
Affectionately known as "America's #1 Success Coach," Jack Canfield is the originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and a leading authority in the areas of self-esteem, achievement motivation, and peak performance. [www.jackcanfield.com]

Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and Editor in Chief of the Huffington Post and the author of twelve books. [www.huffingtonpost.com]

Seth Godin is a prominent author, blogger and speaker. [www.squidoo.com/linchpin]

Krishna Kaur is the founder of YOGA for Youth, a program that takes yoga, meditation, and stimulating discussions on the philosophy of yoga to urban youth. [www.yogaforyouth.org]

Norman Lear has enjoyed a long career in television and film. He is also a political and social activist and philanthropist. [www.normanlear.com]

Leilani Münter is a professional race car driver and an environmental activist who uses her voice in the number one spectator sport in America as a catalyst for change. [www.leilanimunter.com]

By going undercover to meet slaves and slaveholders, Kevin Bales exposed modern slavery's penetration into the global economy. He co-founded Free the Slaves, which has helped to liberate thousands of slaves. [www.freetheslaves.net]

Sophie Chiche, lifebyme.com founder and curator, enjoys asking deep questions and living a life of meaning. Today she's launching Shape House, an urban sweat lodge, a place to melt away fears and fat. [www.shapehousela.com]

Entrepreneur and writer Mastin Kipp founded TheDailyLove.com, which merges pop culture with inspiration, and co-founded The Love Yourself Company, an apparel company that has started a global self-esteem movement. [www.TheDailyLove.com]

Liz Phair is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. [www.lizphair.com]

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is Chairman of The Elders, a group of world leaders who address some of the world's most pressing problems. He works energetically for human-rights and in his ministry. [www.tutu.org]

Zainab Salbi is the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, a group dedicated to helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives. [www.womenforwomen.org]

Despite his physical challenges, Sean Stephenson has taken a stand for a quality of life that has inspired millions of people around the world. He's a professional speaker, psychotherapist, and author. [www.timetostand.com]

Kia Miller teaches Yoga at Yoga Works in Los Angeles, leads teacher trainings, and runs retreats and workshops on meditation, chakras, pranayam, and mantras, and other practices. [www.kiamiller.com]

Simon Mainwaring is an ex-Nike/Wieden creative, former Worldwide Creative Director at Motorola/Ogilvy, branding/advertising writer, author/speaker/blogger, Australian, idea geek. [www.simonmainwaring.com]

Shannon Bindler is a style editor, life coach, and the co-founder of Get Up Girl, an empowerment company that inspires women to shine. [www.getupgirl.com]

Grammy-nominated art director/designer/photographer Mathieu Bitton has designed over 450 CDs and movie posters. He's a renowned collector of and authority on black films and their soundtracks. [www.candytangerine.com]

Opus Reps founder and agent-producer Jorge Perez travels the world producing photo shoots with great photographers and celebrities. He's also very involved with Meals on Wheels in Los Angeles. www.opusreps.com
change

Life for me is all about the capacity for change. I believe that no matter how tight a corner we find ourselves stuck in, there’s always a way to step out of that reality and reset the tape counter of who we are back to zero.
As a child, I used to fear change and took badly to moving house, changing schools, my father going away on business trips, or my mother being sick in bed for a few days.
I was scared all the time of something happening to my family, of every ache or pain, of boarding a plane that might crash. That fear, which grew as I grew, set me up pretty nicely for addiction.
When I had my first drink, at the age of 14, my fear instantly evaporated. What liberation, I thought, and had another drink. But the next morning, the fear was back. My first thought was, I have to drink again. And so began a descent into alcoholism, which climaxed when I was 24.
Once sober, I took up swimming at night after work. My logic was that there were no tempting glasses of wine while I was swimming disciplined lengths up and down in a community pool. I wanted my hands to be busy, and they found their work pushing through water.
During those night swims, I mentally and physically built the foundations of my sobriety. I came to know the simple spiritual joy of becoming healthy again. I began to re-think change as something beautiful, a supreme gift, and to un-think it as the epicentre of fear.
Stopping drinking led me to leave an uninspiring job, break from destructive friends, and return to college to study journalism. When I felt low, it seemed that everything I had been was gone. But then I’d remind myself that it was me who’d chosen to start over. I would meditate on that as I swam and swam.
Since then, across 17 years of sobriety, there have been many further changes. Some I chose, and some were chosen for me. Even if I feared certain changes as they came into sight, every time I reset my tape counter back to zero, I learned that no matter where we are in our lives, whether we’re young or old, stuck severely or just uncomfortably, there’s always the capacity for bold and beautiful change.
– Nick Johnstone


Explore More Meaning
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compassionate pianist. musical communicator. moment enjoyer.
Pianist Vanessa Perez, praised for her passionate performing style and keenly sensitive musicianship, is a product of the energized musical culture in Venezuela that produced international stars like conductor Gustavo Dudamel and pianist Gabriela Montero. [www.vanessaperez.com]
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