Questions

I write short stories and would love to sell some of them. I am disabled and lived on a fixed income and would love to suppliment my income. The stories are very well written.
My stories are fiction, but based on the actual belief and personalities of the people living around me.
- flissyjane58

Hi friends!!

My parents named me Govind… though I did’nt like the name, it stuck with me. Eversince,  I have held it as my own. I grew up as a sober guy with lots of friends, who vouched for my honesty and sincerety more than their lives. I remember those days,  whenever there was any umpiring or refree requisite for any sports, my name would be higly recommended…for,  I could never do anything wrong, even remotely…That was the cult status I always enjoyed…even now to this date, albeit discreetly.

My idea of writing articles online, comes from a bubbly character whom I acknowledge as a great friend and a go getter. I liked to write, but was never reviewed upon….so it paves for me an opportunity to be on the other side of the firing line…where in, I expect critical hammerings for my writings, to improve myself day after day!! .

I dedicate this article to my bubbly friend, who inspired me to take up creative writing…

I see two worlds, one, with people who try to show off, arrogant, demanding, back biters and gossip mongers and on the other hand, I see people, who are sincere, friendly, helpful and down to earth. The only difference I find is that a huge population of first set of people lives in big bungalows having lots of money and spending incessantly, thriving on the second set of people who lives a life of obscurity, waiting for a ray of light to change their lives.

I love happiness, who does’nt? When I say happiness, I mean internal happiness at all times, from deep within, inside the heart… I believe if I’m truly happy, I’ll make others happy, which in turn will make me immensely happy, so I prefer to be happy, always…. 

But dont I ever get angry…? yes, I used to. Of late, I have developed a sense of calmness within me and I began to smile thru every situation. I believe that I’m a unique creation and this belief supports me and encourages me to step on to the next level…  By being happy, I learnt the virtue of patience, compassion and the true meaning of love. I intent to share my thought’s on these in the subsequent issues…


- Govind Kanakan

This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni’s Fountain of Youth Summit, which can be found at http://fountainofyouthworldsummit.com. In this excerpt, Donna Krech shares on weight loss and fitness. The Fountain of Youth World Summit with Donna Krech writer, speaker and “belief builder.”

Kevin: Right. And with weight loss and health, now does someone have to do a separate law of three, or does that come in or again as we were talking before, does it somehow just find its way into it? I mean, how does that fit into?

Donna: Same motivation assassinators, same never-ending motivation. It’s a little bit more specific obviously. If somebody is focusing on losing a certain amount of weight, then their law of three is going to be different. We’re going talk about what do they want, what types of things do they feel could come against it, what do they need to pay attention to, how do they need to change their thinking, what now is their law of three, going into the day, what are the top three most important things I need to pay attention to, to get me the results that matter to me.

Kevin: Right.

Donna: Well, when the person wants to lose weight or become more fit, those are pretty easy to come up with, and when you think about them everyday, the magical thing about our minds is they almost just kind of happen, but the biggest reason people don’t achieve goals or maintain motivation is they lose their focus. But you lose your focus because you are not thinking about it. We had a member named Connie, who had been involved in one of our brick and mortar locations around the country, and she had lost her weight. Well, unfortunately, you know, it’s good that you learn from what you lived through. In that particular location, they weren’t practicing coaching as much as they were practicing counseling and the difference is with coaching, I ask you questions that take you to your own answers and supply my expertise in the process. In counseling, I tell you what to do.

Kevin: OK.

Donna: Well, in this particular location, too much counseling was going on, and they were telling her what to do and consequently, she was focused on the food. Now, she was focused on the food plan, so she lost her weight, but because she was only focused on the food plan, Kevin, guess what happened after she lost her weight?

Kevin: There you go.

Donna: She gained it back again. Now, she got online and got involved in our coaching that we offer off of our online program and that coach really did begin to help her focus on a lifestyle that would keep the weight off, helped her change habits, helped her see that she actually had to believe that she would keep the weight off and that was part of why the weight had come back. The coach helped her identify the powerful why that we talked about so that she knew why she did not want to regain it, and not only did she lose the weight, listen to this, the woman has increased her income. She is building credible relationships. She started counting the victories that occurred in her life everyday again, but she hadn’t even been talked to about the law of three before, and she gained her weight back. Once we started talking to her about the things that really should be talked about in a weight loss coaching session, not only did she lose it, she has kept it off for years.

Kevin: Wow! That’s fantastic!

Donna: Yeah, we’re very proud.

Kevin: Tell me a little about counting victories. I think that’s a neat concept.

