Aristotle | The Purpose of Life

February 5, 2014 By

Aristotle | The Purpose of Life

Aristotle 

(384 BC – 322 BC)

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher whose ideas have deeply influenced science, philosophy and religion for more than two thousand years. He is known as the father of logical, scientific thinking. Although many of his scientific beliefs were later proved wrong, other of his discoveries in physics, biology and zoology were centuries ahead of their time.

Aristotle was born near modern-day Thessaloniki, Greece. His father was physician to the King of Macedon, so Aristotle was raised as an aristocrat and studied under the greatest thinker of the time, the famous Plato. Aristotle’s theories were the basis of modern science, and his works on philosophy and ethics helped form the teachings of religions and philosophers that are still held in high regard to this day.

Aristotle | The Purpose of Life

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

When I first read this quotation from Aristotle, I thought it was simplistic. I reasoned that Aristotle had lived a long time ago and perhaps life was less complicated then. After many years of study, however, I have come to the conclusion that Aristotle was correct; the quest for happiness is indeed universal. After all, whose life quest is to be unhappy?

The challenge lies in finding the difference between what we believe will make us happy versus what actually does make us happy.

Discovering where happiness comes from is the process of finding fulfillment. Many people assume that happiness comes from making money, which will allow them to buy things. In my experience and observation, happiness comes from serving other people – and I don’t mean “serving” in the sense of “volunteering,” I mean using our own gifts for the benefit of others in a way that is meaningful to us. (This may, in fact, be the way we earn our living.)

So how do we figure out which of our gifts will allow us to find happiness by serving others? Aristotle talked about that, too, when he said, ”Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” This search can take years. Be patient.

The journey begins with accepting yourself. So many of us are trying to be someone else. So first you have to accept yourself as you are. The next step is to believe in yourself.

From there, your instincts will guide you toward knowledge of what will make you happy, and the ways in which you need to treat others in order to be fulfilled.

We all need to work on “becoming” ourselves. We need to become ourselves more and more every day – and on that journey, we need to be our own best friends.

Aristotle | In His Own Words

Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.

For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing.

To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.

Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.

He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.

Education is the best provision for old age.

Hope is a waking dream.

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

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One of 50 Lessons from Amazing Teachers in my new book Wisdom to Live Your MAGIC!™

“A motivational book of words to live by and how to live by them. A valuable guide that encourages and enables self-actualization.” – Kirkus Reviews

“I heartily endorse this book whose lessons have the power to positively impact the lives of its readers.” – Ralph B. Young, Chancellor, University of Alberta

“This compilation of life’s great teachers and heroes, will inspire youth to take these lessons and connect the dots from where they are now, to their own future dreams and goals.” – Jay Ball, President & CEO, Junior Achievement of Northern Alberta

_____________________________________________________________________

FREE Ebook Download is available at this FREE ebook link

The Print Book is available from Amazon.com for $14.95 plus shipping. 100% of net proceeds, including author royalties, are donated to charities that support youth.

PRINT Book Link

 

Filed Under: Great Teachers, Life Wisdom, Personal Development Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Anaïs Nin | How We See

January 29, 2014 By

Anaïs Nin | How We See

Anaïs Nin

(1903 – 1977)

Anaïs Nin was a French-Cuban author who became famous for her personal diaries, which spanned 60 years and gave fresh insights into the many famous people she knew. Her writing was embraced by early feminists who admired her independent, free-living lifestyle at a time (nearly 100 years ago) when women had their roles limited by society.

Nin was born in France to an artistic family; her father was a composer and pianist living in Cuba and her mother a classically trained singer. Moving to the United States when her parents separated, Nin abandoned formal schooling at age 16 to become a dancer and model. Although mostly self-taught, her writings (ranging from her diaries to analyses of literature and erotic fiction) continue to be widely read and studied.

Anaïs Nin | How We See

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

“We see things as we are.” What does that mean?

Well, let us start with what we “are.”

What we are is what we believe. Our beliefs interpret things, events and people, and give them meaning. Our interpretations or judgments are driven by our beliefs and, in particular, by our personal values – the things we consider to be important in our lives.

If you believe fashion is the most important thing in life, then you see people from the context of their fashion choices and your beliefs about what constitutes good fashion. If you believe attaining wealth is the most important thing in life, then you look at opportunities in the context of how much money you can “make” from them. If you believe that football is life (and I can hear some of you saying, “Who doesn’t?”), then playing or watching football and cheering for your chosen team is a big part of your life – and doing that, to the exclusion of other activities, is an obvious choice for you.

