Dance With The Elephant

10 Reasons to Challenge Yourself

 

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

"Because your life is worth it!"

 

Photo: sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk 

***THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS NOT WRITTEN BY DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT - THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND AT: http://mylifeneeds.com/index.php/115-emotional-needs/challenge/80-10-reasons-to-challenge-yourself***

 

10 Reasons to Challenge Yourself

Written by Jay Yarbrough

 

This article lists ten excellent reasons to challenge yourself and how they enhance our lives.

Challenging ourselves is one of the most important things we can do to increase our quality of life. By doing so, we not only improve as individuals but also enhance the lives of those around us and our communities, as well.

#1 Grow as an individual

It all starts with you. The below challenges will all help you grow as a person but there's even more than that. Engage in self-searching, learn who you are by writing, work on being more genuine, kind, honest, considerate, spontaneous, spiritual, etc. Much of growing as an individual will be related to the Behavior Needs categories.

#2 Attain awareness, knowledge and education

Not expanding your mind is a waste of life. A complacent, inactive mind is a sad thing. Make your mantra "I must seek awareness" and your universe will grow and grow. The more we know the more we realize how little we actually understand. It's inherently challenging and exciting! With the Internet, the all-time greatest library of knowledge is at your fingertips. Be curious and seek the truth about whatever interests you.

#3 Become healthier physically and mentally

Without health we have nothing. We can challenge ourselves to lose weight, eat better, exercise, get health care and educate ourselves on how to do so. A healthy body yields a healthy spirit.

#4 Build wealth

Money, money, money. We all want more but without challenging ourselves we are likely to not earn it. Money can't buy happiness but it can help us rest easier and enjoy life more! Set goals and challenge yourself to make more, save more and have more money, money, money.

#5 Become self sufficient

With the world economy struggling, more and more people depend on others to get by. Let's face it, it sucks to not be in control of your life. Challenge yourself to take the needed steps to put yourself in a position in which you can be the master of your own domain.

#6 Advance in your career

Are you satisfied with your career position? If you answered yes, then good for you! Unfortunately, most of us are not completely happy with our career and would like to make advancements within it. A conscious, well thought out set of goals can challenge us and help us improve our station in life.

#7 Become a better friend or partner

Conventional wisdom says friends, family and health are the most important things in life (I would add 'awareness'). Having good, real friends is mandatory for being happy, but are we being the best friend we can be? Do we listen enough? Do we reach out to our friends to show them we care? Being a good friend is real work and requires conscious, consistent effort. Challenging ourselves to become a better friend will unquestionably make your life (and your friends lives) more fulfilling.

#8 Seek inspiration and be more creative

All great artists eventually learn one golden rule: you must SEEK inspiration. If Vincent van Gogh waited around for inspiration to strike, we wouldn't have his incredible body of work to appreciate and he would have been even more unfulfilled. No matter what you do in life, you're in need of being creative and seeking inspiration is a never ending quest that requires real diligence. Challenging yourself to find ways to become inspired is a must.

#9 Gain new experiences and have more fun

The alarm clock goes off, we get up and go through our daily routines, then return home to finish off our day. Routines are effective but can bog us down into a mundane lifestyle. BORING! The truth is, it's easy to do the same old thing ~ it can even make us feel safe (a good thing). Why not challenge ourselves to try new things? By dong so we'll meet new people, learn new things, have more fun and grow as an individual. Heck, we may even be rewarded with new opportunities that may lead to a more fruitful career.

#10 Achieve happiness and peace

Happiness and peace are usually the end results of successful challenges, but they can be challenges all on their own. Why not challenge yourself to be more happy and find more peace? This will help you better understand exactly what it is you need to attain these two prized life goals.

 

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The Path to Personal Integrity

 

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

"Because your life is worth it!"

