Live To Inspire

LTI Profile: Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

Posted By Live To Inspire

“My left brain is doing the best job it can with the information it has to work with. I need to remember, however, that there are enormous gaps between what I know and what I think I know.”
~ Jill Bolte Taylor

Who here has heard of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor? I hadn’t heard of her until this year when she was profiled in Success Magazine, but since then I have sought out videos of her talks on both TED.com and Oprah’s Soul Series. If you haven’t heard of Dr. Taylor, or even if you have, I encourage you to keep reading. In May of 2008, TIME Magazine chose Dr. Taylor as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. Her story has been featured in Success Magazine, she appeared as a guest on Oprah’s Soul Series in early 2010, and gave a keynote presentation at TED2008. Her story is intriguing and inspiring, which is why I share it with you today.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist. What is that you ask? Since I had to look it up myself, here is the definition – in short, neuroanatomy is a branch of neuroscience which deals with the study of the structure of the brain and the nervous system. In 1996, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor became a neuroanatomist with first-hand knowledge of how the brain really works when one morning she woke up to discover that she was experiencing a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain. Now, I would imagine most people, if they were to experience something like this, would freak out a little bit and call for help. However, being a brain expert allowed Dr. Taylor to observe what was happening within her body from an objective point of view, and because of this has been able to go on to share her fascinating story through interviews and her book “My Stroke of Insight“.

Two and a half weeks after the incident, Dr. Taylor underwent major brain surgery to remove a golf ball size blood clot that was placing pressure on the language centers in the left hemisphere of her brain. It took eight years for Dr. Taylor to successfully rebuild her brain. Since that time she has gone on to become a successful author, speaker, and overall brain and life activist.

I share with you now Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s presentation from TED2008. May it be the beginning, or perhaps the continuation, of your relationship with this fascinating and inspiring woman. Click here if you cannot see the video below.

Did you enjoy this video? Want to learn more about this amazing woman and her experience? Read “My Stroke of Insight” by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor or visit her website today.

“When we are being compassionate, we consider another’s circumstance with love rather than judgement… To be compassionate is to move into the right here, right now with an open heart consciousness and a willingness to be supportive.”
~ Jill Bolte Taylor

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June Quotes

Posted By Live To Inspire

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cybertoad

Wow. Who knew so many great thinkers and speakers were born in June? As per the usual, I have compiled a list of great quotes from great people born in the month of June. Vince Lombardi, Richard Bach, the Dalai Lama, Anne Frank, Helen Keller…..I could go on and on. It’s an amazing list, and I’m happy to share it with you today. Take a read through these timeless classics and let me know which one is your favourite.

“Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions.” John Randolph (June 2)

“It is always by way of pain one arrives at pleasure.” Marquis De Sade (June 5)

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.” Vince Lombardi (June 11)

“Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.” Vince Lombardi (June 11)

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14)

“Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.” Donald Trump (June 14)

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” Wilma Rudolph (June 23)

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly.” Richard Bach (June 23)

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/76936665@N00/

“If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they’re yours; if they don’t they never were.” Richard Bach (June 23)

“Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery (June 29)

“I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness…” Dalai Lama (June 6)

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” Dalai Lama (June 6)

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” Anne Frank (June 12)

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21)

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” Helen Keller (June 27)

“You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” Michael Phelps (June 30)

“People say that you’re going the wrong way when it’s simply a way of your own” Angelina Jolie (June 4)

“I really don’t think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don’t mind the failure but I can’t imagine that I’d forgive myself if I didn’t try.” Nikki Giovanni (June 7)

“Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.” Judy Garland (June 10)

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Cashflow Quadrant: Money Cannot Be Seen With Your Eyes

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When it comes to money, what is the difference between security and freedom? What does it mean that money can’t be seen with the eyes? Recently I read ‘Cashflow Quadrant’ by Robert T. Kiyosaki, which explains the answers to these questions and more.

Robert Kiyosaki was born and raised in Hawaii. He is an American investor, businessman, self-help author and motivational speaker. ‘Cashflow Quadrant’ is his follow up book to the bestseller ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’. It reveals strategies for moving beyond just job security to greater financial security by generating wealth from four selective financial quadrants. These quadrants are what Mr. Kiyosaki calls the four types of people who make up the business world – employees, the self-employed / small business owner, the big business owner, and the investor. The goal of this book is to get us thinking about the benefits of moving from the left side quadrants (employee and self-employed) to the right side quadrants (big business owner and investor). This is where the two ideas that started this post come in. What is the difference between security and freedom? What does it mean that money can’t be seen with the eyes? Read on for my interpretation of Mr. Kiyosaki’s two theories.

Security vs. Freedom

Security is what we are taught in school and by our parents. It’s conditioned into us. Security tells us to get a degree, get a job, work for a pension, and save our pennies. Unfortunately, this lifestyle usually doesn’t provide us with the income we need for all those things we want, and so we get into debt. The more debt we get into, the more we are tied to our secure jobs and our secure paycheques. If we do work hard, however, we sometimes get to move up the corporate ladder. Unfortunately, in this structure, more success usual equals less time of your own to be with your family, to exercise, or to pursue your hobbies. This leads to stress, which leads to a myriad of health problems. To add insult to injury, pursuing security as an employee or self-employed individual puts you into the highest tax brackets.

Freedom is what you get when you establish a healthy stream of passive income (cashflow). This could be from a business that you have built, but other people run. It could be from real estate, or it can be from different investments. Freedom means that you know how to build a business system and use other people’s time and money to create passive income for yourself. It also means that as a big business owner or investor you can take advantage of the many tax breaks offered, which leaves more cash in your pocket.

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