10 Life Lessons Learned from the BP Oil Spill

In the wake of the BP oil spill, we face a major environmental disaster. Hundreds of animals are dead, and even more are in danger. It could take years for affected areas to fully recover.

As cleanup efforts are ongoing, engineers are still trying to work out the best method to control or stop the oil. Countless environmental lessons can be gleaned from this catastrophe, and BP and the World as a whole will hopefully learn from the mistakes that were made.

While the focus is currently centered on what lessons the spill has taught us about drilling, safety, and the environment, we can also gather a number of lessons about life when we step back and look at the big picture. We have asked contributors to share with us some life lessons they have learned and questions for the general population to reflect on as a result of the oil spill.

----------------------

1.) It should not take a disaster like the BP oil spill to remind us about interdependence and responsibility. We must stop taking responsibility after the fact and using it as an act of contrition - but rather proactively engage in responsible decision making which considers the ramifications of our actions before we engage in them. Apology does not obviate responsibility. Increasingly, technology and urbanization have allowed us to distance ourselves from other people and other living things. When we honored our tribal origins - we were far more aware of how our actions impacted not just ourselves, but everyone and everything around us. My kindergartener warns me to carefully discard plastic, lest a dolphin choke. At the end of the day, taking responsibility means embedding our actions in a context of other, rather than self. 6 year olds get that. CEOs should too.

Ramani Durvasula
http://www.doctor-ramani.com

2.) The more risk you have and the more groups involved, the more you put systems in place to check, re-check and re-check what is going on in great detail. This applies to any part of life, health, environment, business, relationships, spiritual life, workplace issues, and everything else. This is no time to hang out in la la land. Get into the nitty gritty.

Dr. Linne Bourget
http://www.whatyousayiswhatyouget.com

3.) Spiritually, everything happens for a reason and there is always a higher positive purpose, so stay tuned and look for it. Be careful not to send more negative energy or judgment into the Gulf, but send them positive thoughts of healing for people, economy, and environment.

Dr. Linne Bourget
http://www.whatyousayiswhatyouget.com

4.) Do scenario planning IN ADVANCE for what might happen and pre-test your solutions so you can mitigate the negative consequences for all involved when the crisis comes. Working in very difficult circumstances, do not assume you can easily fix what crises may erupt.

Dr. Linne Bourget
http://www.whatyousayiswhatyouget.com

5.) Just as BP execs are scrambling, so should we. What part of you is leaking energy so profusely it cannot be controlled? How much of your life and the lives of others will be destroyed because you refused to move on to more sustainable forms of energy? What once was your black gold? Pounds of caffeine or sugar, drugs or drama? Hanging onto a deadly job? A harmful relationship? The hole has burst open. Nothing will close it. Is it too late to repair the damage? When will you finally let go and move on? What will it take?

Rebecca Elia, MD
http://www.rebeccaelia.com
http://www.creatingfemininehealth.com

6.) Each of us has the power to reduce, reuse, or recycle...be it by taking shorter showers, using energy-efficient light bulbs, taking cloth bags to the grocery store, or one of the many other great ways we can conserve. If the BP oil spill (not to mention other recent hurricanes, tsunamis, and fires) has taught us anything, it's that we need to take responsibility for our actions...and also be willing to make a change. We're well past the point of pointing fingers and blaming others. Every person on the planet must be willing to do their part. Our future...and our children's future...are depending on it!

Shelly Rachanow
http://www.WhatWouldYouDoIfYouRanTheWorld.com

7.) Did BP get caught up in the 'It can't happen to us' mentality? Leaders and companies need to regularly assess the most likely areas where their hidden risks might occur.

Gary Patterson
http://www.FiscalDoctor.com

8.) We MUST learn to stop letting lobby money talk over the voice of common sense and obvious safety. The first response often resorts to a knee-jerk reaction, like "let's stop all drilling", but it is not a proper use of given resources. We must be energy independent, and safety must always be thought out in worse case scenarios. Deep water drilling is a disaster waiting to happen - a time bomb - forced on by "environmentalists" really masked as policymakers for their industry. It is high time real people who love and appreciate the beauty of our nation be allowed to the decision table. Everyday people who don't make a buck over the outcome, but value the blessings of nature. Money must stop making policy decisions.

