Someone recently pointed out to me that many of us have been given the message, “If you’re gonna do something, do it right.”  Or maybe we have been offered the opposite message: “If you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all.” Additionally, he said, some of us have taken to heart the message, “Don’t start something you can’t finish.”  Together, these add up to paralysis.

If any of these apply to you, your  goals and dreams remain visions of what you might have been, might have accomplished. Your human potential remains unrealized.

Judaism offers a wonderful teaching that counters these negative thoughts, beliefs, fears, and messages that leave us paralyzed on the path to our dreams and goals.  “Lo aylecha ha-m’lachah ligmor…”  The translation of the Hebrew means, “It is not up to you to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” (Pirke Avot) In other words, no matter what, you must start, you must try…even if you don’t finish for some reason…even if the work isn’t perfect…even if it isn’t right…even if others judge you or what you have done as not good enough in some way. The work is yours to do—the goals and dreams are yours to move towards.

So, today, remember that you must start moving towards your goals and dreams. Take action and continue moving forward…no matter what. That’s your job; you are not free to do anything but pursue your dreams and goals. And stop worrying about whether your achieve them or reach them. Maybe that’s not the point.

The 10 days between Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance, are called the High Holy Days or the Days of Awe. They are a time for Jews–or anyone–to go inward and consider how to “do t’shuvah,” to turn back to God and to their best self.

This e-book provides 10-days of exercises to help you go through this introspective process. It gives structure to the Days of Awe so you can truly consider not only your sins and how to rectify them but how to achieve your full human potential.

Use this human potential tool that crosses religious lines to return to your best self–and to source–in just 10 awesome days. It’s a great tool for Jews, but, like most of the products I create, it’s applicable for anyone.

If you would like to order a copy of 10 Days and 10 Days to Return to Your Best Self, A T’Shuvah Guide, please click here. Please be patient if your e-book doesn’t show up immediately. I am handling fulfillment personally at this point. It is not an automated process  but a human one. Forgive me!



There’s a person in my family that I haven’t seen in a number of years that I had to spend time with recently. We tend to avoid each other. We don’t get along. However, we managed this time to be civil to each other…to actually have a conversation–not about anything too important–and to be in the same room and not to laps into yelling and screaming.

It was nice.

Now, I supposed the change in behavior could have been an act. I prefer to think that possibly this person has changed a bit…or had a desire to get along. That would be nice.

It’s good to forgive, move forward, get along.

Are there people in your life with whom you need to mend fences? Could you simply decide to try harder to get along? Could you find it within yourself to change your energy around them or to behave just a bit differently so you could have an enjoyable time rather than a stressful one? Could you try to change…just a little?

People do change. It’s possible.

Today, figure out how to turn that so-called negative into a positive. Make it an attribute. That’s right. Find some way t0 make that aspect of yourself or your life work for you in such a way that it enhances your career or resume. Show people how it makes you better at your job, more able to help others, an expert in your field.

Then hold your head up and feel proud of who you are and your life experiences.

Think about Oprah Winfrey and her weight issues. She’s struggled with her weight in the public eye for years. Her failure to lose weight could be seen as a detriment; instead it makes her an expert at why diets don’t work, weight loss issues, what diets work and which ones don’t, what stops women from losing weight, and the issues that go with the inability to achieve perfect weight. She’s an “Everywoman” to a lot of women all over the world.

Of course, you also can choose to take the path of personal growth and human potential. You can choose to change things about yourself or about your life–if this is possible. If it’s not, then turn your negatives into positives. Do it now. Don’t wait another day to feel better about yourself and to start seeing the difference this will make in your life and in your career or business.

This teaching can also be found in Judaism. In fact, we have a famous saying that comes from one of our Talmudic rabbis,  Rabbi Nachum Ish Gamzu. Many Jews have heard it: Gam zu l’tovah. This also is for good. This is one of my favorite sayings and teachings from Judaism.

The Gamara, which is part of the Talmud (a central text of mainstream Judaism), explains that Rabbi Nachum’s nickname came from the fact that his reaction to anything that happened to him was always, “Gam zu l’tovah,” or “And that is also for the good.”

What’s the lesson we can learn from Rabbi Nachum and his saying? We can learn that, indeed, everything that happens is “for the good.” Yes…even the “bad stuff.”

