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48 hours left to join the challenge

In my article The 30-day Passionate Being challenge, I started a challenge to help you create a Passionate Life, for free. Now there are only about 48 hours left to join the challenge. After that, it’ll be to late, as I probably won’t make that same offer again. One free session with me (I estimate the value at $100-200) just by filling in the following form with your email and your time availabilities. Good deal, isn’t it? Get more information or fill in the form below to join the challenge. Remember, after September 21st, it’ll be too late.

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How to be better than MacGyver

by Sylvain

If you’ve ever seen a few MacGyver episodes (and who hasn’t?), you almost certainly witnessed some bomb almost explode. Disarming a bomb with only 1 second left is one of MacGyver’s specialty (along with creating all sorts of devices with chewing gum and duct tape). Though defusing a difficult situation only moments before it’s too late is a great ploy to create tension and emotion in the viewer, it also happens quite often in daily life. Deadlines photo credit: psd You have deadlines, taxes to pay, DVDs to return, meeting presentations to prepare, etc. What all these situations have in common is that they cause significant pain (financial, emotional, etc) if you don’t take care of them in time. You may push them back for a while, but the closer you are to the deadline, the more your brain is obsessed with it. At some point, you will drop everything else and take care of the hot potato. In order to deal with it, you might do it yourself, ask your friends for help or even hire a freelancer. Whatever it takes. What happens is that the mind doesn’t want to be bothered with it, so it tries to avoid it as much as possible, until it gets real, and realizes there’s no way to escape it. What happens when you have to do it? You bring up the big guns. And you make it. Being a hero Being a hero is about having the courage to do what’s right, what has…

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How a system can help you attain your goal

by Sylvain

Who needs another constraint in their lives? Between jobs, opening hours, taxes, and other rules, systems have a bad rep. Not surprising, they are limiting your freedom. The magic box photo credit: ralphbijker But systems aren’t all bad, if you learn to use them well, they can be used to help you attain your goals. How come? They give a direction, helping you visualize the goal They create space to focus In time, they provide the comfort of a known situation and process But be careful, not all systems are created equal. Think outside the box For a system to be truly effective for you, its goals and limitations need to be clear, which means, you have to look at it from the outside. No system if all-encompassing, they are all limited. Decide what you want a system for, and look for the limits of the system, so that you are not subconsciously constrained by them. Let’s take an example. If you want to do some exercise to keep in shape, you know that a certain regularity is needed. Depending on how you feel in your body and mind, you could need to show up once a week, or every day. Let’s say you decide to run twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday, at 6.30 am, for 30 minutes, before you go to work. So, that’s your system. Sounds good? Take a minute to imagine what its limits are. Done? Here’s what I came up with: I have to wake…

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The 30-day Passionate Being challenge

by Sylvain

Good day, Passionate Beings! How’s life going these days? Pretty good? Not bad? What about making it Passionately Awesome? If you’re interested, it’s your lucky day, as today marks the launch of the Passionate Being 30-day challenge to help you build your Passionate Life. What I believe Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Helen Keller photo: The Wandering Angel I believe that a life lived at 50% is a life half-wasted. I believe that doing something because you “should” instead of because you love doing it is a cry for change. But most importantly, I believe it is possible to live a life filled with passion, creation and pleasure. I believe this kind of life is the best there is, not only for ourselves but for the world. I also believe that if you want to leave a truly positive mark in the world, you have to be passionate about your life. Finally, I believe I can help you build a life that you’ll be so passionate about, you wouldn’t change it for the world. But who would I be if I believed I could help you build a passionate life but limit myself to helping a few friends here and there? It is time to step up and share my beliefs and skills with the outside world. This challenge is how I’m doing it. The Challenge During 30 days, from today August 23rd until September 21st 2010, if you allow me, I will help you get clear…

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What if you had to do what you love in order to earn money?

by Sylvain

It’s a beautiful summer day, the sun is shining, the clouds are hiding somewhere on the other side of the Earth, you can smell the delicate smell of roses nearby and your only desire is to go out and have fun. Nothing unusual, just taking a little walk alone and working on your paper sculptures (they are so gorgeous you suspect your old neighbor inadvertently transported one into his living room), but.. You have to make money Of course, you have to work. Those damn reports won’t compile themselves, will they? So, you’re struggling, not able to decide with a clear conscience to do one thing or the other. You can’t enjoy the day because you should be working. But you can’t focus on your work either, because, really, you should be enjoying yourself. Who asked for these reports anyway? Will they ever read them? What are you doing? Don’t even think about forgetting all of it and simply relaxing. Make enough money, and then, you can have fun. This phrase is so common, so ingrained into our brains since we’re little kids, we need to make money before we can have fun. Whether it’s on a summer day, or in your life. Finish the reports, then you can chill out. Work for dozens of years, then you may enjoy life (if you still can). But here, I want to propose another paradigm. What if you had to do what you love in order to earn money? I can already…

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How to get unstuck

by Sylvain

Let’s say it’s a day like any other. You’re behind schedule on a big project (who isn’t?), your account balance seems to decrease by the minute, you wonder if it was your turn to grab the kids from school (hopefully they’re your kids), and you hope it wasn’t because the car was making a funny noise on the way to work this morning. Okay, maybe it’s not a day like any other. It’s worse. You feel stuck. Things don’t go as planned, you don’t know how to proceed. In a word, you’re overwhelmed and can’t go forward. You’re lucky, you can stop wondering How to get unstuck Whether it’s a big or a small problem, it doesn’t matter, the process is the same. The first step is always to acknowledge that you have a problem. Do you? Great! Good work. Now, 1. Step back There’s no point trying to dream up a solution standing where you are, if you want to have a chance at making any progress, you have to step back, take a deep breath, then look at the current situation. If you can’t see the beginning or end yet, go further away. 2. Assess the situation From here, you should have a better view of what you’re doing. It’s time to find out where you’re going and if it’s close enough to where you want to be going. If you’re killing yourself working, maybe you shouldn’t. See what’s working, and more importantly, what’s not working. Once you…

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