Dude, Where's My Car
February 18, 2010 by Chris Oldcorn
Filed under •-Feature, Personal Growth
“Dude, Where’s My Car” was an Ashton Kutcher movie about two guys who lose their car after a night of hard partying. I know that I am the guy who tells you to go try stuff to make your life better however I am not suggesting you try to emulate this movie. This is not one of those situations but does provide a funny opening. Here are some of the beginning lines from the movie (not Oscar material):
“Dude, where’s my car?”
“I don’t know, dude?”
“Ok, let’s think. It was here.”
“Dude, your right. But, where is it now?”
“I don’t know? Dude”
Ok, so I think you get the gist of the movie not exactly Shakespearean dialogue. It would never be an Oscar contender but does provide a good 90 minutes of laughs at two of the dumbest people ever conceived in movie history.
Now, to the point of this column. My school has been under construction with several new buildings that took over two parking lots. The school did not create any new parking spaces elsewhere on campus to make up for the lack of parking. This has created parking chaos. People are actually parking on the grass and getting ticketed by the school for doing so even though there is nowhere to put their cars.
Originally, my attitude was that I would drive around forever looking for a parking spot. My reality was my attitude. I was one of the lucky ones to get parked on the grass and ticketed (I went in to the parking office and got them to rip up the ticket as I have a prepaid parking pass which is supposed to guarantee me a spot). After weeks of complaining and being bitter about parking, it was beginning to make me resent school and anything to do with it due to all of my difficulties with parking. I have to drive to school because I don’t live near a bus route.
I decided to take my own advice. I woke up and said, “Someone is holding my parking spot until I get there.” Sure enough, I went to school and someone backed out of a spot near the door and I pulled right in.
Day One = Success
Since that change in my mindset, I have parked so close everyday that my friends are starting to notice and think I am “lucky.” I don’t think it is “luck” and more of my mindset towards the parking issue. Luck favours the prepared mind. My mind is prepared to be programmed for the life that I want including good parking spots.
Each morning, we get up and have a choice. Do we view the world as ready to help us or hurts us? If we expect it to hurt us, we see every situation as negative. Whether, it is the coffee barista making our latte wrong or being passed over for a promotion at work. If we expect the world to help us, we see the positive in each situation we encounter throughout the day. For example, last week when I arrived at school a guy pointed to where he was parked so I could have his spot. That is a helping world.
So, here is the million dollar question: Do you live in a helping world or a hurting world? The answer to this question affects how your life will proceed from here. The choice is yours.
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Chris Oldcorn
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Good Opinion of Yourself
January 20, 2010 by Chris Oldcorn
Filed under •-Feature, Personal Growth
“Be a friend to thyself, and others will be so too”
Thomas Fuller
Everyday, we come across people who are miserable and negative about themselves. We think about how much of a downer it is to be around them whether they are co-workers, classmates, friends, or family. Sometimes, I feel like telling people to just snap out of it and look at all the positives in their life. They have a job, friends, family, and nice possessions. I live in North America so the poorest people in my country are staggeringly rich in other countries. However, do we ever stop and ask ourselves if we are one of these people? We acknowledge everything wrong but don’t see their blessings all around us.
Most people don’t realize how negative they are everyday. How do we recognize if we are one of the negatives? Our thought lives and body language. If we think defeating thoughts then we act defeated. If we carry ourselves defeated then we act defeated. The key issue here is acknowledging that we suffer from defeatism and need to move toward positivism. Most people are too hard on themselves. One small mistake and they ruin the rest of their day if not week or longer. No one expects you to be perfect so don’t be a perfectionist. Only seeing what you do wrong and not what you do right is a horrible way to live. It is hell on earth. Spending your time on thinking about how too fat, too tall, or not smart enough is a waste of time. You need to love yourself before you can love someone else. This was probably the hardest lesson I have learned in my life. Without self-acceptance, there is no opportunity to accept someone else.
The opinion that you have of yourself is the most determinant factor of how others perceive you. If you constantly send out unworthy messages, you will receive unworthy responses. You will miss great relationships because they can never really become great without you having a great relationship with yourself. If you cannot have a great relationship with yourself, you do not truly understand how to have a great relationship with others. Being your own best friend is the key to being a best friend to others. If you honour and favour yourself, you can do the same to other people. Compliment yourself just as you would complement those around you.
What really matters? How you feel on the inside is more important than what you look like on the outside. Hold your head up high and shake off your failures. Start your day thinking about your successes and not your failures. Think to yourself, “So far, so good.” Find the good that you do. Say to yourself, “I am strong, healthy, and victorious! There is nothing I cannot accomplish if I put my mind towards it.” Dwell on your good qualities and not your bad. You are empowered and have all the talents necessary to fulfill your destiny.
“Before a person can achieve the kind of life he wants, he must think, act, walk, talk and conduct himself in all of his affairs as would the person he wishes to become”
Zig Ziglar
Action Exercise:
Don’t say anything negative about yourself for a day. You will see how much better you will feel about yourself. When you are at a mirror say, “I am awesome and I will let others know by how I act today.”
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Chris Oldcorn
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“Whatever you do, you are creating your own future.”