 

Photo: blogs.nature.com

***THIS ARTICLE IS FROM: http://experiencelife.com/article/walking-your-talk-the-path-of-personal-integrity/ WE AT DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT DID NOT WRITE IT.  WE ARE JUST SHARING IT!***

 

Walking Your Talk: The Path of Personal Integrity

Do you walk your talk? Say what you mean and mean what you say? Or does your language take you down roads you’re not willing to follow? Taking a closer look at how your words and deeds connect – or don’t – can help you see where you really stand.

EXPERIENCELIFE.COM

By Cat Thompson / March 2004

How’s that New Years Resolution coming along? Were you able to stick to it? Are you still putting in the same kind of committed energy that you started with back in January? Or did you get off to a running start and then find yourself petering out six weeks later?

If you’re not where you wanted to be, you may be wondering why. There are lots of reasons why we run afoul of our intentions. Sometimes we make a too-ambitious plan we simply don’t have the skills or energy to execute. Sometimes we find ourselves facing emotional roadblocks that we don’t know how to get through, so we run out of steam. But often, the forward movement comes to a screeching halt because we simply don’t keep our word to ourselves. We make promises (“Tomorrow I’ll get up early and go to the gym”), and then break them (“Awww, it’s raining, I think I’ll stay in bed. I’ll go to the gym on my way home”) – often for reasons we don’t even understand. Which brings me to what might be an uncomfortable question: How good are you to your word?

Words are powerful forces of creation. They take our dreams and goals and put them out there for all the world to witness. Florence Scovel Shinn, a metaphysician of the 1920s, said, “There is always plenty on man’s pathway; but it can only be brought into manifestation through desire, faith or the spoken word.” Every time we speak, we create a road of some sort. The quality of that road, and how far it goes, will be directly related to the integrity of our word.

Speaking With Integrity

What exactly is integrity? According to the dictionary, integrity is “the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards, and the state of being complete, undivided, sound or undamaged.” Integrity, then, is having high principles and keeping those standards consistent throughout all the different parts of the self.

One of the first places integrity issues show up is in our language patterns. When we are “in integrity,” we speak from a place of wholeness. Our words match our actions. As Dr. Seuss put it, “We say what we mean and we mean what we say.” When we break from this pattern and say things we don’t really mean, we move “out of integrity.”

Can you identify someone in your life who uses language carelessly, who agrees to things readily but then never seems to be able to show up for his or her agreements? Do you know individuals who spend a lot of their time speaking about things they have no experience with – who have plenty of opinions but little real, applicable knowledge to back it up? Do you have friends who frequently gossip or who say disempowering things about themselves? These are some of the common ways that people deprive themselves of the potential power of speech.

Language is meant to power our dreams into physical reality. When we “spend” our language on half-baked ideas, or passionate views we may have heard about but have no direct experience with, when we use language destructively or we say things we don’t really mean, we lose personal power. Personal power comes from being in integrity and diminishes whenever our integrity is undermined. Unfortunately, very few of us are taught the skills of using language as an integrity-building force.

Where Does Innovation Come From?

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

"Because your life is worth it!"

Photo: c21u.gatech.edu

***THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE COMES FROM http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-28248286/where-does-innovation-come-from/ AND WAS NOT ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY THE DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT TEAM - WE JUST WANTED TO SHARE IT WITH YOU!***

Where Does Innovation Come From?

By 

STEVE TOBAK / 

MONEYWATCH/ August 29, 2011, 9:00 AM

Innovation is definitely a hot topic these days, but the one thing that's fuzzy for most people is where does it actually come from?

I mean, what makes one guy innovative and another, well, just a regular guy? Before we get into that, let me explain a few things about innovation.

For one thing, it's not the same as invention, although folks often confuse the two. Invention is a unique discovery or finding; innovation is introducing something new.

That may sound like semantics, and maybe it is, but at least in my mind, there's one big difference: innovation can be an application of someone else's invention in a new and practical way.

