How to Change Your Life and The World In 14 Days By Lisa Haisha
How to Change Your Life and The World in Just 14 Days
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Alice to the Cheshire Cat: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat “I don’t much care where,” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk,” said the Cat. “—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation . “Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough!” — Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
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How to Change Your Life and The World in Just 14 Days
Contents... It’s the Most Important Question You’ll Ever Answer…
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Do You Suffer From “Comfort Addiction”?
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What If So Much of What You Think Matters… Doesn’t?
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The Answers Are Not Always In Your Own Backyard…
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So Now What?
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How to Change Your Life and The World in Just 14 Days
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t n a t r o p m I t s o M e h t s ’ It … r e w s n A r e v E l l ’ u o Y n o i t Ques
earth? n you leave the e h w d e ct ally ffe a rld be will the world re t… a th d How will the wo n yo e b t grieve. Bu will mourn and ily m fa d n a s d ien Oh sure, your fr ey ind…what will th h e b ve notice? a le u yo r life that gerprints of you fin e h T ? e b y legac om? What will your an? And to wh e m your y e th ill w t a implications for st d n u fo look like? Wh ro p ve a t. They h d you mu ey are importan swer them. An n th a s a st u p e m e u d o s Y a s are ake today. These question sions you will m ci e d e th d n a life’s trajectory ght now. thing within you e m o S t. n e m answer them ri d this docu your soul foun e id ndom. s in g in th e n. Nothing is ra se som o u si ci ca e e d b l ll, ta e vi W is Why? lace, th moment, this p read about the u yo e yb a M . n drew you to this shops, elp childre volunteer and h zine, attended one of my work to y a w a r fo g . in a maga been lookin Huffington Post s Foundation Maybe you’ve rt e a h e T H in ’s n n io re ct e ild n Ch l con Whispers from column on travel and cultura eeper y kl e e cy and finding d ays a g le r u or read my w yo g in you alw egin build ed of…the life en longing to b e m b a s re a d h s e y d a si in lw a ething life you Or maybe som start living the to d n ur grasp. a , ce a e p r slipped from yo ys a lw a meaning, inne w o h e will learn ible but som Better still, you k. e knew was poss se u yo rs e of the answ give you some ill w s e g a p g 14 days. in world—in just If so, the follow e th d n a — e lif r you how to change
ieve ible? It’s not. me path and ach sa e th w Sound imposs llo fo y clients m A-list ist, I’ve seen m ur planet. Fro p o ra e ss th o d cr o a o ll w a lly en le As a Ho lves and peop cutives, I’ve se se xe e m e d n th a r I should know. s fo O th E es o C b nal results, orld and their liv nwriters, to top w e e re th sc e to se , rs transformatio to g ce ollywood produ their life’s journey by learnin actors, to top H ch ckgrounds enri people of all ba . m ris more pure p through a new, ow. et’s start right n L . n e p p a h it et’s make You can too. L s, Expect Miracle
Lisa Haisha 4
How to Change Your Life and The World in Just 14 Days
Do You Suffer From “Comfort Addiction”? Even before I founded the Whispers from Children’s Hearts Foundation to provide therapeutic and psychological services to children in war-torn and impoverished countries, I began to notice something peculiar in my private practice as a Hollywood therapist. Clients, often wildly successful in their entertainment careers, would come to me and say, “Lisa, I’m miserable. My kids hate me, my spouse hates me, and…well, I hate me! I’m at the top of my professional success and at the bottom of my personal joy. What gives? What’s wrong with me?” By any reasonable standard these clients were “successful.” They have more money than they could spend in a lifetime, they have healthy and attractive bodies and minds, and they live a life of luxury that few will ever experience. And yet. They lack happiness, inner peace, and most of all meaning.
What they suffer from is something that many of us suffer from, and that’s what I like to call “Comfort Addiction.” We have become paralyzed by comfort and ease. Do you realize that, according to the World Bank, 80 percent of the world’s inhabitants live on less than $10 a day? Think about that. That’s less than $3,650 a year. The average American? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average individual American worker makes $32,140.00.
—Buddha
You work hard. So do I. But the truth is we live at a standard that most of the world cannot even imagine. How to Change Your Life and The World in Just 14 Days
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What If So Much of What You Think Matters… Doesn’t? For example, according to Newsweek magazine, 60% of the continent of Africa does not even have electricity. I walk in a room and flip a switch and don’t think twice about it. You probably do the same. But for 60% of an entire continent, refrigeration, air conditioning, reading lamps, and computer or telephone services are a rare or nonexistent experience. Let your mind marinate on that thought for a moment: an entire population who has never heard a dial tone, clicked a mouse, or felt cool air blow across their face. Now, when confronted with these facts and realities, many people say, “Listen, I know I’m blessed. And you’re right; I probably take things for granted. But I can’t do anything to help those people. The world isn’t fair. And by some twist of cosmic fate I won the geographical lottery and got to be born in an affluent society.” Here’s what I say to that: you’re missing the point. It’s not the world’s poor who need our enlightenment. It’s we who need their wisdom. They have much 6
How to Change Your Life and The World in Just 14 Days
to teach us. But you can’t learn what you don’t experience.
