Personal Growth Princess » Inspiration

11 Great Words for 2011

Nina East — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 21:12:34 +0000

If you’re looking for a little jazzy inspiration to help you think about how 2011 might be a different year for you, then watch this video from Box of Crayons.

Michael Bungay Stanier always has great words of wisdom – and great videos. Plus, he was one of our featured authors in 2010 (Do More Great Work).

Take a look and tell me what you think in the comments below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

5 Reasons to Live in the Now

Nina East — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:55:01 +0000

As personal growth enthusiasts, we spend a lot of time thinking about and preparing for the future. Yes, we intend to live in the here and now, but it’s easy to get caught up in planning your future. Planning for a secure and happy future is an important undertaking, but too much attention to a time that is yet to come can greatly inhibit your ability to focus on the here and now.

One of my favorite quotes on this subject comes from Abraham Hicks:

“Satisfied with what is and eager for more – a perfect recipe.”

Right now, at this very moment, you can begin to enjoy your everyday life that is currently flashing unnoticed right before your eyes. There’s something beautiful about letting the future come naturally and living joyfully and willingly in the present moment!

If you’re having a hard time letting go long enough to be fully present in the moment, consider these five reasons that you should start living in the here and now:

1. Each day, you grow older. Yep – happens for all of us. Each day of your life has the ability to be monumental, but each day only happens once. Every moment of every day, you’re given a chance to make a lasting memory. Create a memory that you’ll be proud to share.

Your fate is up to you. If you’re concerned about the future, you can start paving the road for it today. That road starts by living your life to the fullest degree at this very moment so you feel fulfilled in the years to come.

2. You replace worry with contentment. With the future comes uncertainty. However, by focusing on today and what you can and are doing, rather than stressing about tomorrow, you’ll inherently stop worrying about what’s to come and focus on enjoying your reality.

3. You get to know yourself. Your wants, needs, and interests are constantly evolving. You already know that – that’s why you’re here on this site. But did you know that taking time to slow down and be present is one of the best ways to get to know yourself better? If you’re wrapped up in planning for tomorrow, you may never truly get to know the person you are today.

By defining yourself in the here and now, you’re able to truly figure out what you want. It’s common to be so deep into nurturing a plan for the future that you’ve created years ago without realizing that it’s far different than your ideal life.

4. You spend more time with your loved ones. If you’re a parent, you know better than anyone that those precious moments disappear in a blink of an eye. One moment, you’re changing your first diaper. The next, you’re watching your children forge ahead on their own.

Spending time with your children is obviously important, but devoting time to your spouse is even more so. When you do, you nurture your marital relationship to ensure that your significant other is feeling loved and cared for, which in turn, helps your children to feel that love as well.

5. You experience all life has to offer. You only have one life to live. It’s important to maximize every moment by experiencing each moment to its fullest. Take advantage of the youth you have on your side now, before it’s too late to do it later.

This is the time to be spontaneous. Take your family to a random, weekend vacation. Surprise your spouse with an adventurous trip on a hot air balloon or go kayaking with your friends. These are memories you’ll cherish for a lifetime!

Life is beautiful! It’s joyous and full of abundance. So many meaningful things happen in your everyday existence. However, if your mind is trapped in the future, ignoring what’s happening here and now, all of these events will slip by before you’re even able to notice that they’re gone. Live in the now!

What strategies or techniques do you have for staying Present? Share by leaving a comment below

Wednesday WOWs – Words of Wisdom [personal growth quotes]

Nina East — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:41:11 +0000

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
John Quincy Adams

View other personal growth quotes (Wednesday WOWs).

Princess Ring…a royal gift from Alicia Smith [video]

Nina East — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:50:19 +0000

I just received the most delightful gift from Alicia Smith – a long-time colleague and lovely supporter of PersonalGrowthPrincess.com.

It is a ring shaped like a crown. I made a short video of it so you could actually see it in action, as it were.

In the video I also mentioned the place you can get it if you want one…or if you want to send it to another princess in your life. The site is Personal Growth Cards – it’s an innovative card and gift service. You really have to see it to believe it!
You can select a card that will then be printed, written in your own handwriting (if you want), have a real stamp applied, and then mailed through the regular postal service. It’s pretty amazing. And for less than you can buy a card anywhere else. Gifts, of course, cost more, but it makes it so so easy to send a special, delightful gift to that special someone.

Anyway, take a look at the video. You’ll see how delighted I am!

What do you think? Who would you like to delight today???

1 Degree of Difference – Heat Up Your Personal Growth

Nina East — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:35:24 +0000

At 211 degrees, water is hot………..At 212 degrees, it boils.

