Inspire Me Today - Today's Brilliance

Today's Brilliance from Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian

Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

A dream fuelled by purpose, fired by passion and followed with persistence will definitely change the world. ~Dr Mani Sivasubramanian

If today were my last day on Earth and I could share 500 words of brilliance with the world, here are the important things I'd want to pass along to others...

If I had five minutes to tell my daughter what I believe to be the success of living happily, this is what it would be...

Have a dream. It may be lofty or small - but it should be yours. And it must do two things. It should make you happy. And it should be of value to others.

Live your dream with passion. Passion is the energy that fires the spark of your desire, fans it into a glorious flame, and shows off your radiant brilliance.

Pursue your dream with determination. Believe with all your heart that it will come true, no matter how remote or difficult or impossible it may seem at the moment.

Dare to be different. Throw off the shackles of what is 'regular' or 'conventional' or 'accepted' - and follow your heart. Yes, it is often scary, unnerving and terrifying to give up the familiar and the secure to follow your dreams. It takes a lot of courage. Find it.

Feel gratitude. Wake up every morning feeling thankful for all the things you have - even the ones that, until now, you've taken for granted. Think about those who do not have those things.

Also, be a little crazy. Have a little fun. Let that little child within you come out and enjoy itself every now and then.

Have a personal philosophy that directs all that you do. Mine is a simple four-word mantra... "Be Kind. Help Others."

And in the end, have no regrets. We are all human, and therefore imperfect. We will always make mistakes. And that's ok. Yes, things could have been better. But they also could have been worse.

The only question you must ask yourself is this: "Did I do my best?"

I hope your answer will be "Yes, I did."

That's all that matters.

Today's Brilliance from Stephen Simon

Stephen Simon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

If today were my last day on Earth and I could share 500 words of brilliance with the world, here are the important things I'd want to pass along to others...

The drumbeat of doom and gloom about the so-called end of the Mayan Calendar in December, 2012 can now be heard, seen, and read with increasing frequency in all forms of media.

Apocalyptic books about 2012 are on publishing schedules worldwide. Networks are preparing documentaries and series about the "end times". Here are some upcoming movie titles in just 2009 and 2010: Nostradamus: 2012 2012:The Earth Was No More 2012: The War for Souls, and my personal favorite title so far: 2012:The Day the Earth Bent Over. And we still have 2011 and 2012 to go!

An entire industry is being fashioned around that December, 2012 date, almost all of which is designed to worry, terrify, and depress as many people as possible.

To which I have two responses:

1) Phooey!
2) Your electricity and credit card bills will still have to be paid in January, 2013, so please don't assume otherwise.

The millions of us who have made a commitment in this lifetime to evolution and hope, rather than despair and destruction, must now be vocal and steadfast. If we're right, and I personally know we are, we can help ease the fear for so many others who truly do fear that the world will physically end in 2012. If we're wrong, and they're right, they can scold us when we all pass over together in whatever cataclysm descends upon us. But please don't bet on the occurrence of that fire and brimstone moment, financially or otherwise. As I said above, there are a whole of people who are going to be shocked to see that the outer appearance of life is going to look awfully similar in January 2013 as it did the month before.

Remember the last "disaster" moment of Y2K? New Year's Eve of 1999, or was it 2000? People who awakened on January 1, 2000 to find that Hal of 2001: A Space Odyssey had not become the ruler of the world, then told us that the next New Year's Eve, 2000, would be the moment of mayhem. Well, unless you drank too much on December 31, 2000, or had a terrible date or something, January 1, 2001 looked pretty much the same as the day before.

There is no reason for us to assume that our outer, physical world is coming to an end in 2012. There is at least as much evidence, if not more, that the 2012 phenomenon bespeaks an inner, spiritual demarcation point for humanity. And that is the crucial distinction that those of us who believe in the manifest destiny of human evolution must champion as we approach December 2012.

THE CHOICE IS OURS AND OURS ALONE. We indeed can choose light over darkness, evolution over destruction, and enlightenment over extinction. This is our exquisite moment. We have the power now to assure not only our survival but also the manifestation of our most profound dreams for our species.

I choose the light and invite you to stand with me.

Today's Brilliance from David Neagle

David Neagle — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

If today were my last day on Earth and I could share 500 words of brilliance with the world, here are the important things I'd want to pass along to others...

The Power of Belief To Transform Your Experience

I just had a great conversation with a friend who was telling me about some business associates who have had a complete turn around on their dream.

