Personal Growth Planet Blog

I didn’t plan on purchasing a brand new car at the start of this new year, but this is what has happened. I’m grateful for my well-being after a car wreck that totaled my old car and also for the ability to purchase a new car.

You may have never owned a brand new car, but perhaps you’ve ridden in one. You know that smell? It’s a sort of rubber-fabric-plastic smell that you encounter in a new car (possibly due to some hideous chemicals that, frankly, I don’t want to think about).

The look of determination and focus. The sheer will to get something done…even if it’s something that’s a huge challenge or seemingly impossible.

That is being in “The Zone.”

If you look at the face of a basketball player about to shoot a free throw, you’ll see it.

If you watch a preschooler crossing shoelaces while learning to tie a bow, you’ll see it.

If you get up close to a performer on stage who is singing, dancing, playing a guitar or another instrument, you’ll see it.

You’ll see that person (or those people) in the zone.

You might not think of the culture here in the U.S. as devoid of fun and frivolity, but I think that it is. Look around and you might see all kinds of people doing all kinds of things that seem light and jovial…but, if you look a closer, this isn’t necessarily the case.

You see, there’s a huge difference between truly having fun and merely numbing out through entertainment.

Many of us seem to live in this impossible contradiction of wanting to do something important and valuable with our lives but then craving some outlet or sense of escape.

This is NOT a blog post urging you to dream the impossible dream, fight the unbeatable foe and other such sage advice.

Of course, there’s something inspiring and amazing about a person having a vision for a desired future and, despite huge odds, he or she is able to manifest that dream. It becomes a reality.

Impossible dreams do come true. Your own impossible dreams may very well come true for you.

This is also NOT a blog post that attempts to tell you which of your dreams are possible and which are impossible. Actually, I believe that pretty much anything is possible and that any of us can live the kind of lives we envision for ourselves.

You can ask my kids– I really don’t like clutter. I get all squirrely and irritable when the piles of books, papers, electronics, toys or whatever get too high and are spread too widely throughout the house.

I’ll be the first one to admit that it’s not just their stuff that adds to the feeling I get of being stuffed in to a space with too many things out and about.

When I reach my clutter breaking point, I generally huff around a bit barking out calls for tidiness and picking up after ourselves.

If you were a warrior on a battlefield or even playing chess or another board game, uttering the words “I surrender” would probably not be a desirable thing to do. There is a definite association between surrendering and failure or weakness in predominant understandings of the concept.

Nobody wants to be considered weak or a loser.

In order to allow the kind of life and success that you want, however, surrender may be the key.

When conditions in your body, your relationships, your job, your bank account– your life– start to feel out of control and are not what you had in mind, you may try to force things back into“line.”

By Amy Phillips-Gary

Losing weight and exercising more are two resolutions that just about everybody includes on his or her list of self improvements to make.

And just about everyone (with exceptions of course) somewhere along the line falls short of those goals. Those aspirations usually get swept aside and forgotten– or used as a rationale for self-criticism and beating up on one’s self.

If you’d like to upgrade yourself by making improvements in the ways you eat and/or your physical fitness, setting yourself up to succeed is a vital first step.

By Amy Phillips-Gary

In the final scene of the movie “The Darjeeling Limited,” three brothers who have experienced a quirky and arduous journey together through India run for their train that’s already in motion. They carry several pieces of luggage that once belonged to their father. At one point mid-run, each brother throws aside his suitcases and shoulder bags and finally leaps upon that departing train.

Have you ever felt weighted down by your low self esteem?

By Amy Phillips-Gary

Do you ever feel like you’re boxed into a room with a very very low ceiling?

I certainly do at times. It’s as if there’s some imaginary boundary that’s preventing me from moving ahead with my plans and intentions.

Whether it’s a ceiling on my finances, my relationships, my creativity and career or my ability to have a healthier fitter body, that blocked feeling is oh so real.

And I put the ceiling there.

It is almost epidemic the way many of us erect ceilings on our own capacity and then act as if we’re helplessly trapped.

By Amy Phillips-Gary

Are you a leader?

When you think about leadership, an image of someone like political leaders John F. Kennedy or Barak Obama might come to your mind.

There may also be people in your personal life such as a friend, parent or head of a group to which you belong who are role models and guides for you.

Do you consider yourself a leader in your own life?

This question might sound silly at first read.

How can a person be a leader for him or herself after all?