Have you ever looked in the mirror and said.....

Have you ever just looked into the mirror and spoken to yourself?  Oh yeah - we all do it at one time or another.  It doesn't mean we are "nuts", (ok, maybe just a little) it just shows though, that we are constantly communicating with ourselves. (Some more often than others!)

Some of us may sing or dance - but often we use the mirror to find the little imperfections.

We go looking for a stray little black chin hair, or we examine our hair loss, freckles, double chin and any other flaw that needs to be fixed.  And we talk to ourselves. 

"You see - you are fat - just look!".  "Who were you to think you could become a famous dancer?"  "Wow, I wish the wrinkles would disappear".  "Now that was a dumb move".  Which one of us has not said at least one of these things to ourselves?

Last week I attended Jack Canfield's 7 day Train the Trainer event in San Diego.  One of the exercises we were tasked with was to look in the mirror every evening and tell ourselves what we appreciated about ourselves.

Sounds easy huh?

The technique may be as old as the hills - but how many of us really do it?  How many of us can look in the mirror and without cracking a smile can tell ourselves that we appreciate ourselves and name the things we appreciate? 

In my world - I was so busy trying to 'one up' myself and always do something bigger and better that I failed to recognize the achievements and the talents I had.  I even refused comments and praise for helping someone on their business journey.   I was never good enough for me.

It took me six days of the feared mirror exercise to realize that I had achieved great things - and then to say them out loud.  In my mind up until that point nothing had been quite good enough.  

My little voice constantly berated my achievements and sabotaged my self image. There were never enough people at the event, or she already had that answer inside her - I really did not help her much -  were constant thoughts.

What would it take for me to feel like I had achieved something great? 

Would making a lot of money make me feel like I was a success?  Was it fame that might make me feel like I was enough?

Then I realized - it was neither of those.  My success - my enough-ness was all about accepting my gifts and my shortcomings - and focusing on how I managed and used the gifts I was given.

If a surgeon performs heart surgery on a movie star - and becomes famous as a result - is that man any more of a success than a the lady next door who helped the senior citizen carry their groceries in?

Living our purpose and making a difference in one person's life is all it takes to become successful.  And the bigger success yet - is acknowledging the greatness inside you - and then using all of it to make a difference in our own lives and in the lives of others.

I know now that even the smallest of my talents, offered to the world in love and service - will start a revolution that may change the world!  Now that's success!

The most successful words of all will always be "I am - good enough!"

Welcome to the future!

When I was a child I was shocked to hear my teachers explain that we only used 10% of our brains for cognitive thought. Where would we store any more information if we filled it up? Then, several years ago I learned that information that used to take years to change is now becoming obsolete in less than 3 months - and that is a conservative estimate. Many experts are now saying information of technical nature is redundant in less than 6 weeks!

Today we are on information overload – and yet we crave more of it. It is almost impossible to know ‘all that is out there’ about any particular subject. In the movie “What the Bleep do we know”, quantum physicists and philosophers agreed that the information really is not ‘out there’ but in fact we already have it. It is available to us at all times – without consciously trying to find it. Let me explain.

I have often compared our bodies to cell phones. We use cell phones everyday without full understanding of how we send out packages of information. No wires, no tangible proof that information has been sent sometimes to someone half way around the world. And yet the information arrives there. However, if one cell phone is turned off - the information cannot not be transmitted.

There is much talk in the scientific and holistic circles that would indicate that our minds and bodies work exactly the same way. We give off information and energy, as does everything and everyone around us. If we are open and turned on- we receive information all day, everyday. The trick is now to allow our brains time to process the information- and give it back to us in a form we can understand and use. This ability is available to everyone – and it is incredibly powerful.

I believe that we have left the information age - and have entered the intuitive age. We have only just begun to understand the power of our mind, heart and spirit, and the merging of the three. We have long known that we only use a fraction of our brains. But we also know that there is so much information ‘out there’ that it is virtually impossible to ‘learn’ it all. So we must begin to understand how to employ the intuitive sense that we have had all along and learned over time to ignore. (How ever do you think ‘quantum physics’ or the micro chip was developed)

Our intuition involves assimilating information - some of it as old as time, without reading writing or ‘thinking hard’. Our brains are such powerful tools that if only we learn to master – will provide us with all the information that we need to achieve whatever it is that we want to achieve. How is it that some people predict things that will happen, or understand situations that others cannot? It is the power of the intuitive – the mind at work. If you add the power of intuition and the assimilation of knowledge not seen-to the mastery of our thoughts- there truly is nothing we cannot achieve.


The intuitive age will present us with new techniques for developing our new ‘listening’ skills. Our brains take in information every day through all of our senses and forms packets and files of information that we can have access to. Just like the hidden files in your computer – our brains have similar files that contain valuable data that we can use on our decision making if we only learn to tune into it. So how do we do this?

Consider the entrepreneur that wakes up in the middle of the night with an idea - scratches it down on a piece of paper and develops the idea into a successful business. This is an example of individual allowing their brain to ‘rest’, organize information and assess it until it forms into a packet of information that becomes an idea. What if we could learn to let our brains do this during the day?

It is becoming a very common practice within entrepreneurial circles to rely on our intuitive senses to bring new business, products and services into being. Books are springing up all over with discoveries of new ways to receive information. No crystal balls, no weird incantations or special prayers – simply a call out to the universe for information that we need and the belief that we will receive what is necessary for our success. There is power in listening in solitude and hearing more than words. There is magic in quiet thought. There is much to learn by listening to the sound of nothing.

So take time this month, every day to stop thinking. Let your brain work for you and give it the space it needs to do so. Commit to yourself to accept information it gives you- believe it and act upon it. It is only by trusting that it can work for you that you will experience the benefit of information you have not actively searched out and ‘learned’ the conventional way. And so - enter the intuitive age. (See you there!)