Is it true that man is the product of his environment? The answer is NO, because growing up in Haiti in times of political instability, insecurity and extreme poverty, the fate of my life couldn’t be anything but an enormous failure. I would not let circumstances define who I am but instead who I am would change my circumstances — and who I am is a conqueror.

Indeed, it took me some time to fully understand who I am; nevertheless, when I finally figured it out, nothing could stop me from living up to that standard. During my journey to discover the purpose of my existence, I have found these 7 wisdoms that inspire me to hold on to my dream no matter where life takes me.

1. Know your Creator: Until you come to know or acknowledge your Creator, you cannot discover the purpose of your life and you won’t find the strength to excel beyond your circumstances. By knowing your Creator and following His guidance, you will achieve fulfillment in the pursuit of your dreams.
2. Stay focused: Many people live a mediocre life because they let circumstances around them make them jump out of the wagon of their dreams. Life’s obstacles should fuel your desire to achieve your dreams, not surrender them. When you are focusing on your dream, even your failures serve as momentums to success.
3. Be patient: Nowadays, people tend to microwave everything, even their way to success. Following and accomplishing your dream requires time, effort and dedication. Therefore you have to be patient, knowing that God’s timing is different from yours.
4. Be true to yourself: When you are true to yourself, you know who you are, your belief and values. You don’t let other people’s opinions influence your life and your decisions. You know your flaws, accept yourself for who you are, and always take responsibility for your actions. By being true to yourself, you spend less time worrying about other people’s view of you or pretending to be someone else, and more time focusing on your dreams.
5. Be humbled: Sometimes we let pride get into our heads and take credit for the things we’ve accomplished. Nonetheless, one thing we need to be reminded of is that we rarely achieve anything all on our own; someway, somehow we’ve been helped and more importantly we need to recognize that our talents are gifts from God. Being humbled is to grant access to others to enjoy your success and celebrate with you.
6. Be thankful: Learning to appreciate everything that life has to offer will go a long way towards a happy and fulfilled life. Don’t be thankful only when things are good and going your way, but be thankful also when they are not good. Everything happens for a reason, so instead of wasting time and energy in being angry and complaining, just close your eyes, take a deep breath and thank God.
7. Take time for yourself: In the pursuit of your dream, don’t let pressure and frustration wear you out. Sometimes you need to step back to take time to reconnect, re-evaluate and relax in order to enjoy your success when it comes.

This post was originally published on InspireMeToday.com. Leave a comment or share this post by visiting 7 Pearls of Wisdom for a Happy and Fulfilled Life.

This post was originally published on InspireMeToday.com. Leave a comment or share this post by visiting Life’s obstacles should fuel your desire to achieve your dreams, not surrender them..

As a female baby boomer, I am proud that my generation of women has made many forward strides with women’s rights and workplace equity, but there’s still so much that needs to be done. Gen Y Women – your combination of a clean slate, fresh insight on technology, and family values has the potential to change the world. It’s up to your generation now!

To help you with this, I’m giving you a gift of the wisdom I’ve learned.

Take Charge of Your Life Today. Do you really know what you value, what your important roles are, and what YOUR PASSION is? Identifying any of these is the most important step you can take for yourself. Don’t just think about this – actually write down your values, roles, and passion. When you have identified what matters deeply, you can use these three insights to make decisions about how to live your life. Make sure you review them often, and make adjustments if circumstances in your life change.

Make it a Priority to Learn the Language of Your Organization. Whether you are a volunteer, an entrepreneur, or an employee with a Fortune 500 company, every organization has its own language, products, services, processes, and tools. You need to soak up all the knowledge you can. You don’t have to be an expert in everything; however, you need to be aware of what your organization does, how it does it, and how it goes to market. By knowing these, you will be able to participate in and contribute to conversations about various parts of the business – this increases your credibility.

Learn to Collaborate. This is not compromise, and it’s not cooperation. Collaboration is (1) both an outcome and a process (2) in which shared interest or conflict that cannot be addressed by any single individual (3) is addressed by the team members (4) in order to achieve what is best for the organization. Once you know how to collaborate,  learn how to lead others to work together.

Create Your Own Personal Advisory Board (PAB). You’re never too young or too old to start building a personal advisory board. This is more than a network – it’s a small core of people who care about your success and assist you by providing their advice, contacts, and knowledge. They may end up saving you from yourself.

Have Friends of All Ages. Your generation does a better job than previous generations with diversity (thank goodness).  Are you aware of the advantages of having friends of all ages? Friends of all ages bring different points-of-view, experience, different interests, and new ideas. I’m sure you know older people with young mindsets and young people with older mindsets.

Finally, Pay It Forward. When you are the recipient of a favor, do a favor for at least three other people. Even if you’re not the recipient of a favor today, you have been in the past. Pay It Forward is one of the greatest gifts you can give.

