Imagine how much closer to living our dreams we would all be if everyone who ever promised us something actually delivered it! How much fuller our lives would be if, any time we asked people for something, they would say yes by giving it to us. When we don’t get what we want from others, when they fail to keep their promises, when they let us down, we often have hurt feelings.

Even deeper (and more frequent) are the times we have let ourselves down. How much greater are our imagination and desires than our physical abilities to fulfill them. The result of all this letdown is often hurt feelings - sadness, loss, grief. And in our bodies, these hurt feelings are felt in the center of the chest, in the area most people refer to as the heart. (more…)

You can sell Benzes to refugees during war time.

You easily part a nun from her vow of chastity.

No doubt- you’re the greatest at influencing people one-on-one.

But can you conduct killer power point presentations?

If you’re like 99% of all the presentors out there, I bet you ‘re a veteran at observing the MEGO Syndrome in audiences.

MEGO?

“Mine Eyes Glaze Over”

That’s right. Three minutes into the powerpoint presentation, the audience is restless. Some begin sneaking out the door. The more polite ones just pretend to listen behind dark spectacles. But you know where their minds went.

The MEGO Syndrome arises from five monumental presentation mistakes. Do the opposite and you’ll deliver utterly drool worthy power point presentations- and influence the socks out of your crowd.

1. Keeping Them Guessing. Many speakers fail to give a roadmap of their speech. So throughout the presentation, the crowd is asking ‘huh? What’s his point? Where’s this leading to?’ Guide them by the hand. Before the actual presentation, outline exactly what you’ll cover and let them know when you’ll finish.

2. Failing to Connect At the Beginning. Audiences don’t like to be preached to. They’d prefer to be talked with. Keep your style interactive. Open the talk by asking a rhetorical question, launching an anecdote, or saying a shocking statement- then invite a comment! You’ll draw them in like Pirahnnas to a pork buffet.

3. Looking at the Floor and Closing Your Body. I’ve seen it so often. The speaker assumes a closed body language. Guilty of this? Hands in pocket. Arms crossed. Legs tight together. Look stiff, and you alienate the audience. To invite the audience to appreciate your power point presentation, move around. Gesture. Smile!

4. DataDumping. I’ve attended hundreds of business presentations where the speaker fills the slide with size 9 font text crammed to the margin. Then they read each line. Good lord! We’re attending a presentation, not an online reading course! The best slides follow the 4 by 4 rule. Four words across, four bullets down.

5. Forgetting the Call of Action. At the end, the speaker jumps to “any questions?” without giving the audience a specific command. Is it to buy? To invest? To visit a website? Without the call to action, the audience is left wondering what you yammered about for the last 20 minutes of their valuable time.

So here’s my call to action for you: create drool worthy powerpoint presentations. Right now.
Your audience deserves it

Imagine that you’re in a canoe with a friend and there’s a fork in the river. Your friend convinces you to take the channel on the right. Next thing you know, you hear the roar of a waterfall. What do you do? Do you start yelling at your friend? Of course not! It’s counterproductive. You paddle like crazy for shore! Let’s say you make it. Now do you start screaming? That’s what a lot of people would do. But why? Blame solves nothing. It’s counterproductive. Irrelevant.

When you’re in the middle of a life-threatening situation, you naturally ignore blame. It’s a survival instinct. But life itself is the ultimate life-threatening situation, because all life ends. You are headed for certain death, now and every moment of your life. The same instinct to ignore blame should apply. But it doesn’t. We take the finite, wondrous accident of our own existence for granted and act as if we can play self-destructive blame games forever. We pity ourselves and hate those who have hurt us. We hold grudges, sometimes seek revenge, take secret pleasure in the suffering of those we blame - and feel totally justified. (more…)

Creative visualization is one of the most important tools we have for creating and maintaining good health, happiness, and success.

One of the basic principles of holistic health is that we cannot separate our physical health from our emotional, mental, and spiritual states of being. All levels are interconnected and a state of “disease” in the body is always a reflection of conflict, tension, anxiety, or disharmony on other levels of being as well. So when we have a physical disorder, it is inevitably a message for us to look deeply into our emotional and intuitive feelings, our thoughts and attitudes, to see what we can do to restore natural harmony and balance to our beings. We must tune in and “listen” to the inner process. (more…)

In a lifetime, you make literally millions of choices that affect your future success. Most choices, after you make them a few times, become ingrained in you. You know from past experience what works for you, so you repeat the process. You only get into trouble when you don’t get good results but keep doing the same things over and over again. It may seem hard to believe, but many people operate that way - most in fact.

