Self Improvement and Self Development

When you see experienced public speakers, sometimes it seems they can cast a spell on an audience.You as an audience member know what that spell feels like. And one of the first evidences that this public speaker was going to keep this audience in the palm of his hand is that you almost instinctively liked him or her. Go to motivational speaker for more information.

And the interesting thing about that “spell” is that once you genuinely like this speaker, you naturally are open to his presentation, you listen more attentively and you are more open to suggestion if the speaker is driving to a point.

So as you prepare to begin doing some public speaking, its natural to want to know how to make that spell work for you. We all have a natural feeling of insecurity or inferiority and we worry that the audience will not like us and our presentation will go badly.

So you wonder if that speaker just naturally more likeable than you or did he use some public speaking magic to make the audience like him.

The answer is twofold. First, no, that public speaker is not more likeable than you. That is just your insecurity talking to you and you need to tell that insecurity to take a hike because it is not going to do you a bit of good becoming a better public speaker.

And secondly, yes there is something that public speaker knows to make his or her audience like them but no, it isn’t magic at all. It is something anyone who stands in front of a crowd can use and it will work every time.

The secret really isn’t very complicated at all. You just have to learn to like the audience. That may seem simple but buried in that idea is a powerful principle of psychology. When you step in front of a crowd and you have trained yourself to like them, it comes out in every aspect of your posture and the way you behave.

You will smile more, make eye contact and actually find yourself wanting to interact with them during the course of your presentation.

Now don’t be concerned if your speech or presentation is not interactive in a dialog sort of way. But if you have spoken to a small group before, you know that there is a lot of interaction going on even during a one way speech. Refer to Keynote Speaker for more information.

That speaker who charmed you that day with that “magic” knows that interaction goes on all the time. As you speak, you get feedback in the form of body language and facial expressions that let you know how you are doing.

And by starting out with a fundamental warmth and affectionate relationship with an audience, that feedback is warm and affectionate as well and that only makes the presentation more of a success.

The trick to learning to like your audience lies in looking for good reasons to like them. We use the word “trick” for a good reason.’ Any reason to like them will do.

You don’t have to like every individual in the audience. You might like the clothing they are wearing or the faces of individuals in the audience. You might like certain ones you know or a few you met and found a chemistry with early on.

You can even like a crowd just because you find a few in that group attractive. By focusing on the ones you like, your warmth toward them will spread to the rest of the audience as you speak.

Before long you will have that crowd in the palm of your hand and using that magic spell to make your presentation a success. Then you will remember this little “trick”. And you will use it often for public speaking success every time. Visit Keynote Speaker for further information.

It is easier to motivate others than it is to motivate yourself. Do you know why? You are able to look at things from a different light. You can step back from a situation and see things for what they really are because you aren’t the one wearing the rose colored glasses. Go to motivational speaker for more information.

You may not know exactly how you can motivate someone, but you may want to think about the person’s feelings before you try to give them a heart-felt push. You do not want to sound nagging when you are only trying to be encouraging. It is easy to give someone your opinion, however, it’s not always so easy trying to figure how to say it.

The first tip on how to motivate others is to take out the negative and reinforce a positive note. You do not want to sound like you are tearing into your friend or loved one. You just want to give them some support to go for the things that they enjoy.

If you are dealing with someone who seems to have no direction, you may want to think about asking him or her questions about their future. Support begins with a nice long chat and if you two can understand each other, then you two should be able to have a good solid and strong relationship needed to motivate.

The second tip is to listen. When you are being asked to give your support, you will need to not judge. You will need to give the person some advice, but that does not mean that you have to take what they are saying to extremes. The key is to listen.

If you strongly disagree with the person, you should ask them to see your point of you and then make your points about your view, but not the way that it should be. When you stop giving orders and start talking about the way things make you feel, then you both will begin to have a healthy relationship and motivation will only come from a healthy relationship. Refer to motivational speaker for more information.

Sometimes you are going to be asked to give your support or blessing and you are just going to have to give it regardless of rather you like it or not. If you are giving your support to a friend or family member you may want to think about what your words may do to your relationship. Motivation could be something that makes or breaks a friendship or relationship. You may end up losing the person’s respect if you continue to try to control instead of helping out.