Lindy Abbott

9.) I think there's a big difference between lessons offered and lessons learned. There's no doubt that the gulf oil spill is offering a post-graduate course in how to live on planet earth (and how not to), but will anyone learn? Will we understand that the spill was caused by greed? Our greed for oil and the oil company's greed for money. Will we learn that it was caused by laziness? Ours for driving everywhere and the oil company's for the shortcuts they took in drilling. And will anyone bother to understand the "why" of it all? Will anyone understand that they were drilling out there, and taking that risk, because that's where the oil is now? We've pumped all of the easy stuff, and the new stuff is going to be tough, expensive and nasty. Will anyone learn that this was caused by our insatiable appetite for oil, and that as we pass the peak of global oil production, these horrific environmental disasters can only become more common. When will we ever learn?

Chip Haynes
http://www.peakofthedevil.com

10.) I had a mentor named Wilma Leverenz when I was in my early twenties who used to say two things to me. The first was The 8Ts. "Take the Time to Think Through Things Thoroughly", and as this story has unfolded about how the oil spill happened, clearly the risks were not properly weighed and thought through, and mass destruction ensued. The second thing that she told me was "Feelings Are Not Facts". So despite how we might feel about something, or someone, it is not a guarantee that we are right about our assumptions about the situation, the person or their motives. And finally the third tool that I live by is "It is what it is", and this is like anything else. As soon as we accept circumstances exactly as they are the sooner we will be effective at dealing with the problem. Collectively, we bear a responsibility. Individually we can respond in ways that turn this horrible event into something positive.

Liora Farkovitz

----------------------

What life lessons have you learned from the oil spill? What do you think the World stands to learn? We invite you to share your thoughts with us below in the comments sections.

This posting was compiled by Editor Sam Etkin of SelfGrowth.com, the number one self improvement resource on the Web. For more quality self improvement content, please visit http://www.selfgrowth.com

The Wealthy Attitude and Full Spectrum Leadership founders actively support the works of the grand folks at Self Growth. We highly recommend you add them to your library.

Sentenced to Success!

Posted by the outstanding Full Spectrum Leader, Chris Widener

I once heard a speaker use the statement, “I have been sentenced to success!” I heard that almost twenty years ago, yet it still sticks in my head.

Imagine that. What if we had been given a life sentence to serve, say 75 years, and the sentence was to do time in a place called “Success”? The truth is that we have.

Let me back up. We have been given a life sentence. But, unlike a sentencing in a real life courtroom, we get to actually choose where we will “do our time.”

Here are some of the choices people make:

The prison of poverty.
Poor people are no better or kinder or anything else than people with money. People are people regardless of how much money they have. Frankly, I have had little and I have had a lot, and yes, I will choose having a lot! When you choose to live in poverty you are in a prison that does not allow you the freedoms we were intended to experience. We are unable to help others as we desire. My advice? Don’t choose a sentence to the prison of poverty.

The prison of depression.
Depression is like a blanket that overwhelms you and eventually smothers you. Now before you go accusing me with, “Chris. You just don’t understand.” Yes I do. I have had a history of depression. Depression is rampant in my family of origin. I know firsthand what a prison depression is. When you are locked up in depression you cannot live life as it was intended. But you can get out! My advice? Don’t choose a sentence to the prison of depression.

The prison of the lack of health.
Lacking health is a real pain! The freedom we lose when we choose to live in a state of a lack of health is terrible – and unnecessary! We don’t have to live in that prison. We can choose a different sentence! We can choose health! My advice? Don’t choose a sentence to the prison of the lack of health.

The prison of doubt, worry, and fear.
This is a dark, dark prison. It is one that haunts you the whole time you reside there. It makes you believe that the surroundings are worse than the really are. It keeps you from enjoying life and becoming the kind of person you were intended to become! My advice? Don’t choose a sentence to the prison of poverty. My advice? Don’t choose a sentence to the prison of doubt, worry and fear.

There is another option. You can choose to be sentenced to success! You can choose to actually be set free! You can choose to walk out of that courtroom and live the life that you choose!

What can you experience when you are sentenced to success. How about these:


Good health
Financial abundance
Emotional freedom
Positive relationships
A career you love
Spiritual liberty

And how will you experience these? By choice. Your choice. You choose exactly what kind of life you will live. You choose the sentence you will serve here on earth and the experience that you have.

Will you languish in a dark prison or in the open freedom that comes from the sentence of success? That depends on the choices you make.

I challenge you to choose this day to:


Pursue financial independence
Develop yourself spiritually
Make a change so you are in a career you love
Re-commit yourself to loving relationships
Achieve emotional health

Make a choice TODAY. Do not spend another day in a prison where you do not belong!