It is as though you are wearing glasses, where the lenses are your core values through which you see (interpret) the world.

If we understand that each person has a different set of beliefs, and that therefore different people experience the same things and events completely differently, we gain a deeper understanding of other people. In addition, when we understand that how we view things is based on our beliefs, this can open us to examining our core beliefs and, maybe, choosing to adjust our priorities.

Throughout life, our experiences change us, and change our perceptions. Meeting someone and falling in love, the birth of a child or a grandchild, starting a business or connecting to a charity – these and many other things can alter our personal values and our priorities in an instant.

If you want to know what your personal values are, examine where you spend your time and money. You may then wish to examine these choices and see if they serve you well.

We all see the world from our own perspectives, but we have power over those perspectives.

Anaïs Nin | In Her Own Words

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.

The role of a writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say.

Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.

We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.

How wrong is it for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself?

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.

Do not seek the because – in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions.

You don’t find love, it finds you. It’s got a little bit to do with destiny, fate, and what’s written in the stars.

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One of 50 Lessons from Amazing Teachers in my new book Wisdom to Live Your MAGIC!™

“A motivational book of words to live by and how to live by them. A valuable guide that encourages and enables self-actualization.” – Kirkus Reviews

“I heartily endorse this book whose lessons have the power to positively impact the lives of its readers.” – Ralph B. Young, Chancellor, University of Alberta

“This compilation of life’s great teachers and heroes, will inspire youth to take these lessons and connect the dots from where they are now, to their own future dreams and goals.” – Jay Ball, President & CEO, Junior Achievement of Northern Alberta

_____________________________________________________________________

FREE Ebook Download is available at this FREE ebook link

The Print Book is available from Amazon.com for $14.95 plus shipping. 100% of net proceeds, including author royalties, are donated to charities that support youth.

Print Book Link

Filed Under: Great Teachers, Life Wisdom, Personal Development Tagged With: , , , , ,

Dr. Albert Ellis | The Power of Beliefs

January 22, 2014 By

Dr. Albert Ellis | The Power of Beliefs

Albert Ellis

(1913-2007)

Albert Ellis was an American psychologist who helped revolutionize psychotherapy. In 1955, he developed Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, a new way of helping people understand and change their own behaviors. A 1982 professional survey of U.S. and Canadian psychologists rated Ellis the second most influential psychotherapist in history – after Carl Rogers, and ahead of Sigmund Freud.

Ellis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1913. His father was a businessman who was often away, and he described his mother as a self-absorbed chatterbox with opinions on most subjects that were rarely supported by facts. He received his PhD in clinical psychology from Columbia University in 1947. His legacies include the Albert Ellis Institute and the many books he wrote for professional and general audiences that still influence psychology today.

Dr. Albert Ellis | The Power of Beliefs

“Rational beliefs bring us closer to getting good results in the real world.”

I learned from Albert Ellis that it is not rational thought but our beliefs that interpret events and trigger our emotional and behavioral responses – and that we don’t have to let them do that.

A psychiatric nurse was working with kids with behavioral problems at an elementary school in Edmonton. She was teaching them strategies based on Albert Ellis’s principles of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy that would help them manage the emotions that were preventing them from learning effectively. One Saturday, I was a guest at a session she held to show parents how they could help their children with these techniques at home.

I watched these parents become overwhelmed – some even burst into tears – as they realized that they could not only help their kids, they could also use the strategies themselves when their own emotions got out of control.

I have since read everything Ellis has written, and his theories have become a core part of my view of the world. He showed me that we are what we believe. Attitude is nothing but beliefs, and the voices of our negative beliefs prevent us from moving forward.

It is a simple but profound model: A leads to B, leads to C.

pastedGraphic.pdf

Here is an example. Let us say that you are cut after the second round of tryouts for a sports team. (This is the activating event, Block A, in the diagram above.)

If one of your beliefs (B) is, “I must make the team to be popular,” or “I am worthless if I don’t make the team,” now you’ll get anxious and depressed. That is called the “consequent emotion” (C).

We tend to “awful”-ize things. But we can change our irrational beliefs by asking questions like: “What is the evidence for my must/should?” (e.g., “Why did I believe that I was worthless if I didn’t make the team?”). We can ask, “Why is this situation terrible? Why is it awful? Why can’t I stand it?”