Lastly, you are going to have to think about the reason why you want to motivate the person. Most of the time it is because you truly care about them and you don’t want to see them go to a place that is unhealthy. You may be trying to give your support in orders of controlling, of saving, or of love.

The last think that you can ever do is try to motivate someone in the name of control. You may just need someone to talk to about it because no one can control anyone. You have to give someone room to choose, however, if they are being destructive, you may feel the need to control to save them. This is when you take professional advice and support them to seek new ideas.

You will want to make sure that whatever reason you are supporting someone is out of love. You not only need to motivate the person, but you have to care about the person for them to turn their life around or reach their goals. Visit motivational speaker for further information.

Even though you have a strong desire or the drive to be wealthy, your mental game will influence your action.

Do you fear of ‘losing’, especially when it comes to money? Most may take risks but when it comes to money, they take absolutely take no chances with it.

(Sidebar: You can more free self improvement and self help articles, videos, etc at successandlife.com.)

This is the employee mentality where job security and a steady pay check each month is the norm.

Please be aware that I’m not criticizing — but making a general point.

What you need to do is to create your own winning environment. Take a closer look — if you’re afraid to lose, it’s probably not your fault because you’ve been taught that way from others and the environment unconsciously.

Money doesn’t grow on trees? Assume that they do. A tree needs water, sunlight and fertilizer to grow. If you want to grow your money, you also have to give it a suitable environment.

First, you have to stop talking money issues with people who have negative views about money. Hang around with people who are driven to make more money for themselves and not those who are just able to balance their income and expenses each month based on their pay check.

You could get some education on money matters. That is the key. Maybe you can learn about investing or take up a part time business like multi level marketing, home business or internet marketing. Maybe investment is not for you but if you look around you, there must be something out there that will help you make additional income. Maybe investing in real estates can be your cup of tea. I don’t know, it’s your life.

If you do find yourself in the right environment, are you willing to ‘work’ to be rich?

An environment is just part of the leverages you can get to achieve more. Remember, to be rich, you still have to work for it.

If that is uncomfortable to know, then you are just going to keep on dreaming. Sound harsh doesn’t it? Well, I’d rather be honest and become the ‘bad guy’ then ‘helping’ you to build a castle in the sky. You’ll only end up disappointed.

If you want proof, go check out the life stories of rich and famous people in your local bookstores. Do you really think Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates or Donald Trump were born rich?

One tip is this — no matter how rich you become, you can always have that back but you can never rewind the time passed. So make your goal a journey, but not a destination. You will then be able to appreciate every detail of your journey, whether they are good or bad because ultimately, they all play a part in preparing you to achieve your goal. The bad will make you wiser and move you closer to success while the good ones, they’re just good. (smile)

You’ll appreciate those who laugh with you and those who support you through the hard times. You’ll have to achieve little goals to reach you ultimate ‘big’ goal but a lot of people don’t see these little goals because all they care about is the ‘big’ goal. But when it’s a journey, you’ll be able to stop and pick up the flowers along the way to smell.

————————

Patric Chan is the founder of a daily updated Web 2.0 personal development website, SuccessAndLife.com where you can add your own articles and content on it for free. Patric is also giving away two of his best Success Formula Videos for free at http://www.successtrace.com.

Motivation is something that we all have to have. We all need to find the right levels of motivation in our life so that we can do the things that we want and have fun doing them. There is nothing wrong with wanting to have more motivation in your life. You can increase your motivation and live a happier and healthier lifestyle. You will not have to worry about how hard this will be because there are a few things that you can do to make it go a lot faster for you. Go to motivational speaker for more information.

You need to ask yourself some important questions when you are looking for self-motivation. You need to think about what you should be doing and what you are doing. How are you going to feel if you do not get something accomplished in life? And what you want to keep on doing in your life to stay happy? These are all things that you should ask yourself first and then this will determine if you need to increase your motivation about a certain thing or not.

You have to start making active choices in your life. You need to have a power of mind that will allow you to do the things that you want to and not let anything stand in your way. If you say that you are going to do something, you need to make sure that you follow through. This is the only way that you can get things done in your life that will make you happy in the end. When you feel as if you have something accomplished, you will feel a lot better because you did what you wanted to.

