The Mini Token Blog

Hey…you’ve got your own life to live and your own agenda. You know the things you want to do just for you.

So what’s with all these people who are sick? I mean, they are not your problem are they? You did not invent life. You did not create the world or the Universe did you?

It is not your responsibility because some, someone, somewhere is sick or old is it? Let us not even consider people who are starving, destitute, down on their “luck”, mentally ill or who have just made poor choices in life. It’s not your problem…or is it?

You might be thinking to yourself that they are the ones who are “responsible” for their situation. You might be right. But you’re certainly are not compassionate are you?

Are these words trying to put guilt on your forehead like hot coals? These words are trying to let you see, not make you see, the anguish and needs of others.

You can ignore people who are sick or old or whatever else you don’t want to know about or deal with. It is OK. It is your choice. But with that choice remember that you might be sick one day. You will certainly be old one day and sooner than you ever dreamed possible.

Maybe one person who reads this will go visit someone who is all alone with his or her affliction. Maybe it is you who will show love, compassion and a caring spirit. Whether a person has aids or any other problem physically or mentally, maybe it will be you who gives your time to visit them. Maybe it is you…is it?

In a world that is growing with more and more vile hatred maybe it is you who will be the one who drops a “pebble into the pond” and starts an outward set of waves of love that will spread out across the world.

Maybe it is you…just maybe.

“Why go and reinvent the wheel?” It’s a question that’s been around for centuries; right? Here’s a better question: Why not reinvent the wheel?
As a Peak Performance Coach, I do a lot of personal development trainings for adults and children, alike. I love kids! They don’t think like us adults. Kids are just so incredibly and infectiously optimistic. And, they are absolute Masters of embracing, “what could be.”

Recently, I asked a group of elementary school students this thought-provoking, question: “Why should we reinvent the wheel?” My aim was to challenge their beliefs and encourage them to think, outside of their thinking. Take a look at just a few of the amazing reasons they came up with addressing why they would reinvent the wheels … on their bicycles.

-They only come in one color

-They don’t bounce

-You can’t see inside

-They need some style

-They’re not made of steel

-Too many flat tires

-They’re boring

-They slow down when on grass

-They don’t glow in the dark

Pretty remarkable answers; I’m sure you agree.

But, the students didn’t stop there. They got on the computer and started letting the manufacturers know their demands. All of the children gained an incredible sense of empowerment. One of the students enthusiastically suggested that the group “think of even more things that could be reinvented!”

By nature, children are visionaries. Unlike their adult counterparts, they consistently tap into the “research and development” department within themselves. As such, they are always taking something apart, asking innumerable questions, and looking to do differently. Children are not only intrinsically free; but they give themselves permission to pursue … anything they want to.

The point is, when I implied (with my question) that the wheel should be reinvented, not one of the students deferred their opportunity to share with me the reasons why. Each took what has been recognized as the norm — for decades — and identified the concepts required for total transformation. Then, after crystallizing their incredible vision, they took immediate action in their quest to bring it into fruition.

What could you reinvent? Your bank account balance? The number on your scale? Your thoughts? Your marriage?

What about your life?

Does it only come in one color? Can you see inside? Do you need some style? Could you use more bounce?

Once you begin visualizing what could be, life will become much more fascinating. You’ll actually start to take the steps that will move you in the direction of your optimal self.

Challenge That Which Is!

This inspiring, mastermind group of students empowered themselves when they dynamically challenged, “that which is.” My hope is that you will use this magnificent model to construct new meaning (and perhaps even a new wheel) in your own life.

Fran Briggs is an author, peak performance coach and motivational speaker. She is also the President of The Fran Briggs Companies, an organization dedicated to the personal and professional development of individuals and groups around the globe. The company’s personal development website offers a free, exciting twice-monthly newsletter that helps you live a happier, healthier and wealthier life. Please visit http://www.franbriggs.com and http://www.dwjd.info for more information.

