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It’s about Inspiration

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Look Around

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It’s as simple as this.

Are the people around you the kind who inspire or the kind you inspire?

Maybe if you’re feeling uninspired, the balance is off.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
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Change the World: See the Light, See the Promise

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 24 Comments

Seeing What’s Inside

Change the World!

Every year at Christmas, my mother had her own tradition. She began buying gifts and wrapping them long before other folks even thought of such things. It was efficient. It was productive. It allowed her to wrap up the gifts in the same careful way that I choose my words every morning.

Gosh, the presents! They were large and small! They were tiny and incredible. They were many, and they were for so many. They sat under a tree that was decorated with such care that I realize now it must be the reason that I spend hours rearranging word that I write until they’re in order.

Under that tree and piled through the large room as proof that my mom had found a reason to return every favor, and every smile she had received. Each gift was wrapped more beautifully than the one before. The bows were crafted and carefully chosen.

The part of the tradition seems only my mother’s was that she waited until Christmas Eve to put names on the presents. Until then, every present only had a tiny number. She said that it was that we wouldn’t shake the gifts with our names and be tempted to open them early. But the result was that those little numbers filled my imagination with wonder.

You see, I didn’t sort the boxes into theirs and mine. I only saw the abundance and the promise of good surprises.

And it made me think about what could be inside the boxes. I could see them shining inside.

The light inside the gift


Imagine if we look at people — the ones we love, the ones we know, the ones we’ve not met — the same way.

Gosh, the abundance and the good surprises inside each of us! See the light? See the promise? Our light shines when we shine on them.

See the gift they are. Be the gift you are. It makes us glow from the inside out.

Thank you for the abundance and surprises you are to me.

I’m a very lucky girl.

Liz's Signature

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Change the World!.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.

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The Most Powerful Force in the Universe

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 35 Comments

In Business and in Life

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It’s been said that only two things motivate us — fear and love.

Every cause, every effect, every random act of kindness, every apparent generosity can be traced back to a fear that something will be lost or love that wants to be shared. It seems reasonable and in keeping with humans as I know us.

Through my life, I’ve found other pairs of words to describe this same concept.
In his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey talked about deprivation and abundance. Allan Cox, in his new book, Your Inner CEO, describes the looming threat and the guardian presence. I’ve often spoken of dealing from a point of weakness or a point of strength.

Each pair of words really points to the same thing. We can be motivated by a need to protect ourselves or by a feeling of open participation.

We Get to Pick

Even with our best effort and imaginings, we have no control over many things that happen around us. (Maybe we could, but I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s quite that evolved.) We have total control over how we respond to all of that input. It’s in that response that our motivation most counts. Here’s what I mean.

Living in Fear, Deprivation, and Weakness

  • When I respond with fear, people sense that I’m holding back. I know it too. I can’t bring all of my potential to a situation. Part of my brain is taken up with strategizing how I’ll respond when something goes wrong. If a friend has offered help, fear makes it easy to believe that friend thinks of me as someone in need. Life is about self-preservation.
  • When I respond from deprivation, I can’t enjoy a success of my own or of that of someone I admire. I’m always looking for what I’m lacking. If a friend gets a promotion, I think that could have been, should have been, never will be me. Life is about whether I get my piece.
  • When I respond from a place of weakness, I look for the slight in the words or the actions of the people around me. I’m protective and defensive, and I often find what I seek. Life is about whether people care about me.

Living in Love, Abundance, and Strength

  • When I respond with love, people sense I’m fully present. By definition, all of my potential is focused on the moment and the people I see. If a friend has offered help, I can answer with gratitude and partnership, believing in the good intentions that fuel the gift. Life is about enjoying the people I’m with and what we’re doing.
  • When I respond from abundance, I can enjoy every success I see, because I know that the universe has plenty for everyone. I can give what I know, because I know more will come back to me. If a friend gets a windfall, I can celebrate, knowing that my turn is still available, and my time will come. Life is about sharing good things with everyone.
  • When I respond from a place of strength, I overlook a slight misstep, and I forgive the signs that we’re all human. I know that most unkind events are merely how I interpret them and not really about me. Life is about understanding people, not them understanding me.

That last sentence of that last point is the key.

When we live in a world of fear, deprivation, and weakness, our world shrinks. We become the center. When we live in a world of love, abundance, and strength, the world expands and our lives revolve around other people.

