If you don't already know of Les Brown, then take a moment and read this post from him. If you do already know him, then you know you're in for a treat!

Follow your heart and go after your dream! There will be people in your life who will tell you that you’re wasting your time. Ignore them. There are things that will happen that will catch you on the blind side and drop you to your knees. Pull yourself together and move past them. Above all, don't take it personally. It's called life.

Life is full of disappointments, failures and setbacks. None of those things can permanently stop you. You have the power in you to overcome anything that life throws at you. There is nothing as powerful as a made up mind. Surround yourself with people who remind you that you matter and support you in the ways that matter most to you. No person, situation, or circumstance can define who you are. Don't give up, cave in, or stop believing that it's possible. It's not over until you win! You have GREATNESS within you!

by Les Brown - http://lesbrown.com

Expect to be pleasantly surprised! Too often, people seem to think that life will inevitably bring them a negative result. This just isn't true. If we are only open to negativity, then we will only see the negative side of things.

Be open to the miraculous! Be open to "Yes"! When we keep our hearts and minds focused on positive things, we will find ourselves being pleasantly surprised over and over again.

Recently, my friend and I had a meeting with a local restaurant owner. The original plan was simply to discuss a one time comedy event that he wanted to hire us for.

I wanted more but was happy and grateful to be discussing a one time event.

Very quickly the conversation turned from us planning his one time event to us planning our own ongoing show! What a welcome surprise!
I had thought that this conversation would come at a later date; perhaps even a much later date but I went in to the meeting overflowing with gratitude for what I knew we had already while planning for more.

I find that as I go from day to day, I am often surprised by seeing more of my dream coming true! 

Move forward confidently and with joy. No matter what today holds, expect good things! Look for them and walk towards them.

We limit ourselves by our unbelief. Why do that? More often than not, it is due to our fear of success. We are so accustomed to things not working out that it feels more comfortable than facing success. This mindset will always hold us back.

Take a chance and expect success! When I started in comedy in 2005, my youngest son was only 6. I was getting great feedback every time I performed. You would think this would be a great thing! Well, it was, but instead of getting more and more excited, I became more and more fearful. Of what? I was fearful of how I could handle success. My son was too young for me to leave him night after night to go out and perform.

Instead of moving forward as doors were waiting to open for me, I shrunk back, eventually stopping completely.

That dream never left my heart and mind but I could not figure out how to manage a successful outcome.

Now, 8 years later, I have dusted off that dream, thanks to the inspiration of some wonderfully dear friends, and have found the doors still ready to open and the happy surprises still waiting to jump out at me! 

And it's not just about comedy. It's about everything in my life right now. I have finally allowed myself to be open to success instead of being afraid of it.

As I move forward, one step at a time, I find more joy, more happy surprises and more success coming my way.

I am truly deeply grateful. 

Success is not something that we can measure for each other. It's something that only you can define for yourself as it looks different for each of us.

Be joyful. Be grateful. Be surprised!

We often hear about "the secret to happiness" and we can debate what that is until the end of time. The thing is, what is true for one person is not necessarily true for another. However, this is true for everyone - we all have a secret to our happiness!
The trick is, to find out what it is for you.

Too many of us accept living under a grey cloud of settling for the life that comes day by day instead of creating a life that really brings us joy.
If you're feeling weighed down by the daily grind, take a day off for yourself.
The truth is, one day off won't change your monthly income much at all, but it can be a huge lift to your emotional "income".

In 2010, I was working full time but knew I wanted to return to Gaza. The thing is, I couldn't see how on earth I would do it. It seemed impossible. I always wanted to write a book. Two very large, seemingly insurmountable challenges that lay in front of me.

I couldn't think of anyway to accomplish either.

Until I took 2 weeks off work......

Suddenly, it was as if my creative juices were freed from prison! I could dream, imagine and plan like I hadn't been able to for ages!

I had an epiphany one day and I could see my whole journey from start to a well planned finish in Gaza! I laughed at myself, not seeing how I could have missed what now was so obvious to me as far as the logistical steps to making this journey. 

I found myself asking, "Why not?" instead of, "how on earth am I going to pull that off?" 

During that time, I also took a book writing workshop and was well on my way, finally believing that it was possible and I would, eventually, be the author of a book. That book was published in 2011!

In August of 2010, my group and I couldn't believe our eyes and ears as we were granted final passage by Egypt to enter the Gaza Strip once again. 
It was a joy for me to be able to work with school children there. It was very much like living a dream!

How did I get from not having a clue how I was going to get there to actually being there?

