Make Your Life Count

Every thought, spoken word, environment, person, and deed contributes to what you are in the midst of creating. iStock_000003842598XSmall

Everything counts to move you in the direction of what you want or in the direction of what you don’t.

Standing pat is a lie.  When you think you’re standing pat you are really slipping slowly away from what you want.

Authenticity must me chosen again and again.  Authenticity is an active practice.

Look within and decide what’s really right for you.   At your core you are brilliant.  Quit pretending that you don’t know how to be real.

Your conditioning wins when you refuse to stand tall and choose what only you can create.

Here’s one thing that really pisses me off!   It really pisses me off when people say everything has already been invented.   It really pisses me off when they say everything has already been created.   Bull!  Even the sandwich I ate yesterday was an original.

Don’t spread that crap.  I’m not here to live some copycat life and you aren’t either.

You’re one in 6,775,480,099 and you doubt your uniqueness?  Bull!  You have what it takes.  Cash in on your authenticity!

There’s a direct link between authenticity and prosperity and you’ll never make the connection by believing that you can’t.

Even your environments are unique.  Environments either support or smother.   What’s the environment at your work doing for you?

Other people either encourage or exhaust.  Are you hanging around encouragers?

We live in a black and white world but we’d like to believe that we don’t.  We want to believe in grey because it seems like a place of rest.  But the only real sanctuary is aliveness.  Playing it safe is a slow death.

The only real refuge is found within courageous, authentic practice.

I’m working on something really big right now, it’s scaring the hell out of me and I love it.

We were built for aliveness and challenge.  We were built for glorious boldness.  We were built for hard charging.

We are warhorses.  We were built to gallop.  When we try to trot through life, by just getting by, we never reach the true authentic creation that we’re capable of.

Everything in your life you create, promote, allow or refuse.

Create anew.

Or … open your eyes wide to accept and allow.

Or … choose to endorse and promote.

Or …be strong and say no thank you.

Wake up! There are no other choices.

Wake up! Your life is happening right now.

Wake up! Everything counts. Choose authentic aliveness.

Become more aware to lessen the effect of random occurrences.  Decide what works, what does not and bravely choose what works.

Choose life or lose life.  It’s your call.

Comments

  1. Brett Legree says

    Damned straight Tom.

    No matter what we choose to do, we will put our own uniqueness on it.

    There is something that each of us can do better than anyone who ever has lived, or ever will – that is why we are all brilliant.

    I see it each and every day from my children – they are all “children”, but each of them can do something none of the rest of them can do.

    So it is with each of us.

    Find out what “it” is and do it.

    (BTW, I have found “it” for myself and am working away as we speak, making hay on my August vacation.)

    Thanks for the words today.
    .-= Brett Legree´s last blog ..small changes. =-.

  2. Ah – this sounds to me like you’re railing against the age old “fear of competition”.

    Probably the most frequent FEAR I hear expressed is of competition in the market place.

    I absolutely adore your “Even the sandwich I ate yesterday was an original.”

    My favorite “originality is overrated” story – Billy Mays made millions by creating a 2 minute infomercial selling a chamois cloth!!! My father made me wash cars at his car dealership when I was 13 and he introduced me to a chamois cloth!!!

    IT’S NOTHING NEW!!! IT’S NOT ORIGINAL!!!

    But damn – did they sell a lot of them. Enough to inspire a copy-cat – the SHAMWOW a few years later.

    I know you’re not a Billy Mays fan – but that man sold a LOT of common everday stuff – and did it in a completely unique and original way. He not only made a LOT of money doing it – he had a great time along the way.

    VIVA AUTHENTICITY!!! You rock Tom!
    .-= Kathy | Virtual Impax´s last blog ..When Customer Feedback is like Drinking from the Firehose =-.

  3. Hi Tom, you wouldn’t happen to be an extravert by any chance?

    For me the boldness and authenticity often comes in moments shared with others – sometimes dealing with difficult stuff.

    At my authentic best I flow and enjoy a mostly smooth-flowing life. I think I’m an introvert.

    I can be fiery but mostly my joy is a quiet elation – pursuing my own stuff. Often this means I take on big stuff (a christian physical spirituality, an integration of TCM and gestalt therapy).

    Looking forward to hearing what the big thing you are working on is.

    I very much agree that the ‘there is nothing new’ line is just crap.
    .-= Evan´s last blog ..Ageing Well – can we do anything about it? =-.

  4. Very good post! Yes it is all about awareness and choices. Choices are made every moment, we simply have to decide which choices we are making and making no choice is still making a choice.
    .-= Mark´s last blog ..The Beauty of Your Own Backyard =-.

  5. OK Tom, I’m pumped! You are such an inspiration to me. I might know what it is you are working on and if I do, I wish you all the success!

