Well, happiness can mean a lot of different things to different people. For some, it means professional success; for others, a rock-solid relationship. To others, happiness is financial security. I’ve met a rare few for whom happiness involves nothing but getting up in the morning and breathing the air. The one thing I know for sure is that happiness is something we have come to both seek and hide from, sometimes on the same day, and often, in the same breath.

We learned as kids that the forefathers of this country thought it was important enough to include the “Pursuit of Happiness” as part of our Rights in the Declaration of Independence.

And get this. Originally, the “hap” in happiness meant “chance, fortune, or luck.” And the term “pursue” initially meant to “follow with hostile intent.”

So, I’m guessing that means that our forefathers essentially consented for us to hostilely pursue something that transpires outside of ourselves beyond our control! Is that the American Dream?

Now, I’m sure that’s not what they had in mind, but it does shed some light on why so many of us grew up thinking happiness was something that we might be lucky to have, something that “happened” to us passively, not something we could choose or create. It makes sense, in that light, that we may have learned to resent those people who we perceived had the very things we thought would make us happy.

Happiness and disappointment have always seemed to go hand in hand.
At least, so we were conditioned to believe.

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You have within you an awesome power that most of us have never been taught to use. Elite athletes use it. The super rich use it. And peak performers in all fields are now starting to use it. That power is called visualization. The daily practice of visualizing your dreams as already complete can rapidly accelerate your achievement of those dreams. Visualization of your goals and desires accomplishes four very important things.

1. It activates your creative subconscious which will start generating creative ideas to achieve your goal.
2. It programs your brain to more readily perceive and recognize the resources you will need to achieve your dreams.
3. It activates the law of attraction, thereby drawing into your life the people, resources, and circumstances you will need to achieve your goals.
4. It builds your internal motivation to take the necessary actions to achieve your dreams.

Visualization is really quite simple. You sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and imagine — in as vivid detail as you can — what you would be looking at if the dream you have were already realized. Imagine being inside of yourself, looking out through your eyes at the ideal result.

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Experts discuss several stages of acceptance. These can include: the “why me?” stage, depression, frustration and anger, hopelessness and apathy, impatience, and fear. We’ve all felt these emotions and experienced these reactions, so how do we move past emotional gridlock and reactions to conscious responses? What keys to happiness are hidden in the journey of acceptance?

There is a significant distinction between acceptances versus resignation. One is a conscious choice to address reality as it is and the other is a counter-productive attitude often fueled by acknowledgement of the situation but with significant negative emotion. Acceptance and resignation represent the difference between a life of peace and one of internal suffering.

There will always be someone or something that will present itself in the guise of a challenge or difficulty. These can present themselves as major challenges such as a medical diagnosis, a death in the family, conflicts with your significant other or financial concerns, or they can be the everyday difficulties of traffic jams, long lines at the grocery store or conflicting obligations. The real opportunity in any of these situations is how you choose to feel and act upon them in the moment.

There are several ways to transition from the knee jerk reaction and suffering of resisting a situation to the peace and harmony found in the acceptance of what is in the present moment. (more…)

No, these are not trick questions. And yes, I know they’re rhetorical. Let me guess…you answered no and no, right? I’m with you.

Let’s look at some of the day-to-day ways we avoid our own vitality and health.

When we talk about living a healthy, balanced and prosperous life from the Inside-Out, our health is at the very core. Being healthy in mind, body and spirit relates to every component of our life. It just doesn’t matter what kind of car you drive or how much money you have in the bank if you don’t have the health to enjoy any of it.

We tend to race through life, becoming easily overwhelmed, overworked, overcommitted, and the first thing that falls through the cracks? Taking care of ourselves!

You know what I mean. You’re in a hurry. You’ve been in meetings all day. You realize you haven’t had lunch─and it’s already 4:30 pm. So you pull into a fast food lane and order your favorite “comfort” foods - that ironically make you feel very uncomfortable later on. And then you feel too lousy to go for a walk, let alone the gym. Pretty soon, you don’t even think about it anymore.

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The ultimate secret to living from the inside out is also the most important key to building trust instantly with everyone you touch and moving beyond ego to genuine peace of mind. The secret centers around a simple, yet immeasurably profound principle called being fully present.

Perhaps the most powerful way to understand this principle of being present is to look clearly at what it is not.

