Are You Making This Routine Mistake With Your Health?

"The greatest wealth is health." ~ Virgil

Failure and mistakes are an important part of growth and success as Denzel Washington noted in his recent commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania. Watch Video >

Mistakes will best serve you when you learn from them. So what routine mistake do millions of people make every day and how can they learn from it? They fail to take a break throughout their work day and may even work up to 11 hours a day on a regular basis.

A 12-year study of more than 7,000 healthy adults in the United Kingdom shows that people who put in at least 11 hours a day up their risk of a heart attack or dying from heart disease by 67 percent. Read More >

As someone who often spent long hours working in an office, I have learned there is no virtue in allowing the health of my mind and body to take second place.

Now, I take short breaks throughout the day, usually from 5 to 30 minutes. I take a walk, grab a snack, or briefly watch TV.

When you take a break you:

• Feel refreshed and energized
• Think more clearly
• Reduce health risks
• Generate new thoughts and ideas that may lead to problem solving

You will never find the time, you must make the time to give your mind and body the break they deserve. Make (and keep) an appointment with yourself each day to take a break or ask a friend or co-worker to hold you accountable to taking breaks.

As Denzel Washington quipped in his commencement address, "You will never see a U-Haul behind a hearse." In other words you can't take it with you, so make time for you.

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What You Can Learn From the Romantic Period – Part 3: Be Outrageous

“Great things are only possible with outrageous requests.” ~ Thea Alexander

Get ready to be outrageous! In What You Can Learn From the Romantic Period, 3 characteristics from the Romantic Period are revealed as well as how you can apply each characteristic to achieve positive change and fulfillment in your life.

Here is a quick recap of Parts 1 and 2:
The Romantic Period was an artistic and philosophical movement (around the late 1700s to mid-1900s) when artists moved away from the strict laws of balance and restraint of previous periods.
Part 1 explored Self-Expression
Part 2 examined Emotion versus Intellect

Part 3: Be Outrageous
Here, we explore a third characteristic of the Romantic Period: a love of the fantastic and exotic. Romantic artists might display this by using fantasy, dreams, exotic lands and cultures, or exotic, idealized historical periods.

You can apply the fantastic and exotic to your life by being outrageous in your thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors.

Dream Big
Some of the greatest achievements in history started with what many considered outrageous dreams and ideas: the Wright brothers and their first powered and piloted plane, Walt Disney and his Mickey Mouse concept, Ted Turner and his 24-hour news station, CNN.

Dare to be an outrageous dreamer. Think BIG. When you do, you open up yourself to unimaginable possibilities.

Think Different
Romantics with a love of the fantastic and exotic probed more deeply into their creative imagination. Get outrageous by probing into your creative imagination! Challenge routine thought patterns by seeing things differently and asking creative questions.

Einstein, who was famous for questioning the ways things worked, said “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand.” See how far your creative imagination will take you.

Change Your Attitude
Another way to be outrageous is in your attitude. When you are faced with a challenging situation, practice having a different attitude; this shifts your energy, allows you to see things in a new way, and leads to positive outcomes.

People who lost their jobs as a result of the economy (including me), saw it as an opportunity to start a new business, develop a new skill, or get an education.

Think of it this way: When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
Watch 3-Minute Video

Being outrageous may mean getting out of your comfort zone. As you may have heard me say, when you are out of your comfort zone you are learning and growing.

In what ways are you outrageous?

Life is Not about Fearing Wrinkles

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body.”

Every day we are bombarded with ads for products that promise to make us look younger. I get it. We all want to look younger and feel good about ourselves. Occasionally I, too, dab night cream around my eyes to stave off the emergence of wrinkles.

Imagine, then, how refreshing it is to hear someone say, "I look forward to growing old" or "I’m evaluating what really matters, like earning the privilege of wrinkles." The latter comment was made by a friend who recently had a medical scare—one of many as she continues to battle a blood disorder.

Sometimes the onslaught of perfect-body-images portrayed in the media tends to make us forget what really matters. Life is not about fearing wrinkles or the aging process. It is about the experiences that shape our lives, define our characters, and create our legacies.

Taking care of our bodies and staying healthy is important. Yet, our bodies are not who we are. They are the place where we become who we are. By fearing the aging process we lose sight of the importance of our journey through life and the many meaningful experiences along the way.

As someone once said, "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming – 'Wow! What a Ride!' "*

How are you making your life’s journey meaningful and memorable?

Unleash your brilliance without boundaries,
Christine

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*This quote has been attributed to several different sources.