Believe to Receive
January 6, 2010 by Chris Oldcorn
Filed under •-Headline, Personal Growth
“You must believe before you can receive” Chris Oldcorn
Each of us has a special power inside that is waiting to be let out. It is creative, empowering, and filled with unlimited potential. Changing the way you think about your situations, talents, abilities, and relationships is just the beginning of your best year yet! The source that we all originate from has empowered you with unlimited ability to live a greater life than those who came before you.
A great example of this power is from the biblical story of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham came home one day and told Sarah that they were going to have a baby. Both of them were past their prime baby years. They were approximately one hundred years old and this was before any medical technology that could assist them in getting Sarah pregnant. They had to do it the natural way. Sarah did not believe she could become pregnant so she sends Abraham to sleep with one of their maids and have a baby. They raised that child for twenty years while Abraham kept trying to make Sarah believe she could have a child. Eventually, Sarah began to believe that it was possible at the ripe young age of one hundred and twenty to have her first child.
Maybe you have spent your whole life being told that you would never amount to anything, you are as dumb as a rock, or no one will want to marry you because you are ugly. People around you have made you buy into a negative self-image. Today is the day that you will walk away from that negative self-image and believe that you are special. Throw away the coat of negativity and step into your new future filled with unlimited potential.
Your New Year’s resolution should be to perform at a higher level in every area of your life. Change your thinking and hope for a better future in the coming year. No one will believe in you until you believe in yourself. It is not being conceited but having a positive self-image and a healthy feeling of self-worth. You get what you expect whether you like it or not. You cannot receive if you do not believe.
This is the year you become financially secure. The love of your life will cross paths with you. The unlimited potential will rise up and match you with the career you have been waiting for your whole life.
“Rise above the rest and be your best”
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Chris Oldcorn
“Whatever you do, you are creating your own future.”
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Wish Fulfillment
December 16, 2009 by Chris Oldcorn
Filed under •-Feature, Personal Growth
“I wish………………”
How many times a day do we wish for something to be different in our lives? Ten times? Twenty times? Even more? We want better relationships with our partners, family, and friends. Maybe we wish for more of them or less. Friends are god’s way of apologizing for our families.
We live in a society that is obsessed with numbers. I have over 1200 people following me on Twitter and about 1400 friends on Facebook. I don’t know most of these people but they read my columns, blog posts, and other media. They feel a stronger connection if they can digitally connect. I am starting to see what it is like to be in the public eye. I could wish for more privacy but I don’t. The way to help as many people as possible is to be connected to them through various social networking sites.
Wishing is a healthy action. Wishing doesn’t mean that our present life is unacceptable but wishing is adding something to our life that would increase our joy and satisfaction. It requires not only a new thought but also a new attitude.
First, you must think that you are worthy of something added to your life. You cannot attract something if your attraction is turned off. So get turned on!
Second, you have to mentally picture what you want in your life.
Thrid, go and find what you want. Touch it, hold it, and sit in it if you can. You need to have the object in front of you. If it is a situation and not an object, feel how you would feel in that situation. If you want to be loved, you must love yourself first before others can love you.
Finally, always be grateful for what comes your way.
Action Exercise:
Pick an object or situation. Something simple to start. Maybe a good parking spot or green lights all the way to work tomorrow. Once you can see how this works with basic stuff. You can WISH BIGGER. Think of it this way, you have to go on a first date before you get married.
I WISH YOU THE BEST (now you have a head start)!!!
Chris Oldcorn
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“Whatever you do, you are creating your own future.”
An Evening with Lisa Nichols
November 4, 2009 by Chris Oldcorn
Filed under •-Feature, Personal Growth
This past Friday night, I had the privilege of attending the Lisa Nichols event at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (Toronto, Canada). The VividLife crew was there in full effect as we were a national sponsor. The evening started with a VIP reception with an incredible spread of food. We met Lisa at the VIP reception and we have some photos with this article. She is an amazing woman in person and is as real on stage as she is one-on-one. Her bubbly laugh and humourous story about going to Winnipeg in the middle of winter with sandals on was quite adorable.
Lisa speaks without a prepared speech that she reads from or a teleprompter. She was supposed to have a half hour intermission in her talk but she wanted to keep going and everybody wanted her to continue. I have never sat through a 2 hour plus presentation and have it feel like 15 minutes. Lisa gave a behind the scenes look at “The Secret.” When she was selected to take part in “The Secret” movie, she had no idea what “The Secret” was. She knew about the law of attraction and had practised it for years. She spoke for four times in the original movie and seventeen times in the mass market version of “The Secret” that most people are aware of.
Lisa told a story about her appearance on Oprah. She had always wanted to sit on Oprah’s cream couch. When she was on Oprah talking about “The Secret,” she was disappointed that Oprah’s couch was gone. The five guests sat on stools because they all could not fit on the cream couch. Lisa has her own show coming up on the WE network (Women’s Entertainment). The designers put a cream couch on the set. This was Lisa’s example of the law of attraction. Instead of sitting on Oprah’s cream couch, she had her own cream couch. She used this example to show how the law of attraction doesn’t always work the way we think it will but it does work. That is the message I took away from the event. We never know exactly how we will attract certain things or situations into our life but we will attract them. We just need to be open to accepting them.
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Chris Oldcorn
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“Whatever you do, you are creating your own future.”