Set goals for yourself to increase your motivation. You will want to think about the things that you want to do and then how you can get them done. Make sure that you are setting realistic goals for yourself. Do not make them something that is impossible to do. You want to set long term and short term goals so that you can have sometime to accomplish as you go. These goals can help you get on the right track so that you stay there with your motivation. Refer to Keynote Speaker for more information.

Get good role models to follow after. You will find that when you look up to someone that is doing well in his or her self-motivation, this will help you achieve yours. You will find it easier to do the things that you want because you are willing to make them happen. You will have nothing to lose and you will have the inspiration of the role models to follow you. You will feel better and know that you can do it because you have the strength and the power behind you to get it done.

Know what you want and do not want in life. There are things that will change as you grow in life. You will not have the same goals and you will want to change the way that you look at certain things. There is nothing wrong with this. The best thing that you can do is staying positive and knows what you want and how to get it. Focus on one thing at a time and then go on from there. When you get one thing accomplished, this will help you to keep your motivation and keep moving on down the line.

Be thankful for the things that you have in life. You want to make sure that you do not take things for granted and appreciate the things that you have around you. You want to make sure that you are keeping a positive outlook on things that you already have and the goals that motivate you to keep on going in life. You have so much to be grateful for now and think of what you can do if you keep on going with your motivation. You can have a great life filled with unlimited opportunities if you keep your motivation on the right path. Visit Keynote Speaker for further information.

So you want to be successful in life? Is that what you want? Then you better stop failing and become aware of these 10 ways to fail in life.

You see, I’ve been asked many times for how to achieve success and weird enough, seems like nobody’s taking that advice seriously. Then I realized one thing - most people are ALREADY failing before they even got started!

The article I wrote below is slightly controversy compare to the normal goodie-type personal improvement advice because this is the TRUTH. If I want to keep everyone happy and write about the colorful rainbow, birds chirping, flowers blooming, etc then I should just opens up a nursery home and take care of children. I want to tell you the truth straight to your face because I’ve been there and heard the garbage lies thrown everywhere.

Avoid these and you’ll automatically be on the right track (provided you want to be successful)…

1. Mixing With Losers
It’s a guaranteed way to fail in life with this. Whatever you like to do, losers will just tell you it won’t work and after some time, you will also become a loser. High five, welcome to the losers’ club. Something about losers you should know: they like to ‘recruit’ new people and are very comfortable in their shoes. They don’t welcome Changes. So when you see someone with any of these two characteristics, you know what you should do.

2. Don’t Know What You Want
The most common goal I hear all of the time is, “I want to be rich”. I mean it’s fine with that generic goal but the problem is, how rich do you want to be? Or how rich is rich? Put it this way - the methods used to make a million and $3,000 are different. No wonder some people couldn’t experience breakthroughs in life because they are playing small for big goals. If you want to make a million, you better put in that level of commitment, bucko.

3. You Want Everything
It’s nice to have a lot of things but if you go chasing everything, you get nothing. Let me tell you why - you only have 24 hours a day and you’ve got to focus on your priorities. I know, I know, you can hire others and so on but the fact is, you’ve got to want ’something’ first to lead to another ’something’, then to everything. Make sense?

4. Watching the “Secrets” Way Too Much
I’m not here to criticize Law Of Attractions (LOA) and don’t want to receive hate emails. As a matter of fact, I do believe in it and have friends who appeared in the Secrets. But it’s a surefire way to fail if you keep on watching the “Secrets” and doing ‘attraction’ by sitting down on your floor manifesting 3 hours a day. In my point of view, scientifically, Law of Attraction runs on the concept of ‘believing’. When you believe you can achieve your goal, you will take actions to actually achieve it but if you don’t understand this basic element and think LOA is some sort of miracle remedy, oh boy, you’re in for a big surprise for failure.

5. You Don’t Truly Know Why You Want Success
Wanting everything is bad enough - but it gets even worse if you don’t even know the reason why you’re trying to achieve your goal. What’s the deal? Without a solid reason, a compelling reason, where are you going to find the motivation and encouragement for you to overcome obstacles? You think it’s going to be fun ride to success? Then you haven’t been traveling - it’s a rocky road, my friend. Most people failed to achieve their goals because they never complete the journey– they give up half way (or at the beginning) because they cannot see the worth of accomplishments.

