September 19th- #262 Tag Me Tuesday The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

I Embrace The Challenge

In dictionary.com it says the definitions of embrace when used as a verb can mean:

to take or clasp in the arms, to take or receive gladly or eagerly; to accept willingly, to adopt , to take in the eye or the mind, to encircle; surround; enclose, or to include or contain. The reason I said all the definitions is I was probably too lazy to delete the ones that I felt didn’t fit…but also maybe embrace might mean something different to you than it does to me.

But after looking at all those definitions it makes me think that asking for more challenges means I must adopt new ways, I must be willing to receive them gladly or eagerly, I must be willing to see the challenges in my mind and eyes in new ways, that I must be willing to encircle myself or enclose myself with challenges…to bring on better opportunities, and that I must allow challenges to be contained in every moment of my life.

You see we try to live life on our terms, that we don’t want to be challenged…but rather be given to us what we desire or feel we deserve…without the work. We feel that if it’s easier… then the better or more accomplished we’ll feel. When we crush a goal with ease it makes us think we’re stronger than we thought. But in the end a treasure we received that wasn’t earned, doesn’t feel great. Have you ever had something handed in your lap that you felt you didn’t deserve or that the excitement was gone because there was no consequence or commitment involved?

Embracing challenges doesn’t mean you’re praying for a hard life…it means you are praying for a worthy life. That you are asking for a life full of challenges to help you become the person you want. That you’re asking for a life full of sacrifices and commitments knowing that you did what you could to make your life matter. And that you’re asking for a life full of uncertainty and mystery as you sought after the deepest treasures in life…not just to gain the external reward, but to create the internal reward of becoming a different person.

It’s my hope that you adopt a new way of looking and thinking so that you don’t struggle through life harshly… but that you ask for more of life, and that you ask to be challenged to uncover your best self. I want to remind you that you are the coal being put under pressure to become the diamond, that you already are, underneath it all.  Or like Lauryn Hill said…”don’t be a hard rock when you really are a gem.”

Today’s Personal Commitment:
What challenges have you avoided recently? Look at your day and ask yourself what you’ve avoided today and why you avoided it. Maybe it might be something small, like going through your unfinished projects that aren’t due yet, but you’ve been avoiding because it’s not the most fun thing to do. Maybe it’s something big, like working on that presentation you have this week but you are drained from thinking about it, so you go about other tasks saying you’ll get to it later.

I’m not telling you how you need to prioritize things, but I’m asking you to analyze why you avoid certain things, and what if you were to go about tackling them different today. What if you were to get your annoyances out of the way first, so you could feel more energized throughout the day? Try it this week and see what happens to your energy levels throughout the day.

I Embrace The Challenge

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

September 18th - #261 Mindful Monday The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

I Live My Truth

I’ve spent a good amount of my life talking a good game. Learning how to use my charisma to get by…to get what I wanted and to give people what I thought they needed…and while it helped me to survive…it kept me from speaking a higher truth.

I don’t like to talk bad about others, and I try not to get caught up in gossip or talking behind people’s back. However, in my younger years…hopefully I do it less now…I know I’ve talked about people behind their back fully aware of what I was doing and also subconsciously.  You see when we act a certain way while being aware we train our subconscious that this is ok, and so we get further into talking negatively about people without realizing it anymore.

How do you talk about people to others when they aren’t there, how do you talk about people when you’re alone, how do you talk about people on your social media posts?

And this is where we get trapped in living a life of resentment or not being in the places we wish to be… we focus more on what is wrong…and so our truths will always be honed in, on why things don’t go our way or why the world is unfair, or why people suck…and thus we create that reality.

What we focus on is what we see. Truth really is subjective, because one person can focus on hate in this world and see more hate in this world…but someone can see kindness and love within this world and look for more ways to find more of that.

