To find our howl we have to pay a price… This process may feel like a death and may at its most intense terrify us and at its least unsettle us. This is the price of finding our howl, our own one of a kind authentic voice, and there is no way around it…

The only way out of our self-erected prison is to go through it completely. There is no quick escape, every square inch of our imprisonment must be touched and lived through before it can be abandoned.

About a week ago I had the phrase “Find my voice” spinning in my head. Like many I am searching for my authentic voice, my own howl. We hope it will be easy but as the e-book, says, it comes with a price.

This post is moved to at Bengt’s Notes.

Can the self be improved? What is the self, anyway? Does the currently popular “self-help movement” really help us or is it a paradoxical diversion from our true self?

The post at PickTheBrain brings up some questions and answers and then ends like this:

I submit to you that there is no such thing as self-improvement – only varying degrees of self-discovery: This process of discovering who you are consists primarily of eliminating who you are not and, thereby, uncovering your true self…

I do not like the term self improvement since I think it is about finding our true self and not about improving our self. In my blogs I use personal growth or personal development which I think say more about what it is.

I got my Jon Kabat-Zinn Mindfulness books and CD-box today and on a coupon in the CD-box they use the words personal discovery. That sounds really great to me, finding your true self is a journey and a discovery.

What is the single most important advice for my readers to use simplicity for their personal development?

I like Leo’s answer and his definiton of simplicity:

Simplicity is, at its core, just choosing the essential over the non-essential. It’s a way to make the most use of your time, to be more effective, and to do the things you love.

Start by identifying 4-5 things you really love — those are the essentials in your life — then build your life around those things. Eliminate as much of the rest as possible. The same is true of work tasks and projects, of the things you spend on, on the clutter in your house — choose the essential and eliminate the rest.

The essence of his answer sounds easy – choose the essential and eliminate the rest – but is harder to implement.

Get this and other articles from the source at btwendel.com.

Zen Habits has a guest post by Mary Jaksch from Goodlife Zen about How to Establish New Habits the No-Sweat Way. It is about how Kaizen can help us to establish new habits. Kaizen is something I have in my own blogging (and action) idea box, I do really like the concept.

Think Simple writes about How to Tap Your Nap. It is about the ability to use the initial stages of sleep to generate creative ideas or to solve a perplex problem. Power naps, shorter than 30 minutes, are great in many ways.

Get this and other articles from the source at btwendel.com.

Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens keep learning and growing. Find what you love to do and find a way to share it with others.

This is a lot like my own philosophy, be open to life and follow your inquisitive mind. I enjoying learning and sharing, that is the main reason my why I blog.

Note: Get this and other articles from the source at btwendel.com.

Nick gives 5 tips to become a regular reader:
1. Learn to chain-read
2. Read for pleasure
3. Forget speed-reading
4. Use the 50 page rule
5. Learn to bail out

Chain-reading is no problem, I have a stack of books waiting to be read.

I do read for pleasure – why else should I read? (there is of course required studies for courses but I study on my own)

Speed-reading has never been my cup of tea, have tried it but realised my speed depends on what kind of books I read. Fiction goes faster, in fact-books I am the kind of person that underlines and makes notes in the book.

Number four is interesting, Whenever you pick up your book, read 50 pages or more. I do not need to finish a chapter but I do not always read 50 pages or more. Time to increase volume to reach (at least) one book a week.

Bailing out is no problem, it is human to pick a book that turns out wrong but there is no need to finish it.

Nick has created the One Book a Week Club over at Goodreads, a place where you can get book recommendations from people you know. In less than two years Goodreads has got over 1,000,000 members and over 20,000,000 books added to member profiles. Amazing, I joined Goodreads and Nick’s group and will see how it works out.

Note: Get this and other articles from the source at btwendel.com.

The Manifestation Wheel is made up of eight “houses” or steps: intention, peace, energy, guidance, empowerment, action, surrender, and legacy. Through these eight houses, the Manifestation Wheel offers a process that helps readers create the conditions necessary for their vision to manifest. It calls forth the reader’s intuition and develops deeper and higher levels of awareness.

Alan explains that in beginning a project, we usually begin by clarifying what we want. However the immediate next question, one that is rarely asked, must be, “What is the greatest potential wanting to unfold?” This is the true catalyzing question. The Wheel takes you beyond personal wants and desires to tap into a bigger picture—a picture of “what wants to happen,” a picture of your greatest potential and the greatest potential of a moment, situation, project, or vision.

The book guides the reader through the eight houses of the wheel. Exercises and questions for each house help you keep your project on the move and aligned to the structure of the wheel. The eight houses form a logical path from vision to legacy, placing action plans in the sixth house and using the first five houses to build a solid foundation. The final step in each house is to go back through the previous ones and see if anything has to be changed.

In the eight house of legacy you shall consider sustainability and long term implications of your project. What is the impact on coming generations? That is something we rarely ask ourselves.

For many years, Alan used the Lakota Medicine Wheel and its concepts to powerful effect in the building of his life, career, and relationships. Recognizing that the language of the Medicine Wheel was a bit arcane for today’s world, he adapted the Medicine Wheel to create the Manifestation Wheel, a tool that is accessible, practical, and immediately productive for individuals, businesses, and organizations in the 21st century. Now Alan has written the guidebook to the Manifestation Wheel, making this simple yet profound process available to everyone.

I love the book, it is well written and the Manifestation Wheel is a very useful tool. But available to everyone is a stretch, you must have an open mind and trust the combination of spiritual wisdom and scientific knowledge.

I shall use the Manifestation Wheel for a key project of mine, growing my coaching business into something substantial and sustainable. My first use of the wheel was small scale and part of that bigger project, picking a name and getting the site Key Coaching up and running.

The image is borrowed from Allan Seale’s site.

Scott Young describes a concept called Holistic Learning which means putting knowledge in context. Instead of stuffing your brain with information you create a web of associations since that is how the brain works best. I like this concept, it is similar to how I learn.

The preview has a brief look at flow-based notetaking which to me looks like a mix of mindmapping (which I like and use) and ordinary notes. This is part of the holistic learning, use associations when taking notes.

The preview also includes one productivity tip, nuke procrastination. This tip is similar to Task management my way – pen and paper.

The book includes the tale of The barometer problem as an example of knowledge used in creative ways.

What about YOU, what is going to happen to the rest of your life?

The post about How to distinguish between love and emotional dependence is great, I like this part:

True love means loving people for who they are, not trying to channel them into who you want them to be.

That is similar to a text I have on my wall:

Love me as I am and not as I should be.

Note: Photo by Alone….