You literally can opt to be happy or miserable by the choices you make. If you choose to be happy, you need to explore what makes you happy. Identify whether happiness is a sense of accomplishment when you make an A in school, achieve a specific weight-loss goal, make a difficult sale, complete a mini-marathon, win over the sourpuss at the checkout counter, or whatever. Accomplishments make you feel good, and you’re happy as a result. After you determine what makes you happy, choose to do those things. (more…)

Their are many qualities that collectively compose happiness, like having love in our lives, of course, a few other important qualities count, too, such as self-esteem, peace of mind, fulfillment, and confidence. But the list isn’t as long as you might think. Happiness is profound, but simple.

People often presume that these are qualities you’re born with. Not always. But you can acquire them - by mastering the use of the happiness tools and avoiding the fear-inspired happiness traps. When people acquire these qualities, it gives them a lift like no other. They get out of bed in the morning after a peaceful sleep, eager to tackle their challenges. They can’t wait to share the experiences of their daily lives with their families, coworkers, and friends. They don’t hop from one worry to the next, fixating on their bank accounts, their bosses, their waistlines, or their status. (more…)

The rapid accomplishment of your dreams and goals requires acknowledging and accepting where you are, what you are, who you are, and what you have done in life. Mentally accept that where you are now is an okay place to be, at least temporarily, regardless of what has happened to you in the distant or recent past. Given the opportunity, your past can stay around to haunt you. Don’t give it that opportunity. You simply cannot afford the extra baggage.

For example, imagine yourself standing on the bank of a fast-flowing river. The only safe way across is a series of slippery, moss-covered rocks protruding only slightly above the rushing water. As you start across, it becomes obvious that the best way to step onto the next rock is to first firmly plant both feet on the slippery rock beneath you. With both feet firmly planted, you have created maximum balance and stability with which to make your next move. Your only point of balance lies on the rock beneath you. At that moment you have no choice or chance of being somewhere else. Complaining about the circumstances that got you there will only distract your focus from the task at hand - to get to safety on the other side of the river. Feeling and thinking like a victim - “Why me, what did I ever do to deserve this?” - will only contribute to your ending up in the water, almost as a way of proving to yourself that you truly are a victim and worthy of sympathy. (more…)

The universe is made of pure energy, the nature of which is to move and flow. The nature of life is constant change, constant flux. When we understand this, we tune into its rhythm and we are able to give and receive freely, knowing that we never really lose anything, but constantly gain instead. Once we begin to learn to accept the goodness of the universe, we naturally want to share it as well, realizing that as we give out of our energy, we make space for more to flow into us.

When, through insecurity (fear) and a feeling that there “isn’t enough,” we try to hold onto or cling to what we have, we begin to cut off this wonderful flow of energy. In the process of hanging onto what we have, we fail to keep the energy moving and we don’t make space for new energy to come to us. Energy takes many forms, such as love, affection, appreciation and recognition, material possessions, money, and friendship. The principles apply equally to all these forms.
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Clearing out your time schedule is a vital priority for living your dream. “Do you know how busy I am? I couldn’t possibly take on one more activity!” This is an exclamation we often hear from active, involved individuals. Even when we’re not spending our time exactly as we would prefer, we commonly feel that the demands pressed upon us preclude our having much of any choice in the matter. But if our dream is a last priority in our daily plan, it will also be the least likely outcome of our day, and our life.

If you go to a doctor or diet clinic for help in losing weight, you may be asked to keep a diary of your food intake. Only when you know what you are actually eating can you know what changes need to be made. The same is true of managing your time. It’s important to begin keeping a record of how your time is spent. Once you have conducted a realistic assessment of the time available to you and the requirements made for your time, your options will be more apparent. (more…)

knowing what you want out of life is critical, but it’s not enough to make your dreams come true. As you know, just because you long for something or even have a dying passion for that one thing does not mean you will automatically obtain it. When it comes to fulfilling your dreams there is always a price you must pay.

While there are a great many folks who think they know what they want, many are unwilling to apply even the smallest amount of effort to obtain their goals.

For years our country has become a culture of “quick fix.” Words like sacrifice, diligence, and honor no longer matter and have been replaced with I want it all and I want it now! Relationships flourish and dissolve faster than paint can dry. Some see that flashy sports car and they want it. They cannot afford it but it doesn’t matter, for they have to have it now! With a quick scribble on a check, the car they have been dreaming of for ten minutes is suddenly theirs. But when the payment comes due, suddenly that thing they wanted isn’t all that appealing as it was a few months ago.
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