And so if we want to live a better life, it’s not about doing more work, but it’s about choosing to see what we want to see. Now I’m not saying be oblivious to problems or ignorant on things in this world…but what I am saying is… what if you weren’t to add more fire to the inferno that is already out there and what if you were to be the water to the blaze.  What if you were to see a different truth…not because you’re trying to trick yourself…but because you’re working to make the world a better place? You are working to see a better view from your eyes first, so you can then show others how to have that same outlook and attitude if they want more peace in their lives.

If you think about America during the Settling and Pioneer days…and how hard that type of life was, how they weren’t sure where their meals might come from, or if they would survive the sickness that Johnny had as they didn’t have a local doctor, or how they were crossing an unfamiliar territory uncertain what obstacles might come before them…but they didn’t know any different and they had a hope for something better. And I think we need to be Settlers or Pioneers in our lives  and have eternal hope that we can not only see a better world, but create a better one too by creating a better “us” first.

Today’s Personal Commitment:
What does the better you look like? Ask yourself these question and write down the first thoughts that comes to mind:

• What is your view of the world?
• Where do you see yourself in the world?

Do you see hope and greatness, or do you see things of hate and anger? And I want you to be real with yourself because a good many of us can trick ourselves into thinking we see better than what we do… I remember seeing the movie The Talented Mr. Ripley with Matt Damon…and he says “No matter what you do, no matter how awful, no-one ever thinks that they're a bad person.” Don’t be that oblivious person. Take an honest look at yourself. See the things in you that you may not want to see, so you can correct what you want to correct. What does the best you look like…and how can you take action daily to begin living your personal truth? 

And on a side note when you look and find things you don’t like…don’t beat yourself up for them… know you don’t want to stay that way and work to change your course…changing takes time, so be kind to yourself. You will be more successful cheering yourself on, rather than beating yourself up about your faults.

I Live My Truth

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

September 17th- #260 Smiling Sunday The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

I Listen With My Heart and Then My Ears

There’s a quote that says…

“It’s Impossible,” said pride.

“It’s risky,” said experience.

“It’s pointless,” said reason.

“Give it a try” whispered the heart.

I think we listen more to the world around us…than the universe within us. But both of those entities aren’t much different from each other…as I have come to know how interconnected they are. What’s inside you is the bridge that connect you to the outside world. But we go about our lives backwards letting the world dictate who we are and who we should be…rather than hearing who we are deep inside… and being that.

What sets your heart on fire, what do you dream about, what’s your intuition saying…and what do you fear that’s kept you from moving forward?

For the only thing holding you back isn’t the dragons or beasts of the world, it’s the invisible beasts within that we’ve created that stop us. The ones that we allow to be our loudest voices in saying we aren’t good enough, pretty enough, or whatever enough to be the people we want to be…and are meant to be.

They say that our hearts will change the world…but I don’t buy that… I believe our hearts will change who WE are…changing our heart will stop us from trying to FIT in…and instead work to fill out the world in a better way…and that’s what will change the world.

So what’s your heart whispering to you? What are you avoiding because you’re afraid? Probably both of those things are the same, if not almost closely related.  Don’t let passion fool you…it’s good to go after what we love, but the things that we really wish or treasure to have won’t always be our number one passion. The things we desire for require hard work…for nothing that ever mattered was truly ever easy…and once we know that passion is only the spark…our follow through will be the raging fire that changes our hearts, as we change…and that then changes the world.

Today’s Personal Commitment:
Instead of changing the world, what’s one thing that you’ve thought about working on within yourself? No matter how big or small… think about one thing that you would like to do that could change your heart, that could help you feel more confident within yourself…as you work to be the change first rather than waiting for the world to change around you. Write down that one thing you want to change and place it in a spot you’ll see everyday… and then ask yourself what is one thing I can do daily to commit to this change?

I Listen With My Heart and Then My Ears

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

September 16th - #259 Synergy Saturday The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

I Live To The Fullest Expression Of My Life.

