Be impeccable with your word.  -Don Miguel Ruiz

“Why your word?” asks Don Miguel Ruiz, in his inspiring book, The Four Agreements.  “Your word is the power you have to create…The word is a force;  it is the power you have to express and communicate, to think, and thereby to create the events in your life,”  he continues.  Don Miguel Ruiz is an international best-selling author, whose works are based on ancient Toltec wisdom.

Don Miguel Ruiz devotes an entire chapter to this concept, the first of four agreements about which he writes. “Impeccability of the word can lead you to personal freedom, to huge success and abundance;  it can take away all fear and transform it into joy and love,” he explains.

This week, I invite you to be very conscious of the words you use, both in your personal thoughts, as well as in your communication with others.  Choose to be impeccable with your word.

Enjoy a happy and productive week!

Very best,

Stephanie

Compliments are gifts of prosperity.  Learn to accept them graciously.  -Louise Hay

“So many people want to be rich, and yet they won’t accept a compliment,” explained Louise Hay in her best-selling book, You Can Heal Your Life.  “My mother taught early to smile and say, “Thank you” when I received a compliment or gift.  This advice has been an asset all my life.”  Louise Hay was an internationally known author, lecturer and leader in the personal growth field.

This week, I encourage you to accept compliments graciously and given them generously.

Enjoy a happy and productive week!

Very best,

Stephanie

Don’t let age dictate what you can and cannot do. -Tao Porchon-Lynch

“I’m not interested in what I can’t do, only what I can,” explains Tao Porchon-Lynch during a TEDxColumbiaSIPA talk in 2014.  “Think, this is going to be the best day of  my life,”  she advises.  At the time of this talk, Tao Porchon-Lynch was a yoga instructor at age 95.  She recounts that she began competitive ballroom dancing at 87 and her ballroom dance partners are seventy years younger than she is!  Growing up in India, her life was greatly influenced by her uncle, a personal friend of Mahatma Gandhi.

This week, I encourage you to stay interested in what you can do, regardless of your age.

Enjoy a  happy and productive week!

Very best

Stephanie

Be excellent.  -Oprah Winfrey

“Let excellent be your brand,”  advised Oprah Winfrey during her commencement speech to the 2012 graduating class at Spelman College.  “Everybody talks about building a brand.  I never even knew what that was.  When people would say, “You’re a brand,” I’d say, “No, I’m just Oprah.”  What I recognize now is that my choice…to do the right thing and the excellent thing is what has created the brand.”

This week I encourage you to “let excellent be your brand.”

Enjoy a happy and productive week!

Stephanie

When we take time to notice the things that go right – it means we’re getting a lot of little rewards throughout the day.  -Martin Seligman

We’re so  conditioned to focus on things that are not going well.  But the truth is there are always ample things are are going right.  Martin Seligman encourages us to focus our attention here and, in so doing, enjoy being rewarded all day long.  Martin Seligman is a leading authority in Positive Psychology, a field of psychology which examines healthy states.  He is a best-selling author and his books include Learned Optimism, Flourish and The Optimistic Child.

This week I encourage you to notice and celebrate the things that go right throughout your day.

Enjoy a happy and productive week!

Stephanie

All our lives we are in need, and others are in need of us.  -George Odell

“We need one another when we would accomplish some great purpose, and cannot do it alone…in the hour of our successes, when we look for someone to shoulder our triumphs [and] in the hour of our defeat when with encouragement we might endure and stand again,” writes Odell.  And sometimes, he continues, we need others in order “to be recalled to our best selves again.”

This week, I encourage you to celebrate your connection to others.

Enjoy a happy and productive week!

Stephanie

Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time. -Maya Angelou

Sometimes you can feel tired from challenges coming your way.  But when you look into your heart and approach life from  a place of love, your perspective changes.  Remind yourself to chose love and “always one more time,” as Maya Angelou advises.  Maya Angelou was a poet, author, activist, dancer, singer, screenwriter and professor.  Her capacity to love courageously is especially meaningful because she survived hardship and adversity early in her life.

This week I encourage you “to trust love one more time and always one more time.”

Enjoy a happy and productive week!

Stephanie

We can never free ourselves from habit.  But we can replace bad habits with good ones.  -Steven Pressfield

“The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits,”  explains Steven Pressfield.  “An amateur has amateur habits.  A professional has professional habits.”  Steven Pressfield is a best-selling author, including of The War of Art – Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles.

This week, I encourage you to look at your habits.  And are they professional?

Enjoy a happy and productive week!

Stephanie

Did I bring a smile to someone’s face? Did I say words of healing? -Henri Nouwen

“Did I let go of resentment?  Did I forgive?  Did I love?” asks Henri Nouwen, author of over 40 books on spirituality.  He was a Catholic priest who taught at universities including Harvard and Yale Divinity Schools.  He died in 1996 after living the final years of his life with people with mental disabilities at the L’Arche-Daybreak Community in Canada.

“These are the real questions,” he continues.  “I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits here in this world and the life to come.”

This week, I encourage you to smile often and bring a smile to others!

Enjoy a happy and productive week –

Stephanie