Several years ago when I was the vice-president of a large training company, I became painfully aware of what it means to not be present. At that time we were a family of three with my wife Carole and me, and our oldest daughter, Kelsey who was five years old. Driven by an unrelenting, nearly suffocating feeling of overwhelm, I had fallen into the habit of reaching the office by 5:00 a.m. and not returning home until well after 6:00 in the evening.

On most weekends I was away, teaching seminars around the country. Not once did I see my daughter get ready for kindergarten. Not once did I surprise her by picking her up from school to spend some special, unexpected moments together. I mistakenly convinced myself that I didn’t have time. I had to be at the office first and to put more hours in than anyone else. After all, I was driving myself for my family, wasn’t I?

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Why? Well, the answer is rooted in living from the inside-out and that is making a conscious commitment to take care of our body. However, it is the conscious decision making that drops by the wayside when our lives are busy and overcommitted. We then fall back to old patterns of eating and coping that ultimately don’t serve our bodies, minds, or spirits.

What we put in our bodies affects what comes out. Not only in physical outcomes like endurance and strength levels, but in mental and emotional outcomes as well like fatigue, mood swings and poor attention.

In our busy lives we sometimes fail to emphasize for ourselves that without taking care of the physical self, we may not be giving ourselves much time to enjoy anything else and then are often surprised when illness occurs. Unfortunately many times it takes that “unexpected” illness to give us the opportunity to have conscious intent about our health and what we put in our bodies.

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Visit www.AskBrianBiro.com to ask Brian your questions about Making Personal Breakthroughs and how to seize the WOO!

Proclaimed “America’s breakthrough coach” Brian Biro will discuss how to “Seize the WOO” in a free 70-minute live teleseminar which will be held at 9pm EST/6pm PST on Thursday, May 15th 2008.

Understanding how to “Seize the WOO” is a personal coaching experience delivered by one of the nation’s foremost speakers and teachers of leadership, possibility thinking, and team building.

• When you jump out of bed tomorrow morning is it possible that your life, relationships, energy, health, and balance can flourish as never before, despite even the most difficult circumstances?
• Can you actually have more bounce in your step and spark in your spirit than when you were a kid?
• Is it possible for you to build supportive, positive relationships, even with those people you’re pretty certain God put on the planet to “bug” you?
• Is it really possible for you to have great fun, a powerful sense of purpose, and genuine peace of mind in a world accelerating so quickly that there is more computer technology in your children’s Christmas toys than in the Apollo that went to the moon in 1969?
• And is it even remotely possible that your family can flourish and truly connect, despite the seemingly endless distractions and disconnections of reality TV, internet, Madison Avenue, cell phones, traffic, malls, American Idol, and instant messenger?

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I’m talking about saying one thing and doing another.

It goes something like this: “I’ve set a goal and I am waiting to get started.”

When I hear this from people, my response is: “So, what are you waiting for?”

Waiting for action.
Waiting for something to happen to us so we can act.
Waiting for the right circumstances in order to make a choice.
Waiting for life to take us to the next place.

And like the beloved Dr. Seuss said in hi famous book Oh the Places You Will Go, many times people go to “The Waiting Place.” And then live there for the rest of their lives.

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Okay, it’s that time of the year when weight loss and subsequently, exercise, is on your radar. I bet every spring, you recommitted to exercise, laced up your running shoes and went for a run.

Are you ready? That is the absolute WORST thing you can possible do if your goal is to lose weight and change your body’s composition. I’ll go one step further. ANY cardiovascular exercise is a complete waste of time if your goal is weight loss and an enhanced body composition.

As the author of The Cardio-Free Diet, I am here to say that every moment you exercise should only be devoted to interval strength training as this style of exercise provides:

1. Improved heart health. Yes, performing strength training in intervals in even more beneficial to your heart than classic steady state aerobics. When you strength train in intervals, you improve your heart rate variability, or your heart’s ability to quickly respond to sudden stress, such as running to catch a plane, and that provides optimal heart health.

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What is a personal mission statement?

If you have ever wondered what gives certain people more drive than others. Or, thought about what it would mean for you to be living your life in balance and harmony. Then, constructing a personal mission statement is one way to uncover the answers to these questions and more.

In its shortest definition, a personal mission statement is a written expression of how you define yourself. It illustrates who you are and who you want to become in alignment with your desires, overall life purpose, goals, values and beliefs.

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