T.S. Elliot said in a poem of his ““This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.” But what if we were to live our lives the opposite of that quote…what if we were to go out with a bang rather than a whimper?

I’m not perfect and sometimes I let fear dictate my life, but I do hope, that more often than not, that I live my life according to pursuing my fears, and pursuing the things that matter to me. Not out of some adrenaline rush, but out of wanting to live a life that matters to me. Let us not be here to impress anyone, but to be here to live the fullest expressions of ourselves, and be the brightest light we can be to the world. Let us not allow our batteries to fizzle out in the end, but let us continue to shine brightly as we remember our purpose and that our power comes from sharing our brightest light, not in conserving our energy for the end…because the end will never come when we expect it…and we waste good energy by waiting, instead of creating and being a bright light every day.

I’ve spent too much time worrying about what people will think, whether I was good enough, smart enough, rich enough, or whatever enough…and I am done playing that game…as it’s only about their ego…and my inflated ego…in hoping or wishing I was important enough. But I know better now, that I’m not here to impress, I’m here to leave a mark upon the world to make it better….not that my name will be remembered, but so that other souls will be affected at the highest mark. And that they will continue the work I started from a flame that was first passed to me by another bright passing soul. And while it may sound existential…the greatest work we can do is to make the world better not just for us, but for everyone…because when we make our life better we make all lives better…even our own.

So today I ask you to charge you batteries up by remembering what you live for, why you came out today, and what you want from this world and what you want to give this world. For a great life lived is not waiting it out in the shadows, but rather by shining so brightly that the world can’t help but notice the change we are bringing into it. Whether anyone sees us and recognizes us for it will not matter because we aren’t here to be recognized…we are here to be the change. And that’s what truly matters—that others will see the change and be moved to continue that change. Let us go out with a bang and not a whimper. You are not promised a life, you are only promised a day…let’s make the moment we have matter.

Today’s Personal Commitment:
What gives you energy? What truly makes you want to give your fullest effort and love for the day?

What if you only had one day to live what would you do?

What if you only had one hour to live what would you do?

What if you only had 1 minute to live? What would you do?

Would you let your fear dictate your actions and go out with a fizzle, or would you be calm cool and collected doing what you’ve been doing already? Would you go out with a bang in a great way, not looting or acting a fool like the unaware misplaced souls in the world…or would you do something meaningful and worthwhile?  Think about what you would do if you only had one year to live, and how you would want to live each day during that year? What energy you would bring to it…and begin planning out how you could bring that shine to each day this year.

I Live To The Fullest Expression Of My Life.

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

September 15th- #258 Fantastic Friday The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

When I Feel Lost I Come Back To My Home Base

I write a lot of poetry and when I write about feeling comfortable, feeling safe, and feeling loved…I always talk about coming home. There’s something reliable about home. Some people didn’t have the great and loving upbringing I had, and their physical home was filled with violence or chaos. But the home I’m talking about is not a physical place but a feeling.

Home base is the routine I’ve crafted over the years that helps me function at a high level while keeping me balanced.  It’s the morning rituals I’ve formed by getting up early to meditate, write, and walk. Home base is the spiritual practices I do in all my actions whether it be through prayer, mindfulness, or meditation. Home base is about waking up and reminding myself about my purpose each morning… and it’s about going to bed thinking about all the things I accomplished and loving myself for all the mistakes I made. Home base is the way I treat people with kindness, respect, and care for their minds, their feelings, and their hearts…and it’s the way I treat myself as I care for myself like I would treat another person I love dearly. And home base is the place I come back to recharge and get myself ready for the next things I want to pursue in life.

I’ve gotten into autopilot lately…by doing the routine but forgetting the reasons why I do it, and forgetting what my purpose is for waking up each morning.  And when we get into autopilot…our love for life dwindles and we just go through the motions treating the routine like an emotionless task list we have to do…rather than a guideline for our life that makes us feel alive and structured in the best possible way.  But to get out of auto pilot is easier than we think. All it takes is awareness of the beauty in life and that it only takes one good action to shift everything.