Where will you serve your sentence? You get to decide.

As for me?

I have been "Sentenced to Success" !

10 Steps to Detect and Stop Secret Self-Sabotage

by Guy Finley for Monday June 28, 2010

It's a little known - yet much denied fact - that people treat you the way you secretly ask to be treated. Your unspoken request that determines how others behave toward you is extended to — and received by — everyone you meet.

What is your invisible inner life? It's the way you actually feel — as opposed to the way you're trying to appear — when meeting any person or event.

In other words, your invisible inner life is your real inner condition. It's this state of internal affairs that communicates with others long before any words are exchanged. These silent signals from your inner self are what a person receives first upon meeting you. The reading of them
determines from that point forward, the basis of your relationship. This unseen dialogue that goes on behind the scenes whenever two people meet is commonly understood as "sizing one another up." But here's the point of this introduction.

We're often led to act against ourselves by an undetected weakness that goes before us — trying to pass itself off to others — as strength. This is secret self-sabotage. It sinks us in our personal and business relationships as surely as a torpedo wrecks the ship it strikes.

Any person you feel the need to control or dominate — so that he or she will treat you as you "think" you should be treated will always be in control of you and treat you accordingly. Why? Because anyone from whom you want something, psychologically speaking, is always in secret
command of you.

It would never dawn on any person to want to be more powerful or superior to someone else unless there was some psychic character within him or her that secretly felt itself to be weaker or lesser than that other individual.

Any action we take to appear strong before another person is actually read by that person as a weakness. If you doubt this finding, review the past interactions and results of your own relationships. The general rule of thumb is that the more you demand or crave the respect of others, the less likely you are to receive it.

So it makes no sense to try and change the way others treat you by learning calculated behaviors or attitude techniques in order to appear in charge. Stop trying to be strong. Instead, start catching yourself about to act from weakness. Don't be too surprised by this unusual instruction. A brief examination reveals its wisdom. Following are ten examples of where you may be secretly sabotaging yourself while wrongly assuming you're strengthening your position with others.

1. Fawning before people to win their favor.
2. Expressing contrived concern for someone's well being.
3. Making small talk to smooth out the edges.
4. Hanging onto someone's every word.
5. Looking for someone's approval.
6. Asking if someone is angry with you.
7. Fishing for a kind word.
8. Trying to impress someone.
9. Gossiping.
10. Explaining yourself to others.

The next time you feel yourself about to give into any of the above behaviors, give yourself a quick and simple internal test. This test will help you check for and cancel any undetected weakness that's about to make you sabotage yourself.

Here's what to do: Run a pressure check.

Here's how: Come wide awake, relax, and run a quick inner scan within yourself to see if that remark you're about to make, or the answer you're about to give without having been asked for it, is something you really want to do. Are you about to speak because you're afraid of some as yet
undisclosed consequence if you don't?

Your awareness of any pressure building within you is proof that it's some form of fear — and not you — that wants to do the explaining, fawning, impressing, blabbing, or whatever the self-sabotaging act the inner pressure is pushing you to commit.

Each time you feel this pressurized urge to give yourself away, silently but solidly refuse to release this pressure by giving in to its demands. It may help you to succeed sooner if you know that fear has no voice unless it tricks you into giving it one. So stay silent. Your conscious
silence stops self-sabotage.

Special Summary: In any and every moment of your life, you are either in command of yourself, or you are being commanded by unconscious conditions within yourself.

Excerpted from Design Your Destiny, by Guy Finley, Llewellyn Publications

Guy Finley is one of today's brightest voices in the field of self realization, showing men and women everywhere how to find a life of freedom, enduring fulfillment, and true purpose. Director of the non-profit Life of Learning Foundation, Guy is the best-selling author of more than 35 books and tape albums on self-realization and higher success. He is also a regular contributor to Cultivate Life Magazine. (See Below)

The Full Spectrum Leadership team actively supports the many amazing contributors who add value to the personal development industry. Peter Shepherd of Trans4Mind for many years has consistently endeavored to bring us all the very best thinking available today. We support Cultivate Life Magazine, and for the lowly cost of $20 per year we are sure you will appreciate having Peter, Guy and the team in your corner.

Click image below and check it out for yourself.

The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us!

by Peter Comrie

In our world today, with all its vagaries and conditions, we still must reconcile that we are a society that lives in an economic environment. We are deluged with detailed information about every subject under the sun, and yet poverty consciousness rules much of our thinking.

