A Clever Spell

Chelsea Handler, popular stand-up comedienne and star of the comedy show Chelsea Lately, allows her followers to enjoy the highs and lows of her life through funny, animated storytelling. Described as a laugh-out-loud book, Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea”, includes hilarious anecdotes taken from the comediennes various experiences beginning from her childhood years and all the way up to adulthood.

Funny situations such as the time when she told her 3rd grade classmates that she would be appearing as Goldie Hawn’s daughter in Private Benjamin 2; or the moment when she found out about her boyfriend’s philandering ways, proves to us just how truly funny, endearing, and serious Chelsea can be. In other words, it tells us that she’s just as human as we are. She encounters problems, she stumbles and falls. The difference, of course, is that Chelsea has decided to give all of it a good laugh. It’s such fun trying to figure out how someone can turn a painful or devastating situation into a hilarious and delightful experience.

The book also reveals to us Chelsea’s secret weapon in facing life’s challenges: vodka. Yes, Chelsea runs to her good ol’ vodka when she finds the need to take a few things off her chest.

Once you start reading the book, you’ll find yourself laughing all the way! This book is Chelsea all the way; her charm, wit, and endearing humor all stuffed into a single book.

To find out more about Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, check out the News Mixer Site.

Hoover has published a profile about the Blackstone Group.

The Blackstone Group is profiled on Forbes.

If I ask you what you want to achieve in your life — your dream goal — your first answer will probably have something to do with money — lots of money. You want to win big at the casino. You want to hit the lottery when the jackpot is at $200,000,000. You want to be a multi-millionaire! Right?

Wrong!

Think about it. If your ultimate goal in life is to be rich, what are you going to do when you achieve that goal? Remember — a goal is the final destination of a journey. When you reach your goal, you’re at the end of your journey.

Example: Right now you’re in an ongoing dispute with your next-door neighbor. You dislike her with a passion. She makes your home life miserable. You win a lottery jackpot of $132,000,000. Remember — that was your goal. You’ve reached the end of your journey. Only there’s still a problem. You’re surrounded with stacks of green paper but you still have the same neighbor.

Example: Right now you’re struggling to keep food on the table for you and your family. Many nights dinner is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Your goal is money. You think that will fix everything. A distant relative dies and leaves you a bundle. Since you’ve reached the end of your journey — your goal to be rich — everything should miraculously be perfect. But wait. Your goal was just to have money, so unless you and your family can acquire a taste for raw green paper, you’re still going to be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

You thought your goal was to be rich. If you had enough money, all of your life’s problems would disappear.

That’s not the way life works.

If you can’t stand your next-door neighbor, your goal isn’t to be rich. Your goal is to move. Sure, you may need a lot of money to move to the perfect house in the neighborhood of your dreams and furnish it with the best of everything. So, yes, you need money. But you don’t plan to get the money and sit around looking at it.

You plan to spend it.

And what you plan to buy with that money is your real goal.

If you’re hungry, your goal isn’t money — your goal is food.

If your car stops running, your goal isn’t money — your goal is a new car.

If your roof is leaking, your goal isn’t money — your goal is a new roof.

So before you start mapping out your life’s journey, make sure you know where you’re trying to go. Uncover what you really want out of life and how to get it.

Don’t put it off — get started today!

©2005 by Brenda Lewis. All rights reserved

Brenda Lewis believes the path to happiness is to follow your passion. She has just released her 10-step way to get everything you want out of life on your own terms. Visit http://www.missionachieving.com/ for more information.

Dream it! See it! Do it! Be it!

Do you have a really big dream? Something so big, so exciting that you’re not sure how you can possibly have it especially considering where you are now? In my coaching and workshops, one of my primary tenets is that if you’re going to dream and go to all the trouble of attracting what you most want, make it something big, something better than you’ve ever thought of before. One of my students, a beautiful artist, said her dream was to make $1,000 a month with her art. I asked, “why not $10,000 or $100,000 a month?” She was challenged to examine why her dreams are limited and to stretch herself for something bigger.

Dreaming big can be exciting and also paralyzing. I teach the principles of attraction to attain your goals and dreams. As part of this, you let go of the how and allow the Universe to work on your behalf. In an ideal world or for someone who has practiced this for a while and knows it works, you don’t have to take any action except what the Universe tells you to do. You will know through intuition or signs or synchronicities what actions to take. This is called inspired action. But for many of us still in the practicing stages and who are working up our confidence in how this works, we still feel the need to take action in our daily lives on our own while waiting for these cues.

This is where the baby steps come in. When you feel confused or paralyzed, unable to move forward, taking baby steps can get you back on track. Even in my attraction workshops, I encourage baby steps to build up your confidence that the attraction principles are real and always work. Some of us have a hard time believing that the Universe or God will truly look out for us and that it responds to our desires (as expressed through our emotional vibration and thoughts). If you start practicing with the biggest dream you have and it takes longer than you expect or doesn’t come the way you expect, you may lose interest or belief in the process. So until we get that confidence that will allow us to have what we desire through informed action, we take our usual action steps.

If you can’t see how to get to your goal or you see it but it seems too far away or too big or too scary or you are overwhelmed, small steps can get you unstuck and moving again. So no matter how big the dream, you can start with the smallest of actions. If your dream was to write a book, even planning to write a chapter a month might be too overwhelming. Start smaller with daily actions such as “write two paragraphs describing what the book is about” on day 1, “research market saturation of this type of book via the Internet” on day 2, “create title” on day 3, and so on. Put these planned small actions on your calendar, even very small actions. Engage the support of friends or a coach who will encourage you and hold you accountable.

Small baby steps give you powerful leverage in achieving your dreams. They will give you confidence and momentum, both of which will get you unstuck and propel you forward. So get out there and dream big, bigger, biggest! You can achieve anything you can dream of.

Copyright 2005 by Mary Anne Fields and Life Unfolds.

Has life got you down? Are you ready to live your big dream but don’t know where to start? Sign up today for my free monthly newsletter and receive the free report “85 Ways To Be Happier Now!” at http://www.LifeUnfolds.com/news.htm

Mary Anne Fields
I help mid-lifers with life transitions, retiring well, discovering and creating their dreams, and simplifying.
http://www.lifeunfolds.com