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Remembering You’re Extraordinary!
About two years ago, my sister Nancy and I had an idea. We decided to collaborate on putting down on paper our thoughts and experiences, especially as they related to living well. What started out innocently enough grew into a wonderful, memorable undertaking by two people who have cared the world about each other for over 60 years.
As we progressed, we realized two things:
First, we found that the co-creation and chronicling of these ideas was a remarkable experience in and of itself and, we discovered that there were direct benefits occurring in our lives that could only be ascribed to the materials we were creating.
Second, we noticed that sharing this work had direct beneficial impact on those others who came in contact with these materials.
As a result, we decided to combine the materials into a book form and make it available to everyone.
Eventually, this material will be contained in an eBook available from Amazon, Google, and Apple. But for now, we have decided to pre-publish our creation in The Miller Minute blog.
Because we are aware that everyone does not get a chance to see every post from this blog, we will post each section (beginning with this section) three times each week.
The first section is this pre-Introduction, an annotated Table of Contents, the original Introduction, and a brief author’s preface entitled, How to use this book.
Subsequent weekly posts will include the various chapters (one chapter per week) and other useful information.
It is our sincerest desire that you find this material illuminating, enlightening, and useful.
Please be kind enough to let us know what you think,
Robert & Nancy
Remembering You’re Extraordinary
Table of Contents
Introduction
How to Use This Book
Part One: The Backstory
Chapter One: Courage is the Opposite of Fear
F.E.A.R. is False Evidence Appearing Real!
Chapter Two: Forgiveness
For everything I have done and everything I have not done. For everything I am and everything I am not. For everything I will do and everything I won’t do, I forgive myself. . .
Chapter Three: Complete Respect & Compassion for Myself & Others
Enough said.
Chapter Four: Practicing the Art of Accountability
Accountability means I am willing to acknowledge that I am the author of my life and experience.
In the matter of my life, I am at cause.
Chapter Five: I am not my Story, nor am I am my Stuff
To remember at all times that I am a magical, mystical being currently inhabiting a human body
And as a human, like all other humans, I have a story BUT, I AM NOT THAT STORY
Chapter Six: I am a Master of my Resources, I am in Balance
Life is about change. Going forward, and as I meet changes I will address and move past any and all changes with minimum effort and maximal use of my existing or readily acquired resources.
Chapter Seven: Optimal Wellbeing
I promise to make it a daily habit to take whatever steps necessary to maintain optimal wellbeing: Spiritually, Financially, Physically, Emotionally, Psychologically, In short, every which “ally”!
Part Two: The Rest of The Story
Chapter Eight: Manifesting, The Pathway to Your Dreams
Intent is a force that exists in the universe. When sorcerers (those who live in tune with Source) beckon intent, Intent, their ally, comes to them and sets up the path for attainment, which means that sorcerers always accomplish what they set out to do.
Carlos Castaneda
We are all Sorcerers!
Chapter Nine: Grace, Gratitude and Generosity
Madisyn Taylor writes, When we accept that we always exist in a state of grace, we are able to live our lives more graciously. Knowing we are graced gives us hope, makes us more generous, and allows us to trust that we are taken care of even when we are going through difficult times. Grace is our benevolence of heart, and our generosity of spirit. Grace is unconditional love and the beauty that is our humanity. When we know that we are blessed with grace, we can’t help but want to live our lives in harmony.
Chapter Ten: Humility
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
C. S. Lewis
Chapter Eleven: Integrity and Authenticity
To always be and give my best, genuinely; and to live by Curly’s (movie: City Slickers) “One Thing” ethic every moment.
Chapter Twelve: Service
Serve others First!
I choose to remember and carry with me that by serving others, I am served.
Chapter Thirteen: This Moment is All There Is
Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is an unrealized dream; only this moment, Now, is real!
Or as Baba Ram Das reminds us: “Be Here Now”!
Chapter Fourteen: Laugh Often, Love Much
Find the humor in each moment; be completely open to the love that is mine everywhere, from everyone; be willing to give back to everyone, everywhere.
Chapter Fifteen: Life is a Grand and Wonderful Adventure!