As I personally navigate the business world, working to make my economic conditions acceptable and worthy, I'm caused to believe that I'm often missing something exceedingly simple. And then I look at what really are the primary motivators for me and my team.

Watch this fascinating talk below visually unfold before you through witty and beautiful illustration. Dan Pink makes the case that there are hidden truths behind what really motivates us. Namely that it's not the age-old motivators of money and power that drives us, but our desire for autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

You're going to enjoy this.

A Legend and a Legacy

by Peter Comrie

This Legend has taken his abilities and energy and focused them in such a way that enabled him to overcome many obstacles throughout his life. His childhood was one of poverty, slavery and some of the most debilitating work known to man. He was born in 1856.

During his years of slavery, he was property of James Burroughs of Virginia. He had little knowledge of his biological father.

He was raised by his mother. During slavery, it was illegal for slaves to receive an education. However, in September 22, 1862, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and soon after the Civil War, slaves now experienced freedom.

Soon after freedom, our Legend greatly desired an education. Instead of dwelling on the past of what he had experienced in slavery, he focused on bettering his life and making a difference. He had no idea how he would, but he knew his outcome.

When he was 16 years old, he made a decision that he was going to attend Hampton Institute in Virginia. Even though the decision was made, he didn't know how he would get in, and if he did get in, he didn't know how to pay for it. But despite the unknowns, he showed up on the doorstep of Hampton Institute with no money and no food.

Hampton Institute was founded and run by General Samuel Chapman Armstrong. The institution that he molded was to become a tremendous influence in our young mans life.

General Armstrong valued and lived by work, study, hygiene, morality, self-control and independence. His institution was not for the weak and not for the lazy.

After graduating, this former slave whom we all know as Booker T. Washington became a teacher in Tinkersville, West Virginia. Then in 1879, his old friend and mentor, General Armstrong, asked him to return to Hampton Institute as a teacher.

He gladly accepted and eventually was recommended by Armstrong for principal of a new school, Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama.

With Washington as principal, both he and the school grew to a world famous status. Even though he became well known, Washington still didn't receive the financial help from the state to complete his schools development.

Determined not to let progress suffer, he took it upon himself to raise the money on his own. Washington began traveling and speaking to various groups to solicit funds. He was very successful in this endeavor, gaining support from whites and blacks alike.

Among some of his contributors were Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller who would give on a regular basis.

Through his hard work, determination and sheer willingness to live a life of legacy, Washington continued to grow, excel and give of himself. His ability to follow through with his already decided outcome, he wrote a bestseller book in 1901 entitled Up From Slavery.

Eventually he became an advisor to the President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt. Consequently, Washington became the first black person to ever dine with the President at the White House.

Not bad for an uneducated slave who had nothing going for him except his willingness to do what it took to succeed and never take no for an answer.

What are your set backs, your hindrances, your problems?

Do you hear the "No" in the back of your mind? Take some indirect advice by example from Booker T. Washington.

Your life has an offer to make to the world.

What is it?

Leaders and Intuition

by Peter Comrie

Are you a leader in your organization?

Are you an instigator of change or a catalyst in your family circle, school, church or institution?

Does your work entail initiating change?

Do you want to make a difference?

If you answered “yes” to any of the questions, then you are a leader!

Being a leader is about being a decision-maker and problem-solver. When you are bombarded with decisions or choices, what are your first thoughts? What are the initial ideas that come into your mind? When problems arise or when opportunities come, what ideas first pop in your head? Can you rely on your intuition?

You may not know it but you have intuitive powers. All you have to do is to unleash these. Get acquainted with the power within. Here are some sources of intuition:

Emotions.
Has this ever happened to you? Sometimes a decision that you made in a matter of seconds is more reliable than a well-thought out decision!

What you see and feel in the first two seconds can be considered more meaningful. You might not believe in first impressions but these could be true! First impressions may be difficult to explain. Some people decide on certain matters depending upon what they feel and how things appear to them. These people learned to trust their instincts.

Past experiences.
The Sensation-Perception Theory or philosophy of empiricism underscore experiences as valuable sources of knowledge. When faced with recurring problems that demand immediate responses, you normally come up with solutions based on past experiences.

What worked in the past might work again in a current situation. Remember that you do not need complex mathematical models to decide on intricate problems. Just sit back and go over your previous strategies.

