Productivity and Positivity go Hand-in-Hand with Butch Bellah

 

Quote of the Day: “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.” –Mother Theresa

 

Guest of the Day: Louisiana native Butch Bella is an entrepreneur, business coach, and keynote speaker. He is the founder of MyBizCoach.Biz, which offers online resources for entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and small business owners and managers. And he is also the author of two books: The10 Essential Habits of Sales Superstars: Plugging into the Power of Ten and Sales Management for Dummies.

 

Passion: Butch’s passion is building other people into a version of themselves that is better than they could have envisioned. He says, “I want to be a difference-maker in this world. I feel like that I was put on this earth for a reason, and I know that may sound egotistical, but I honestly believe I was put on this earth to, to make a difference in people’s lives.” Butch hopes to create ripples that will inspire people.

 

The Skill: Increasing productivity and positivity.

 

Importance of Skill: Time is valuable and time never stops. Desire and accomplishment is impacted by positivity.

 

The Lesson: How to Gain One Full Week a Year without Giving up Vacation Time

  • Get to work ten minutes early. If you do this over a 48 week work year, that is more than 40 hours a week of productive time that you pick up that you are working and your competition does not know you’re there.
  • Do not do non-selling tasks or busy work during business hours
  • Use the ten minutes to get spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically prepared for the day – get your materials prepared.
  • Do not come in early and be unproductive – you must have the “intention to have a positive, productive start to your day”
  • “The only way to succeed is to take action, everything else is preparation.”
  • The purpose of all daytime business is to take action – take the few minutes for preparation – be prepared!

 

Listener Resources:

 

To be more productive and positive…

Envision: “Focus on today. If you set a GPS for New York City, all it’s going to do is get you out of your driveway first. Once you make a decision to go somewhere, don’t worry about the end destination, just worry about the first step.” Be present.

Explore: List tasks singularly, outsource those you can delegate.

Execute: Make a decision and take action. “You can’t take corrective action until you take action.”

 

Advice to Listeners: “…my best closing advice is a quote… ‘You can make an excuse, or you can make a difference, and the amount of energy required is about the same.’”

 

Motivational Go-Do!

Make a list of the top ten people in your life who impact and influence you. Let them know that they do and that you are glad to be a part of their life.

 

How Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System can rally around Butch Bellah:

Website: www.mybizcoach.biz

Facebook: My Biz Coach

Email: Butch@butchbellah.com

Twitter: @mybizcoachbutch

And, as always, on the Facebook page: Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System

 

CLICK HERE to listen to interview.

 

If you enjoyed, a review on iTunes and Stitcher would be much appreciated!

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Be Daring to Live a Life You Love

 

Quote of the Day: “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” –Cecil Beaton

Weekly Show Reflection:

Hellooo, my fellow Motivators!

I want to give a little shout out to Jan, one of our members of our private Facebook group. She likes the name Motivators because she feels that’s what we are ALL doing, so I’m running with that. Thank you, Jan, for all of the insight and humor and motivation you bring to the group. It makes me insanely happy to see you there.

So, today. Today I have been reflecting on the guests of the week, and I am pretty moved. I feel like what they’ve done is powerful. I am moved by the daring they have had, the nerve to step away from judgement, and to step away from the hefty investment they had made in something in their lives to start something new. And “Stepping away” from it feels like the perfect terminology because they were quiet about their actions. They just followed what they knew was right for them, and they quietly transitioned into that.

For example, Monday’s guest. On Monday, Dr. Sharon Livingston PhD was on the show. There are probably, and I don’t think this is an underestimation, 100 topics I could have discussed with Dr. Sharon. Since the interview, she and I have probably discussed twenty of them. But, Sharon could have come on to speak about one of her many passions, or she could have come on to teach us a lesson on one of the multiple skills, techniques, or tools she is familiar with. However, when I realized that she wrote a novel about being dumped by a best friend, I asked her if she would come discuss this with us. Creative writing is a new passion for her, one she started late in life but has fallen in love with. This book is only the first of many she plans to write.

Writing this specific book: Get Lost, Girlfriend! How I Found Myself When My Best Friend Dumped Me was part of a healing process for Sharon. The thing is: It took a lot of daring for Sharon to write this. She had to block out the judgement she knew would be coming in order to find a true place to tell this story from. She says on the show that there are many places one can find support when they lose a loved one through death or divorce, but when it comes to friendships, we are just expected to get over it. How difficult of a decision it must have been for her to put this story on paper and out into the world, even in a fictional way.