In the movie Tombstone, as the character Doc Holiday (played by Val Kilmer) lies dying of tuberculosis in the Colorado Sanatorium where Wyatt Earp (played by Kurt Russell) had taken his friend; there is a defining, over-arching moment when Wyatt says to Doc, “I just want a normal life”, and Doc replies profoundly, “Wyatt, there is no normal life, there’s just life”!
Appendix A: How to Meditate
About the Authors
INTRODUCTION
When we were very young, my brother Robert and I, collaborated together on many topics, and I think some of my best memories include such times as sneaking into our second floor bathroom with our arms laden with as much food as we could carry from the grown-up parties our parents were hosting.
About those parties. . .
My parents welcomed many friends into their home and wined and dined them like royalty. We always knew we could count on the tastiest morsels especially around these parties. I’m more than certain, too, that our parents knew we were awake and sneaking food upstairs but let us think we were the cleverest spies in the world! It was these special evenings I had alone with my brother that we talked about everything in the world. We were not afraid to pour our hearts out and we were not afraid to just be “who we are”.
Robert and I have always held that special bond, this wonderful love of each other that we share. Both he and I have lived long, fruitful lives filled with much happiness and sorrow. (You can read our BIOS for more on this). So, it was no surprise that one day, many months ago, that he called to tell me of an idea he had. He told me he had been writing and that he had created “core principles” that would become the cornerstone for Remembering You’re Extraordinary. Shortly thereafter, he asked me if I would be interested in co-authoring.
There was no hesitation on my part and I felt honored to be asked to be a collaborator, once again, on such an inspiring topic that we both believe will help you remember we are all Extraordinary! Thus began our work together on writing this course. Since we live far apart, we got together via Skype and phone. Every week we sat together and poured our hearts and souls into this work. We would break away only long enough to finish our assignments to each other getting back together to review and summarize.
We’ve been living these “core principles” through the years always striving to “walk the walk” instead of just getting by with “talking the talk”. As the weeks went on, we found ourselves going through this course together, discovering that we had more to learn and uncover!
As we continued to write about each principle and place each principle in its appropriate chapter, we found ourselves living out the lesson incorporated in them. Our lives became a great experiment in living each principle daily as if we were newborns never hearing the words before! Our meetings have run the gamut of emotions; sometimes filled with laughter, sadness, joy, grief, and any other emotion that presented itself as we were writing.
Often this took us both by surprise and we realized that we had to let ourselves experience all of this in order to really live what we were talking about. As a matter of fact, I have the perfect, true to life experience, that just happened to me as I was writing this introduction that I will share with you in a bit.
The universe is shifting and all of us with it. This isn’t the first time in history – though it might be the most important – that people have taken stock of their lives and decided that there are more important aspirations besides acquiring the biggest flat screen TV or the latest in a series of new suvs.
We all want to know how to be happy and satisfied and make both last. We all want to look to a brighter future for our children and grandchildren. Most importantly, many of us want to be free of the chains that bind our spirits and haunt our sleep.
As partners in this unfolding, we are co-collaborators fully engaged in this shift and support a crucial transformation of our current universe and support each and every person in this endeavor.
It is our sincerest intent that Remembering You’re Extraordinary will support you in this transformation wherever you are in the dance.
Each chapter contains extremely useful tools to help you remember where you truly come from, who you truly are, and most importantly, that you are already extraordinary!
We are not alone. Many masters throughout the ages have taught us through their never ending love and inspiration. We include some of these present day masters in our writing and use quotes from their teaching and inspiration. Having lived through this course and knowing we will continue to use its practices, it is our deepest desire that these pages will help you live yours.
The universe has always supported us and now is the time to pay it forward. We can help do this by starting with ourselves. We trust our work and are so very happy that what we share here will get you on the path to remembering how extraordinary you are. There is much to be done but with time and effort we can do this together.
We’ve included a short preface entitled “How To Use This Book” we hope you will find helpful. Certainly, you can read these pages any which way you choose, but, you might find it more useful to follow the chapters in order. This is a great volume to reference any time.
