Live Passionately

What world will you inhabit a decade from now?

As I plant myself back in Australia after a decade in the USA, it feels a bit like I’ve been in a time warp. Some things have changed a lot. Others hardly at all. But it makes me reflect on just how much can change for anyone over the course of a decade. Ten years can fly passed awfully fast. But it also provides countless opportunities for making changes and for taking chances that can totally reshape the reality of our lives.
So, if you could enter into a temporary “time warp”, and paint for yourself the world you’d love to inhabit ten years from now, what would it look like?
As I wrote in my book Find Your Courage, we fail far more from timidity than we do from over daring. So trust in yourself that whatever direction your dreams and aspirations may take you, you have the courage to follow.

Who Knows What You Know?!

Tooting your own horn isn’t about trying to impress people for the sake of stroking your ego. It’s about making sure that people who need to know what you have done (and can do), are aware of it. After all, the more people who know what it is that you want, and what you can do, the more who can help you achieve it.

Are Your Habits Helping or Hindering?

First we make our habits, and then our habits make us. Every morning I start my day with a big cup of Earl Grey tea, milk and two sugars. It’s become a well-worn ritual that dates back to my days in high school. And while it may not be the most ideal kick-start...

Why You Must Risk Vulnerability.

Courage has many faces, so what it means for one person to be courageous is very different for another. But at the core of courage is a willingness to become vulnerable. Vulnerable to rejection, criticism, failing, social humiliation, to messing up, falling short of the mark or simply to the disappointment that comes when we don’t achieve what we set out toward.
Around the globe today millions of people live in abject poverty. Around the globe today, yes TODAY, thousands of young women are forced into the sex trade. Around the globe today countless babies are aborted because their mothers don’t want them. Around the globe today people are mourning the loss of those they love to war, to disease and to malnutrition. Around the globe today, but particularly in the wealthy developed corners of the western world, people are taking their lives, because they have given up hope that life will ever offer anything for them to make it worth living. Without courageous action on the part of those who can influence change, nothing will.

Need to cut yourself some slack? Staying upright when life throws you off balance.

It’s easy to feel off balance when the ground beneath your feet shifts. Or in my case, when you move to the other side of the globe. As human beings we long for connection. We love to feel significant to those around us. We enjoy having a shared history with friends. We are wired to feel a sense of belonging and to be surrounded by people who value what we do and celebrate where we’ve come from. So when we relocate to somewhere new, whether it be a new town a hundred miles down the road, or another country, it’s only natural to feel unsettled, to grieve the familiarity, community and identity we’ve left behind, and to feel a degree of apprehension about our ability to rebuild it all again.

Moving to Australia… Changes Abound!

When the ground beneath our feet shifts, as it is for me right now, it’s only reasonable that we feel a bit unstable. How can our world tilt on its axis without us tilting a bit with it?

A time for Audacity, not Austerity… and some Tall Poppy Courage!

The new year has begun precariously for many. We hear a lot at the moment about the austerity measures that individuals and entire countries around the world must take to get their financial house back in order. But more than we need austerity, we need audacity… and some ‘Tall Poppy’ Courage!

What courageous changes will you make in 2012?

Plenty of change lies ahead in 2012. For you. For me. For people around the globe. That you will experience changes, and need to face new challenges, is a given. Whether your experience of them is one of wonder or terror, enthusiasm or despair, is a choice. So when it comes to the spirit in which you will step into the year ahead, where is your life in 2012 calling on you to be more courageous? Below are 8 strategies to ensure your success in making 2012 your year of living more purposefully, powerfully and courageously.

“New Year, New… Hemisphere!”

While my business is very much US based (which why I will be back here regularly!), I have long thought of myself as a Global Citizen. Yes, I’m Australian by birth, passport and accent. But borders are easier to cross the ever, air miles easier to accrue, and people easier to connect with than any time in human history.
I have also long held (or, perhaps more accurately, been held by) a strong sense of purpose to use my time and talents to empower people and organizations globally to live and lead with greater courage. Given the state of the world today – and the climate of uncertainty, economic insecurity and political instability – courage is more needed than ever. Today more than ever we have to be discerning between those fears that serve us and those which stifle. Today more than ever we must refuse to buy into dogma that drives us to create barriers rather than bridges. Today more than ever we have to refuse to think small, play safe and settle for less than that which honors who we are and the potential of who we can become.

