I consider myself more of a spiritual person than a religious one. I meditate, chant and listen to Hindi mantras/vedas, started to re-practice Yoga, believe in Om Namah Shivaya (ॐ नमः शिवाय) which literally translates to “I honour the divinity that dwells within me, I bow to Shiva, my true identity” – I believe in it so much so that I had it tattooed on my left hip as a constant reminder to myself to be genuine and true to my authentic self.  I believe in the “Universe” as much as I believe in God. I pray, and attend church on occasion (I was baptized Roman Catholic).  I believe in doing what calms and heals the soul.  I am one that believes in the power of positive thinking, the law of attraction, and in serendipity.  BUT, I am also a person who believes that things don’t fall into your lap and that you are the creator of your own destiny – you can shape your life by being cognizant of certain factors, understanding your blueprint and that it is necessary to reshape your mindset.

I have another tattoo – on my right ribcage – a quatrain from a poem by Edgar Guest called Myself.  I love this poem because he talks about wanting to be his authentic self.  About looking in the mirror and liking who he sees and that his conscience is clear when he lays his head down at night.  I’ve bolded the portion that is tattooed on my ribs.

MYSELF

I have to live with myself and so
I want to be fit for myself to know.
I want to be able as days go by,
always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don’t want to stand with the setting sun
and hate myself for the things I have done.
I don’t want to keep on a closet shelf
a lot of secrets about myself
and fool myself as I come and go
into thinking no one else will ever know
the kind of person I really am,
I don’t want to dress up myself in sham.
I want to go out with my head erect
I want to deserve all men’s respect;
but here in the struggle for fame and wealth
I want to be able to like myself.
I don’t want to look at myself and know that
I am bluster and bluff and empty show.
I never can hide myself from me;
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know, 
I never can fool myself and so, 
whatever happens I want to be 
self respecting and conscience free.

I have yet another tattoo on the nape of my neck, that simply says “Let me be myself” with a red rose. I chose the red rose because it is an unmistakable expression of love (self love). This is actually a sentence from a song called “Let Me Be Myself” by one of my favourite bands, 3 Doors Down.

The lyrics go ….

I’ve had this tattoo for about 5/6 years now – spiritually this song to me is simply saying – LET. ME. BE. ME.  This tattoo was part of a big personal growth journey into authenticity for me.  It was also my subtle way of telling a certain few (they have no idea who they are) – that I got lost but am no longer.

I have yet another tattoo on the other side of my ribs which simply states AMBITION – no explanation required –  a desire and determination to achieve success.

My point in explaining most of my tattoos is to share with you my personal journey – I try to talk the talk and walk the walk (I’m not perfect at it and I falter from time to time, but as is said life’s a journey not a destination).  I’m a walking billboard for personal positivity.

I have three top WISDOM WARRIORS as I call them, to whom I listen every day, whose words inspire, motivate and encourage me to be greater, better, stronger and a truer more authentic version of myself.  These three (in alphabetical order) are:

1. Tony Robbins
2. Robin Sharma
3. Eric Thomas

---

Robin Sharma

4 years ago, I had the immense pleasure of seeing the first of my idols speak at a Canadian National conference I attended in Edmonton.  Robin Sharma is most well known for his international best selling book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.  Robin’s runaway bestseller The Leader Who Had No Title was the #1 Business book on amazon.com.  But, the book that got me started and hooked on this leadership guru and personal mastery was his book DISCOVER YOUR DESTINY WITH THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI – THE 7 STAGES OF SELF-AWAKENING, a pathway to self-awakening that will help you to live your greatest life and claim the happiness, prosperity and inner peace that you deserve. This book is my go to book – it is highlighted, dog eared and has tear marks all over it – I read and re-read certain passages over and over again to keep reminding myself to live a life that is successful to ME and not as defined by anyone else.  It is a must read and should be added to your personal development library.