In Ellis’s view, we just need to add a D and an E to the ABC model to move forward. If we change the wording of our belief only slightly – in this  case from “I must make the team” to “I prefer to make the team” (D), our emotional responses change immediately (E).

Until I read Ellis, I thought that we had to get our self-limiting beliefs right out of our heads in order to avoid negative emotional responses. Now, I realize we just need to change them a little.

Dr. Albert Ellis | In His Own Words

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.

Acceptance is not love. You love a person because he or she has lovable traits, but you accept everybody just because they’re alive and human.

People have motives and thoughts of which they are unaware.

People don’t just get upset. They contribute to their upsetness.

Happiness is experienced largely in striving towards a goal, not in having attained things, because our nature is always to want to go on to the next endeavor.

There are three musts that hold us back: I must do well. You must treat me well. And the world must be easy.

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One of 50 Lessons from Amazing Teachers in my new book Wisdom to Live Your MAGIC!™

“A motivational book of words to live by and how to live by them. A valuable guide that encourages and enables self-actualization.” – Kirkus Reviews

“I heartily endorse this book whose lessons have the power to positively impact the lives of its readers.” – Ralph B. Young, Chancellor, University of Alberta

“This compilation of life’s great teachers and heroes, will inspire youth to take these lessons and connect the dots from where they are now, to their own future dreams and goals.” – Jay Ball, President & CEO, Junior Achievement of Northern Alberta

_____________________________________________________________________

FREE Ebook Download  is available at this FREE Ebook link

The Print Book is available from Amazon.com for $14.95 plus shipping. 100% of net proceeds, including author royalties, are donated to charities that support youth.

Print book link.

 

Filed Under: Great Teachers, Life Wisdom, Personal Development Tagged With: , , , , ,

$16,000 Awarded to Edmonton High School Proposals

December 6, 2013 By

Larry and Janet Anderson Philanthropies ( www.LifeIsAPromise.com ) is pleased to announce the funding awards to student proposals from Edmonton High Schools for the 2013/2014 Empowering Self Talk Initiative ( www.EmpoweringSelfTalk.com )

Students at four Edmonton High Schools have been given awards:

Victoria School of the Arts for their proposal Walk the Self Talk whose objective is to improve student mental health has been awarded $4,000 to implement their proposal.

Video Proposal

Archbishop Oscar Romero for their proposal Faces of Canada whose objective is to reduce racism has been awarded $4,000 to implement their proposal.

Video Proposal

Saint Joseph for their proposal Saints Social Justice whose objective is to reduce injustice has been awarded $4,000 to implement their proposal.

Video Proposal

Austin O’Brien for their proposal Life Changer whose objective is to reduce bullying has been awarded $4,000 to implement their proposal.

Video Proposal Not Currently Available

At the Larry and Janet Anderson Philanthropies Our Vision is a world where youth fulfill their promise. Our Mission is To awaken youth to their promise; To empower youth to live their promise; and to celebrate people living their promise.

We achieve our mission through partnerships with select charity, education and arts partners; through the media we create and through the events and initiatives we produce.

Our core belief is that every child is gifted, powerful and important.

The Empowering Self Talk Initiative is designed to engage students and challenge them to discover their gifts, embrace their power by learning to make better choices and to understand their importance by making a difference for others.

You are gifted. You are powerful. You are important.

Filed Under: Charity, Inspiring Lives, Leadership, Personal Development, Philanthropy, Teaching By Example, Values Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

John F. Kennedy Personal Mentor

November 22, 2013 By

On this 50th Anniversary of his death I am remembering the impact John F. Kennedy had on my life.

When President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 I had recently turned 16 (Sept. 17th). My life was in turmoil. The situation in my alcoholic home was becoming impossible. I was anxious to take charge of my own life, chart my own course and pursue my own dreams.

President Kennedy was a beacon of hope in a world filled with fear and uncertainty.

The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, made the prospect of a nuclear war real to me. Our neighbor had built a Fallout Shelter in their home and I wondered what would happen to me, my family and millions of others if there was a nuclear war. I had been told Edmonton would be a prime target because of the oil industry.

Before this, I had been captivated by President Kennedy beginning with the Presidential election in 1960. Kennedy became a personal hero based on two speeches he gave that, even today, deeply move me.

President Kennedy’s Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961 filled me with hope. It is still one of the greatest speeches I have ever heard.

