photo credit: Werner Kunz

“Become a pos­si­bil­i­tar­ian.  No mat­ter how dark things seem to be or actu­ally are, raise your sights and see pos­si­bil­i­ties – always see them, for they’re always there.” ~ Nor­man Vin­cent Peale

May 22^nd, 2011

A tor­nado tears through the city of Joplin, Mis­souri – one of the dead­liest tor­na­does on record. Over 100 peo­ple lose their lives, many more are injured, and phys­i­cal destruc­tion is evi­dent every­where.

Can you imag­ine how dif­fi­cult that must be? And with so much dev­as­ta­tion, how do you even begin to recover?

Today

The peo­ple of Joplin have begun this process of heal­ing and rebuild­ing — with renewed strength in what is possible. These cit­i­zens and all the vol­un­teers help­ing out are true exam­ples of the power of the human spirit in action.

There is still much to do – the destruc­tion that hap­pened in mere min­utes will take months and pos­si­bly years to fully restore.

Today, you have the oppor­tu­nity to help sup­port this heal­ing and rebuild­ing that is hap­pen­ing in Joplin.

Together with friend and col­league Tess Mar­shall, we have teamed up to cre­ate an e-book. 

Love Care Donate

This is no ordi­nary e-book.  This is the col­lec­tive effort of over 60 writ­ers from through­out the world.  Writ­ers unit­ing together and bring­ing hope to Joplin. 

Every one of these writ­ers has con­tributed a favorite arti­cle to this e-book, cre­at­ing a won­der­ful col­lec­tion of sto­ries.  Sto­ries of inspi­ra­tion, humor, growth, and love. 

Today, Tess and I are ask­ing for your help. 

Please visit the Love Care Donate, a dona­tion page we have cre­ated to raise funds to sup­port the Heart of Mis­souri United Way in their mis­sion to bring car­ing funds to the good peo­ple of Joplin.  In addi­tion, you’ll find infor­ma­tion on how to receive this Love Care Donate e-book, our gift to you. 

There is much hope in a future filled with pos­si­bil­ity.  Together, we all can make a difference!

With deep grat­i­tude,
Lance and Tess

To all our con­trib­u­tors, thank you!

Design by Sue Alexan­der ~ Inspired Type

Note:  If you’re hav­ing trou­ble view­ing the video, please click here.

“The only gift is a por­tion of thy­self.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emer­son

Has life ever not  gone as you’ve expected it?   There are those set­backs that are minor, and we can move on in our jour­ney with­out much prob­lem (and some­times these set­backs end up being so, so good for us too).  And then there are those big­ger set­backs, that can shake us to our core.

Tess Mar­shall, from The Bold Life, and I are team­ing up to help sup­port the fam­i­lies of those affected by the recent tor­nado in Joplin, Missouri.

We’re work­ing together to raise money to sup­port these fam­i­lies, through dona­tions to the Amer­i­can Red Cross.  The Red Cross has a pres­ence in Joplin, and we’re cre­at­ing a way for you to be a part of rebuild­ing this com­mu­nity (and its peo­ple).  As our way of rais­ing money to sup­port Joplin, we’re cre­at­ing an e-book which we’ll then sell, with 100% of the prof­its going to the Amer­i­can Red Cross.

NOTE:  We’re not look­ing for your finan­cial support.

To make this a real­ity, we need your help, though.  We would love for each of you to be a part of this e-book we’re cre­at­ing.  And this e-book will be a com­pi­la­tion of favorite posts by a num­ber of dif­fer­ent blog­gers.  Please con­sider join­ing us!  All it takes is for you to choose a favorite post from your site.  That’s it!  And then we’ll include it in the e-book we’re cre­at­ing, with a link, as well, to your site.

What We Need:
Your com­mit­ment, below, to join us.  Once we’ve col­lected our list of con­trib­u­tors we’ll be send­ing out spe­cific infor­ma­tion on how you can sub­mit your favorite post to us, for inclu­sion into the e-book.

That’s it!

