Live Each Day Fully

"And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

~Abraham Lincoln

If you want your life to count, you need to live with meaning.  Don't waste your time doing unimportant things.  If you do not yet know what your life's purpose is, discovering it can change everything.  If you life according to your life's purpose, you begin to live with passion, with creativity, with intention, with meaning.  You make those years count.  You impact not only YOUR life, but the lives of those with whom you come in contact. 

This week:  Think about how you would like your life to be remembered.  What is really most important to you?  What do you feel passionate about?  What do you stand for?  What themes have played out in you life?  Is there a hint in all that about what you are meant to do, what your life's true purpose is?  To know your life's purpose, you must first know yourself, because that purpose needs to fit you.  Spend some time this week thinking about what is most important to you, what your unique gifts may be, and how you would like to make your life count.

Linda Pucci, Ph.D. is a psychologist, life coach and expert at helping people create lives of greater meaning.  At the Inner Resource Center, LLC, she helps people identify their inner resources so that they can maximize success and happiness, while living meaningful, authentic lives.  She has created Discover Your Life's Purpose: 7 Steps to a Life of Meaning & Authenticity, an easy to follow program for identifying your life's purpose.   For more information, go to http://www.InnerResourceCenter.com .

In Order to Change, Keep Moving

"The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving."

~Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

If you don't like the way your life is going, take steps to change it.  Most of us have some thing that we would like to change, but we have to be willing to take the steps and move in the direction we want to go.  Just sitting and wishing things would change is not going to get you there.  You have to be willing to take action.  You have to be willing to MOVE.  Sometimes all it takes is small steps in the right direction to begin to build your momentum.

This week:  Identify some change you would like to make--big or small.  What small step could you take that would BEGIN to move you in that direction?  First, state your intention to change.  Next, begin to take a small step in direction of the change.  How was that?  How do you feel having taken that first step towards changing something you have identified that it is your intention to change?  What is the next small step?  Keep your steps pretty small, and notice that it isn't as difficult as you might have first thought.  Do this all week.  At the end of the week, evaluate your progress toward a change.  While you may not have reached your outcome, you probably have moved forward.  If you keep this up, you will build greater and greater momentum.  Before you know it, you will have changed in the direction for which you were aiming.

Linda Pucci, Ph.D. is a psychologist, life coach and expert in helping people make changes they did not think were really possible using her solution focused approach.  At the Inner Resource Center, LLC, she helps people access their inner resources for success, happiness and greater meaning.  For more information and several free resources, go to http://www.innerresourcecenter.com/ .

You Become What You Think

"You become what you think about all day long and those days eventually become your lifetime."

 ~ Wayne Dyer

We attract those things we think about.  The thoughts you think are very powerful, because your brain tries to create all those things you think about--positive AND negative.  If you are constantly self-critical, or mired in self-doubt, you create that life for yourself.  If you don't like the way your life is going, the fastest way to change it is to change your thinking.

This week:  Catch yourself when you are thinking something negative about your life or yourself.  Challenge those thoughts.  Ask yourself "Is this really true?"  If it is, then ask yourself "What do I have to do to change it?"   Even though you may not be where you WANT to be in terms of success or happiness, change your thinking to reflect that you "just are not there yet."  Since you are in charge of what your life becomes, why not create the life you want rather than the life you don't want?

Linda Pucci, Ph.D. is a psychologist, life coach and expert at helping people reach goals they had not thought possible.  At the Inner Resource Center, LLC she helps people identify their inner resources and build on them for greater meaning, happiness and success.  For more information, go to http://www.innerresourcecenter.com/

You Are In Charge of Time

"Time flies. It’s up to you to be the navigator."

 ~Robert Orben

It doesn't matter if you are "ready or not" time moves forward.  It is up to each of us to decide how we want to spend that time.  We are in charge of it.  We get to decide what is important or not important, what we need to attend to and how we spend our time.  Too many people think they are the "victim" of time that is outside of their control.  For them, time is like a runaway airplane, taking them places they don't want to go--or crashing into the barren desert.  In reality, though, we each control our own time.  Seize control and go where YOU want to go with your time.

This week:  Begin to notice how you are spending your time.  Notice in particular when you feel that you are not controlling your time.  When you catch yourself feeling out of control, ask yourself:  Is this an important way to be spending my time?  If not, figure out how you gave away the controls.  Reclaim them by saying "no" or refocusing your attention on things that matter.  Notice if it feels better to be doing what matters most.

