CAN is about Inspired Action!

"We cannot lower the mountain – We CAN only elevate ourselves"
- Todd Skinner

Can!... is about:

1. Inspired action!  About the doing of “can do” and “will do.” It’s about finding the inspiration, motivation, power of your purpose, and clarity of your vision that moves you, compels you to act.

1. Applied knowledge - applying what you know.  It’s about the tactical, and at times strategic, application and execution of what you know it takes, what has to be done, to reach your goals, dreams, and aspirations.  Frequent, persistent, and consistent action is what makes things happen, action is what separates “good” intention from accomplishment.

1. Establishing forward momentum, moving toward your vision with a spirit of determination and resolve to make it happen.  It’s about rising above resistance, tuning out the neigh sayers, and leveraging your fear in constructive pursuit of your dream.

1. Motive, purpose, vision - resilient, determined, focused, unwavering, committed... these mind and body forces are what fuel and sustain the unstoppable action required to achieve what you know you CAN!  It’s about creating the reality you’ve set forth from your thought, choice, and yes, ACTION.

1. Commitment to committed action.  Withstanding the pressures, the doubt, the insecurity from yourself and others.  Understanding the investment of time, money, soul, blood, sweat and tears, as well as the inevitable sacrifice, to some degree, that must be made to achieve anything worth the effort.  There will be sacrifice, doubt, insecurity, and yes a great deal of investment in many ways.  CAN is about staying the course, staying true to you, your dreams and vision.  CAN is about taking the action to make it happen in the face of (and in the moment of) all you will have to endure!

There you go!  Yes You Can! - an affirmation I turn to on a daily basis; maybe after reading through what is now the beginning of my Write 4 Life blog, my hope is you have found a little inspired action for yourself.

Yes - attitude
You - honoring your most authentic, passionate self
Can! - making it happen (with inspired action)

What a great journey we’re on - thanks for sharing the road together!

--Todd

*Image from http://www.techprosinc.com

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Let’s look at YOU!

You... is about:

1. You!  About really listening to you, knowing who you really are, what’s really important to you, your values, your integrity,  your word with yourself.  You is about the conversations you have with yourself, the conversations that interrogate the clarity of your vision against the reality of where you currently are, and how to bridge the divide.

1. Purpose.  Knowing what you want from your life’s experience.    It’s about knowing your purpose, creating a compelling vision of your purpose realized, and taking the necessary action to accomplish and live into your purpose.

1. Taking care of you, physically, mentally, spiritually, socially, and economically.  You is about strapping on the oxygen mask to  you first, so you’re capable of helping others when they need it.  You is about saying YES to you, to  your dreams, aspirations, and vision of who you are, what you want to become, what you want to accomplish.

1. Being free to be, free to be yourself, to be who it is you aspire to be.  You is about your life’s agenda, and granting yourself the permission to pursue your dreams and aspirations because they’re what YOU want.

1. Personal confidence and the support of those who care about you.  Confidence - the mental and physical confidence to make choices and take action that others may not agree with.  Confidence to keep the inevitable set backs, speed bumps, and at times what may seem as course altering challenges in the right frame of mind and perspective.  Support from family, friends, co-workers, or your spiritual community who know, as you do, that this is your calling.  It’s time to answer the call!

Part of me is inclined to add more to this section on YOU.  Yet, as I read through it once again, it stands quite well on its own.  I think that’s just what I’ll do, let it stand on its own.  Feel free to add your own thoughts or comments about any or all of the YOU. I’d love to read what and how you feel about what I’ve written.  So if you’ve begun your own Write 4 Life writing, why not share?  I look forward to reading your contribution to this blog!  Stay tuned, next is CAN!

Next, I will explore the CAN!

--Todd

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More about YES!

Where were we?  Yes, that’s where we were! Yes in attitude, looking at internal as well as external factors that can easily influence and affect our attitude IF we allow them to, if we choose to!  Enough said.

Let’s look at Belief, Faith, and Passion! 

Knowing these for ourselves is more art than science.  We might be able to measure some emotional response like heart rate, or levels of endorphins within certain parts or processes of our brain.  In leu of these more scientific measurements, how about we just ask ourselves... How does this feel?  How well does this work (or not)?  What really lights me up and sustains my internal drive and determination?  What does my own internal barometer say?  I don’t know if belief, faith, and passion are qualities we can or even should attempt to articulate with some sense of reason.  It’s like trying to explain an intense sense of emotion with a rational or scientific vocabulary.  In other words, does it make sense to try and put such feelings into words?