I just keep envisioning myself writing a similar story. In my real-life relationships, I have been the one who has left, and I have been the one who’s been left. Even though this story is fiction, fiction is based on reality. The hardest part for me in writing a story like this is knowing which parts of the story my friend would know and recognize. Because the whole time I was writing, I’d be thinking about how her perspective would probably differ from mine. And how she would most likely be reading this at some point in time. I presume Sharon had a similar experience, and that she had to shut down those voices, or she could have talked herself out of writing this story. I mean, imagine writing a story about your best friend, you know how your friend thinks, and that would be the hardest part in the writing process. I think the other hard part is that writing a book like this one pretty much says that you’re walking away from the years you had invested in a friendship. Regardless of any, or all, of this, Sharon wrote the book anyway. The girl has, what’s the word: kahonas?

Tuesday designer/decorator James Swan was on the show. James is an interesting person with an interesting story to tell. Personally, I think James could and should go on the road speaking to people about following your truth and overcoming hardship. James went to college, got a degree, started a job – in the field others felt he should, but he was not satisfied. He, then, traveled back to who he was and what he loved as a child, and for him it was a sketchbook full of images and rooms, history and mystery. And, despite the fact that judgement could be cast, and that he already had much invested in a degree he didn’t desire and a job he didn’t care for, he quietly, subtly, confidently jumped ship, looked out onto a new horizon, and designed a new life. One that, this time, was true to him. Listen in to that episode to hear James talk about how his design firm was flourishing and he was living the life of his dreams, and within ninety days it was all pulled from underneath him, even his home.

James has had a tough road at times, and he has learned to continue to adamantly, purposefully forge ahead. And that when his forging is exhausted, all that is left to do is release your needs to the universe and wait for it to answer back. From where James sits now: the author of an extremely successful book, the host of an exciting podcast: Million Dollar Decorator, he can see that all of the challenges in his life have served their purpose.

I just want to say to James that there is a wisdom and a tenacity that exudes from you. And I don’t care if you are dressing elephants in a circus, they would walk with style and grace because you willed them to. I believe chutzpah is the word that best defines James.

So, Wednesday, oddly enough, we had Dr. Sharon’s husband, Dr. Glenn Livingston PhD on the show. Now, again, you would think this psychologist was coming on the show to teach us a lesson in something, that is not the case. I was really surprised and flattered that Glenn shared with us some very personal thoughts and conversations he has had with himself regarding an issue of his own that he has battled, which is binge-eating. If you struggle with this, definitely go back and listen to this show. If you have an addiction of any kind, this is an episode for you.

I’m really talking here today about daring to be yourself, to live what we call in coaching an authentic life, one that as I said about James, is living a life that is true to you and who you are.

Glenn was very honest about why he wanted to be a doctor and how much he thought it would mean to him emotionally, and in the end, he realized that what he truly desired is to coach people on an issue he himself had to overcome. And I say coach because, as Glenn said, this type of relationship with a client is not the type that calls for medical charts and insurance companies. And so, while he has a few patients, the majority of his clientele is just that: coaching clients. Wow. I think this is how you really know you are following your passion. When you walk away from things that once were so important to you – even if it was more important to those closest to you. It takes guts to do this.

I am quickly becoming a fan of Thursday’s guest, business coach Butch Bellah. Butch and I met in person at the National Speakers Association’s winter conference in Austin, Texas a few weeks ago, and he is just the kind of guy you find yourself drawn to. He is funny, big-hearted, super intelligent, and just out to help people succeed. This guy exceeds all boundaries, there is no keeping him in. In his twenties he was achieving the success of business men in their 40s. As if that wasn’t enough, while he was doing it, he was also appearing on stage as a stand-up comedian. No, not at the place down the street, he had to get on airplanes to perform the shows he was putting on. And, when his business had achieved the success that most people wait for so they can sit back and coast, he sold.

He battled back from bypass surgery and back surgery, he has written books, he is on the speaking circuit. He could rest, but why should he? That is just not the way this guy likes it. And he came on to teach you, fellow Motivators, how to do the same. How positivity and productivity go hand-in-hand. Butch sees no limits because he is a sky’s the limit kind of guy.

  1. Friday. What do I have in store for you today?

All of this week’s guests were successful in their lives when they made the conscious decision to dare for more.

