This is Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day. Sixty Seconds on wisdom, success and personal growth.  

Knowledge is power. When I set out to earn my college education, I had already experienced a great deal of loss and failures in my life. I started college in my mid-30s as a single mother. I went to grad school in my 40s after my heart issues. Although there were sacrifices that needed to be made for me to go to college later in life, it was one thing I knew for certain – my education was one thing that nobody could ever take away from me.

I could lose jobs, lose material things and even relationships – but I would always have the knowledge I gained from learning.

How about you? Going to college was my path. Gaining knowledge doesn’t always mean you have to invest in a college degree – you might gain knowledge through experience, or reading, talking to others, or learning new skills through seminars and workshops.

B.B. King said, “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.” Be powerful. Seek knowledge.

This has been Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day… Now, go out and be fruitful!

This is Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day. Sixty Seconds on wisdom, success and personal growth.  How do you experience growth through learning? We often hear about ‘visualizing our success’ or are asked the question, ‘how to you see yourself five years from now? 

If you have ever heard the term, “in my mind’s eye…”, that is the concept of a human being about to visualize and experience mental imagery, by seeing it without our “mind’s eye”. 

That is one of the greatest tools for learning. The idea of visualizing ourselves once we reach a specific goal or plan for ourselves. Want to have a more successful career? Visualize yourself in it. Want a better relationship? Visualize what that relationship looks like. Do you want to live somewhere different, travel, have a huge savings account? See it in your “mind’s eye”. 

But it doesn’t stop there. Visualizing will get you no where but frustrated if you don’t act. Anyone can learn to ‘visualize’, but it’s those who commit to taking the steps toward making that vision a reality who will succeed. How do you begin?

There is a French Proverb that says, “Learning is the eye of the mind.”

This has been Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day… Now, go out and be fruitful!

This is Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day. Sixty Seconds on wisdom, success and personal growth.  

I often speak about ‘planting seeds for personal growth’, and it usually stirs up a dialogue about the kind of seeds we plant in our minds that either develop more growth or sabotage us with negativity. The benefit of continuous growth is that it builds the chances of new opportunities to come your way! 

Imagine what life was like when they thought the world was flat, or new nothing about space and stars and astronomy, science. The continuous curiosity and eagerness to learn has developed such immense knowledge that we have all benefitted from. 

What kind of seeds to you plant to gain knowledge so that you will grow through learning new things?

 Educator and author Linda Conway wrote, “It’s not what is poured into a student that counts but what is planted.”

Get out and plant some seeds of learning today!

This has been Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day… Now, go out and be fruitful!

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This is Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day. Sixty Seconds on wisdom, success and personal growth.  

Want to know the best anti-aging technique? No, it isn’t a new facial cream or skin care product, nor is it a new diet program or exercise routine. The key to staying young in mind and body is learning! That’s right! Learning! 

Henry Ford once said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”

I have found this to be true in just about every client I present this concept to. When they begin to learn new ways to think, feel and behave, they suddenly have a whole new outlook on life. Learning something new creates a passionate response in our hearts and minds. Whether you learn new skills at your business or job, learn to paint or other crafts, learn about wine and food pairings, or learn something new about a friend or colleague, or a subject that is interesting to you, you will become ageless!

The least expensive anti-aging technique is personal growth through learning! Try it out, FREE!

This has been Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day… Now, go out and be fruitful!

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This is Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day. Sixty Seconds on wisdom, success and personal growth.  I love to learn. I discovered through a book written by Marcus Buckingham, “Now, Discover Your Strengths”, that my top strength is “Learner”. I’m a “Learner”. When I teach or coach, I share information that I have learned previously. So, before I teach or coach, I set my intentions to learn what it is that I will be teaching. I’m not an expert in every area, but when I am asked to speak to a group or organization, or teach a concept – I learn as much as I can about the latest trends, methods or information that is current. I learn.

And when I teach or coach, I often learn from those that I am teaching or coaching because someone, or many always have different perspectives and experiences in that area that are new to me. I learn from others.

English singer and songwriter Phil Collins said, “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.” 
Become a learner. Learn from others, so that you can then teach what you have learned. 

This has been Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day… Now, go out and be fruitful!

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This is Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day. Sixty Seconds on wisdom, success and personal growth.  

