Wednesday

LOST IN ACTION

Why are you doing what you're doing? So often, we get so caught up in the momentum of our lives that we forget to live. Once we have set an objective for ourselves, we must learn to stay focused on our vision without becoming prisoner to our own strategy. Our job is to stay clear about what we want and to be conscious of our choices. We must learn to surrender our need to know how we are going to get what we want. If we even attempt to control the means, we will most likely blind ourselves to a world of unexpected opportunities. Expect the miracle without knowing in what form it will arrive.

Examine where you are spending the majority of your time. What are you doing? Why? Is the return on your time, energy and talents well invested? Are you getting more than you are giving? If not, perhaps it is time to reevaluate your strategy. Are you feeding your life, joy and happiness or are you blindly hiding in the routine of existence? The world can no longer afford your absence. You need to be fully present at every moment of your day. How are you going to ensure that you are spending your time wisely? How will you evaluate your success? What are you willing to do TODAY to live more effectively?

success or sabotage? has your plan for success become the foundation of self-sabotage? are you doing all that you can to ensure conscious thoughts, words and actions?

is this going to be an incredible day? is your routine interfering with your joy? if so, what's the point?

"Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live." - Margaret Fuller

Mark Ward
nu*design LLC

Tuesday

LIVE YOUR POTENTIAL

What is your vision for your life? What is the greatest that you can hope to achieve? Are your answers influenced by the limitations of tribal consciousness?

What are the reasons that you use to justify living below your potential?

I cannot do this because....

I am not educated enough.
I am too old.
I am the wrong ethnicity.
I am the wrong gender.
I don't have the experience.
I will never be taken seriously.
I don't have the time.
I am not good looking enough.
I don't know what I am doing.

The justification is your own. You (ultimately) only answer to yourself. There are no excuses. There are only choices. Remove the judgment from your choices and simply be clear about the choices that you are making. You may either be the rule or the exception. There is no need to defend your doubt and support your fear with reasons for why your life is not all that you would like it to be. When you truly decide that you want your life to be more and believe that it is possible, you will act accordingly.

Monitor your thoughts and words today. Do you find yourself defending your fear and inaction or supporting the power and potential of something new and more effective?

success or sabotage? whatever the reasons that you use to limit yourself: stop lying. it is a choice that you are making and nothing more. success is a choice, not a destiny.

is this going to be an incredible day? what do you use as your reasons to limit the possibility of miracles in your life today?

"Men and women are limited not by the place of their birth, not by the color of their skin, but by the size of their hope…" John H. Johnson

Mark Ward
nu*design LLC

Monday

YOU ARE YOUR HERO

We may resist times of trial and tribulation, but it is in those moments that our character is most developed. Our discovery is not simply limited to the nature of our being; it includes a demonstration of our true strength. We are reminded that we are the true hero and protagonist of our story.

Take some time today to reflect on your life to date. Look at how much you have been through (and you are still here!). Rather than painting a picture of regret and victimization, celebrate your victories. Tell the story as truth--you are the hero that has triumphed over great adversities. Now, examine the qualities that enabled you to move beyond the obstacles. It is these characteristics that define the hero: you! You will begin to notice that the challenges that you face today are no greater than those that you faced in the past. You simply need to use the same strength of character to overcome your current challenges.

success or sabotage? in order to be successful, you must remember that you have already made great accomplishments. how can you appreciate success if it remains unacknowledged?

is this going to be an incredible day? find the qualities within that make each day incredible.

"Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most
easily becomes acquainted with himself."--Samuel Johnson


Mark Ward
nu*design LLC

Thursday

PRACTICING PEACE

Peace is a concept that tends to evade people on a personal level. It is easy to think of peace in terms of world relations (war vs. peace), but if most were asked what they do to contribute to peace on a daily basis, they would be dumb-struck. As long as we are unable to build a bridge between global consciousness and our personal daily interactions, we will be unsuccessful in our attempts to battle international unrest.

As Jonathan Larson so aptly stated in Rent, "the opposite of war isn't peace, it's creation." If you want to examine the concept of peace in your own life, take a moment to examine what you are creating on a daily basis. Let's take it to the micro level. You are driving in traffic, someone pulls out in front of you and you give them the "finger." The driver of the car gets upset and takes that emotion home to his/her partner. The partner, in-turn, gets upset at the injustice of the emotion (now being exerted on him/her) and takes it to the supermarket where it is unleashed on an employee at the check-out. If you are unable to see that your words and actions may have global implications, you are fooling yourself.

Take some time today to examine the practice of peace in your life. Are you treating yourself with respect and dignity? Do you belittle yourself or put yourself down in your self-talk or in the presence of others? Do you engage anger as a means of releasing your emotion when things are upsetting or unpredictable? It is not a matter of validity; your emotions are always valid. It is a matter of your investment of energy. Is it an investment that serves you and the world that surrounds you?

success or sabotage? success is not created in a vacuum; one could argue that it is your responsibility to create joy and success in your life for your benefit and for the world.

is this going to be an incredible day? look at your commitments today. are you creating greater peace or greater conflict?

“To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is in itself to succumb to the violence of our times.” –Thomas Merton

Mark Ward
nu*design LLC