Rockin' Life With Colleen Crain

Day 1 of  Sharpen Your Axe We all seem so busy these days. Sometimes it feels like we don’t have time to take good deep breath. Sometimes it even seems that the harder we work, the less we get accomplished. You know what? That might actually be true. There’s a modern fable of a woodcutter, a very strong wood-cutter. This woodcutter sought a job from a timber merchant and got one – a good one with great pay and even great working conditions. The very good woodcutter was thankful for his good fortune and was especially determined to give this job his very best. His new boss provided him with an axe then showed him exactly where he was to cut down trees. So on his first day, the very good wood-cutter worked hard and cut down an impressive 18 trees. It worked! The woodcutter’s boss was very impressed. His boss, no dummy, realized that yes he did indeed have a very good woodcutter – maybe the best he has ever seen and so he praised the woodcutter for his success that day. Well th

Day 3 of The Importance of Forgiveness We’ve talked about what forgiveness is. We looked at the question, what if I’m still angry after we’ve forgiven. I like to keep Rockin’ Life positive but today I want to look at some dangers, specifically – the dangers of withholding forgiveness. Sometimes we just don’t know how we can possibly forgive another person. The things we might have suffered because of them seem impossible to forgive. Those things might be horrible with no justification – maybe we’ve survived some great evil at their hand. How then can we be expected to forgive them? Forgiveness doesn’t mean we are excusing a behavior. It doesn’t mean that we are okay with that behavior. It doesn’t even mean we are saying that we are okay. It means we are giving something to the person who hurt us – we’re relieving them of the debt they cost us. We are bearing the cost of what was done to us. Remembering that holding on to our right t

Funny Lady and YouTube Sensation, MollyAnn Wymer shares her wisdom and her triumph over a secret traumatic childhood. Click Here to reach MollyAnn's website Click Here to connect with MollyAnn on Facebook Click Here to connect with MollyAnn on Twitter Click Here for MollyAnn's YouTube Channel Click Here to reach the Rockin' Life website Click Here for your FREE audio book download from our sponsor, Audible

Feelings are fickle. They change with the ever changing world we live in. We have those we enjoy and those we don’t. We can feel them and let them go. Typically, it doesn’t work to deny them. It probably isn’t helpful to wallow in them either. We can just acknowledge them and let them pass but we don’t have to allow them to control us or our thoughts. This week we’re exploring forgiveness and yesterday we talked about what forgiveness is. You may remember that I tend to lean toward earlier definitions of forgiveness which are more about action than feeling. It was a comfort for me to realize that I can forgive someone even if I still feel angry, betrayed, confused, or anything else. I can decide to forgive and begin to heal. The feelings of anger and betrayal won’t necessarily immediately disappear. They may return from time to time but I don’t have to give them any power over me. Just because I feel sad or angry when I remember a wrong, doesn’t mean that I have

Day 1 of The Importance of Forgiveness Many of the people I interview on Rockin’ Life have suffered seemingly unforgivable injury. It’s difficult to imagine how they or anyone could find peace and the ability to go on after suffering these things. Yet, we see and hear their stories of triumph every week. We hear the joy, the life in their voices.  They found a way to triumph over their circumstances. They found a way to forgive and stop allowing the past to steal the present. This week we’re going to talk about forgiveness.  We’ll discuss what it is. We’ll look at the amazing power and freedom we gain from it and how we can forgive others and ourselves. As I prepared to share this topic by reading up on the subject, I was surprised how many different views there were. Most sources pointed to letting go of feelings of anger or the right to get even. As I looked a little deeper at the origin of the word, I found a more active meaning than simply letting go of feelings. Or

Day 3 of Random Acts of Kindness Yesterday, a friend of mine posted a poignant video on Facebook. It was obviously recorded on a smart phone by a man who understands the meaning of kindness. In it, he’s driving in his car and takes a shot of his brand new shoes then at a shoeless man walking down the street carrying all of his belongings. He stops to talk to the gentleman and learns that he is veteran and is trying to survive after getting himself into trouble. The shoeless man talks about the blisters on his feet and what it’s like to live on the streets. The driver of the car now in his socks hands his brand new shoes to a grateful man with an obvious new energy.  Where he had been weighted down with his baggage before, he was now ready to run and jump. He was smiling and giving thanks to God. Asking God to bless the giver. We don’t know what happened after the video ends but we can imagine. Two people changed by this random or spontaneous act of kindness and generosity. I wonder what

