Podcast 245: Inspiration Deficit Disorder with Jonathan Ellerby Ph.D

Jonathan EllerbyI always enjoy my interviews with Jonathan Ellerby.  I recently had the opportunity to interview Jonathan about his new Hay House book entitled “Inspiration Deficit Disorder“.

In my interview with Jonathan we speak about awareness being the first step in understanding yourself and others in a way that will empower you to experience change.   His new book is designed as a handbook for the human journey.

It presents simple ways to understand the essential elements of life: strees, habits, health, energy, addiction, sex, communications, aspiration, expectation, manifestation, disappointment, emotion, psychology, spirituality, family service, success, happiness, purpose, vitality, God and even enlightenment.  Jonathan states that the first step to reclaiming your power and potential is to fully realize where you are right now and how you got there.  Knowing this will help you identify the limiting beliefs, emotions, and energies that are actually working against you–even when you intentions are good.  From awareness comes choice, and knowing that we have choices is the most liberating experience of all.

I love what Jonathan says about beliefs, they are like bridges.  They can be helpful for short periods and can make all the difference in a journey.  A belief can carry you across a raging river of change, but in the end, you can’t live on one.  Your greatest life won’t come from simply believing in something.  To say “I believe” is to say ” I hope it is true.” If  you want to understand the ideas and practices in “Inspiration Deficit Disorder” you need to try them for yourself. Then you will know.

Jonathan points out that each and everyone of is is extraordinary.  Millions of choices have led you to this moment…you are part of something much greater.  Now matter what you’re experiencing right now, one thing is absolutely certain: you are an essential thread in the extraordinary fabric of life.  If you want to explore the shift in thinking and consciousness that you might want to make to maintain your inspiration, then I recommend you reading Jonathan’s book “Inspiration Deficit Disorder“.
If you want to visit Jonathan’s website please click here for more information and video clips about the book.  Enjoy my interview with Jonathan Ellerby—get inspired!!!!

Podcast 243: Set Yourself on Fire with Phil Taylor

Phil TaylorI was first introduced to Phil Taylor through Dilip Abayskekara an author  we did a wonderful podcast with last year on his book entitled “The Path of the Genie”  Phil is a Tremendous Life Books author, and his new book entitled “Set Yourself on Fire: How to Ignite Your Passions and Live the Life You Love” is a wonderful book designed to engage and ignite the imagination.

During our interview Phil and I discuss the importance of having a wonderful imagination, and that frequently we suppress our dreams and imagination because of social conditioning as the years go by.  How true that is, when we were children our imagination would run wild with ideas, thoughts and we dream about people and places we would like to meet and or become.  Then somehow for many of us we loose our dreams, primarily because we are so involved in our everyday life to even give them a second thought.

Author Phil Taylor  would like for all of his readers to be reignited and enthustiac about about setting goals again, and living their dreams.  He mentioned to me that there are five (4) reasons people fail to set goals. (1) Fear (2) Poor Self Image (3) Not Realizing the Importance of Goals (4) Not Knowing How to Set Goals.  In his new book “Set Yourself On Fire” Phil provides the reader with the four simple steps to setting goals, and believe me it is worth your time to set down and reignite yourself and learn how to properly set goals, then don’t be afraid to achieve them.

Phil reminds us that living our life purpose is so important, and if you fuel that purpose with aligned goals to your values you will be come unstoppable.  Just remind yourself of the statement by Henry Ford “If you think you can or you think you can’t you’re probably right.  So if you are looking for an easy to read book with wonderful stories, inspiration and ideas to ignite your fire then I highly recommend “Set Yourself On Fire” by Phil Taylor.
If you would like to learn more about Phil, he is the founder of Goal Achiever International and if you click here you will be directed to their website.  You can also find Phil on Linkedin.  Enjoy this interview with a very inspiring and wise man.

Podcast 239: The Courage to Be Free with Guy Finley

Guy FinleyI always enjoy my interviews with Guy Finley, over the years we have grown our friendship and I sincerely appreciate his wisdom and insight.

In this interview we discuss his new book entitled “The Courage to Be Free“.  For my listeners who enjoy and listen to the wonderful content that Guy Finley offers then you are in for a treat with his new book “The Courage to Be Free“.  We discuss the ideas about overcoming our fears and becoming liberated.

Guy states ” that out task is to awaken to the fact that we are perfectly equipped to overcome our fears, by understanding that we are greater than our fears.  Our fears are present learning moments that are gifts that allow us to see that we are greater than any fear we might think has domain over us; fearlessness is our ability to awaken to this realization”

The only thing we already know is that worry, doubt, resentment and fear–whatever their shape or form–hold captive anyone unwary enough to fall into their web of woe.  Buy your reclaimed birthright authorizes you to be naturally free of these negative states as it is for you to be full of “grace under fire,” regardless of how dire circumstances my seem.  Yours is also the right to effortlessly recognize and release anger and frustration, to be able to see them for exactly what they are-false powers disguised as helpful guides in tome of duress.

This new book “The Courage to Be Free” is a very easy read packed with ageless wisdom, but articulated in a way that really connects with your heart.  If you are ready to release and let go of your fearful thoughts then this little book will reinforce your power to become free.  I highly recommend not only the book, but the hours of recordings that Guy Finley makes available through his Life of Learning Foundation.  Please avail yourself of this vast library of audio recordings, they are a powerhouse of transformative material.
If you would like more information please click here to be directed to the Life of Learning Foundation, or click here to be directed to a 5 minute video about the book.  Enjoy my interview with a wonderfully inspiring and knowledgable man who speaks from his heart and soul.