Today, think about what happens to you in a positive manner–even if initially it doesn’t look like it is “for the good.” Or simply accept what happens knowing that at some point you’ll understand why the experience was “for the good.”

You don’t have to understand why something is “for the good” right this moment. Just know that it is. One day, you’ll understand. That’s why we say “hindsight is 20-20.”

I know some people are going to jump up and down and yell, “But the earthquake in Haiti couldn’t have been for the good! 9-11 couldn’t have been for the good! The Holocaust couldn’t have been for the good!”

We also don’t always see the reasons; God has better vision than we do. I do think, however, a reason exists. I have faith. I trust. I agree with Rabbi Nachum.

And you know what? Believing that on some level–even a level I may not understand–everything is for the good makes it easier to deal with disasters and tragedies. It doesn’t make them less horrible; it makes them easier to accept.

I suggest you read a bit more about Rabbi Nachum’s views on this here.

And try his words out. You might find you them.

I mentioned in my last post that that I have a hard time being around angry people because they “mirror” to me my own anger or tendency towards being an angry person. “Mirroring” means that the people who irritate us are actually mirroring to us qualities in ourselves we don’t like, that we know we need to change or with which we must in some way change or improve. For example, when someone around me annoys me because they are angry all the time, I have to look at my own tendency to get angry quickly or to harbor anger under the surface (to stuff it under my happy and positive exterior).

Today, think about the people you know who irritate you. Write down the things about them that are most annoying. Then get really honest. Do you possess those same annoying traits? If so, it’s time to fess up, stop judging them and start changing yourself instead.

If you can honestly answer, “No, I don’t.” ask yourself this question: Would I like to possess those traits? Sometimes the people who irritate us do so because they possess traits we wish we had. For example, they might be more efficient, more prompt, more outspoken, more honest, etc.

Mirroring is the best quick, easy and free human potential or personal growth tool I know. Sometimes I forget to use it. When I do use it, though, I’m always amazed at what I learn. You’d be surprised what you can learn about yourself from the people who most irritate you!

Does the One to whom you soul always is connected have to yell loudly enough so you hear the calling? Does the end of life have to beckon for you to rush off headlong to realize your God-given potential and ensure that you don’t die with your song still within you?

Or will you heed the words of the Still Small Voice whispering in your ear? Will you hurry off to pursue the strange stirring that makes you want to do something new or take on a project you’ve always dreamt of completing? Will you take notice of the synchronistic events that make a path for you to follow to your destiny? Will you be conscious of the emotions that provide clues to what makes your heart and soul sing? Will you see God’s hand reaching out to you to show you what direction to take in order to fulfill your soul’s purpose–and will you reach out and take hold of that hand?

Or, does something cataclysmic have to happen before you decide to fulfill your soul’s purpose? Do you have to get into a terrible car accident, come down with a fatal or debilitating illness, suffer a loss, or in some other way have your life turned upside down or inside out?

You can decide to fulfill your soul’s purpose by simply deciding to do so right now–right in this moment–and then taking action to do so.  Will you make that choice?

God asks this question in Genesis 3:9, just after Adam and Eve had eaten fruit from the forbidden tree and, sensing God’s presence in the Garden of Eden, had hidden among the trees. While they were hiding, God asked Adam, “Where are you?”  Again, the question does not relate to Adam’s physical location; it relates to his spiritual state. God can see him hiding; God wants to know how Adam is feeling and how eating the fruit has changed him — changed who he is, how he feels, what he thinks, where he “is” on his spiritual path.

Today, as I was thinking about this question, asking myself, “Ayeka?”, I realized how easy it is for us to hide in our day-to-day lives. We get lost in living. In other words, we lose our true selves. Just as eating the forbidden fruit changed Adam and Eve, becoming so involved in the “shoulds” of our life and the hustle and bustle and meeting requirements and living up to expectations, we get lost. We lose ourselves. We let our lives cover us up so we — the “real” self — can no longer be seen. And so we have to ask ourselves, “Ayeka? Where are you?” Where are our true selves…our full selves?

Today when I asked myself this question, I replied, “Heneini,” a Hebrew word which means, “I am here.” In other words, “I am right here. See me! I’m ready to come out of hiding.”  It also means I’m here in this moment. And I am right here at this point in time, and I am ready to do your will, ready to fulfill my soul’s purpose, ready to be myself to the fullest extent.

