Why Be Involved In "Personal Development"?

Our bookstores are lined with thousands of self-improvement books, all promising ways to make you happier and more successful. This is certainly a sign of our times. We live in a world where more and more people are seeking greater meaning, purpose, success, fulfillment, and significance in and through their lives.

Some are seeking personal development as an escape from the reality of life - a reality that can sometimes be painful and uncertain. Others are pursuing personal development in order to move towards more happiness, success, and "the good life." And for some it's a combo.

Whatever your motivation, no doubt you have felt the desire to improve yourself and the quality of your life. Turns out to be a natural part of who we are. It's the call of Life that urges us forward - to new possibilities, to greater expressions of all that we can be and all that we are.

One of the things that I have noticed in my own studies of personal development is the dominant focus on improving one's life for the sake of improving one's life. Often, the invitation to improve one's life in order to improve the lives of those around you - and our world collectively - is missing. In other words, how many people do you know who are seeking personal development as a means to better the lives of those around them and the world at large?

What I like to invite you into is the realization that when you improve your life - when, for example, you learn how to CREATE your own desired life experience - you are then empowered to model and teach others how they can create as well. When you improve your quality of life, you are then in a position to help others improve the quality of their life. When you learn how to create emotional balance, you can model to others how to be emotionally balanced. When you work at being accepting of the various levels of growth that the people around you are at (versus judging them), then you model an attitude of acceptance and love to those around you.

In other words, when we work at developing ourselves and learning how to engage life more fully, we are also working on "global development" and modeling to others how to engage life more fully. I suppose the question for each of us to ask is, "What is my intention? Why am I pursuing personal development? Why do I want to be successful? What value do I add to the world when I learn to be responsible and in charge of my own life?"

To me, one of the greatest reasons we can better our lives and fulfill more of our potential is so that we can become a creative force in the world - an influence and an invitation for others. When we live more of our true, authentic self, and do so boldly, we invite others - and therefore the world - to do the same. When we begin to wake up to our own greatness, we - in a sense - give those around us the permission to do the same. When more and more of us do that, we begin - through our own awakening and growth - to create positive change and transformation in the world.

The Call To EMPOWERMENT

by Life and Wellness Coach Denver J. Hudson

The call of evolution - of our very growth and emergence - is a call to empowerment. Naturally, as we grow and develop as people, we feel a greater sense of inner freedom. We feel a greater ability to make choices that are truly in alignment with the best of who we are and what is possible through our lives. We feel ALIVE!

Empowerment is the ability to make choices that lead to the expansion of life on our planet. It's the continous removal of victim consciousness which is running rampant on our planet today. It's stepping into the realization of our emerging potential as a people. Empowerment makes all positive, life-enhancing change and tranformation - both personally and globally - possible.

I have met some people who are afraid of empowerment. Some who have even stepped back as if the word represented something awful or evil. Actually, the absence of true empowerment and the presence of victim consciousness is what we should be stepping back and away from. Victiming, blame gaming, and comforting are contributing to the erosion of our society and the things that we hold dear (but only if we don't use them as a tool of growth). On a personal level, when it goes unchallenged, it erodes our relationships, weakens our resolve, suppresses our courage, and holds our potential hostage.

Do we have the courage to speak out about this? Are we courageous enough to invite ourselves and the people around us into their greatness - into a life of empowerment that involves life choices and directions that enhance the quality of life not only personally, but globally? Do we have the courage in this day and age to hold a vision for our lives and for our world that honors the best of who we are?

That is a big invitation that I hold up for myself and others. For some, it just seems like too much. Some seem to think it's too big. Too "out there." Too idealistic. To unreachable. And some, as I mentioned before, just seem to be afraid of holding such a strong vision for themselves and the world. Yes, the victim consciousness has truly shot through our heart, our soul, and our sense of reason.

The call to empowerment is a call into the life that we all seek. No doubt you want to be healthy, happy, have great relationships, enjoy your job, be prosperous, help others, and make a difference. These are possible through empowerment. (Victim consciousness does nothing more than minimize all those dreams and desires to fanciful wishes that we often call idealistic and lacking in realism.)

If any of this has spoken to your heart, if this brief message has made some sense to you and you would like to explore it further, I invite you to explore working with through The Relationship Fitness Coaching Program. Understanding and eliminating harmful stress is to step out of the victim consciousness. Building health and wellness is empowering yourself on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level. Living intentionally in your relationships is taking your empowerment out into the world - in your family, company, community - and using it to create change and transformation through the light and influence of your personal example and actions.

The people around us and the world at large are awaiting those of us who are waking up to our potential. To the power that is within us. The power we were born with and are now called to use in transformative ways.

Will you answer the call?

Begin answering the call today by visiting www.RelationshipFitnessOnline.com. If you would like to speak with me personally, please call me directly at (812) 299-0214.

