Aspire to Greatness

We have all heard many times that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. But how many of us really make use of this powerful concept? More importantly, how many of us realize that while the sum may be greater than the parts, the quality of that sum is only as good as the quality of the parts. Think of this another way: a cake is better tasting than any of its individual ingredients – the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Yet the final taste of that cake is directly related to the quality of the ingredients that went into it – the better the ingredients, the better will be the cake.

In much the same way, the whole of who we are is greater than the individual experiences and learning that goes into us, but the limit of our greatness is in direct relation to the quality of what influences us. If you want to become an award winning, bake-off champion cake you must first look to the ingredients with which you surround yourself. These influential ingredients can be broken into three categories: Body, Mind and surrounding Energy.

• What we put into our Body affects every part of our well being and success. You are, after all, what you eat. What are your ingredients: fast food, soda and the ubiquitous poison called High Fructose Corn Syrup? Or do you blend in fresh foods, vegetables and whole grains?
• What we allow into our Mind shapes our perception of the world. Do you spend your free time watching television and reading the latest gossip? Do you find yourself discussing things and people instead of ideas? What happens to your critical thinking muscle if it goes unused?
• The energy that we choose to surround ourselves with may make up the most important batch of ingredients. In Real Estate we are told that, if we desire appreciation and a strong investment, we should buy the worst house in the best neighborhood, rather than the nicest house in a bad neighborhood. This applies to us as well! Place yourself in a neighborhood of people who have already achieved greater success than you. Who surrounds you and feeds your psyche? Who are your examples and mentors?

Within that third category: the energy in which we surround ourselves, is an often over looked but integral ingredient contributing to our whole. I am talking about those around us whom we teach. Why is this so important? Look at the process for learning: first we see something done, than we do it ourselves and finally we teach it to someone else. As a matter of fact, the greatest learning comes from teaching others. So who are you teaching and what are they learning?

We should eat well and challenge our minds; we know this. The little used, secret weapon to our success, however, may stem from this third category. If we gain our greatest success by surrounding ourselves with success and we gain our greatest understanding by teaching others, then teaching others to be successful will benefit us twice. If you Aspire to Greatness, Inspire Greatness!

To Your Success,

Sean Purcell

Judge Not

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet we are given one of the Bard’s great lines: “To thine own self be true.” It is profound and timeless (originating with Socrates’ “Know thyself”). But how do we maintain our self, our goals and our sense of value in such a busy world? To continue with the Shakespeare theme; how do we buffer the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” all the while encountering the negative energy and judgments of others?

It has been said that for each person who stands up and tries there are one hundred to say it can’t be done. I would add that there are another two hundred who will judge you for your efforts. I am not talking about someone analyzing your effort or offering a critique (solicited or not). I am talking about those times when people assign a value to us; I am talking about those times when someone judges us in the Biblical sense. Sometimes you will even be surprised by friends and family; they often feel they have earned the right to judge.

We would all like to go through life without being judged by others. I like to think that we all desire to go through life without judging others as well. Neither of these options is likely. One way to handle the judgments of others is called “holding your space”. This is a concept practiced in yoga and often seen in accomplished yogis. The basic tenet is to be “present” in the moment and to own your personal space. Take responsibility for and control of what you allow into your private space. It may sound strange, but we must actually practice taking an active role in protecting our own sense of worth and happiness. Too often we passively allow others to invade our space and affect our very estimation of our worth. Too often we allow others’ value judgment of us to become our own value judgment of us. When you feel that happening remember:
People who care about me do not judge me and those that judge me, I do not care about.

To Your Success,

Sean Purcell

Introduction

Have you ever driven home without paying attention? You are following the rules of the road and being careful, but your concentration is on the day’s events or your conversation or the songs on the radio. You suddenly find yourself in your driveway and you do not remember how you got there. It is as if an automatic pilot allowed you to move along without really thinking. Many find a certain comfort in this but I am here to say you should fire that pilot! The same mechanism that got you home safely may also be the root of many of your fears, worries and unhappiness in life. It is called inertia and the first requirement of a fulfilling life is to Stop Living by Inertia.

If you will step back in time to high school physics , you will recall that inertia is defined as: the tendency of a body at rest to remain at rest or of a body in motion to stay in motion. Quite often this defines every aspect of our lives. We are doing something so we continue doing it. We have never tried something new so we continue to not try it. On a larger scale, inertia tends to take us places we never consciously decided to go. How many of us look at our careers, for instance, and see a plan? More often we start out doing something for the most superficial of reasons: our friend told us to try it; we needed money and the job was available; it looked like a pleasant way to spend the summer; it was all I was qualified for at the time. This occurs in our personal world as well. I am comfortable believing that most of us love our spouses quite dearly. But how many of us actually set out to meet and marry this specific person? Much more common is a marriage of inertia: we are dating someone and as time goes on the relationship progresses because nothing happens to stop it. The natural destination of a relationship unchecked, of course, is marriage. In other words, you take a job just to pay the bills while you decide what you really want to be. Then you meet someone who is fun and attractive and decide to date them for a while. The next thing you know you are married and have a career. You are quite literally sitting in your driveway and you do not remember how you got home.

How often is our unhappiness a product of our fear about the future or our guilt over the past? This autopilot of inertia provides our egos with that very opportunity to wander forward in time and worry about the future or go back in time and find guilt. We cannot be in two places at once; yet when we live by inertia and place our lives on auto pilot, we are hopelessly trying to do just that. Our egos are traveling in time while our physical being – our energy – is happening here and now. So how do we Stop Living by Inertia?

The answer to this is really quite simple. Of course the implementation is so difficult that few even try. The answer lies in living a life that is Present, Oriented and Purposeful; a life that POPs. The purpose of this book is to delve into what it means to be Present, Oriented and Purposeful. We will create strategies that allow us to POP and reorient our perceptions. We will explore what it means to be Present and find ways to stay in the moment when our ego calls us forward to fear or backward to guilt. We will create a Life Manual that uncovers our true goals. Our manual will include a time management system and a road map; thus keeping us Oriented toward our goals while achieving them. And finally, we will tackle the toughest concept of the three: living honestly and Purposefully all the time.

The journey to a Life that POPs never ends. I am honored that you have chosen to share some of your jouney with me. The first step of this journey is to make your next step on autopilot your last. Stop moving by inertia and take a look around; see what a miraculous world we live in right here and right now.

To Your Success,

Sean Purcell