The Importnce of Belief, Faith, and Passion of YES!

What’s important in belief, faith, and passion of YES is how true they are for YOU!  Here’s what I believe:  we certainly don’t need to consider attempting to explain our own belief, faith, and passion to others in a way meant to ‘justify’ it.  There’s something to be said for ‘knowing’ what’s true of our own belief, faith, and passion, and what matters most is that it holds true for you, for me, for the individual - not something we should have to ‘convince’ others about.  Your belief, faith, and passion should serve you and your journey through life powerfully, positively, enthusiastically.   If someone else questions what you hold to be true, in the context of your emotional truth, the best answer or response might simply be - because.  Searching for your own understanding or insight around a belief, faith, or passion may (and likely will) serve you very well.  Attempting to articulate the truth of your belief, faith, and passion in a way for others to accept, approve of, or validate suggests a significant disconnect between you (the you know yourself to BE) and the you someone else wants for you to ‘be.’  BE the true you, BE true to yourself, BE the YES you know serves your greatest belief, faith, and passion for life - YOUR LIFE!

Lastly, with regard to YES.  It seems to me that a big part of saying YES has a lot to do with saying NO.  If you want to say YES to you, to what’s important to you, to choosing the RIGHT attitude, to living into your own belief, faith, and passion, then you’re going to have to be able to say NO to those things, people, and conflicting agendas that get in the way.  It’s like a two sided coin, if you want heads you have to say no to tails.  If you say YES to you, what and who do you have to say NO to? I expect I’ll write more about this another day.  For now, think about, as I will, who and what I need to say NO more often to in order to say YES to more of ME!

Next will be a little about YOU!

--Todd

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YES is about Attitude!

Attitude is a perspective of choice, it is also a predisposition of our behavior.
Attitude is a declaration.
Attitude is the lens we choose to view our world through.
Attitude is our own internal barometer, our own True North compass.

Some of my favorite attitudes of choice include:

- Half Full!
- Life is Good!
- We Become What We Think About - so think about what we want and who we want to become.
- We Live the Story We Tell - so tell the story you want to live.
- In the words of Les Brown ‘It’s Not Over Until I Win!’
- Paul said... ‘You must have the faith to call forth those things that be not as though they were, judge not according to appearances...”  

External Factors
Lots of ‘external’ factors have the capacity to affect and shape our attitude, IF we choose to let them.  Some of these outside factors can really improve our attitude, others can absolutely destroy it - you’re in control - it really is YOUR CHOICE!  I believe what’s inside holds the greatest influence - kind of like a compass.  Regardless of the weather, the input or opinions of others, or the ‘circumstance’ of life, our compass will always point to a True North.  Our choice of attitude is much the same, regardless of what’s going on around us, we hold within ourselves our own True North!

Positive external factors

When available, I soak in as many Positive Outside Factors as I can!... I love when I get Acknowledgment, Praise, Affirmation, and Positive Recognition from others.  It lights up my day when someone shows their Support, Encouragement and Appreciation for me or something I’m doing or have done.  My attitude barometer spikes up a little whenever I Plug into my iPod and listen to Music I Love, or to listen to Motivational/Inspirational recordings or videos.  When I’m getting dressed for an important business meeting or a night on the town my attitude improves just a little when I choose to wear a Favorite outfit - the perfect tie or pair of shoes that put a little zip in my step.  And while I don’t let the weather take me down, I do have to say that a beautiful Spring or Fall day, when the air is cool and crisp, not a cloud in the sky, and you can feel the warmth of the sun shining down - that certainly helps the attitude as well.

Negative external factors
As much as knowing the positive factors that turn your attitude up, it’s just as important to know and AVOID those that turn your attitude down..  Those Negative Outside Factors are many, they’re everywhere, and the have incredible influence... if YOU let them.  Who are they?  The Neigh-sayers, the Dream busters, the one who simply don’t believe, who don’t share in your dream, in you!  The Problem finders (vs. solution creators).  More likely than not these negative ‘forces’ see the world through a perspective of scarcity, where their fuel tank of life is perpetually ‘half empty’!  Keep your distance, the more the better, from these ‘downers.’  Let them keep company with one another - the resistance they pour into our life’s equation is simply of little if any value.  Other popular negative outside forces are the weather, traffic, automated phone response systems that seem to go nowhere but in a vicious circle, or products or services that don’t deliver anywhere close to our expectation.  We have absolutely no control over these forces, yet we are often so quick to let them take us down.  What’s up (or down) with that?