In Innovators Don't See Different Things - They See Things Differently, we talked about whatMalcolm Gladwell calls the Creation Myth: that an innovator may not be the guy who comes up with the idea but the guy who turns that idea into something people can use.

Indeed, innovation isn't a supernatural event, a preordained occurrence that only happens to certain people. And great innovators don't go from zero-to-great in a heartbeat. More often than not, they stand on the shoulders of giants, see things a little bit differently, or benefit from timing, opportunity, or luck.

For example:

• Steve Jobs didn't invent the GUI or the computer mouse, but when he saw them demonstrated, his mind was probably racing with practical applications.
• Howard Schultz didn't invent coffee, espresso, or cappuccino, but he has certainly been an innovator in bringing all that to the masses through Starbucks.
• McDonald's was the fast-food innovator, but I seriously doubt there are any real inventions under the golden arches.
• Bill Gates didn't invent the PC operating system and he certainly didn't come up with the idea of licensing technology, but his business model - combining the two - made Microsoft one of the most valuable and powerful companies in the world.

Having spent my entire career working with entrepreneurs and innovators in the high-tech industry, these are the 10 characteristics and methodologies that I think define innovative people:

Where Does Innovation Come From?

1. Standing on the shoulders of giants. Contrary to popular belief, innovation is often far more evolutionary than revolution, more practical and crafty than breakthrough invention. Most of the time you're repurposing somebody else's idea.
2. Left brain - right brain balance. The whole left brain - right brain thing is a myth, but metaphorically speaking, I think innovation often springs from a combination of inspirational thought (right brain) and practical need (left brain). They say necessity is the mother of invention; it's probably more true of innovation.
3. Belief that you're special. Many, if not most, innovative people have this sort of childish belief that they're special, destined for great things. The thought of doing something new and different - changing the world, as it were - can be daunting. Unless you truly believe it's your destiny, you'll probably be too scared to even try.
4. Questioning conventional wisdom, the status quo. If you even mention how things are doneor should be done to a true-blue entrepreneur or innovator, it's like nails screeching on a chalkboard.
5. Vision. Oftentimes, people just have a vision of how they think something should be. It's really that simple. But they're also driven to see it through, as in the next bullet ...
6. Driven by the need to prove something. Innovative people are definitely on a mission to prove something to somebody and half the time I don't even think they know who.
7. Problem solving. If you're not a problem solver, you're probably not going to come up with anything that anybody will find useful. Control freaks are natural problem solvers - they can barely walk down the street without seeing all sorts of things that can be done better.
8. Passion. Without passion and genuinely loving and caring about what you do, you simply won't have the resilience and stickwithitness to see innovation of any magnitude through. It's never just an idea - you have to actually do stuff with it.
9. Focused brainpower. Athletes will tell you success is all about focus: you can't hit a 100 mph fastball or catch a 30 yard pass with defenders all up in your face without it. It's the same with innovation. Ironically, people who appear to be all over the map with ADD-like symptoms can have rare moments of clarity when it all comes together.
10. Work stamina. There's loads of talk these days about working smarter, not harder, taking more breaks, etc. While I'm a big believer in not killing yourself with work, if you don't enjoy working and work stamina isn't in your blood, you're not likely to innovate a thing.

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Forbes: Take a Risk the Odds are Better than you Think

 

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

"Because Your Life is Worth it!"

 

Photo: www.recareered.com

***THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE COMES FROM FORBES, THE ORIGINAL SITE CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2013/06/18/take-a-risk-the-odds-are-better-than-you-think/ THIS IS AN EXCELLENT ARTICLE***

Take A Risk: The Odds Are Better Than You Think

By: Margie Warrell

6/18/2013

As you look back on your career and life to date, where do you wished you’d been a little braver, trusted in yourself more, and been less cautious in the chances you took?

Anything come to mind?  When speaking to people in their forties and beyond, many tell me that if they could do their career over again, they’d have taken more risks, settled less and spoken up more often. In short, they wished they’d been more courageous in the risks they’d taken.  Perhaps you relate.

