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It Isn’t Personal

Seek to understand, for with understanding comes acceptance, peace, and – in many instances – love. We cannot hate what we understand. Remove the ego. Everyone you meet, every person who makes you smile, dance, cringe, swear, and scream, each one is simply trying to get through the day the best way she knows how. Each is striving to become the person he wants to be. Each is working to live the life she wants to live. Whatever pain anyone in your life may cause you, remember this: It isn't personal. It is simply a product of that person moving…

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Living a Life of No Regrets

A life of purpose cannot be defined by a singular accomplishment. Each person has a unique combination of gifts and abilities that make up their contribution to the world. I highly encourage reaching for the stars, but you don't have to be a Pulitzer Prize winner to leave a legacy. Leaving a legacy and living a life with no regrets is more about embracing the lessons life teaches. It is about having the wisdom to grow, learn, expand and change when needed. So What Exactly is a Legacy? A legacy is what you leave behind for the world to remember.…

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Michelle Ernsdorff

Following Your Internal GPS

Have no regrets, for each decision you have made and each step you have taken has led you to this moment today. And in this moment you owe it to yourself to be thankful for that long and windy path that lies in your yesterday (because it is over and you made it!!) and to be excited about the unknown curves that will certainly come your way as you approach your tomorrow. Of course, we each have an idea of who it is that we want to be, and what it is that we want to accomplish, and where it…

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What I Learned From Grief

The moment my dad died, my life changed forever. It crystallized the sobering reality that tomorrow or even the next minute is not promised to anyone. I had heard that phrase many times in my life, but to witness my father take his last breath when I was only 20 years old made it come alive inside of me. Although we cannot control when or how our story ends, we can maximize the time we have and create a beautiful story for our lives every single day. I am committed to get to the good part and not put my…

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Art Markman

Looking Back to Move Forward

There are all kinds of strategies for thinking about time that aim to inspire. We often look forward in order to envision the life we want and then use that aspiration to create a plan to create our future. Of course, we are also cautioned to “live in the present” so that we do not allow precious hours to slip away. After all, tomorrow never comes, it is always today. But, I would like to suggest a different orientation. At least once a year, it is important to take a lesson from research on regret. When you ask young people…

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Making Choices with Love

I've learned that I regret not so much the choices that I make, but the choices that I don't; not so much the things that I've done, but the things I haven't done. Not so much "mistakes" made, for there are truly no mistakes, only opportunities not explored. And there is the seed of growth and development in each of these. I've learned to allow myself to become, more and more, the witness and the witnessed, the seer and the seen, the observer and the observed. And I've learned to do this with a minimum of judgment. Although not with…

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Regret vs. Gratitude

Regret is something that none of us want and yet all of us have. It's the rare human that doesn't feel regret over some aspect of their life. The past few days have been a time of introspection for me over a decision I made five years ago. For about ten years I owned a place in Montana called Dreaming Bear Ranch, which was my refuge from the world. I searched for three years to find this spectacular piece of heaven.  As a result of divorce and the resulting financial situation, I sold Dreaming Bear Ranch in 2004 as a…

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