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Posts Tagged ‘Inspiration prompt’

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Inspiration Prompt – You Are Special

Monday, February 2nd, 2009
Unique
[Photo by: bobinson]

You are special. There is no one like you. You are unique.

Even someone subject to genetic manipulation is unique, as he absorbs the environment and the experiences he has been through. He is influenced by the sights he has seen. The scents he has smelled. The flavors he has tasted. The textures he has touched and the sounds he has heard throughout his life. He is affected by his friendships and his love affairs. He is inspired by his teachers. This person is as different as one can be from his genes’ donor.

Think about it. If a person who has been genetically reproduced [for the sake of conversation, lets assume it is possible and has been done] is unique, then you are unique as well. Life has carved a person – to whom there is no match!

Live the life of the unique person you are! Do not try to resemble others and respect your authenticity.

Lets get inspired by Dale Carnegie’s words:

You are something new in this world. Never before, since the beginning of time, has there ever been anybody exactly like you; and never again throughout all the ages to come will there ever be anybody exactly like you again.

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Share your thoughts and leave a comment to this post!

I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts about uniqueness.

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Posted in Inspiration prompt | 6 Comments »

Inspiration Prompt – Do The Impossible

Monday, January 26th, 2009

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible”
© Arthur C. Clarke

Impossible
[Photo by: Till Krech]

Back in law school I remember how we were all excited to get back our first paper in Criminal Law. One of the toughest classes. We were all shocked and highly disappointed to find out the highest grade was a ‘D’. How could that have happened? How could we ALL have gotten it wrong? We were pretty angry (as lawyers to be can get… Oy vay.)

The week after, there was a commotion in class. We were ready with the latest laws and court rulings to prove ourselves right. The professor came in, gave one look at the mountain of papers we had accumulated and said: “Do you know what is your mistake? You were all following the law. This is not the way the law can evolve and change. This is the way to keep the law stagnant. If you want a change – you should think farther. You should use your minds and imagination and take a step forward – where no one has stepped before”.

I loved her speech and it made getting a ‘D’ ok, because I had learned a valuable lesson – much more important than the basic potential defenses an accused has and definitely more important than a grade.

This lesson goes far beyond being a good lawyer – it is a lesson for every person who seeks a change.

This week’s inspiration prompt is to make a change by going farther and find a way to do the impossible.

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Do you stop at the possible or go for the impossible?

Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

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Posted in Inspiration prompt | 6 Comments »

Inspiration Prompt #33 – The Value Of Optimism

Monday, January 5th, 2009

“No pessimists ever discovered the secret of the stars,
or sailed to an uncharted land,
or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. “
–Hellen Keller

The Glass Is Half Full
[Photo by: Akash Kataruka]

Is the glass half full or half empty? This is a matter of our state of mind. Nevertheless, this disposition is crucial to our day-to-day life.

As Hellen Keller had stated so beautifully, optimism is an enabler.

Optimism empowers us and sparks us with the spirit of free living. Optimism shuts down our self critic and urging us to go farther and farther with no worries and no self doubt.

Optimism is asking what can go fantastically right all the time. Optimism is smiling even if a reason for a smile is yet to present itself. Optimism is sipping the intoxicating life around us in big, excited gulps. Optimism is knowing that we can and we will and nothing is going to stop us.

For this week’s inspiration prompt I am inviting you to the fantastic land of the optimists.

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How is your tour in the land of the optimists going? Share your experiences and adventures and leave a comment to this post.

Do you see yourself as an “half-full” kind of person or a “half-empty” one?

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Posted in Inspiration prompt | 9 Comments »

Inspiration Prompt #32 – A New Year Brings A New Opportunity

Monday, December 29th, 2008
New Year - New Opportunity
[Photo by: Jesus Solana]

When I was young my big sister used to tell me that I should try to behave extra nicely on the New Year’s Eve & day as the way I behave then reflects on the way I conduct myself throughout the entire year. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a young girl’s small shoulders. The ability to ruin the entire year ahead based on a single day of misconduct…

But you know what – it isn’t true. There isn’t one day which can influence the entire year and the days of the year are never homogeneous. There are bad days and there are good days. Ups and downs.

One thing that the New Year Eve does represent for me, though, is: opportunity.

An opportunity for a change. An opportunity for taking your own life under control and taking responsibility. An opportunity to stop the vicious cycle of a self debilitating dialogue that goes like this: “If I didn’t manage to {insert something you really want in your life in a verb form}, I am never going to do it.” or “If I didn’t stop {insert a bad habit}, I’d never stop it”.

You can and you will!!!

This week’s inspiration prompt is all about the physiological window of opportunity that the new year brings along.

Grab this opportunity and take control – Be powerful!

Share –

What does the new year’s eve represent for you?
What opportunities do you see in the coming year?

Leave a comment and share your thoughts and opinions with me!

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Posted in Inspiration prompt | 2 Comments »

Inspiration Prompt #31 – The Power Of Light

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Hanukkah Menorah [Photo by: Allison Jennings]

Jewish people all over the world are now celebrating Hanukkah, which is also known as: “The Festival Of Lights”. There is a traditional holiday song which demonstrates the power of light, by the way even the smallest flame can take away the darkness.

I am very inspired by this notion and I would like to inspire you as well. As Francis Bacon’s had said:

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

The light is powerful, but its power can be measured only in times of complete darkness, and so do us!

For this week’s inspiration prompt I encourage you to derive inspiration from the power of light.

You certainly do not have to be Jewish in order to appreciate the power of light against darkness. Think about the glittering lights that embellish your house for Christmas or about the mesmerizing fairy lights that are wrapped around your Christmas tree. How jolly and merry they make everyone feel. This is also a token of the power of light.