Often we know what it is we want to do, but we still don’t do it. Why? Because, as I wrote in my latest book Stop Playing Safe,  we are innately risk averse and afraid of putting our vulnerability on the line. The status quo, while not particularly fulfilling, can seem like an easier, softer, less scary, option.  Indeed, advances in brain imaging technology can now verify that we human beings are wired to be risk averse. In other words, we find it much easier to settle with the status quo, keep our mouths closed and our heads down rather than make a change, take a chance,  or speak up and engage in what I call a “courageous conversation.”

When weighing up whether to take an action that could leave us vulnerable to failing or some other form or loss (of reputation, money, social standing, pride etc), we have an innate tendency to misjudge four core elements in assessing risk.

1. We over-estimate the probability of something going wrong.  As Daniel Kahneman wrote inThinking,  Fast and Slow, when assessing risk, potential losses tend to loom larger than potential gains. That is, we tend to focus more on what might go wrong – what we might lose or sacrifice – than what might go right. Because what we focus on tends to magnify in our imaginations, it causes us to misjudge (and over-estimate) the likelihood of it occurring. Yet the reality is that the risk of something not working out is often not near as high as we estimate and the odds of it working out well, are often far better.

2. We exaggerate the consequences of what might happen if it does go wrong. This is what I refer to as ‘catastrophizing.’  We come up with  dire and dramatic worst-case scenario images in our minds-eye. Rather than assume that we would act quickly to head off or mitigate a situation if things started going off track, we imagine everything spiralling shockingly out of control while we passively stand by, conjuring up images of ourselves destitute, shunned by our family, ostracized by  our peers and forever shamed by our failure.  Okay, maybe I go too far. Maybe you don’t catastrophize quite so dramatically. But the point is, we are neurologically wired to exaggerate how bad things could be if our plans didn’t work out, and we fail to appreciate our ability to intervene to ward off further impact.

3. We under estimate our ability to handle the consequences of risk.  This goes hand in hand with the above, but is more focused on our capability over all.  And while I hate to say it, women are the biggest culprits when it comes to underestimating their abilities and buying into self-doubt. Too often we let our misgivings about whether we have what it takes to succeed get the better of us. The result is that we often avoid taking on new challenges (or proactively pursuing new opportunities) because we don’t trust sufficiently in our ability to rise to the challenges they involve.

While speaking at a women’s leadership event at Ernst & Young last week, the Sydney office managing partner, Lynn Kraus shared with me how she had declined an offer to take on the senior leadership role several times before finally accepting.  Each time she had turned it down, it was because she didn’t think she had the ability to succeed in the position. Looking back now, with the benefit of having been in the role for several years, Lynn realized that she’d been gravely underestimating herself. Fortunately for her,  those who saw her potential didn’t give up on her easily. Still, how often do we fail to judge our own capacity for risks – like taking on a bigger role or pursuing a lofty goal – accurately?  In my experience, it’s far too often.

4. We discount or deny the cost of inaction, and sticking with the status quo.  I wrote about this in a previous column titled The Parmenides Fallacy: Are You Ignoring the Cost of Inaction?   We tell ourselves “It’s not so bad” and delude ourselves with the hope that our circumstances will somehow just get better over time and things will just ‘sort themselves out.’   We come up with excuses for why sticking with the status quo is a feasible option; why playing safe and not putting ourselves at risk of failing or looking foolish is ‘sensible.”  In reality, things that aren’t working out well for us now only tend to get worse over time, not better, and issues remain unaddressed in our relationships and lives tend to grow larger, not smaller.

These four different human tendencies working together help to explain why so many supposedly smart people find themselves living in such a restricted circle of their potential, feeling dissatisfied in their careers, stuck in their relationships, and living lives they would never have chosen, much less have aspired to.