Hopefully, when I do that, God will say, “Yodea! I see you.” For indeed, that is what I want. That is what we all want…to be seen for who we truly are in the fullest sense.

Jesus was a man who had reached the pinnacle of spiritual enlightenment. He wasn’t the only “christ,” he simply was a “christed being.” A christed being is one who has reached the height of spiritual enlightenment.

Jesus knew how to place God before himself always. This Jewish teaching lies at the heart of Judaism, but it is one that few Jews really learn to live. Shiviti Adonai L’negde tamid.  How many of us can say that we place God before us always? And out of this, I believe came Jesus’ teaching that we must learn to be in the world but not of it. If anyone provided an example of how to accomplish this, Jesus did. He remained totally connected to God while walking in this world. He knew that his soul served as his link to Source. He knew he housed a spark of Divinity, and that spark tied him to the Divine. He was a walking, talking link to God, and he expressed as such.

I like to think of Jesus as the first reform Jew, since his beliefs were a bit…well…different. I know some rabbis who teach courses on Jesus. One calls him the “rebel rabbi.” We don’t have to throw Jesus and his teachings out of the tribe just because post mortum someone (or a group of people) decided he was the son of God and named a religion after him. We can, instead, learn from him and hold him up as a model of human potential achieved. We can even strive to be like him. We can study his teachings in as pure a form as we can find, because they come from the Jewish tradition.

At a deep level, in our soul, we all  have the desire to reach our full human potential and to be connected at all times to our highest spiritual self, the part of ourselves (our souls) connected to God. We want to be like Jesus. We want to reach our full spiritual potential, which is our full human potential. So, why not embrace this man for who he was – a superb role model of who we all want to become. If you are Jewish, don’t let your Judaism get in the way of seeing what Jesus has to offer you. He may not be “the way,” “the savior” or “the messiah,” but he’s definitely worth a bit of study. You might actually find his life and teachings quite inspiring…and that’s my point.

I felt amazed…amazed that someone had actually seen the truth. I am not living my life as I’d like nor allowing myself to be the person I’d like to be. Nor am I expressing myself in the world in a manner that truly shows who I am. I’ve know that, and that fact breaks my heart, too. I just didn’t realize anyone else could see this. At least, up until now no one had noticed.

Why am not living my life as I’d like, pursuing my happiness, allowing myself to be the person I’d like to be, or expressing myself in the world in a manner that truly shows who I am - especially when I teach and write about doing just this? Ah…well…the story behind this sad state of affair is too long to go into here. Plus, the reasons why are less important than the revelations that come from seeing the truth in my friend’s statements. Suffice it to say that I have let circumstances in my life dictate my behavior. (As my friend pointed out, most of my “reasons” can easily be seen as excuses.)

When I looked at myself though my friend’s eyes, however, I could see exactly what he saw – and it didn’t make me happy either. I could see my excuses – maybe my fear – and my folding up into something much smaller than I wanted to be. He kept saying referring to me as a “powerful woman,” yet I felt anything but powerful. I thought back to times when I did feel powerful, though, and I knew that I had allowed myself to give my power away…and to hide it away (for a variety of reasons not worthy getting into either).

So, I vowed to myself to change my ways. I vowed to stop giving away my power or hiding it. I vowed to act from and with the knowledge I possess and to pursue the things I love. I vowed to be the woman I truly am, and to not allow anything to stop me from expressing my real self.

The secular New Year lies right around the corner. Now is as good a time as any to stop for a moment and see your self through other people’s eyes and ask yourself if you like what they see and what you see. See yourself through your own eyes…do you like what you see? (I didn’t.)  If you want to see something different, commit to making a change.

You don’t have to wait for the New Year either. Christmas represents a fabulous time to make a change. It’s a time of miracles. The birth of Jesus of Nazareth marks the time when a soul entered the physical plane with the ability to show the rest of humanity the great spiritual heights man can attain. Jesus provides a wonderful role model for human potential. So, vow to make the changes you want to see in yourself – and that you want others to see in you – on the day of his birth.  Vow to reach your full human potential.

Or don’t wait and vow to make the change right now. Be your best self – be your self in all your power and glory – in this moment.