We get so caught in what we have to do, what we haven’t done, and that we aren’t were we are supposed to be yet…and what happens is we create unbalance, unsatisfaction, and resistance… that sticks to us.  The resistance comes in forms of hating what we once loved, and so we fight ourselves on the things that helped us to get to where we are. For me it’s things like preparing for this podcast, as I look at the monotony of having to do it every week, that I want a break from it…but I chose this path for a reason, the structure challenged me, and it kept me inline, and I’ve forgotten the love I had for doing this podcast. As I began to look at the burden of what I HAD to do, instead of seeing the love of what I wanted to do.

So what’s your purpose for waking up in the morning? Have you forgotten it? And if you have, life will be a major struggle as you work to do what you have to do instead of what you want to do. You won’t be in control anymore…the have to’s, the musts, and the ought to’s will be.

Also, you can have more than one purpose, we think we should ONLY have that one thing that our life amounts to, but you can have many purposes and you probably should. You shouldn’t only be a mom, you shouldn’t only be a lawyer, you shouldn’t only be a poor or rich person…you should have many roles to fill…and be in your life. Maybe your purpose could be helping your kids become brighter lights in this world, maybe it could be to create change in the industry that you chose to be in, and maybe it could be living in the moment enjoying whatever God puts in front of you.

When we forget our why…we become blind to the beautiful gifts life has to offer. When we’ve forgotten our home base, then we get into the routine of auto pilot—working only to survive…. instead of seeing the beauty in what we have…and thus forgetting that we are in control of creating an amazing life…not letting life dictate what we have or how we should feel.

Today’s Personal Commitment:
What’s your home base? What are the routines that help you to thrive in life? And how can you not just think about those routines, but come back and implement them in your life again?

• Write down what feelings your home base brings to you…when we remember the emotions of what makes us feel amazing it’s much easier to pursue the routine. Because it makes the routine something more, it makes it a pathway to life not a burden of existence.
• After you write down your feelings of what home base feels like to you, write down the routines that will help you to get there. Write down things you WANT to do…not just what you think you should or have to do. I know routines can feel like you are forcing something, but in the end even if you are doing something that you may not necessarily want to do, like work out…if you focus more on why you want to do it…then it becomes easier.
• Write down the 3 routines you’ll focus on this month in making them a perpetual habit. You may have more than 3, and I’m not saying you can’t try to do them all, but usually we get overwhelmed trying to do too much. So I say, master 1-3…and then begin adding in the next ones that you feel will add positively and strengthen your routine and life purpose each morning.

When I Feel Lost I Come Back To My Home Base

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

September 14th- #257 Thoughtful Thursday The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

I’m Not Searching For The Perfect Person, I Am That Perfect Person

I love social media, I love seeing the positive and inspiring posts, I even love seeing people’s food posts…as long as it doesn’t look like throw up…People…word to the wise…when you’re taking pictures of your food ask yourself does this really look good enough to post for the world to see??? Not telling you what to do, but some food posts need to be double checked before clicking submit.

I… am glad you put up inspirational posts, I am glad you put up positive posts about what you deserve…but sometimes these posts can make us delusional or play the victim…by keeping our attention away from the part we played into the matter. We attract what we put out there, and the more we focus on how we were wronged, or the continual posts talking about how strong we are, or that we need to not settle and hold out for the perfect guy or girl…then the more we weaken ourselves. We don’t really become stronger by posting a saying someone else wrote to our timeline…we become stronger by reading those posts, reminding ourselves of our strength and being the bigger person of moving on in a positive manner.

There’ve been studies that have looked at how people work to make their lives LOOK better than they are from the outside…showing all the vacations they go on, or how great their job is, or what amazing and cool things they are doing so someone will envy them. All while never really loving their life, but trying to post about how great things are so they can feel more important than they do. And posting those things aren’t bad things in of themselves…it’s about seeing what we are doing underneath the post. Are we truly trying to share a piece of our lives with others, or are we trying to create a fake exterior of our lives so that people will envy us and that makes us feel better about our situations?

