Ambition is what we want to achieve. Aspiration is who we want to become.

I aspire to be a great leader, to help others grow and become great leaders themselves. I aspire to be a great colleague and friend, to be a great husband and father. I aspire to be someone who makes a difference in this world.

Who do you aspire to be? Write down meaningful goals that help you become someone, not achieve something. 

Choose today who you want to be tomorrow. We always have a choice.

Who do you want to become? Become who you want to be.

Create your life.

Do you need nurturing to become who you want to be? Schedule time for us to chat!

It is easy to look back at what was or what could have been. It takes courage to look forward.

Move ahead to the future.

The future YOU get to create.

Don't let fear get in your way.

Fear only makes the situation worse.

Fear is a choice. 

Don't give in to fear.

Keep going.

Look forward.

Create your life.

Harmony or lopsidedness? Many of us encounter times when we experience imbalance in areas of our life. When we focus on one area too much, we allow the others to slip.

Work, home, self, and spirit are out of whack.

We are out of whack.

Perhaps you have spent too much time in the office. This can mean you miss out on dinner together as a family, skip your workout, or get less sleep.

Often, this imbalance comes as a result of losing sight of what's truly important to us. What we value.

Instead of saying "no" to the work, we "double down" just this one time so that we can later possess more of what we're missing.

The problem is, the only thing we hold more of is the work.

When faced with a choice, say "yes" to what you value deep down inside.

If you value family, put family first. If you value honesty, tell the truth to yourself and others. If you value freedom, take actions that release you.

Enjoy your improved harmony and notice where you are finding balance.

Create your life.

You feel like you are losing your balance. You struggle or act clumsily or helplessly. You claw for everything you get. No matter what you do, you do not seem to make any progress. Your work, home, self, and spirit are all a bit disjointed.

You might be floundering!

You find yourself trudging through your days due to weariness, lack of energy, or stress. It can be tough "out there" in the world!

When you try to change, you run into more of the same thing, growing more weary, muddling through your days, tripping when there is no apparent obstacle.

Instead of bumbling around, consider giving yourself permission to step back. Explore what is important to you. Reconnect with your inner strength and authority.

Doing this will help you rediscover your balance and bring the disjointed parts back into alignment. You will stop floundering and begin to flourish instead! You can do it!

Create your life.

We often get caught up in the negativity around us. It's easy when we hear about and perhaps even experience violence, death, destruction, loss, accidents, or simply our own unmet expectations. We might find it nearly impossible to see any of these in a positive light, perhaps even see them as gifts.

My basement flooded a couple of weeks ago. Too much water fell in a very short period of time. The sewer line backed up into my basement and many of those in the neighborhood. There was nothing I could do. Nothing. Except watch the water flow in.

The gift, the perspective I choose to take, is that I now had the opportunity to enjoy a different view while working from the dining room table instead of the desk in the basement. Inconvenient? No doubt. Would I have moved my working space if not for the flooding? Definitely not. The gift is that the flooding forced me to move my daily workspace.

What has happened in your life that you could turn into a gift?

Discovering the gift in life's events might lead to a whole different outlook for you.

Find the gift.

Create your life.

When faced with a challenge, or an opportunity, which dog do you feed?

Jon Gordon writes in his book, The Positive Dog, "We all have a positive-versus-negative battle going on each day. Every moment and every situation presents to us an opportunity to see and experience the positive or the negative."

"We can feed the positive dog or the negative dog inside of us, and whichever one we feed, grows. So feed the positive dog."

Focus on the positive. Experience the positive. Seek to find the gift presented through each opportunity.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Which dog do you feed? Which part of you do you want to grow?

Feed the positive dog.

Create your life.

Spending time with family is an opportunity to enjoy people who accept us as we are, we do not need to pretend around them.

My family and I look forward to spending time over the holiday weekend with my siblings and their families. We're excited!

We get to share stories, experience common activities like yard games and fireworks, and enjoy good laughs. We "might" even enjoy a barley pop or two.

We will relish just being with each other. It's been a long time since we have all gotten together!

Getting to do things together with people we love. That's family time.

What do you appreciate when you get together with your family?

Happy early birthday America!

Create your life.

When faced with life, we can choose to look at the negative or consider the positive. Whatever you choose, that's what your subconscious will make happen. 

Stay positive with what you tell yourself.

You give power to what you focus on. So, focus on the good. Focus on what you want.

Make THAT happen.

Create your life.

When we are young, we seek out the puddles. As we get older, we generally shy away from puddles. We don't want to get our feet or clothes wet. We don't want to create a scene. We choose to "act our age" instead.

