Tag Archives: Vision

My Success Formula (pt 3) Knowledge

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(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

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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.

7 Steps on A Faith Walk

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Make Sure Your Steps Are Faith-based NOT Fear-based.

They say that it is, “always darkest before the dawn.”  Meaning that, it is the darkest right before the light appears.   I’ve had some truly dark times indeed.  But, now, I not only can see the dawn, but a brilliant light all around.  So many opportunities and possibilities are within my grasp but there is an equal or greater number of pitfalls and potholes.  I can let the darkness paralyze me or proceed in faith.   I choose to proceed in faith and know that I am not alone and will be guided around the potholes in life.  So I encourage you to follow your dreams. Hold on if you’re convinced you are on the right boat, and jump ship if you aren’t and start swimming in the direction of your dreams.  When times get dark, visibility is poor, but who knows your wildest dreams may be just a step ahead.  Seven steps on a faith walk are below.  Enjoy and share.

7 Steps on a Faith Walk

  1. Don’t give up on your dreams when times get tough.  That’s the time to hold on tighter because it’s always darkest before the dawn.
  2. Seek advice and encouragement so that you can make a wise decision, but make the final decision yourself.  If necessary or possible, limit conversations and contact with negative, toxic, and fear-focused people.
  3. Make sure that your decisions are faith-based instead of fear-based.  Faith gives you hope.  Fear increases doubt.
  4. Take the faith walk a day at a time or a step at a time.  When it’s dark, it’s hard to see that far ahead so take each step in faith and confidence.  Everyday do something major or minor that will get you closer to your dream.
  5. Pray for guidance, fortify your faith, get up and act, and go after your dreams with tenacity.
  6. Realize that you may not get the support you need from those who love you the most.  It’s your dream and only you have been privileged through your vision to see a sneak preview of coming attractions.  You may have to take that faith walk alone.
  7. Finish the Faith Walk.  Go after your dreams as if you were fighting a gorilla.  Don’t stop when you get tired, stop when the gorilla gets tired.

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out my promo sheet or visit  my website.

Find Your Own Truth

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Discernment is the Goal

Oprah routinely asks her guests, “What do you know for sure?”  That’s a good question for all of us to reflect on and answer. Part of our responsibility for receiving this gift of life is to be searching and discerning.  We must take this life seriously. One of the best ways to do this is to learn to discern the good from the bad, truth from falsehood, and right from wrong.  That’s our job, to stay in the light and on the straight path.  We must independently investigate truth and not accept everything that we hear, see, and are taught.  We are responsible for living our best life so, we must be true to ourselves.

We Must Validate Truth

We must use our brains, our thought processing center, our human CPU (central processing center) to validate our input.  It is our thoughts that create our reality.  Reflect on the Buddha’s words, “We are what we think, having become what we thought.” The goal is to create more and more good in this life.  Surely our purpose for enduring this earthly existence with all of its pains, trials, and tribulations  couldn’t have been to “create more bad, evil, falsehood, and wrongs.”  No intelligent mind could come to this conclusion after serious reflective contemplation and meditation!

So, what do you know, for sure?

I’m Barbara Talley, The Poet who speaks and inspires.   To find more about me, check out What does Barbara do? or visit  my website.

Independently Investigate Truth

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It can be dangerous to just blindly follow the majority.

Nothing is off-limits today, from health, identity, race, ideologies, war, to religion.  We have been told who and what to believe and trust and who and what to fear and hate.  We follow the leaders or turn a blind eye even though our hearts tell us something contrary.  The enlightened are learning that they must do their own research: search their hearts and make their own conscious decisions.  Consider how time disproves many facts that people once accepted without question.  In 1964 more than half of all adult men smoked; it was the norm. People were taught that smoking was okay and almost nothing about second-hand smoke.  Now we know that both the smokers and those exposed to second-hand smoking are at risk.  Once we thought that smoking was safe, now we know it is the leading causes of preventable deaths.

What Are You Accepting Without Question?

Are you accepting the cultural, religious, and political fears, hatreds, or biases fed to you?  Are you accepting the limitations defined statistically for people who look like you, talk like you, dress like you, or who are your gender, ethnicity, or color?   Ideologies are one thing, but it is just as important to be informed about your health.  We don’t like who we see in the mirror and are afraid of aging, spending billions to avoid a natural process. Instead of changing our diets, lifestyles, and stopping catering to our addictions, we are accepting pills and medications as a way of life.  Some take a pill to get up, a pill to relax, a pill to arouse you and one to get to sleep.  Enough already!  What are you accepting today as fact, without question, that tomorrow may be proven catastrophic to your health.   We’ve been told to brush with fluoride toothpaste and fluoride has been added to all public water systems.  Now that too is under question.  One research study found that kids drinking water without fluoride had IQ’s that were eight points higher. Fluoride means lower IQ and more mental retardation. You are responsible for you and if you are a caretaker, for your children.  Before you believe something, check it out.   Before you put anything in your mouth, check it out.  Before you put something in your mind, check it out!  As the United Negro College slogan asserts, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Here’s to more conscious thinking in 2011.  Your life and even our planet’s survival depends on it.

I’m Barbara Talley, The Poet who speaks and inspires.   To find more about me, check out my promo sheet or visit  my website.