Creating a New World - An Invitation

If you're in tune with the world at all, you know there are numerous problems currently existing, and new ones on their way. I think that many simply ignore these issues, as they can often seem overwhelming and almost too much for any one person to process.

In light of all that is going on in the world, I am often amused at what people decide they want to argue about. Just look around you and notice the drama that people are creating. Notice what people are focusing on and just ask the question, "Does that really matter?" To me, there are simply so many "small" issues that people are angry about these days that are drowning out the bigger issues and the bigger opportunities in front of us. We are drowning our potential and greatness in a sea of insignificant arguments.

But to get to my point as quickly as possible, I want to invite you into a whole new approach - one that is not that common in our world today. Instead of being driven by our problems, and motivated from our fears, I invite you to step forward as a creator of a new world. Instead of placing your primary focus on "what problem can I stomp out," consider instead, "What can I create in the world today, this week, this month, this year that would result in some kind of transformation?"

Instead of trying to solve or avoid problems in your family, what if you focused - primarily - on what kind of family you want to create? Instead of bitching about the boss, the company that doesn't care about you, the long hours, why not ask instead what kind of workplace you would really like to create - and then get others involved who share your vision?

Instead of focusing on national or global problems and trying to stomp them out, what if we focused - primarily - on what type of world we want to create, and then begin creating that reality first in our families, companies, and communities?

We live in a problem-oriented world where we often feel powerless. We feel powerless because we discover that the more we resist and fight problems the more intensified they seem to become or the more problems seem to show up. As we swim daily in a pool of personal, organizational and global problems, we find ourselves tired, worn out, and wondering how long we can do this.

Wouldn't it be great, instead, to live in an intentional, creation-oriented world, where more and more people declared their inborn desire to make a difference in the world, tranferred that desire into creative ACTION, and began to create the world that we all say we truly want? Wouldn't it be great to live in a world where people were stepping into their personal power and taking a stand for the truth that lives INSIDE them?

I'm passionate about working with individuals who are ready to accept that invitation. The invitation to first be the creator of their own experience. An invitation to declare and step forward with the conscious intention of creating vibrant health and well being. Then, taking that health and well being and using it to become a creative force in the world through healthy relationships.

For those who have found their potential and greatness to be drowning in a sea of problems and powerlessness, this invitation sounds idealistic and perhaps ridiculous. But for those who have discovered the truth of their own greatness, and the power of thought and choice, this invitation is rather inspiring.

Our world awaits you. I'll be so bold to say that it awaits the day when more and more of us wake up to the realization that we are co-creators and we have a responsibility to create the world that we call home. While a vast majority of people are working to solve the problems of the world, there needs to be a growing number of us who are asking what kind of world we want to create, are empowering people to create it (i.e. returning them to the truth of who they are - creators, not victims), and then stepping boldly into the world to do it.

Will you accept this invitation? Is there a desire within you that is waking up? A desire to be a creative force in this world. To intentionally create powerful results in your family, work, community, and world. Join me in creating a community of co-creators who, choice by choice, are creating a new world.

Perhaps the Biggest Cause of Stress Is...

We here a lot about what causes stress (most of which is NOT really the causes, but another form of the "blame game," but that's another post): work demands, the environment, not enough time, daily tasks, children, and so on.

But a much greater cause - a real, "core" cause - of personal stress (and global stress, I might add) is a failure of people to be honest with themselves. A failure to tell the truth as to what is really important to them, what they really want in life, and what they know is true for them.

This lying to the self creates all kinds of personal, relational, organizational, and global stress. For example, how can we be truthful with others when we are lying to ourselves? How can we create a world that works when we are basing that world on lies?

OK, you may think I've gone off the edge a little. But one of the things that perhaps you have noticed, and I have certainly noticed when working with people, is how they hesitate to the tell the truth about what is really going on inside of them. Ask someone what they really want in life - what is important enough to go for it - and they will either hesitate, tell you and laugh, or simply say something like "it doesn't really matter, because I can't have it anyway."

Have we sold our soul to fit in? Have we trained ourselves to lie to ourselves - hide our truth deep within - because others may laugh or not appreciate it? Does conformity in our relationships, our workplaces, our religions, and our world require that we lie to ourselves? Unfortunately, that seems to be the case quite often.

A big part of The Relationship Fitness Coaching Program is creating a life that truly authentic. This requires the courage to tell ourselves the truth about our health, relationships, and life. This is the truth that lives within us. The truth that can heal the world - our personal world and our collective world. I invite you today to begin telling yourself the truth. When someone ask you a question, consider speaking from your heart. Speak what you truly feel within you. And don't be afraid to ask yourself what you really want in life - and then go for it! More than likely it will be something that the world is waiting for.