My Sister…Paige Junaeus

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storeystyle_ad1My sister, Paige Junaeus just launched her new website. When I was growing up, it was a great privilege to have a sister who was also a friend and a mentor. Paige Juneaus taught me a lot about style, class and even dreaming big. As an adult, I’ve been able to see many dreams fulfilled with the help of my sister’s influence. Paige has quickly become a true world shaker. From being one of the key assistants in the Hollywood Bible Study for over twenty years, to traveling the world teaching people on how to live up in a sometimes down world. Paige has become a leading conference speaker because of her wit, wisdom and love for people. It is a privilege to call her sister, friend, and fellow world shaker.

Paige Junaeus is a Speaker, Columnist, and Creative. She is well known for her work teaching and motivating people from all walks of life. Paige got her start in the fashion world, eventually moving into interior design, and ultimately into public speaking. Between 1972 and 1983 Paige modeled for Mary Web Davis. After roughly ten years of high fashion runway modeling for designers. Paige decided to pursue other professional interest. Starting in 1984 she attended Long Beach State University. After spending 4 years there Paige went on to start her own interior design company, working with a number of furniture labels including Ralph Lauren and Henredon. She has designed a number of notable homes, corporate offices, and estates in Newport Beach, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Santa Barbara and Stockholm, Sweden.

Alongside Paige’s interest in fashion and design, she has been involved in ministry and community outreaches ever since she was introduced to the local church. Her earliest church experiences started as a child when in 1967 her family became a part of a neighborhood church in Whittier, CA. Under the care of Pastor Ron Prinzing. Paige often tells stories about this time in her life during her speaking engagements, attributing her later work as having been directly inspired by the many wonderful people she had met and been supported by.

Not long after Paige’s positive local church experience she began to get more involved in ministry. During her early twenties she began teaching a bible study in her mother’s home that encouraged many young people to attend. This study lasted over five years, bringing substantial spiritual growth to all that attended. Today, over twenty different ministries currently attribute their origins to those meetings.

Turn2Paige.com

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Excuse Me While I Live My Life

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For many of us, we go through life aimlessly trying to make it. The distractions, though not necessarily wrong, are so constant, we can easily lose sight of our goals. Whether it’s trying to pay the bills, or playing catch up with the Joneses, we tend to miss the point of life.

I was talking with a neighbor the other day. He is an artist. Some years ago, he had decided to leave the corporate world, sell his house and pursue his dream. He told me he had to forget the job, forget the things that most people strive for (like new televisions, cars, homes, etc.) and go out on a limb. He told me the things around him began to distract him from living life. Now, while most of us could/should never consider quitting our jobs, his passion is inspiring.

Many of those around us have come to see success as the gathering of things. However, isn’t it possible that success is defined by something much more meaningful? Isn’t is possible that success is defined by how we live our lives. You can live in a low to middle class neighborhood and still be successful. You can ride the bus and still be successful. Success is not defined by the stuff you have, it’s defined by what you do with what you have.

“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green…” Psalm 92:12-14

Success is defined by how you live life. Success is growing strong, flourishing, bearing fruit, and staying fresh and green, no matter what circumstances you face. Don’t let your surroundings define you. Live life to its fullest every day, on purpose.

Now say this with me, “Excuse me while I live my life!”

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What I Learned from Mother Teresa

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It is reported that the following verses were written on the wall of Mother Teresa‘s home for children in Calcutta, India.

“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”


We talk about living life. We talk about loving. However, we many times regretfully give up way too quickly. I was speaking the other day with a young lady who had the opportunity to travel to Calcutta and sit with and hold the dying children of  with nothing more to give than an impacting act of love.

People ask me, “What is the secret to living a great life?” Well I think Mother Teresa summed it up well. When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize, she was asked, “What can we do to promote world peace?” She answered “Go home and love your family.” In her Nobel Lecture, she said: “Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society—that poverty is so hurtable and so much, and I find that very difficult.”

Jesus said it this way, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.‘ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

The secret to life…love. Yes, it’s that simple. When you connect to your world around you, to God, and to your purpose, you find that life is not just a little better, but tastes deliciously satisfying. Remember, it’s just about you…it’s about you connecting with your world.

 

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Lessons from the Oscars

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No, I’m not talking about learning from Billy Crystal‘s opening monologue, rich as it may be. I’m talking about some lessons we can learn from some of the films.

Whether its My Week with Marilyn, The Help, Moneyball or The Descendants, we can learn lessons from the stories and the storytellers. For example, from Brad Pitt‘s Moneyball, we can learn how to commit to something we believe in and stay the course. From The Help, we are reminded of the struggle many African-Americans went through and our overwhelming challenge to love our neighbor as ourself, even when our life and reputation is on the line. In Hugo, we can see how important it is to remember the past sometimes and to celebrate the beauty in life and art. The Descendants shows us the power of forgiveness, even in the midst the darkest of situations. Even My Week with Marilyn reminds us to embrace the now and not take it for granted.

Amidst the flashing lights of the red carpet, the couture dresses and the million dollar Henry Winston necklaces, we can find lessons and challenges to live the life we dream of living. I’ll try to remember that while secretly voting on who I think is going to win Best Picture. What are some great movies you’ve seen recently and learned from? Oh yeah, and who are your picks for the Oscars this year (just curious)?

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Steve Jobs Didn’t Settle

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Ever since Steve Jobs‘ passing, we have seen inspirational pictures and quotes all over our facebook walls. Steve Jobs was given up for adoption when he was born…because his mother wanted a girl. Later he attended college, but decided to drop out because it was too expensive. Remembering his time there, he said, ”I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.”

In 1976, he and a friend started a computer company in their garage. He sold his VW van to help with money. Of course the company was called Apple and is, as of September 2011, the largest publicly traded company in the world by market capitalization and the largest technology company in the world by revenue and profit.

What made Jobs different? Here some advice he shared before his passing on October 5, 2011:

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.

And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma-which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

The interesting thing about Jobs is that he fought for his dreams no matter what obstacle came his way…even being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer later in his life. What dreams have you put on the shelf because you have allowed other’s doubts and fears to sideline them? Are you living a safe and mediocre life or are you committed to leaving a dent in the universe? I don’t know about you, but I’m committed to living in such a way that change and progress is inevitable…living in way that is nothing short of the life I was created to live.

You’ve heard me say this a million times, but it’s so true, “when you have setback, don’t take step back…get ready for your comeback.”

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