6. You Don’t Remember Your Roots
The thing I get most irritated about is people who achieved success and never felt gratitude towards those who have helped them. Is it very hard to say, ‘thank you’? The law of reciprocity is simple – you return favors to those who helped you in the past. And maybe, they’ll help you again in the future. Remember this- it takes more than just you to achieve success, so don’t be a jerk.

7. You Think You’re Smart
The day you stop learning is the day you stop improving yourself. If you don’t want to fail in life, make you sure you stop acting as though you already know everything. The fact is, all successful people are people who continuously learn to be even more successful. They don’t stop. Let me put it in this perspective - you don’t know what you don’t know, you know?

8. You Listen To The Wrong People
I watched this funny movie called, “He Is Just Not That Into You” and it just reaffirmed what I’m about to tell you. At the beginning of the movie, it shows a clip of a boy pushing a girl in the playground because he somehow doesn’t like her. He thinks she smells like dog pooh. She cried and asked her mum why did the boy do that to her. And her mum replied, “It’s because boys do that to girls when they like you.” Do yourself a favor, don’t get wrong advice. It’ll stick in your brain and lead you to make stupid interpretations in life.

9. You Think Short Term
You’ll hear this happening often in many ’successful’ people’s stories – make a lot of money to lose it all. This probably because they became too comfortable and the other thing is, once you achieve success, you should ride on the wave when the momentum is there. When you think short term, you’re only going after the instant pleasure. You must learn to master ‘delay gratification’ so that you can enjoy your today’s labor.

10. You’re Blinded With What Is Important In Life
I believe there are only two things that are important in your life – control of time and experiencing happiness. Money, love, big cars, diamonds, etc are the things that contribute to these 2 benchmarks of successes. For instance, if you have money, you don’t need to work so that you can have more time to do the things you like. It’s not the money that you’re trying to get but what the money CAN DO FOR YOU. I know this topic is bigger than one sentence explanation but I guess you get the point. You’re a smart fella.

Sidebar: Watch this free personal improvement video for my success formula:

So now you know the 10 ways to fail in life. Question is, are you doing any of these? I’ll be BS’ng you if I said I don’t. I’m human dude, flesh and blood - I do mistakes too.

But I was fortunate to experience my fair share of success today because I learn powerful lessons from other successful people…

“It’s okay to fail and you should fail as many times as you can. That is how you learn but more importantly, you should never give up – each time you get kick dirt in your face, wash your face and ‘fight’ back. Don’t go crying like a sissy because Mum’s not going to come cleaning your face.”

Are you ready? Go get your goals.

===========================
Patric Chan shares more of his success strategies at his free self improvement blog. To watch his Success Formula Videos and download 3 ebooks for free, go to successtrace.com.

Can you enlighten about what is self esteem? People usually demand about the definition of a term when they hear the word for the first time. Self esteem is frequently enlightened as the method a person values or think himself. As a form of belief of oneself, it is as well as self respect and self image. It can dictate our behavior and social interaction. Self esteem or the lack of it can bring certain influences to individuals significantly, because they have no self reliance or belief on themselves. That’s the general thought of what is self esteem.

People must recognize about what is self esteem, so they can make as determination of themselves and study whether they have low or high levels of it. The knowledge about what is self esteem will be beneficial for a person to make the decision whether a person must make or even enhance it.

What Is Self Esteem’s job In Our Daily Lives?

We can use a metaphoric term for telling about what is self esteem. Self esteem is the balloon carrying a float for many challenges in our daily lives. Such self self reliance and belief in one’s self can truly dictate how we face the obstacles and make any decisions. The explanation about what is self esteem, in this case, other than our belief in ourselves that we are able to do a lot of things and through the maze of life.

Having high level of self esteem will bring both positive and negative results. The positive outcome is that you will be able to be decisive and confident enough in connecting with other people and take risks in new things. It can direct you to be adventurous enough. While the negative outcome is that the high level of self esteem will appear as arrogance or over self reliance for many people.

Self esteem affect our behavior toward ourselves and others. It also can give impact the degree of successful in your life. So, what is self esteem’s function in our life? The answer is: it is usually dictates our confident in facing life and challenges brought to us.

Factors of Self Esteem

Some factors that can help us to organize self esteem are the support and assurance of family. Supportive parents and siblings can be very beneficial in increasing self esteem in children as well as adolescents. The support from family members will be very helpful for adults with low self esteem. The family can do that by presenting a shoulder to cry on, where the adults can reveal their emotions and chat their problems calmly.

