Tag Archives: Change and Personal Empowerment

My Success Formula (pt 3) Knowledge

Posted on by
3

(Part 2) Are you OK?  O and K are the first two factors in my personal success formula.  O stands for Outcome.  K stands for Knowledge.  To be OK, you’ve first got to have a vision of where you are going and then the knowledge or faith that you can get there. If we don’t we tend to feel lost, bored, uninspired, and not really excited about anything.

Self-Knowledge Is Vital

It is our vision that provides a sneak peek of the outcome we desire and gives us that spark of faith and energy that we need to get moving.  We clarify and bring our vision into focus through reflection, inspiration, and meditation.  Once we know where we want to go, knowledge helps us to understand “how” to get there.  Knowledge is so vital that we begin the success formula with it. We must “know” ourselves before we can utilize our gifts, talents, desires, and resources.  For, unless we acknowledge what makes us unique and special, how can we take advantage of the opportunities, possibilities, and options available to us.

Knowledge Is Not a Static Event

You should never stop learning.  Knowledge is an indispensable element throughout my success formula.  It is not a static event, but instead is ongoing. When you stop learning you stop growing.  When you stop growing, you die; perhaps not physically, but certainly spiritually, mentally, and professionally.   That’s why immediately after you’ve decided on what you want to achieve, your next step is to create a plan to learn your craft to excellence.  (More on KNOWLEDGE)

  1. What do you need to know to get better at your craft?
  2. What do you need to know to be a better person?
  3. What do you need to know to be healthier?
  4. How do you plan to serve?
  5. What do you need to know to earn a living by your gifts and talents?
  6. How do you plan to “grow” this year?

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.

My Success Formula-(pt 2) Vision and Outcome

Posted on by
5

O=Outcome

(Success Formula Part 1) Let’s start with your outcome or the results you want to manifest. This is why vision is so critical.  It charts your course after you decide the course of your earthly journey.  That’s a gift we’ve inherited at birth as co-creators.  We choose and then we focus our energies.  That’s how we move toward ours dreams.  It’s stands to reason that we must have a dream if we are to have a dream come true.  Step 1: Decide on the outcome you want to create.  What do you want?  What is manifesting right now in your life?  Are you moving in the right direction or do you need to change course?  What harvest is resulting from the seeds you have planted in the past?

You are not an innocent bystander in life.

Your input (or lack of it) helped to create your output.  You are creating reality with your every word, thought, belief, expectation, and deed. You are the master of your destiny, the captain of your ship, the CEO of your life.  So, if your current reality or outcome is a result of your own making, how do you use this knowledge to your advantage?  You use this power of vision and focus to chart your own course.

Vision- See the Outcome You Want

We’ve been taught that we should “begin with the end” in mind.  What is the outcome you desire?  What do you want to happen or not to happen in your life?  You must be clear.  Example:  “I want to make a living by my calling.”  In this example I would have to define what that calling is.  I think a purposeful life is a good way to start any endeavor.  What is your calling?  Answering the following seven questions will help you to find your true calling and help you to get “on track, or back on track if you’re sliding off.”  “Work” used in the following questions relates to the service you are providing to earn a living or to make a contribution to society. (Part 3 of Success Formula: KNOWLEDGE)

  1. What gift or talent do you have that sets you apart from others?
  2. What comes easily to you but hard for others?
  3. What gives you joy doing it?
  4. What do you love doing?
  5. What “work” would you continue to do even if you were not paid to do it?  (If all your needs were met.)
  6. What “work” do you perform that doesn’t feel like work?
  7. What “work” do you find yourself just getting lost in and losing track of time?

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.

My Success Formula

Posted on by
3

Success is consistently manifesting the outcomes we choose.  I have had many successes in my life, a marriage for several decades, six smart wonderful children, six books, certitude in spirituality, and the bounty of finding and developing my unique talents:  motivating others through speaking, writing, and poetry.  I have been blessed to live on purpose!  Yes, I’ve had challenges too, but I know that what we focus on magnifies in our lives, so I choose to focus on what I’d like to see more of instead.  A powerful liberating thought I learned years ago was that life is choice!  We have the power to choose the life we want to live.  We just have to be willing to create it.

People routinely ask me, “Barbara, how do you do it?”   One of my success formulas is: (O=K+B+T+E+A).