Donna: Well, the definition of victory is success in battle or war by the defeating of an enemy or an opponent. Now that definition tells me that there are three types of victories. There’s success in battle, OK. So, that means the little things are victories. The little things that I do well are victories. There’s success in war, which means the big goals are victories too, but then by the defeating of an enemy or an opponent means every time I don’t succumb to doing something that I know I shouldn’t do, that’s not going to help me get to my goal, that’s a victory too.

Kevin: OK.

Donna: So, we teach people to count all three types of victories. So, for example, if you go out to eat with your friends, and they’re all eating just everything that’s calorie laden and you really don’t want to do that, and you choose to have something really healthy like a chicken breast and/or salad and/or baked potato, you just got probably four victories there because they might have had pizza and brownies and French fries.

Kevin: Right.

Donna: So, you did the little things, you won the battle, and you also didn’t do the things that would keep you from your goal, more victories and we literally keep friends posted of all the victories that are achieved everyday. Well, when we have people start being aware of their victories, they want to have more victories, and they realize they are not too tough to come by.

Kevin: It’s fantastic! So, when you continue to see victories, I mean, I would imagine that the chances of you succeeding quicker and faster is just that much…

Donna: Yeah! Just multiply it by factors we can’t even come up with because you’re not feeling beaten up by the battle.

Kevin: Yeah!

Donna: You are feeling victorious.

Kevin: Yeah! And do a lot of people, when you talk to them, they feel beaten up, don’t they?

Donna: Oh my! Oh my! That’s probably the number one thing. I am just…Here’s the classic line, “I am just tired!”

Kevin: Yeah! Donna: “I am tired and I’m weary and I feel beaten up. I just want some hope,” and the neat thing is we can give them hope in a very realistic, simple way because never-ending motivation works for everybody.

Kevin: Yeah! Now, finding the why is a challenge for a lot of people, I think, and what is the best way that someone, I mean, do they need someone else to help them find the why, or can they get down and there you’d really find out why they want to do something.

Donna: You know, I think what you can do on your own without any problem is really come to understand and appreciate that you need a why, and I’ll help you with that in a second. The finding your “why” may need a coach because you have to keep asking “why” over and over again.

Kevin: Yeah.

Donna: For example, if we take a 20 ft 2 x 4 and we lay it out on the floor, and we say to someone…let’s say it’s a 2 x 6, it is nice and wide, OK, we lay it on the floor and we say to somebody, “Can you step on the other end of that 2 x 6 and walk across there that 20 ft. and come over to me?” The person of course says, “Well yes, I can do that, good grief”. OK, let’s put that 2 x 6 up on two cement blocks and let’s secure them real firmly, so it’s not going to go anywhere, “Could you step up on the cement block and walk across the 2 x 6,” and the person says, “Yes, I am sure I could, we’re balancing things, no big deal, I just did it on the floor, I could do it again.” Then I say, “Let’s take that 20 ft 2 x 6, let’s suspend it between two 30- story buildings.”

Kevin: [laughs]

Donna: “Now, I’ll secure it real firmly so it’s not going anywhere. Can you walk across there?” And of course, you know, outside the fact that sometimes, I think they want to call me names. They go, “What are you, are you out of your mind? There’s no way, you are crazy. I can’t get cross that.” And then I say, now this is key Kevin, and if say, “OK. We’ve got the 20 ft 2 x 6 suspended between two 30-storey buildings. You are standing on one 30-storey building and on the other 30-storey building stands a person who you love more than anyone in this world, and the building is on fire, and the person that you love is about to be engulfed in flames in front of you. Can you get across there now?” And you better believe the entire room always says, “You better believe I’ll get across there. I’ll dangle, I’ll crawl, I’ll run, I don’t care at all what I have to do, I will get over there.” That in my case, that would be one of my babies. Now listen, my babies are 20 and 25 right now.

Kevin: Oh, yeah! [laughter]

Donna: That would be one of my babies. So, I have coined that “you’re burning baby.”

Kevin: OK.

Donna: You need to understand what your burning baby is? Why do you want what you want? Well you know what, with regard to weight loss and fitness, Kevin, people don’t want to wear a certain size. You might want to wear a certain size to go on a cruise. That’s not your ultimate burning baby. That’s a temporary why, and temporary why’s do work but what happened to you, you go on the cruise, you’re looking on the cruise and you come back and you follow back in the old lifestyle and you gain your weight back again, OK. The burning baby is a powerful “why”. The best time to get in shape is in the middle of the week for no reason or whatsoever, that is the best time to start. You do not say I will start on Monday, I will start in January. I will start because I am going on a cruise. You just start because now you are doing it for a powerful “why” reason. You know what, I don’t work out to maintain my size two and I wear a size two. I don’t work out because people tell me I look 20 years younger than I am, although, that is a really flattering thing. I work out because my energy goes to the roof because my mind is clear, and I can make great decisions quickly and my focus is acute, and my personality is nicer. I have more fun in life, and all these things I’m listing don’t have anything to do with my size.

