Author: Life Coach

living-the-dream
Sep 22

Living the Dream Part I

A memorial was held at my daughter’s school to honor the short life of one of her schoolmates, a fourteen-year-old boy named Marc El Wafi, who was shot in the head while defending his friends. The memorial described a child who sounded like a living angel. Friends and teachers shared their stories about his acts of kindness, his wonderful sense of humor, and his jovial spirit.

In just eight months at the school, he had touched their hearts deeply and made an imprint that would last a lifetime.

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Karen-Parsons
Sep 19

Introducing Karen Parsons

After this great run of posts by guest blogger Carey Powell, I’m very pleased to introduce Karen Parsons, President of Successful Solutions Life Coaching who will be sharing a beautiful true story with us next week.

Be sure to read it!

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zen-moment
Sep 17

Chickens On Fire & Zen

Running around like a chicken on fire greased with Tabasco is actually the easier thing.

The harder thing is to freeze, not do anything and have a Zen moment.

But the Zen moments are quintessentially important.

Piling on more miles with that burning chicken makes you feel like you’re getting places, touching base, getting things done. It’s medal to the metal efficiency.

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Fearlessly Living Your Dream in Real Life
Sep 15

Maintenance: Fearlessly Living Your Dream in Real Life

You’ve met your goal – congratulations!

To get to this place, you had to make many changes. Some were small, some were large, some were trivial and some were absolutely life altering.

Now comes the job of maintaining those changes and keeping that goal alive in your life. You’re riding high right now, but what will happen when real life creeps back in (bad habits included)? What will you do when day-to-day pressures or complacency threaten your new found habits and lifestyle? You can plan ahead and come up with a maintenance strategy that will meet those challenges head on.

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elizabeth-gilbert-eat-pray-love
Sep 13

Book Review: Eat Pray Love

While on my recent 2-week journey across Japan, I had the chance to read Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. And because I underestimated how much time I’d have on the trains, I ended up reading it not just once, but twice. And yet, I enjoyed it as much the second time round as the first.

Eat, Pray, Love is the story of Elizabeth’s travels through Italy, India and Bali as she struggles out of a recent divorce and turbulent love affair, in search of the three things she has been missing in her life: pleasure, devotion and balance.

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building-a-blog
Sep 12

9 Keys to Building a Blog You Can Be Proud Of

I don’t claim to have all the answers on how to create a successful blog – in fact, I’d be wary of anyone who’d say he does. I don’t claim to have a wildly successful blog either, so investigate what I say. But there have been lessons along the way, running Life Coaches Blog for near 3 years now. And these 9 points are how I’d summarize them.

1. Know What You Want Out of It

To be successful, you have to define how you’re going to measure it, or you’ll always be chasing after rainbows.

2. Money Goes Second

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Sep 11

Get Real: In Pursuit of Your Fearless Life

How are you standing in the way of your dreams and goals?

It’s time to stop telling yourself lies, stop making excuses and (gulp) take a long hard look at what role you are playing in your current situation.

If you’re willing to ask yourself the hard questions now, you can save yourself from facing them as even bigger roadblocks in the future. But if you skip this step, you’ll keep coming up against these same issues over and over again, no matter how hard you work.

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Sep 9

Don’t Look Back in Anger

Some of us have been angry for so long that we’ve forgotten what it’s like not to be angry anymore.

We’ve become so attached to our anger that we think it’s who we are. But it’s really no more a part of you than an old wound is, when it’s time to finish healing you just have to let the scabs fall. It might leave a scar, but even that fades with time.

You might have to change so much that you’ll have to become a different person. And that can be scary. The unknown usually is. But what is it that you’re so afraid of losing by hanging on to your rage? What will you lose if you let it consume you? And what will you gain when you finally move on?

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Sep 8

Finding Gratitude: Gaining a Fearless Shift in Perspective

Finding gratitude is a fundamental step in the self-improvement process. You can’t expect anything new to come into your life without first having a genuine sense of appreciation for what you have now.

