Inspiration

How To Achieve Impossible Dreams

Follow Your DreamsI had the pleasure of meeting with a famous Korean motivational speaker, Dr. Jin Kyu Robertson, during my trip to Korea last fall. She speaks frequently to audiences in Korea and around the world, sharing her story of struggle and triumph, instilling hope back into people’s lives and inspiring them to pursue their dreams.

She speaks to audiences old and young, from all walks of life. By sharing her own story, she proves how anything is possible. If she could achieve her dream of becoming a Harvard Ph.D (an impossible dream for a young girl who grew up in poor rural Korea and really struggled with school), anyone could achieve their dreams too!

Her message is simple, but extremely powerful…

She has changed the trajectory of people’s lives by encouraging people to dream again. No one is too old, too young, too poor, or too anything to be able to make their dreams come true.

It was an honor to be able to interview Dr. Jin Kyu Robertson and be able to hear her wisdom and advice on how to achieve impossible dreams. Her advice nudged me forward and gave me a different perspective on how to live my life. I walked away with the sense that I could do anything, and I hope you will too!

This year is the perfect time to rekindle those dreams that lie dormant in the back of our minds. They are there for a reason. They are yours to birth into this world!

To learn more about Dr. Jin Kyu Robertson’s amazing journey, you can purchase her book, Major Dream. It’s an inspiring memoir that demonstrates how you can overcome even the most difficult obstacles in your life to achieve your dreams.

major-dream-from-immigrant-housemaid-harvard-ph-d-dr-jin-kyu-paperback-cover-artMajor Dream: From Immigrant Housemaid to Harvard PhD

Visit her website at: http://drjinrobertson.com/ Read more →

Closing 2012 and Entering a New Year!

186758715767928496_OArpyhK2_c2012 has been a year of change for me. It’s been a year of internal transformation and some deep “problem” excavation. It wasn’t the easiest year, but it was one of the most productive years in terms of getting my life back on track. It was a year of cleaning out the closet (literally and figuratively) and uncovering all the issues in my life that are still lurking underneath the surface… undressed. It was the year to address them. All of them. And I did, and still going…

It wasn’t the year I expected, but it was the year I needed. I needed this time to go deep to sort through issues I didn’t realize were even there. Did this happen to you too?

I intended it, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it kind of was… only because I did not realize how many problems would want my attention. Painful as it was, I dealt with each one by spending the time to face them, address them, and make changes for a different future.

I know I wasn’t the only one. I’ve had some conversations with others who have experienced the same. Rather than moving forward on goals we had wanted to accomplish, we were directed to “clean up” our lives. Emotional baggage, past resentment, lingering to do’s… they kept us busy. We were busy working on letting go of anything that was holding us back.

Now that December 31st is here, I can really look back and say… what a productive year! Productive, not necessarily in the material sense, but rather in the emotional and spiritual sense. I feel happier, freer, and more resolved. My head is clearer and I am stronger. I know what I want and confusion has lifted.

Perhaps the energies of December 21st, 2012 have really started to take effect after all. Read more →

What Have You Always Wanted To Do?

Are there things you’ve always wanted to do, but never gave yourself an opportunity to do? Maybe you dismissed these things as not being that important because they did not make much sense or because they had nothing to do with your career.

What are the things you’ve always wanted to do but never gave them much time or thought? These could be from your bucket list, new year’s resolutions, or random thoughts related to “if I didn’t have to worry about money, I would…”

What are they? List them now.

I want you to give these thoughts some room in your mind. You don’t have to go after these right this second, but I want you to let them wander around in your mind rather than burying them or letting them go. Explore the possibility that these things may happen for you.

My “What I Always Wanted To Do” Fantasy Came True!

I’m encouraging you to do this exercise because one of my long-term fantasies has just come true for me!

For as long as I can remember, I’ve written new year’s resolutions that included a laundry list of items — too many to accomplish in any given year. I used to get discouraged for not achieving them, but now I look at these lists as possibilities.