And with boiling water comes steam. ………….And steam can power a locomotive.

So many times it is that one extra degree of effort in business and in life that separates the good from the great.
The beauty of this idea of 212° – or one degree of difference – is not only the simplicity but all the places you can apply it in your life.

So what kind of life are you living? Are you living and growing in a 211⁰ style?

Or have you amped it up just a teeny-tiny fraction and are living and growing at a 212⁰ level?

You can apply the concept to that extra degree of service, the extra degree of attitude, the extra degree of leadership, kindness, commitment, focus, perseverance and the list goes on.

So what would be different if you went up just one teeny-tiny degree in your focus on personal development?

What would you be capable of?
What would you do?
What would you stop doing?
How would your life be different?

Take a look at the 212⁰ movie, published by Simple Truths, a company that sells inspirational and motivational books, gifts, etc.
(Simple Truths was started by Mac Anderson who founded Successories.)

And while you’re at it, watch this other inspiring movie!
I’m a little partial to it – not just because it starts with sunflowers (which are my favorite) – but because it is about finding joy.

Share your thoughts or reactions in the comment section below!

Quote for Strong (sassy!) Women

Nina East — Fri, 21 May 2010 18:35:42 +0000

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the ground each morning, the devil says, “Oh crap, She’s up!”

-Author unknown

I don’t know who the author of this quote is – even after Googling the heck out of it. My apologies to the original author – and if it’s you, let me know!

BURNING BRIGHT – Extraordinary Women of KwaZulu-Natal [Book Review]

Nina East — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:30:30 +0000

This 5-Minute Personal Growth Book Review was submitted by guest reviewer, Helgaard Botha.

This wonderful book is about celebrating the extraordinary women who hold societies together across the world, billions of strong and determined women constitute the glue that holds societies in crisis together and the rock on which values are built. Often, these are ordinary women who become extraordinary simply because they persevere day after day, doing the things that they believe need doing. Mostly, what drive them are the examples of their mothers and grandmothers and their desire to do the best for their children. A new book, BURNING BRIGHT: Extraordinary women of KwaZulu-Natal, celebrates 12 such women from KwaZulu-Natal, one of South Africa’s largest and most rural provinces.

KwaZulu-Natal, on the east coast of South Africa, is a province of a thousand hills and valleys that has been ravaged for decades by apartheid’s underdevelopment, poverty and HIV/AIDS. It is also the home of the proud Zulu nation and probably best known for fearsome Zulu warriors of the past and proud men of the present. Yet BURNING BRIGHT proves that KwaZulu-Natal is also home to courageous and compassionate women whose stories must be told.

The book combines the sensitively written stories of these women with rich imagery. Dramatic, full-page portraits of the women’s faces combine with photographs of their hands to capture the essence of what each woman is. In each chapter evocative landscapes, ‘local colour’ photographs and old personal snapshots open a window onto the diverse parts of KwaZulu-Natal where the women grew up. A map shows where the childhood homes are.

BURNING BRIGHT is an affirmation of the positive way of life that manifests itself in the stories of these women. All the stories show a pervasive sense of community; a rootedness in the soil of this province, the key role played by mothers, grandmothers and schools in instilling solid values; the impact of apartheid on women’s lives and their dreams for their country’s and children’s future.

The backgrounds of the women are diverse. Among them is Anna Cele, a feisty, big-hearted domestic worker; Devi Rajab, newspaper columnist and psychologist; Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, principled politician; Ntsiki Biyela, South Africa’s first black woman wine-maker and 2009′s Winemaker of the Year; Leona Theron, the country’s first black woman judge and Peggy-Sue Khumalo, former Miss South Africa and now investment banker. They also represent the different races that make up the province’s rich cultural ‘mixed masala’. Most of the women are Zulu, but mixed race ‘coloured’, Indian and white women are included. Together, their stories paint a picture of rich, diverse childhood experiences across KwaZulu-Natal.

Virtually all of these women have overcome enormous challenges to get to where they are today. What is extraordinary, and what makes them true role models, is their ability to persevere. Winemaker Ntsiki Biyela sums it up in her story: ‘I have walked and fallen, and the important thing is to stand up and start again. I believe that that is what a role model is. There is always a chance that I’ll fall again, but if I can get up afterwards that’s okay.’

One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is the strong common threads and shared values that connect the women’s stories. Each story also has three distinct sections, written in different voices, which provide complementary perspectives on who these women are and what moulded them. The stories open with the author’s perspective on the specific woman and what makes her extraordinary. Next each woman tells her own story in her own words, sharing her dreams and reflecting on the influences that made her what she is. Finally the story takes readers into diverse corners of KwaZulu-Natal to visit the places where each woman comes from.