In early July, we’ll have the e-book cre­ated.  Note that there is no oblig­a­tion for you to buy one of the e-books.  If, how­ever, you do choose to — know that all the pro­ceeds will go to sup­port the rebuild­ing of Joplin.  We’ll be sell­ing the e-books for a sug­gested dona­tion of $5.

Thank you for all your sup­port, not only with this, but for all that you do.

If you have any ques­tions, please don’t hes­i­tate to con­tact either Tess or myself.

Share your Talents

photo credit: Pink Sher­bet Photography

“You, your­self, as much as any­body in the entire uni­verse, deserve your love and affec­tion.” ~ Bud­dha

This thing called love…

The month is Sep­tem­ber.  A sunny after­noon brings the desire to get out and explore.  Just a short drive and I’ll be there.

We’re get­ting ahead of our­selves, though.  Let’s take a step back.

The day, I’m not sure.  There were many.  Let’s say it is a mid-morning in June.  I’m hang­ing out in the sand­box, load­ing up a dumptruck with sand and dirt.  The grass, the trees, the plants…they are grow­ing around me.  I don’t notice.  The sand has my attention. 

I’m maybe eight years old.

Fast for­ward back to September. 

The sky is big, the shad­ows from the moun­tains an instant reminder of the vast­ness and grandeur of this land.  I start out along the “safe” routes.  Trav­el­ing down the high­way, stop­ping at well-marked and eas­ily acces­si­ble land­marks.  The tree lines, the water­falls, the moun­tain peaks — views that are incred­i­ble to take in.

(am I really tak­ing them in?)

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less trav­eled by,
And that has made all the difference.

~ Robert Frost

Trav­el­ing along, I turn onto a much less trav­eled road.  The views more obscured and fewer places of “inter­est” has made this road less trav­eled.  I drive, won­der­ing at what point I should abort this route and turn back.  Some­thing (that lit­tle voice within) says “go a lit­tle fur­ther”.  I hap­pen upon a park­ing lot tucked back off the road.  Maybe two other cars are here, and it seems so quiet, so still, so peace­ful.  A small pond is the play­ground for a cou­ple of ducks.  A man is fish­ing nearby, and a mother and daugh­ter are return­ing from a walk near the pond.  Another trail leads up into the deeper parts of the forest.

…the deeper parts of the forest…the deeper parts of me…

The crunch­ing of leaves as I walk along this trail, that’s all I hear.  When I stop, silence.  I wan­der, deeper into this part of the for­est, none of it known to me, and all of it known to me.

I wan­der into a clear­ing, and the path and direc­tion become not so clear.  I wan­der, not know­ing I’m wan­der­ing off the trail.  Soon enough, it’s clear I’ve found my way off any­thing resem­bling a trail.  There’s a hill, and a stream down below.  The flow­ing water draws my atten­tion, and I make my way toward it.  The car­cass of some ani­mal is near the stream.  The moun­tains sur­round­ing me are no longer vis­i­ble in the dense­ness of where I’m at.  Foot­steps along the stream, as I feel really at peace being here.

…and then I stop.

My gaze turns back, back to that small hill which brought me the stream.  It’s still there, except, it is dif­fer­ent. Where was that rock I climbed over?  Wasn’t there some­thing that looked like a path, lead­ing down to where I am?  None of that is here.

…and the sun is set­ting as a cool­ness begins to fill the air.

My heart begins to race a bit, as the thought of “lost” floats through my head.  Quickly and with­out much thought, I begin to travel back up that hill, look­ing for some­thing famil­iar, some­thing reassuring. 

Back to that sand­box for a moment. 

Every­thing around me, I know it’s there — the grass, the trees, the plants.  I know, and I don’t notice.

And to that for­est deep within…

Today I’m keenly aware of the trees, the plants, the rocks.  I notice my footsteps..does any­thing look like what I saw just ten min­utes ear­lier?  A sound…what was that?

And as quickly as it began, this feel­ing of unsassuredness…it passes.  A famil­iar sight, this big group of boul­ders, and the trail right around the corner.