Children and adolescents may feel difficult to answer “what is self esteem” for the first time. But actually, they can feel it. though the adults have already understood about what is self esteem, but they may be unwilling to agree that they are belonging to low self esteem. In this case, they should be lead and encouraged. Hopefully, they can increase their self esteem.

Want to know further about what is self esteem? Let’s explore more on the links here and you will get much more about landscaping as well as any thing related.

Spiritual life coaching is an amazing gift to give yourself. We all know the difficulty in changing the habitual behaviors that do not serve us, and successfully taking actions that support our desire to live a full, abundant, and peaceful life. A life coach offers support and reflection that can keep us on track with our goals in life. A spiritual life coach keeps our goals in the context of our spiritual path. Go to motivational speaker for more information.

There has been much talk recently of creating abundance. Books and movies like The Secret and What the Bleep Do We Know? tell us we create our own reality and we can have all the abundance we want if we re-structure our way of perceiving the world. This information is valuable and timely, however it is skewed in a way that over-emphasizes the materialistic drives of the culture at large, and leaves us once again grasping for something outside of ourselves and judging ourselves if we do not make material gains happen quickly. Abundance does not have to stem from need, it can arise naturally as an expression of a life lived in integrity, with openness and depth of spirit present in everything we do. A spiritual coach helps us keep that thread of depth in the forefront as we move through the world accomplishing our goals.

A second great gift of having a life coach is accountability. Whether we are trying to create or deepen a spiritual practice, or working to establish a business, we all have habits that do not serve us, which we would like to change or transform in some way. (If not, then we would already have what we want.) Having an impartial participant in our process to gently remind us when our actions stray from what we are trying to accomplish, and to brainstorm with us how to make commitments that are doable, is of incredible value. A good spiritual life coach can help us stop punishing ourselves as a way to stay accountable, and instead offer genuine support to live our dreams. Refer to Life Coach for more information.

Coaches give us a clear reflection that is outside the loop of our friends, family, and coworkers. They provide an objective mirror that is not caught up in the drama of our world, and this non-judging clarity facilitates transformation and progress in all the areas we are trying to change. A good coach is not a substitute for friends and family, but gives support and inspiration that revolve directly around us, without an agenda of their own. This provides a vast boost of energy to help stay connected and joyful about manifesting our dreams.

Most importantly a good coach keeps us inspired. They remind us that working to realize our goals, or doing great things with our life, does not have to be a chore. Living and manifesting our purpose is a joy. Having someone in our court to keep us from grinding down and gritting our teeth; instead supporting us to stay energized and excited with life is invaluable. Our coach is then a loving cheerleader, supporting us no matter what the obstacle and celebrating our triumphs and successes.

Spiritual life coaches help us keep everything in the context of our spiritual path and highest purpose. They help us create a life that is a true reflection of our spirit, inspiring us to weave our spirit into all aspects of our lives. Give yourself the gift of joyful accountability, clear reflection, and inspiration by finding a great spiritual coach to work with. Visit Author for further information.

A few months ago my wife and I decided we wanted to take our Network Marketing business to a “Woman’s Expo”. We have a network marketing business and several affiliate marketing businesses. After some discussion with my wife we decided to invite a few of our team members to join us. We sent out emails inviting those that lived in the area. We had decided that it would be beneficial for our personal home based business and for the team as a whole, the more exposure the better. After that we sat down with the Event rules in hand for guidance and made some rules we thought would benefit the whole team. We wanted our team to be organized. We then sent out more emails and held a couple meetings informing everyone what we had planned. It was just 2 nights before the Expo when half of the team decided not to go. We thought we had done everything right but what we didn’t do is involve the team in the decision and planning process. Go to team development for more information.

Team motivation is always affected by a lot factors. According to many experts, the clearness of purpose, the actual challenges faced, the existent leadership, the camaraderie and the development opportunities present in the team will affect its overall performance.

Clearness of Purpose

One of the most crucial components that can keep a team together is clarity of purpose. As long as the members of the team hold a common goal or determination, they will be motivated to act in agreement. According to late studies, team motivation lives at its utmost when all the members of the team have a full understanding of their function and they strongly believe in what it is they are doing. To achieve clarity of purpose and to afford each team member a common sense of ownership over the team?€™s goal as a whole, everyone should be involved in the decision making process. Furthermore, involving each person in setting the focus of the team is critically important to be sure that everybody acknowledges the direction the team is headed in and what specific roles each person is going to play to accomplish the common goals of the team.