The demand for leadership talent greatly exceeds supply. If economic growth continues at a modest 2 percent for the next 15 years, there would be a need for one-third more senior leaders than there are today.

Baby boomers have already started to retire. Most large companies will have to scramble to meet gaps in senior leadership talent. Who will replace your retiring executives, and how will you keep your company’s leadership pipeline full?

To make matters worse, the global and more dynamic economy of the 21st century requires executive talent with a more complex skill set:

*Greater technological literacy
*A sophisticated understanding of global marketplaces
*Multicultural fluency
*Relationship savvy, with extensive networks of alliances and stakeholders
*Leadership skills over a delayered, disaggregated and virtual organization

Succession Planning in the 21st Century

In response to these challenges, organizations have a renewed interest in succession planning systems. While these systems functioned merely as replacement charts in the past, and were HR executives’ function, there are two critical differences today, emphasizing:

1. Leadership development at all levels (not just senior executives)

2. Responsibility and involvement for leadership development within the work group, with the person’s manager and team members (and no longer an HR function)

Distinct Leadership Levels

Most development models fail to consider leadership requirements at all levels. As a person is promoted from line manager to business manager to functional manager, skills and requirements change.

Companies mistakenly focus on leadership traits, styles and technical competence. They commit a major error when promoting successful individuals without acknowledging required skill set differences at different levels of leadership responsibilities.

The Leadership Pipeline

Hiring gifted people makes sense as a tactic, but not a strategy. Companies need to build leaders, not buy them. Research and experience demonstrate that potential is not fixed.

The more people achieve, the more they learn. Their willingness to tackle new challenges increases. To capitalize on potential, companies must define the true work requirements at each key leadership level. Succession planning systems must spell out what’s needed to make a successful transition from one layer of leadership responsibility to the next.

Succession Planning to Fill the Pipeline

The following five-step plan will facilitate succession planning:

1. Tailor a leadership pipeline model to fit your organization’s succession needs.

2. Clarify standards for performance and potential, in your own language.

3. Document and communicate these standards throughout the organization.

4. Evaluate succession candidates through a combined potential-performance matrix.

5. Review plans and progress of the entire pipeline frequently and seriously.

Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. writes articles for business and executive coaches and consultants. She provides articles on leadership and executive development for sale, and formatted into customized newsletters. Get Patsi’s Secrets of Successful Ezines 7-Step Mini-Course to learn what you need to know to publish a successful ezine. http://snipurl.com/Ezine_MiniCourse

What if there were just two choices you could make to insure that next year would be wonderful? There actually are, and these choices are quite simple in concept, yet not easy to do. They are not things you do on the outside, such as exercising your body (which is always a good thing to do!) but ways of thinking and being on the inside. These have to do with your attitude and your intent.

GRATITUDE

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the “attitude of gratitude.” Studies show that the happiest and most successful people in the world are those who consistently live their lives with an attitude of gratitude, who see their cup as half full rather than half empty. Let’s take an example.

Alan and Martin are both firemen. They are both married with children, but this is where the similarities stop. Alan’s life seems to always be filled with joy and success, while Martin’s life always seems to be in turmoil. What is the difference?

Alan is a very upbeat person who always sees the good in everything and is always in gratitude for what he has. He is thankful for his work, his health, his family and his friends. When difficulties arise, he faces them head-on with an attitude of gratitude for the opportunity to learn and to help others. He believes he is spiritually guided and accepts challenges as opportunities for learning and serving. As a result of his openness and caring, people trust him and have come to him with opportunities to invest his money in ways that have created a passive income for his family. He continues to work because he likes it, not because he has to financially.

Martin, on the other hand, is a person who is constantly complaining about everything. Nothing is ever good enough for him. He blames others for his circumstances, takes no responsibility for his own feelings, and has no belief that he is being spiritually guided. He feels like a victim most of the time. As a result of the stress he causes himself due to his negative thinking, he is often ill, and experiences many family problems. He plods along in his work, resentful that he even has to work. He often feels like life is passing him by.