Stop being fake, stop posting about how strong you are and how you’re the victim of someone else’s actions. Yes, people will dupe us, but at our core we had some involvement in it…we didn’t listen to our intuition. We saw or heard what we wanted to when the red flags were showing up and we didn’t look at them because we didn’t want to. I’m not saying we never give people second chances, but what I am saying is when we feel wronged and then blame others for being bad people, when our intuition was screaming at us…when do we stop crying wolf?  When do we stop blaming others for our pain? I know it’s so much easier to pin all the fault on the other person instead of looking at the whole situation objectively and our part within it. And when we place all the blame on the other person, we do ourselves a huge disservice. We begin to fall into the habit of becoming the perpetual victim… saying it was never our fault and we played no part in it all.

And so I see these posts of playing the victim, of talking about how hurt they are, and how they deserve better…which they do deserve better…but they’re so focused on how they were wronged…that they can’t see the people who really care for them. They can’t see the people who will bring more beauty in their lives because they’re so focused on what they are missing or what they think love looks like that they miss the best things that have been in front of their noses all along. And they begin an endless search of looking for that perfect person…when they need to be that person first for themselves.

Now yes, there are mean and really hateful people out there, but I’ve found in my life—the energy I emit… I attract. So if I focus on my brokenness or focusing on helping other people’s brokenness…I’ve found that I bring more broken people into my life. I’m a healer and I want to heal the broken…actually I don’t like to use the word broken as it’s a word used to say something can’t be fixed…so let’s use the term people who are hurting.

Now this is not to put the blame on anyone, but it’s to wake you up. I’ve been here myself, and I’ve played the game of the victim…and you know what that did for me? It just kept me in sadness, and it kept me lying to myself that I had no part in the situation. Bad things happen to good people, but the more we look at the unfairness of what has happened, then the more we attract more unfairness…and the more delusional we become by saying…I am not in control of the great that comes into my life…it’s just my luck, or that all men or women are all the same…and thus we attract more hurt people into our lives …and thus creating more of our self-fulfilling prophecy…bringing more negative forces of what we focus on into our lives…or what we secretly think we deserve.

So let us stop projecting false images to make people envy of us, let us take ownership of our lives and rid ourselves of the victim mentality, and let us stop looking for someone to complete us…we are already complete…it’s more about looking for someone to accentuate our greatness…and us to accentuate theirs as well.

Today’s Personal Commitment:
Go back through your posts over the last 3 months and see what you’ve been posting about. See what you’ve shared from someone else’s feed, see what you’ve written about, see what pictures or thoughts you’ve shared…and ask yourself what is the continual theme that’s been going on? Am I posting more about what’s wrong in my life, what I don’t like, how things aren’t going my way, or how I wish it was Friday when it’s Tuesday…or do I have a higher percentage of posts that uplift and make me feel good and hopefully makes others feel that way as well. The reason so much negativity surrounds our lives is because we focus on it, and then we attract more of it to us, and finally we finish the cycle by creating and adding more negativity in our lives and the world.  So if you found you focus or post a lot about what bothers you…start posting things that make you feel great…and not those backhanded compliments or posts talking about how you wish it were Friday…but really embrace the day you’re in…rather than always working for the weekend…and never really being present in the moment or your life. I find the more you wish to be somewhere else, and when looking back at your life in hindsight, you’ll have wished you would have complained less and participated more in ALL the moments of your life.