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Leave a message to this post and share your thoughts. What do you think about the power of light? How does the light inspire you?

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Posted in Inspiration prompt | 2 Comments »

Inspiration Prompt #30 – Who Is Different?

Monday, December 15th, 2008

Sheep

I have just moved to the Bay Area in California, USA. That makes a total of three different countries in which I have been living for the past year and so. Three different continents and in each I have had the pleasure to meet a myriad of different people of different cultures (originating from all over the world). This experience has enriched me and made me think a lot about the definition of “normal” or “Who is different?”.

Society is very comfortable with people that are ‘normal’. People that fit right into the general blend. But if you shuffle the cards a little bit (or relocate often…) you find out that as everything else in life, being normal is relative as well. What’s normal in Israel (sharing your genuine opinion when you’re asked for it, for example) might not be normal in some European countries. What’s normal in Dublin (walking everywhere) might seem odd in some places in the US.

I would like to take this notion a bit further.

If the concept of who is normal changes between different countries and continents, then why shouldn’t we open up a bit more? Why do we strive to be normal and hang out with other normal people. Why is the different child always alone at the playground? One of my new year’s resolutions this year is to go ahead and play with that child. I want to be more tolerant because who said I am not the different one???

A while ago I have shared with you all the great things I have learned from my autistic nephew. I often think that he is an example of THE “perfect human-being” and certainly not I. Are you with me on that?

For this week’s inspiration prompt I urge you to take the concept of being ‘normal’ a bit further away and rethink the notion of ‘WHO IS DIFFERENT?’

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Share your thoughts with me by leaving a comment to this post.

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Inspiration Prompt #29 – Cherish The Passing Time

Monday, December 8th, 2008

Passing time

“Right now a moment of time is passing by…
we must become that moment.“
Paul Cézanne

I am trying to constantly keep the value of the everyday in my mind. To cherish my everyday, I break it down to each passing moment and get the most of it. Time passing will not return and lost moments will not be found again.

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How do you cherish the passing time? Share your thoughts and leave a comment!

Have a great week!

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Inspiration Prompt #27 – People That Enrich Us

Monday, November 24th, 2008

People Photo by: Milivoj Sherrington (Flickr)

“There is no such thing as a ‘self-made’ man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.”
George M. Adams

Coming back from an homeland vacation, Adam’s words are 10 times more significant to me. I am definitely made up by the people in my life. My loving family. My understanding friends. My teachers. My nephew’s broad smile. The excited wag of the pet’s tail. The conversation around the dinner table. Sitting with a friend at a favorite cafe and losing any sense of time. A mosaic of people (and pets – it’s not an editing error) that shapes me and makes me the person I am at any given moment.

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Do you believe that you are made by the people in your life? who is the most significant person in your life (or persons)? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

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Inspiration Prompt #26 – What Is Creativity

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Creative Commons Creativity Poster [Creative Commons Creativity Poster by maven, on Flickr]

There are almost as many definition of creativity as there are people trying to define it. In my opinion this happens because each and every person has a different take on creativity. You might already have established your idea of what is creativity and how it resides within you and others or you might still try to figure it out.

For this week’s inspiration prompt I have compiled a list of different definitions of ‘Creativity’:

  • Merriam-Webster dictionary:
    “1 : the quality of being creative
    2 : the ability to create”
  • Concise Oxford English Dictionary: “relating to or involving the use of imagination or original ideas in order to create something”.
  • Wikipedia: “Creativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. An alternative conception of creativity is that it is simply the act of making something new.”
  • Encyclopædia Britannica: “Ability to produce something new through imaginative skill, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form”.
  • Answers.com: “Creativity is the ability to think up and design new inventions, produce works of art, solve problems in new ways, or develop an idea based on an original, novel, or unconventional approach.”
  • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Csikszentmihalyi finds correlation between creativity, happiness and being in a state of ‘flow‘. He suggests that the creative moment occurs when a person is completely involved in an activity. The flow state, as he defines it, is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing.
  • Mary Lou Cook: “Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun”.

As I see it creativity is Unleashing the child within and going back to the state of freedom of thinking and experimenting that we naturally had when we were children. Therefore, in my opinion, as each child is different from another, so is each person’s expression of creativity.

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What is your definition of creativity? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

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Inspiration Prompt #25 – Smile

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Smiling Horse
The picture was taken in Iceland a few months ago. I was trying to take a picture of that horse eating grass from the hands of two cute little girls. The girls would not stand still and I could neither take a picture of them feeding the horse nor a picture of the horse itself. Finally, the girls went away and the minute I pointed my camera directly at the horse’s face – IT SMILED. This isn’t a camera trick – I wish I could take more photos but I was in total shock and this is the only shot I took.

Have you smiled today? If you have not smiled yet then smile now!!!

About eleven years ago, My friend and I were about to go on a “girly-girl-date” together. We were both feeling a bit down, each of us for her own reason (hence the need for a “girly-girl-date”). My friend had made some finishing touches with her hair and came out of her room with a grin. “What are you so happy about?” I asked. “Nothing”, She answered. “I’m still not feeling very well, but this is a kick start for our date, try it too”.

I tried and it worked – now it’s your turn to give it a try too.

Why smiling?

Smiling is the best and quickest way to elevate your mood. It’s an instant remedy, even if you have nothing to smile about. Try it. If there’s no one next to you right now or if you don’t mind the audience just make the widest most radiant smile you can come up with. Keep smiling for at least a couple minutes and see how you are already starting to feel a wee bit better.

Share –

How does the smiling-therapy work for you? Leave a comment and share. While you’re at it, include one of your best jokes in your comment. I am looking for the joke that would make me laugh even on my worst day.

Thanks for sharing!!!

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Posted in Inspiration prompt | 10 Comments »

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