In an environment overrun by fear and frustration, you may be unable to consider the thought that there are countless opportunities right beneath the surface of your challenges.  As such, many settle for a small life, filled with discontent; fearfully assured that this abundant universe is actually without provision to sustain their well-being.  

It is this nugget of negative thinking that begins the domino effect of low energy; which fuels low productivity and poor performance on the personal, professional and business level.  

This should incite you to analyze your thinking pattern; a process to be undertaken with much consideration...

Over  time, we all build constricting habits and behaviors that serve to keep us boxed in and trapped in a zone of so called comfort, which is well below our true potential.  This cozy zone eventually formulates our thinking patterns; sculpting what we perceive as possible and creating limits based on the imaginary confinement that we’ve built around ourselves.   

And while some people are willing to make small adjustments here and there, the majority of folk, do everything they can to ensure that they never venture too far from port (the zone).  This is true when it comes to what they eat, the routes they take, they TV shows they watch; but this is even more so when it comes to the level of care and attention paid to their overall state of wellness...

Whether  you believe it or not – we are each paying a ‘Stress Tax’.  When you calculate the accumulative cost of stress - reduced productivity, insurance cost, absenteeism, anxiety, depression, heart disease and the myriad of other illnesses associated with Stress; in some way, shape or form we are definitely paying a ‘Stress Tax’.  

Unfortunately, this Tax has the potential of becoming even more burdensome as more people neglect the need to address the way they manage their Stress.  

Some say that we Bahamians have a reputation for being reactive rather than proactive...

S ome may argue that present economic challenges dwarf in comparison to the insurmountable hardships of war, epidemics and extreme poverty experienced by past generations.  

The colorful scrolls of the history are stained with many periods of incredible destitution experienced by travelers of yesterday.   And during a time without modern conveniences, these brave souls employed their imagination and faced life in its unrefined form; overcoming so called obstacles and courageously building the foundation on which we have erected our very lives.

Taking a look at the severity of challenges endured by the nation builders of yester year, the question you should ask yourself is...

Stress is our mental, physical and behavioral response to anxiety-producing events.   Too much of which, can result in serious physical, psychological, interpersonal or performance problems.

Stress is quoted as the number one cause of many adverse health conditions; effectively reducing efficiency and productivity at work, causes increased irritability, work pressures and annoyance.  

Problems stress can cause include...

Most people put off achieving the things that they desire because they have little faith in their own possibility.   What about you?   What have you concluded is possible for your life?   What does your ideal life look like?

Designing your best life begins by you acceptance of a new truth about yourself.   The story that you have bought and are currently replaying is mostly made up by others; your parents, teachers etc.   Like many other, you have had little input in what you call the story of your life.   Who you are and what you can achieve.

The beauty about life is at any point you can shift, change, adjust, adapt, recreated and or redesign.

While there may be many who have decided to go along with the highly touted depressed economy, I encourage you to keep your mind on the prosperity side of life, rather than the scarcity side.

Whether you are experiencing challenges or not, you do not need a personal economic crisis to decide to adopt new habits and make better decisions for your life.   Why not choose consistent self-improvement miles ahead of the game?   Effectively managing unforeseen challenges means that you are focused on the future, not on the past.

Think about it, the majority of folks sit back, wait for stuff to happen, become filled with anxiety; as such they react rather than respond...

Here we grow again! It’s a brand new year filled with new opportunities and enormous possibilities, the question is how many will you take hold of, develop and express?   Will you continue with the same old concepts and achieve the same unfulfilling results?   Or will you shed the old and embrace a new approach that will enable you to experience the quality of life that you truly desire?

Believe it or not, you are always at choice to make the necessary decisions to improve yourself; but nothing will change until you change.   Defining specific goals for your life is a critical step in your journey; if you fail to plan, you literally plan to fail.   Moreover, if you aim at nothing specific, you will get nothing specific...

The old saying that ‘my word is my bond’ is a powerful affirmation that builds confidence and helps you to become a reliable individual.

But the frustration of material pursuit, cause many to pay little attention to their words; dispensing them frivolously without regard. Most have adopted the attitude to ‘fake it until they make it’; saying whatever they need to say or what they think people want to hear.

While this approach may appear successful, when you look beyond the surface it yields a hollow experience.   Because whether you know it or not, your words are the bricks with which you build your life...

With the constant speed of change and the rapidly shifting economic forecasts, remaining relevant is essential to both your credibility and viability.

There is no question that the world is transitioning through a major paradigm shift; moving from an era where we wait for change to happen, towards a new age where we instead happen to change in advance.

