Would you like to live longer?
On several occasions I’ve explained that when we stop giving meaning to the moment-to-moment events in our lives, we can virtually stop having the negative feelings that cause our stress and emotional suffering. I’ve also discussed the fact that minimizing your stress can literally improve your physical health. In this post I’ll go one step further: I will show you how reducing your stress can actually have you live years longer. An article in Time explains how stress decreases life span A recent issue of Time (February 23-March 2, 2015) has several articles on aging and longevity. One of the [...]
What can YOU learn from my condition?
By the time you read this I either will be in surgery or have completed it. This week’s post will bring you up to date. I am not telling you about how I am dealing with the cancer diagnosis because I think it is particularly interesting. I am telling you because I think that the way I am dealing with it might provide some useful lessons for you. It is possible for YOU to stop giving events meaning. It is possible for YOU to create a positive context for your life. It is possible for YOU to pretty much eliminate [...]
A new cancer diagnosis
Less than 48 hours ago I received a call from Jennifer Lucus, my oncologist. She had just received the results of a PET and CT scan that I had done Monday morning. I was convinced that she would tell me that I was fine, that there was no recurrence of the fourth stage metastatic colon cancer I had been diagnosed with in April of last year. I “knew” that I had been healed because colon cancer produces CEA antigens that can be measured in the blood, and my CEA level had been in the normal range for over seven months. [...]
If only…
Most of us live in a world of, “If only … things would all work out, I’d be successful, and I’d be happy” If only I had more money, all my problems would disappear. If only I loved someone who really loved me, my life would be complete. If only I weighed less and looked better, I’d be happy. If only …. If only …. Stop for a minute and reflect: How often do you live in a world of, “If only ….”? The underlying premise of, “If only something were different,” is that most, if not all, of your [...]
What’s possible for a human being?
This week I’m about to undertake one of the most exciting experiments I’ve ever conducted. I’ve accepted six participants into my new program, a Year With Morty, which starts this week. The purpose of this program is for me to see how far I can help each one of them stretch the limits of what’s possible for a human being during 50 weekly one-on-one sessions and two three-day retreats. It starts this week. (I had planned to only accept five applicants; the sixth person was someone I was so excited about working with that I could not say, no.) A [...]
What do you know that others think is untrue?
A few days ago I read a fascinating cover story in Fast Company magazine on Peter Thiel. Peter is a billionaire investor who co-founded PayPal, which was sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. Since then he was one of the early investors in Facebook; he later invested in LinkedIn, Spotify, SpaceX and Airbnb. He obviously has a knack for determining what makes a successful company. So when I found out he had written a book, Zero to One, I ordered it immediately and read it in one day. I learned a lot about what it takes to grow [...]
What do you really want out of life?
Every time we send our mailing list a survey asking what you want from the Lefkoe Institute, what you want out of life, or what you would like to change in your life, the most frequent answer we get is overcoming fear in order to take action. Other answers include: Eliminating other negative feelings and wanting to be more successful. On a recent questionnaire many of you mentioned wanting to make some type of contribution to others. Is that all there is to life? These are certainly worthwhile goals. I suspect that they are representative of what most people in [...]
Create your ideal future
What we imagine our future to be is usually based on our past. In other words, we use our experience of the past to determine what's possible for us in the future and then to create goals for the future. That approach limits our possible future to our experiences in the past. For example, if we’ve tried to create something in the past, be it a new relationship, a new business, or a new job, and we failed whenever we tried, we would likely not set similar goals in the future. Our future is not determined by our past, but [...]
You really can create your own happiness
After reflecting on an exchange of emails I had this morning, I had a profound realization. At the end of my first email I wrote: “P.S. Have an incredible week.” The person I sent that email to answered me: “You are most welcome…….you be sure and have a good one too!” There was no need to respond, but I found my fingers typing: “All my days are incredible. I create them that way! I wouldn’t have them any other way.” We create all our feelings—good and bad I’ve written many times that nothing could possibly happen that could make you [...]
