A Beautiful Lesson In Life and Adversity

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee. You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up, She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word...
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ' Tell me what you see.'

'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, 'What does it mean, mother?'

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor..

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

If you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

Brighten someone's life today on purpose.

May we all be COFFEE!!!!!!

To your unstoppable success...

Take Time to Play

With the New Year, every one is busy setting goals, focusing on making some major things happen this year and motivated to work hard. These are all key elements to success, but one element so often overlooked is the Time to Play.

As children, we looked forward to our friends knocking at the door asking if we could "come out and play". It was a huge element to our growth and development. But as adults, we tend to see play as a time wasting activity. Sometimes, we confuse competition with playing. Golf for example is a great sport and personally something I have spent a great deal of time doing. But even golf can sometimes simply be a Business Endeavor, with the component of networking and business activities thrown into the game.

The world in general frequently sends the message that playing is a frivolous activity, good only for under-achievers, procrastinators and slackers. But the message is inaccurate. Playing is a necessary activity in order for us to experience the results of our hard work or to motivate us to work hard and enjoy our lives. Playing allows us to release the stress and anxiety our lives create.

Think about the last time you took a weekend trip to the beach or mountains, without your laptop or without turning on your cellphone. When was the last time you went dancing and really cut yourself loose and had a blast? When was the last time you laughed so hard you could barely talk afterwards? Do you remember how you felt? Do you remember how free you were afterwards?

Without play, adults can loose perspective. Your life can not be only about the work and accomplishing your goals. Part of the success you experience will come from the energy you generate from playing. Without play as a balanced element in your life, you will not walk in the world with positive energy. Your work will be harder, your results will less rewarding and your health will be greatly affected.

Playing changes your outlook on life. When you play, you reward yourself for the efforts you are making to accomplish your goals, rejuvenate yourself and feel more anticipation for what you are working toward.

After all, why are you working so hard to be successful? It is so you can live your life on your terms, enjoy your life and have the time with your family they so much deserve. Spending time with your family is all about play time. Your children and your partner deserve to have your play time as well. You can not build relationships without a little play time.

Relationships with your children are built on the playtime. Your children will remember the time you played with them. As for your partner, how can you possibly build a strong intimate relationship without the time to attend to the playful side of your relationship?

Take time today and every day, to put a little play in your life. Reward yourself and re-energize your life with some simple and life changing play time.

To your unstoppable success...

Transforming Dreams into Reality

Everyone dreams, we all have ideas, visions, yearnings, desires and yes, even fantasies we think about and wish would become reality. This is the course of human nature, but not all of these dreams could ever become reality, simply because of the number of dreams we create in our minds along with the fact many of our dreams would not make a real difference in our lives.

However, many of these dreams hold a deep and constant reoccurring place in our minds and our hearts. These are the dreams we can easily turn into actual goals if we are willing to commit the effort. They are the dreams we are passionate about. The dreams we deeply and completely want to have in our lives. These are the dreams we can change into goals and therefore into reality.

But what is the difference in a dream and a real goal?

To quote Diana Robinson; "A dream is a goal without legs".

A dream can be a wonderful thing, but unless you add passion, commitment and belief, it has nowhere to go. In order for a dream to become a true goal, you must add some real fuel to it.

So, how do you take those deeply placed dreams and change them into a true goal and then allow them to become reality?

First of all, decide what you truly want. Take a very hard look at your dreams and determine which ones will make a real difference in your life. Evaluate them and write down the ones you really want. It does not matter how much the dream will change your life, only the level of passion you have to accomplish it.

Now that you know which ones are important to you, take time with one and add clarity to the formula. "If you can see it, you can have it". Get crystal clear on what the goal is. For example; if you want a different job, your goal can not be just a different job, that may be a job you hate. Know what job you want. Know without any doubt what it will feel like to have your dream job. See yourself in the job and if anyone ever asks you what your dream job is, you will have a very clear and precise picture to paint for them. The more clear your vision, the greater your fuel. The easier it is for you to paint the picture of your goal, the faster it will become reality.

Now get very excited. The passion you feed into any goal will be the driving force behind it. The passion will determine how much belief you have in your goal and the belief you have will fuel the end result. Spending some time every day with your vision and the passion you feel about it, will take you anywhere you choose to be.

It is very important to have a belief and commitment to the goal itself. Make it a priority in your life, your mind and your thought process. But here is something very important. When you think about this goal, you should ONLY think about it as a reality. If you see it as something you WANT, you will always just want it. See it as something you HAVE and you will have it.

Hold the thought of HAVING in your mind. Spend some time with your vision and your clarity as though it if it were reality. Only when you have mastered the ability to HAVE before you actually do, will you be able to take the appropriate action.

Unfortunately, most people leave these key points out of their plans. They charge into making something happen but the clarity and the passion are missing. Everything in goals begins with the clarity, the vision, the passion and the ability to experience it in your mind.

You CAN have anything you desire in life, but only when you are willing to change the way you see it.

To your unstoppable success...

The Courage to Succeed in 2010

Here we are starting a New Year. Everyone seems to be setting resolutions and hoping for a better year than 2009. Unfortunately, they are setting the same resolutions as last year (and years before) and the chances of them being anything more than a fleeting memory by January 15 are very slim.

Here is a newsflash for you, New Years resolutions rarely work and rarely make any difference in your life at all. A resolution is only an attempt to achieve something different than you currently have. It is a temporary agreement with yourself. Resolutions rarely include any thought, decision, action or commitment to take you to your goals. What they are not, is decisions.


Why is it, that so many people fail to achieve any goals they set for themselves? Shortly after making a resolution, they can hardly tell you what the resolution was. Could it be they are confused and don't know what to do to move forward? Or, could it be they simply are not sure what they want? Or maybe, they are afraid they will actually achieve a goal or maybe even they realize to achieve it might require some work. Regardless, resolutions do not work.

In order to experience new levels of achievement, you must be able to understand the possibilities of experiencing something new in your life. You must be able to see yourself having attained the goal. Only when you can actually see yourself where you want to be, can you begin to understand the possibility of getting there.

"It takes someone with a vision of the possibilities to attain new levels of experience. Someone with the courage to live his dreams." - Les Brown

Truly a remarkable and insightful quote. Les Brown has in two simple sentences "nailed" the primary reasons most people do not stick with New Years Resolutions and fail to make major changes in their Business and Personal lives.

The achievement of a goal is not a material thing you can simply acquire, not something someone else will bestow on you and it is definitely not magical. It is your own vision of what you want, it is making a decision to achieve a goal. The only way to achieve anything in life is by making a decision to do so.

Understand the difference here. When you make a decision, which means removing all other options from the table, you are then ready to make the commitment, take the action and achieve the goal. This level of decision is based on your own recognition of the possibilities in your life.

In order to have any level of success at anything, you must first of all KNOW exactly where you are going. You must have a clear and definite VISION of what your success will look like. This Knowing creates an energy to take you to your goals.

The other component is the courage to live your dreams. Having something you do not currently have, regardless of what it is... money freedom, time freedom, sports, relationships or anything else which might get us excited, requires immense courage.

What you want can easily be yours, but you must have the courage to step out of your box and claim it. "To have something you have never had, you must do something you have never done". Choose to have vision and courage in every area of your life.

Make the decision today to make the changes you desperately desire. Make the plans, take the action, believe in your own abilities and have the courage to make it happen.

Only then, will 2010 be an awesome year for you.

To Your Unstoppable Success...