February 2, 2010

In This Issue

Featured Article: We Don't Solve Our Problems, We Outgrow Them

Announcements

Speaking Schedule

Daddy's Little Girls

Welcome to this week’s issue of Appreciation (and Authenticity) in Action.

I hope you’re doing well and having a fantastic day.  Life is full of magic, mystery, excitement, and joy – if we choose to pay attention to it of course.

Last week’s article, It’s Not the Circumstances, It’s Us, was all about this.  If you missed it or want to check it out again, you can visit the Huffington Post to read it there.

I’m super excited about interviewing Michael Beckwith on my radio show this week – Thursday, 2/4 at noon PT. Click here to listen live.

Have a great day and rest of your week.  Thanks for being on my ezine list – I appreciate it and I appreciate you!

With Gratitude,



P.S.  If you didn’t get a chance to see my TV interview on ABC7’s View from the Bay in San Francisco last week (which was all about how to resolve conflict), you can check it out here.



We Don't Solve Our Problems,
We Outgrow Them

(For this week’s audio message, click here.)

I was recently reminded of a great quote from psychologist Carl Jung, he said, “We don’t solve our problems, we outgrow them.”  As I’ve been thinking about this the past few days, I realize how often my attention is actually on solving my problems, not outgrowing them.  No wonder the ones I obsess about the most seem to linger.

However, we’ve all experienced this outgrowing process many times.  Think back to some of the biggest “problems” in your life when you were a child or an adolescent (or even just a few years or months ago) that are no longer issues for you anymore.  In most cases, you simply outgrew these things.

We also experience this phenomenon whenever something intense happens in our life – whether it's something that is intensely “good” or “bad.” Major life experiences often put everything in perspective – giving us an opportunity to stop and re-evaluate many aspects of our lives. Usually, upon further reflection, we realize that most of our “problems” are not that big of a deal.

How can we make this awareness process more conscious and deliberate, and not simply happen by accident?  It’s important that we shift our focus, as Jung reminds us, from “solving” to “growing.”  As we try to “solve” the biggest problems in our lives – related to relationships, career, health, effectiveness, money, awareness, and more – maybe we can stop trying so hard to “fix” these things and look more deeply at the feedback we’re getting and where we can enhance our own growth.

Take money, for example.  Many people I know, myself included, are especially focused on money these days.  And while the economic environment of the past year or so has both created and exposed a number of money “problems” for many of us – personally, organizationally, nationally, and globally – maybe instead of simply trying to solve our money issues, we can look at how to expand our growth as it relates to money – and in a larger sense – abundance, worth, peace, and more. As Albert Einstein famously said, “We can’t solve our problems from the level of thinking which created them.”

Here are a few things we can think about as we look to deepen our growth and shift away from the obsessive problem solving mode many of us find ourselves in:

1)  Confront your biggest “problems.”  Tell the truth about the biggest issues in your life and look at what you’ve been doing to either avoid or solve them – neither of which will ultimately give you what you want.

2)  Look for the growth opportunity.  With authenticity and compassion, see if you can look beneath your avoidance or even your intended solutions, and find the beautiful feedback life is giving you right now about where you can grow.

3)  Reach out for support.  Getting support, feedback, and guidance is an essential aspect of our life and growth, especially when we want to change, transform, and grow into new and deeper places.  When we’re looking at outgrowing some of the most challenging aspects of our life and transcending certain "problems" (some of which we may have been dealing with for quite some time), it's fundamentally important we reach out for help from people in our lives – friends, family members, co-workers, counselors, coaches, teachers, and others.

As we do these three things, with a sense of kindness and appreciation towards ourselves, we can expand our growth, which will ultimately lead us to where we want to be in our lives.  Remember, there is no specific “destination” we’re after in this process – growth is really about deepening our experience of life and enhancing our capacity for joy, fulfillment, and love.

Where can you expand your own growth right now?  How can you take your attention off of “solving” and put it more on “growing” in a way that will make a difference for you?  Share your thoughts, action ideas, insights, and more on my blog here.

My interview with Michael Beckwith – 2/4 at noon PT

I’m so excited and honored to be interviewing Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder of Agape and author of Spiritual Liberation, on my radio show “Let’s Get Real” this week (Thursday, 2/4, at noon PT).  Michael is one of the most dynamic, wise, and powerful teachers on the planet and is someone who continues to teach and inspire me all the time.  We will be talking about his latest book, The Answer is You and his PBS special with the same title, which will be airing again in the coming weeks and months.  You can listen to us live on Energy Talk Radio this Thursday (2/4) at noon PT, by clicking here. (make sure to click on the “listen live” button)

Wonderful Event – Madly in Love with ME, Feb. 13th

My friend Christine Arylo, coach and author of Choosing ME Before WE, and some of the top transformational teachers in the world (like SARK, Marci Shimoff, and others) are throwing a big self-luv-a-palooza on February 13th at the Claremont Resort in Berkeley, CA.  It will be an amazing event for women – all about the incredible power of self love.  And, if you can’t get there in person, you can still participate!   There are corresponding events taking place on the same day (2/13) in Orlando, Chicago, and others cities.  You can also host a “madly in love with me” party at your house.  For more info and to sign up for the event, click here.

Great New Book – Jumping On Water, by Ted Karam

Author Ted Karam’s new book, Jumping on Water: Awaken Your Joy ~ Empower Your Life, teaches you how to create your ideal life from the inside out!  According to Ted, raising your awareness and reconditioning your mind are the two most important abilities you possess to create greater joy and success in your life right now!  This wonderful new book will touch your heart and soul, and empower you to take your life to a new level.  For more information, to purchase copies, and to receive free bonuses today from authors like Harv Eker, Bob Proctor, Mark Victor Hansen, Peggy McColl, me, and many others, click here.

“We are outgrowing our problems all the time.”
- Samantha and Annarose Robbins

To see more photos of us and
our mommy and daddy, click here.