Present Challenges

Team motivation may be determined by the present challenges faced by each team member. In most cases, teams work easily during crisis and intense challenge. According to analysis, human beings have the born ability to fight and defend. This power to fight and defend is greatly heightened when it is done by team efforts. To keep a very high team motivation level, you need a few challenges to examine the ingenuity, bravery and staying power of your team members.

Camaraderie

The human desire of each team member is very important. Each person needs to belong and to be loved. It is very important that each team member can feel the camaraderie of all team members. According to recent studies, extremely functional teams do not just work together; they also know how to play and have fun together. To improve the social human relationship between the team members, openness, respect and honesty should always be practiced. A team is like a family and needs to be close knit like a family. Should you choose to lie to the members of the family, you are bound to cause yourself trouble with all the members. Refer to Motivational Consultants for more information.

Leadership

Above everything else, leadership is the most crucial aspect in maintaining a high team motivation level. A team needs to have someone who can and will keep things together and someone who will do the dirty work every once in a while. The best of Team Leaders are just like the head of any family. He or she should always without regard take full responsibility of each person in the team. When making the decision to choose a team leader, you should always take into consideration the ability of the person to inspire loyalty, trust, respectfulness and love from each of the members of the team.

Stephen Meyer, Proudly doing my part to help others with our Home Based Business Opportunities. It CanHappen4u2 Home Business Opportunities. Visit Motivational Speaker for further information.

Attitude. Webster’s dictionary describes it as “Position as indicating action, feeling, or mood; as, in times of trouble let a nation preserve a firm attitude…” Go to motivational speaker for further information.

Attitude is the very basis from which springs the preparedness to face life’s challenges. If we have a defeatist attitude, we will invite defeat. If we have an attitude for success, we will invite success.

So how do we develop an attitude of success? Here are a few thoughts:

1. Surround yourself with people who feel good about themselves.
These are the ones with a positive attitude. Negative- minded people will pull you down and then leave you cluttered on the wayside. Positive-minded people will pull you up, reveal your hidden potentials and make you success-minded. Be infected by them.

2. Always seek to step up.
Ever heard of a mediocre success? There is no such thing! Success is always a step higher than mediocre. Seek always to step up from where you are. Hone your skills. Always seek to be better at who you are and what you do. Never rest on your laurels. Life is a continuous ladder; there is always a rung higher from where you are. Refer to motivational speaker for more information.

3. Look for opportunities in every challenge.
Do not allow yourself to succumb to negative feelings when you find yourself in a difficult situation. Challenges are there to spur you to think, to act, to connect with others, to motivate you. Food for thought: When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

4. Learn, learn, learn.
Some wise old soul once said, “An idle mind is the devil’s playground, and it’s called Alzheimer’s disease.” That may not be totally true, but there is a point to it. Our minds need to be fed; and let me stress this: not with junk! But with food that will bring out the creativity and potential of our minds. The road to success for many has been paved with brilliant ideas learned and then put into effect.

5. Be of service.
Help others be successful and they will help you succeed. On the ladder of success, push the one above you towards the top and pull the ones below you. If you pull down the ones above you, there will be no room to move farther up. What is worse, if you pull the one above you and he falls, he might take you along with him.

It may not take overnight to build an attitude for success. It’s a process. However, when you begin the process, you might well discover that success is just around the corner. Visit motivational speaker for further information.

There’s a new management breed springing up in high Paris society led by a motivational talking rat who happens to cook. Go to motivational speaker for more information.

If you don’t believe me, watch Disney’s feature-length animation film, Ratatouille. The movie takes place in Paris and is about a rat named Remy who dreams of becoming a gourmet chef.

Only problem is he’s a rat! Go figure. Remy has a highly developed sense of smell and a keen appreciation for food. He yearns for a better life and desires to raise himself out of a meager existence of living in sewers and scrambling for crumbs and rotten cheese.