    I’m excited about the growth of my company. We have added a new program and I have completed my curriculum to publish. Now I am looking for an education publisher but until then, I am working to self publish. The entire thing excites me! I find the more authentic I am in creating my business, the more successful it is. Because I am being the unique me that I am, I am creating a one of a kind business!

    Thanks for all your encouragement Tom. Also thanks for the group tele-class I took from you that really got me off to a great start!

  6. Brett – Kids are great examples of uniqueness. We all should be so lucky as to have folks to interview who were around when we were kids. Very cool that you have found your “it”! I’m very much looking forward to hearing more about it when you are ready.

    Evan – Yep I am an extrovert but I get super fired up regarding all of us earning a living from the core of who we are. Good to see you also recognize that everything’s already been though of is a restricting belief.

    Kathy – Interesting I hadn’t even been thinking about competition or the fear of competition when I wrote this. I guess folks who have that fear could through up that excuse that there is nothing new. Love your Billy Mays example because it shows that originality can be created with personality and each personality is truly unique!

    Mark – Welcome man! Damn Straight – no choice is still a choice and often the wrong choice. Keep being super aware and come back often.

  7. Tom, this is great! I’m inspired by what you’re saying…and even more than that – that you’re DOING it right now! I have a couple of big and bold things on my plate – one happening pretty quickly, the other one much further out. Both are exciting to be involved in. And both are very unique. And after reading here, I’m even more fired up about both of these!
    .-= Lance´s last blog ..Where Is This Journey Taking Me? =-.

  8. Wow Tom,

    This is powerful. I agree. our life is for living. Staying in the gray area gets us nowhere.

    We are each an authentic self. Each with something special to offer.

    I’d like to stick around and write more, but my life is calling.

    See ya later. 🙂
    .-= Barbara Swafford´s last blog ..Passing The Torch =-.

  9. Hi Tom – This is a really energetic post! And this message needs to be delivered that way. Choose life… That’s really the key to living. A very simple idea, and yet difficult to put into practice. Although you have nicely described what happens to us when we don’t.
    .-= Amanda Linehan´s last blog ..When In Doubt, Smile =-.

  10. Tom — My favorite line in this post is, “Choose authentic aliveness.”
    That speaks volumes to me. We have to believe in ourselves and our own unique contributions. Then we have take the extra step your post calls for….that willingness to plug ourselves into our lives and let that energy fill us with action:~)
    .-= Sara´s last blog ..Who is Your Target Audience? =-.

  11. Hi Tom. So, this is you pushing through your fear! 🙂 IT doesn’t have a chance. I like your style. It’s like this: the fear is each of those tiny, miniscule pieces of sand on the beach… and you are running over them, gaining more momentum with each stride.
    .-= Davina´s last blog ..Morning Muse: Writer’s Block, Pass the Windex =-.

  12. Barbara – I’m happy that you can feel its power. Perhaps something more authentic is calling you.

    Laurie – Nope it is not what you think it is. Although that could be big as well. No I’m talking about tipping the world here. I just can’t play it safe any longer. Not ready for the public launch yet but you’ll be one of the first to know. Glad to see you’ve followed through on your curriculum development. Keep at it – you inspire me as well.

    Lance – To boldness! Please do let me know when you write about them. I don’t want to miss your announcement. Fell the power of uniqueness!

    Sara – Aliveness unfortunately in matters of work is missing for most and it’s their own damn fault. To living a robust life! I salute your vigor.

    Davina – Thanks can I imagine a younger Tom running on the beach? 🙂 I think I’ll move down closer to the water wear it’s packed down. Thanks for your encouragement. You ain’t seen nothing yet!

  13. Viviana Sutton says

    I can’t wait to hear about what you are working on, Tom…I’m betting it takes a lot to scare the heck out of you!

  14. Great post, although I know you’ve probably heard that before. In any event I agree with you 100% when you said other people either encourage or exhaust.

    However in some cases you don’t have a choice but to hang around exhausters (I just made that up but I know you know what I mean). For example at my job you have a few bad apples that are spoiling it for EVERYBODY. Slacking off, making it tougher on other workers.

    Basically everyone else is practically doing almost twice the amount of work that some people are doing because they(the bad apples) feel that they are too good (or too lazy) to work. I mean really, come on now. If your that lazy or dont’ like your job, or don’t want to work why even bother coming in?

    Too many people sit their and complain about their job, when they hardly do anything in the first place. Your company is paying 30 to 80 bucks per lead and you are just wiping your behind with the money because you don’t feel like putting in the work to help a potential customer? Then you have the audacity to complain?

