Oh, we might grow older but in many ways without goals we're stuck. How sad.

So, my friends, here's some inspiration for you today: plug up your G.P.S., your Goal Pointing System. Sit down and decide where you'd like to go in your life. What would you like to accomplish? Write it down. Review it. Revise it. And watch your life change!

Until next blog,
"Life with no purpose is no life at all!"
Dr. Angela aka "The Purpose Professor"

How do YOU define success?

I know a few successful people ... or do I? Well, I think it all depends on your definition of success. Was Steve McNair successful? Michael Jackson? What about Sara Palin? President Barack Obama? What about you?

Does the size of your bank account and the cars parked in your garage measure your success? I think those kinds of things are the trappings, but true success comes from within -- who are you really when the world is not looking.

The question stems from a conversation I had with one of my sons. He reminded me that when they were little, I made sure that they knew their grandparents and great grandparents. Even though I was a single mom living in Texas, every year they spent time with both sides of their family. He put success in perspective when he said, "Mom, you gave us such a gift ... the gift of knowing our grandparents."

It made me think about success and what it really means to me, and it's this:

"Living every day without regret and taking every opportunity to make real connections -- connections with family, connections with friends, and even connections with strangers. Success is lying down at night, grateful for the chance to live, learn, and love just because."

And yes, Michael Jackson was successful -- Paris proved that to the world yesterday!

What say ye?

Until next post,
"Life with no purpose is no life at all!"
Dr. Angela

The Attractor Factor

I just finished reading Joe Vitale's The Attractor Factor and I can't say enough good things about it. Talk about "life-altering"!

Here's a little tip I want to pass on to you from Joe's book... Get clear of old events, hurts, memories and beliefs (p. 155). Joes says that getting clear gives you more energy to attract what you really want out of life. Now, let me tell you how this one concept helped me.

For a while I've struggled with money, i.e., not having enough of it! Last year was ... well ... I don't even want to go there. Anyway, Joe suggested that I write down how I felt things were. He suggested using all my emotion and describing the pain, the hurts, all of the "stuff". When I did this, I started crying and really began to feel all of that negativity. Then, on Joe's suggestion, I wrote how I wanted things to be. It was descriptive and I made it real. I could see my checking account deposits. I imagined eating out and leaving a huge tip because I have more than enough. After I finished, I went outside and took the first one, set it on fire, and watched it burned. WOW! This exercise was so liberating!

From that day (about two weeks ago), I noticed my entire attitude had changed. I am happier in my seminars. I am drawing positive, upbeat, and enlightened people to me. And .... drum roll, please--money is coming to me like never before. For example, I checked my account and found out that I had made an unexpected $600 in commissions from a job.

Joe's book will help you become deliberate about your own personal development. Run, don't walk, get a copy today and change your life!

Until next blog,

"Life with no purpose is no life at all!"
Dr. Angela aka "The Purpose Professor"