INTENT TO LEARN

God has given is the free will to choose our intention, to choose is what is most important to us in any given moment. In our relationship with ourselves and others, we have only two intentions to choose from:

1) The intent to learn, with our spiritual Guidance, about what is most loving to ourselves and others; 2) The intent to protect against the pain of rejection, abandonment, engulfment, or failure through some form of controlling behavior.

Our intent to learn or protect determines our experience in any given moment.

Hilary and Alice are both married with children. Both women work as nurses, but, as with Alan and Martin, this is where the similarity ends. Hilary and Alice have similar life challenges in both work and family, yet to look at Hilary you would think she doesn’t have a care in the world.

Hilary embraces all of life’s challenges from a solid knowing that she is on a spiritual journey of the soul - a journey of learning to be the most loving person she can be, both with herself and with others. She accepts responsibility for her own feelings and behavior, and opens to learning with Spirit and others when conflict occurs. Rather than shying away from conflict, she welcomes it as an opportunity for learning about herself and for healing any blocks to being a pure instrument of God’s work upon the planet. Hilary feels much peace and joy in her life.

Alice, on the other hand, is locked into the earthly journey of control. Instead of learning from conflicts, she avoids them with giving herself up or getting angry to have control over the outcome. Rather than taking responsibility for her own feelings, she often numbs out with food and wine. Control is her God. Alice is often anxious and depressed as a result of her intent to protect, and is on medication to deal with the resulting anxiety and depression.

It is not life’s circumstances that are causing Alan and Hilary to have so much more peace and joy than Alice and Martin. Choosing gratitude and the intent to learn, as opposed to complaining and the intent to protect makes all the difference in the world.

Make this coming year the best year of your life by making these two choices - gratitude and the intent to learn.

About The Author

Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling author and co-author of eight books, including “Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You?” She is the co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding healing process. Learn Inner Bonding now! Visit her web site for a FREE Inner Bonding course: http://www.innerbonding.com or mailto:margaret@innerbonding.com. Phone sessions available.

margaret@innerbonding.com

Scrying, the art of gaining telepathic information by gazing into crystals, began thousands of years ago. Ancient civilizations revered crystals, believing they had magical powers. The people thought that the gods would deliver mystical wisdom to the meditator through the stones. Battles, travel, healing, diets, and even decisions about the ruling of kingdoms were often planned according to wisdom imparted to scryers from their stones. Today the art of scrying is still widely practiced, but has lost a bit of it’s mystery as we have gained knowledge of the reactions between energy and crystals.

We now know that crystals vibrate with their own frequencies. They also absorb frequencies they are exposed to and can actually store this input within them. The stone has the capability to amplify these vibrations as well. Scientists actually use crystals to slow the speed of light, and many are used in communication devices. Because of their capacity to store energy information much as your brain does, crystals are also being used in the construction of a new type of computer. It is the capacity of the crystal to play back stored information in the form of energy for your brain to pick up and decipher that gives the crystal its “magical” power. When you pick up a crystal which is on a frequency level that is compatible with your own, you gain access to this stored information. The compatability of frequencies is the reason that you will find some crystals will work for you and others will not.

Being that emotions and thoughts have also their own frequencies, “bad” vibrations can be stored just as easily as “good” vibrations. In other words, you can pick up a crystal that will have negative reactions. These negative vibrations can become so amplified that a stone can actually become known to be cursed. This is the case with some very famous gemstones. (See the article about the cursed black diamond in the Station 1 Connector newsletter for an example of cursed gemstones:
http://www.rockhoundstation1.com/newsletter.html - December, 2005 issue. Archives are at the bottom of page if you are reading this after December). The main rule here is that if you have bad feelings from a crystal, or bad things happen to you while in contact with a crystal, it is best to avoid the stone completely. Something is not right with the frequency or stored energy in the stone. So how do you find the right one?

