An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.

‘I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.’

The old woman smiled, ‘Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?’

‘That’s because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.’

‘For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table.

Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.’

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it’s the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You’ve just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

Tweet This Post

“Sparkle takes social networking and online communities to a new level, letting you find people with shared interests and then engage in captivating online activities.

So whether you just want some new online friends or are looking for the love of your life – Sparkle gives you the space and the tools to really get to know people in a mature and natural way.

It’s a busy social club, it’s a lively chat forum, it’s a friendly coffee morning, it’s speed dating, it’s romance, it’s finding mates, it’s arranging events – it’s Sparkle.”
The Sparkle Team
Be an early bird and pre-register for Sparkle and you get 12 months membership absolutely free of charge

Come on over and meet the Sparkle Team on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

The Mayonnaise Jar

When things in your life seem, Almost too much to handle,
When 24 Hours in a day is not enough,
Remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class
And had some items in front of him.
When the class began, wordlessly,
He picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar
And proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students, If the jar was full.
They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured
them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly.
The pebbles rolled into the open Areas between the golf balls.

He then asked The students again
If the jar was full.. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand
And poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded
With an unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced Two cups of coffee from under the table
And poured the entire contents Into the jar, effectively
Filling the Empty space between the sand.
The students laughed.

‘Now,’ said the professor, As the laughter subsided,
‘I want you to recognize that This jar represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things – God, family,
children, health, Friends, and Favourite passions
Things that if everything else was lost
And only they remained, Your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter Like your job, house, and car.

The sand is everything else –
The small stuff.

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ He continued,
‘there is no room for The pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time And energy on the small stuff,
You will never have room for The things that are
Important to you.

So…

Pay attention to the things That are critical to your happiness.
Play With your children.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner.

There will always be time
To clean the house and fix the disposal.

‘Take care of the golf balls first –
The things that really matter.
Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’

One of the students raised her hand
And inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled.
‘I’m glad you asked’.

It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem,
there’s always room for A couple of cups of coffee with a friend.’

Who will you have a coffee with today?

Tweet This Post

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?”
Actually, who are you not to be?
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to manifest the glory and wonder that is within us.
As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give those around us permission to do the same.

Tweet This Post

Do you feel guilty because you’re not doing enough? I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t always remain calm, zen and un-phased when I don’t get everything done.

Sometimes I get distracted; sometimes unforeseen events happen which get in the way of my ambitions. Sometimes I have a hard time not caring about unimportant things. I want the dishes to be clean and the house spotless, all my errands to be finished and everything neat and tidy.

The problem is, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, things don’t usually work like this. In fact, they almost never work like this. There’s always something to be done, always that “thing” in the back of your head that you forgot about that needs to be taken care of. There’s always something else that needs to be finished, and then you can feel happy. (Or so you think.)

But then you remember another task, and the cycle repeats. Of course, there’s only one problem… Nothing is ever complete. Not for long, at least. So if that time and place is impossible to reach, we have to stop caring about unimportant things. The constant desire to want to be done, then be happy, creates the background feeling of anxiety.

If you’ve ever found yourself doing the dishes as fast as possible, when you have no reason to be in a hurry (like I have), you know what I mean. If we’re ever to get at that feeling of peace — being OK with taking things slowly — we need to start enjoying our lives. We need to start being instead of just doing.

Here are a few of my (humble) suggestions on how to create more space in your life:

* Realize that not having everything done is a good thing. “Blasphemy!” you say. I know, I know. This sounds awfully backwards, but it’s true. Having things in your inbox means that your time is in demand. And that’s a good thing.

* You don’t need a two week vacation to create space. When you pull up in your driveway after work, take a minute or two to just relax and breathe. Turn off the radio, and just sit in silence for a moment. Enjoy the space. Two minutes is all you need. Now don’t tell me you don’t have time.

* Look for the gaps. Between your thoughts, there lives little gaps. They may not be huge, but they’re there. Start paying attention to those gaps. Allow them to grow by just letting go of thinking all the time. You might think that you need to think about things in order to work or to live. But the opposite is usually true. Most of the time, thinking is completely unnecessary. Most of the time, you’re just thinking about the same things over and over. That’s called a pattern. Or brooding, whatever label you prefer.

* Listen, feel, engage… be there. The reason we’re usually in such a hurry is due to a mind-created obsession with finishing things. So the way out of that is to be where you are. Listen to the ambient sounds you hear, feel your feet on the ground when you walk, feel your hands running through the water while you wash the dishes.

* Let go of the need to become. Sure, there will always be things you want to change about your life. There will always be goals, dreams, desires and all manner of wonderful experiences to seek out. Great, seek them. Desire them. But don’t sacrifice the present. Don’t sacrifice the place you’re in right now. There’s too much beauty.

With that, I’d like to leave you with an excerpt from one of my favorite lectures by Alan Watts:

“Lightning flashes, sparks shower.In one blink of your eyes, you’ve missed seeing.

Why? Because here is the light. The light, the light, the light, every mystic in the world has ’seen the light.’ That brilliant, blazing energy, brighter than a thousand suns, it is locked up in everything. Now imagine this. Imagine you’re seeing it. Like you see aureoles around Buddhas. Like you see the beatific vision at the end of Dante’s ‘Paradiso.’