It’s such a lonely existence to be the center of the universe. It’s an unhappy state to always be protecting things from what we imagine could be. Holding tight to one place means we never move forward.

Peak performance in business and life requires from love, abundance, and strength.

There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer . . . — Emmett Fox

Love is the most powerful force in the universe.

How will you use it to change your business and your life?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz to reach your potential.

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Change the World: One Dollar, One Euro, One Yen at at Time

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 8 Comments

Hey, Erik, How Can We Change the World?

Change the World!
This guest post was contributed by friend, J. Erik Potter. Erik’s post grew out of a conversation at Open Comments Night. He brings thoughts of our daily lives. –ME “Liz” Strauss

One Dollar at a Time

by J. Erik Potter

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.- Sir Winston Churchill

We’ve all heard it before. It’s nothing new really. If everyone would just donate $1 to a cause, we could raise millions for any cause overnight. There have always been two big problems: there wasn’t an easy way to spread the word to these millions of people and there were no means of funneling these millions of $1 donations to a deserving cause effectively. Enter the Internet.

Much like the whole “change the world” phrase appears daunting; the whole “get a million people to donate $1″ appears just as daunting. Or is it?

Through blogs and social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, word can be spread like wild fire. I just signed up for LinkedIn and have a meager 16 connections, yet through the power of the site, my message can be spread to over 77,000 other connections, a 4,800:1
ratio. If this ratio remains constant, I only need to connect directly with 208 people in order to spread my message to the magic million. 208 vs. 1,000,000 . . . that doesn’t sound as frightening. Does it?

The second part of the equation is the collection and funneling of the $1 donations. Sites like SixDegrees.org and Network for Good go a long way towards making the transaction easy. Once you’ve established an account, you can donate to one of over 30,000 charities. Their system even keeps track of your donations throughout the year for tax purposes.

The tools are here. So what’s stopping you from changing the world?
– J. Erik Potter

_______
Thanks, Erik, for showing us how.
We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Are You Fragging Your Brain with a Multitasking Traffic Jam?

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 30 Comments

I Need a Brain Defragger!!

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Does this sound familiar?

You’re working. You’re thinking, typing, planning, talking, and eating . . . all at the same time. A friend, a family member, a person you care about deeply, comes to where you are and says,

“I’ve just cut off my finger! I’m bleeding all over the carpet!”

A full-two minutes later, you actually hear what was said. You stare blankly into space as you try to process the message.

“Um. Oh. Did you just say something about the carpet?”

The message had to fight through the traffic jam on the neuropathways of your multitasking brain.

Multitasking is on its way out for me. I’ve suspected for sometime it was a major source of what made me tired and cranky.

“What?!!! Who cares what we’re having for dinner?!!”

Every new and stressful detail made me wish I had a defragmenter for my brain.

Multitasking didn’t get any more done. I was just doing more at the same time. I knew that doing many things at once is not efficient. Somehow I got sucked into the multitasking vortex, anyway.

Soon enough I thought I was developing an attention deficit. Truth is I was just fragmenting my brain.

Continuous Partial Attention

That’s what it’s called, Continuous Partial Attention — CPA. Keeping our eyes and ears alert to everything, always scanning the environment in case something we need might pop onto our radar — we use multiple screens. We check for multiple priorities.

Scanning is great when what we’re doing is routine. It’s disastrous when a task requires reflection, concentration, or humanity.

“Why do you interrupt?!!! You take your life too seriously.”

We scan because of anxiety . . . we can’t miss anything. Linda Stone described it in a Newsweek interview with Stephen Levy.

. . . there’s a problem in the workplace when the interruptions intrude on tasks that require real concentration or quiet reflection. And there’s an even bigger problem when our bubble of connectedness stretches to ensnare us no matter where we are. A live BlackBerry or even a switched-on mobile phone is an admission that your commitment to your current activity is as fickle as Renée Zellweger’s wedding vows. Your world turns into a never-ending cocktail party where you’re always looking over your virtual shoulder for a better conversation partner. The anxiety is contagious . . .

I read that and I decided to make a change.

I cleared the traffic on the neuropathways of my brain. I became my own defragger. I do one thing at a time, and I get more things done and with fewer errors.

I’m breathing slower and liking myself better.

And now, when someone talks to me, they often get a human answer. I’m pretty proud of that.

Do you need to defragment your brain?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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