Marc Chernoff's Blog, page 53

7 Simple Yet Powerful Metaphors that Will Change the Way You Think

A metaphor is not an ornament. It’s a necessary lens of perception that allows us to experience and think about ourselves and the world more clearly. Metaphors have a way of relating to us in a profound way, by clarifying immense life lessons and truths in fairly minimal space.

Angel and I have shared the following metaphors and corresponding stories with our students, coaching clients, newsletter subscribers, and conference attendees dozens of times over the past 15 years, and we usually get thanked for doing so. The specifics differ slightly every time we share them, but the core lessons carry onward.

My challenge for you today is to read the first metaphor (more…)

7 Calming Quotes that Will Stop You from Taking Things Personally

In most cases you can’t calm the storm. What you can do is calm yourself, and the storm will gradually pass. So breathe when stress or negativity surrounds you today. Let calmness be your superpower. The ability to not overreact or take things personally always gives you the upper hand.

Remind yourself that people are hard to be around when they believe everything happening around them is a direct assault on them, or is in some way all about them. Don’t fall into this trap. What people say and do to you is much more about (more…)

5 Things You Forget About the Precious Little Time You Have Left

May you truly live every day of your life.

The Girl Who Didn’t Make It

Alyssa was my best friend. She was a talented musician, a graceful gymnast, a brilliant writer, and a deeply passionate human being. She cared about people. Love bled from every facet of her being. When she spoke, her eyes were as sincere as her words. And she always wanted to understand what was wrong so she could strive to make it better.

But Alyssa woke up one day during her senior year in college with a strange pain in her chest. The on-campus doctors didn’t understand why, so they referred her to a specialist. After several MRIs and blood tests, they determined that she had a rare escalated case of Hodgkin’s lymphoma — a form of cancer. She spent the next three years suffering through varying degrees of pain and sickness as multiple doctors treated her with radiation and chemotherapy. And although these doctors were initially hopeful, Alyssa’s condition worsened, and she eventually succumbed to her cancer, dying on her (more…)

6 Tiny Daily Rituals that Will Change Your Whole Life (in 6 Months or Less)

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
– Annie Dillard

Are you willing to spend a little time every day like most people won’t, so you can spend the better part of your life like most people can’t?

Think about that question for a moment. Let it sink in. You ultimately become what you repeatedly do. The acquisition of knowledge doesn’t mean you’re growing — growing happens only when what you know changes how you live on a daily basis (most people miss the second part).

And isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different? That’s the power of daily rituals.

Now it’s time think about your rituals — the little things you do every day.

Because these little things define you.

All the results in your life come from (more…)

8 Wake-Up Calls You Need to Receive in Life Before it’s Too Late

You’ve come a long way, and you’re still learning and growing. Be thankful for the lessons. Take them and make the best of things right now.

For my 18th birthday, many moons ago, my grandfather on my mom’s side gave me four lightly-used flannel shirts that he no longer needed. The shirts were barely worn and in great shape; my grandfather told me he thought they would look great on me. Unfortunately, I thought they were odd gifts at the time and I wasn’t thankful. I looked at him skeptically, gave him a crooked half-smile, and moved on to the other gifts sitting in front of me. My grandfather died two days later from a sudden heart attack. The flannel shirts were the last gifts he ever gave me, and that crooked half-smile was the last time I directly acknowledged him. Today, I still regret the little thing I didn’t say when I had the chance: “Thank you Grandpa. I appreciate you.”

That was a huge wake-up call for me — one that has served me well for over two decades now.

And here are eight wake-up calls for YOU — some important life lessons worth learning before it’s too late: (more…)

10 Painfully Obvious Truths About Life Everyone Forgets Too Soon

The truth does not disappear when it is ignored.

You know how you can hear something a hundred times in a hundred different ways before it finally gets through to you? The ten truths about life discussed here fall firmly into that category – timeless lessons that many of us likely learned years ago, and have been reminded of since, but for whatever reason we haven’t fully grasped them yet.

This, my friends, is my attempt at helping all of us, myself included, “get it” and “remember it” once and for all…

1. The average human life is relatively short.

We know deep down that life is short, and that death will happen to (more…)

10 Hard Things to Start Doing for Yourself More Often

Focus on small steps throughout the year. And even when the struggle is real, remind yourself that it always feels better to be exhausted from taking small steps forward, than it does to be tired of doing absolutely nothing.

In 1911, two explorers, Amundsen and Scott, embarked on a race against each other to become the first known human being to set foot upon the southernmost point of Earth. It was the age of Antarctic exploration, as the South Pole represented one of the last uncharted areas in the world. Amundsen wished to plant the Norwegian flag there on behalf of his country, while Scott hoped to stake his claim for England.

The journey there and back from their base camps was about 1,400 miles, which is roughly equivalent to a round-trip hike from New York City to Chicago. Both men would be traveling the same exact distance on foot through extremely cold and harsh weather conditions. And both men were equally equipped with experience, supplies, and a supporting team of fellow explorers. But what wasn’t certain is how each of them would approach the inevitable challenges they faced on the road ahead.

As it turned out, Amundsen and Scott took entirely different approaches to the very same challenges.

Scott directed his team to hike as far as possible on the good weather days and then rest on bad weather days to conserve energy. Conversely, Amundsen directed his team to follow a strict regimen of consistent daily progress by hiking exactly 20 miles every day, regardless of weather conditions. Even on the warmest, clear-sky days, when Amundsen’s team was capable of hiking much farther, Amundsen was absolutely adamant that they travel no more than 20 miles to conserve their energy for the following day’s hike.

Which team succeeded in the end?

The team that (more…)

20 Little Things You Learn as You Let Go of the Uncontrollable

Accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in your journey.

It’s always necessary to accept when some part of your life has reached its inevitable end. Closing the door, completing the chapter, turning the page, etc. It doesn’t matter what you title it; what matters is that you find the strength to leave in the past those little parts of your life that are over.

It’s all about embracing the truth: What has happened is uncontrollable, but what you do now changes everything!

Of course, knowing this and actually living a lifestyle that reinforces this truth are two very different things. Letting go is NOT easy – it’s a journey that is traveled one day at a time. If you stick with it though, here’s what your journey will ultimately teach you: (more…)

10 Reasons it’s Time for You to Let Go

Life enlightens you gradually as you age. You realize how much nonsense you have wasted time and energy on. And you begin to understand what it means to let go.

Holding on can be painful. Holding on can directly contribute to stress, health complications, unhappiness, depressive thoughts, relationship problems, and so on.

Yet, as human beings, we cling desperately to almost everything…

We don’t like change, so we resist it.

We want life to be the way we think it “should” be.

We get attached to our fantasies, even when they hurt us.

Over the past decade, as Marc and I have gradually worked with hundreds of our course students, coaching clients, and live event attendees, we’ve come to understand that the root cause of most human stress is (more…)

10 Life Choices You Won’t Regret in 10 Years

I don’t regret the things I’ve done; I regret the things I didn’t do when I had the chance.

In the end, more than anything else, we regret the chances we didn’t take, the relationships we were too afraid to have, and the decisions we waited too long to make.

Think about it…

The big opportunity you procrastinated on. That friend you never called. Those important words you left unspoken.

You know what I’m talking about.

Every one of us has experienced feelings of regret. But it’s not too late to set things straight. We’re still here breathing.  Today we have an opportunity to change tomorrow. Right now we can choose to erase regret from our later years.

It’s time to make the best of each and every day. Here are some ideas to get you started – ten things you can start doing now that you won’t regret 10 years down the road: (more…)