Debby Montgomery Johnson is a woman on a mission. In her book, “The Woman Behind the Smile” she shares her personal experience with a love that turned into betrayal and financial disaster and she removes the mask of shame and shows others how do to the same. Many of us have something, something we’re hiding, something we’re ashamed of, something that through no fault of our own or through our own making, something that we keep hidden and that,  in turn, keeps us hidden, from each other and the world. From Vermont and a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Debby is the President of Benfotiamine.Net, Inc, a vitamin supplement company that provides an alternative for the pain of neuropathy, a nerve disorder.  (Benfotiamine.Net). Benfotiamine makes an extraordinary difference especially for diabetics and their families. Her background is diverse, from working as a paralegal and bank branch m

Day 2 of Random Acts of Kindness Week We may not feel like we can make a big change in the world but you just never know. The world doesn’t change. But people can change. We can make a difference in one person’s day or one person’s moment. Life is made up of moments anyway. Remember the movie Pay it Forward. The characters in that movie all received and then gave in different ways. They were helped and then they helped someone else. They looked for a need they could fill and filled it.  The way the person was helped was not the way they helped. We can look for opportunities to do something kind. Here are a few examples of small things we can do that could have big impact. Vow to give one sincere compliment per day. Look around for your opportunity. Spend 15 minutes in your closet or closets to find clothing or objects to donate to Salvation Army or another charity you know will use it to help others. There are shelters, organizations that help unemployed people find jobs, or faith based

Day 1 of Random Acts of Kindness If you’ve listened for a while you probably know that I read every morning – something to feed my brain and something to feed my spiritual life. I have been reading a lot lately about kindness, being kind, and being a caring person. Then in my spiritual reading this morning I learned that God told the Israelites to care for their brothers and their brothers’ belongings –not to ignore them. If they came across their brother’s property, they were to protect it and return it, or take good care of it until it could be returned.  So I thought that kindness and caring would be a great topic for this week. Then few minutes after making that decision, I learned that this week is random acts of kindness week!  Don’t you love it when things like that happen? I do so let’s celebrate and explore random acts of kindness this week. We’ll look at the what, when, why, and how and hopefully pick up a new life enriching habit. I have a f

Day 4 of Love and Relationships Yesterday we discussed the need for conflict in relationships. According to research it’s actually necessary for a healthy relationship. Conflict can be an opportunity for growth when it’s examined and used to learn.  Instead of brooding over what he said or she said or blaming, or focusing on the details of the argument itself, we can use the opportunity to work together to work it out, see it for what it is and move on stronger and closer. We can grow from conflict by exploring what a particular argument really means. Often an argument has little to do with the topic a couple is arguing. So what IS it about? That’s the important question for couples and individuals to explore. We can ask ourselves some questions to help figure out the real issue. What sparked the argument? What was going on as the situation escalated? What was going on inside our own head at the time? What are we saying to ourselves? What is the real issue that caused the conflict? What

Day 3 of the Love and Relationships Today we’re going to look at the so called magic ratio. You may remember that earlier this week, we talked about Dr. John Gottman.  He observed couples and predicted with remarkable accuracy which of them would stay together. So what did he say made the difference in these couples’ relationships? After years of study and research, he believes couples who have a balance between positive and negative interactions have successful relationships.  It shouldn’t surprise any of us to learn that negative has more weight than positive so more positive is needed for balance.  It may surprise us though to learn that an absence of negative or conflict is deadly to a relationship. Conflict actually helps couples grow. We need both, but how much of each for healthy balance? Dr. Gottman says 5 to 1. Five positive interactions to one negative. So 2 negatives need 10 positives and 20 positives need 4 negatives. So how do we make sure our interactions are in

Author and romantic travel consultant, Shannon Cunningham LeBlanc shares her journey and some important relationship enhancing tips. Learn more about Shannon Here Learn more about Rockin' Life with Colleen Crain Here  

Day 2 of Love and Relationships What is a relationship, anyway? Isn’t it a connection between people?  Actually, the very definition of a relationship is the state of being connected. Many relationship experts say that feeling of being connected is the most important thing in relationships. Most of us or at least I believed that relationships were all about communication. While communication is an important part of the connection, it’s that feeling of connection that is most important. The sense that our significant other is on our team, routing us on, supporting us. Good open communication IS important but the most important thing in a healthy relationship according to behavioral research is a sense of connection. Two people can communicate with amazing openness but without that sense of connection, there is no relationship. What happens if we communicate our feelings, concerns, joys, or anything without feeling connected? We probably won’t feel heard or understood no matter how articu