For Wilna Botha as the author, these visits to the childhood homes of the twelve women, scattered across the entire KwaZulu-Natal, was the most rewarding part of writing this book. She explains: ‘I came to KwaZulu-Natal having lived on the starker plains of the North-West Province, the Free State and Gauteng. Maybe that is why I was continuously overwhelmed by KwaZulu-Natal’s dramatic landscapes as we drove across countless hillsides and dropped down into many valleys while searching for the childhood homes of the women in this book. This book is also a tribute to this extraordinary province of hills, valleys and rich Zulu culture.

THE AUTHOR – Wilna Botha is a former investigative journalist, communications specialist, researcher and college lecturer. In the 1980s and 1990s she won national awards as South Africa’s medical journalist of the year, as runner-up to education writer of the year and for health reporting. Since 1993 she has contributed to rural development across KwaZulu-Natal as director of MiET Africa and now Africa!Ignite. It is this experience that put her in touch with a number of extraordinary women who were the inspiration for this book.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER – Pippa Hetherington’s ability to tell a thousand-word story through a single photograph has achieved widespread recognition. Her work has been published in Fair Lady, Marie Claire, Real Simple and leadership. She has also undertaken projects for the Global Water Partnership, WWF- The Green Trust and 25:40. Pippa’s heart is in the visual image. Her work is deeply influenced by her travels through Africa and the environment and social development of South Africa. She intimately captures the soul of her subjects with empathy and lasting integrity.

*****
Would you like to see this book, or others by this author, summarized as part of your membership in PersonalGrowthPrincess? Make a comment below and let us know why, or why not.
*****

Helgaard Botha normally concentrates on property development matters but was touched by this moving book on the life’s of ordinary people in Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa. He now shares his time between Mauritius and South Africa. He has lived amongst the rolling hills of Kwa-Zulu Natal for the last 25 years and calls Durban his home. After years of endeavour he still hasn’t found a consistent and reliable golf swing. He has recently acquired the license to operate the renowned Fine & Country Estate Agency in Mauritius. Helgaard can be contacted at http://www.fineandcountry.mu

BURNING BRIGHT: Extraordinary Women of KwaZulu-Natal is available from leading South African bookstores and electronically through Kalahari.net at ZAR 228 (including VAT). For more information visit http://www.africaignite.co.za/

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Nina’s Inspirational Video

Nina East — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:10:21 +0000

Everybody needs a video to inspire themselves, right?
I took a class with Rob Schultz to learn how to create my own slideshow video.

How do I use it?
I watch it every morning before I get going with work – and periodically through the day if I need a pick me up. I always feel energized and psyched when I listen to it.

I share it here just to inspire you to create your own.
If you want to create one, take Rob’s SlideShow Challenge class!

music by freeplaymusic.com. for personal use only.

Finishing Strong – getting back up when it’s impossible

Nina East — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:46:06 +0000

Nick Vujicic

I’m not really sure how to introduce this video, other than to say Wow!

I’ve gone through some tough times over the last 3 years…tough enough that I wasn’t sure how I would get back up after

falling. And then I meet someone like Nick Vujicic.

A picture (or video) really is worth a thousand words.
Or, rather, a video is worth a thousand hopes.

Since I can’t seem to import it, just follow the link: Nick Vujicic.

Your Identity = Your Comfort Zone

Nina East — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:36:46 +0000

Do you know who you are? I mean..really know who you are?
If you aren’t sure, take a look at your life and it will tell you exactly who you think you are. Why does that matter? Well, because it also tells you who you will become because it identifies your personal comfort zone.

This video from Tony Robbins (welcome to the world of blogging, Tony!) can help you get real with yourself about who you are, why that matters, and how that can end up sabotaging you.

Tony says “The strongest force in the human personality is the need to remain consistent with our identity.” If that’s true, that means all of our actions (an inactions), conscious or subconscious, are designed to keep us aligned with who we think we are.

It also means the reason we sabotage ourselves is because we are moving outside our comfort zone. In other words, when things are going really great for you, that’s wonderful – you’re happy and on cloud nine…until it starts to seem like things are going too great…too great for someone like you, that is. Sound familiar?

Who came up with this notion of “too great” anyway? Well, in your case, it would be you. In my case it would be me. It’s almost like having a set-point that we migrate back to, even when we’re telling ourselves we’re getting what we want.

How do you change this? After all, if the desire to remain consistent with our identity is the strongest force, how in the world do you change it?

The first step is to do things you don’t normally do. Take a look at the video for the rest of the clues. Your identity will thank you for it.

Here’s the video, plus other videos worth watching. Enjoy!