Podcast 234: Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation with Anne Steiner

Anne SteinerI recently had the very good fortune of being introduced through a friend to Anne Steiner.  Anne is not an author, but is the director of the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation in Seattle, WA.

What is so interesting about my introduction to Anne, is that in the process of researching the Foundation for this podcast Anne offer to have me to take a very extensive aptitude test which revealed strong aptitudes in several areas of my life that corresponded with the writing and work that I do for my podcast and blog at Inside Personal Growth.

In my interview with Anne we discuss the importance of aptitude testing, and how it can be valuable in providing guidance with relation to career choices or changes.  Those that are fortunate enough to engage in this type of testing, I believe have a distinct advantage over others that do not take aptitude testing.

Just think back to the days when you were in High School or early in college, you know the time when you frequently wondered what you would do with the education you were getting.  I know that many of us also remember the long nights of studying, and wondering if we would ever use the stuff we were studying again.

If you are like most, an aptitude test would have been a wonderful gift of guidance.  It would have given us a glimpse into our own natural strength and abilities, and we could have spent more time developing these abilities vs. studying for that boring calculus class…sorry if I offended any of the engineering or math majors.

The Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation offers the most comprehensive aptitudes and knowledge testing of any organization in the industry, and they have been doing it the longest so their research on the finding is very accurate.

If you are in the middle of a career change, or a student that would like to know more about your natural aptitudes then I would highly recommend that you take these series of tests.  The results and guidance the you receive from the counselors as Johnson O’Connor is wonderful.  I wish that I would have taken the aptitude tests so much earlier in my career, for I know it would have made an impact on the choice of my vocation.

If you would like more information on the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation, then click here to be directed to their website.

I hope you enjoy this interview with Anne Steiner the executive director of the Seattle, WA office for Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation.

Podcast 232: The Productivity Epiphany with Vincent Harris

Vincent HarrisI recently interviewed Vincent Harris the author of a new Tremendous Life Book publication entitled “The Productivity Epiphany“.   In my interview with Vincent we discuss the many different topics addressed in this wonderful book, but most importantly we focus in on what keep us from being more productive.

As Vincent states in the forward to his new book ” It’s the greatest challenge we all face: getting ourselves to do things we want to do, but we can’t get past the inertia to build momentum…to actually do those things.  I think that all of us understands the inertia that frequently keep us from reaching our human potential, and in “The Productivity Epiphany” the author provides us with easy thought provoking ideas to have us shift our behavior and thoughts.   Vincent states “we are being invited to consider an alternative”, and I love this approach because he is not telling us to act or do something in a certain way.

In my dialogue with Vincent we discuss how we frequently make comparisons to self and other, and how in so doing we are incisively creating a no win situation.  You see if we constantly use comparisons to others there is always going to be someone who is better, stronger, has more money etc.  But when we make self-to-self comparisons we can look at how we are improving from month to month, year to year and this is a much better comparison to make in developing a positive mental attitude.

Vincent’s book is an easy read and complete with thought provoking stories and ideas to assist the reader in having more epiphanies about their work and life.  Albert Einstein once said that ” a problem cannot be solved on the same level that is exists.”  If you keep this statement in mind, then you are going to love reading Vincent’s book.  You will be taken on a journey of exploration that will shift your thoughts and ultimately behaviors associated with how you are approaching life and work as you know it today.

I hope you enjoy this interview with author Vincent Harris, and if you would like to learn more about his organization please click here to be directed to his website.

Podcast 230: Living as a River with Bodhipaksa

Bodhipaksa I had the distinct pleasure of recently interviewing Bodhipaksa who recently published a new book through Sounds True publishing entitled “Living as a River“.  In our interview together we discuss the constant change we are living in as well as our impermanence as human beings on this planet.

Something that Bodhipaksa points out is that sometimes the things we think will make us miserable actually make us happier.  He points out a study done at Kent State University where they studied a group of people who imagined the death of their partner, and they reported feeling more positive about their relationship and less troubled and annoyed by the quirks or odd behaviors that may have troubled them prior to this exercise.

The point Bodhipaksa is making by referencing this study is that we are all going to die at some point and our life here on this earth is impermanent and the sooner we realize this the sooner our perspective about how we live our life will shift for the better.

He speaks at length in his book “Living as a River” about letting go of our self-definitions to become more liberated and free.   In the Six-Element practice that Bodhipaksa teaches he challenges our assumptions about the body and the mind, the two things we take to be the locus of our core self.  We observe how everything that we identify with as being ourselves is in fact what comes from outside ourselves.  We note that everything we identify with as being ourselves will eventually no longer be part of ourselves. Because everything that constitutes us is in fact a process, rather that a thing or object, we realize that there is in fact nothing to grasp onto, any more than we could hold onto water flowing through our fingers-thus “Living  as a River”
Bodhipaksa’s book is very well written, and for anyone who is interested in learning how to let go of what we perceive as self, and be liberated to live a life with more joy, bliss, love and happiness.  Then you will want to read this book.  Bodhipaksa has a website that is full of resources.  I would recommend that you click here to gain access to this wonderfully rich resource.

Enjoy this interview with a great author and Buddhist teacher. If you would like to know more about Bodhipaksa, then go here.