Back to the Sandbox

That sand­box, it is like me.  There is love in that old box (or tire, as was the case for me).  What was out­side, it was amaz­ing and incred­i­ble.  When I was in that sand­box, though, I was focused on being in that sand­box.   I didn’t really think about it — at eight years old it was just a sand­box.  (and so much more)  See, I think that intrin­si­cally, we are love.  And at eight years old, while I didn’t define it as such, I loved life…and that was some­thing that started within.  Love the sandbox.…love the world around me.  Love me…love the world around me.

And That Sep­tem­ber Day

That Sep­tem­ber day.  Just me, far from home and all alone.  Does love for self ever feel like that?  Has the love I feel for myself ever felt like that?

I’m reminded of a time a few years back — a time where love for me wasn’t really present.  And with my own per­sonal love (real, gen­uine love) not present, my out­side view of the world (both near and far) was much more jaded, much more “see­ing the neg­a­tive”, much less openly loving.

Like this visit to the moun­tain, love…it’s like that.  There’s this path, that is much like the sur­face of who we are.  Facial expres­sions.  Appear­ance.  Friend­ships.  Fam­ily.  Etc. Etc.  There’s also a deeper part of us, too — that get­ting off of the path.  And these places “off the path”, the inner part of who we are — they can maybe seem unknown, scary, unloved, ignored, new, excit­ing, off the wall, etc, etc. 

Do you play it safe, and stay on the trails, the trails of you?  It’s so nice, this path that’s known, com­fort­able, famil­iar.  Except, are you miss­ing out on some­thing even greater — are you miss­ing out on con­nect­ing fully with who you are and the real that comes from know­ing you, see­ing you, lov­ing you?

…and I wan­der off the trail, the nicely marked trail called “my life”…

And I find these amaz­ing things that are me.  (and maybe some things I don’t really like all that well, too…the messy part)

That is me, though — all of these parts, and it’s so much more than the clearly marked trail (the image we present to the outer world).

Self Love Is

…con­nect­ing with who I am

…the imper­fect me, formed in perfection

…the nooks and cran­nies that are part of me, the things that no one sees and only I know

…the dark corners

…and the light

…is like a sand­box and veer­ing off the trail

…start­ing within and going out

Here’s How It Works For Me

When I choose to love me — the whole me — for who I am, it’s a self­less love.  It’s a self­less love as I’m con­nect­ing with me on a deeper and more per­sonal level.  And when I do, I love the world around me more fully, more genuinely…

How about you?  When you choose to get off the clearly marked trail of “you”, what do you see?  And do you love what you are being?

L O V E

…is beau­ti­ful…

Enjoyed read­ing my story of self-love?  Well, there’s more! You can also read the rest of the sto­ries writ­ten by online per­sonal devel­op­ment blog­gers in a Self Love Sto­ries Report. Eve­lyn Lim started the ball rolling by shar­ing her story in the post Self Love Story: Lessons from the Heart.  She had writ­ten it in response to an intu­itive call to cre­ate greater Self Love Aware­ness.  Eve­lyn and I are com­pil­ing this report together, and it will be avail­able as a free down­load soon!

photo credit: Stuck in Customs

“We shall not cease from explo­ration
And the end of all our explor­ing
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”

~ T.S. Eliot

What are You Exploring?

Two months ago and it just sort of hit me.

Why am I doing this?  

That was the ques­tion I asked myself…I asked, and didn’t have an answer.  Well…not an answer that really felt “right”.

On the sur­face, it sure looked like every­thing was good and fine. {with every­thing in my life}  On the surface…until I looked a bit deeper. 

Have you ever had that feel­ing like you’ve been the “ham­ster on the wheel”, just going in circles…except, for why?  {Why do you do the things you do?}  Or, for me:  why was I doing the things I did?  And when I paused long enough to ask myself that question…I just didn’t have a good answer for the why. 

We all have amaz­ing gifts we bring to this world.  You.  Me.  Everyone. 

