Stillness is a Powerful Action

Post written by Leo Babauta.

It’s a bias of our culture that stillness is regarded as lazy, as being stuck in inaction, as a negative.

It’s not. It’s an action, and a powerful one.

What’s more, it can change your day, and in doing so change your life.

You’re in the middle of a frazzled day, swamped by work and meetings and emails and interruptions, or hassled by kids and phone calls and errands and chores.

You pause. Stay still for a minute, and breathe. You close your eyes, and find a stillness within yourself. This stillness spreads to the rest of your body, and to your mind. It calms you, centers you, focuses you on what you’re doing right now, not on all you have to do and all that has happened.

The stillness becomes a transformative action.

Stillness can be a powerful answer to the noise of others. It can be a way to push back against the buzz of the world, to take control. It can remind you of what’s important.

How to Practice
Stillness, oddly, doesn’t come naturally to many people. So practice.

Read More

Feeding crocodiles is dangerous WRITTEN BY CHUCK GALLOZZI

Today’s article is in response to a reader. What appears below are just a few of the comments he made. His lengthy e-mail has been condensed to fit in the available space. Our reader writes:

“I have been looking all over the Internet for ways to overcome my bad habits. There must be hundreds of self-help books but none of them offer any solid solutions to my problems.”

A map doesn’t take you where you want to go. It merely points the way. If you really have a destination in mind, you’ll have to get off the couch, get in your car, turn on the ignition, and start driving. Books are maps, not solutions. What I’m writing is a map, not a solution. There is only one solution to your problems, and that is YOU. When you are ready to start your journey to a new, better you, pick a map, study the directions, and DO what is necessary to get there.

Our reader continues:

“Self-help books aren’t geared towards the people that can’t find a way to help themselves.”

What you really mean is “books aren’t geared towards people who WON’T find a way to help themselves. You see, it is a DECISION we make. We either decide to help ourselves (“I WILL do whatever is necessary.”) or we decide to become a victim (“I CAN’T do whatever is necessary.”). Why would anyone want to become a victim? Well, in their mind, it is convenient. You don’t have to do anything; after all, you’re helpless. So, you just sit around and wait for someone or something to solve your problems. This type of thinkiOng is akin to feeding crocodiles. I’m referring to something Ronald Reagan (1911 ~ 2004) said: “To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last — but eat you he will.” Don’t feed your problems, but face them, and do something about them.

Her first dream was to be a dancer. Growing up in New York, she was inspired by “Snake Hips” Tucker, studying his serpentine moves and practicing them constantly with friends. Then, one fateful night at the Apollo Theater in 1934, the headlining Edwards Sisters brought down the house with their dancing. Amateur Hour began immediately after, and a 16-year-old Ella Fitzgerald stepped on stage, but was too intimidated to dance. Instead, she sang “Judy,” silenced the awestruck crowd, and won first prize. It was the beginning of one of the most celebrated careers in music history.

Read More

The kind of Leader others want to Follow

The key to becoming an effective leader is not to focus on making other people follow, but on making yourself the kind of person they want to follow. You must become someone others can trust to take them where they want to go. As you prepare yourself to become a better leader, use the following guidelines to help grow:

1. Let go of your Ego.

The truly great leaders are not in leadership for personal gain. They lead to serve other people. Perhaps that is why Lawrence D. Bell remarked, “Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things, and I’ll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things.”

2. Become a good Follower first.

Rare is the effective leader who didn’t learn to become a good follower first. That is why a leadership institution such as the United States Military Academy teaches its officer to become effective followers first- and why West Point has produced more leaders than Harvard Business School.

3. Build positive relationships.

Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. That means it is by nature relational. Today’s generation of leaders seem particularly aware of this because title and position mean so little to them. They know intuitively that people go along with people they get along with.

4. Work with Excellence.

No one respects and follows mediocrity. Leaders who earn the right to lead give their all to what they do. They bring into play not only their skills and talents, but also great passion and hard work. They perform on the highest level of which they are capable.