“A jewel that never leaves the mine is never polished.”
–Saadi
Let me explain by sharing with you the words of wisdom I heard from a child during one of the Whispers from Children’s Hearts Foundation’s travel missions. During one of our trips we visited an orphanage in Peru for deaf children. Many of the kids came from very violent and dysfunctional families. After spending quality time with the children, we were able to gain their trust and share stories, eye-to-eye, heart-to-heart. With the help of our sign language expert and interpreter, I asked one little girl “Is God fair? Why or why not?” “Yes,” she said in sign language. “Because we can go to church. We’re deaf, but it’s OK. He still loves us and helps us. We have things and food.” Sage and powerful words of gratitude and inner peace from a child who faces daunting physical and financial challenges.
The Answers Are Not Always In Your Own Backyard… I strongly believe that travel is a vital part of healing the wounds that rip people and our planet apart.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.
Sounds pretty strong, doesn’t it? But it’s true. I’m serious. When we get outside ourselves and immerse ourselves in other cultures and learn other creeds, we realize that the chasm that separates cultures is largely based on unfounded fears, not facts. Let me share with you what Mark Twain had to say about the power of travel. Twain said:
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrowmindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.
Isn’t that powerful? I love that. Twain was right. Travel IS fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrowmindedness. The more we take time to breathe the air others breathe, to eat the food (or lack thereof) that others eat, or to sleep on the grass mats that others sleep, the more we realize our one-ness. We are all connected.
We all breathe... We all eat… We all laugh… We all look up at the same infinite starry sky and dream.
And that’s the point—travel bridges that which we THINK divides us. I personally believe that the fractures and fault lines of our world are socially constructed. They are manmade. God did not create us to kill one another but to love and learn from one another. If How to Change Your Life and The World in Just 14 Days
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we could just realize how interconnected we all are spiritually I think we might all treat each other differently. And for that reason, as Mark Twain said, travel is supremely valuable in combating so much that afflicts our world. But it’s more than that. When we travel we learn something about ourselves. And those lessons will open up mental and spiritual vistas within yourself 8
How to Change Your Life and The World in Just 14 Days
that you never knew existed. Traveling to other places can teach you things about yourself you can hardly fathom. You’ll discover new labyrinths of love hidden inside your heart. Traveling to experience and serve others is not only the adventure of a lifetime, it’s also the secret to curing the Comfort Addiction holding you back in your life, your business, and in realizing the fulfillment of your dreams.
So Now What? Nothing changes until something changes. Read that again. Inaction is the greatest stumbling block to personal growth, achievement, and success. If you want to improve your life—and, indeed, the world—in the next 14 days, you will have to take massive and immediate action. Doing nothing will do nothing. You have to resolve right now, right this very second, that after you finish reading these words you will give yourself the gift you deserve: a definitive and powerful first step on the path to the person you know you learn to love new cultures and peoples. are inside but have never allowed yourself to be.
“Destiny is not a chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” –William Jennings Bryan It’s time to invest in yourself by investing in the lives of others. It’s time to once and for all break your Comfort Addiction. It’s time to stop living inside a self-constructed prison of fear and to get outside yourself. See new things. Meet new people. Hear new languages. Serve and
Bottom line: it’s time to start living. Really, really living. Not just existing but living.
So what now? Consider coming with the Whispers from Children’s Hearts Foundation on one of our upcoming “Adventure of Your Life” trips to assist us in administering psychological and therapeutic services to the children of our world. Don’t worry about whether you have a background in psychology. We will train you. Don’t worry about not knowing the language. We have translators. And most of all, don’t worry about getting How to Change Your Life and The World in Just 14 Days
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outside your comfort zone, because that’s where the blessings and miracles happen. One of the things our fellow Whispers from Children’s Hearts Foundation travelers find so amazing about their journeys are the social connections and powerful bonds of community and friendship they develop with each other. We are a tribe of fellow travelers, both literally and spiritually. You will make lifelong bonds of kinship and “soul-ship” that will last long after we depart from our adventures together. So come join us! We travel to places like Tanzania, Cambodia, and Peru providing children with the psychological healing they desperately need. But it never ceases to amaze me how those who join us on our Whispers from Children’s Hearts Foundation service trips end up saying that they were the ones whose souls benefited the most.
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
—Will Rogers
Email me today at Lisa@LisaHaisha.com. If not the Whispers from Children’s Hearts Foundation, then perhaps another service organization. But spend two weeks a year traveling and serving others and your life will change in ways you never thought possible or ever imagined. The door that leads to adventure and inner peace is before you now. But only you can open it and step through it. For your sake—and our world’s sake—I hope you will. Namaste,
Lisa Haisha 10
How to Change Your Life and The World in Just 14 Days