Have we become like the ham­ster, though?  Are our lives like the ham­ster wheel, as we blindly spin through our day…and then start it all over again? 

…and on the sur­face it all looks good and wonderful…

That makes me think about the image we project, is it our true image? 

Or do we cre­ate safety zones.  Safety zones such as our job, our fam­ily, our hob­bies, our habits.  Safety zones that give us that sur­face look of good and fine?  Safety zones that buffer our true image?  Is there some­thing deeper beyond these safety zones, though? 

{Are there parts of you that feel vul­ner­a­ble?  Is there a zone that feels unsure?  Do you some­times won­der why…why you’re doing what you do?}

Back to these last cou­ple of months for me…(it seems like I am eas­ily side­tracked…)  A time to explore the “why” behind all that I do, all that I am.

A time to go past that safety zone (the one of career, fam­ily, this site…).

…a time to go deeper, a time to lis­ten, a time to be…

Some­times, per­haps, that has to be a very soli­tary jour­ney.   Not a time to be an open book…a time to open the book.  Not a time to lay it all on the line…a time to really see the line.  Not a time to bare the soul…a time to look into soul, in all its nakedness.

And so it has been.

The Com­mit­ment

I don’t even remem­ber now, what it was that trig­gered the thought…the thought of tak­ing this blog­ging sab­bat­i­cal I’ve been on.  I’ve decided it doesn’t mat­ter, though.  What’s mat­tered is what this time has meant.  What’s mat­tered is the com­mit­ment I made to do this, because it just “felt right”.  You know that “voice within”…your intu­ition, gut feel­ing, inner vibe, sixth sense..  We all have this (now, whether we are lis­ten­ing or not…that’s another story). 

It felt, in a way, like I was aban­don­ing every­thing I had cre­ated here in this space.  {have you ever felt like you’re aban­don­ing some­thing deeply mean­ing­ful to you?}

That voice though, when I really lis­tened, was speak­ing very clearly.  Was speak­ing very clearly to me.

And so, a com­mit­ment to pause.

More than just a com­mit­ment to pause, though — this was a com­mit­ment to me, to be still and listen.

Might it feel vul­ner­a­ble? {yes}

Might it take me out of the safety zones I por­trayed? {yes}

Might I sway off course from my own per­sonal com­mit­ment? {yes}

Might it all be so worth it, all that would come from this com­mit­ment to me?  {a resound­ing yes}

These past many weeks have been all of this. 

• I’ve ques­tioned if I really know my pur­pose here (both here in this space, and for my time here on earth). 
• I’ve ques­tioned how much it mat­ters that I know this. 
• I’ve ques­tioned if I’m liv­ing fully and authen­ti­cally to words which hold deep mean­ing for me:

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intel­li­gent peo­ple and the affec­tion of chil­dren … to leave the world a bet­ter place … to know even one life has breathed eas­ier because you have lived.  This is to have suc­ceeded.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emer­son

• I’ve ques­tioned what it means to be vulnerable. 
• I’ve ques­tioned the why of all that I do. 
• I’ve ques­tioned what holds me back from shin­ing my own light.

And I’ve com­mit­ted to liv­ing.  Living…in the full sense of that word, and all it brings with it.

The Emerg­ing

So today I return to this space…and every­thing is the same, and every­thing is different.

The emerg­ing will con­tinue (as per­haps, on some level, it does for all of us).  For me, this emerg­ing is with deeper clar­ity and purpose.

Today, I choose to con­tinue to emerge…emerge not just on the sur­face, but from all parts of me.   And this space will con­tinue to evolve as this new unfold­ing continues.

How about you?  How do you choose to emerge?

photo credit: K2D2vaca

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less trav­eled by,
And that has made all the difference.

~ Robert Frost

May our jour­ney together here con­tinue to enlighten all of us…

photo credit: B Rosen

“Seek first to under­stand, then to be under­stood” ~ Stephen Covey

“Are you lis­ten­ing to me?”

“Do you under­stand what I’m saying?”