Sharon could have stayed heartbroken and quiet about the loss of a friendship that crushed her. James could have stayed working a job that was worlds away from his childhood passion: decoration and design. Glenn could have continued to allow the prestige of travel and high profile clients to steer him away from something as personal as helping clients overcome the same binge-eating issue that plagued him for much of his life. And Butch could have coasted, either in the business he grew or the retirement he acquired early. But they didn’t. Why? Because they dared to want more. They dared to dream. They dared to believe they could.

This reminds me of a conversation I had recently with past guest Paul Ames. Isn’t that what’s so awesome about Facebook and the Internet, you get to actually stay in contact with people from shows like mine. And, Paul is a member of our private group, like almost all of my guests, so we get to stay connected and banter back and forth a bit. Well, Paul had a business success recently and I, trying to be a nice friend, made a meme in his honor. And, if you’re not familiar with what a meme is, it’s just a picture with words on it that is shared online.

So, I said to him, through this meme, something I share on the show frequently, which is that with belief, hard work, and true intentions, you will be successful. But today, I added something to that in a new conversation with Paul, and I know it was inspired by my conversation with James this week. I typed: “Believe, work hard, have true intentions, let go.”

This conversation with Paul stemmed from a picture he posted that showed a bright red injured hand clutching a rope and it said: “Sometimes holding on does more damage than letting go.” And the final image was one of a healthy hand.

My point to you today: Let go. Dare. Dare to dream. Dare to achieve. Dare to live a life that twenty years from now you want to tell people about. Not necessarily because it was adventurous or outlandish, but because you just loved it that much. Because you were excited by it that much. Because it was everything you wanted.

That’s it for today everybody. Please know that I, on a daily basis, attempt to envision you. I try to see who you are, what you’re traveling through, and how your time here is motivating you to make positive change in your life, and that you are happier because of it.

I hope I get to meet some of you while I am out on this amazing 50-state journey. Whether it is at our send-off party on the Seaside Heights boardwalk on May 4th, in any of the United States as we make our journey, or at our return celebration party on August 1st. I’m excited. I’m excited to know that you’re out there listening and dreaming and daring.

So to you America, and to our listeners in each of the other 82 countries, I hope you are living a life you love, and if you’re not, please let me and my guests help you!

Call to Action:

 

The Motivational Go-Do!

Are you living a life you love? If you’re not, please let me and my guests help you!

 

CLICK HERE to listen to this week’s reflection.

 

If you enjoyed, a review on iTunes and Stitcher would be much appreciated!

 

Let us help you live a life you will be excited about…

the only regret you’ll have is wishing you had started sooner.

 

 

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Get Motivated to get Past Binge-Eating with Dr. Glenn Livingston PhD

 

Quote of the Day: “All you need to do to never binge again, is never binge again.” –Dr. Glenn Livingston PhD

 

Guest of the Day: Dr. Glenn Livingston PhD from New Hampshire. He is a psychologist who has a private practice and is published in many places, such as New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and more. He is also the CEO at International Coach Certification Alliance (ICCA).

 

Passion: To help himself and others get past binge-eating.

Challenges: Glenn’s challenges were that he was working with people who began to transition from the need of psychotherapy into the need of coaching. Much of what he coached people on was not in line with the school of thought in psychology and was more in line with that of coaching. So he transformed his career to suit were he saw the need, and where he felt most emotionally connected.

Learned About Self: “…I have learned so much about myself…I think one of the most important things is that money matters. You can’t ignore it, but it’s really not that important. It’s only important if you ignore it, but if I had it to do over again, there are a lot of projects… I think I would have exited the corporate consulting a lot sooner. I think that it stopped me from working on things that could have been more meaningful. Projects like Never Binge Again. I think that I had something to prove way back when. I come from a family of seventeen psychologists and psychotherapists and counsellors and social workers, and I felt like I wanted to be the first guy that wasn’t just a country doctor. And I, I wanted to be able to prove that I was going to be able to succeed in business. And, it was kind of a waste of time, and I think I proved it, but… and I guess that I have these skills and that I can help other people with it, but in retrospect, there was a decade or so that I feel like I wasted my energy trying to be a big shot and having a jet-set corporate lifestyle, and having to fly to Tokyo and back for a one-hour meeting. And that took a lot out of me that didn’t give me all that much back, and there are some other corporations that I helped that I kind of wish I didn’t help.”