What is it about a puddle? What makes a puddle so nearly irresistible to play in? Those wonderfully fun collections of water just begging for someone to disrupt with their feet or bicycle tire.

It is hard to match the pure joy of splashing in a puddle. Nothing matters except how high and how far the splatter goes. Nothing else matters.

I want to break free or perhaps let go of the voices in my head that say I shouldn't do that or I'm too old to do that. I want to feel the joy and freedom of those moments when nothing else matters.

I want to splash in more puddles.

Create your life.

We live in a pass or fail culture. Many of us live in absolutes, it's all or nothing, black or white.

🔹 Did you get a raise or promotion? If not, you failed.

🔹 Did you get an A+? If not, you failed.

🔹 Did you win the deal or make the sale? If not, you failed.

🔹 Did you "get" the girl? If not, you failed.

These are the messages our culture would lead us to believe. We learn at at early age that you get measured by your outputs and accomplishments (especially high-achieving men).

One alternative is to refrain from labeling experiences as a pass or fail and simply learn from them. Did you get a raise? Amazing! What can you keep doing that lead to that benefit? If the raise didn't come (yet) and it's something you truly want, where can you grow so you earn that recognition?

Shift your perspective and you will realize there is a whole lot of space in between the extremes where you can thrive!

Create your life.

Society teaches us, especially as men, to "deal with it" or "grin and bear it."

Grind is defined as dreary, monotonous, or difficult labor, study, or routine (source: Merriam-Webster dictionary online).

How often have you said to yourself or said to another or had it said to you, "keep your nose to the grindstone!"

You get up, day after day, follow the same routine. Nothing. Ever. Changes.

You might feel stuck and unable to break free, you're the "provider" after all, it's your "job" to put food on the table and a roof over your heads.

Maybe you want to create something new, so you wake up early or stay up late and in the process, get less sleep and do more.

The grind gets worse.

Could you make a tradeoff? Instead of adding more, what if you also took something away?

Connect with your inner strength, that part of you that knows what lights you up and recognizes when the spark exists.

Make intentional choices about where you spend your time and energy.

Perhaps you skip the television at the end of the night to work on your project, read a book, or go to sleep.

If you take small, intentional steps, you can break away from the grind, regain some balance, and feel reinvigorated.

Create your life.

We all experience change throughout life. Sometimes change can be a challenge or undesirable - such as the death of a loved one or working from home during a pandemic. Other times the change is straightforward or something we choose - such as taking a new route to the store to avoid construction or waking up early twice a week to exercise.

Whether hard or easy, lean into the change. Embrace it as an opportunity to learn, to become a better person, and to grow.

Perhaps you will discover your loved one served more people and touched more lives than you ever knew.

Or you will learn to be more patient as you find ways to share a house normally occupied by less people during the day.

Or you will travel alongside a stream you did not know existed and appreciate its simplicity and beauty.

Or you will notice you have more energy during the workday.

Embrace change and you will shift toward the person you are meant to be.

Create your life.

I've had enough and I want out!

We get SO busy sometimes. Perhaps you find yourself wondering how it all started. It's easy to get caught up in the "rat race" - doing more, saying "yes" to more, chasing after more.

In the process, you lose touch with who you are or who you want to be.

At the end of your life, heck, five years from now, 10 years from now, will you look back and say, "I created something, I created that, I did that - and it mattered."

Or will you look back and say, "Phew, I made it to the end and got through it. I survived."

Identify what matters and make intentional choices. Stop piling on more stuff just so you can continue the race.

You can't walk away now!

Are you creating life or just getting through life?

Create your life.

I recently saw this on the inside of a Dove chocolate wrapper. (mmmm, chocolate!) What does it say to you? 

I hear two things - be you and you are beautiful. At the center, literally and figuratively, is YOU! Be yourself. Be authentic. You are beautiful, inside and out. Yes, that is a cliche and I believe one that is true.

So today and during the next week, take off your mask and let your beautiful self shine! Be you!

Create your life.

Why do we spend so much time worrying about, paying attention to, or dealing with the silly, stupid, sh#t?!

Sometimes, that might appear as the easy path to take. The comfortable path. The unconscious path. I notice this when I get lazy or pretend I do not care or that something does not matter. Or when I'm burned out.

Instead of handling the silly, stupid, sh#t, I want more vibrancy! That can start with accepting myself and what is. Perhaps learning to embrace the gray. Maybe even taking small steps and going out of my comfort zone.

Doing something that kicks me out of the spiral.

Something that will shift the balance toward worrying about, paying attention to, and dealing with powerful, meaningful, goodness.

That's where I want to spend my energy!

Where do you want to spend your energy?

Create your life.