Today is my birthday and I celebrate the Courage in all mothers everywhere. I really think that if anyone gets a gift, it should be my mom. The photo here is of my beautiful mother, BJ Welch. I must express my gratitude for all the years of nurturing, support and love I received. I was very fortunate to have had a great childhood. Thank you mom for all your unconditional love and the courage you exhibited throughout your life. Losing family to cancer, AIDS, a drunk driver, heart attacks, etc, has been challenging, but we have grown immensely through the process of life’s events. So I celebrate today for you. Thank you for bringing me safely into being who I am today. I dedicate Living In Courage to you. I love you.
I love this video of Sophia telling us to be kind. Being kind should be what you strive to do. All day. Every day. When you are kind to people, guess what? - they are kind to you. Imagine that! It’s pretty much that simple. Thank God for the courage and wisdom of the wonderful children of the world.
Randy Pausch was 47 years young. His courageous passing will be felt by people across the world. What an amazing man, what an amazing family. Randy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006, being told he had 3 to 6 months to live. He made every day count.
Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon University is legendary - worldwide. The video of The Last Lecture has been viewed by over 10 million people, and translated into 7 languages. This year after appearing on Oprah, Diane Sawyer, and many other interviews, a best selling book “The Last Lecture”, testifying before Congress in regards to Pancreatic Cancer, Randy has passed leaving us all feeling so blessed to have witnessed such Courage and Love.
In the news from The University of Virginia was a quote by Gabe Robins, professor of computer science at U.Va., has described Pausch as the perfect mentor - a combination of Yoda, Captain James T.Kirk, and Jim Carrey.
Randy was such an inspiration to me as a young faculty member and he became a good friend over the years,” said Robins. “The media portrayed this man exactly as he was — bright, honest and sincere. I feel lucky to count him among my friends and mentors. It is very rare to find a person that combines greatness, grace, and courage the way Randy does. I’m so glad that, through his lecture videos and recent book, the rest of the world got to know him too. Randy’s legacy will continue to inspire people for a long, long time to come.
Living in Courage sends love and condolences to Randy’s family - Jai, Dylan, Logan and Chloe.
I would like to thank everyone who left comments over the months here at Living in Courage for Randy and his family and those who continue to do so. We all hold a very special place in our hearts for a very courageous man and his wonderful family.
The movie “Living Luminaries” is a film with Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, Don Miguel Ruiz and many more Luminaries, talking about the Serious Business of Happiness. Are you living in the now moment? Are you happy? I want to share this trailer with you. I hope you enjoy the serenity and peace it conveys to a young man as he seeks for happiness in this film. Your success and happiness is important to me. Providing tools that assist in your journey is my goal at Living in Courage. This is one of those tools to add to your ever growing tool belt of courage.
Debra Oakland
You have now read steps 1 to 6, ( archived under motivation in the category section of this website) and know what its like to experience the exhilarating feelings that motivation and success will bring you. You need to be true and honest with yourself. Have you applied these steps successfully? If not, then reading these 7 simple steps has been a waste of time. There is absolutely no point in getting motivated and then putting it into a drawer and shutting it away because that’s where it will stay, shut away in the dark for ever. Be true to yourself and take action NOW, remember this, “if you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got” so I will say it again, take action and take it NOW.
I can honestly say to you that when I first learned these simple steps to motivation and success I found it difficult to come to terms with how much I had not been true to myself previously, I felt guilty. Trying something new (step 6) I discovered hypnosis and how to visualize hypnotic images, sounds, smells and feelings whenever I needed to. These 7 steps are now the cornerstone of how I live my life and hand on heart I can tell you I haven’t looked back with any regrets whatsoever. In fact, there is one regret, and that is I wish I had discovered these 7 steps to success sooner!
Motivation is the driving force of life, without it you go nowhere and stay there, but with it you can go absolutely anywhere that you want to go. Believe in the impossible and it will eventually become possible, there is a great passage in Lewis Carroll’s `Alice In Wonderland’ that reads….
“There is no use in trying,” said Alice; “One can’t believe impossible things. I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Brilliant. Take one steps a day and in a week you will be further down the path to success than you ever thought possible. Give it a try, you deserve it.