“Are you really lis­ten­ing to me?”

“Lis­ten a hun­dred times; pon­der a thou­sand times; speak once.” ~ Turk­ish Proverb

How well do you under­stand, before you speak?

A Story

This past week­end, my wife and I orga­nized and ran a bas­ket­ball tour­na­ment, with a total of 64 teams vis­it­ing our gyms over the course of two days.  (well…the hon­est answer is that mostly my wife, Lora, orga­nized it…and every­thing came together in really amaz­ing ways!).   And she came up with the great (well…in whose eyes!?!?) way of field­ing every­thing that came up over the week­end.  She would take on any com­pli­ments and kind words.  I would take care of any and all com­plaints.  (wait…who got the bet­ter deal here???)

Really, every­thing ran smoothly over the week­end (see, that kept HER busy — gra­ciously accept­ing compliments!!)

Of course, with the sheer num­ber of peo­ple that crossed through our doors, the week­end was not inci­dent free.  While every­thing that came up was minor, it also just really high­lighted some­thing very important.

“I just want to be heard and valued”.

One par­tic­u­lar inci­dent involv­ing a coach and a ref­eree involved me “get­ting involved” (…that com­plaint depart­ment duty I took on!!).  I made it a point to take time alone with the coach, and with the ref­eree — to really under­stand their points.  And I also took time to bring every­one together to share.  After our group meet­ing, I made a point of again talk­ing to each party indi­vid­u­ally — to one more time, make it clear that their input was val­ued, and their con­cerns being heard. 

I chose to lis­ten impar­tially to each per­son.  I chose to recon­nect with these same per­sons again, and to lis­ten one more time.

And I chose to reply with my own thoughts only after know­ing that every­one had fully shared their views (and when I was asked for my thoughts). 

I share this, because it demon­strates, very clearly, the impor­tance of lis­ten­ing, or per­haps even more than that — of under­stand­ing (both spo­ken word and non-spoken word).

“The real­ity of the other per­son lies not in what he reveals to you, but what he can­not reveal to you. There­fore, if you would under­stand him, lis­ten not to what he says, but rather to what he does not say.” ~ Kahlil Gibran

While I could cer­tainly not fully under­stand either of these men in the few min­utes we had together, I could seek to under­stand through their words, their actions, their non-verbal signs.  In doing that, and in respect­ing them — I cre­ated a place of open dia­logue.  In that mutual respect, every­one left our “meet­ing”, with an under­stand­ing that they were val­ued — and with a pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence even in light of this “issue”.

…by my open and gen­uine lis­ten­ing to them…

Y-O-U

So, think about this?  How are you doing at really lis­ten­ing?  Are you seek­ing to under­stand BEFORE you seek to be understood. 

If we have not taken the time to hon­estly and gen­uinely under­stand, rarely will we come close to “get­ting it right” on what some­one else is think­ing (and to a greater extent — feeling).

Per­haps an even big­ger part of this is how we choose to value the per­sons with whom we come in con­tact with.  By lis­ten­ing, by show­ing we care, by seek­ing to under­stand first — we touch upon the soul of another being.  We touch upon the soul, by valu­ing each person. 

There is no way we can even begin to under­stand the path that has brought some­one to where they are today — just by mak­ing some generalizations. 

There is no way we can know that his mother just passed away, after a long bat­tle with cancer.

There is no way we can know that her child has been sick, and she is worried.

There is no way we can know that he just cel­e­brated his granddaughter’s first birthday.

There is no way we can know that she is just start­ing down the road of an unplanned pregnancy.

There is no way we can know that his car needs major repairs, and he’s been liv­ing pay­check to paycheck.

There is no way we can know that she just was accepted into the col­lege of her choice.

There is no way we can know that he still faces the demons that haunt him from child­hood abuse.

There is no way we can know that she is being re-united with her birth mother after twenty years.

