Author Archive for Danielle LaPorte

I’ve subscribed for years to this occasional email from Dadi Janki. She’s the current leader of the Brahma Kumaris spiritual organization. I loved last week’s message from her: Dear Friend, Om shanti. Sometimes when we are together, you ask me why I don’t seem to get tired when I travel from India or give programs [...]

I’m not sure there is a bigger question than this. It bears repeating: what…is…your relationship to life? I was in Kauai in the fall and read Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth between beaches. And this question of his became my walking, rambling, meditation. “What is my relationship….to LIFE?!” Daunting. Spectacular. Galvanizing. Perhaps my favourite question [...]

I’ve worked with a few dozen Fire Starter clients in the past few weeks on career optimizing, transitioning, start ups, reinventions, product ideas, social media strategies and balancing it all without burning it out. (And I adore each and everyone of you. I’m thinking about you all right this minute and smiling hugely, because it [...]

Ali McGraw to Ryan O’Neil in Love Story:  “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
Puhleeze. That famous one-liner set real intimacy and personal responsibility back by bounds. We screw up. We trample over people’s feelings, we let our insecurities get the best of us, we make big fat unfair assumptions based on the past. [...]

There is a Buddhist saying: As in the beginning, so in the middle, so in the end. …and it’s one of my life compasses. It never fails me and it’s nearly always proven true. Things often continue how they start. The click, the comfort, the clarity – or the lack thereof, is there at the [...]

On my first trip to India, my friends and I made two important visits. We went far north for a private audience with the Dalai Lama. And we went far south to stay at the Ashram of the famous guru Sathya Sai Baba. Sai Baba is a controversial swami. I have right-minded friends who have [...]

Geeks are wise. I’ve been at the mercy of many of them. I’ve pleaded for and demanded more white space, redundancy, and speed. I am a better woman because of the push back and expertise of the web designers and code writers who have served me so well. The finest geeks give you the straight [...]

Tough spot, painful circumstance, official dilemma. A total jam. “I just don’t know what to do.” Hmmm. Then what? If you just don’t know what to do, then what are you going to do? Probably nothing. If you declare you don’t know, then you won’t…know. You’ll just sway back ‘n forth in the lull of [...]

We crave it. We die for it. We try to pay for it. We aspire, we mire, we miss the mark. In the unending, coiling, incessant pursuit of being right and good enough to find love and get love and give love, we forget about the very nature of love itself. Love gets buried beneath [...]

Some very cool things happen when I’m jamming with Fire Starters. Aha’s, elevated perspectives, connections. But my favourite phenomenon is when someone decides, with a nudge, to give up on what’s not working. Throw in the towel. Close shop. Call it quits. In the last month or so, I’ve witnessed two store closings, three blog [...]

It occurred to me this week that this is a mighty powerful question. What’s it going to take? We usually use that phrase in dire circumstances. What’s it going to take for you to wake up? What’s it going to take for me to quit? What’s it going to take for them to realize? But [...]

I want to start a Compliment Revolution. There are a few revolutions I would like to ignite, actually, but this one is super easy.If you’re with me, I think we could change the world this very week. So I’m declaring this to be the week of Global of Compliments. Someone call Hallmark and the Nobel [...]

I don’t think I’ve ever been “clinically” depressed. Well, maybe I have, but it certainly didn’t feel clinical. It felt morbid, cosmic, and unavoidably essential.

Richard Bach, author of the metaphysical classics, Jonathon Livingston Seagull and Bridge Across Forever, noticed that the Idea Fairy came to him when he was gardening, or flying in a plane. That’s when he would get his story line ideas and life solutions. Call it what you want: the zone, the flow, the magical gap, [...]

So here’s my new favourite concept: positive addiction. I just love the sound of it. It’s righteous and honest – a great combo. “I’m hooked, but it’s all good. No, really. I’m addicted, but it is positively healthy.” Like it. I was talking to a friend today (okay, it was my shrink), about my almost, [...]

On the winding road to your True Nature, you’re going to come across some darkly self deprecating apologies that may disguise themselves as selfless and evolved flexibilities. My own cliffs to white hot truth are littered with them. Like…. “I’m sorry for being so strong>pointedly opinionated. Sorry about that I really need to take the [...]