    Anyways the point is these type of people can be really exhausting, and sometimes there’s no way to get away from them…Unless you start your own business/pay yourself/ become successful (which I’m working on). But like you said until then, your stuck sleeping in “the matrix” of random occurrences.

    Sorry about the long rant.
    .-= Jumping Higher´s last blog ..Jump Higher Training =-.

  15. Lol… but… Nope. No young Tom… just YOU! Cause you’re leaps and bounds ahead of him already. Why go back? And no… you HAVE to run through the sand. The waves lapping at your feet will only distract you and give you cold feet 🙂
    .-= Davina´s last blog ..Morning Muse: Writer’s Block, Pass the Windex =-.

  16. For a while I found myself in that copycat life – when I first started networking and meeting new people – but it never felt right. What I want to do is different than what many people around me are doing. And what I’ve learned is this dream has been inside me since I was a little girl. I am working to find a supportive environment for my endeavors rather than a smothering one so I can fulfill the vision. I know several people in my circles who believe what they want to do “has been done”…I say, it hasn’t been done “your way”.

    Living without authenticity is exhausting and definitely no fun!

    Good luck with your new endeavor!
    .-= Stacey Shipman´s last blog ..7 Ways to Get Back to Your Senses During Summer =-.

  17. I just Stumbled this, Tom. Hope many eyes and hearts get to read this.
    You are awesome!!!
    .-= Jannie Funster´s last blog ..46 Blogging Observations So Far =-.

  18. how to become a beautician says

    very good, indeed… choices are made through the influence of our awareness.. that’s all..

  19. Hi Tom – I bet that was an amazing sandwich you had! Looking forward to hearing about your new project! – R (love the horse)

  20. Vivianna – I can’t wait to develop it enough so that I can share it with the my readers. Lot’s a core work going on now the bigger the building the deeper the foundation that’s needed to support it.
    Thanks for your interest and support.

    Jumping Higher – Yep you may not be able to change them or remove yourself from them but you sure don’t want to keep complaining about them – that will keep you stuck with them. Best option – learn to accept them.

    Davina – 🙂 Thank you. I’m leaping that’s for sure.

    Stacey – Thank you and with yours! The best way is to create the environment that we need to thrive within.

    Jannie – Warm heartfelt thanks back at you for your support of the authentic way.

    Robin – Yes it was totally original and delicious just like the work I do. Here’s to you!

  21. Chris Edgar | Purpose Power Coaching says

    I’ve found it interesting to ask myself, whenever that concern about not being original comes up: what would happen if I produced a piece of work that wasn’t original? Would that trigger some kind of apocalypse? Maybe, at worst, someone would accuse me of being less than original — but the people who make those kind of accusations usually aren’t even trying.

  22. Tom,
    I see you are upping the ante on us. Thank you! We need it and the world needs it. I love being alive in this fabulously dynamic and opening time.
    I figured out my path earlier this year and have been ON FIRE in all aspects of my life…as an entrepreneur, a parent, a friend, a wife, and as one who holds this so life so precious that I know it is meant to be lived FULLY.
    The Levity Project work with the public acts of levity is pushing me to my edge and I find it very energizing here.
    THANK YOU! You rock…well that goes without saying.
    .-= Katie West/The Levity Coach´s last blog ..Creating Social Change Through Laughter- August 22, 2009 =-.

  23. WOW !! Very energizing words that you have here. It really encourages me, and I do need it right now. Thanks Tom. Keep encouraging !

  24. Chris – Interesting. It’s usually not a concern for me because I know that I value originality so much that I don’t even have a choice in the matter. I just must blaze my own trail because that’s who I am. Although that can have it’s downsides as well.

    Katie – On fire and on the edge – wow what wonderful way to live. You inspire me and others I’m sure as well. Keep pushing that envelope – we need your expressions.

    Belajaran – I live to inspire and to encourage. If you ever want to take it up a notch contact me for beliefs busting session that will knock your socks off!