We welcome your comments so please feel free to leave any and all on our Coaching for Extraordinary Living website or our Facebook page. Let us share a word of caution: This book does not address profound grief from the loss of a loved one, nor overindulgence in any form, nor does it pretend to meet the needs of the trauma brought on by a critical life changing event. We would urge you to seek the appropriate help needed in these circumstances.
Okay, I promised to share my true to life experience. . .
I have a very dear friend who I’ve been very privileged to know for over forty years now. My friend and I have shared everything together and going to visit is “going home for me”. So it was with great anticipation and joy that I called my friend and asked for a visit home. I was sent an email that said it would be a horror if I came to visit. I let myself take this “personally” and in doing so made myself physically ill. It wasn’t until I got out of my ego and really looked at the situation for what it was that I realized I was allowing this email to erode my wellbeing. In re-reading the following chapters I began to see what I was doing to myself and why! Boy, did I learn a lesson. The lesson: To honor who I am first and foremost and not take anything personally.
Boundary is my new best friend and I will take this lesson with a giant spoonful of love. And, by the way, I truly love my friend and cannot wait for our next visit!
Last, but not least, we want to thank all of you for taking the time to read what we have worked on as our labor of love.
Enjoy!
Blessings to each and every one of you!
(At the end of each section of our book we have included pictograph from various cultures expressing the meaning of that section. The characters above are Japanese and convey the meaning, “To Begin”, or “At the Beginning”.)
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK (Author’s Preface)
Remembering You’re Extraordinary, is a user friendly eBook comprised of two volumes containing a total of fifteen individual chapters each including a core principle intended to help you remember who you are, how got you where you are now, and options about how to move forward.
Each chapter is divided into five main sections:
(1) Guiding Principle
(2) Keystone Elements
(3) Lesson Activity(s)
Meant to gather your thoughts and help you answer questions you probably ask yourself often. We believe you will find these to be inquisitive and enlightening. There is NO right or wrong answer. It is merely an aid to help you realize how you really feel.
(4) Additional Resources
A section of each chapter including books, movies, and songs that will enhance your experience of each chapter as you go along. By all means, feel free to choose your own resources as you go.
(5) Closing (Daily) Affirmation
Although there is really no particular order to the themes presented in the book, we’ve written each core principle and put them in the order of importance as they came.
Please read and experience each chapter at your own pace taking as little or as much time as you feel necessary. This book is also meant to be a reference guidebook that you can refer to as often as you’d like.
(Next Week: Chapter One: Courage is the Opposite of Fear)
Namaste
Excellence Breeds Success
There is a difference between success and excellence.
Success is often measured by comparison to others. Excellence, on the other hand, is all about being the best we can be and maximizing our gifts, talents and abilities to perform at our highest potential.
We live in a world that loves to focus on success and loves to compare. We are all guilty of doing this. However, I believe that to be our best we must focus more on excellence and less on success. We must focus on being the best we can be and realize that our greatest competition is not someone else but ourselves.
For example, coaching legend John Wooden often wouldn’t tell his players who they were playing each game. He felt that knowing the competition was irrelevant. He believed that if his team played to the best of their ability they would be happy with the outcome. In fact, John Wooden never focused on winning. He had his team focus on teamwork, mastering the fundamentals, daily improvement and the process that excellence requires. As a result he and his teams won A LOT.
A focus on excellence was also the key for golfing legend Jack Nicklaus. His secret was to play the course not the competition. He simply focused on playing the best he could play against the course he was playing. While others were competing against Jack, he was competing against the course and himself.
The same can be said for Apple’s approach with the iPod, iPhone and iPad. When they created these products they didn’t focus on the competition. Instead they focused on creating the best product they could create. As a result, rather than measuring themselves against others they have become the measuring stick.
We have a choice as individuals, organizations and teams. We can focus on success and spend our life looking around to see how our competition is doing, or we can look straight ahead towards the vision of greatness we have for ourselves and our teams. We can look at competition as the standard or as an indicator of our progress towards our own standards. We can chase success or we can embark on a quest for excellence and focus 100% of our energy to become our best… and let success find us.
Ironically, when our goal is excellence the outcome and byproduct is often success.
(Thanks to Jon Gordon)
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