…

Seek first to understand…

And we may or may not reach these deeper lev­els.  That’s all okay.  In valu­ing another, we touch upon the human con­di­tion, that which con­nects all of us.  This is so much more than race, creed, social stand­ing, etc.  This is about our human­ity — about the value of human life.  Not just mere exis­tence, but the depths of our pur­pose, our life direc­tion, our need for love…

This is also part of the jour­ney for each of us — for me, for you.  I am a work in progress — some­times really “get­ting” this, and other times com­pletely miss­ing these moments to “understand”.

As you con­tinue on YOUR jour­ney, may you con­tinue to cre­ate deeper bonds as you seek also to more fully under­stand those who travel this path with you.

Every­one matters.

You mat­ter.

You are valued. 

…and life is a great adventure…

Note:  If you are hav­ing trou­ble view­ing this, please click here.

“I love peo­ple who make me laugh. I hon­estly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a mul­ti­tude of ills. It’s prob­a­bly the most impor­tant thing in a per­son.” ~ Audrey Hep­burn

Laugh and Get Rich!

Feb­ru­ary 8^th:  Do you know what is sig­nif­i­cant about this day?

It is offi­cially also known as “Laugh and Get Rich Day”!

If you are read­ing this on Feb­ru­ary 8^th…LAUGH!!!  Right now…let that laugh in you out!!

And, shoot — even if it’s not Feb­ru­ary 8^th…LAUGH!!! 

Ahhhh…doesn’t that feel AMAZING!!

Laugh and get rich!  Okay, I’m not going to guar­an­tee that by laugh­ing you’ll become richer mon­e­tar­ily.   I DO have a guar­an­tee, though:  Laugh and you WILL become richer.

Richer in your health

Richer in your relationships.

Richer in our well-being

…richer in your soul…

So, let’s all…

CELEBRATE!! (…and have a good time!)

Laugh and get rich!!!!

Guar­an­teed!

Per­haps you need some help to get those laughs com­ing (although I’m all for laugh­ing for no rea­son at all, too!).  Let me share a story with you.

Adven­tures in Travel

I recently spent sev­eral days in Cal­i­for­nia (attend­ing a con­fer­ence and vis­it­ing some very amaz­ing peo­ple).  That’s not what I’m talk­ing about today, though.  I’m talk­ing about my trav­els TO California. 

I was fly­ing form Mil­wau­kee, WI to San Diego, CA…with a lay­over in Las Vegas, NV.  The plane I was on was also the plane going on to San Diego (so I would not have to get off the plane in Las Vegas).  When we landed in Las Vegas, every one of the other pas­sen­gers exited the plane (seems as though all trav­el­ers EXCEPT me were on there way to Vegas, baby!).  There was to be about a 45 minute lay­over before this plane would be leav­ing for San Diego.  I chose to stay on the plane.  So, it was just me and the stew­ardesses (and a guy restock­ing the kitchen area) on the plane. 

NOTE:  The next part may con­tain TOO MUCH INFORMATION (you’ve been warned!)

This stop­ping point also seemed like a good place to visit the air­plane lava­tory (because, well…too much cof­fee and water…).  So, I wan­dered to the back of the plane to use the restroom.

I squeezed into the small room, locked the door, and began to unzip.

At that moment (mid-zip), one of the stew­ardesses got on the inter­com and said, “To the gen­tle­man who just went into the restroom.…HANG ON!!!!!”. (said with conviction!)

…let me just say…

FREAKY!!!!!  (and…it’s a good thing I was in the restroom!!!)

She then con­tin­ued to talk to me, over the inter­com, while I used the restroom (the WHOLE time I was in there!).

Why?  Just for fun!!!  Just because she had never done that before.  Just because…

How cool is that!!!  (well…after you get over the freaky-ness of it all!)   And the thing was, after that restroom “inci­dent”, there was an instant con­nec­tion between myself and both of the stew­ardesses.  That moment cre­ated con­nec­tion (…as weird as that “moment” sounds…).  That moment cre­ated a space for friend­ship, how­ever brief, to begin…

In case you are wondering…and I’m glad to share — the air­line was South­west Air­lines…which, from my expe­ri­ence, their employ­ees have a whole lot of fun at their work!!