Ahh, but it’s not to be, mon ami. You see, he eees after all a rat! And responsible rats have to look after themselves. So Remy’s Dad puts his talent to use by making him the Chief Sniffer. Remy’s sole job is to sniff all the rotten food and human leftovers day in and day out to make sure there’s no rat poison in the food for his Dad’s rat colony.

Yuk! Talk about one stinking job! I’m treading on dangerous ground here, but can’t we all relate to this story on some level? I mean, sometimes we just fall into doing work that’s less than desirous and not even close to what we’re really, really passionate about in our hearts.

Sometimes we just settle for far less than the best we deserve in order to ‘make a living’ or meet other people’s expectations of us. Pretty soon we fall into a rut - a routine - and get cozy. Welcome to the Rat Race! The never-ending treadmill of constant busyness. A dream stealer disguised as a golden ladder to nowhere.

Ratatouille is a story about one rat’s dilemma to either play it safe by sticking to his normal rat routine and winning the approval of his friends and family or enter the forbidden human world and risk everything in pursuit of his dream to become a gourmet chef in the most prestigious restaurant in Paris.

We can all learn from Remy’s adventures and wisdom. I certainly did, and I’d like to share with you some insights I took away from the movie:

> LOOK UP!

After being chased away by a gun-totting human and being tossed and turned in a raging river, Remy gets separated from his friends and family and ends up shivering, stranded and feeling utterly lost in a dark, cold gutter. This is what mythologist Joseph Campbell would call ‘the approach to the inner most cave.’

Remy spends days in this gloomy dungeon paralyzed by fear and never venturing out. In this moment of darkness and delirium, a mentor figure appears in his imagination - the late Auguste Gusteau, France’s culinary genius.

Gusteau gently encourages Remy to look up and venture out! And so, with some trepidation, Remy climbs up the drainage pipes and enters a brave new world. He is shocked to see the magnificent city of Paris unfold before him with its shimmering lights and the Eiffel Tower beckoning him forward. Refer to Life Coach for more information.

All these years Remy has been scrounging around underground with his fellow rats while getting occasional peaks of his hero Chef Gusteau work his culinary magic on TV in glamorous Paris. Now, hungry and tired and being stranded for days in some dingy gutter, he realizes that he’s in the very heart of Paris - at the doorstep of Gusteau’s famous restaurant!

So what’s the application here?? I mean, it’s not like we’re living in some kind of rat hole! (Sorry Remy). Well, first of all, it’s important to realize that with each seed of failure and loss there’s an equivalent seed of new hope and opportunity. And second, when we get into a rat of a rut, it’s important to look up and venture out.

How do we do that as humans? One of the fastest and most memorable ways to ‘look up’ and develop a higher perspective is to once in a while upgrade some of our routine experiences: flying first class instead of economy, staying in a five star luxury hotel, joining a pricier, more exclusive business or fitness club, or attending a prestigious auction or art gallery.

Upgrading some of our experiences serves the multiple purpose of sending a message to our subconscious that we value ourselves while opening up higher learning and networking opportunities and developing friendships with people that can help us grow.

Of course, you don’t always have to shell out big money to accomplish this. You can offer to volunteer and help out at these types of establishments or events; you can join an online newsgroup at one of the higher brow establishments such as Washington Post, New York Times, or Harvard Business Review and participate or eavesdrop on some of the conversations; you can read a biography; or - if you can muster up the courage - you can ask to meet with someone you admire to learn how they became successful.

I used this last strategy once when I was working at a bookstore quite a few years back. Harry Rosen, world renowned men’s clothier, once walked into the store looking for a Kiri Te Kanawa opera video. Of course, as Murphy’s Law would predict, we didn’t have the video and he left the store promptly.

I then wrote a letter to him saying I tried various suppliers but could not find the video but really admired his success and was wondering if he could give me a tour of his head office and share with me how he became successful in his field.

A couple weeks later I got a reply letter back from his secretary to call and arrange for a time to meet with Mr. Rosen. I ended up meeting him at his penthouse office and getting a brief tour. He showed me his architectural design concept for a new store he was opening up in Chicago and we spent close to an hour chatting. (Actually, he was doing most of the chatting while I was listening and taking notes).

I later learned that there were a number of very important people wanting desperately to meet with him and that they’d be lucky if they even got fifteen minutes with Mr. Rosen.

One thing I never did get a chance to do is watch that Kiri Te Kanawa video. Visit Author for further information.