  25. Tom,
    Nice Blog you have here Big Man. Thanks for telling me about it today at the gym.
    Now then, ‘Make Your Life Count’ is spot on. Letting your life waver behind a curtain of fear is as great a tragedy as not living that life to it’s capacity. I’ve been on both sides of that storm front.
    Until the days just after the terrorist bombings in NY, Wash DC, and that hallowed ground in Shanksville Pa, I hid my light behind anything I could move into it’s way. Some days before the terrible day, I had a series of TIA’s a/k/a mini strokes, and was in the hospital awaiting discharge. I made a convincing picture of a man totally immersed in fear. I had made a career of underachieving. I hid my fears and sorrow behind most of the ‘sins of my generation’. I smoked pot, ate to excess for the temporary comfort food gave me, drank, you name it…
    As I lay there in the hospital waiting for the discharging doctor, a chaplain happened into my room. I say happened but I suspect the nursing staff, tired of my malarchy, sent for him. Anyway, this cat walks in and I’m ready to chew up this guy in cleric’s garb. I asked him why I had led a lousy life, committing all sorts of indignities on my body and survived, while so many innocents had kissed their wives and left for work, never to return.
    I really though I had him there. But he said “Apparently, you still have something left to do for this world”. Damned if I could come up with a retort.
    About an hour later the missing medic shows up and signs me out. I go home and start trying to play catch up with my life, at first looking for a gym, then pausing for reflection. A stormy Saturday and I’m driving past a Ballys when a song comes on the radio. Bob Dylan’s ‘Shelter From The Storm”. He sang “he came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form,Come in she said I’ll give you shelter from the storm” I felt like Paul of Tarsus falling off the donkey and steered in to the parking lot.
    I walked in and was met by a wise man who told me, a 420 lb doper, that a gym is what you make it.
    He wrote me up for a trial membership that day and, the dumbass that I was set about reclaiming the reins to my life. A year or so later, I was back at Penn State for homecoming and met a guy I had written with on the school paper, who was now a Lit Prof. He told me he was putting together a group of writers to put out a literacy program for children in Appalachia and would I submit a story for publishers consideration. I told him that I hadn’t put a pen to paper since graduation, but over His Yuengling and my ice tea, I agreed. Yada yada I now give the publisher forty pages a month in workbook form and they send me a check that doesn’t bounce. I’m doing something for the world, man. Can you dig it?

  26. Jack – Welcome and yes I can dig it. I love your story and the way you responded so ably to the “signs” of redemption or rebirth that you came across. You are indeed in the midst of turning your life around and that’s inspiring!

  27. Yael Reinhardt-Matsliah says

    Wow, Tom, this is an awesome kind of “in your face” live your life wake up call. If I had a printer, I would print this out and read it every morning for the next month! I’ve been sitting on the fence about some changes in my life that I know deep down I need to make >> so that I CAN live my life to the fullest. And this was a very refreshing but pointed reminder to what I already know….

    Now to access the courage that is already present, so that I can step out of the box I’ve been living in…

    Really, thank you for being so amazingly direct. We know it’s truth, sometimes we allow ourselves to forget.

    Well, Ive been reminded!

    Yael

  28. Yael – Welcome! I specialize in inspirational wake up calls so I truly appreciate your comment. I hope by now you’ve gotten off that fence and fallen clearly on the side of your uniquely stunning authenticity. Please return here and tell us how it all works out.

  29. Kristy Roth says

    RIGHT ON! It’s been less than a year since Tom coached me and I am loving life! I was feeling all the things Tom mentions in his article about not being creative enough, not having enough time, and that I would never be able to change my situation of being stuck! Calling on Tom was the first step in changing my mindset! Since then, I created a blog which was challenging, but did it, tried a few things that didn’t work, but DID it. Just recently, took the biggest leap i’ve been contemplating for 4 years! LEAVING THE CORPORATE WORLD! It feels wonderful! Tom didn’t tell me to leave, but he encouraged me to move forward no matter what obstacles were in my way, and I did! Life is so much fun now that I realized I can do anything!!

  30. hi Tom.
    I loved this post! The white horse caught my eye! haha 😉
    this is what resonated most with me:

    “Every thought, spoken word, environment, person, and deed contributes to what you are in the midst of creating.

    Quit pretending that you don’t know how to be real.
    At your core you are brilliant.

    stand tall

    the only real sanctuary is aliveness.

    We were built for aliveness and challenge.

    Wake up! Your life is happening right now.”

    thank you for sharing! and setting me straight up.. to be bolder!
    I am learning SO much lately,.. this soul acceleration process is sure something! I can’t explain it. it’s exhausting and enlivening at the same time. i feel it is most difficult to stay grounded.

    maybe you can do a post sometime on authentically being grounded. and connect with our source on that one ? 😉 i’d be so opened to that!

    blessings to you!!
    ~Jen
    .-= Sharmila´s last blog ..Pause and Imagine ..Be Awakened! =-.

  31. Each of us are unique with our own creativity. How boring it would be if we were all the same.
    .-= Rose´s last blog ..The Anniversary of the death of my mother =-.

  32. Kristy – You are an inspiration. Your courage and persistence will indeed be rewarded. keep being the strong loving spirit that you are.

    Jen – Thank you. The key to authentic living is to act on what resonates with us. You are wise to stand so tall and speak so boldly.

    Rose – I agree. The original blessing of our uniqueness is a cornerstone piece to all of my work. We can only embrace it and express it. Thank you.

Leave a Reply to belajaran Cancel reply

*