My good friend David Culiner is a true spirit of Courage, who follows no one but himself. A true Authentic. David owns and runs “Love This Life.” Do yourself a favor - visit his website for a taste of his hypnotic music and check out the clothing line. I can say that all the favorite t-shirts my husband Cody and I wear, (sweat shop free) are from Love This Life. David has quite a following - Angelina Jolie, Hallie Berry, Bruce Willis, Cameron Diaz, Chris Rock, Willie Nelson and Sting, just to name a few. Many of David’s clothing designs include the Love This Life Manifesto. People stop me over the years and ask about it, read it, and want to know where to buy Love This Life items. Now it is time for The Manifesto:
LovethisLife…
is about celebrating the moment
and that we’re not guaranteed or owed another day
and how cool it is that what we hide
can actually be the fuel towards our glory
and that it’s not so bad being proven wrong
LovethisLife…
is about welcoming the blind turn
and the possibility that
there’s no such thing as coincidence
and that empathy is incredibly sexy
and that it’s never too late to
pick up a quitar or a paintbrush
or to make an amend or to make a new friend
LovethisLive…
could be about rekindling a past flame
or igniting a new one
or shape shifting from a dreamer into a doer
or savoring the caress of a love long gone
LovethisLife…
means whatever it is
you want it to mean because
LovethisLife…
is a celebration of you and your path
LovethisLife…
‘cuz it could go at any second
you rock
Copyright 2002, David Culiner
I end with a powerful question David asks that requires courage to answer:
How are you spending your irretrievable nonrefundable allotment of immeasurable time?
H. Les Brown wrote and article on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 on Courage. This article is also about Inertia, which is critical to your success in moving forward. Enjoy and have a great day.
The Courage to Change the Things I Can
Why does change (both creating it and dealing with it) take courage? It’s certain that change requires courage, but we’re not always certain about why that should be so. To be frank, the cause can be traced back to the fundamental stopper: inertia. Whether change in movement takes place in the physical or intellectual and emotional realms remains incidental, the process is the same: it takes energy to overcome inertia. Whether it be a change in velocity or a change in direction, change requires energy and we have innumerable excuses for why we need to conserve our energy (excuses that have nothing whatever to do with the price of oil.
The cost to an individual to expend energy for change must be enormous — or at least it must be perceived that way. In the May, 2005 edition of Fast Company magazine, it was reported that over 90% of all people who have been told that their medical condition requires them to change their personal habits — or else — either fail to change them at all, or, within a short time, revert back to their old habits. Human inertia exerts a kind of extreme resistance to moving out of our comfort zone and, in many case, to moving at all. We feel much saver when we don’t need to make decisions, let alone take action. Shifting our minds and our behaviors, putting our free will into gear (and keeping it there in life’s uphill climbs) requires genuine courage.
Living a full, purposeful, inner-directed life requires — as a bare minimum — the courage to change the things you can (to paraphrase the Serenity Prayer). I often compare living a meaningful life to riding a bicycle uphill. You’ve got to peddle! If you should get tired and stop peddling, you won’t just stop, you’ll roll backwards. There are constant challenges that arise along the way for anyone who wants to live a life beyond the TV, the recliner, and the can of beer. Even then, challenges (like puberty and the midlife transition) come at you regardless of whether or not you’ve chosen to take an active role in your own life. ‘Stuff,’ as they say, ‘happens!’ How well prepared you are for those moments may well determine what kinds of ethical standards you live by, not in theory, but in fact.
You and I tend to be morally indignant and outraged when people act inhumanely to one another. And yet, chances are we’d indulge in exactly the same behavior if we were ever in those circumstances. You may remember the case of the woman in the Brooklyn, NY psychiatric hospital who collapsed on the floor of the waiting room and was stared at by almost a dozen people (including a doctor) for over an hour before anyone did anything. The woman died of a seizure. And, last month, A 78 year old man was stuck by a car crossing a busy street in Hartford, CT. He lay in the street alone and unattended while cars drove around him. Four people dialed 911 on their cell phones to report the accident, but no one stopped to check on the man until the police arrived. No one.
Indifference is a perfect example of human inertia in action. That’s what happens when we — you and I — fail to exercise our ‘courage muscles.’ If you can’t choose to make a difference for yourself, and then take action on that choice, how could you ever expect to take action on behalf of someone else? Here are five ‘reasons’ why psychologists say that you would predictably join a group of observers and fail to come to the aid of someone in need:
* Bystander Effect: “If others aren’t doing anything, I shouldn’t either (the person must not need help)” * “If something happens, I am not really responsible for it (it’s not my responsibility)” * “Others will take care of it (I have to take care of me)” * “It’s not going to make any difference anyway (there’s nothing I can do)” * Culture of indifference: “That’s not the way we do it here”
That’s why it takes real courage to extend yourself, to put yourself out for the sake of someone else. This lack of courage also explains why so many people would rather suffer than change their attitudes and behaviors. Making different choices begins with shifting your awareness. It means asking yourself the all-important question, “Why am I here?” And then, when you start to have the answer (which has to include taking care of yourself and one another), the Serenity Prayer will have even greater meaning for you:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. . . . Amen.
How committed are you to reaching your Goals? This quote came to me today from Bob Proctor. I had just finished some writing for Guide to Home Based Business, where I post blogs on utilizing courage in business. This quote is so true. With courage, combined with commitment, you will find a way and the power to do almost anything you set your mind and heart to.
If you make the unconditional commitment to reach your most important goals, if the strength of your decision is sufficient, you will find the way and the power to achieve your goals.”
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