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Showing posts with label Jim Woods Motivational speaker and coach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jim Woods Motivational speaker and coach. Show all posts
Brother Lawrence, the 17th-century Christian monk, was asked how he’d been able to maintain such a heightened state of awareness of his oneness with God. He replied, “I gave up all that was not he [meaning God] and I began to live in the world as if only he and I existed. As if only God and I existed.” He could say this because he was consciously choosing to live in such a way, and he exerted the spiritual discipline to enter that state of consciousness, a consciousness of oneness with God. Court that kind of awakening in your own life. Know that it is possible to live in this world as if only God exists, because it’s true. God exists as you. God exists as the people around you. God exists as opportunities that open up for you. You can choose not to see anything other than this. Let it speak to you throughout your day, then it will be present in your dream stage, it will pour out through your poetry, your song, your dance, your every movement.
As the Buddha described, once you hear the truth, it’s not going to go away. You’ve heard the truth and, one way or another, at one time or another, you will fully awaken to the awareness that your life is the life of the divine, that you are already an enlightened being.
You may resist this truth, you may deny it for a while, but it’s going to keep working on you, keep revolving within you, just as it is in this very moment, whether you are aware of it or not. Whatever has brought you to the point of awareness in which you find yourself today is the same thing that seeks to express itself in, through, and as you fully and completely. It’s emerging now, and soon you will sprout some wings and fly into the undiscovered region of your infinite potential.
Breathe into that awareness, feeling yourself connected to and blessed by it. The grace of God is pouring over you. Sometimes we don’t even know how blessed we are. There are blessings happening in your life that you don’t even know about yet.
Sometimes blessings come disguised and we say, “Oh no! I don’t want that! That isn’t what I’ve been praying for!” But right within that disguised blessing is something our soul is prepared to welcome or it wouldn’t have arrived at the threshold of our life, of our awareness.
So begin to count not only the blessings you can see, of which you are aware, but also give thanks for those you can’t yet see. Say to yourself, “My life is magnificent in every way—the good, the harmony, the love, the creativity, the joy, the harmony—are beyond my imagining! I am so humbly grateful for life, and to Life itself!”
This is your life on God. This is your brain on love. This is your mind on peace. This is your being on creativity. This is your body temple on vibrant health. All of this and more is who and what you are. via Heal Your Life
Jim Woods is about helping companies and people engage innovate and grow in all the areas important to them. Jim is a professional speaker, author, coach, and strategy consultant based in Colorado Springs, Co. Follow Jim on Twitter@innothinkgroup, Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/InnoThink Groupor check out his company websitehttp://innothinkgroup.comfor more tips and strategies effective leadership, engaged employees, increase growth, and customer effectiveness through innovation. To arrange for Jim to consult or speak at your eventemail Jim.
I want you to have your most extraordinary year ever. If your year has been great you can catapult that success into next year to be even greater. If it has been less than great this is your chance to press the reset button with more resolve to make this the year and start fresh.
You don’t have to wait until the New Year to recreate yourself. This can be the new start to have your best life ever. No matter where you are in life you can start now. Right now. This moment can be your time. This can be the year you get healthy. No longer will you sit on the sidelines watching others.
This can be your time. This can be the year you set out to live the life you were meant to live.
Many of us have grown up believing we are suppose to be broke, poor and defeated. We fear so much that is justified in our stories. “I am not smart enough, not attractive enough, and not good enough.”
Our thoughts have the power to enslave us or free us. Our own thoughts determine our path more than the economy, a job loss or ended relationship. We behave as though we are undeserving of happiness, of a healthy relationship and we will do what ever possible to reinforce that belief. We convince ourselves to expect defeat. I am not going to have anything to offer in the meeting. I can’t think on my feet. No one wants me.”
“I am born this way. I can never change. I can never lose weight. I don’t have any self control.”
If you say from the inside, even a whisper, your mind creates it from the outside into your reality.
When we set goals with an unbelieving identity we will remain right where we are. In fact you can see this in people who achieve success only to self sabotage only to search out failure and mediocrity. What can you do?
Get your mind to signal you are a deserving loving person created by The Divine. You are meant to be happy. You are meant to be healthy, loving, debt free, paying your bills. You weren’t meant by your Creator to have to worry about an electric bill. You are capable of living well so your bills are paid on time.
