Mike Robbins

Infusing Life and Business with Authenticity and Appreciation

Archives for July 2008

Reminding Us of What’s Important

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As you have probably seen or heard about, Randy Pausch, professor at Carnegie Mellon University inspired millions through his “last lecture” which he delivered last September called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” Below is a segment of that lecture that he reprised on the Oprah show a few months later:

Randy Pausch passed away on Friday, July 25th. He will be greatly missed by his wife, three children, all of the people who knew and loved him…and by millions of us who never got to meet him, but were touched by his message, his story, his wisdom, and his courage.

He wrote a book based on this lecture that has been at the top of the bestseller list since it came out in April. Click here to purchase.

Love Endures

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I recently saw this wonderful video and was moved and inspired – check it out:

As I watched this video, it reminded me that love and appreciation are the most powerful forces in the world. Our egos and life circumstances sometimes cause us to “forget” this, hold grudges, and disconnect from others – but when it comes down to it, love never dies and we are all connected to each other in infinite ways.

As the end of the video suggests – let’s all use this as a reminder to reach out to some, re-connect, forgive, or simply tell someone important to us that we love them.

Choose to Be Happy

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With the first annual International Happiness Day taking place today (check it out for more info: www.InternationalHappinessDay.com) I am thinking about happiness today. What does it take for us to be really happy in life? How can we create more genuine happiness for ourselves and for those around us?

Most of us want to be happy; at least we say we do. So much of what we strive for in life are things we assume will make us happy – love relationships, goals, fitness, money, new experiences, and more. While there is nothing wrong with any of these things in and of themselves, as we all know, none of them will make us happy.

Happiness is a choice and we have the opportunity to make that choice anytime, any day, and for any reason. We don’t have to wait for things to “turn out” or to be perfect, which they almost never do anyway. We can make a conscious choice at any moment to be happy.

Today, see if you can choose to be happy – not just because it’s International Happiness Day (although that is as a good of a reason as any), but because being happy is something we have the power to create and the more we choose to be happy the easier it becomes.

Have Fun!

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Sometimes in the course of daily living we have a tendency to get very “serious,” have you noticed? It’s easy to get caught up in the perceived stresses of our lives, the things we worry about, the stuff we want to change, and the things (and people) that get on our nerves.

What if we had more fun? What if we made a commitment each day to find the good, to laugh as often as possible, and to have a great time doing whatever it is we’re doing? Regardless of what we do, we always have a choice about our attitude about it.

We don’t have to take ourselves or our lives too seriously. And, we can still remain committed to our families, our work, and all of the important things in our life that we’re passionate about. Bringing a sense of lightness and fun to what we do, our relationships, and all the aspects of our lives gives us energy, perspective, and freedom.

Things are not inherently “fun,” “stressful,” or “boring,” they are whatever we make them! Even when and if we’re dealing with some serious circumstances or situations in our lives, we can still bring a sense of genuine lightness and perspective to them, which almost always make them easier for us to deal with.

When we remember that the “fun” in our life is generated by us, not by others or even the specific activities we engage in, we’re empowered to make any situation, relationship, or activity enjoyable – if we choose to do so.

Enjoy this day and see if you can find different and creative ways to have fun. It’s up to you and if you make a conscious choice today (and any day) to have fun, it’s a pretty good bet you’ll have a good one!

Be the Author of the Book of Your Life

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Our thoughts, feelings, and intentions have a big impact on the results, experiences, and outcomes of our lives. Conventional wisdom tells us that we live in the world of cause and effect – that our thoughts and feelings are simply reactions to what happens.

However, as we’ve all experienced in various ways throughout life – what we expect and focus on has a lot to do with what actually happens in life.

Michelle and I had a powerful reminder of this recently. We found out a few weeks ago that the baby girl, Annarose, we are expecting (our second, due in mid-August) was in the breech position (feet down). This becomes a concern when you are getting closer to the due date. We both immediately were scared and upset upon hearing the news, although we pretended not to be.

We started talking about it and after expressing our fear and concern honestly to one another, we went into action – talking to people, doing research, and finding out all we could about getting babies to flip around. As we found out, there are many physical, mental, and meta-physical techniques out there for this specific situation. We began to talk to Annarose, ordered a hypnosis CD, had a session with an intuitive, and Michelle set up an appointment with a chiropractor who uses the “Webster Technique” which is designed to help breech babies turn around.

As all of this was going on, even though we were both still concerned about it, we did what we could to focus on what we wanted and visualize Annarose turning around easily. On Michelle’s drive home from the chiropractor, she called me to tell me how it went. In the middle of our conversation, she said, “Hey, something is happening – I think she is flipping around!” The next day she went to Kaiser to have another ultrasound and it was confirmed, Annarose is now in the proper, head-down position. How wonderful!

Notice if you’re focusing more of your awareness on what you don’t want to happen, what you’re worried about, or what you think would be “bad.” Sadly, this is what most of us do all the time – automatically and unconsciously.

If we can flip our attention to what we want and away from what we don’t want, we are more likely to create the positive results we truly desire.

Remember, we create our reality – life doesn’t just happen to us. When we remember this, we can no longer be victims of our circumstances and we’re empowered to be the author of the book of our lives.