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Posts Tagged ‘Opportunity’
Live for Now
It is important that we work towards our goals in life… personal and professional goals and aspirations… we’ve all heard that we need to keep our eye on the ball.
Past experiences, especially less than favourable ones, contribute to fears and serve only to put perceived barriers in front of us. These ‘limitations’ can prevent us from staying focused on our goals and put us into a state of accepting mediocrity.
But, for some, staying focused on some future end-result can be overwhelming at times also. Sure, we all want to achieve goals and aspirations and achieve a certain level of success. We know that if all we think about is past failures we are likely just putting ourselves into a state of inaction. The same can be said, however, of focusing to far into the future… to live only in that end result takes our focus off the now. A big goal, no matter what it is, can be daunting to think about if it’s not broken down into achievable steps that we can focus on today… steps we can take right now to get us that much closer to our goals.
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
~ Robert Brault
It’s true. For me, personally, I know that if I have a particularly big goal in front of me that focusing only on the end-result can overwhelm me and force me into a state of procrastination and making excuses… or it can take me out of the present moment and result in my absence to what is going on around me. If instead I focus on the little steps I need to take right now, and I take action to achieve those little steps, then I can be satisfied at every moment that I am getting closer to my goal while staying present for myself and those around me.
“Develop an appreciation for the present moment. Seize every second of your life and savor it. Value your present moments.”
~ Wayne Dyer
Appreciate the small things in life and take action on the steps necessary to achieve your goals. You will live a m0re fruitful life and achieve beyond your imagination if you learn to savor the moment you’re in. Furthermore, living in the now allows us to sieze opportunities as they unfold right in front of us…
“It would be incredible if we all lived every moment as if to create a memory we could cherish for a lifetime.”
~ Darren Sproat
Try Shutting Your Mouth
Communicating is so important to all facets of one’s life… from building a healthy relationship with your significant other to raising your kids to maintaining a successful career or business. In my experience, however, many people believe that being a strong communicator is equivalent to being able to effectively hear one out and react by spewing words that one believes the other wants to hear.
Communicating in such a way is not productive and can be filled with assumptions. This is all too often the case when one doesn’t make the effort to listen and understand the conversation. Instead of giving one’s attention to actually understand the conversation one simply takes the words, applies personal perception and emotion to what was heard, and reacts.
“To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well.”
~ John Marshall
Effective communications requires a person to more than simply hear and react to what is being said.
“The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention… ”
~ Rachel Naomi Remen
So, how do we listen?
It’s simple… open your eyes and ears and shut your mouth!
Step Outside Your Comfort Zone
One of the true certainties in life is that little is certain… to truly experience life, energize your passion and clear your limitations to explore all possibilities.
photo credit: chema.foces
“Relinquish your attachment to the known, step into the unknown, and you will step into the field of all possibilities.”
~ Deepak Chopra
It took me a long time to understand that stepping outside of my comfort zone was the only real means to experience new things in life. In doing so, I have overcome fears and perceived limitations in nearly every facet of my life. Every once and a while, however, I need a little reminder and the quote above from Deepak Chopra reminded me of that tonight.
Regards,
Darren Sproat
It’s Not Easy Being Green
The old orange/brown color scheme just wasn't 'me'.
My blog has experienced a number of design changes over the past year and what you see here is the latest iteration of changes taking place. The changes are not just skin deep, however… there’s a lot more happening under it’s new blue-green surface. This iteration represents the biggest change to the guts of the blog as I am now using many more tools that help make the blogging experience, both for me and for you, better.
From a cosmetic perspective, the obvious change is the one from orange/brown to blue/green/grey. On the home page you will find a slideshow featuring my most recent popular content. I tested about 4 different content rotators before I found the one that was efficient to maintain and manage while displaying the results I wanted. On the right, you will see the “Insipiration” block with random snippets, quotes, and statements that I find inspirational. Following that is a list of recent posts. On the left is a quick write up about me and the key ways connect with and stay in touch with me.
Stay tuned for a sidebar items containing links to resources I often use, free stuff, and recommended reading including links to blogs I frequent.
And, of course, the articles. I hit a block recently that I used as an excuse for not publishing what could be some really good content… I felt like I was at a cross-road not only on my blog but in my life as well. It took some interesting self discovery and a conversation with a friend who simply said, “stop trying to be perfect and write as you did when you started this, from your heart.”
More about that in some future posts. 
I’d be honored if you chose to leave me some feedback regarding the new design. Those of you who are bloggers also, if there are widgets or plugins you couldn’t live without, let me know what they are… Leave your comment now?
Regards,
Darren Sproat
Time to Remove the Masks?
Halloween marks an interesting time every year when kids of all ages (even us 30/40-somethings) dress up, wear masks and makeup, and conceal their true selves all in the name of fun… and to get boat loads of candy, of course!
I would argue that many of us wear masks every single day… to conceal fears or shortcomings, to reinforce an excuse or to convince those around us, or even ourselves, that we are something or someone we are not.
I write about being authentic a lot… I believe I’m putting my authentic self into everything I write for this blog. One individual I follow on Twitter initiated an interesting dialog with me shortly after I sent out a tweet about being authentic. The entire dialog can be summed up in one tweet…
“REVEALING authenticity is like removing layers from a “mask”. Any attempt to CREATE authenticity just adds another layer.”
~ Carl Ingalls (Follow Carl on Twitter at @Carl_Ingalls)
Carl’s tweet sums up the true means to presenting your real self… the authentic you. Peel off your masks and present the authentic you in all you think and in all you do. Resist hiding behind excuses or perceived barriers…
“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”
~ Leonardo Da Vinci
Have a safe and happy halloween…
I would be honored if you chose to leave a comment.
Regards,
Darren