Kevin: Yeah.

Donna: They are my burning babies. Same thing with business, we can do the same example with wanting to make X amount of dollars so you could put X amount of dollars in your retirement, is not a burning baby. Why do you want that retirement? And then again, I would say why do you want that? Now, we are getting into, you can identify why-oh-why as important on your own. You might need someone’s help with coaching you on finding your real “why”. It is not tough, it is just sometimes, it takes a two-way dialogue because the other person is needed to look at you, and after you give the extended version of what you want and why, I then look at the person and go, “OK, why?”

Kevin: Yeah, why do you want that again? [laughs].

Donna: And then when you take them to about three “whys”, they had a burning baby.

Kevin: Yeah.

Donna: And then you will achieve any goal you ever want to achieve because you have got your burning baby.


- Kevin Gianni

Here’s a quick quiz:1) When I see a see a sunrise, I’m moved to:A. Compose a poem.B. Try and capture the beauty with my paints and brush.C. Stumble drunkenly into bed - boy that party was a lot of fun.D. Cover my face with my pillow and go back to sleep. Who in their right mind gets up early enough to look at sunrises?2) At work, I’m the person my coworkers go to when they need someone to:A. Think up a new theme for the office party (especially if they want it to be a bit wild and off the wall).B. Get people excited for the party.C. Organize the party.D. Clean up after the party.3) In school, I was considered one of the:A. Brains.B. Jocks.C. Nerds.D. Nothing. I was kicked out my sophomore year.Now take this test again and write down what you think a creative person would choose as his or her answer.Scoring: Well, there’s no real scoring here. The point is to get you thinking about creativity and stereotypes.In another creativity article I wrote, “Quiz: Are Your Creative?”, I pointed out that the biggest difference between creative people and those who aren’t is creative people believe they’re creative and uncreative people believe they aren’t.But, it’s one thing to say it and something completely different to live it.I believe one of the things that prevent people from fully realizing their creative potential is the idea of stereotypes. They think they cannot be creative because they don’t look, act, live, etc., a certain way. And, unfortunately, that belief can become so powerful it truly does cripple their creativity.Let’s take a closer look at these three stereotypes.1) When I see a sunrise…You can still be a creative person and not be moved to paint a sunrise or write a poem about it. Everyone is different and everyone draws their creativity from different things. Me, you couldn’t catch me anywhere near a sunrise without an IV drip of coffee in my arm. And even if that did happen, I’d be lucky if I could reach the creativity level of a turnip.The point is every muse is different and every muse dances to a different drum (or maybe it’s not even a drum, maybe it’s a French horn.) Sunrises make you yawn? So what? Find what gets your muse dancing and go with it.2) At work…You don’t have to act like a Bohemian to be creative. In fact, that image of a black-clad, beret-wearing, long-cigarette-smoking Artiste has been the bane of many would-be artists. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve run into who don’t have time to BE creative because they’re too busy trying to LOOK creative.Creativity comes in many shapes and sizes. It also dresses in a variety of outfits - from t-shirts and paint-splatted jeans to suits and ties to cocktail dresses to, yes, the all-black look.Don’t worry about how your creativity relates to how you look or act. There’s no correlation between the two.3) In school…Again, there are no studies linking creativity to getting bad grades or being a social misfit. Creativity is just as likely to have been class president as it was to have been caught smoking in the bathroom. Or kicked out of school altogether. (Now, whether those schoolyard memories are fodder for creative pursuits is a topic for another day.)Basically it comes down to this - creativity doesn’t fit into any neat box. Whether that box may be unconventional or conservative. Whether it’s covered with clay and furiously spinning pots or impeccably dressed and churning out million-dollar deals. Whether it’s dressed in black and discussing Satre in a coffee shop or pushing a stroller in small-town America.Creativity is just that. Creative. It doesn’t care what package it comes in.It only cares that you use it.Creativity Exercise - Take Away The Power of StereotypesGo back to the quiz. Look at the answers you chose for yourself. (If one of my answers didn’t fit - which is entirely possible - turn your answer into fill-in-the-blank.) Look at the answer you instinctively felt a creative person would have selected. I’m going after instinct here - don’t worry about what you read in the article. Or go back and see how you answered before you read the article.Do you have two different answers? Describe what makes the answers different and why.Do you describe yourself in completely opposite terms as you would someone creative?Why is that? Do some journaling on the answer.Now try describing yourself again and this time add the statement “and that makes me creative” or “yet I still am creative” at the end. For instance: “I hate sunrises and that makes me creative. I was a model student yet still I am creative.” Write these out ten times each day until you begin to believe it.(Source: Freeing Your Creativity: A Writer’s Guide by Marshall Cook)


- Michele PW