Success Initiatives Blog

Working in a helping environment is one of the greatest joys of my life.  It took a few years of my own personal coaching experience to figure out my path, but I am glad I went through my own design coaching and am forever grateful to my mentors and coaches.  I have arrived at what I feel is my purpose and contribution as design coach to others, and I'm enjoying more than ever adding value to others by helping them design their best life. In any career field you have chosen, you will be performing the work of adding value to others.  It is important to learn the skill of valuing others in order to be successful. You see, it's loving our job that matters, not doing our job.  If you are really about loving your job, honing your craft, and being a peak performer, it will come not by working harder, but by adding value to others.  It is that contribution to bettering others that will bring happiness and joy to the career you have chosen. Choose to value othe...

Do you ever look at someone and say, "what is wrong with that person, that is absolutely ridiculous."  We've all been there, the meeting, the party, the conference.  That moment when something in you responds to another person in judgement and disbelief at the lack of ability to act accordingly.  Unfortunately, accordingly is based on the script we have been programmed to assess whether something is wrong or right for us.  The curious part of all this is that what may cause us stress and grief, might make another beam with glee. Passing judgement on a person for their behavior creates a low energy field that feeds our cells with negative feelings.  These feelings are what we describe as stress, and stress is what leads to dis-ease. Curiosity on the other hand may not only save you from dis-ease, but actually inspire a happier view of life. You see, your mind is happiest when it is trying to make sense of life.  That curiosity creates a high energy field t...

A challenge to all readers!!  Take a real look at yourself.  Who you are, how you got there, and most importantly, where you are.  You'll probably be amazed at your success. We have all been through many experiences in life that have shaped us and molded us into our current version.  Through all your triumphs and learning experiences, you are still here and you are a better version than without those experiences.  There are no failures, just those experiences that teach us and guide us to change our direction.  Remember, there is no failure . I took this challenge myself recently and was amazed at how much better I felt afterwards.  Who am I?  The son of mexican immigrants that came to the US early in their lives with nothing and modestly raised two children with many statistics stacked against them.  How did I get here? I suppose it was the drive to explore a big world and find my place in it. The same drive my parents had when they blin...

Your connections are your connections, to the world!! The people that you surround yourself with really do connect you to the world.  People are either making you better or making you less than you are.  The people that you choose to be around are boosting your mood, or robbing your energy.  They are increasing your knowledge, or dropping your IQ by association.  They are causing you misery, or giving you bliss.  You choose.    Choosing to be around positive people has been shown to boost your mood.  Simply sitting with, or conversing with positive people has the ability to elevate anyone out of the depths of most negative funks. A deep conversation with someone about positive topics can make you smarter.  Positive people just want to communicate in an educated and fun manner.  And Happiness?  Well, positive people look for and surround themselves with other happy people.  Just watch Shawn Achor describe how "happiness a...

I've spent some time the last few weeks thinking about the word failure.  It's such a common word, and lately even a social media trend, #epicfail.  Terrible. I have benefited greatly by practicing and teaching the replacement of negative words with positive words.  As I pondered the word failure, I realized it did not really need a replacement word.  I realized it wasn't even much of a word.  The more I reflected on previous "failures", I really was left thinking about the experience and education I had gained from events previously labeled as failures.  We really have experiences of learning with opportunities to better ourselves. We have all been made better through the education and experience gained after moments that did not turn out as expected.  After reflecting on these moments, we reassess our expectations, readjust our steps, and eventually end up with a successful outcome.  Eliminating that so called "...