I’m Not Searching For The Perfect Person, I Am That Perfect Person

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

September 13th- #256 Wisdom Wednesday The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

I’m Always Looking For Ways To Grow

I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine about family, and how there was tension between them and certain family members. We got talking about a previous podcast where the affirmation was, “I Purposefully Connect With People Who Challenge Me To Be Better.” My friend brought up a point that really floored me, it’s not that I didn’t comprehend what she said or that they were reaching out in left field to describe their family relationships…but my friend said that, “some people don’t want to grow.”  And that really hit me hard. I guess it just floors me that there are lots of people in the world who are good with where they are in life.

They feel they have just enough, or maybe they are too afraid to reach for more…or feel like they don’t deserve more, or maybe they’re too delusional to realize their situation.  And I think there are a lot of people out there who are clueless that the root to their problems are themselves. And I’m not singling anyone out like I’m better, I’ve been there myself, and I can go back there if I don’t constantly evaluate myself and get feedback from outside parties.

And if you’re like me you want to help people, you want to help them to see the errors of their ways, and you want to help them have amazing lives by becoming more aware to what they’re doing. However, while we can try to help others…we have to realize that they may not be ready to reach their potential… and maybe never will be ready. But it’s not about giving up hope, it’s more about seeing people where they are…and for us not to get drained trying to change someone who doesn’t want to grow. In fact it’s not our duty to change people. It’s only our duty to love them. It’s our duty to be truthful to them in seeing what their blocks are….and if they can’t hear it, it’s about us moving on and not getting stuck in trying to help someone see something they don’t want to see.

So how can we love someone who’s caught in their own destructive patterns?  I think it’s about being truthful with ourselves in asking is this relationship unhealthy for us first. And if we feel it isn’t dragging us down then I think we need to find ways to be helpful but not to be trapped in feeling we HAVE to help. Because you will never change someone, you can only help bring light to a situation and they will have to open their eyes themselves. And that may take years sometimes, but again it’s not your duty to change them, it’s your duty to love them…whether it be close and in their life, or if it’s an unhealthy relationship…then at a distance as you pray and send good energy their way.

And I’ve known that I spent so many years trying to help people because it was a way for me to avoid my issues, it was a way to trick myself into thinking I was growing…when in fact I was only helping other people grow. I stayed stagnant in my personal development because it was always about being committed to other people’s healings. It put my blinders on, it helped me to sweep my stuff under the carpet to not be looked at, and it helped me to avoid what I was afraid of…changing into the person I was meant to be.

I’m not saying I’m perfect, and I’m not saying your road to growth will be easy…but what I am saying is that when we take the time to love ourselves, to be willing to look at the hard things that scare us about ourselves, and when we are willing to take a chance on ourselves to do what’s right and best for us…then we not only change our lives…but we change the lives of those all around us as well. So let us change ourselves first before we go on a crusade to help everyone else. You are a better healer when you are the example first.

Today’s Personal Commitment:
What are you avoiding in your healing? What are you avoiding in your personal development that’s keeping you from growing? And why are you afraid of avoiding that thing you don’t want to look at? Write down why you are avoiding that one thing in your life and write a plan on how you can start working on it in small bite size steps every day. Change happens with small consistent steps. Don’t go trying to find everything that is wrong with you, you’ll get overwhelmed. Find one thing you are avoiding and begin asking yourself how you can better work on it, and then get to taking action on changing your outlook and actions towards that thing you’ve been avoiding.

I’m Always Looking For Ways To Grow

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

September 12th- #255 Tag Me Tuesday The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

I Show My Best Self…All The Time

We have the tendency to play games, to not be straight with people or transparent in our wants and actions with others. Have you ever had a boss who is never upfront with you, they always seem to be up to something or scheming, or they never fill you in on the real details and you’re always wondering what their true motives are? Have you ever had a loved one play games on you, and you’re wondering what the real story is, and maybe you might be a little confused at what’s going on with why they’re doing what they’re doing? It doesn’t feel good not knowing or being able to see through people’s games.