 

Suggested Resources:

 

To gain control of your perspective of food…

Envision: Think of a specific rule you would like to follow. Select your biggest food craving or trigger. When you have that, envision gaining control of it and seeing your life one year from now. Consider physical and emotional changes and implications. How has your life and relationship changed? “See if you can visualize a day in the life of yourself one year from now.”

Explore: Journal. Two columns: column one “What your life will look like in a year if you make a change,” column two “What life will be like if you keep doing what you’re doing.”

Execute: Draw the line in the sand and make a clear decision/commitment.

 

Advice to Listeners: “While you’re thinking about it, write down what your single worst food craving might be, and what one rule might have a dramatic impact on your life, if you’re willing to adopt it.”

Motivational Go-Do!

Make the decision to nix one thing from your diet that you know is bringing you down.

 

How Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System can rally around Dr. Glenn Livingston PhD:

Website: www.neverbingeagain.com OR www.thecoachingtest.com

And, as always, on the Facebook page: Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System

 

CLICK HERE to listen to Glenn’s interview.

 

If you enjoyed, a review on iTunes and Stitcher would be much appreciated!

 

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Never, Never, Never Give up on Your Dreams with James Swan

 

Quote of the Day: “Never, never, never give up.” –Winston Churchill

 

Guest of the Day: James Swan is the owner of James Swan Enterprises, he is a designer and an author, as well as the founder and host of the podcast Million Dollar Decorating. He is from California but currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts.

 

Passion: James’ passion is beautiful living: beautiful objects, beautiful art, architecture, rooms. Since he was a child, he would sketch pictures of the buildings he was mesmerized by when traveling.

Challenges: “…once I realized how happy the thought of this future career was making me in the moment, the decision was pretty much a done deal. I knew enough about myself to know I needed to go in this direction; I would be foolish to go in a different direction. For me, the hesitancies and the concerns were the practical things. You know: ‘Can I get a job and go to school at the same time?’ I was in a relationship at that time. And, ‘What is my partner thinking and feeling about this? And how is it going to impact their life and their work, our life together?’ You talk about these things, you explore them, you act like adults and… those things got worked out. They got worked out pretty well.” James had a greater challenge years later when during the recession he lost his business and his home.

Learned About Self: James says that he keeps going back and learning the same core lesson: “Every time I’ve gone through that cycle of: ‘Oh, OK, I hit a dead end here, or this didn’t lead me where I thought it was going to lead me, or in one situation… ‘What the hell just happened?’ I didn’t see that one coming, and ‘Here I am and what am I going to do?’” He says it was in these that he began to connect with today’s quote of the day.

 

Suggested Resources:

 

To bring design or decoration into your life…

Envision: Envision the reality that you are responsible for the quality and condition of each item, that they arrive on time, at the expense agreed upon, with no damage. See yourself moving all of the items into the home without damage to the home, and then see the stage you will need to set for the client, and the nervousness you will feel at their approval. Envision the finished room: lit candles, set table, fresh flowers, music playing, champagne. While at the same time keeping a smile on your face and servicing every need of the client. Envision the fun and rush, but realize the realities of “opening night.”

Explore: Reach out to other designers, James is happy to speak with anyone about the profession.

Execute: Decide what you are willing to do to get to your goal: four years of school and years of entry level work to move up in the field.

 

Advice to Listeners: “I would like to leave all of your listeners with the thought that we started with: Whatever your goal, whatever direction that your life is taking you, whatever that path looks like today, ‘Never, never, never give up.”

 

Motivational Go-Do!

Pick up three of your favorite design magazines, light a candle, and take some time for you. Feed yourself on the beautiful work of designers from all over the world. Also, visit James’ Facebook page to engage in conversation with others about the photographs James posts.

 

How Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System can rally around James Swan:

Website: www.milliondollardecorating.com

And, as always, on the Facebook page: Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System

 

CLICK HERE to listen to James’ interview.

 

If you enjoyed, a review on iTunes and Stitcher would be much appreciated!

 

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Move Past the Loss of a Friendship with Dr. Sharon Livingston PhD

 

Quote of the Day: “…I have been taken with the I Am, which means that I Am everything. I am me, I am part of my community, I am part of the universe. And there is more to life than me and I am all of it.”

 

Guest of the Day: Dr. Sharon Livingston PhD is a psychologist, an author, and a personal coach who works for companies, such a Nabisco, Mattel, and AT&T. She is also co-founder of the International Coach Certification Alliance (ICCA). And the president at The Livingston Group for Emotional Marketing, as well as the author of Get Lost, Girlfriend!: How I Found Myself When My Best Friend Dumped Me.