A few months ago, they were enthusiastic and on fire for their future. Unfortunately, they didn't keep their mental doors locked ... and something negative slipped in, and they dropped the pursuit of their dream.

All failure begins this way.

People may have high hopes, but when their perceived circumstances suggest a lesser outcome is more likely (perhaps via an unexpected obstacle), this perceived discrepancy becomes the initial seed of failure.

Being unaware of how this process destroys the dreams of countless people, they fall victim to its seduction.

Take a look at what happens and how this process works:

1. We all have two parts in our thinking: One is our dream or goal, and the second is the belief that it might not ever happen. This is where most people start out.

2. Next, something begins to spark or inspire a person to take action on their dream. (Yet, not having a full understanding of the Laws of Success, they are actually moving in the direction of their dream with a great deal of ignorance. Ignorance is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as a person stays open to what he/she must learn along the way. The problem is many individuals are not open to growth and change.)

3. Their subconscious manifests an obstacle to keep them from experiencing anything "new". This new challenge is perceived as a point of failure.

It is at this point in a person's journey where moving forward becomes too painful or fearful, and a person usually chooses to stay "safe". The truth, however, is that this is also the point where moving forward would allow a person to see the bigger win they are hoping for!

You see, YOUR beliefs control your perception of everything in your world, which in turn creates your reality. If you want to change your reality, you must use new information to change your beliefs AND your perception. Until you see things differently, you will continue to makes choices that keep you where you are. And eventually, you will give up on your dreams.

In other words, your experiences reflect your belief system. This means that if there is anything in your life you don't want to experience all you need to do to change "it" is to change the belief that caused "it" in the first place!

In theory, it's really simple... but in practice, many people find it difficult because they really don't understand all beliefs are nothing but illusions anyway. But these illusions are so strong people think that they are real when actually they are not.

The power of belief is astounding. I encourage you to study its mysteries for yourself and see what changes you truly do have the power to make.

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Note from Gail....

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Hugs,

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Today's Brilliance from Kate Romero

Kate Romero — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

If today were my last day on Earth and I could share 500 words of brilliance with the world, here are the important things I'd want to pass along to others...

Coming from a background of being given away to a stranger at six months old, unspeakable abuse, and spiritual, emotional and physical trauma, I was given every reason to fail...it is my passion and my honor to sooth the rattled souls who where told unspeakable falsehoods about who they are and what they could be.

Speaking of my life memories is to help you to recognize and interpret your own memories. Everything you need to know is inside of you. It has been for millennia. Sometimes the simplest reminders, be it overhearing a child in the grocery store say something to their sibling, Mother or Father, or our own intuition, it has the power and potential to unequivocally unlock our innate truth that will cause us to take off the brakes in our lives and learn to venture unafraid where ever our heart leads us. What will be different about this approach is that I am addressing memories under the belief system that before my birth, I chose my family of origin, my location of birth, my socioeconomic issues, and the path I would take, the circumstances on that path, and every single person I would meet along every purposeful step of my life.

This concept applies to even you if you were drawn to this venue and have found these words on this page. It was not an accident.

Regardless of circumstances, and without exception, I believe that every person we meet is here to move us toward our destiny. In order to appreciate perfection, we have chosen an imperfect world to explore. I am a firm believer that you really can make Lemonade out of anything. Rather than believing the world is conspiring to do us harm, we can choose to believe that the world is conspiring to do us good. With joy and childlike innocence, I welcome one and all to this experience.

I believe through my own memories and experiences that a child repressed is like a basketball being held under the water. It is hard to sustain its submergence, yet when released, the basketball flies with a force to be reckoned with high into the air out of the water far above its oppressor to be born again, and forever to remain buoyant. Without confinement, one cannot know freedom.

I have learned through many lessons that regardless of outside circumstances, when I focus on the good in everything, the good in everything becomes all I see.

If you want to learn more about the events that could have stopped me from living life fully and from the places I have been and the life I have lived, please go to www.huckleberrymemoirs.com for chapter samples of the stories that have made up the experiences from which I speak.

Today's Brilliance from Jim MacLaren

Jim MacLaren — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

If today were my last day on Earth and I could share 500 words of brilliance with the world, here are the important things I'd want to pass along to others...