When you are convinced, “Why do success and happiness always find someone but not me” shake yourself up. Offer gratitude. Pray as if you have it. That demonstrates real faith. Affirmations and prayer are activated by faith. When you act as if you have the thing, you will wake up earlier, walk faster, sit up straighter and speak up with confidence. Affirm continually that you will act in every way that you have it.
I want you to have your most extraordinary year ever. If your year has been great you can catapult that success into next year to be even greater. If it has been less than great this is your chance to press the reset button with more resolve to make this the year and start fresh.
You don’t have to wait until the New Year to recreate yourself. This can be the new start to have your best life ever. No matter where you are in life you can start now. Right now. This moment can be your time. This can be the year you get healthy. No longer will you sit on the sidelines watching others.
This can be your time. This can be the year you set out to live the life you were meant to live.
Many of us have grown up believing we are suppose to be broke, poor and defeated. We fear so much that is justified in our stories. “I am not smart enough, not attractive enough, and not good enough.”
Our thoughts have the power to enslave us or free us. Our own thoughts determine our path more than the economy, a job loss or ended relationship. We behave as though we are undeserving of happiness, of a healthy relationship and we will do what ever possible to reinforce that belief. We convince ourselves to expect defeat. I am not going to have anything to offer in the meeting. I can’t think on my feet. No one wants me.”
“I am born this way. I can never change. I can never lose weight. I don’t have any self control.”
If you say from the inside, even a whisper, your mind creates it from the outside into your reality.
When we set goals with an unbelieving identity we will remain right where we are. In fact you can see this in people who achieve success only to self sabotage only to search out failure and mediocrity. What can you do?
Get your mind to signal you are a deserving loving person created by The Divine. You are meant to be happy. You are meant to be healthy, loving, debt free, paying your bills. You weren’t meant by your Creator to have to worry about an electric bill. You are capable of living well so your bills are paid on time.
When you are convinced, “Why do success and happiness always find someone but not me” shake yourself up. Offer gratitude. Pray as if you have it. That demonstrates real faith. Affirmations and prayer are activated by faith. When you act as if you have the thing, you will wake up earlier, walk faster, sit up straighter and speak up with confidence. Affirm continually that you will act in every way that you have it.
It is through adversity that we display what we really are made of.
Adversity: Could You Overcome This?
Paul got off 2 hours later than normal. He was working overtime to save up for a home purchase he wanted to make at the end of the year. Tired and ready to get home, he slowly walks to the car while rambling through his pockets trying to find his keys. As he finally arrives to where his car was parked, he is alarmed to find shards of broken glass and tire marks but no vehicle. Someone had stolen his car and to make matter worse he didn’t have any insurance. Paul called the police and submitted a report about his stolen vehicle.
Devastated by the loss of his car, he calls a cab and proceeds to make his way home to break the news to his wife. As he walks in the door, defeated and exhausted, his wife greets him with the biggest smile he has ever seen. He didn’t want to kill her great mood so he decided he would wait and tell her what happened after dinner. The car was their sole means of transportation and without it they would struggle to maintain. This car allowed him to get to work, his wife to school, and allowed them to commute to see their family that stayed far away.
The Celebration Dinner
At dinner Paul’s wife had prepared a feast similar to Thanksgiving. There was food everywhere. She was so happy. She was full of love. She was glowing. The food tasted amazing and with every bite the struggles of Paul’s day slowly disappeared. He enjoyed the moment and the time he spent with his wife at the dinner table. Finished with dinner, Paul remembered that there was something important he had to tell his wife. He grabbed her by both hands, looked her in the eyes, and tried to force his lips to say what needed to be said.
Before a word could leave his mouth, she screamed with so much excitement the following statement that the neighbors on both sides of their house heard her. “I’m Pregnant!” Those very words hit Paul like a ton of bricks. He was so overwhelmed with emotion that he didn’t know what to do. How was he going to feed and provide for another life? I mean just seconds before she made her announcement, he was going to tell her about the drastic changes that needed to come about in order for them to reach their dream of owning a house.
The Devastating News
In the midst of his wife’s celebration and joy, the phone rings. Paul quickly steps away to answer it, thinking it would be the police who recovered his stolen car, and he is mortified by the words the other party communicated. His eyes glass over. His breathing intensified. He drops the phone and begins falling to the floor because his legs could no longer sustain his weight. Paul just got fired.
