Why Principles are Crucial

By M-Power

I recently had a viewer comment on one of my parenting videos about helping children understand consequences that he was watching to get help with his wife. She just couldn’t understand that there are consequences to her actions.  It isn’t the first time I have had a comment like this and this guy understood something that is vital to helping us get better results. It is all about the principle. Principles are rules that when followed will lead us to the results we want. Not immediately, but down the road. There are leadership principles, management principles, business principles, ethical principles, moral principles, financial principles, even parenting principles.  Principles govern our lives, whether we know it or not.  Discovering those principles, then applying them, will lead us to the results we want. Principles don’t change, how we apply them depends on the situation, the ages of those involved and what kind…

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5 Clues to Know if You are on the Path to Excellence

By M-Power

Have you ever wondered if you are on the right path? The path that will lead to excellence in your life? There are 5 clues that will help you determine if the path you are on is the one that is meant for you. Number 1, do you feel called to the work you are doing? When you have the feeling that what you are doing is your life’s work, you are excited, it lights you up. It is what helps you get through the muck, knowing that this is what you are meant to do. Number 2, You love whatever it is that you are engaged in. You’re passionate about it. It adds energy to your life. Live On Purpose TV, Live On Purpose Central and Live On Purpose Radio are the things that get me up in the morning. I love opening up possibilities for people who didn’t…

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Lessons from Oatmeal and ABC’s

By M-Power

I was watching some preschoolers play the other day and I think there are a few lessons we can learn from them on how to adult.  When I first started watching them, the teacher had directed them to a discovery center and she had put alphabet letters in some oatmeal (dry, not cooked). The kids had scoops and as they scooped, they discovered there were some letters in the oatmeal. They were then to find the letter on the alphabet strip next to the discovery center and put the letter there.  The kids did this for a while and found most of the letters, but not all.  Then they took some cars that were near the center and began running their cars in the oatmeal and making up all sorts of scenarios and knocking into one another, and driving on again.  I thought about the kids and how they readily…

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Challenges the Ultimate Game-Changer

By M-Power

I was watching a video on Instagram that my friend and colleague, Camilita Nuttal and her husband posted. They were celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary and their business successes. They outlined some basic principles to their success. If you know me at all, you know I love principles. Principles are powerful, they are life changers. Once we discover the principle, we can apply it to any area of our life. Principles don’t change and they are a better predictor of outcomes than anything else I know of. If you don’t own a business, stay with me for a bit to see how their business principle can apply to you. As Camilita and her husband were reflecting on their struggles to get their businesses going, (yes, they have 4!), they shared how really hard it was and many times they thought, “When is it going to happen for me?” Many times…

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Ideas on How To Be A Better Husband and Father

By M-Power

There has been a lot going on in 2020. I am hearing from lots of people that their homes are not running exactly how they have in years past. Many parents are still working from home, and kids have less activities and some are experiencing remote learning. This can put a lot of pressure on parents and I am hearing from a lot of moms. They are being asked to do more and more. Have more involvement in their child’s education, (daily guidance for some) and keeping the kids active and engaged. Dad’s we can play a huge role in helping our kids and our wives. I have a few ideas for you to consider. I remember taking a little walk with my kids one day through the house. And we identified things that were not in their place. If you have kids you know what I mean, there are…

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Contronyms and 2020

By M-Power

I was told a long time ago that words have meaning. I have always loved words whose meanings contradict one another. These are called contronyms or Janus words. Janus is the two-faced Roman God and these auto-antonyms are named after him. Here are a few: Fast: It can mean to stay put or to go quickly Sanction: Can mean approval of something, or to restrict Strike: Can mean to hit something (like knock down all the pins in bowling), or totally miss something, (like the ball in baseball) And, one of my favorites: Cleave: You can be bound together or divide Now, when I give you the next contronym just register how it feels to you: Anxious Did you jump to feeling nervous or hesitant? Or did you go to wanting something very much, determinedly wishing for something? Most often, I hear the term anxious used as in anxiety, someone…

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How to Stop Overthinking: the natural state of your mind

By M-Power

How to stop overthinking? Ever wonder what space sounds like? I have never been there, but I have heard it is quiet. We are going to do that today, create some space (in your head). This may sound silly, but first, notice that you are thinking. This is a process I call metacognition. Cognition means thinking. Metacognition is a higher level. It’s thinking about thinking. Notice that. One of my colleagues said, “Hey, Paul. Every problem that we have is a problem with thinking.” That’s a bold statement. But as I’ve considered my colleague’s statement, I think he might be right. Every problem I can think of comes down to a problem with thinking. Anything that occurs to us is technically a neutral event. That’s going to sound a little foreign to you unless you’ve already had a chance to think about that. Everything that happens is a neutral event….

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How to Make Up Your Mind: Try Some Stuff???

By M-Power

Let’s start with what gets in the way of making up our mind about something. Usually we create some kind of pressure or expectation that we have to get it right, That expectation creates a fear that we may get it wrong and who wants to be wrong? And so, we do not make a decision at all. Brett Harward is a friend of mine and the author of the 5 Laws That Determine All Of Life’s Outcomes. Brett talks about the law of frequency. And my understanding of that comes from an example that Brett shared with me. If you can imagine having a nice little paper bag, and I put in 20 $1.00 bills. Then I add 15 $5.00 bills. Then I add 10 $20.00 bills and 5 $50.00 bills. To top it off, I put in 1 $100.00 bill. Now, which one of the bills do you want?…

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Happy Grandparents Day

By M-Power

Sunday is a very important holiday and some of you may not even know about it. It is National Grandparents Day. My oldest grandchild just turned 6 in August and she has a brother and a sister now. Can I just say, these are three of the most important people in the world? “Your children are your rainbows and your grandchildren are your pot of gold.” One of the saddest things though is that our grandchildren live a few states away. On one of our visits, I had brought a yo-yo to the grandkids and one of the kids couldn’t get the yo-yo to go up and down, but he is an intelligent child (takes after his grandfather), and invented a new way to play with it. He had me get down on all fours, put it in front of me and began walking around the room saying, “Come on…

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3 Tips to Overcome Procrastination

By M-Power

Sunday, September 6th was National Fight Procrastination Day. Why do we procrastinate? The most common answer I get from people is that the thing they say they want to do is hard or uncomfortable. Even though they know it may be good for them, they procrastinate beginning.  Why should we undertake hard tasks?  I’ve learned this: You get to have either hard-easy or easy-hard. And what I mean by that is often when we choose to do the easy thing now, we set ourselves up for a harder existence later on.  Take your health as an example, we pay for our health now or later, but we will pay.  We all know we should exercise, but we put it off. in which case, we are choosing easy/hard.  Meaning, it is easy to sit on the couch and watch TV and eat potato chips, and the hard part comes later with possible poor health,…

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