The sad part though is that because most people have outsourced there personal power, they are driven towards expecting a ‘hand out’ rather than seeking a ‘hand up’; essentially keeping themselves in a state of learnt helplessness.   And so any such wave of change meets them ill-equipped and unprepared to navigate life challenges...

W henever people ask me about success, my first thought is ‘what are they really seeking to be successful at?’   This is an interesting point, because most of the time success is viewed in isolation rather than in harmony.   However, successful living is about wholeness and balance in all areas of life.

Thriving at this level demands that you become fully engaged in your own excellence; learning and growing towards a richer life experience.  

Success is not a onetime event; it’s a continuous process towards becoming better...

It is said that you cannot give to another what you do not possess.   If this is true then we must also consider the thought that you cannot project anger towards another unless you are first angry with yourself.   Whatever you internalize is eventually materialized.  

When issues of aggression rise to the surface, it is merely the framework of a deeper inner wound.   But we become so caught up in the outer drama that we are oblivious to these serious inner wounds.   The reality is no matter how much attention we give to outer issues, nothing will change until we focus on inner-healing.

Effective conflict resolution is readily achievable when the focus of attention is driven towards creative solutions that resolve inner chaos...

Successful business owners know that success is not a happenstance; they understand that it requires vision, commitment and a sincere degree of focus to obtain their slice of the pie.

Thus, to thrive in today’s increasingly crowded marketplace, businesses must remain consistently innovative and connected to the needs of their customers.

But how does this seemingly sound principle play out in our local Bahamian business arena?

Where is your business going?

I may be wrong, but I truly believe that there is a crucial reason why the Creator provided human beings with two hands and one mouth; it is suppose to clue us in that we ought to talk less and act more.   But this theory appears to have gone straight over our heads, since most people are pros at talking but amateurs on the matter of taking action.  

Throughout history it is clear that people recognized that effective living is a process of focused, consistent action over a period of time.   At some point we must drop the talk and begin to act; building muscles of resilience and willpower, to accomplish goals and manage life challenges.  

Nothing will happen until you act!

I'm sure you have heard it before – the race is not to the swiftest but to those who endure to the end; even so, many individuals are still driven by the notion that they must win right now or they won’t win at all.  

But with the superman speed with which we chase behind everything (except our true self) most of us are really not giving ourselves time to endure the race.   We are either disengaged or obsessed with what we see rather than what they feel in our hearts.  

This causes many to subscribe to the delusion that everything they see they need to have and they need to have it now.   Of course this is the kind of fallacy that eventually lead to resentfulness towards life itself; causing people to settle for the sidelines of their life’s game...

T he word success is tossed around to describe almost any achievement, whether positive or negative.   Even the devastation of a suicide bombing may be considered a ‘success’ to the perpetrators.   At best, definitions of success are subjective; as it means different things to different people and I would hasten to add that it means different things to different people at different points in their life transition.

From this perspective you must continuously define what success means to you depending on where you are in your transition. Clarifying and redefining success allows you to competently determine whether you are moving towards or away from your picture of success.

One of the greatest disservices that many pay to their individuality is allowing their round peg to be squeezed into a square hole.   Adopting someone else’s blueprint may not adequately serve your life purpose and could result in an unfulfilling life experience...  

Achievements demands that you be prepared or at least have a plan of preparation.   Many are stuck in the mode of “fitting to go”, when in actuality they are not even close to getting out of the gate, due to lack of preparation.  

In an independent country, flowing with opportunities of higher education, better healthcare, entrepreneurial possibilities etc.; many people still live in a state of dissatisfaction.  

This discontentment creates frustration and hinders any sense of gratitude for even the simplest of things; such as the freedom to board a flight to anywhere at anytime.   A gift that many people may consider a luxury.

In a small society such as ours, where we create very little but consume so very much; one would think that the habit of good ‘ole’ gratefulness would be a part of our daily mantra.   Not so; the seeming systemic attitude of ‘entitlement’ permeates everywhere...  

The person that you eventually become is determined by what you believe about yourself, the kind of the people that you hang around and the quality of information that you absorb.

Not only are these factors critical in constructing who you become, they also weigh heavily on your ability to consistently become better.    Ultimately, improving your personal performance depends on your willingness to evolve towards a better version of yourself.

But - let’s face it – the idea of assessing our personal performance is foreign to most individuals and the notion to improve it, is simply not on our agenda.   This is because most people believe that their personal performance is calculated by the number of things they possess; when in truth, it is a measurement of the person that they become...