So how do we overcome our tendency to play safe and identify which risks are worth taking?  Start by asking yourself these three questions:

1. What would I do if I were being more courageous?  
2. How will inaction cost me one year from now if I do nothing?
3. Where is my fear of failure causing me to over-estimate the size of risk, under-estimate myself and holding me back from taking risks that would serve me (my business etc)? 

Whatever answers come into your mind, take notice!  They are pointing you to a brighter future that you can only create when you commit to taking bolder, more decisive and courageous actions.  Will there be risks involved? Of course!  But remember that you are wired to both overestimate the size of them and to underestimate your ability to handle them.  The truth is, as Lao Tsu wrote two thousand years ago, “You are capable of more than you think.”

If you’d like to watch a short video I made about the need to rethink risk, and to step boldly out of our comfort zone toward it, please click here.

Fear regret more than failure – history has shown that we fail far more from timidity than we do from over daring.  Or to quote a little Latin: Fortes fortuna adiuvat.

“Fortune favors the bold.”

 

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How to Make Your Dreams Come True - In a Step to Step Guide

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

"Because Your Life is Worth it!"

***THIS ARTICLE/STEP BY STEP GUIDE COMES FROM WIKIHOW - http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Dreams-Come-True ***

How to Make Your Dreams Come True

Edited by Michael Igioh, Puddy, Maluniu, Krystle and 13 others

Steps

1. Be specific about your dream. The first thing you need to do is to be specific about your dream, at least the one you want to work on now, the way to be very specific about your dreams is to write them in your dream journal
   
   
   
2. Turn your dream into a burning desire. You will need to turn your dream into a burning desire in your heart. A strong will to achieve your dreams boosts self-confidence and will aid you in pulling through some of the worst stages of life. The way to turn your dream into a burning desire is to believe that your dream is achievable and that you can achieve it.
   
   
   
   • Once it has become a burning desire you are no longer to refer to it as a dream, because the very nature of a dream gives the impression that it is not real.

What is Your Dream?

 

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

"Because Your Life is Worth it!"

 

Photo: brookiieleetylahh.wordpress.com

 

***THIS ARTICLE COMES FROM http://www.success.com/articles/642-what-is-your-dream WE JUST WANTED TO SHARE IS WITH YOU!***

 

What is Your Dream?

Excerpt from Put Your Dream to the Test

What is your dream? Will you achieve your dream in your lifetime? I'm certain that you desire to. I'm sure you hope you will. But will you actually do it? What odds would you give yourself? One in five? One in a hundred? One in a million? How can you tell whether your chances are good or whether your dream will always remain exactly that—a dream? And are you willing to put it to the test?

Most people I know have a dream. In fact, I’ve asked hundreds, if not thousands, of people about their dream. Some willingly describe it with great detail and enthusiasm. Others are reluctant to talk about it. They seem embarrassed to say it out loud. These people have never tested their dream. They don’t know if others will laugh at them. They’re not sure if they’re aiming too high or too low. They don’t know if their dream is something they can really achieve or if they’re destined to fail.

Most people have no idea how to achieve their dreams. What they possess is a vague notion that there is something they would like to do someday or someone they would like to become. But they don’t know how to get from here to there. If that describes you, then you’ll be glad to know that there really is hope.

Know the Answers Before You Take the Test
When you were a kid in school, do you remember a teacher doing a review before a test and saying something like, “Pay attention now, because this is going to be on the test”? I do. The encouraging teachers who wanted to see their students succeed said things like that all the time. They wanted us to be prepared so we could do well. They put us to the test, but they set us up for success.

My desire is to be like one of those encouraging teachers to you. I want to prepare you to put your dream to the test so you can actually achieve it. How? I believe that if you know the right questions to ask yourself, and if you can answer these questions in an affirmative way, you will have an excellent chance of being able to achieve your dreams. The more questions you can answer positively, the greater the likelihood of success!