Gratitude invites a sense of humility and a focus on what truly matters – which can be especially challenging in our materialistic society. It helps you to see that while you may not have everything you want, you do have more than everything you need. Gratitude brings everything into balance and gives you a proper perspective.

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Sep 7

Inspiring Links: Week of 7th September 2008

Just 3 links this week, because they’re each so rich with nuggets of wisdom.

Derek Sivers interviews Tim Ferriss, author of The 4 Hour Workweek, which turns out to be a must-read article for anyone who has something they’d like to be doing if they didn’t have to do anything. Here are some of my favorite bits (and there are so many).

Long life is not guaranteed, folks. It’s important to really question this deferred-life plan that saves all retirement for the end.
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roadmap-to-success
Sep 5

Roadmap to Success: Your Fearless Action Plan

“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.”

Japanese proverb

If you have a vision of what you want to achieve, it’s essential to create an action plan of how and when you’re going to do it. This is the time to set specific goals, assign timelines and watch as quantifiable results begin to manifest.

You’ll break down each action item into manageable tasks, to guard against overwhelm. And when you meet each of your own self-imposed deadlines, plan to give yourself a special reward. This will help you follow through and stay committed.

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Sep 3

Your Own Vision: A Guiding Light on the Fearless Journey of Self-Discovery

Ready or not, get set to jump in!

Because once you’ve clarified your vision of what you want to achieve, you will be full steam ahead on your journey towards achieving it.

A vision becomes a “guiding light” for your process of self-improvement, both a beacon of inspiration and an anchor that keeps you focused and grounded.

And when you face the inevitable obstacles and challenges along the way, having a strong sense of what you’re working towards will motivate you to carry on.

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Sep 2

Introducing Carey Powell

Life Coaches Blog has been quiet for a while, but starting tomorrow I’m pleased to introduce guest blogger Carey Powell of Fearless Coaching who has a great series of articles lined up for the next few weeks.

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Aug 25

Living the Important Sometimes Means Giving Things Up

Last week, Life Coaches Blog’s server on Site5 broke down and we became inaccessible for a few days. To their credit, Site5 has apologized and given half a year’s worth of free hosting for all sites that were affected.

While that was going on, I was in Shanghai for a working trip and couldn’t be online to check for updates. Thanks to all my friends who messaged me to ask about what happened to Life Coaches Blog, I appreciate it.

My life’s been shifting the last few months, as I found myself feeling dissatisfied and thoughtful. Questions like; what’s really important to me? with the limited time and energy I have left on this planet, what do I want to commit it to? and ; what would make me happier? ran through my head.

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Jul 30

Monotone – Recasting Vision for Your Life

Who do you think of when you picture someone talking in monotone? I personally think of Ben Stein who did the Clear Eyes commercials a few years back. His voice remained at the same tone throughout the commercial. He did not show any excitement whatsoever in the product he was selling. He was just straightforward, to the point, and the commercial was over. Many people would probably describe him as boring.

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Jun 25

What is Simplicity According to Zen?

Albert Einstein once said; “everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” I’ve been going on about the simple life lately, but what exactly is simplicity and why is it such a big deal?

In this series, I want to explore simplicity through the eyes of different people. Hopefully, this will enrich our ideas about simplicity and help answer those questions for both you and me.

What is Simplicity According to Zen?

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Jun 16

Try Not, Do or Do Not

Master Yoda (our little green friend from Star Wars) said something to Luke Skywalker in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Episode V

He said: “try not, do or do not”. Luke was ‘trying’ to lift his aircraft using his Jedi powers, and he failed.

If you are an NLP Practitioner, you know about the power of words.

The words ‘try’ and ‘do’ have a neurological effect on the brain and to some micro-muscles in our body that impact your performance when you do anything.

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ipl-skin-rejuvenation-treatment
Jun 14

Benefits of IPL Skin Rejuvenation Treatment

It is sad but true that as a person ages their skin starts to look rather like an old and wrinkled apple. It might have spots and blemishes, or it may just be covered in wrinkles – or worse still it is more likely to have a combination of both. If you are concerned with the shape your skin is in, it could be time to do something about it, like having IPL Skin Rejuvenation.