Choosing the right stone may be a bit easier than you may think it would be. You may have a particular crystal in mind when you begin your search for the right one. While browsing for that crystal, it is likely that another one may catch and hold your attention or your eye. When you continue your search, you will find that you are continually being drawn back to that crystal. You may be so strongly attracted to a crystal that it seems to be actually calling to you. That is the crystal you will want to choose. It attracts you because it’s frequencies and information storage are right for you.

Before using a crystal for scrying purposes, you will want to clean the stone to erase any interfering frequencies from the surface. This can be done in a few different ways. Most people soak the crystal in a water and sea salt solution for 24 hours before use. Some bury the stone in natural fiber cloth such as silk or linen. After cleansing, the stone may be left in sun or moonlight for a while to “charge” it much as you would recharge a battery. This process is claimed to amplify the stone’s energies quite effectively.

Once you have the stone prepared for scrying, place it against a background that aid visual contact with the stone. A plain white background can be effective for this for most crystals. Now notice any patterns you may see in the stone. Clear your mind as you watch the stone and patterns within it. Don’t bother adapting a frozen stare, just watch it naturally. Soon you will see images or patterns evolving in the stone. You won’t be thinking these things - you will physically see them. Once you see the patterns or images, ideas will come to you about them. Pay attention to these ideas, but let them flow freely. What is happening is that the stone is releasing stored energy to you, or converting energy it is receiving from you into ideas.

By using the stone’s stored and active energy flows you can learn about events from the past or about connections you have to events in the universe that might go unrealized without the amplification of the energies by your crystal. You will be able to see the effects of your energies on the stone as many crystals will start to change visually with continued use, and develop cloudy spots or change of color. These changes in no way should be viewed as spoiling the stone. They are just natures way of showing us that the crystal’s power to amplify, store, convert, and distribute energy are quite physical processes and have much less to do with magic than our ancestors realized.

©2005 Sally Taylor: Sal is an avid gem and treasure hunter, explorer, writer, and is the owner of http://www.rockhoundstation1.com

It was a mild summer day in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina when I boarded United Airline flight 7318 to Washington, DC. Like usual, I promptly located my window seat, with no doubts that the pilots would safely take me to my destination.
Suddenly, as I sat gazing out of the window waiting for take-off, certain questions unfolded in my mind. I wondered, “Who are these pilots that I wholeheartedly entrust with my life?” I wondered about my surety of knowing that they would, or could take me to my destination. I also pondered on “Why it is that I — or we as individuals, trustingly and unwaveringly allow others to continuously pilot our lives without questions or reservations?”
We permit others to pilot our lives while we unquestionably find our seat near the window - just watching - watching our lives quickly pass by. We lack faith in ourselves, because too often, we allow others such as bosses, friends, family and even enemies, to navigate our lives. We allow others to pilot our lives because of their negative words. We allow others to pilot our lives because they claim to know what is best for us. We live on autopilot without a clue as to where we are headed, or how we will get there.
We must declare that we will no longer allow other people to take control of our lives - or of our future. No matter how cloudy things look, no matter how dark our past is, we must remember that God is in control.
Allow God to be your pilot — as you co-pilot your own life into a prosperous and promising future.
Declare today: I will no longer sit back and allow other people to control my life into an uncertain and discontented future. The past is behind me — and only the best is yet to come!

Motivational Speaker, Audrina Jones Bunton was born the seventh of eight children in her household in Pinehurst, North Carolina into a loving and committed Christian home. As she has 2 children, over 40 nieces and nephews and great- nieces and nephews, it is not unusual to find her under the same roof with many of her maternal five-generation family on weekends and on holidays. In her youth, she fondly recalls traveling throughout the U.S. with her family, as her parents ministered from state to state year after yearhelping people as they traveled.

A graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, Audrina is a Competent Toastmaster of Toastmasters International and serves as the North Carolina District Sergeant At Arms. She is a former counselor of the Durham Pregnancy Support Services, a Christian-oriented crisis pregnancy center in Durham, North Carolina and is currently a Social Research Assistant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Audrina is currently studying at the Master’s Divinity School in Evansville, Indiana with a combined concentration in Biblical Counseling and IABC certification.

She also serves as the Youth Director at the Come As You Are Evangelistic Center in Aberdeen, North Carolina where her mother, Lydia Jones is the pastor.

Modeling after a song that her mother so often sings, and one that Martin Luther King, Jr. often quoted, her life and speeches are based on the following lyrics, “If I can help somebody as I pass along, If I can cheer somebody with a word or song, If I can show somebody he’s traveling wrong, Then my living will not be in vain.”

Audrina resides with her husband William, and 2 children, Audrina Lorraine and William Woodrow.

The physical body of Man would be spoiled sooner or later. If one does not die now, one would die later. If one is alive now, it is not sure that he can live later. Don’t take the exterior (physical things) too seriously, the most important is that he must make good use of his vitality, time and the splendour of his youth in the right manner. During this span of time, do something that you consider to be the best, do it really well, soon you will have abundant treasures in Heaven.

Think carefully about this human world, nothing really matters. All vexations are seeked by oneself. Have them cleared up, removed, dissolved and digested slowly. People have sufferings and vexations. We all have worries and sadness which must be transformed and dissolved by ourselves. Calm down and look around how this world is busy for living. In a glance, life vanishes. How sad! We must grasp this life. Don’t hinder oneself, but do cultivate well, says Heaven.

Talking about reflection of life, it is like a passing thing, passes like the mist and clouds to the eyes, so fast, and without one realizing it. Therefore, life is only a short span and it is only one part of our long journeys. Know that birth is the beginning of sufferings. Recognize it, then one may not feel much hurt and one will not ask for the impossible.

The prime of life may be great, but there is up and there is also down. One may reach the summit but where else can one move on except for descending again. How many of us really know who we are? How many of us understand ourselves? The above always ask this question! For the journey of life we must think of doing good deeds until the day we are gone.

Talking of virtue, what is virtue? Virtuous deeds alone are classified in different ways. The basic nature of mankind possesses the right virtues. Thinking that virtuous deeds produce good fruits, man practises with virtues. But Heaven said, these will not produce fruits. Acting in the manner showing others that one is indeed virtuous, is not going to prove that one is virtuous. For deeds done with a purpose to gain, one will definitely not gain. Virtuous deeds are practices put into action. It begins from the depth of the heart. Feeling the necessity to practise for the benefits of all, it extends from internal. The feeling is a feeling of joy as one performs the task, but not a feeling of personal gain. Then, this is indeed a virtuous deed and the person who practises this is indeed a virtuous person.

In the journey of life, if one is given jewel, gold, the whole world, but one does not know the meaning of life, then layers and layers of dust will cover his true nature. Sow good seeds and reap good fruits and not sow bad seeds and reap bad fruits. To build a castle, one must not build it in the air. Be aware of the necessity required to build a strong and everlasting castle. Do not think of our own suffering as a great thing. There are many who suffer without a word.

In the teachings of Tao of Heaven, if a person knows how to walk the journey of life in the right path and be enlightened to Tao, he can save seven generations of his ancestors and nine generations of his descendants. All will be reborn in the Blissful Land in “Li Tien” or The Void or Heavenly World.

Author: T.A Chew

T.A Chew, in early year 2002 lost a very good and virtuous Tao co-cultivator. At the end of the same year, the soul of his beloved cultivator returned from Heaven and visited the temple for three hours telling about his life in Heaven and the reason why he had to return to Heaven that early. His journey on Earth was the last and he had built a “castle” on Earth and abundant treasures in Heaven during his lifetime. Website: http://www.white-sun.com