He began by saying “the election was not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom”… I urge you to click the link above and listen to this masterpiece of leadership and oratory.

In the fall of 1962 at Rice University, President Kennedy gave his Moon Speech.

Talk about “shooting for the moon,” literally! This is a powerful example of sharing a vision, a challenge, and calling people to get behind it. If you have the time, click the link and hear another masterpiece of leadership and oratory.

Now, I hope you understand why I was so devastated by the assassination of President Kennedy. It was personal for me, in a way that seems irrational to me now.

I know that history has revealed that Kennedy was a womanizer and that he was chronically ill and suffered with pain. I don’t condone his breech of fidelity but it is not my place to judge him, or anyone else for personal failings. His illness and pain makes me marvel all the more at his vibrance and energy. I wonder at the strength of his calling to serve, his passion to lead and inspire.

I visited Dallas and the School Book Depository. It made me wonder what might have been… I left sad.

In 2007, I made a pilgrimage to John Fitzgerald Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. It is located on a ten-acre park, overlooking the sea that he loved. President Kennedy chose the site himself a month before he was assassinated, planning for years ahead, he thought. It has three parts: a Museum, an Archive and an educational Institute.

The architect was I.M. Pei, selected by Jacqueline Kennedy. The selection was a surprise because he was a young architect and the candidates included some of the best known architects in America. I.M. Pei seemed to Mrs. Kennedy to be filled the promise, imagination and temperament that would reinforce her vision for the library. The building is stunning. Visit the John Fitzgerald Library and Museum online and see for yourself.

The visit was a very personal and emotional experience for me. The multi-media presentation had me relive part of my youth. I spent some time standing quietly in the atrium.

Ultimately, I left home, pursued and realized many of my dreams. Today, fifty years later, I am grateful for John F. Kennedy a man who, as strange as this may seem, was like a personal mentor to me. Thank you.

 

 

Filed Under: Great Teachers, Inspiring Lives, Leadership, Life Wisdom, Mentor, Personal Development, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Roger Ebert | A Legacy in His Own Words

April 4, 2013 By

Film Reviewer Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert, the best known American film reviewer, died Thursday,  April 4, 2012, from cancer. He was 70.

He won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism, the first, and one of only three, given to a film reviewer since the category was created in 1970. In 2005, he received another honor when he became the first critic to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

After winning the Pulitzer Prize he partnered with Gene Siskel to do film reviews on television using their trade-marked “two thumps up!” They were the most influential film reviewers of their time.

His greatest legacy, in my view, are the conclusions he reached from a lifetime of living, expressed in his own words.

Roger Ebert, in his own words:

“No good film is too long and no bad movie is short enough.”

“We fought like cats and dogs, but we always loved each other.” (On his relationship with Gene Siskel)

“My newspaper job … is my identity.”

“Kindness covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.”

“Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.”

“Years from now it is quite possible that ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ will be seen as the definitive film of the 1960s.”

“Every great film should seem new every time you see it.”

“No matter what they’re charging to get in, it’s worth more to get out.”

“To say that George Lucas cannot write a love scene is an understatement; greeting cards have expressed more passion.”

“If you have to ask what it symbolizes, it didn’t.”

“I’ve been around a long time, and young men, if there is one thing I know, it is that the only way to kiss a girl for the first time is to look like you want to and intend to, and move in fast enough to seem eager but slow enough to give her a chance to say ‘So anyway …’ and look up as if she’s trying to remember your name.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roger Ebert and wife Chaz Hammelsmith

“She fills my horizon, she is the great fact of my life, she has my love, she saved me from the fate of living out my life alone, which is where I seemed to be heading,” he wrote about wife Chaz Hammelsmith.

“I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.”

“I do not fear death. I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear.” (From Ebert’s book, Life Itself: A Memoir).

“…thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll see you at the movies.”

Rest in peace Roger, thank you for your reviews and your insights.

Filed Under: Great Teachers, Inspiring Lives, Life Wisdom, Mentor, Personal Development, Teaching By Example, Values Tagged With: , , , , ,

Empower Students Through International Internships

April 2, 2013 By

 

 

AIESEC Edmonton is the University of Alberta chapter of the world’s largest student organization. AIESEC is an international non profit organization that provides students with leadership training and international internship opportunities at for-profit and non-profit organizations.