The Strength to Engage Life

Appearances can be deceiving. Jim MacLaren is living proof. Confined to a high-tech wheelchair, his left leg missing below the knee, MacLaren at first glance might seem vulnerable. His condition is the result of two devastating accidents, eight years apart, which reduced him from a collegiate football star and aspiring actor to an amputee and then a quadriplegic. Yet this man, one who doctors predicted would never move below the neck, has nurtured such remarkable inner strength that has and continues to inspire millions. That's Jim MacLaren's reality, but only part of the full life Jim ensures himself everyday. This former champion triathlete has much to teach us and reciprocally knows and is grateful for all that is still ahead for him to learn.

"There are times I don't like the way my life went, but that doesn't mean that I'm not in love with life," says the 43-year-old motivational speaker who created the Choose Living Foundation. "Is it fair what's happened to me? No, of course not. So what? I still have to get up in the morning. By engaging life, by moving what few muscles I have, my bed suddenly becomes an exercise mat."

At 14, MacLaren found acceptance at Vermont Academy, an exclusive boarding school where "there's nothing to do but play sports and study". Following his passions for sports and performance brought Jim to the next level. His academic success propelled MacLaren to an Ivy League education at Yale where he not only excelled in his course studies, but also lacrosse and football. He majored in theater studies while morphing into a 300-pound defensive end for the Bull Dogs.

Finishing his undergraduate work in 1985, he ventured to New York City, to train at the Circle in the Square Theatre School on Broadway. Three weeks later, leaving a late-night rehearsal session on his motorcycle, MacLaren was broadsided by a 40,000-pound city bus. Rushed to Bellevue Hospital, he was initially diagnosed as "dead on arrival."

After 18 hours of surgery doctors stabilized a comatose MacLaren and made a decision that would shape the next eight years of his life. They amputated his left leg below the knee. He awoke from his coma, rehabbed diligently, and attempted to resume his graduate studies at the Yale School of Drama. There, he started swimming, and picked up a book on triathlons that sparked his imagination. Soon, MacLaren was ready to resume life as an athlete, as a triathlete. "I felt like I was back in it, back in life," he says. "I didn't compete against other people. I was competing against me. A buddy once said, 'Mac, nobody cares how fast you go, they just love that you're doing it.'

"I told him I care. I never wanted to be taken for granted, as that guy with the fake leg. So I just kept pushing myself."

MacLaren became a media sensation in the fledgling sport of triathlons, paving the way for a new generation of disabled athletes. He competed and set scores of records in some of the toughest races on the planet, including the New York City Marathon and the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii, and routinely finished ahead of 80 percent of the able-bodied athletes.

Then, on June 6, 1993, his life took another cruel turn. He was in Mission Viejo, California, racing another triathlon. Two miles into the bike leg, on a closed course, a traffic marshal misjudged MacLaren's speed approaching an intersection. The marshal directed a van to cross the street, and the van and MacLaren collided. Hurled into a signpost, MacLaren broke his neck at the C5 vertebrae, paralyzing him.

Slowly, MacLaren pulled himself back again, grappling with seemingly insurmountable obstacles and even reclaiming some motor function of his limbs. Most importantly, he fostered an inner force that enabled him to act in ways he couldn't as an able-bodied athlete. "It took two years of self study, going deep, and then deeper again," he says. "And, sometime in 2000-2001, I chose life."

MacLaren's Choose Living Foundation, which he launched in 2005, and his ongoing speaking engagements are a distillation of those experiences that have shaped and changed Jim's every day. While it sounds simple, even simplistic, MacLaren doesn't shy from the no-nonsense challenge that such a straightforward moniker entails.

Today, MacLaren considers himself blessed not only because of the enlightenment achieved through his recoveries, his studies and self-exploration, but also because his speaking schedule allows him to impart those lessons. He's grateful for the exposure that came his way when he and Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2005 ESPY Awards, and the ensuing widespread media attention, including televised appearances with Oprah Winfrey and Jim Rome.

While working as a motivational speaker, Jim refuses to cast himself as a victim and has garnered two masters' degrees, and is currently working toward his Ph. D. in mythology and depth psychology. MacLaren also understands the opportunity he's been given to motivate others, and readily accepts that responsibility, offering his own experience as example.

A friend recently told him of a girl at a high school basketball game in rural Pennsylvania wearing a T-shirt that said: "What would Jim MacLaren do?" The answer is obvious. He'd choose to live life to the fullest, without excuses, without regret.

"It's a journey," says MacLaren today, acknowledging the universal truth of his life. "Rather than overcoming adversity, it's a journey about living with adversity."