I took the time to dream. Daydreaming can be some of our most productive time if we use it to dream about our future plans. Use the time to dream about the life you want instead of what you alarm is waking you up for tomorrow morning.

Clear your schedule next weekend or, if you can't wait that long, take tomorrow for yourself and daydream as if your life depended on it! Why? Because it does!!

When we are in the rush of a full schedule, it's easy to see the desirable as being the impossible. This is the reason it's so important to take time to dream. 

Take some blank paper and a pen or pencils - I prefer a variety of colours for this - and then take some time to yourself and sit and think.

Write down the ideas that come to you. Think about what you want to do. Dream big. Don't censor this stage of your thinking.

Let loose and daydream like crazy!!  Find out which things on your new list really make you excited and start making plans for them. Baby steps. One little step at a time, eventually, will bring you across a huge distance so don't worry if your dreams look too big or too farfetched. 

The only question you need to ask is, "do I really want it?"

Yes? Then go for it!

Today's blog is a little late...but I've had a lot on my mind. As people come and go in our lives, the comings and goings are not always calm and quiet. The "comings" often are, but the "goings" are a different story.

When someone we love hurts us, the pain is deep and it's hard to push out of our minds. In fact, it's pretty much impossible.

When we are faced with wounds of this magnitude, we still have choices. We can succumb to the temptation to hate and to return injury for injury, we can withdraw and prevent any possible engagement between ourselves and the one who hurt us, or....we can cocoon ourselves while we heal and then, when we're ready, venture back into life with the same compassion and humanity that we had before the injury.

We don't have to return hurt for hurt. We CAN heal and then return to our normal selves and even (are you ready for this?) be kind to the person who hurt us.

Life is about choices. We choose how we will respond to others. No one "makes" you cynical, or vengeful, or hateful - those are choices YOU make.
Make your choices carefully. They reflect who you truly are. People might not understand how or why you are being kind to someone who has hurt you terribly when conventional wisdom tells us to "kick them to the curb", but that's OK. At the end of the day, you have to live with yourself. You have to be able to look yourself in the eyes and say "I did good today." Can you say that if you know you have been vengeful or cold and cynical?

Forgive! It doesn't mean you let the person keep hurting you - but it does mean that you free yourself from the bondage of maintaining your hurt and anger.

Love freely - even to those who hurt you. They are going through their own struggle that you may never know. You don't have to leave yourself vulnerable and unattended in order to live in forgiveness and the freedom that come with it.

Welcome back to The Secret Life of Wonder Woman! Today, I want to tell you another secret. This time, the secret is "tenacity."

Tenacity is that quality that sees you holding on against the odds, holding on when you can feel your grip slipping.

When I think of tenacity, I think of baby birds being born, cracking their way out of their egg. If that baby bird gave up at the first sign of resistance, he would die in his egg, less than millimetres from life and freedom!

Baby birds, baby crocodiles, baby snakes...baby anything that has to force it's way to daylight. For these little guys, tenacity is not simply a "preferred" quality. Not even close! For those guys, their very life depends on their tenacity!!

When I was in the hospital, trying to regain the use of my uncooperative limbs, I needed help with all of my personal care, including taking a shower.

For my first shower after waking up from the coma and finally being steady enough on my feet to make it from my bed to a wheelchair, I was helped by a tall, stern nurse. She didn't seem very happy to have to help me.

She wheeled me into place in the shower stall, turned on the water and then proceeded to hose me down like I was a cow tied out behind a barn. I sputtered and struggled to protect myself from the surge of water but I was not able. I couldn't raise my hands to my face; I couldn't even turn my head.  I was helpless as the water sprayed in my eyes, nose and mouth.

I was devastated and utterly humiliated.

When she was finished, she pushed my wheelchair back to my room and dropped me off, without uttering a word.

I pulled myself into my bed and lay there and cried my eyes out. My body didn't work anymore and this was what I now had to endure.

I could have just laid back and kept crying, resigning myself to a life of weakness and self pity.

Instead, I dried my eyes and sat on my bed, determined never to have to have that humiliating experience again.

I reached as far up with my right hand as I could go, sliding my hand up the side of my face until I couldn't make it stretch any further. Then I repeated this step with my left hand.

I struggled back and forth, left side, right side, slowly gaining a fraction of an inch at a time until finally, after a couple of days, my finger tips could cross the top centre of my head!!  No, I had not even come close to regaining full mobility, but I could now wash my own hair!

I was still unable to walk so I eased myself into my wheel chair again and made my way back to the shower room. I took a deep breath and turned on the water.