 

Passion: What happens when a best friend is lost? This concept brought Sharon’s passion for fiction-writing to light, converging her education as a mental health professional with her talent for writing and passion for helping people. She is in the midst of writing a series: The Novel Approach to Every Day Life.

 

Challenges: A challenge for Sharon was the feeling that writing the story about getting dumped by her best friend was a betrayal to her friend. Sharon would get nervous thinking about what her friend would do if she saw her in public: would she snub her, attack her, apologize? Sharon says, “It was scary.”

 

Learned About Self: She says, “…one of the things that I learned was that I had the strength to be just with myself. I didn’t go run out and try to hangout with this person and that person…I stayed with myself. And I started asking myself things, like: ‘Hey, you in the mirror, what would you like to do today? You have a day off, what would YOU like to do?’” (Listen to the episode for examples of all the things Sharon did on her own for the first time.)

 

Suggested Resources:

 

To get weight lifted off your shoulders…

Envision: Expect to feel free, to find your passion, to find fulfillment. Expect a twisted path. Sharon provides us with an exercise: “…if you could picture a door, and on this door it says: ‘My most positive future self.’ And in your mind’s eye, imagine the door and open it up and walk through, and see what you see, listen to the sounds you hear, and get a real sense of it. Notice where you find yourself, and then take a walk up a path. And there she is. There’s the most positive future Lynette.”

Explore: Be introspective and speak to your future self, ask them how they got where they did. Start with the most positive dream, amplify it, draw it, feel it in all kinds of ways, and then analyze what it will take to get there. Discover the temporary goals that will lead to the big ones.

Execute: First, imagine a goal, see yourself at the top of the mountain, and take steps back down the mountain that show you how you got to the top. Describe each step in detail. Go backwards because it’s easier to figure out how you go somewhere when you know you made it there. Starting at the bottom of the hill and facing a rough climb can be overwhelming.

 

Advice to Listeners: “My final thought is that every single person is lovable, and sometimes it takes a while to recognize it. There is a quote: ‘What other people think of you is none of your business.’ I love that.” Sharon adds, “And when change happens, you go into this, like, river of uncertainty, so if you were in this one situation and something happens to disrupt it, you’re in this ball of chaos…but the beauty of that, before you get to the other side, is that it’s full of possibilities. It’s full of possibilities.”

 

Motivational Go-Do!

Go for a walk and consider who you want to be five years from now. If you could be anything at all, what would it be? Allow yourself imagination and joy, and see what pops up? Then travel backwards and see how you got there.

 

How Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System can rally around Dr. Sharon Livingston:

Cell Phone: 603.505.5000 (call or text)

And, as always, on the Facebook page: Motivate Me! The Ultimate Support System

 

CLICK HERE to listen to Sharon’s interview.

 

If you enjoyed, a review on iTunes and Stitcher would be much appreciated!

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Friday Lesson: Self-Preservation is Political Warfare

 

Quote of the Day: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” –Audre Lorde

Weekly Show Reflection:

You can tell by the length of this week’s episodes that our guests had some important ideas to share. And these three guests, over these four episodes spoke with such heart about self-care.

I could not do justice trying to summarize all of the powerful points made by Kirstin, Steven, and Cait, but I will tell you that if you need to make self-care more of a priority, you should listen to some or all of these episodes.

Kirstin Nussgruber is a two-time cancer survivor and a health and wellness coach who works with people on balancing their body, mind, and spirit. Kirstin brought some very interesting ideas to the table. One being that her illnesses were meant to teach her lessons. She shared with us details about the complicated relationship she had with her mother, and her decision to try to heal herself from the emotional pain of it while both she and her mother were battling cancer diagnoses. Uniquely, Kirstin’s way of caring for herself was through past life regression. If you find past life regression as fascinating of a topic as I do, then you will enjoy this episode and you will understand why I encouraged Kirstin to elaborate, and made the decision to extend her interview to two episodes.

I found Kirstin’s advice at the end of Part II powerful, and I would like to share that with you here: “The challenges in our lives, the crises in our lives…the difficult times in our lives, are there to actually push us forward, to catapult us forward, and they’re sent to us because the universe knows we can do it. So, if the universe knows we can do it, then, you know, who the hell are we to not believe in ourselves that we can actually do it, too? So turn it around. Of course, when you initially have that challenge, you need to, kind of, digest that first. And we do that… with the typical emotional reactions and that is absolutely needed and fine. But then we kind of come out of that, like a phoenix rising out of the ashes…” Make the intention to the universe: “I am open and I am ready to learn and receive.”