Vivid, vivid light, so bright that it is like the clear light of the void in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. It’s beyond light, it’s so bright. And you watch it receding from you. And on the edges, like a great star, there becomes a rim of red. And beyond that, a rim of orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. You see this great Mandela appearing this great sun, and beyond the violet, there’s black. Black, like obsidian, not flat black, but transparent black, like lacquer.

And again, blazing out of the black, as the Yang comes from the Yin, more light. Going, going, going. And along with this light, there comes sound. There is a sound so tremendous with the white light that you can’t hear it, so piercing that it seems to annihilate the ears. But then along with the colors, the sound goes down the scale in harmonic intervals, down, down, down, down, until it gets to a deep thundering base which is so vibrant that it turns into something solid, and you begin to get the similar spectrum of textures.

Now all this time, you’ve been watching a kind of thing radiating out. ‘But,’ it says, ‘you know, this isn’t all I can do,’ and the rays start dancing like this, and the sound starts waving, too, as it comes out, and the textures start varying themselves, and they say, well, you’ve been looking at this as I’ve been describing it so far in a flat dimension.

Let’s add a third dimension; it’s going to come right at you now. And meanwhile, it says, we’re not going to just do like this, we’re going to do little curlicues. And it says, ‘well, that’s just the beginning!’ Making squares and turns, and then suddenly you see in all the little details that become so intense, that all kinds of little sub figures are contained in what you originally thought were the main figures, and the sound starts going all different, amazing complexities if sound all over the place, and this thing’s going, going, going, and you think you’re going to go out of your mind, when suddenly it turns into… Why, us, sitting around here.”

See, when we’re always in a hurry, always looking to achieve a goal, we miss out on the miracle that’s around us. Right here. Right now.

This article was written by Zen Habits contributor Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind. To learn more about how to reclaim your life, grab a subscription to Illuminated MInd.

Tweet This Post

Shannon Kennedy - Freefall

When we arranged for her to have guitar lessons earlier this year with one of my  clients, Phil who is a Musician with Crush, she turned her stories into songs….

They recorded her first song, written with her friend Frankii arranging chords, played and sung by her…. a few weeks ago..they are now on to song number 2… I thought I’d share it with you.

 Listen Now  

Tweet This Post

I give myself permission to do extraordinairy acts
I am worthy of having all my dreams come true.
Life is a gift, Thank You.
I listen to my heart, which awakens my genius
I have a great vision and money flows in to help me achieve it.
If I really want something I will dedicate every day to it.
It’s time to start appreciating every moment of every day. Give of yourself and plan for where you want to be from a good place rather than from a place of lacking.

Tweet This Post

Have a read of the first chapter here to see what it’s all about. No opt in necessary!

One of the best books...ever

Think  and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

I must admit, I must have read this book for the first time…oooh 13 years ago and while it hit a chord with me. I have been sporadic at implementing the information I learnt all those years ago.

But then back then I never had the Magic 100 programme to keep me on path! At the time the business we had went wonderfully well while I was using my think and grow rich system. But when I became ill,  for some reason I let things change, I allowed circumstances take control.

Anyway, now I can say that with the knowledge I have and using my M100 system. It’s all steam ahead for a brighter future for me and my family.

Come on… I want to see you achieve your goals too! Have a read of the first chapter or listen to the audio question and answer session with Dax Moy on the Magic 100, I’m sure you won’t be sorry!

Judith

If you woud like to know when new posts are added please sign up to our  by putting your email and name in the sign p in the right hand side panel. :0)

Tweet This Post

The past few days people have been talking to me about Britains Got Talent and in particular,  Susan Boyle.

Achieving her Goal..Susan Boyle

She is 47 years of age and from Scotland. Her  goal is to be a professional singer.

This most unassuming 47 year old woman went on stage in front of hundred of thousands of people to sing.

She was mocked by the panel and pretty much the entire audience! She has never been married and apparently ‘never been kissed’.

It must have taken a HUGE amount for her to get up there and do her stuff! But she did it and now I have NO doubt that she will achieve her goal of becoming a professional singer!

Have a look and see what you think.! I think she is awesome and wish Susan Boyle the very best of luck and congratulations for doing what she did!

Don’t know about you but I found this very motivational!!

What are you waiting for??  Go, reach for the stars and achieve your goals!

If you need a hand, look at some of my other blog posts on The Magic Hundred.

Tweet This Post

Think it, shout it, feel it....it will come!

Dax Moy has spent the past week re-writing some sections of The MAGIC Hundred to update a few of the chapters with things that have developed as a result of his use of the programme over the years since he originally launched The Magic Hundred back in January 2007. Dax shared this with me, it’s interesting stuff.. so I am sharing it with you….

As I was writing away, it dawned on me how much my life has changed in the 2 short years since the program was released and how a simple decision at one moment in time can DRASTICALLY alter the hundreds, thousands and even MILLIONS of moments that follow.