The Right and Wrong Picture of a Dream
I’ve studied successful people for almost 40 years. I’ve known hundreds of high-profile people who achieved big dreams. And I’ve achieved a few dreams of my own. What I’ve discovered is that a lot of people have misconceptions about dreams. Take a look at many of the things that people pursue and call dreams in their lives:

• Daydreams—Distractions from current work
• Pie-in-the-Sky Dreams—Wild ideas with no strategy or basis in reality
• Bad Dreams—Worries that breed fear and paralysis
• Idealistic Dreams—The way the world would be if you were in charge
• Vicarious Dreams—Dreams lived through others
• Romantic Dreams—Belief that some person will make you happy
• Career Dreams—Belief that career success will make you happy
• Destination Dreams—Belief that a position, title or award will make you happy
• Material Dreams—Belief that wealth or possessions will make you happy

If these aren’t good dreams—valid ones worthy of a person’s life—then what are? Here is my definition of a dream that can be put to the test and will pass: A dream is an inspiring picture of the future that energizes your mind, will and emotions, empowering you to do everything you can to achieve it. A dream worth pursuing is a picture and blueprint of a person’s purpose and potential. Or as my friend Sharon Hull says, “A dream is the seed of possibility planted in the soul of a human being, which calls him to pursue a unique path to the realization of his purpose.”

What Do You Have in Mind
Dreams are valuable commodities. They propel us forward. They give us energy. They make us enthusiastic. Everyone ought to have a dream. But what if you’re not sure whether you have a dream you want to pursue? Let’s face it. Many people were not encouraged to dream. Others have dreams but lose hope and set them aside.

I want you to know that there’s good news. You can find or recapture your dreams. And they can be big dreams, not that all dreams have to be huge to be worth pursuing. They just need to be bigger than you are. As actress Josie Bisset remarked, “Dreams come a size too big so we can grow into them.”

If you’ve given up hope, lost sight of your dream or never connected with something that you think is worth dreaming and working toward, perhaps it would help you to learn about the five most common reasons why people have trouble identifying their dream:

1. Some People Have Been Discouraged from Dreaming by Others
Many people have had their dreams knocked right out of them! The world is filled with dream crushers and idea killers.

2. Some People Are Hindered by Past Disappointments and Hurts
Disappointment is the gap that exists between expectation and reality. All of us have encountered that gap. When something goes wrong, we say, “I’ll never do that again!” What a mistake, especially when it comes to our dreams! Failure is the price we must pay to achieve success.

3. Some People Get in the Habit of Settling for Average
Columnist Maureen Dowd says, “The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.” Dreams require a person to stretch, to go beyond average. You can’t reach for a dream and remain safely mediocre at the same time. The two are incompatible.

4. Some People Lack the Confidence Needed to Pursue Their Dreams
Humor columnist Erma Bombeck observed, “It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.” It takes confidence to talk about a dream and even more to pursue it. And sometimes confidence separates the people who dream and pursue those dreams from those who don’t.

5. Some People Lack the Imagination to Dream
How do people discover their dreams? By dreaming! That may sound overly simplistic, but that’s where it starts. Imagination is the soil that brings a dream to life.

Are You Ready to Put Your Dream to the Test?
OK, you may be saying to yourself, I’ve got a dream. I think it’s worth pursuing. Now what? How can I know that my odds are good for achieving it? That brings us to these questions:

1. The Ownership Question: Is my dream really my dream?
2. The Clarity Question: Do I clearly see my dream?
3. The Reality Question: Am I depending on factors within my control to achieve my dream?
4. The Passion Question: Does my dream compel me to follow it?
5. The Pathway Question: Do I have a strategy to reach my dream?
6. The People Question: Have I included the people I need to realize my dream?
7. The Cost Question: Am I willing to pay the price for my dream?
8. The Tenacity Question: Am I moving closer to my dream?
9. The Fulfillment Question: Does working toward my dream bring satisfaction?
10. The Significance Question: Does my dream benefit others?