It took me over an hour to painstakingly clean myself and wash my hair, but I did it! I triumphantly wheeled back to my bad and collapsed, completely exhausted, into my bed!  I slept the rest of the day but awoke with a smile - I had done it!!

Tenacity. That is what enabled me to finally wash my own hair again.

It's what keeps up moving forward when there are obstacles that would suggest we won't make it.
I coud have given up. I could have accepted that I would spend the rest of my life in weakness and pain. This outcome was unacceptable to me.

I see so many people who just give up! I can't, I won't, it will never work, it makes me feel bad....  So many times, we are somehow convinced that we are not worth the success, or not worth the effort to get there, or we don't deserve the joy that comes from creating newness in our life.

We risk losing so much because we believe that we can't make it.

My friend, I urge you, get up one more time. Reach out and hold on. Grip with both hands. Yes, it's hard but, sooner than you think, the pain gives way to new strength! New joys! Hold on - keep going - don't let go and don't give up.

When we give up, we surrender ourself to more of the same - whatever that was. But giving up means that we were trying to move forward, so keep moving! 

Hold my hand if you need to  - I will help you hold on. You are worth it to me, you are worth it to the whole universe, to God who made you. 

You are beautiful and your song needs to be sung. If you don't believe it, then take it from me, I need to hear your song. 

But.......but....it is always your choice to hold on or not; to be tenacious or not. It's always your choice and I will love you anyways. 

I want you to know the joy of this celebration of YOUR life. You are worth it.

Hold on - keep going - lean into the wind and press forward. 

You'll get there, stronger than you expected to be.

Then, take my hand and let's take a run at the next thing!!

Being courageous is about taking a stand, even if no one else is with you. Courage is difficult because it's so much easier to follow the crowd, to keep, your head down, to allow the status quo to roll along with or without you.

It takes courage to stand up, to become a target, to speak the truth. 

Sometimes a courageous act doesn't make a ripple to the rest of the world, sometimes a courageous act puts us at risk to lose everything - and yet, no matter the outcome, courageous acts must be taken in order to change our world.

I have a picture that sits by my door. It says, simply, "Hello Courage". This is my precious reminder everyday to take a stand, whenever necessary.

I'm not perfect and so I don't take that stand every time I feel I should. But I remind myself everyday. And everyday I decide to do better than the day before.

In my personal and professional life, I have had to take a stand recently, due to things I was learning. This stand has not made me popular at all. To those who I used to stand with, I am considered a traitor, or a spy of sorts. To those I now am trying to find my place with, I am considered suspect and am quizzed and prodded, as if I had no idea what I was doing prior to meeting them.

I am exhausted and heartbroken. I wanted courage to feel better than this. I wanted taking a stand to feel more noble. 
The truth is, our choices in life rarely leave us feeling as good as we'd hoped they would. But that doesn't mean those choices are wrong. Listen to your gut and keep moving. 

Don't plunge ahead in a careless haste. Measure your steps but act decisively and don't let fear cause you to shrink back.

Remember what it took to bring you to this decision and trust that God is leading you forward. Without forward movement, we remain stagnant, and like we talked about before, stagnation is death. Life is found in growth and movement.

Keep moving. Remain open to learning and change. 

It may feel safer to cling to the familiar, but it the familiar is leading us over a cliff, it won't feel good for long!

Take courageous! Jump!!!

I can't promise you a smooth transition, but I can promise that if you are truly following That Voice, you will end up exactly where you needed to be....and there is that deep satisfying joy that come with being exactly where we need to be.

Hello Courage! I really need you now!

There can come a time in your life when you need to steer away from the familiar and plunge into the unknown and forge a new path. Just because paths are well trodden, does not mean they lead anywhere. The unknown may be dark, scary and lonely, but unless someone is willing to create a new path, we will all just continue using the paths that lead to nowhere.
And that is far more painful than being chosen to find the path that actually leads to the goal that so many are seeking but cannot find.

There is a heaviness of heart that goes with carrying this understanding. There is an unwillingness to be willing...a natural resistance to knowing what must be done and knowing that you are the one who must do it.

It is not a popular path and those who envy your resolve will attempt to defame you, but their words become completely meaningless as you sink further and further into the path you must open up. Their chatter fades into the distance as you reach new heights and depths.

No one but you will understand...but watch...like minded spirits will find you, but only as you dare to move forward.

Walk bravely, even though your knees shake and your heart feels weak. This is the only way....

Go. You'll be ok. The future depends on your obedience to your calling...