And I ‘ve been that person playing games too. I was afraid of letting people see the real me, as I was in perpetual fear that if they got to know person I was underneath it all then they could never love the real me. And it never felt good playing that part of the game. In life we will continually be working to better ourselves, and you can’t change what you aren’t aware of, so I want you to ask yourself what games am I playing…am I upfront with people or am I being shady because I am afraid of being upfront and letting people know the real me and the truth of who I am?

It can be tempting to take the easy road and to play games, to be like the people who are afraid of being found out…the ones who are always scheming and manipulating situations… but don’t be like them…be transparent. Let people know your motives, make your motives pure and good. Make your motives for the team, not just about you. Make your motives a higher calling rather than focusing on the trivial things of the moment. Make yourself a person of high character and of a moral compass that’s always in alignment with your values. When you always base your decisions on your values …then you’ll have a great circle of people around you, as you don’t have fake people in your circle. And sometimes you may be alone in that circle at times…but if you stay true to your values, no matter what, you will allow the right people in, and they will be the people who will help make your life better

So what if you were to not just show up today, but what if you were to be transparent and show your best self?  What if you were willing to be vulnerable and real with people? What if you were to have honest conversations about what you are looking for and what you are expecting of the people in your life? And what if you were to truly work to connect with people authentically without the games based from fear? 

Today let us be reborn to be the kids we once were…the kids who dreamed of great things and knew that we could achieve them, by believing enough in ourselves and following thru with action. Today let us be passionate about our lives and our callings as we are willing to do the hard work to become the people we want to be. Today let us not only ask for our best selves to be seen, but let’s be committed to making that our #1 priority in our lives. We like real people in our lives, so let us be the people we want in our lives, let’s hold ourselves to the highest standards…not only others…but most importantly for ourselves. You are going to have to live with yourself for the rest of your life…why not make yourself the person you most want to live with.

Today’s Personal Commitment:
Who would you love to live with for the rest of your life? What qualities would they possess? How would they treat people, what would they say or do, what type of person would they be? Think about the most perfect person you would like to be with for the rest of your life…and then ask yourself…how can I be that person? You are going to have to live with yourself for the rest of your life, so why not make yourself the best person you want to hang out with.

I Show My Best Self…All The Time

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

September 11th - #254 Mindful Monday The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

I Focus On My Strengths

Your weaknesses don’t define you, your strengths do. When you continue to build upon your strengths you’ll find new strengths, so you can master life and not let circumstances master you.  For every circumstance, is another chance to be tested and ask if you’re ready for the next step in life. We have gotten used to the easy life, and so we feel we are entitled, we feel we deserve that promotion because we’ve put in the time…but just showing up is not enough. Not if you want to truly earn what you are given.

And I know in my life, I’ve tricked myself from time to time thinking that I deserved what I was given… when I didn’t put in the work to really earn the trophy or reward. I went to school and got A’s in certain classes, but I didn’t do the work. I just figured out what the professors wanted. And while that was a way of passing, it was only a way of putting in the bare minimum to trick someone. And that isn’t passing in my book. Yes, I gave what was asked for, but I didn’t give what I wanted… I didn’t even try to master the subject. I told myself the lie that the diploma, that the piece of paper was what I was after. But I was only a kid who had no clue that I wanted the knowledge…I didn’t want some B.S. certification that wouldn’t add up to something. Yes it might have got me some interviews, or a way to fake my way into the door…but I cheated myself by buying into the system.

I’m not saying degrees are bad things, but I think I put too much merit in getting the degree rather than learning the things I was supposed to.  I spent so much time looking at my weaknesses and trying to compensate by giving the system or the people in that system what they asked for…instead of utilizing my strength of creativity to continue finding a better way.  And so I stopped trying to learn things that I wanted to know, and I began only looking at what I was asked to produce…and thus I was only showing up.