Real Life Adversity
This fictional story is a reality in the lives of people all across America. People are going from a position of planning for their future to a state where they are just struggling to survive. However, this difficult time is where we get to see what the people in this country are really made of. It is in the midst of adversity where people show their true strength.
Imagine being in this situation. What would you do? Do you think after a day like this you could get back up and do what is necessary to feed you family? If so, what do you think is necessary?
We are in a time where people are having to start over from scratch. People are building their futures using the ashes and debris of their hopes and dreams. The weight that many of us are carrying is so overbearing that if we don’t find some help soon it will crush us. Even though the circumstances seem impossible, there is always hope.
Fighting Adversity with Brute Strength
It is so important for each of us to look down deep inside and find a way to fight even when our backs are flat on the mat. No matter how hard it gets, we can never give up. There is too much to lose by throwing in the towel. We all need to develop the strength to overcome.
The strength to overcome is the ability to believe, strive, and persevere even when you don’t feel like it. It is the function of existing beyond how you feel. It is the talent of chasing your dreams when you don’t have the air in your lungs to run. Having the strength to overcome means having the faith that if I keep sowing seeds, I will reap the harvest I desire.
With Strength You Will Overcome:
Failure
Adversity
Foreclosed Homes
Misbehaving Children
Unemployment
Broken Relationships
Debt
Depression
Low Self Esteem
Striving Through Adversity
It’s up to you how your new life begins. Are you going to lay on the floor or are you going to get up and take back what belongs to you? I can’t promise you it will be easy. I can’t promise you that you won’t cry, feel pain, or want to give up. However, I can promise you that doing nothing won’t solve the problem.
You have the strength to overcome whatever circumstances your are facing in your life. Believe in yourself. And if you don’t, never forget I believe in you. You are stronger than you have ever known. You just needed a challenge big enough to prove it.
Frank Jennings is the founder of A Spark Starts where he writes inspirational and inspiring stories. These stories give hope to single parents, encourage people consumed by debt, restore broken relationships, re-build damaged families, empower disgruntled employees, prepare the uncertain, and help you reach for your dreams. Stop by and subscribe today! via pickthebrain.com
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His was an ordinary tale of a rambunctious boy, raised in a Chicago suburb, immersed in sports and the love and rivalry of an identical twin, Bobby. Then adulthood and work became routine, and in that carefree summer of 2001, Bryan Anderson joined the Army.
He was inducted on Sept. 11. The boy who had not yet turned 20 spent seven hours in a bus full of strangers headed to basic training on that day that changed America. His nation's challenge had become his story. He was scared and confused, but also proud when the mood of the young men and women on that dark bus evolved into defiance.
Four years later, Anderson was on his back on a Baghdad sidewalk, both legs and his left hand blown off when the truck he was driving was hit by an improvised explosive device. Frantic buddies saved his life. "My mom's going to kill me," he remembers thinking.
In that moment that changed everything, Bryan Anderson's road back became part of a wounded nation's story. Anderson, 30, and scores of other wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are doing what they can to make it remain so and relate their struggles to the challenges of others.
Anderson illustrated how in a recent speech to 275 people at Misericordia University in these northeast Pennsylvania hills. In the glare of stage lights, he sat without his leg prosthesis in a wheelchair and described the life of a veteran who snowboards, rides a motorcycle and appears in movies as a stuntman. "As it turns out, there is not a whole lot I can't be," he says.
By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY
Bryan Anderson lets go of cyclist John Pisano’s bike as they race through a parking lot at the Susquehanna River Dike in Wyoming, Pa.
Many of the 47,000-plus wounded veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have returned home with horrific injuries and face lifetime challenges. Many are alive today because new protective armor saved their vital organs but left them exposed to other injuries.
More broadly, history's verdict on the war in Iraq is unsettled, and Afghanistan rages toward an unknown ending. But there is little doubt that, in the up-front ways in which some of the wounded are telling their stories and in the welcoming ways they are being received, a penance for Vietnam is being paid.
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Follow USA TODAY's Chuck Raasch on Twitter: @craasch.
These wounded messengers are helping form impressions of a still-emerging postwar era in a far different setting than the one that greeted their Vietnam-era parents and grandparents.