Day 1 of Love and Relationships It’s a new week so we’re looking at a new topic -- Love and Relationships. In six days we celebrate Valentine’s Day. On February 14th we typically focus on hearts and flowers and romance but the real St Valentine was about a much deeper love – a lasting love. He was martyred (believed to be beheaded) for secretly performing marriages for young couples at a time in Roman history when marriage was illegal. Apparently the government believed that unmarried men made better soldiers for their wars.  So this week in honor of Valentine’s Day and St. Valentine, we’ll explore love and relationships -- what makes them work and some traits of healthy ones. Like our lives that are made up of the little things we do every day, or our bodies that are made up of the things we do or don’t do – eat or don’t eat, relationships are everyday interactions or absence of interactions. It’s the way we treat each other, the things we make

Day 4 of the Power of Persistence We’ve been talking about how importance it is to be persistent in striving for what we want in life. Today, I want to talk about what we don’t want to do as we strive for the lives we want. We already know that being persistent is continuing toward a goal in the face of obstacles or difficulties. That kind of sounds like being stubborn or even being pushy and barreling our way toward what we want.  Being persistent is actually much farther from being pushy or stubborn than we might at first realize.  I want to explore these three traits today and it’s easier for me to look at them as if they were people. So let’s look at Stubborn, Pushy, and Persistence. First, there is Stubborn. She’s closed and rigid and by definition unreasonably fixed or set. Stubborn wears blinders, ignores everything except her own goal. She charges, maybe even trudges toward her goal without regard for anything or anybody.  She decides on a path and charges

Day 3 of the Power of Persistence. Today we’re going to talk about how we can persist when we just aren’t seen in progress. It’s hard to keep going when you aren’t seeing any results. So let’s see if when can find a way to persist in our march toward our goals when it seems we’re going nowhere. The first thing we can do is look for the progress we’ve already made.  Just because we don’t see it doesn’t mean that it hasn’t happened. Maybe our temporary feelings of discouragement or self-doubt are covering or distorting reality. Just the other day, a friend of mine said, sometimes you have to look at the facts – just the facts and not what your mind is telling you about them. Sometimes when feelings get in the way of a realistic interpretation of what is happening, we need a way to separate the facts. She writes them down and as she does she asks herself a question. Is this true or is this something I’m just assuming. If it’s not

Self-made millionaire, Harneet Bhalla Harneet's Golden Nuggets: Write down your specific goals 5 to 6 times per day. Create a strategy for each goal. Evaluate it and adjust it as needed. Say yes to opportunity and don't be afraid to hustle and be uncomfortable. To Connect with Harneet: http://harneetbhalla.com/ or on Facebook or on LinkedIn For you FREE audio book from Audible Click Here Please Click Here to Subscribe to Rockin' Life with Colleen Crain in iTunes Visit my website rockinlife.co  

Day 2 of the Power of Persistence Yesterday, we started looking at the quality of being persistent and how important it is just about every area of life. It seems to be present in every success. Today we’re going to look at the how we can become persistent which interestingly enough might just be related to another question. How do we develop our ability to press on in the face of difficulty or opposition? The ability to be persistent seems to be rare. We certainly have no shortage of examples of people who give up at the first or at least second sign of difficulty. I confess that I’ve been that person at times. Then again, developing the skill of being persistent can’t be that hard. Look at any two year old. Those little people know well how to keep going after what they want in the face of difficulty or opposition – namely their parents. Some are better at it than others. They just seem to be born knowing how to persist in getting what they want and they often get it. So if it’

The Power of Persistence Day 1 Well here we are beginning the second month of the year.  31 days post New Year’s resolutions. How is it going?  Are you seeing the results you wanted, yet? Are you ready to give up? Or maybe already given up? Well, whether you’ve given up, feel ready to give up, or are beginning to make your resolution a habit, here’s some encouragement for you. You can do it. In fact, you can do almost anything if you are persistent! That sounds pretty promising and there are many examples of famous successes credited to sheer persistence. Thomas Edison and his thousands of attempts to make the light bulb work comes to mind. This week we are exploring persistence – what it really is, its tremendous power, and how we can develop it in our own lives. The Oxford dictionary defines persistence as “firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition. St. Paul said it produces character which produces to hope. Calvin Coolid

Welcome to Rockin’ Life and day 5 of the power of Baby Steps! I’m Colleen Crain. All week we’ve been looking at little steps and actions that over time can dramatically improve our lives. We’ve looked at our health, our financial fitness, and our households. Today, we’re talking about those little steps we can take that add up to success in our careers and business. It’s really not a big mystery and none of these actions are out of any average person’s reach. I’m so grateful to the many researchers who have studied highly successful people because they discovered many similarities. These discoveries are very encouraging IF we’re willing to take just a little action and take it consistently. Of course, most people don’t take these actions or don’t take them consistently. Could be that we don’t know what they are or we don’t know how important they are to our success. So let’s take a look at some of the things that highly succes