AIESEC Corporate Breakfast 2013

Crowne Plaza | Chateau Lacombe

10111 Bellamy Hill Road, Edmonton, Alberta

7:00 AM, Tuesday, April 30th, 2013

Keynote Presentation By

Larry Anderson, President & CEO

The ManCap Group

Create An Enduring Legacy

The Five Choices that are The Foundation

of Success, Fulfillment and Happiness

 

“Larry’s message is extraordinary but his impact comes with his delivery. He is genuine and simply shares his message with utmost sincerity, passion, and raw honesty.”

Jay Ball, CEO Junior Achievement

“Larry gave a memorable talk on self directed learning…he played a key role in an amazing and inspiring day.”

Ken Bautista, Chair, TEDxEdmonton

“I heartily endorse Larry Anderson as a speaker, mentor and communicator.”

Ralph B. Young, CEO Melcor Developments Ltd., Chancellor, University of Alberta

 

Local businesses help AISEC by providing financial support by attending the Corporate Breakfast and by providing intern placement opportunities for international students.

 Please Buy Your Tickets By April 19th

You can buy tickets online at

http://aiesec.ca/edmonton/corporate-breakfast/

If you have questions or concerns please contact Kayla Baretta at 780-717-8918


Filed Under: Charity, Leadership, Personal Development, Philanthropy, Teaching By Example, Values Tagged With: , , ,

Grade Ten Student to Perform at the Jubilee Auditorium

September 9, 2012 By

Emerging Artist – Daylin Jorgenson – Guest Performer 

At the Celebrate Songs of Human Condition Concert

Veteran music producer, Rob Hewes, on behalf of the Larry and Janet Anderson Philanthropies and with the support of the Victoria School of the Arts, conducted a series of songwriting workshops in the spring of 2012, at the Victoria School of the Arts.

Workshop participants each brought a song that they had composed and Hewes provided informative, critical input as well as inviting the same from all in the songwriter’s circle.  The students were thrilled at the personal attention that each received and responded positively to this unique and professional experience.  At the conclusion of the workshop series, the student participants were asked to vote for the best song created at the workshop. The song selected was The Go!, written by Daylin Jorgensen, a student who just began Grade 10 last week.

Over the summer, Rob Hewes worked with Daylin to create an orchestration and produce the song for performance and recording.

Daylin has been invited to perform The Go! at the Celebrate! Songs of the Human Condition Concert, on September 16 at the Jubilee Auditorium, as a special guest performer.

See Daylin perform The Go! and see 11 other amazing Edmonton singer songwriters perform two original songs each at the  Celebrate! Songs of the Human Condition Concert, September 16 at the Jubilee Auditorium. Tickets $20 plus service fees at Ticketmaster.ca

Concert Trailer

More Information: www.CelebrateSongwriting.com

 

Filed Under: Charity, Inspiring Lives, Mentor, Personal Development, Philanthropy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Please Join Me: Attend This Concert

September 3, 2012 By

 

 

See and hear all of these amazing Edmonton Singer Songwriters in one concert.

Anna Beaumont | Brian McLeod | Brooke Trelenberg | Carling Hack |

Christin McCauley | Erin Mulcair | Jay Willis | Jordan Kaminski |

Martin Kerr | Rob Hewes | Roland Majeau | Susan jane Hodge

Under the direction of veteran music producer, Rob Hewes and featuring the Celebrate Band.

 

At the Spring “Off Broadway” Concert the response was overwhelmingly positive.

 

“It blew me away! A real nice variety. I loved the whole mix.”

Annemarie Petrov, Executive Director, ESO

 

“One of the best concerts I’ve seen in years!”

Tami Dowler-Coltman, Principal, Victoria School of the Arts

 

“Each artist impressed us with the quality of their music and writing. It’s uplifting.”

Neil Wilkinson, Ethics Commissioner, Alberta

 

See the concert trailer.

For more information visit the concert website.

 

This concert is 100% sponsored so that all the ticket revenue can empower youth.

100% of Ticket Revenue Donated to charities that support youth.

Youth Empowering Self Talk Initiative in Edmonton High Schools – students helping students improve their self talk supported by funding from this concert!

Youth Empowerment and Support Services – YESS, formerly Youth Emergency Shelter – awakens and empowers at risk youth by first providing safety and then fostering the healing from homelessness, abuse and addiction and by supporting job preparation and education in partnership with other agencies.

Junior Achievement – awakens and empowers youth through in-class discussion, materials and exercises about financial literacy and the economics of staying in school and through the life-changing experience of starting and running a real business in the JA Company Program.