“People change all the time and forget to tell each other.” Lillian Hellman Change is a marvelous thing to celebrate. Acknowledging growth helps us to keep on growing. Taking stock of the leagues you’ve traveled is especially useful for those of us who drive ourselves so hard to be – whatever we’re craving to be. [...]

I felt it shelter to speak to you. – Emily Dickinson   We gather in a group to be witnessed, to be supported, and to be both equalized and elevated in our struggles, gifts and ambitions. Common ground is very fertile ground – it is, what Emerson calls, “…the common heart of which all sincere [...]

How do you want to feel this week? Stop and think about it right now. Close your eyes and take a good in-breath/out-breath if it helps. It usually does, so go ahead and indulge yourself. What would feel really, really, good to feel? Connected. Free. Light. Creative. Influential. Powerful. Healed. Rich. Pretty. Strong. Leadership. Quality. [...]

I write from my home office, on a Danish teak table, in front of a big window looking onto our street. I usually have the blinds closed because the sunlight makes it hard to read the computer screen. And from the sidewalk, at nearly the same time everyday, I hear loud hollering yelps, a groaning-holler [...]

1. There are no rules. Structures, how-to’s, dogma, principles…all disciplines and theories should be used to support your freedom and independent thinking. Curiosity is exponentially more powerful than playing by the rules. 2. Say thank you. Gratitude is one of the most creative and noble forces of human nature. It makes everything – absolutely everything [...]

Tummy trembles. Brain fuzz. That discombobulating feeling that you’re not quite sure what you should be doing but you should be something to keep your act together. Anxiety. Sometimes it slips away with a few deep breaths, other times you need to beat it off with a stick or some little white pills. Naturally, we [...]

I used to dance on tables. With clothes on of course, and relatively sober, all it took was The Doors’ Roadhouse Blues or Billy Idol’s Dancing With Myself (oh oh oh-oh…) and you could count on me to find a speaker or a table top to worship. Now…not so much. I went dancing I think…hmmm. [...]

Do you work hard to avoid the embarrassment of not having enough and making good on your promises? Or…do you work hard because there’s so much of life to experience and you want it all? Reputation, or self-satisfaction? What the Joneses think, or the merit of your inclinations? The destination, or the journey? The fact [...]

“I demand an apology!” If you have to demand it, is it really worth receiving? Forced apologies are kind of like nice plastic. Shiny, maybe even useful, but ultimately, just trash. For a long time, I wanted an official kind of apology from my husband for some jerk-like tendencies he was trying out on me. [...]

Just about to turn thirty, I was given a rare opportunity to have a private audience with His Holiness The Dalai Lama. “Hey kid,” my boss said on the other end of the phone, “I think I’ve got us a meeting with the Dalai Lama – at his place in India. You in?” I had [...]

So many people are looking for it: their big life purpose. Becoming YOU is your purpose.  You’re the very purpose of your existence. Realizing what lights your fire and floats your boat — THAT’s your life purpose. What else could it be? If it gives you true joy {not the seemingly happy-high that is fleeting, [...]

I’ve shopped the mall of meditation since my early twenties. I’ve tried Vipassna, and guided visualization, and Transcendental Meditation, among others. Vipassna helps empty my mind, but I find it punishing. It’s taken me a long time to admit (lest I appear spiritually whimpy) that Vispassna isn’t for me. Guided visualizations can be useful, but [...]

I’ve noticed a definite pattern in the countless jam sessions I’ve had with colleagues and clients – the best idea gems often surface in the last few minutes. A morning spent teasing out the best strategy…two hours back ‘n forthing on what to name the campaign… and, just as you’re clearing away the coffee cups [...]

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.” – Walt Whitman Soon after we met, my man and I were getting ready for a party. “I’m not good at parties,” I warned him. “What?! You’re like the public-speaking power chicklet.” “Noooo. I’m the girl in the kitchen [...]

What happened in your childhood or another life informs patterns in your current reality. But sooner or later, you’ve simply got to get over using yesterday to explain today’s behavior.