What about ‘internal’ factors?  Factors we have a great deal of control and influence over...

- Honoring commitments/promises we make.

- Integrity to our word.

- Consistently make choices which move us closer towards our desired goal/life aspiration.

- Practice, preparation, rehearsal - improving the probability to achieve your goals.

- Positive affirmations that build you up, that empower you to BE the you you aspire to.

- Belief & Faith in you.

- Belief & Faith in your dream, vision, and life aspiration.

- Belief in your ability, your capacity, your possibility.

YES is about Attitude!

Stay Tuned for more on YES!

-- Todd

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Write 4 Life!

Welcome to my blog: Write 4 Life.  This is a beginning!  It’s exhilarating, powerful, purposeful, and scary.  It’s mine, and I’m thrilled to be writing, writing for MY life!

Write 4 Life is about the art, science, and discipline to write for the personal and professional development of our own lives.  Write 4 Life is about expressing what’s on the inside of you, of me, of us.  It’s about opening up, looking within, and then letting it out in a way that works for each of us.  Write 4 Life isn’t about getting it ‘right’ or getting it ‘perfect.’  It’s about getting it - our lives - period.  Getting it down on paper, on your keyboard, on a napkin at a restaurant, in a journal, or simply in response to a post on this or some other blog.  Write for life is about moving our thoughts from our head, to our heart, to our hands.  The art, science, and yes discipline to collect our thoughts, feelings, emotions, insights and perspectives and put them down in writing is a wonderfully liberating and clarifying process.  The act of articulating our thoughts through writing can have amazing, unexpected, and transforming effects on the lives we live.  Write 4 Life is about finding your voice through writing, clarifying your thoughts in writing, expressing yourself from the inside out through writing, and then,  really, really listening to, well, you!  BE more interested in letting the words flow, than the grammar in which they’re written.  BE more passionate about YOUR own discovery and declaration of what’s important to you, than what someone else might think or say about it.  BE true to you and what you have to say to and for yourself!   Write 4 Life - your life!

Write for Life... Write On!

Where should we begin this journey together?  Why don’t we begin with an affirmation...

Yes you can!

It’s an affirmation of choice, an affirmation I choose to believe every day.  Care to join me?  What affirmations do you live by?  Want to share?

YES... It’s about Attitude, Belief, Faith, & Passion

YOU... It’s about You / Really Listening to YOU! / Purpose / Taking Care of You / Being Free to BE / Personal Confidence and Support

CAN!... It’s about Inspired Action / Applied Knowledge / Establishing Forward Momentum / Motive, Purpose, and Vision / Commitment to Committed Action

Yes... is about:

·   Attitude, a positively, over the top, at times supercharged YES, I ABSOLUTELY CAN AND WILL DO attitude!  An  attitude that lives in the possibility of a vision; an attitude that finds motivation from the power of your purpose; an attitude that fuels the required action to accomplish your goals, dreams, and aspirations. “The most significant decision I make each day is my choice of an attitude.  When my attitudes are right there’s no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme and no challenge too great.” – Charles Swindoll

·   Belief, unwavering belief and Faith in your dreams and vision.  Belief and faith that tell you it’s possible, (tell you) you can do it, (tell you) you will do it!  Belief and faith in YOU, in your abilities, in your relentless pursuit of what powers your purpose! 

·   Passion.  Passion for what’s possible, passion for the process and the effort you have to put in, passion for the reward of what you and others will realize when you accomplish your goal and reach your vision. Passion that powers your purpose!

YES - it’s a GREAT way to start the day, end the day, and make it through the day!  YES! YES YOU CAN!

Stay tuned for YOU CAN!

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The begining of Write For Life!

Write for Life... Write On!
Write in Front of You? - Maybe!
Write Around the Corner? - Take a Peek!
Write From the Heart? - ABSOLUTELY YES!
The point is... write for you, for your life, for your purpose and passion!
Write On!


Part of what I want to accomplish from the blog is to not only write my own thoughts, ideas, and comments... but I also want to encourage (inspire action) in others to write for themselves - to write for their lives!

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