Do you need to trade some of your answers for questions?

Every time I turn on the TV at the moment I hear fighting about how best to get the US economy back on track. Needless to say, I do not have the answer to that problem. But what I've noticed more and more is how steadfast people are in their refusal to ask more...

Do the holidays really need to be so stressful? Press “Pause”

Thanksgiving, and the festive season it kicks off, can be a very stressful time for many people. The Martha Stewart-like images of happy families, dressed in the lastest holiday fashion, sitting around a decadently decorated table feasting joyfully on gourmet delights, create expectations that can never measure up to reality. Then again, can reality ever measure up to glossy magazine covers? The impact it can have is to leave people feeling like something is missing from their lives. Here’s 5 strategies to help you enjoy more and stress less this turkey-leg season.

“Working hard at work worth doing.” Are you?

It is only human to feel sharp disappointment when we don’t achieve something we have worked hard toward. But our hard work and effort is never wasted. It truly is one of life’s deep joys to “work hard at work worth doing.” And working hard toward something that fills you with purpose and passion is always work worth doing – whether it be raising your family, fulfilling a long held dream, building a business that fulfills an unmet need or, writing a book to change lives.

Women in Leadership: Are we confining ourselves to a “Glass Cage”?

As women harness their own personal power, their potential to affect change in the world is vast. But harnessing the full quota of our power will demand a commitment to stepping courageously through the glass cage of beliefs, doubts and fears that may be limiting our leadership potential and impact.

Perfectionism: Are you stuck on the perfectionist merry-go-round?

The quest for perfectionism leaves us stuck on a merry-go-round that takes us around and around in circles, but never forward. The merry-go-round has no place for compassion. It is not tolerant of exposing vulnerability. There is no embracing those aspects of us that flawed; only berating them or trying to cover them up lest they be expose to those we seek to impress or prove our worthiness to. Stuck on the perfectionist merry-go-round we can’t move foreward. Only when we can see how it holds us back can we get off it.

Ten years ago today I moved to America… what a ride it’s been!

Ten years ago today I moved to America. I arrived with my husband Andrew, my young broad of children (aged 3, 2 and 8 weeks) and my mum, who had generously offered to help me that first month on the ground. It took 33 hours to fly from Melbourne (via Sydney,...

If your life were a sermon, what would it say?

Last Sunday I attended a beautiful funeral that paid tribute to a wonderful man. What it made me realize is that it’s not how we die that matters so much, but how much love, courage and compassion we bring to the experience of living.

9/11 Remembered… a Profound Lesson in Courage

Our lives have all moved on in the last ten years. Events beyond our control have shaped us in ways we would never have known or predicted. Today you will likely find yourself watching replays of the images from today ten years ago. As you reflect on how you felt that day, and on the courage you saw in the brave men and women, New York fireman front and center, who risked and gave their lives to save others that day, I invite you to reconnect to with your own courage and to commit to risking greater vulnerability so that you can live your life more fully and honor the many lives of those who lost theirs that day, ten years ago today.

Are your assumptions limiting your possibilities?

Assumptions are the death of possibilities. Where are your assumptions holding you back?

Are you living today by default or design?

There are many factors that we have no control over (earthquakes and hurricanes are first to mind!) But the most important we do. And those who succeed in creating fulfilling lives, are those who are very thoughtful about what matters most to them and conscious of the power they have to choose their response to whatever circumstance they find themselves in. They are purposeful in the actions they take, vigilant of the emotions that can derail them, and intentional about live their life by design rather than by default.

Choosing courage in fearful times

From oppression in Syria to famine in Somalia, from the UK riots to the US Credit Rating, from high unemployment to low housing prices to drawn out wars claiming the lives of the finest of young men and women - there's no doubt about it, we are living in...

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