So there you have it — your LAUGH for today!

Now…go out and laugh even more!!

Rich­ness (beyond mea­sure and in so many ways) awaits!

To those of you with inquir­ing minds, I know of this very spe­cial day (Feb­ru­ary 8^th), from a cal­en­dar I received this year…that has some­thing to cel­e­brate every day of the year!

A cou­ple of good ones com­ing up:

Feb­ru­ary 19^th:  Choco­late Mint Day! (yum!!)
March 18^th:  Awk­ward Moments Day (wow…who knew I could have just saved these moments all up for just one day each year!)

photo credit: Marty.FM

“There is only one suc­cess — to be able to spend your life in your own way.” ~ Christo­pher Mor­ley

What is suc­cess anyway? 

How do YOU define it?

Per­haps we’ll hear of some­one who has “hit it big”, who has all the toys, who lives in the biggest house, who…

Per­haps that is you.  Your neigh­bor.  The guy dri­ving down the street.  The woman com­mut­ing an hour to work every­day.  The kid vol­un­teer­ing at the food pantry.  The retiree who just won the lottery. 

Is there some­thing deeper, though, that makes this life we are liv­ing more mean­ing­ful?  Is there some­thing else there, adding depth to our years?

I believe, very much, that this con­cept of a deeper suc­cess is way more than what we can see on the out­side look­ing in.

In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intel­li­gent peo­ple and the affec­tion of chil­dren … to leave the world a bet­ter place … to know even one life has breathed eas­ier because you have lived.  This is to have suc­ceeded.”

Suc­cess and mean­ing in life, some­thing really much deeper than what we see in terms of things, accom­plish­ments, and posi­tion. Suc­cess, true suc­cess, is some­thing that comes from within. 

Comes from HOW we are liv­ing are lives.  Comes from WHY we do what we do.  When we con­nect more deeply with these how’s and why’s, we reach suc­cess at a much more mean­ing­ful level.

Suc­cess and Deeper Mean­ing in this Life:

With that, I give you eleven indi­vid­u­als who I believe exem­plify what suc­cess is truly all about.  Read below as they share their pearls of wis­dom on suc­cess and mean­ing on this life journey.

Holly Latty-Mann:
As I evolve on this jour­ney, so does my def­i­n­i­tion of suc­cess.  Suc­cess is no longer cre­at­ing a life void of mis­for­tune or pain, as those are the very ele­ments that cre­ate the fiber from which deep, mean­ing­ful suc­cess is spawned.  Suc­cess is there­fore man­ag­ing with grace and dig­nity what­ever mis­for­tune befalls me. And the other half of what gives deep mean­ing to my sense of suc­cess is that feel­ing of peace­ful joy as I cel­e­brate daily the hun­dreds of things that do go right in my world.  With grat­i­tude and grace, every­thing else falls into place.

Scott Strat­ten:
Suc­cess to me is being able to sup­port my fam­ily and myself. And when I say sup­port, that doesn’t mean just finan­cially, but emo­tion­ally as well.  One can usu­ally cloud the other.

Patience Sal­gado:
I so often want to define or attach suc­cess to big indi­vid­ual accom­plish­ments, but I’m learn­ing more and more every­day that true suc­cess lies in a mil­lion small acts that together reveal a whole life, a whole pas­sion, a whole heart. For me, this makes the every­day so much more mean­ing­ful, know­ing that each small act of kind­ness, love, truth, or courage really do matter. In these acts of con­nect­ing and mov­ing with this intent through the world, we push beyond our­selves and into cre­at­ing some­thing so much big­ger, suc­cess for us all.  

Daniel Pink:
Suc­cess, to me at least, is leav­ing the world (and your own lit­tle patch of that world) a lit­tle bet­ter than you found it. If peo­ple are some­how bet­ter off — mate­ri­ally, intel­lec­tu­ally, spir­i­tu­ally — because of your pres­ence, that’s pretty good.