I believe …

You fill in the blank.   Everything that I’ve ever accomplished started with a desire and belief that I could do it. What do you believe about your potential, possibilities, and probabilities?   Why does it matter what we believe?  Well, our beliefs are the foundation and driving force of our lives.  Our core beliefs influence everything especially our thoughts.  Our thoughts formulate our goals and expectations.  Our expectations determine what we actually do.  And finally, our actions create or contribute to our outcomes.  Of course there are some things that are not under our control, but many are.  There is a cause and effect whether we cognizant of it or not. In the next few posts I’ll discuss each element in my formula and its connection to our successes, results, or outcomes.  Part 2 of Success Formula

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.

Facing Change With Faith

Posted on by
1

With all the fear in the air, it’s easy to get paralyzed, confused, and apathetic.  But, for leaders and winners, change implies, taking charge.  And, those that take charge are noticed and rewarded! We have a choice; we can be swept up by change or we can learn to face it, embrace it, and manage it.  We must be firm, yet flexible at the same time.  Spencer Johnson’s #1 bestseller, ‘Who Moved My Cheese’ tackles this subject with humor and insight.  If you haven’t read it already, you’ll want to read it. It inspires great thought and offers a wonderful perspective on how to deal with change.  In it he uses four characters, Sniff and Scurry and Hem and Haw to represent the search for cheese in the maze of life.

What’s Your Cheese?

The Cheese in the story is symbolic of whatever we spend our lives searching for to make us happy.  The maze represents the search for our own particular cheese and the twists and turns in life we encounter defining our cheese, locating our cheese, enjoying our cheese, protecting our cheese, and preparing for when our cheese is moved.  The characters Sniff and Scurry are represented as mice. Their lives are simple and uncomplicated. They search and find cheese using a trial and error method. They have a routine that works.  They arise early, race to work, do what they need to do and enjoy the cheese they find. They always stay prepared, alert, and ready to make changes when they are necessary without over analyzing the situation.  When the cheese moves, they move.

Stop Hemming and Haw-ing

Hem and Haw are Little People.  Their lives are a bit more complicated.  They wind up at the same place as the mice and enjoy the cheese for many years.  They get complacent however and don’t plan for change.  They don’t stay prepared.  They don’t remain alert, and they have no contingency plans.  They expect that the cheese they have found will always be there.  They also expect that if it moves, they are entitled to be compensated.  Even when it becomes obvious that the cheese is no longer there, they ignore blatant facts.  All four characters however, each based on their vision, values, and virtues search for their own kind of cheese, define what cheese means to them, and handle change in their own way.

So,  what are you searching for in life?  What does that goal you’ve defined really mean to you?  Changes will happen, if they haven’t already, stay tuned.  If they have already happened and are making your goal more elusive, what are you doing about it?  Are you hemming and haw-ing?  Or are you facing change with faith and realizing that it’s time to sniff out a new plan, stop procrastinating, and scurry and find your happiness.

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.

Let’s Talk Race!

Posted on by
Reply

The Onion Network did a spoof on race on their satirical internet news show.  A pretty young 16-year old white girl stabs her classmate to death with a screwdriver.  The judge declares that she is to be tried as an adult 300 pound black man.  Her mother replies, “We’re going to make sure that Hanna is treated with the sympathy and sensitivity that she as a photogenic white girl deserves.“ Her father laments, “Nobody deserves to be treated as a black man!“ They went on to say if she had to be tried as an African- American, at least make her a celebrity or a “stunningly beautiful Filipino.”  FUNNY? INSENSITIVE? CREATIVE SATIRE? ENTERTAINING PARODY? EDUCATIONAL? INFORMATIVE? {NOW, BE AWARE: THIS IS NOT TRUE} But it does make you think, doesn’t it?

Please comment and tell me what you think.

While the above satire is not true, many incidents of race are.  The above fake story on the Onion network had about 1000 tweets and 137,941 views in just two days of its release on January 23rd when I looked at it on the 25th.  From, some of the comments after the Youtube video (which had over 71,000 views), some people actually thought it was true and were admittedly very angry about it.  But, why, incite anger?  As I’ve said before, “If you don’t want people playing the race card, then take it out of the deck!”   I’m trying real hard to not think of race, but when I see reminders of reality through realistic faux news like this, and REAL stories like, NAACP fears another lynching in Mississippi, and the Governor of Maine tells the NAACP to “Kiss my butt,” and a Louisiana Judge Refusing an Inter-racial Marriage,  it causes me to go hmmm.  But, what’s your take?  Now, to be fair, these are three instances that cause alarm, we have even more examples of us working together, colorblind, in unity.  So, to balance the story, please share stories of where race unity is working too and racism does not exist!

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.