Here are a few of my favourite quotes from that book … it was hard to narrow them down to just these few:

-You are far greater than you have ever dreamed of being. And no matter what you are experiencing in your life right now, trust that all is good and unfolding in your best interests. It may not look pretty, but it is exactly what you need to learn for you to grow into the person you have been destined to become. Everything occurring in your life has been perfectly orchestrated to inspire your maximal evolution as a human being and bring you into your true power. Learn from life and allow it to take you where you are meant to go—it has your highest interests in mind

– We have morphed into people who behave selfishly, fearfully and hurtfully. This behaviour is not a reflection of our essential nature but is, instead, a reflection of the wounds we have suffered as we have left the innocence to which we were born and traveled along the journey of our days. Only people in pain can do painful things. Only people who have been hurt can hurt others. Only people with closed hearts are able to act in less than loving ways.

– Often, your lessons will not come easily. Suffering has always been a vehicle for deep spiritual growth. Those who have endured great suffering are generally the ones who evolve into great beings. 

– But we grow most from our greatest challenges. I’ve realized that these experiences were sent to help me clean up my act and me to move through my weakness. Life’s biggest hurts are, in truth, glorious opportunities for personal growth, positive transformation and reclaiming the authentic power you’ve lost as you left the perfection of infancy and walked into the world. Embrace them for the gifts they are.

Here is  free link to Discovery Your Destiny PDF  http://www.robinsharma.com/product-samples/pdf/Discover-Your-Destiny-1.pdf

And a link to his audio Book:  The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1bZ9BD_o_Q

---

Tony Robbins

This past Wednesday (August 9 2017) I was able to cross yet another item off of my bucket list.  For 3.5 hours I listened, absorbed and tried my best to retain every nugget of wisdom that Tony Robbins’ threw at us –  his incredible energy and monumental life/coaching skills.  It was most certainly a dream come true and one of the most inspirational, motivating experiences of my life.

If there are any of you who have not yet heard of this larger than life man, let me fill you in a wee bit – his work has touched the lives of top people such as Aerosmith, Green Day, Usher, Pitbull, Andre Agassi and President Clinton to name a few. Billionaire business leaders seek his advice as well; casino magnate Steve Wynn and Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff are among those who call on him for coaching.

His shortest seminars are typically 50 hours in duration, but, in a small fraction of that time, he was able to transcend his most important life coaching skills to understanding our own personal mastery.

He makes no secret that he had a rough childhood.  This resonated with me.

“If my mom had been the mother I thought I wanted, I wouldn’t be as driven; I wouldn’t be as hungry,” he said. “I wouldn’t have suffered, so I probably wouldn’t have cared about other people’s suffering as much as I do. And it made me obsessed with wanting to understand people and help create change.”  – Tony Robbins

The essence of his 3.5 hours with the 15,000 of us focused on the core decisions we make at each point in our lives, how we choose to view them and what we do about them –  see pic of hand (lol – I forgot my notepad).

1) What are we choosing to FOCUS on?

2) What MEANING are we assigning to it?

3) And now that you know that, what are you going to DO about it?

Instead of trying to put my own spin on this and totally ruining what he is trying to convey I’m going to borrow this from Tony’s site because I feel it is that important …

“Is this the end of something wonderful or the beginning of something unpleasant? Are you being punished for your failure or rewarded for your success? The minute you decide to focus on something, you assign it a meaning and infuse it with feeling. How you define an event produces emotion and determines your inner feeling state going forward. The meaning you assign to any event, interaction or outcome defines the emotional tone of your experience and the feelings you generate throughout your life. Meaning equals emotion and emotion equals life. The meaning you give your experiences will always change how you feel — and the emotion you feel always becomes the quality of your life. Our memories are actually anchors to feeling states, images, sounds and sensations — all of these aspects rely on the meaning we give to them” – Tony Robbins

Get it?  Perspective is a powerful thing isn’t it? When you can reframe an experience, you can often change what happens as a result.

---

Eric Thomas

Last but certainly not least on my list is Eric Thomas (a.k.a ET).  He is a preacher and motivational speaker – this guy definitely has a different and unique way to inspire and connect with his HIGH energy messages! His voice is strong, loud and passionate!  It resonates so that you can’t help but believe that what he says is fact!  Go get what you want – period!  No excuses!   One of his most known quotes is “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you‘ll be successful.”  ET is the epitome of hustle, drive, determination, and success.

To wrap up these three spiritual bucket list items – I am making plans seeing ET in Washington, DC on September 2 2017.  Hopefully I can make that work.

To end, let me ask you this – are your patterns helping or harming you?

---