When we see our strengths and work to bring them into the world, we not only brighten the world with our greatness, but we begin placing ourselves into a better system. We begin fitting into the puzzle of the world by sharing our authentic self, not what others expect of us. Being in corporate America I was rewarded for being another cog in the wheel, not for being more creative and resilient. I was asked to fit in, and I didn’t try to stand for something more because I was afraid of not being good enough.  But today that’s different…for you… and for me…because we are no longer settling for doing what is comfortable or easy. We are focusing on our strengths, and we are asking more of ourselves as we follow through bringing our most authentic self into the world. By focusing on our strengths we will grow into the people we truly want to be. There will be no more faking, or trying to fit in…because we will be creating something better than what the system offered us before. There’s no security in the system, there’s only security in utilizing our strengths and bringing that into the system.

So today I challenge you to not just show up, but to ask more of yourself, to be more creative, to be more persistent, and to be willing to fail and fall as you focus on your strengths no matter how hard it will feel in the beginning. Those who are willing to fall and fail till the end will always be rewarded…and they will be rewarded with something more than the tangible gifts of the world… they will have known that they became who they weren’t meant to be, and they will be satisfied and fulfilled knowing they weren’t afraid of being who they truly wanted to be.

Today’s Personal Commitment:
What are your strengths? Write down your top 5 strengths and ask yourself how well you used them yesterday? And if you’re honest with yourself…I want you to see how you could utilize them better today. Write down how you can remember to focus on them more and make them be a part of all of your decisions today. Change happens by taking action, but change first happens by becoming aware of where we are falling short in utilizing our strengths.

I Focus On My Strengths

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

September 10th- #253 Smiling Sunday The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

I Am Willing to Reinvent Myself Everyday

When you hit a wall, are you willing to do something new, to try something you ‘ve never done before, are you willing to never give up to find a way through, around, or under any wall or obstacle that is in front of you…are you willing to not just be who you were yesterday…but to become better than you were yesterday…are you willing to give 1% more than you previously have done?

I know there’ve been many times in my life where I talked about I deserved better, or that I wanted better…but I wasn’t willing to become the new person I needed to be to have that new elevation of greatness. We come to a new situation and think we can be the same person, that we can do what we’ve always done, but growth doesn’t mean you stay the same. Growth mean you continue the routine that has gotten you to where you are. Growth means that you are willing to step up your game and be challenged more. And growth means knowing you’ll have to fail and fall many times…maybe even be laughed at for trying in the first place. But those who laugh are the ones who weren’t willing to try…and their opinion will never matter…only yours will. And you will decide whether you want to let other people decide your fate, or whether you will risk the laughs to be victorious.

And so with that in mind I challenge you to reinvent yourself…with me. I’m not asking you to be a different person, I’m asking you to raise your game and become better, and I’m asking you to believe in yourself more. I’ve spent so much time doubting myself, wondering why it was never my time. Which in turn kept me down and focused on failure…rather than looking for ways to overcome the obstacles, and so together I challenge you to come with me and raise your game. I challenge you when you hit that wall to do something new, I challenge you to try something you’ve never done before and not to give up but find a way through, around, or under that obstacle, I challenge you to not just be who you were yesterday but to be better than you were yesterday, and I challenge you to give 1% more than you’ve previously have given.

You see, change doesn’t have to be a huge leap, it just has to be consistent small steps out of your comfort zone daily. So let’s get a little uncomfortable right now, so we can fall into the greatness we were destined for. I believe in you, let’s go out and change the world one person at a time…starting with ourselves.

Today’s Personal Commitment:
Think about a time in your life where you really wanted something but you were afraid to go after it because of what other people would think, or a time where you hit a wall and said I can’t do this it’s too hard…but really regretted giving up rather than find a way.  Think about what you would do differently today, knowing what you now know…and with that new knowledge choose a goal that’s important to you but you were unsure if you should start

• And begin planning your first steps…
• And then plan when you hit that first wall what are the three things you’ll do differently this time?
• And lastly what are the three things you will constantly tell yourself to keep you focused on finishing the goal rather than giving up?

I Am Willing to Reinvent Myself Everyday

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide