Every Monday I send out a bonus, via email, called Your Monday Motivator. In it, I feature inspirational quotes on a particular topic related to life change, along with my personal thoughts and take-aways on the subject. I do it because I believe everyone could use a little extra inspiration in their lives – especially on Mondays!

If you’re not a subscriber, I thought I’d give you a taste of what you missed today.  You can sign up via the “Subscribe to the Life Compass Newsletter” box to the right.

The Power of a Sense of Urgency

Urgency – How do we keep it and harness it’s power to make change in our lives?  That’s the topic for today’s Monday Motivator from Life Compass Blog.

But first…if you live in the U.S. as I do, I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend!

I hate to admit it, but I’ve gotten a bit lazy lately.  No, I’m not talking about exercise, but about a few goals I’ve had, but haven’t really focused any energy or attention on for a while.

Back when these goals and desires first came into my mind, I had great passion and a drive to accomplish them.  But over time, I lost that “lovin’ feeling.”  What was once a big interest – something I just had to do – is now just a passing thought. [Read more…]

Do you ever get the feeling you’re missing opportunities that are right under your feet, and that any one of them could make you extremely successful?  Here’s a transcript of an “Our Changing World” radio vignette by Earl Nightingale, one of the fathers of personal success and achievement.  This one is called “Acres of Diamonds.”

Acres of Diamonds

One of the most interesting Americans who lived in the 19th century was a man by the name of Russel Herman Conwell.  He was born in 1843 and lived until 1925.  He was a lawyer for about fifteen years until he became a clergyman.

One day, a young man went to him and told him he wanted a college education but couldn’t swing it financially.  Dr. Conwell decided, at that moment, what his aim in life was, besides being a man of the cloth – that is. He decided to build a university for unfortunate, but deserving, students.  He did have a challenge, however.  He would need a few million dollars to build the university.  For Dr. Conwell, and anyone with real purpose in life, nothing could stand in the way of his goal. [Read more…]

Warren Buffett, on the best investment you can make

Warren Buffett, one of America’s wealthiest people, is famously followed for his investing views and strategies.

And why not?  As chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett has led his company, through acquisitions and investments, to exponential growth.  A $1,000 investment in Berkshire Hathaway in 1959 is worth $25 million today!

And yet Buffett, known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” is now talking about an investment that is even greater.  During the Q&A session at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in 2008, Buffett said:

The most important investment you can make is in yourself. Very few people get anything like their potential horsepower translated into the actual horsepower of their output in life. Potential exceeds realization for many people…The best asset is your own self. You can become to an enormous degree the person you want to be.

[Read more…]

Recently, I’ve noticed an increasing amount of spam comments that some people, or “spambots”, have attempted to submit to my site.

Gratefully, there’s software that weeds most of that out, so you don’t see it.

But I see it, and I sometimes get a good chuckle out of it because all of these spam comments advertise “male enhancement” products.

I’ve racked my brain trying to figure out what I may have written which would lead these spammers to think that Life Compass Blog would be a good target for “male enhancement” products.

Then it finally dawned on me.  One of the topics I write about here is personal growth! [Read more…]

We don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it.  Or rather, we get educated out of it. – Sir Ken Robinson, TED 2006

Sir Ken Robinson, speaking at TED 2006

Is there a relationship between creativity and personal development?

It’s been on my mind recently, thanks to news stories and blog postings I’ve read about motivating creativity in poor economic times, creativity in business, and creativity and innovation.

In addition, my wife and I were just discussing how we can better foster an environment of creativity for our kids, whom we home school.

Somehow, in the last week or two, I ran across a very thought-provoking video of Sir Ken Robinson speaking at TED.  I think I found it because someone tweeted it on Twitter, and I’m very glad they did! By the way, you can follow me on Twitter: @RichAvery.

In the video, Sir Ken makes the assertion that schools and businesses kill creativity.  For our society to succeed at meeting it’s greatest challenges, we must embrace learning styles that nurture and foster [Read more…]

Welcome back to Life Compass, where we’re talking about how to reach your full potential in life.  After you take a good look at yourself (step 1) and clarify your purpose in life (step 2), the next step is to create a personal development plan to help you maximize who you are in order to accomplish what you’re called to do.

Your personal development plan will synthesize and build upon all the work you’ve already done in the first two steps.  In addition, it will help you evaluate your current reality in the basic areas of life (financial, family, career, health, spiritual, etc.), set well-defined goals, and create a specific plan of action that will propel you to achieve your goals. [Read more…]