What is holistic goal setting? In a nutshell, it means to set goals with consideration of the whole. To illustrate this principle, let’s look a very short-term goal as an example. Let’s say at a restaurant someone is served a meal that is twice as much as they can comfortably eat, for instance, a 24-ounce [...]

One of the best ways to illustrate the folly of making goals in life without balance and without consciousness is to take a look at all of the people who have had their lives cut short from working too hard, dying from heart disease.
A ship out of balance will tip over. A plane out of [...]

There has been much written on the subject of transformation from both the practical and the philosophical perspective: lose weight, look sexy, make money, be more productive, find peace, increase personal magnetism, etc. And while each of these is a goal worthy of achieving, none of them represents the ultimate transformation. Rather, at best, they [...]

No matter what happens in life, good or bad, we still have a choice to be grateful or not, and with that choice, the possibility to transform life. I know that sometimes, when we are suffering, it can seem difficult to find anything to be thankful for. That’s because unconsciousness has taken over and we [...]

When Gregg Zehr was approached by Amazon.com to develop Kindle, he asked why he should be interested. The answer they gave him: “To change the world.”
Anyway, Kindle is now here. Whether it will change the world remains to be seen. But it does allow you to take 200 books with you (virtually) on your next [...]

“Every man I meet is in somehow my superior and in that I can learn from him.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
One of the most beneficial skills to be developed in the pursuit of holistic personal development is whole brain thinking, or whole brain learning. The theory of whole brain thinking is concerned with how people’s brains [...]

Recently Sean Penn appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show. He was promoting his film Into the Wild. He made a provocative statement: He said that our society had become comfort addicted. That statement made a deep impression on me. I had not looked at comfort as an addiction before, but his statement reverberated within me [...]

Dale Carnegie wrote the classic personal development book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Don’t have the book? No problem. Just take a look at the University of Kentucky’s brand new basketball coach, Billy Gillispie. Kentucky fans love him as if he has already won a title, before the season has even started. His [...]

The failing of higher education is what I call it — a 2.2 trillion dollar industry that is  probably better at making money than it is at transforming lives.
One of the essential aspects of personal development is knowledge that comes from higher education. And in this you will find the Pareto Principle rings true: that [...]

So much of what we call learning today is simply an accumulation of facts. According to the Pareto Principle, we can surmise that 80% of what we could call beneficial knowledge comes from just 20% of what we study and learn. That means we learn a lot of useless information. What we are striving for [...]

Transformation is the goal of personal development. It is taking a life of limitation and moving it towards the unlimited.
This movement from the limited to the unlimited is both a death and a birth. It’s a winter turning into spring. It’s a letting go of the old and worn out ways of life to make [...]

Recently I participated in a marketing research study being conducted by our local electric company. One of the things they wanted to find out was the appeal of their energy audit program to consumers. In the course of the marketing research study I became aware of numerous ways to save energy in my home. And [...]

Are you doing your best? If not, why not? Are you lazy? Why? Too much stress? What can you do about it? Are you inspired? If not, is it possible that you are not pursuing your true purpose in life?
Tough questions, but they lead to deep introspection about how we live and think. When we [...]

There is a goal in life that more people share than any other, and yet when they reach that goal, they complain and moan. The goal is living a long life. But how to be happy in old age?
Everybody wants to have a long life but nobody wants to be old. I know there is [...]

Today, October 15 is blog action day on the environment. 
One degree Fahrenheit seems so little yet it means so much in regards to global warming. If we can increase our effectiveness as human beings we can also rise up to meet the challenge of saving Mother Earth. We have to reduce Earth’s average surface temperature one degree [...]

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this [...]

Will computer chip brain implants save the world or seal its doom? Scientific estimates are that in 30 years  the surgical procedure will be a widespread occurrence.  Knowledge will no longer need to be learned, it will be uploaded. A world leader, known only for only average intelligence at best,  could invite the world chess [...]

My title, Respond or React is a response to Steve Pavlina’s post today which contrasted the difference between reacting and responding. His analogy, using his martial arts class, is a good beginning. But I want to take this to a deeper dimension.
Reactions are a product of the limited ego-mind. It has nothing to do with [...]

Holistic personal development places much emphasis on connecting to the source of being in conjunction with any personal development work. Why is this, you wonder? Because wholeness, which comes from your source of being, is critical for knowing what your purpose is. It saves you from just following the dictates of the ego mind, which [...]

Recently blogger Priscilla Palmer of www.priscillapalmer.com started a list of personal development bloggers, to enhance everyone’s experience in the personal development blogosphere. The idea is for everyone on the list to add to it the personal development blogs they visit. This is the up-to-date list as of today. No longer will you be at a [...]

I often hear people ask, “Why is God so cruel?” And it’s easy to understand why people might think this, especially when they see tragedy befall their loved ones. We live in a world where people are killing people everyday, in wars, in crime, and in accidents. Millions others are dying everyday from disease. And [...]

No matter what creative work I’m engaged in, I have found this advice from Leonardo da Vinci to be imperative:
“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of [...]

Forget about the symptom. Focus instead on the deeper issue. It makes no difference whether the issue is an addiction, an inferiority complex, an anger problem, financial predicament, or even procrastination, it cannot be resolved until you understand and tackle the deeper issue — unconsciousness, a disconnection from the source of being.
When the [...]

Intuition is a product of consciousness. As such, it is a way of perception that is beyond the mind. It is closely allayed with feelings. And yet it goes beyond feelings. It is a way of seeing that is activated when we are attuned to our inner essence.
The mind, with its rational thought, lives through [...]

The conscious connection to the source of being – God, the Divine Beloved, Infinite Intelligence — is the pathway to passion, conviction, and inspiration. This all-pervading energy is the source of intuition, insight and illumination. To the degree that we are conscious of this energy determines our depth of perception and expression of it. The [...]