"Bob Mann"
Bob Mann

One of my all-time favorite “motivational” authors and speakers is the amazing Barbara Sher.  More than thirty years ago she wrote a terrific book called Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want, and has written several others since.  What people love about Barbara is that she is very down-to-earth, funny, and doesn’t even believe in the ”positive thinking” approach to personal change.  Rather, she motivates people to get in touch with what they already love doing, and then guides them toward turning that passion into either a new career or a very strong avocation.

As you’ll see, this video (one of many she’s done for PBS) captures her “irreverant” style  and packs an important lesson for all of us—the importance (she would call it the absolute necessity) of discovering and doing what you love to do in order to be fully alive.  Each of us has a special kind of genius which, unfortunately, most of us seem to ignore as we move through life, assuming that our true passions are impractical, unrealistic, frivolous, or whatever.  But if you listen to Barbara, you’ll start taking those dormant gifts and dreams more seriously—I promise!

Whenever I take a moment to think about it, I am reminded again just how lucky we are to have so many people—like Barbara and the other “motivators” I’ve been  highlighting in earlier posts—sharing their own gifts with us, reminding us in different ways that we do not have to keep settling for what we may have always settled for in the past.  Which means that no matter how unaware or unsupportive the people around us in our daily lives may be, there are always these other sources of inspiration available whenever we want them via their websites, books, CDs, DVDs, and live events.  Even without spending a dime, just perusing the websites of people like Barbara (she’s at www.BarbaraSher.com) can give you tons of motivation and practical ideas for turning your dreams into reality.

Besides finding  this video from Barbara, today I’ve been continuing the exercises from Bob Proctor’s “Six Minutes to Success” program as well as reading more of Frank McKinney’s book called The Tap.  Frank’s book is even more powerful than I thought it was going to be.  If you’d like some inspiration and practical ideas on how to incorporate “doing good” for others into your daily life, I can’t think of a better guide.  You can find it at www.Frank-McKinney.com.

Copyright © 2010 by Bob Mann