This year, I created a list on my birthday too. Rather than calling it a list of “resolutions,” which always makes me feel a twinge of guilt if I don’t accomplish the entire list (or any of the list), I decided to call it “Gifts To Myself at Age ____ (fill in your age).”

I listed all the things I wanted to “gift” myself this year. Rather than feeling obligated (as I do with resolutions), I felt privileged to be receiving all these wonderful gifts, whether or not they came. Read more →

Introducing Flow Living TV!

In my last post, I talked about following your impulses. I’m doing that now as I am taking action on creating a video series called Flow Living TV that I’ve been thinking about for the last 6 months, possibly longer.

It’s no accident when you have a re-ocurring idea that keeps popping up in your head again and again. It’s an idea that wants to be birthed and it’s asking you to be the mother or father of it.

Whether we choose to take the idea and run with it is our choice. Whenever we have new ideas, we may be asked to step into territories we are not comfortable with to make it happen, but if we believe in the idea, we’ll be able to muster up the courage to take the actions necessary to make them happen. This idea is definitely outside of my comfort zone since I am more comfortable working behind the scenes rather than in front of the camera, but it’s an idea that I thought would be valuable to those who are on their journey towards pursuing their passions in life.

So, here goes… Flow Living TV – an online video series to inspire you to pursue your dreams, give you insights on the real journey to success, and tips and stories to inspire you to live a healthy, happy, and successful life.

Do you have someone who you think would be perfect to interview for this series? If so, let me know!

Don’t forget to subscribe to receive future episodes and inspiring message in your inbox. Also subscribe to the youtube channel here.

Sending you lots of love on your journey! May your life be full of dreams coming true! Read more →

Follow Your Impulses To Live Your Dreams

When you declare what your dreams are, the universe will conspire to bring you opportunities that help take you there. Our job is to live our lives to the best of our ability in every moment, and when an opportunity comes our way, step into it.

Opportunities are not always obvious. Sometimes they arrive as an idea or an impulse that may or may not make sense. These ideas and impulses are often gifts from the universe, opportunities to help take you to your next step in your journey. A random idea might pop into your head or you might have a strong feeling to do something. Listen, then step into the opportunity by taking action on it.

Every year I create a list of things I want to to do in my life. Part New Years resolutions and part bucket list, I write out the goals I want to accomplish along with the crazy ideas I come up with as I dream and explore infinite possibilities of what my heart desires. It’s usually a list of items that span all areas of my life, from career to health to fun experiences.

My lists are very long because I add everything I want on there, so it would be really difficult for me to manifest everything on the list in one year. The goal was not to accomplish everything on the list, but rather to uncover what my heart really wanted.

To give you an example, this year, some of the items on my list are:

  1. Travel internationally with my family (starting with Korea)
  2. Learn gourmet, healthy natural cooking
  3. Host a TV Show
  4. Meet Andrea Beaman
  5. Have a 6am natural wake-up time (I’m a bit of a night owl and have always wanted to change this)
  6. Start an eco-fashion line
  7. Write a book

Honestly, I did not even realize I had written some of these items until I just looked them up as I was writing this. Read more →

What Courageous Act Are You Being Asked To Do?

I want to talk to you about courage. It’s one of the most important qualities that I’ve had to muster up to accomplish anything BIG in my life.

How many times have you been presented with an opportunity to do something in your life that you knew that you probably should do, but it wasn’t easy for you? Ok, maybe it was just downright scary?

  • It could be a little thing, such as being invited to an event where you know no one except the person who invited you. You might want to opt-out and just stay home because the thought of having to put yourself out there and meet new people is just a lot of work and you are tired that day. Or perhaps you are just scared or uncomfortable to be in a room with so many strangers, but you know you should go anyway.
  • Or, maybe the opportunity is a big thing, such as being asked to speak at a conference, start a big project, or maybe you have a random BIG thought that keeps rolling around in your head that tells you to take your life in a completely different direction. It could be asking you to change your career, move to a new city, work through a big relationship issue, write a book, or any other big, bold moves that don’t feel comfortable to you right now.

What is calling your name now? The idea may not even make sense to you in that moment, but you know you need to do it.

I’ve learned that any time you are presented with an opportunity or an idea that propels you towards your dreams, FEAR usually gets in the way of you stepping out on a limb and pursuing that route.

Are You Playing It Safe? Read more →

Is Everything You Want In Life Flowing Into Your Life Effortlessly?

In life, we can go down a path of struggle and pain, or we can choose an alternate path that brings us what we want in life with ease and grace.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have everything flowed into our lives effortlessly? Without struggle, without pain?

The key is to listen to you inner guidance, tune into what your heart and soul really wants, and when you hear the message, actually go and do what it says. This is what I call flow living, or living in the flow. When you listen to what your soul really wants and go for it, the universe miraculously rises up to support you in all of your endeavors. Really!

You will meet the right people to help you at the right time. You will find the money when you absolutely need it. You will find the time to do what it is you need to do. Things just work out.

I’ve experienced this so many times in my life and when I tell people about it, they tell me that the “stars aligned” for me and that it was destiny. Yes, the stars aligned and the universe supported me in my decisions, but that’s because I knew what it took to get the stars to align for me. I followed my inner guidance, my own north star.

Have you experienced this? I’m sure we’ve all experienced this at some point in our lives where we decided to do something and everything just came together miraculously. Maybe you were trying to finish a project by a deadline, plan your wedding, move to another city, get a new job, find a new client, have a baby, launch a business, or just find the perfect gift for someone… it could be anything you were trying to do. Read more →

Are You Feeling Disappointed With Where You Are In Life?

Life doesn’t always go the way we planned. It takes twists and turns and sometimes takes us in a completely different direction than we had originally planned.

Take my life, for example. I thought I was going to be a doctor, a reconstructive surgeon, in fact. Instead I went into technology. Then, I thought I was going into product design, but life directed me towards software and the web. Then, I thought I was going to be an energy healer, but life sent me to fashion school… and then nutrition school… and the changes keep coming.

It doesn’t make sense, does it?

There is a method to this madness. I didn’t see it then, but I see it now. Life does not waste our talents and our experiences and it all comes together eventually. Your soul has a master plan.

In order to follow the master plan that our soul is guiding us through, we need to let go of expectations and our ideas of accomplishments that we want to achieve by a certain age.

My most dominant thought while I was going through so many career changes was that I had to find my passion so that I could start a business I loved BEFORE I had a baby. I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I thought I’d have everything all set to go by the time I was 30. I would be financially free, I would be in control of my schedule, and everything would be set up for a wonderful work/life balance.

30 came and went. No baby, no business, and I was moving to another city to go back to school again.

It can be very frustrating not knowing where you are going even though you know you are headed in the right direction. It would be simpler if life just handed us a neat little package with our life plan clearly laid out. Read more →

What To Do When You Feel Like You Are Blocked

Let me be real with you here. I had been struggling to get a post out onto my blog for the past few weeks. Contrary to what this blog is all about, I was not in the flow. I would sit down to write and everything would get in the way of me writing. Quite literally!

Here’s one day’s example…

I would sit down to write and I would of course start checking my email and then click through to some things that might interest me. Then Facebook would call my name. I finally got myself back onto a blank page to start writing and then the doorbell would ring because a package came. I’d have to run downstairs and get it then otherwise the super would lock it up in the package room and I’d have to follow up with it later.

As soon as I got back upstairs, a random phone call would come from a telemarketer. Then the doorbell would ring again because another package came. Was this for real? What was with all the interruptions?

There’s more. I’d sit down to write again, and then my mom called and would talk to me for half an hour. As soon as I got off the phone with her and was determined to write, my husband would call me, and then another telemarketer. I never got calls from telemarketers on my cell phone before. What was the deal? I could not believe everyone was calling me back to back during the time I had allotted for writing.

Did the universe not want me to write? Why was all of this happening all at the same time on the same day? Pretty soon, the day was eaten away by all these little disturbances and then it was time to pick up my baby from daycare. Read more →

Are You Following Your Dreams?

We all have dreams of doing amazing things with our lives. Some of us are keeping those dreams alive by believing in them and pursuing them whole-heartedly. If that’s you, you are one of the daring ones that are overcoming fears, moving through blocks and progressing forward to pursue what you REALLY want with your life. Congrats! You are on your way!

What about the rest of us?

Maybe you know you want something more for your life, but are not ready to just go for it yet. There are many reasons for not moving forward and pursuing your dreams — financial concerns, not wanting to give up a lifestyle, fear of failure, kids, etc. Surprisingly, the main reason I hear why people are not pursuing their dreams isn’t one of the ones I listed.

The #1 reason I hear why people aren’t pursuing their dreams is: “I don’t know what I want to do with my life.”

Is this you?

Figuring out what you want to do with your life is not always an easy question to answer and is one that many people struggle with.

We always hear of people who were born knowing what they want to do with their lives. Lucky for them, they can easily focus on the dream that they had since they were a child. For the rest of us, it requires a journey to uncover what we are really passionate about.

Buried Dreams

Our dreams are often buried because we have been busy just trying to survive, chasing money or prestige, or because we have been living someone else’s dream. It could be one of your parent’s unfulfilled dreams that has been directly influencing your decisions, or maybe you have been working for your parents’ approval your entire life, so you followed a career path they would approve of. Read more →

What Are You Capable Of?

I don’t know why we sometimes believe that other people can do things, but we can’t. The bigger the goal, the more we tend to doubt ourselves. We see successful people everywhere — people who have built businesses from scratch, have amazing fit bodies, have invented interesting products, live in beautiful and organized homes, write books, are helping people, are multi-millionaires, are making a difference and are changing the world.

These are people you look up to and admire. It could be your mom, your friend, a TV personality, someone you found on the internet, an author, an entrepreneur, a celebrity, or Steve Jobs, the Dalai Lama, or Oprah. You look up to these people because they have or are doing something you strive for. And you admire different people for different reasons.

So, the question is, why can’t we do it?

The truth is, we can! We are doing it and we have done it in the past. We’ve already done so many amazing things in many different areas of our lives. We just may not realize how much we’ve accomplished because we spend most of our time looking towards our future goals instead of reflecting on our past successes. If you take a moment to look back at the things you’ve done, you’ll realize just how much you have accomplished in your life so far!

Whether we know it or not, there are people looking up to us for different things and have looked up to us in the past, even when we were not aware of it. It could have been or is your son or daughter, a friend, a parent, or someone you met briefly in your life. You really never know how many lives you’ve touched and what kind of impact you may have had on them — just by being who you are and doing what you do! Read more →

Move Fast To Get Into the Flow

You’ve heard the phrase, “living in the flow.” You’ve probably experienced it yourself. You know what it feels like when you’re just in the groove, things are going smoothly, and everything is just falling into place effortlessly. It doesn’t mean you’re just sitting around waiting for things to happen. It’s actually quite the contrary… you are working your little butt off to MAKE things happen. And that’s when you get in the flow.

You’re in the flow when you take focused action. You fixate on a goal and will bulldoze through brick walls if you have to to make them happen. You see no obstacles, only possibilities. You are focused, determined, and confident that things will work out. You take a leap of faith and you just go for it.

It’s scary at first, and new things take a bit of time to adjust, but pretty soon, as you take step by step, things just start happening that help you along.

The more things that happen that help you along, the easier it gets, and you just keep going. The wheel is turning faster and faster now. The blocks in front of you have disintegrated and you have pulled through to a new threshold. You soar to a new level of confidence as you see that things are working and pieces are starting to come together. You feel excited, and thrilled for the possibilities that lie ahead.

Suddenly, things seem bright and everything seems possible.

Welcome… you have just entered the flow.

When you are living with purpose doing what you love, you enter a state of exhilaration that keeps you going. Your become alive and your passion starts to come through.

See, the key to getting in the flow is not to take things slow. It’s quite the contrary. It’s to move quickly. Read more →

How To Find the Perfect Solution To Your Problems

We are faced with so many situations in our lives that need a solution or an answer. Sometimes we’ll know exactly how to fix the problem, but other times we won’t have a clue what to do about the situation we’re in.

What I’ve learned is that rather that trying really, really hard to solve the problem, the more important thing to do is to ask the right question.

Why?

Because when you try to solve the problem from the same state of mind you were in that created the problem, you might end up banging your head in frustration because the solutions you find are just not good enough. You might come up with the obvious and easy answers that everyone will think of, but nothing that really meets your needs.

To come up with the creative solutions and the less obvious answers, learn to ask the right question. When you ask the right question, you put that thought into your subconscious, and somehow, magically the answer will appear in front of you one day when you are not even consciously thinking of the problem anymore.

If you are in need of a solution urgently, instead of waiting for the answer to show up one day, ask the universe to deliver the answer within 24 hours. That’s a tip I learned from Cheryl Richardson’s book, Take Time For Your Life. It works.

Here is an example in which I used this technique in my life:

My problem: Looking for an inexpensive house cleaner

After having my baby, I desperately needed help cleaning my apartment. I didn’t have the time or energy to do it all anymore. But, the problem was that because a baby creates lots and lots of new expenses, I needed to find an affordable house cleaner. Read more →

Whose Advice Should You Listen To?

Starting a new endeavor can be a fearful, daunting period. It’s when you have hopes and dreams, but nothing is actualized yet. It’s a time when you are considering your options and figuring out which direction to go. You could be starting a business, changing jobs, moving to a new city, changing careers, trying to fix your relationships, or even losing weight. Whatever your goal, you are starting down a new path, one that you have not traveled yet.

During this time, it’s normal and natural to solicit feedback and advice from others. It’s a time period of gathering ideas, doing research, and weighing pros and cons before proceeding in one direction. You are looking for the path that will work for you and make you happy. You want to know what to do and how to do it in order to be successful.

Maybe you are not even asking for advice or feedback from others, but as you speak with friends, family, or other people you interact with during this time, people will give you their opinion anyway. I believe people are trying to give you advice and feedback based on what they believe is in your best interest. Most people are just trying to help.

If you didn’t specifically seek out advice you are receiving, is it advice you should listen to?

Two ways I look at the advice I receive

Situation 1 – People are Messengers

Some people, messages, ideas, and conversations come up in your life in order to provide you with new information or guide you or deliver new insight that is valuable for you. I consider these types of things as signs and messages from the universe that can help me along my path, solidify ideas I already have, or provide a new idea or perspective that I should consider. Read more →

Reality Check: Converting a Dream Into a Plan

Dreaming is the first step to creating an amazing life. You have to dream it before you can build it. But, how do you turn a dream into reality?

You need to take action to make it real, but before you can take action, you need to know where you are going. Just like you wouldn’t typically go into your car and drive without a destination in mind, you need to know where you are headed with your dream.

This doesn’t mean you need it all planned out in detail. Planning every detail in your head could take forever and can keep you in the dreaming and planning stage indefinitely. The more you postpone action, the more time fear has to creep up and you may never start on your venture. That’s not what you want.

Here are four steps to help you take on your dream.

1. Learn From Someone Who Has Gone Before You

Before you randomly try everything without direction, learn from someone who’s gone before you. Read a book about your dream, do some research, or find a mentor. Someone has already achieved it somewhere. Find people who have already achieved your dream and seek out their advice. Seek guidance so that you are not grappling in the dark. Getting good advice can also help speed up your process to achieving your goal.

2. Create a Plan

Once you have learned from others, you need a plan. A step-by-step plan will give you an idea what it will take to turn your dream into reality. Writing it down will force you to think about what it will really take so that you can set a realistic timeline for yourself.

One of the resources I use to do this is a website called MySomeday. I found it when I was first starting my journey into fashion design and tracked my progress there. Read more →