The second guest of the week, Steven Perlman, really surprised me. Steven is a keynote speaker, as well as a seasoned salesman, specializing in insurance and investments. He has been in his own business for much of his career, and he talks to a lot of people. You could say that networking is his life, however, he was genuinely happy that for once he could talk about his passion instead of his business. Since he was a teenager, Steven has been in love with sailing. He uses such beautiful imagery to describe what he loves about sailing, and why he needs this in his life. That sailing adds balance to his high pressure, high-paced work life by slowing it down and connecting him to nature. If you, or anyone you know, needs a reminder that there is more to life than work, than corporate life, than parenthood, entrepreneurship, caregiving or anything else that drains you – this is an episode for you. I ended this interview genuinely happy that Steven found this outlet in his life, and that he found it so early in life. It was a great reminder of the power of passion, and that we all deserve to have that space in our lives.

Cait Byrnes was the third guest of the week. Similar to Kirstin, Cait is also a health and wellness coach, but Cait’s focus is women who are suffering from fatigue and burn-out, and she does this through nutritional education, emotional support, and the promotion of radical self-care.  Gentlemen, though, do not feel left out. You can a) apply all of what Cait talks about to yourself, and b) gain some serious insight into the minds of women through this episode. So my advice is: Enter, but do so at your own risk. Cait and I talk about many key concepts that surround stress and self-care, and she gives incredibly valuable resources that you can find in the show notes to that episode. It may be the longest episode I’ve recorded, yet, but I didn’t want to edit anything, because if you are in need of self-care, you will want to hear every word.

So, I could tell you hear when discussing self-care that too often people put themselves last, that you need to give yourself permission, that you need to put the oxygen mask on before you can help anyone else. But my guests did such an amazing job, a thorough, showing this to you this week that there is very little for me to elaborate on on this front.

What I do want to talk to you about is which episodes you listen to and why? For example, you may be drawn to one or two of the episodes here, and maybe you think Steven’s won’t add value to you because you’re not in corporate. Or Cait’s won’t add value to you because you’re not a woman.

If that is the way you are utilizing this tool, and I hope that Motivate Me! has become a tool for you, then you may not be maximizing this show to its capacity.

So often listeners tell me that they start an episode and think, “Ah, this isn’t going to relate to me at all.” But then they give it a few minutes and find that it actually does. Because what happens is, they realize that while the guest may have had cancer and they never have, they do have that complicated relationship with their mother – or their sister.

This goes back to the concept that we are all connected. We are all connected – because we travel the same paths, we just each wear them differently. We are all connected – because we are here to learn the same lessons.

I would like to teach a lesson to you now. This is not a new idea, very little of what I talk about is. But, I want to teach a lesson to each of you who feels that you do not contribute much to the world. That you are not an important player. Maybe you live a simple life. Maybe you don’t have children. Maybe you don’t have high career aspirations, you never started your own business, never invented anything. You’re not a celebrity, you didn’t cure a disease.

You are special and you do impact this world. I don’t care if what makes you special is your chicken pot pie – I LOVE chicken pot pie. Do you know how happy a great chicken pot pie can make a person? Yes, actually, you do! And, I am sure you have a whole story about where the recipe came from, and different times that you made it for specific people. The love in that chicken pot pie could have cured an illness, mended a broken heart, it could have made someone feel loved who didn’t even love themselves. It could have made someone feel seen and understood.

And, yet, you may feel that you do not impact this world. Oh, I am sorry, but I thoroughly disagree. That chicken pot pie could be the one you make in the kitchen with your children or nieces and nephews. It could be the very memory they hold dearest from their youth. The softness of the dough, stickiness of the filling, the warm aroma that fills the kitchen. The toothless grins, the fighting over the last piece, the full belly grogginess.

Long after you are gone, your chicken pot pie could be what brings everyone around the table. It could be what sits on the table as they talk about all of their favorite memories of you. About all of the times you made your chicken pot pie, and how this one is good – but it just doesn’t taste the same.

Ladies and gentlemen, please ask yourselves today: What is my chicken pot pie? Because you already have one.

Call to Action:

 

The Motivational Go-Do!

Answer: What is my chicken pot pie?

CLICK HERE to listen to this week’s reflection.

 

If you enjoyed, a review on iTunes and Stitcher would be much appreciated!

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