Collagen is a natural product that keeps your skin looking smooth and youthful. As you age, the amount of collagen under the outer layer of skin tends to reduce and your skin develops the texture of crepe, or it wrinkles badly, especially on the back on the hands. You don’t have to suffer in silence.

It is possible to stimulate the skin to produce more collagen so that your skin once again looks more youthful. IPL treatment can get rid of sunspots, age spots, broken capillaries and the many other blemishes that seem to show up as you age. It also provides the necessary stimulation needed for more collagen production.

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Jun 13

The Path

Many people have asked me why I’m still a monk after almost 3 years, while initially the plan was to be a monk for just 3 months.

In fact, to me monkhood is nothing much, it’s just wearing a different uniform, from Dockers’ pants to saffron robes, or like working in a different firm.

What’s more, being a monk is what’s made an individual like me change.

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Mar 24

The Getting Things Done Way to Getting Things Decluttered

The process of decluttering is a lot like GTD. For the uninitiated, GTD or Getting Things Done is the time-management process taught by David Allen, but I like to think of it as a decision-making process instead. In GTD, you make choices about what things that come into your life mean, whether and where they’ll find a place in it or not – a process that comes in very handy when you’re cleaning up your clutter.

Why Get Things Decluttered?

David Allen, a founder of GTD, likes to make the point that the stuff in your life occupies psychic RAM – the problem is that most people don’t process that stuff properly and so it creates unnecessary stress. (more…)

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Feb 5

Decluttering for Chinese New Year: Throwing Out Childhood Books

I went through a cupboard full of old things last weekend as part of decluttering for Chinese New Year, and ended up throwing away lots of old stuff.

But it wasn’t easy. In fact, I dug up books that I hadn’t seen in years, and if you know me, you know I have a great fondness for books. I grew up with some of these books and boy, did they bring back some memories.

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Jan 24

The Simplest Way to Take Back Control of Your Mind

Have you ever found yourself feeling fine one moment, and suddenly lousy the next? Has a rotten memory ever come up for no good reason, and made you feel bad the whole day? Have you ever wondered why you sometimes irrationally imagining how badly the future could turn out – and wish you could stop doing that?

Your Mind, Your Body & a Thing

A lot of us use a computer almost everyday. It helps us get things done, communicate with people and learn new things. It is a source of pleasure but also pain. But you know when a computer breaks down, you wouldn’t say that ‘you’ were broken. (more…)

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Jan 22

Decluttering for Chinese New Year

It’s that time of the year again when we Chinese prepare for the Chinese New Year. If you’re not that familiar with the festival, it’s the beginning of the new year for us based on the lunar calendar, and involves a lot of eating, visiting and especially cleaning!

For days before the new year, we sweep out the house, wipe down corners that haven’t been seen for ages, throw out old stuff and buy new ones. It’s an old tradition to start off the new year with a clean house and new clothes, and there’s a Chinese saying that translates to; ‘if the old doesn’t go, the new doesn’t come‘. (more…)

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Jan 14

Thai Sojourn: Vipassana Part 3

So what did I get from 10 days of keeping absolutely quiet, without any books, TV, internet connection and writing materials, sitting in meditation from morning till night?

Without any external inputs and any way to output my thoughts, I was forced to observe. Forced to observe me, my own thoughts and feelings.

I saw the inordinate amount of rubbish that went through my mind every day, and I found a way to be aware of it and be pulled along unawares. I saw old mental patterns emerge and new perspectives on old misgivings. (more…)

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Jan 9

Thai Sojourn: Vipassana Part 2

My Mind Fights Back

While the days inside the Vipassana center blurred into each other, I remember that day 3, 5 and 7 were especially difficult for me.

While there were days of deep concentration and peacefulness, these were days when my mind’s old habits fought back to re-assert themselves. Doubts, agitation, aggression, my mind threw everything at me to rebel against this insistence on quietude and focus. (more…)

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