Post written by Ted Moreno.

I used to be one of those people who always had to have an answer for everything, you know, a “know it all.” Then one day someone told me “You’re not at smart as you think you are, and you’re not fooling anyone.” The nerve!! But it was true. So I stopped being a person that to have the answer and started letting other people come up with the answer. That was a lot easier!

Sometimes I still find myself needing to come up with an answer, figure it out, or worse, make something up. But lately, I’m attempting to cultivate the peace and freedom that comes from saying “I don’t know.” I’ve been giving myself permission to not know. And you know what?  I’m feeling pretty good about being a “not know it all.”

These days it’s almost a sin to not know. “What?” you often hear people say, “You didn’t know that?”

Seems like everybody needs to know everything. (more…)

Post written by Leo Babauta.

I’m often asked how you can start doing work you love — how you can make a living doing something you’re passionate about.

I don’t profess to have all the answers, but the answer for me has been fairly simple:

Do one thing really well.

People want a more comprehensive answer than that, but in my experience, if you learn to do this, the rest will follow.

(more…)

Guest post by Joe Wilner from www.shakeoffthegrind.com.

What if life was an open canvas where you were free to create a stunning vision and express yourself fully?

One of the most empowering ways to view life is as a creation that we are free to mold and shape as we desire.

We all have behaviors, circumstances, and past experiences we want to surmount and would change if we could. However, we don’t have to be restricted by past mistakes or the baggage we have carried in our life.

For some reason we get scared and hesitant about changing our lifestyle, or we believe we don’t deserve or couldn’t handle a more significant life. We have the capability to develop a life that makes an impression and that we’re proud of.

Begin uncovering (more…)

This blog post directly ties to the story I am sharing this week in my eZine.  I am raising money for the Relay for Life of Altadena to benefit the American Cancer Society and the wonderful work they are doing to help cancer survivors and their caregivers.

Why “my story” is important is that it is the reason I have become a huge advocate of helping those with cancer and also funding research to finding a cure in our lifetime.  (more…)

This past weekend I had the opportunity to hear Kathy Ireland speak at a marketing conference in Chicago.  Just before she was scheduled to be on, I was headed to the restroom and ran into her.  She smiled brightly and said “hello” – like we were old friends just running into each other.  I returned the smile and greeting – not putting it together fast enough that it was Kathy Ireland I was talking to.  Living in Los Angeles, this happens to me often.  I see someone I recognize and then after the moment has passed I realize that they are some sort of celebrity I’d seen in a movie or on TV.  Duh!

Anyway, Kathy Ireland soon took the stage and shared her story.  She talked about how she leveraged her super-model career into a $1.4 billion empire by creating (more…)

There’s a photo on the wall in a restaurant near the Grand Canyon. It shows a rubber pontoon raft in the middle of a rapid on the Colorado River in the Canyon. It’s in the process of flipping over, and inside are a bunch of folks about to go for a swim. This is not the photo, but it looks something like this.

I’ve had the opportunity to go on a number of rafting trips down the canyon because one of my best  friends is Brian Hansen, who has been leading river trips down the Canyon for 30 years.

Brian is one of the coolest cats I know. You have to be pretty steady to drive a rubber boat filled with passengers of all ages into a monster rapid such as Lava Falls, one of the biggest rapids on the river. A lot of things can go wrong, not just on the river, but on land as well. Brian recently told me about one of the most severe situations he’s had to deal with down in the Canyon.

It was a calm, placid day in the Canyon, and Brian and his river rafting passengers were camped out on a beach on the river. Suddenly it started to (more…)

We get so busy in our lives, performing our daily juggling acts of home, work, exercise, down-time, that we rarely take a step back to see if the circus has left town without us.

In my last article, I shared with you all that I am taking the Brave Girls Club online Soul Restoration course (www.bravegirlsclub.com).  This 6 week course is drawing to a close and what it has given me is a lot of perspective on my life and how caught up I am in the routines that I truly do not enjoy at all.

I am a doer.  I have always been good at doing.  Have a task that needs to get done, give it to me and I’ll get it done.   This is not necessarily a bad thing; however, it has created a laundry list of activities in my life that truly bring me no joy (including laundry itself). (more…)

As many of you know, I love to learn.  So, I am taking a 6-week online Soul Restoration course put on by the Brave Girls Club (www.bravegirlsclub.com).  I took the course for a number of reasons, but mainly because it sounded like fun – 6 weeks of crafting projects exploring your own inner child (what more does a girl need).  I am 4 weeks in and I have to say I am having fun creating and writing, but I am also learning a lot about myself.

This week’s topic is looking back at women in our own history who did it anyway – despite the odds against them.  I have a lot to draw from as some of my relatives came across country in covered wagons – leaving friends and family behind – to fulfill their dreams of a better life.

As I gave this more thought, I realized that I also came across country leaving friends and family behind to fulfill my dreams.  Of course, I had an air conditioned car and there were lots of Motel 6’s along the way – as this brave girl does not “camp.”  I moved to Los Angeles in 1992, just after the riots.  People said I was crazy, (more…)

Post written by Leo Babauta.

How do you find a balanced life when you’re overloaded with work?

How do you switch off work when you’re away from the office?

The answers to these very common questions are elusive. It’s never an easy thing. But once you do find this balance you’ll find enormous benefits: more enjoyment of life and better relationships and less stress and a better quality of life overall.

A reader recently asked:

“I’d love to hear advice on how people who work full-time jobs can still manage to attain a well-balanced life. Especially in roles that give you sales targets, monitor you, and can be very stressful. I know it’s best to switch off after working hours, but sometimes (as humans) it is tough.

In Hong Kong, part-time jobs don’t pay well here and are tough to find, and full-time jobs often require overtime and are very stressful (it’s the Hong Kong norm to squeeze out as much as you can from an employee). In this corporate jungle, a part-time would be a perfect job for me (say 9-3 everyday); however it’s very hard to find jobs like that – it’s just not how the job market here is in Asia.

So how does one keep their calm and be grounded and still make time & energy for family, friends, myself, hobbies, interests and let’s face it – sanity? How does one learn to ‘not keep goals’ when that is what is expected from 8:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. 5 days a week? It’s tough to be 2 different people at work and outside of work.”

That’s a tough one. I should note that in many countries — including the U.S. — this is a common problem even if it’s not as pronounced as in Hong Kong (for example). We all face these problems whether we’re employees or self-employed or free-lancers or own our own businesses. (more…)