5. Rely on Discipline, not Emotion.

Leadership is often easy during the good times. It’s when everything seems to be against you, when you’re out of energy, and you don’t want to lead, you earn your place as a leader. During every season of life, leaders face crucial moments when they must choose between gearing up or giving up. To make it through those times, rely on the rock of Discipline, not the shifting sand of Emotion.

6. Make adding Value your Goal.

When you look at the leaders whose names are revered long after they have finished leading, you find that they were Men and Women who helped people to live better lives and reach their potential. That is the highest calling of Leadership- and its highest Value.

7. Give your Power away.

One of the ironies of leadership is that you become a better leader by sharing whatever power you have, not by saving it all for yourself. You’re  meant to be a river, not a reservoir. If you use your power to empower others, your leadership will extend far beyond your grasp.

So, one day I came into work and found this on my desk. It  was left there by Bossman. I wonder, is he trying to tell me something? I never thought of myself as a leader for others. Sometimes I question would I even be an effective one. Lol. The very thought actually scares me.

Leadership is something I hope I can do effectively one day. I want others to want to follow me not because of my title or position necessarily but because of how I make them feel. I want them to trust me and my judgement but if not, that they feel comfortable enough to say something.

Leadership is not my main goal. I just want to continue to inspire others, push them to their potential, help them to realize things about themselves that they would have never noticed before. I’m truly all about positivity and good energy in 2010 and if I can be that  for others then maybe I’m already a Leader.

Posted by WeAreFREEBlog

— February marks the beginning of Black History Month, a federally recognized, nation-wide celebration that provides the opportunity for all Americans to reflect on the significant roles that African Americans have played in the shaping of U.S. history. But how did this celebration come to be — and why does it take place in February?

We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.

- Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) on founding Negro History Week, 1926

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, considered to be a pioneer in the study of African American history, is given much of the credit for Black History Month. The son of former slaves, Woodson spent his childhood working in coalmines and quarries. He received his education during the four-month term that was customary for black schools at the time. At 19, having taught himself English fundamentals and arithmetic, Woodson entered high school, where he completed a four-year curriculum in two years. He went on to receive his Masters degree in history from the University of Chicago, and he eventually earned a PhD from Harvard.

Disturbed that history textbooks largely ignored America’s black population, Woodson took on the challenge of writing black Americans into the nation’s history. To do this, Woodson established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. He also founded the group’s widely respected publication, the Journal of Negro History. In 1926, he developed Negro History Week. Woodson believed that “the achievements of the Negro properly set forth will crown him as a factor in early human progress and a maker of modern civilization.”

In 1976, Negro History Week expanded into Black History Month. The month is also sometimes referred to as African American Heritage Month.

Woodson chose the second week of February for the celebration because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population: Frederick Douglass (February 14), an escaped slave who became one of the foremost black abolitionists and civil rights leaders in the nation, and President Abraham Lincoln (February 12), who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which abolished slavery in America’s confederate states.

Because of his work, Dr. Woodson has been called the “Father of Black History.”

(Via CNN Student News)

by Brain

Staying motivated is a struggle — our drive is constantly assaulted by negative thoughts and anxiety about the future. Everyone faces doubt and depression. What separates the highly successful is the ability to keep moving forward.

There is no simple solution for a lack of motivation. Even after beating it, the problem reappears at the first sign of failure. The key is understanding your thoughts and how they drive your emotions. By learning how to nurture motivating thoughts, neutralize negative ones, and focus on the task at hand, you can pull yourself out of a slump before it gains momentum.

Reasons We Lose Motivation

There are 3 primary reasons we lose motivation.

1. Lack of confidence – If you don’t believe you can succeed, what’s the point in trying?
2. Lack of focus – If you don’t know what you want, do you really want anything?
3. Lack of direction – If you don’t know what to do, how can you be motivated to do it?

How to Boost Confidence

Read More

We may not always have a choice in what life gives us, but we do have a choice in how we decide to handle it!

Thank you Andy Koehn for sharing!

http://www.thirtyseconds.us/