What we learn becomes part of who we are. Who do you want to be? I often encourage my clients to look themselves in the mirror and ask themselves ‘who do I want to be?’ “What kind of person am I becoming?” 

And you know, it doesn’t matter how old you are either! Those who seek personal growth are always learning new things about themselves and the world around them, no matter what their chronological age.

Once you can answer that question, “What kind of person am I becoming?”, it takes effort to know how to grow into that. It’s equally important to acknowledge that without a concerted effort toward the positive, you may become the exact opposite of who you want to be. Is the person I am becoming a negative, stressed out, non-productive, unhappy version of who I strive to be? 

That is where the willingness to learn begins.  Who are you? What kind of person are you becoming? Who do you want to be? Once you answer those questions, you’ll learn a lot about yourself. Which direction will it be?

This has been Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day… Now, go out and be fruitful!

Kelly Orchard's Apple A Day is also available in print.

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This is Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day. Sixty Seconds on wisdom, success and personal growth.  

Ignorance is bliss. I’ve heard this many times over my lifetime. Some use it as a means to cope. The “What they don’t know, won’t hurt them”, mentality. That is very true – ignorance can very often be blissful. But, then you are giving away something very important: your power. 

The very definition of ignorance isn’t ‘stupid’ or ‘naïve’ – it is “lack of knowledge or information”. I have often used the phrase, “pardon my ignorance, but…” and it leads into a question or statement that will help me gain more information or knowledge about the subject I had no prior knowledge to. There is such a great opportunity to build self- confidence and esteem when we seek knowledge!

Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world”.

Want to change your world? Ask questions and learn. Be curious. Ask for forgiveness for your ignorance and seek to gain knowledge and information.

This has been Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day… Now, go out and be fruitful!

Kelly Orchard's Apple A Day is also available in print.

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This is Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day. Sixty Seconds on wisdom, success and personal growth.  

We learn something every day if we pay attention. It is called mindfulness. There is a lot of talk about the term ‘mindfulness’, and it’s one that I personally love. When you are mindful of your thoughts, you understand how you feel about your surroundings, which always impacts how you behave. This is the basis for a psychotherapy methodology called “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy” and one that I find most coaching and sales training employ. When I was investigating the differences between ‘coaching’ and psychotherapy, I found that ‘how we think’ was the primer to all coaching practices. 

The focus is on our learned patterns of thought. Do you want more happiness? Change your thinking about happiness. Do you want more abundance? Start thinking about abundance and not lack. It sounds very simple, and it truth, it is. Once you have learned how to do it. But that is also part of the process: the un-learning of bad or negative thinking. 

The very first step toward learning about mindfulness is: pay attention!

This has been Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day… Now, go out and be fruitful!

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This is Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day. Sixty Seconds on wisdom, success and personal growth.  How do you plan to grow? Unhelpful thinking is the only thing that truly holds us back! When we throw ourselves into projects we are passionate about, we don’t stop to think about how it might fail. Or maybe we do. That is what holds you back. I often hear people tell me that they can’t do this or that because ‘what if I make a mistake”? 

My question to you is, “What if you don’t?” If you do nothing, nothing will happen. I guess there is safety in that, but then you’ll also be stuck and nothing will ever change. 

Author C. Joybell C. writes this about personal growth: “The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself.”  

This has been Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day… Now, go out and be fruitful!

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This is Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day. Sixty Seconds on wisdom, success and personal growth.  I love it when I see growth in my clients, family and friends. When you commit yourself to learn something new, it ignites a fire that helps you continue your personal and professional growth journey. We must be intentional about how and what we learn. You don’t want to ‘learn the hard’ way, which is what we do when we don’t allow ourselves to get all the facts in order to make an informed decision on a career path, a new job, a new relationship or place to live, car to purchase or any other major life decision. You want to learn the ‘intentional’ way. Take a bit more time to educate and inform yourself about the next step; whatever that step it.

I often use the phrase, “learning by osmosis” when I speak about learning something organically, unconsciously and allowing information to absorbed. Listen with intention. Learn with intention. And do these things with the intention that it is for your personal growth.

Socrates said this about education: “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” 
This has been Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day… Now, go out and be fruitful!

Kelly Orchard's Apple A Day is also available in print.

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