Whether injured in body or mind, the veterans are being coaxed by doctors, psychiatrists and counselors to relate their experiences as part of their recovery. Physical therapists, after decades of laws aimed at bringing the disabled into the mainstream, urge them not to hide shattered limbs or burned skin.
If servicemembers from previous wars, especially World War II, spoke about their experiences at all, it was often before familiar audiences at VFW clubs or American Legion halls, says Army Sgt. Major Robert Gallagher, who counsels wounded veterans.
Gallagher himself suffered gunshot wounds in his hand in Somalia in 1993 and shrapnel in his leg a decade later in Iraq. He endured multiple traumatic brain injuries over his 30 years of service. He says not all wounded vets, including himself, are comfortable telling their stories in public. Those that are, he says, are "a constant … reminder that there are veterans in our communities."
Among those wounded veterans is Lt. Col. Tammy Duckworth, a National Guard helicopter pilot who lost both legs and injured her right arm when her aircraft was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in 2004 in combat in Iraq. She lauds fellow wounded vets on the public speaking circuit and the audiences that welcome them. But Duckworth, who is running for Congress as a Democrat from Illinois, cautions that "for every one of these wonderful, motivational survivors, there are so many more of them who are struggling."
Reality resonates
Today's wounded warriors have something previous generations did not: the empowerment of social media and a reality culture marinated in decades of self-help movements seeking to draw meaning and lessons in the trials of others.
"Our servicemembers really have stories that can relate to a big world out there," says Army Infantryman J.R. Martinez, a native of Shreveport, La., who was badly burned in Iraq. "We all go through wars — military, economic, relationships. The one thing that connects us all is adversity."
After spending 34 months recovering at Army hospitals, Martinez hit the speaking circuit to raise money to help families of wounded troops pay for visits to military hospitals. Celebrity followed. He played a wounded veteran on the TV soap All My Children and last year won ABC's Dancing With the Stars.
Martinez says his most memorable moment came when a young woman wrote him that a speech he had given kept her from committing suicide.
Jonathan Shay, one of the Veterans Administration's leading clinical psychiatrists on combat trauma, says healing soldiers can benefit by telling their stories to trusting listeners.
Anderson says living in the moment became his recovery philosophy. He gives 30-40 speeches a year. He acted in the movie The Wrestler, appeared on CBS' CSI:NY and wrote a book, No Turning Back. He is national spokesman for the veterans' aid group, USA Cares.
"Why settle for a normal life when you can have an extraordinary life?" he says.
Anderson says he has earned as much as $10,000 a speech, but he often speaks for free, as he did in Dallas, Pa., for a scholarship fund memorializing Army Lt. Michael Cleary, a local soldier killed in Iraq in 2005 at age 24.
"I never felt I was going to die," Anderson tells an audience of students and adults from surrounding communities. But four months into his recovery, he landed hard in his darkest moment: alone in the shower, looking down at a legless torso and thinking he was half a person. He says music rescued him, especially the song Survive by a band called Rise Against, made up of his boyhood friends.
Anderson admits being strangely drawn to the memory of the "awesome" sensation that the bomb sent through his body. He praises as "life givers" the dozens of physical and occupational therapy students he met with earlier in the day. Minus prosthetic legs, Anderson jumps off his wheelchair and quickly scoots to the edge of the stage, where he declares himself 3 feet tall. It is an invitation to see him wholly as he is.
Anderson's message — as well as his stories about how he rides a motorcycle, snowboards and travels — connects with a physical and occupational therapy student in the audience. "I really liked that he was willing to go for it," says Jenna Georgia, 22, of Washington, N.J.
"That's going to be his therapy," says Lee Baker of Old Forge, Pa., a crewman on a B-52 during Vietnam who remembers coming home to hear the minister in his home church talk about "baby killers."
Another Vietnam veteran — Jack Cleary, the father of the young soldier whose death had brought Anderson here — remembers returning home to "just this resounding indifference" that drove a lot of his fellow veterans into silence.
The 1st Lt. Michael J. Cleary Memorial Fund pays for counseling and outdoor activities for wounded Iraq and Afghanistan vets.
"They are so open, and so willing to talk, which is so critical," says Jack Cleary, greeting well-wishers after Anderson's speech.