You probably know what I’m talking about as it’s happened to all of us, but I’ve got to tell you, when I started out with my ‘little idea’ all those years ago (even before I wrote the program) I had no idea where it would eventually lead me. No idea at all!

I mean, when I left the regular army about 8 or 9 years ago I had nothing.

No qualifications (I’d left school at 16 without taking my exams), no money (I was completely broke) and no obvious means to get either. To make matters worse, I had a young wife, 3 young kids and another one on the way, and nothing remotely approaching the slightest hint of how I was going to support them, let alone give them the things that every father and husband wants to provide for their family.

We were living in high crime council accommodation on a housing estate in North London (in what in the U.S would be known as ‘projects’) and claiming social security benefits in order to pay the bills and get by and dreaming of ways to improve upon our situation so that we could give our kids some of the better things in life.

I took many temporary jobs including bodyguarding, roadsweeping and even working in sewers in order to get the little bit of extra cash we needed and supplemented my income with my Reserve Forces pay from my territorial army unit weekends, camps and courses, but as fast as I was able to earn a little money it seemed to be eaten up on bills of every conceivable type so that, no matter how hard I worked, we were never able to get ahead.

It was frustrating to say the least but, like most people, it was a frustration i just had to learn to tolerate. After all, my bills had to be paid, right?

Then one day after an army weekend, I noticed one of the other guys in my patrol was reading a book in the back of the truck on the way home. He was coming to the end of it and as he finally turned the last page he glanced up and noticed me looking in his direction. Seeing I was bored he offered me the book, which I gratefully took and in that moment… started a chain reaction of events that would totally transform my life!

I’m not exaggerating.

I read that book all the way home, persuaded my patrol-mate to lend it to me until later in the week and took it home and read, and read and read.

Now, what was surprising to me was that this wasn’t a new book. It was old. REALLY old, like 1920’s, yet as I read through it I felt as though it had been written specifically with me in mind as it described many of the very things that I had been going through and, more importantly, why.

It told me to hold a major definite purpose uppermost in my mind, pursue it with all vigor and not to quit on it until I accomplished what I’d set out to accomplish.

So I did!

I’d always had an interest in fitness and having boxed, done martial arts and been a soldier, knew that I was naturally gifted in this area as well as passionate. I’d seen ads posted for gym instructor jobs but when I enquired they told me to go get a civilian qualification and they’d consider employing me. Trouble is, I didn’t even have the £325 I needed for the YMCA gym instructor course, but the book said that I shouldn’t let that put me off, so I set about getting a bunch of temporary jobs to raise the cash.

Eventually I did the course, got qualified and went back to the gym where they told me they only had work for me for 2 hours a week in the shifts that no-one else wanted and that the pay was a measly £5 an hour. I took the job and again, changed the course of my life.

In short, that job led to me becoming a personal trainer, becoming a trainer led me to owning my own studios, owing my own studios led to me working directly with people like Bob Proctor and Joe Vitale from The Secret and working with those guys led to me writing the MAGIC Hundred Goal Achievement Program which sold over $107,000 in the first 7 days of launch and that has led to me traveling the world, speaking at international events and teaching my own rapid goal achievement philosophy to thousands and thousands of people.

Since making that first teeny-tiny decision to read that book instead of going to sleep like my patrol-mates, literally EVERYTHING about my life has changed and I find myself in the weird and rather unlikely position of being some kind of ‘goals guru’ to people from all around the world who I’ve never even met and earning more money than I ever thought I’d earn whilst traveling the world and having all kinds of adventures.

It’s very strange indeed!

Nice, but strange : )

I now live the kind of life that I’d only dreamed about before with travel all over the world to jungles, deserts and arctic wastelands as well as luxury hotels, secluded islands and all manner of other places that I’d only ever seen in books before I started on this amazing journey that my life has become.

But looking back at how I got to this point in my life and the opportunities I now have before me, I can honestly say it all started with reading that one book. It’s as though that one decision was like setting a compass bearing just slightly off course to the original path I’d been on at the time, yet which over the weeks, months and years has moved far off the original course to deliver me to the place I’m at now.

I guess you’re wondering ‘What’s this got to do with me?’ right?

Well, nothing I guess…

…and EVERYTHING!

You see, just as my own life has been created by each of the decisions I’ve made along the way, so has yours.

Everything you’ve experienced so far is the result of the decisions you’ve made (or failed to make) up to this point.

That’s a fact.

The good news is that that means you can also decide where you want to go, what you want to do and who you want to be just by the simple and straightforward act of making a decision right now. I mean LITERALLY right now!

Just choose to act on something you’ve been putting off, something you’ve been ‘thinking about’ or something that’s been tickling away at the edge of your mind and you too could find yourself living the life of your dreams in some not-too-distant future.

I mean it.

It happened to me so why not you?

Make a decision TODAY my friend.

Set a new course!

Truth, joy and love

Dax Moy
www.themagichundred.com

P.S – I almost forgot, I bet you want to know what that book was that started off my magnificent adventure, right?

Put your best guess below and I’ll tell you tomorrow : )

(I know, nasty huh?) : )

So guys…come on..engage… I’m pretty sure I know what the book is… do you? Judith x

Tweet This Post