Free the Children – Free The Children domestic programs educate, engage and empower hundreds of thousands of youth in North America and the UK to realize their full potential as agents of change. Their international projects, led by their holistic and sustainable Adopt a Village model, has brought over 650 schools and school rooms to youth and provided clean water, health care and sanitation to one million people around the world, freeing children and their families from the cycle of poverty.

Literacy and Learning Day – Literacy and Learning Day helps parents support the education of their children by providing the insights of world renown keynote speakers (examples: Barbara Coloroso, David Bouchard) the advice of experts on a host of parenting and education challenges through workshops and other resources all for free. This enables the parents to help awaken and empower their children.

Please join me and attend. Bring some friends.

 

Celebrate! Songs of the Human Condition

Sunday, September 16, 2012 7 PM

Jubilee Auditorium

11455-87 Ave.

Tickets $20 plus service fees

Tickets available At

Ticketmaster

By phone: 1-855-985-5000

Thank you, I hope to see you there.

 

 

Filed Under: Charity, Inspiring Lives, Mentor, Parenting, Personal Development, Philanthropy, Teaching By Example Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Please Help Me Empower Youth

August 28, 2012 By

This is NOT a fundraising request. I’m asking for your help.

Please join me in an effort to rescue the dreams of discouraged youth. To provide youth with insights and tools to empower them to make better choices and to live a life of fulfillment and happiness

I remember how lost I was as a teenager. It isn’t any easier being a teenager today. Some of the challenges are just different. I must try to help. I want to reduce abandoned dreams, high school drop outs, teen suicide, drug use, crime and a host of other results from the negative story some youth tell themselves about themselves and the criticism they hear in their heads.

I believe every person is gifted. Each of is born with a unique set of talents, abilities, interests, passions and dreams that defines our unique promise.

I believe every person is powerful. Our power is in our choices.

I believe every person is important. Each of us can choose to make a difference in the lives of others in a way that is meaningful to us. This will provide the fulfillment and happiness we all seek.

Join me in telling youth: You are gifted. You are powerful. You are important. I believe in you.

For more information about me and my mission please visit www.lifeisapromise.com

Why I Care

I care deeply about empowering youth because I struggled as a teenager.

I was a high school drop out. I made some bad choices. Three insights changed the course of my life.

  • My past didn’t need to define my future.
  • The conversation in my own head was holding me back.
  • I needed to learn who I was and quit focusing on who I wasn’t. I needed to learn how to make better choices and silence the critics in my own head.

My journey has had ups and downs but today I am living my dreams.

To share what I learned on my journey, I have written two books and recorded a video presentation. Both of the books and the video will be available in digital form for free this fall.

The two books will also be available as print books for $14.95. All of the net proceeds from the print books will be donated to charities that support youth.

For more information visit www.liveyourmagic.com

How You Can Help

The best way to empower youth is through the peer support of other youth.

I am thrilled to advise you that the Edmonton Public School Board and the Edmonton Catholic School District have agreed to partner with the Larry and Janet Anderson Philanthropies to call for proposals in the fall semester 2012 from student leaders for a program to improve the self talk of other students to be implemented in high schools in the spring semester 2013.

Ten thousand dollars in prizes will be awarded to implement the winning initiatives. The winners will be selected by an independent judging panel of educators and youth advocates.

The prize money will be provided in an exciting way.

Eleven of Edmonton’s most talented singer songwriters, under the guidance of veteran music producer Rob Hewes, will perform a concert of 22 original songs about the human condition at the Jubilee Auditorium on Sunday September 16, 2012 at 7 PM. 100% of the costs of the concert have been sponsored. This is an encore performance of the successful concert at the Timm’s Centre for the Arts this spring.

See the Celebrate Songs of the Human Condition Concert trailer.

Learn more about the singer-songwriters visit www.celebratesongwriting.com

Main floor tickets are $20.00. This is not a donation, the concert is worth this and more. The first $10,000 in ticket sales will provide the prize money for the high school self-talk initiative. 100% of ticket proceeds we be donated to charities and initiatives that support youth.

High school students will sit in sponsored seats in the balcony. The finale of the concert will be the performance of the inspirational new theme song for the high school youth empowerment initiative, I Believe in You.

I promise you, this will be an uplifting evening you will remember for years. Your attendance will show the singer songwriter youth, and the high school students – you support their dreams.

Please join me in attending.

Buy tickets at ticketmaster.

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