I believe that if you really explore each question, examine yourself honestly and answer yes to all of them, the odds of your achieving your dream are very good. I truly believe that everyone has the potential to imagine a worthwhile dream, and most have the ability to achieve it. And it doesn’t matter how big or how seemingly outrageous your dream appears to others if your answers are yes to the Dream Test questions.

Speechwriter and comedy author Robert Orben asserted, “Always remember there are only two kinds of people in this world— the realists and the dreamers. The realists know where they’re going. The dreamers have already been there.” If you have defined your dream, then you’re ready to put it to the test and start going after it.

Can You Answer Yes to the Question: What Is My Dream?
If you are unsure of what your dream might be—either because you are afraid to dream or because you somehow lost your dream along the way—then start preparing yourself to receive your dream by exploring the following:

1. Mental preparation. Read and study in areas of your greatest interest.
2. Experiential preparation. Engage in activities in areas related to your interests.
3. Visual preparation. Put up pictures of people and things that inspire you.
4. Hero preparation. Read about and try to meet people you admire and who inspire you.
5. Physical preparation. Get your body in optimal shape to pursue your dream.
6. Spiritual preparation. Seek God’s help for a bigger-than-self dream.

Once you do these six things to put yourself in the best possible position to receive a dream, focus on discovering your dream. As you do, keep in mind the words of my agent, Matt Yates, who says, “A dream is what you desire if anything and everything is possible.”

 

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A Tale of Great Courage

 

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

"Because Your Life is Worth it!"

 

 

***THIS ARTICLE IS FROM: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1525980/Courage-under-fire-of-teenage-medic-who-saved-life-of-sergeant.html DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT DID NOT WRITE IT, WE ARE JUST SHARING THIS AMAZING STORY WITH YOU!***

Courage under fire of teenage medic who saved life of sergeant

By Nick Britten

12:01AM BST 10 Aug 2006

A teenage medic is in line to become the first female soldier to be decorated for bravery in Iraq after saving her commander's life during a fierce gun battle.

Pte Michelle "Chuck" Norris, who is just 5ft tall, braved heavy sniper fire for three minutes when she climbed on top of a Warrior armoured vehicle to pull her sergeant to safety after he was wounded in the head.

One bullet from an AK47 rifle ripped through her rucksack as she came under fire from five different positions.

She said last night that the incident had "brought home" the reality of war to her.

Creative Power and Imagination

 

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

Because Your Life Is Worth It!

 

Are you curious to know what your Creative Power is?  Leonardo da Vinci had GREAT Creative Power for inventing.  Below you can click on the photo that will direct you to 9 incredible inventions and facts about each one!  Hone in on your Creative Power and you can do AMAZING things!  The power of your IMAGINATION can take you many places!

 

 

CREATIVE POWER:

The key to creative power is understanding it's a part of a unique and all encompassing equation to living a fulfilling and purposeful life. It is the first part of the five piece equation (CP + RC + F ) * T = CL. "CP" or Creative Power is probably one of the most exciting and awesome laws of the universe we all live in. 

The idea and concept lies in the fact that since the beginning of time there has been a spark, a driving energy force that has created all things. It began with hydrogen atoms that came together to form helium. Hydrogen and helium combined to form stars. Those stars then died in great atomic explosions that in their creative power process created even heavier elements like Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen. All of the elements that make up the universe exist because of the creative power that combines the simple into the more complex. 

The source of this creative power exists in all things and most importantly is a part of you and me. As the sun rises every day in the east, so to the spark of creative power lies within you. Discovering that creative force and connecting with it is your true destiny in life and your fundamental reason for existing. 

Creative Power is a part of a five piece formula that Duane and I have worked on to truly unlock and unleash the full understanding of your human potential as it relates to you and your entire family. Creative Power is really the awe, the awe in you! It is what is unique to you. It is what is your gifts, what are your talents, what are your treasures and what is it your bring to life that no one else can take away from you? It's your unique contribution to the universe. 