That’s what I’m doing right now.

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This post was originally published on InspireMeToday.com. Leave a comment or share this post by visiting When you are the recipient of a favor, do a favor for at least three other people. Even if you’re not the recipient of a favor today, you have been in the past. Pay It Forward is one of the greatest gifts you can give..

Love with your heart, not your eyes.

Pick your battles wisely.

Never, ever give up: you might miss the miracle!

Believe in miracles.

There is beauty everywhere; open your eyes to see it.

Be grateful, for everything.

Trust the greater plan is better than the life you think you must have.

You might have strength beyond what you could ever imagine.

Faith is critical.

It’s not all about you.

The time you don’t make for someone could be everything to them.

Love unconditionally.

Communicate! No matter what, ALWAYS say your truth. Just make sure and say it nicely.

Set boundaries.

Once you say no, don’t feel guilty about it.

Embrace your past, no matter what mistakes it might include, it helped make you fabulous.

Before you act or speak, think about how it might affect others.

Possessions do not matter, experiences do.

Make sure your children feel loved, safe and supported.

Do everything you can to make a difference in people’s lives.

Never judge your life by looking at others’ exterior.

Live in the now, today, this moment.

Do not have fear about anyone or anything: it will paralyze you.

Be willing to take risks in life and love.

Use wisdom as you make your choices.

Slow down.

Never ignore red flags.

Never settle! Always have faith that something and someone amazing are out there for you — it’s all in the timing.

Believe you are fabulous and loved.

Forgive yourself.

It doesn’t matter what others think about you.

Honor your word.

Make your wrongs right. No matter how scared you are, the outcome might not be as bad as you think it is going to be.

Ask for help and let others help you when you need it.

Love the people that provide the greatest challenges even more than the ones you love.

Do not blame others for your actions: take responsibility for what you’ve done, the life you’ve created.

Don’t say things that are hurtful or that you don’t mean. They cannot be taken back, but they can dramatically impact another human’s life far more than you might imagine.

Don’t punish people with silence because they cannot read your mind or don’t act the way you want them to.

Always communicate your wants, needs and desires.

Be willing to let people go if they can’t meet your needs, wants and desires, even if it means being alone.

Don’t try to make people be what you want them to be.

Let go of the life you believe you must have in order to receive the life you deserve.

Always love the true person, not the fantasy of what you think they could be.

Never try to change people.

Accept your circumstances, or change them (if you can).

It’s a waste of time to stay in a bad situation with your only action complaining.

Be aware of actions, yours and the actions of others, actions do speak louder than words.

Life is hard and unfair at times, so focus on the good!

This post was originally published on InspireMeToday.com. Leave a comment or share this post by visiting Life CAN Be Great – It’s a Choice!.

This post was originally published on InspireMeToday.com. Leave a comment or share this post by visiting We all have the capability to make a difference, to accept what we are given, to love with our heart and live life to the fullest, or not: it’s up to us..

Do you suffer from moments of panic, anxiety, or fear far greater than the actual threat at hand? Excessive fear has a way of taking an otherwise enjoyable day and turning it into a nightmare, and an otherwise productive life and turning it into a minefield.

Excessive fear in daily life usually stems from frightening experiences we’ve had early on. When fear within us is unresolved, it continues to come up until we can find a way to release it. But you don’t have to relive the fear, or even know where it came from, in order to let it go.

You can learn to release fear naturally and safely, and that’s what Max Highstein’s course Say Goodbye To Anxiety is all about. If fear is a problem for you, take the first step to freedom from fear today. You choose the price for this 3 week course!

Register now!

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“How do I discover who I am deep within? How can I realize what’s my true passion, my true purpose in life? How can I improve myself? How can I tap into the strength within me? Do help!” ~ Sabha, Alleppey, India

Dear Sabha,

To discover who you are and what your purpose is, the first question you need to ask yourself is, “What brings me joy?” Your life purpose is always aligned with what fulfills you in your heart. Most people have an idea of what this is, but don’t feel that it is their life purpose. This can be for many reasons, such as they don’t feel that it can make them money, or they don’t see their purpose as important enough.

The best thing that you can do to improve yourself is to make time to connect with your deep inner self. This can be done in prayer, meditation, or just by making time to connect with you. Discovering the strength within you is all about believing in yourself, and that takes place through having a positive relationship with you. Find small ways to love and appreciate yourself each day; such as speaking positive to and about yourself, using affirmations, and participating in activities you enjoy.

When you put yourself at the center of your life, you will realize that it becomes much easier for you to recognize the strength, beauty, joy and gifts that have always been there within you!