Linda Pucci, Ph.D. is a psychologist, life coach and trainer at Inner Resource Center, LLC.  She is an expert at helping people figure out what matters most and create lives of greater meaning.  She is the creator of the Discover Your Life's Purpose program--7 steps to a life of meaning and authenticity.  For more information go to http://www.innerresourcecenter.com/ .

Leave Your Past Behind

"Never let yesterday use up too much of today."

~Will Rogers

Too many people live in the past.  We let our past experiences and the emotions that accompany those experiences stockpile.  We carry them with us, long after they have outlived their usefulness.  I call these stockpiled emotions and the limiting beliefs that sometimes accompany them "emotional clutter."  And, like physical clutter, it gets in the way.  It keeps us from seeing the resources we have in front of us because they are buried in all that past baggage.  When you let go of the past, you let go of the ways that it saps your energy and keeps your from success and happiness.  You finally have the freedom to live in the present, and create today for your future. 

This week:  Think about which events in your past keep you stuck in the past.  Were those experiences pleasant or unpleasant?  Unfortunately, usually the ones we hang on to are unpleasant.  If you are hanging on to these because you think that you need to remember them and think about them to remember some important lesson, guess what?  That is a myth.  The emotions from an event are totally separate from the learning contained in that event.  Plus, when you hang on to negative emotions, you guarantee that you will be stuck in the past where they originated.  Ask yourself, "What do I need to learn from that event in order to move on?"  If you need some help letting go, find someone who can help you.  When you let go of that "emotional clutter," you'll be able to move forward and begin to ENJOY your life!

Linda Pucci, Ph.D. is a psychologist, life coach and expert in helping people let go of their "emotional clutter" from past negative experiences.  She has written a self-help book: Get Rid of Emotional Clutter: How Negative Emotions and Limiting Beliefs Block Your Dreams and What You Can Do About It.  The book and free articles are available at http://www.emotionalclutter.com/ and at http://www.innerresourcecenter.com/ .

Stretch Yourself by Aiming High With Your Goals

"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark."

~Michelangelo

If you are afraid of failing, you may end up not even setting a goal that will stretch you.  But in doing so, you deprive yourself and others of all that you might be able to accomplish.  Michelangelo is a great example.  Had he not aimed high, we might have been deprived of his architecture, artwork, sculpture, poetry and understanding of human anatomy.  The Sistine Chapel might be painted "ceiling white".  When we stop ourselves from stretching to be the best we can be, we fall short or all that we are capable of achieving.  Aim high with your goals.  Stretch yourself to be the best. 

This week:  Take a look at what you would like to be able to accomplish.  Do you stop yourself from trying because you think it is "too big" or "too difficult?"  Do you let your self-doubt stop you?  If so, set a goal this week that will really stretch you to be your best.  Take at least one action to begin moving toward that goal.  If you don't succeed at achieving it, so what?  Think about what you can learn in the process.  Think about how stretching yourself with this goal will serve you with future goals. 

Linda Pucci, Ph.D. is a psychologist, life coach and expert in helping people achieve goals that they had not thought possible.  She helps clients overcome self sabotage and self doubt so that they can find within themselves the resources to achieve at the highest levels.  For more information and free resources, go to http://www.innerresourcecenter.com/ .

We Can Learn from Difficult Experiences

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that?  We must have perseverance."

~Marie Curie

Sometimes it is the perserverence in the face of those challenges that brings us the greatest rewards.  No great inventor or researcher "discovered" their solution in their first attempt.  Many had to work at it over and over and over again.  Those difficult challenges in our work or our life can help us discover what is most important.  They teach us about our character, and best of all, they teach us that we can survive and we can succeed in spite of how difficult life may be.

This week:  Think about difficult things you have had to overcome in your lifetime so far.  What have you learned from them?  What did you learn about yourself?  Although you may never have wanted to have those experiences, how have they shaped you?  What positive gifts did they give you?  The knowledge that you could survive?  A belief in yourself?  An inner strength?  An appreciation for what others have to endure as well? Write down what you uncover.  How do they serve you in your life now?  What role did perseverance play for you?  Can you apply those things you have uncovered in other areas of your life?

Linda Pucci, Ph.D. is a psychologist, life coach and expert in helping people overcome negative experiences from the past.  She helps clients uncover the positive learning from those experiences so that they can utilize these resources as them move on.  She has over 30 years of experience, and her business, Inner Resource Center, LLC, helps people find the resources to transform their lives.  For more information, go to http://www.innerresourcecenter.com/ .