Rachel Den­ning:
Suc­cess is not a big home, a large income, and all the ‘stuff’ that’s involved in the pea­cock pageant. Suc­cess comes from qui­etly and con­fi­dently liv­ing on pur­pose, mov­ing toward your dreams, and liv­ing sim­ply within your means. It’s the feel­ing you get when you’re liv­ing right.

Kerry Tay­lor:
Suc­cess is an organic apple in one hand, and a tool sharp enough to share the fruit with oth­ers with­out fear of bleeding.

Chris Guille­beau:
Suc­cess is con­tin­u­ous improve­ment of cir­cum­stances and mean­ing­ful adventure.

Maren Kate:
Suc­cess is almost an ethe­real “I’ve arrived” feel­ing — not 100% how to describe it but I know I’ll know it when it comes.  The deep­est mean­ing I get from fol­low­ing the entrepreneur’s path is the feel­ing of going against the grain and build­ing some­thing I can be proud of.

Seth Godin:
I think you’re suc­cess­ful once you cre­ate work that mat­ters, some­thing that was fright­en­ing to cre­ate and pow­er­ful to behold.

Chris Bro­gan:
Suc­cess means improv­ing every ele­ment of my life (fam­ily, work, fit­ness, wealth) a lit­tle bit every day and being able to smile more each time I see the results of my efforts.

Liz Strauss:
On this jour­ney, I get deep mean­ing from con­nect­ing with peo­ple where they live — in their heads, in their hearts, and in the way they view the world. Every per­son brings me some­thing I didn’t know and would have learned with­out that par­tic­u­lar con­nec­tion. If I lis­ten with who I am I often find they reveal truth and trust that shines bril­liantly and that inspires me to live bet­ter, be bet­ter, and bring my best game to the world.

While every­one who shared here has words that are slightly dif­fer­ent, there is one over-riding theme.  Suc­cess and mean­ing in this life are very per­sonal and so much more than any phys­i­cal things we might obtain.  Suc­cess is truly in liv­ing this thing called life.

To each of you:  thank you for the gifts you bring to this world, for the con­nec­tion you cre­ate from a place of authen­tic­ity, and for your being here to add mean­ing and depth with your thoughts.

Suc­cess:

For me, I find deep per­sonal mean­ing in this life from liv­ing in a place that con­nects my heart and soul out­ward.  When I do this, when I’m aligned with my own inter­nal com­pass — I suc­ceed.  When I come from this place, when I form con­nec­tions at a deeper level — I suc­ceed.  When I love…I succeed…

And you do, too.  You do, when you lis­ten to that voice within and move more fully toward your own true peak.

What is suc­cess, anyway?

How do YOU define it?

Com­ing next week!  Many updates to the Jun­gle of Life web­site, and the release of the e-book with the same name as this site:  Jun­gle of Life | a jour­ney toward your true peak.

Enter your name and email address in the side­bar to receive the e-book as soon as it is released. 

Jun­gle 2.0…the jour­ney continues…

photo credit: Mitra Mir­shahidi–

“If the essence of my being has caused a smile to have appeared upon your face or a touch of joy within your heart, then in liv­ing, I have made my mark.” ~ Thomas L. Odem

The per­ma­nent ele­ment of your being.  That which is within you.

More than your name.  More than some­thing you stud­ied (are study­ing) in school.  More than some some job title you hold.

Who are you?

Deep within YOU, what is it that makes you so unique, so amaz­ing, so incred­i­ble, so YOU?

What is your essence?

Discover…and LIVE!

What is it that makes you come alive, lose track of time, imag­ine the pos­si­bil­i­ties, jump up and down, get lost in thought, smile for no rea­son at all?

Find that piece of YOU – that piece which sings YOUR song!

You are remarkable!

You are amazing!

You are incredible!

You are fan­tas­ti­cally and per­fectly made!

You rock!

You shine!

You make me jump up and down…with all that IS possible!!

Y O U  !!

~ Com­ments Closed ~