#72: “Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.”

Posted on by

– Danny Kaye

Many of us were given a box of crayons or set of watercolor paints as children. As we began drawing or painting, we often made a mess, and went beyond the workbook or the canvas. Our teachers and parents, with the best of intentions, taught us to paint by numbers and draw within the boundaries.

How does this idea relate to the lives that we live today: following the rules, sticking to established procedures, conforming?

Exercise:

What if you are simply a brilliant artist and your life is your masterpiece? How big a canvas, and how much paint, will you need? Consider doubling it.

Quotes are posted on The Quotable Coach a week after being sent out by email. To get the latest quotes straight to your inbox, pop your details in the sidebar to the right.

be true to yourself

Posted on by

“Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.”

– Hardy D. Jackson

Image from imgion.com

Image from imgion.com

Have you ever felt disconnected and off your game? How does this feeling differ from being in the zone and experiencing flow?

What if you had the ability to shift from disconnect to flow, and stay there for longer periods of time?

Exercise:

Create a list of your fundamental guiding principles for living. Google this subject to see what others have written, and collect the seven to twelve principles that resonate best for you. Display these principles in multiple places in your life, as a reminder of what is in your heart.

If you are presented with an experience or situation that does not fit with these beliefs, take yourself out of it.

 

#70: “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more…”

Posted on by

“…If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”

– Oprah Winfrey

I watched the final three episodes of Oprah’s 25 years on television – and remembered how big an impact she has had on so many people. Her mantra has always been “live your best life” – and she always provided programming to help people do just that.

This quote, however, indicates the importance of accepting and being grateful for all of our blessings. It points to the current abundance in our worlds and in our lives, and shows how being thankful seems to attract even more good things.

Exercise:

Create a list of all the things in your life that you are thankful for, and keep asking yourself “what else?”

I hope you get writer’s cramp! 🙂

Quotes are posted on The Quotable Coach a week after being sent out by email. To get the latest quotes straight to your inbox, pop your details in the sidebar to the right.

#69: “There are powers inside of you, which, if you could discover and use…”

Posted on by

“…would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become.”

– Orison Swett Marden

What are we capable of? What is our fullest potential as human beings? Perhaps we can consider the Guinness Book of World Records – or the Olympics – as a starting point.

We might think about great feats in areas such as:

  • Speed at running, or swimming (Ye Shiwen and Cameron van der Burgh both set new world records for swimming in the 2012 Olympics)
  • Endurance and strength (Kim Un-Guk set a weightlifting world record)
  • Throwing, climbing, jumping, shooting… (a team from the Republic of Korea set an archery world record)
  • Writing and speaking
  • Mathematics and sciences
  • Mastery in the arts, music, or other creative disciplines
  • Memory (such as in a spelling bee)

Exercise:

With the above capacities already realized by human beings, what would a “world-record you” be capable of?

Quotes are posted on The Quotable Coach a week after being sent out by email. To get the latest quotes straight to your inbox, pop your details in the sidebar to the right.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive…”

Posted on by

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

—Howard Thurman, 20th Century African-American author, educator, and civil rights leader.

Image from Unsplash by Jakob Owens

I support a strength-based approach to work performance and life in general.

The work of many individuals, including Marcus Buckingham, has established that the average person works in their area of strength perhaps only 20 – 25% of the time. However, some of the most satisfied and highly-successful people work in their areas of strength and unique abilities 40 – 50% of the time.

Exercise:

How could you design your life and career to shoot for spending 60%, 70% or 80% of your time in your areas of strength?

If you did this, how alive would you be and what difference would you make in your life and the lives of those around you?

#67: “Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire…”

Posted on by

“…sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass.”

– Paul J. Meyer

How many blogs, newsletters, and books have you seen that tout the “X steps to success” and then go about taking up a few hundred pages to describe them?

Meyer’s quote contains four simple steps:

  • imagine = dreams = vision
  • desire = passion = purpose
  • belief = core values = authenticity
  • action = results = achievement

Exercise:

Select one area of your personal or professional life and go through these steps.

Repeat as often as you wish.

Quotes are posted on The Quotable Coach a week after being sent out by email. To get the latest quotes straight to your inbox, pop your details in the sidebar to the right.

#66: “To raise new questions, new possibilities…”

Posted on by

“…to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”

– Albert Einstein

When I was in school, success was all about getting the correct answer. In recent years, I have become fascinated by powerful questions and the fact that there are often many possible answers.

I am becoming far more comfortable with ambiguity and shades of grey. I think Einstein, through his study of quantum physics and his quotes pertaining to the mysteries life demonstrates, has led many (including myself) in this direction.

Exercise:

How can you use powerful questions to do some heavy lifting and find the added strength and capacity to advance your life?

Quotes are posted on The Quotable Coach a week after being sent out by email. To get the latest quotes straight to your inbox, pop your details in the sidebar to the right.

#65: “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart…”

Posted on by

“…Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.”

– Carl Jung

The past year has been particularly difficult for me and my family, due to the passing of my mother, Rose. As we all took the time to be with each other and to experience the deep feelings within our hearts, I experienced a significant awakening. I even serendipitously discovered Mark Nepo’s The Book of Awakening to assist me on this inner journey.

Exercise:

How can you look into your own heart through inspirational reading, faith-based practices, meditation or other means to find greater depth and meaning in your life?

Quotes are posted on The Quotable Coach a week after being sent out by email. To get the latest quotes straight to your inbox, pop your details in the sidebar to the right.

Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower

Posted on by

“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.”

—Albert Camus, 20th Century French Philosopher

Image of bright autumn leaves

Image from Unsplash be Val Vesa

Our society embraces youth, beauty, and vitality. These qualities seem to coincide with the spring and summer, where new growth begins and we bloom into our fullness.

As we age, we enter the autumn of our lives. I embrace the metaphor of leaves, in all their wondrous colors, being a second spring. With aging and life experience, we can discover new forms of inner beauty and wisdom.

Exercise:

How can you embrace every moment and every season of your life?

What beauty can you find in where you are and who you have become?

#63: “Life is playfulness…”

Posted on by

“…We need to play so that we can rediscover the magic all around us.”

– Flora Colao

As a child, I remember being told “you cannot go out and play until the work is done.” It turned out that there was always work to do – in the form of chores and schoolwork.

Years ago, I took a one-year course called The Wisdom Course that was all about bringing greater playfulness into my life. It was around this time that I left my 12-year corporate job to begin my coaching career.

As the saying goes, when you love what you do, you’ll never work another day in your life. Most days, my work feels like play.

Exercise:

How can you bring greater magic into your life by bringing more playfulness into your work and your personal life?

Quotes are posted on The Quotable Coach a week after being sent out by email. To get the latest quotes straight to your inbox, pop your details in the sidebar to the right.