Like the birth of a star, and all the stars that have born and died throughout time, everyone has been unique. None is exactly like the other. There's a cosmic energy manifested in its uniqueness. So the journey and purpose of life is to discover, cultivate and manifest your creative power and to use that power to make your contribution to the universe.

Like Steve Jobs said, "Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become." You are truly unique and Duane and I will take you on a journey in our book to discover and understand your personal creative power.

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11 Ways to Boost Your Imagination and Creativity if you are Stuck

 

 

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

"Because Your Life is Worth it!"

 

For Your Inspiration: 11 Imagination-Jarring Tips From Creative Geniuses

By: Adrienne Crezo

July 1, 2012

***This article comes from Mental Floss and was not written by anyone on the Dance with the Elephant team.  We just wanted to share it with you!***

There are plenty of competing theories for how to boost your creativity: paint your room blue, work someplace noisy and distracting, complete a bunch of silly sentences Mad-Libs-style. But there’s no better source for creativity advice than a creative genius. Here are 11 tactics practiced by big thinkers, artists and innovators.

1. HOLD YOUR BREATH

Ig Nobel Nobel Prize-winner and Japanese inventor Yoshiro Nakamatsu, who has more than 3000 patents to his name, has a Plexiglas board installed in his pool. He thinks underwater and takes notes on his board, a process he calls "creative swimming." And while it seems silly to take notes underwater when there are perfectly serviceable desks available, Nakamatsu swears by it, saying "oxygen is the enemy of the brain."

2. EMBRACE INSOMNIA

Leonardo da Vinci had a lot going for him, what with the still-unmatched talent and cultural importance and, you know. Mona Lisa. But he was a weird mix of perfectionist and procrastinator, and sometimes he'd work for hours on one minuscule detail while leaving the larger scope of a project untouched. To keep himself going for as long as possible, he practiced polyphasic sleep — short naps every four hours, for a total of around two hours of sleep per day. Probably not for everyone.

3. OR JUST TAKE A NAP

Thomas Edison was a fan of the power nap. He gave it a good twist, though, which he claimed was integral to some of his best ideas. Edison would sleep sitting upright in his chair, elbow propped on the arm with a handful of marbles. He would think about his problem until he fell asleep, and soon enough he would drop the marbles on the floor. When the racket woke him up, Edison wrote down whatever was in his head, regardless of what it was—creative solutions, new ideas, a reminder to pick up milk on the way home.

Not a Figment of the Imagination...

 

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

"Because your life is Worth it!"

 

Near-death experiences aren't figment of imagination, study shows

By 

DANIELLE ELLIOT /CBS NEWS/ August 12, 2013, 3:21 PM

***This is not an original article written by the Dance with the Elephant team it was found at this link:http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57598161/near-death-experiences-arent-figment-of-imagination-study-shows/***

 

The brain remains conscious after the heart stops beating, according to University of Michigan researchers. It may even function higher in the moments immediately following cardiac arrest than it does when the body is in a normal state.

The finding supports the shared experience of nearly 20 percent of people who have survived cardiac arrest. These survivors report having internal visions and heightened perception, known as near-death experiences, but the scientific reality of the experience has long been debated.

In a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the team explains that in a study of nine rats, they observed continued brain activity even after the heart stopped beating and blood flow ceased. Compared to anesthesized and walking states, brain activity and coherence actually increased immediately following cardiac arrest. While the sample size is small, the results were observed in all nine of the rats studied.

"This study, performed in animals, is the first dealing with what happens to the neurophysiological state of the dying brain," lead study author Jimo Borjigin, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular and integrative physiology and associate professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School, said in a statement.

"It will form the foundation for future human studies investigating mental experiences occurring in the dying brain, including seeing light during cardiac arrest," she added.

 

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