Karen Downing

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If I only had a few shards of wisdom to leave this world, I’d go straight for the bull’s eye. What’s life about anyway? I think it’s about being happy. However, that road to happiness includes learning how to heal pain and connect to that source of healing. It’s learning how to experience your version of God (or whatever you want to call it).

It all begins in the mysterious world of the subconscious mind, the place where our pain is harbored. All emotion is born to be experienced. When we experience emotion fully, it will vaporize and dissolve into the cosmos. The only problem is we all have a natural tendency to avoid unpleasant emotion. So we unknowingly and unintentionally avoid our pain, anger and fear. Then, it get suppressed into the subconscious mind.

When emotion is trapped in the subconscious mind, it lies there dormant yet very alive, wanting to be experienced. The subconscious mind will then do everything in its power to create scenarios for us to experience these little bundles of pain, in order for them to complete their life cycle. Perfect circumstances in our physical world will be created for our pain to be experienced. If we continue to avoid the pain (and suppress it back into the subconscious), we’ll begin to see repeating patterns of the same pain.

To prevent repeating pain, it’s a good idea to learn how to let it go. It can be easily done in deep states of relaxation or meditation. When someone goes into a deeply relaxed state, the subconscious mind is opened up. At that point, suppressed emotion can be called up, readily identified, and released. Mostly, it’s simply relaxing on a deep level, feeling the emotion, and letting it go. It’s not difficult to learn and can be mastered with a little practice, even by children.

The net result is that patterns of suffering eventually stop and life improves. Furthermore, if you continue to deeply meditate, you will discover there is something else living in the subconscious mind besides suppressed pain. It’s the Universal Life Force (God, the Divine, etc.) that lives inside all of us. It’s the ultimate source of healing, creativity, abundance and miracles. It’s also an amazing energy that can be personally experienced to enhance any area of life, including health, relationships, finances, personal growth and spirituality. Most people I have met, have experienced it at least once. They just didn’t recognize it for what it was. But believe me, once you recognize it, you will never forget it. It’s absolutely transformational.

When we enter the subconscious mind, we can connect with the Divine in any way we choose because the Divine lives in the imagination. Imagine your relationship with the Divine in any way you wish and the Divine will respond in like manner. It’s a life-long mystical journey of evolution. And it the only thing that matters.

This post was originally published on InspireMeToday.com. Leave a comment or share this post by visiting Healing Your Pain.

This post was originally published on InspireMeToday.com. Leave a comment or share this post by visiting The curious mind naturally cultivates a certain level of necessary detachment to connect to your Creator..

Your imagination is the most powerful tool you possess. Use it wisely. It has the ability to create the most amazing, beautiful, fun-filled life of “awesomeness” you can imagine or destroy it all and leave you wallowing in the mud of fear and confusion.

We live in an energetic Universe. Everything is just energy, even your thoughts and words. The key is to become aware of, and direct the thoughts you are thinking and the words you are saying. They are your point of attraction (what the Universe sends your way) and your inspiration for action. Both of which create your reality.

If you will make the effort, and it DOES take effort, to consciously decide what you want to think and speak about, you can bring your wildest dreams to fruition.

When you get excited and really FEEL what it feels like to have the dream life you are imagining, you not only take the necessary steps effortlessly, but you also engage the magic of attraction. Seemingly unrelated events and people will show up and things will somehow fall serendipitously into place.

Do you know what you want to create? Most people don’t. Most people only know what they DON’T want. I encourage you to really take a look at your life. What have you created so far? Do you like it? If you’re not following your passion, then it’s time to get really clear on what it is you DO want.

You have gifts and talents and experiences that make you unique. There is no one else that can do things EXACTLY like you. And YOU are a much needed piece in this jigsaw puzzle of life! You are here for a reason!

You must recognize your own brilliance by quieting your mind and going within. Discover what makes you truly happy. What lights you up? This is where you are meant to shine and be a contribution to the world.

So very often we aren’t even aware of our genius because it comes so naturally to us. We labor under the false belief that if it’s easy, it must not be of much value.

But, that’s so far from the TRUTH! It’s easy for you because it’s YOUR gift and it’s NOT easy for someone else. Never dim your own light to make someone else more comfortable.

Step into your power as a Conscious Creator, using your gifts and talents and most of all your precious imagination and create a life you love! By doing that, you not only fulfill the role that you play in this world, but you also give someone else permission and inspiration to shine their own light more brightly.

The more each one of us is able to focus our thoughts, words and actions to follow our dreams and create a life we love, the more harmony, love and abundance we create here on planet earth. It’s a simple ripple effect that can change the world. Are you ready to get started?

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This post was originally published on InspireMeToday.com. Leave a comment or share this post by visiting Life is an adventure and should be treated as such. It’s about creating, getting feedback and creating again!.