Cognition.
What do you do if you encounter a totally different problem? This new problem is something that you have not yet encountered in the past.

Well, the mind has limitless reasoning power and understanding. As you acquire knowledge, your level of understanding is elevated. When you face a new problem, it may require a solution that is altogether new. Your previous experiences won’t work this time so you devise a creative and novel strategy. According to Albert Einstein, “Imagination is more important than knowledge because knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world.”

The qualitative approach, such as the use of intuition, is a powerful tool in solving difficult problems and in deciding whether to take advantage of opportunities. It is inherent and doesn’t require a sophisticated formula.

All you need is to learn to trust what you see and what you feel. Intuition is a guide and more like a compass; it would always point to the north. However, it needs to be readjusted every now and then, because it could be destroyed when wrongfully exposed and misused. So let your intuition be your guide in becoming an effective leader.

Peter is the co-founder and principal coach at Full Spectrum Leadership. Visit the website at: www.fullspectrumleadership.ca

Addiction to Thinking

By Margaret Paul, Ph.D.

Randall sought my help because he was stuck being miserable and had no idea how to get out of his misery. In his life he had experienced moments of great joy and sense of oneness with all of life, but those moments were infrequent. He wanted more of those moments but had no idea how to bring them about.

Randall is an extremely intelligent man, but in some ways he was using his own intelligence against himself. The problem was that when Randall did have those brief moments of true connection, he immediately went into his mind to try to figure out how it happened. The moment he went into his mind, he lost the connection that he so desperately desired.

The reason Randall went into his mind was that, as much as he wanted the joy of deep spiritual connection, he wanted something even more than that - control over that connection. Randall’s ego wounded self believed that he could control the connection with Spirit with his intellect - if only he could figure it out then he could control it. The last thing Randall wanted to do, which is what is necessary to connect with Spirit, is to surrender his thinking. Randall was deeply addicted to thinking as a way to not feel his inner experience. Thinking was his way of controlling his painful feelings, such as his aloneness, loneliness, and helplessness over others and over his spiritual connection.

Many us of are addicted to thinking. We believe if we can just figure things out we can control others and the outcome of things. We want to control how people feel about us and treat us by saying just the right thing - so we have to think about it over and over to discover the right thing to say. This is called "ruminating." Ruminating is obsessively thinking about something over and over in the hopes of finally coming up with the "right" answer, the right thing to say, the right way to be to have control over others and the outcome of things. Ruminating is also a way to have control over our own painful feelings, which is what addictions are all about.

In my work with Randall, he would immediately go into his head and analyze what was happening in the session the minute feelings came up. Over and over I would bring him out of his head and into his body, into his feelings. His feelings were so terrifying to him that he could only stay with his feelings for a few moments before he was back into his head - explaining, figuring out, intellectualizing. He was so terrified of the soul loneliness and aloneness he felt that he had learned to avoid these feelings with his mind. Yet until Randall was willing to feel his painful feelings, which had been there since childhood, he couldn’t stay out of his head. As long as his intent was to control his pain rather than learn from it, he would not be able to move into the spiritual connection he so desired.

The purpose of all of our addictions are to avoid pain, especially the deep soul loneliness that we all feel in this society. The problem is that our disconnection from our feelings - which is our Inner Child - creates aloneness as well. Our feeling self, our Inner Child, is left alone inside with no one to attend to the painful feelings. It is only when our desire is to learn about how we may be causing our own painful feelings that we open to our inner experience. Our desire to learn also opens the door to our spiritual connection, which we cannot feel when our intent is to avoid pain with our various addictions.

It took Randall many months to be willing to feel his painful feelings, but he discovered that when he finally had the courage to feel them, it was not as bad as he thought. In fact, when he was no longer abandoning his Inner Child by going into his addictive thinking, he no longer felt alone within. Connecting with himself allowed him to connect with Spirit more and more of the time. Rather than getting there through thinking and trying to control it, he was getting there by being present in the moment with his inner experience - surrendering to the moment. Randall found that while he could not control others and the outcome of things, he actually did have control over his misery - by choosing the intent to learn rather than protecting against pain. While he couldn’t control Spirit, he did have control his own intent, which eventually led to his being able to connect with Spirit.

Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling author and co-author of eight books, including "Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You?", "Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By My Kids?", "Healing Your Aloneness","Inner Bonding", and "Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By God?" Visit her web site for a FREE Inner Bonding course: http://www.innerbonding.com or mailto:margaret@innerbonding.com