Veterans Administration psychiatrist Shay says the narrative of Vietnam vets constantly disrespected is sometimes overblown and the "smoothly oiled story" of a vast majority not talking about their war is sometimes overstated, too.
A vastly different era
Even so, one thing is beyond question: 40 years ago, wounded veterans came home to a very different America.
In his autobiography Born on the Fourth of July, paralyzed Vietnam Marine veteran Ron Kovic describes a self-destructive spiral as he fixated on the reception he got from strangers after he left the hospital in 1968. "Their face changes — the eyes, the voice, the way they look at you," says Kovic's character in the movie, played by Tom Cruise. Kovic found a public voice in the antiwar movement.
In Forrest Gump, actor Gary Sinise played the fictional Vietnam-era double amputee "Lt. Dan," as another embittered, neglected veteran. Sinise regularly visits military hospitals. Anderson describes literally running into Sinise with his wheelchair the first time the two men, now friends, met.
"He's like, 'Holy crap, the real 'Lt. Dan!' " Anderson tells his Misericordia audience. "I said, 'No, you will always be the real Lt. Dan.' "
Therapists, veterans and oral historians say the shock of 9/11, the memories of Vietnam and the accessibility of social media have created a very different environment for returning troops.
"Our country (was) attacked on our own soil," says Stephen Tolman, a Nashville agent who books speaking engagements for Army Spc. Robert (B.J.) Jackson of Orlando. Tolman says 9/11 led to a broad consensus that "no matter where you were politically, that these veterans were defending and protecting all of us."
Jackson lost both legs and was severely burned in Iraq in 2003. Two of his uncles — both Vietnam veterans who never talked about their war — inspired him to go into public speaking.
"The most rewarding thing I have been able to do is learn how to relate my story, injury and experience and transform it to a message that will touch those that may be struggling with an illness or divorce or just the stress of life, or even those that just want to hear an interesting story," says Jackson, the father of six.
He has named his public speaking company The Right to Bear Stumps. It symbolizes what some say is another difference of these wars.
"Amputees — they don't cover it up," says Dick McLane, Anderson's mentor at Pride Mobility, the Pennsylvania-based wheelchair manufacturer for which Anderson is a national spokesman. "In previous wars, guys that suffered amputations always covered it up."
Steve Maxner, who is leading a Vietnam vets' oral history project at Texas Tech's Vietnam Center, says the 9/11 attacks prompted many reluctant Vietnam vets to step forward to record their stories, in part to lay groundwork for veterans of the new wars to tell theirs.
"They were saying, 'Let's not make the same mistake with our current veterans (that) we did with Vietnam,' " he says.
Wounded Vietnam veteran Dave Roever, himself a successful public speaker, says he has trained about 500 wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in public speaking at his Eagles Summit ranches in Colorado and Texas. Telling their stories, he says, helps wounded vets "offload a lot of that stress before that becomes a disorder."
Inspiring others who struggle
One of Roever's pupils, former Army sergeant Brian Fleming, 27, of Fort Worth, was burned over his face and nearly half his body when the military truck he was riding in was blown up by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in 2006.
Fleming gave his first speech to 2,000 people while still in burn bandages. Afterward, he says, a young woman approached him, described a bad experience in her own life and declared, "If you can get through what you have gone through, I can get through this."
"That was a game-changer," Fleming says. "All of a sudden, all of the pain I had gone through had helped someone else."
His message includes a survivor's defiant humor. His website is www.blownupguy.com. His Texas license plates bear a Purple Heart and the vanity insignia: "NICETRY."
"A guy blew himself up trying to kill me, and he was the only one who died that day," explains Fleming, who serves as a "resiliency coach" for other wounded soldiers.
Anderson ends his speech at Misericordia by recounting the night seven months into recovery when he and a buddy, who had also lost both legs at the hip in combat, missed a bus that was taking wounded veterans from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to an outing in nearby Washington. So they drove a rental car, which Anderson steered while directing his friend, who had settled onto the floor to work the brakes and gas pedal by hand.
As they returned to Walter Reed around midnight, a guard stopped the car at the gate, opened the door and asked Anderson to step out of the vehicle. Anderson says that after a long pause of wide-eyed speechlessness, the guard waved them on with a simple declaration:
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