Qiana Mestrich is the Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Manager at Beliefnet, the largest inspiration and spirituality website. She manages their Twitter account @beliefnet.
Many motivational leaders are harnessing the social power of Twitter to spread their philosophies – perhaps because when their speaking engagements are over, tweeting becomes a way to reinforce their message daily and reach their audience beyond the stage. The breadth of life and professional experience of these leaders spans across all levels of human interest and for this roundup we’ve selected motivational leaders actively using Twitter (
), not just as a marketing tool, but as a way to get you moving in the direction of your goals.
Can a 140-character tweet possibly be the wakeup call you need to start living your dreams? There’s only one way to find out — and following the leaders on this list is a great place to start. Who else is inspiring you on Twitter? Let us know in the comments.
Author Tony Robbins has been active for over 30 years and became well known through his infomercials and bestselling self-help books. Robbins writes about subjects such as health and energy, overcoming fears, persuasive communication, and enhancing relationships.
Jack Canfield is an American motivational speaker and author. He is best known as the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series with his writing partner, Mark Victor Hansen.
For over 30 years, author and speaker Mark Victor Hansen has spread the message of opportunity and action, dubbing himself “America’s Ambassador of Possibility.”
Indian physician and author Deepak Chopra has written extensively on spirituality and is a champion in mind-body medicine. As a TV personality and household name, Chopra has influenced the New Thought Movement in the United States.
Who hasn’t heard of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? First published in 1989, it is still a bestselling book. In it Stephen Covey promotes what he calls “The Character Ethic” or aligning one’s values with “universal and timeless” principles. At age 76, Covey is staying relevant by moving his message to the digital platform.
For over 50 years Zig Ziglar applied his “performance enhancement” principles to help Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, small businesses, schools and non-profits. These days Zig has passed the baton to his son Tom who is bringing the same personal development techniques to the digital age.
Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He is the author of the bestselling novel, The Alchemist, which has become one of the top selling books in history, holding the Guinness World Record for most translated book by a living author.
As a child Les Brown was declared “mentally retarded” and suffered many setbacks and failures in school. Now a renowned professional speaker, author and TV personality, Les Brown’s own rags to riches story fuels his inspiring “live up to greatness” message to people of all ages.
Marci Shimoff is the woman’s face of the biggest self-help book phenomenon in history, Chicken Soup for the Soul. One of the bestselling female nonfiction authors of all time, Marci’s a featured teacher in the international film and book phenomenon, The Secret.
As the so called “Pitbull of Personal Development”, Larry Winget has evangelized his in-your-face approach to self help as a financial guru and author of books like his bestselling Shut Up, Stop Whining, & Get A Life: A Kick-Butt Approach to a Better Life.
Inspired by the nomadic Bedouins of the Sinai Desert after meeting them as a young member of Israel’s navy, Yossi Ghinsberg has since traversed the globe absorbing the spiritual lessons of the world’s indigenous populations. Ghinsberg has used this humanitarian approach to organize symposiums and publish works around issues like biodiversity, treating opiate addiction, and conflict resolution.
Susan Piver is a writer, teacher, and speaker on topics such as love, creativity, and spirituality. She is the New York Times bestselling author of The Hard Questions: 100 Essential Questions to Ask Before You Say “I Do” and the award-winning How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life, in which she offers insight and information about conquering the fears that hold you back.
A high school dropout, Brian Tracy spent most of his early work years as a laborer around the world until he tried his hand at sales and became a VP at the age of 25. A board member of Washington DC public policy institute The Heritage Foundation, Tracy has authored several books, audio materials and even an online leadership course.
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer is a popular American self-help advocate, author and lecturer. His 1976 book Your Erroneous Zones is one of the bestselling books of all time and is said to have “[brought] humanist ideas to the masses.”
Gail Lynne Goodwin is an Ambassador of Inspiration and the founder of InspireMeToday.com. She often blogs for The Huffington Post, and counts people like Wayne Dyer and Jack Canfield (also on this list) as her mentors.
Dan Millman is the author of thirteen self-help books, the most famous of which is the semi-autobiographical novel, Way of the Peaceful Warrior. Due to the varied topics of his books, his work is difficult to label, but is generally connected to the human potential movement.
Byron Kathleen Mitchell is a speaker and author who teaches a method of self-inquiry known as “The Work of Byron Katie” or simply as “The Work.” She tweets a steady stream of inspirational messages.
Victoria Moran is the author of ten books, a motivational speaker specializing in inspiration, wellness, and personal growth, and a certified life coach specializing in spiritual- life coaching. She also writes the Charmed Life blog for Beliefnet.
Robin Sharma is an author of several internationally published books, and an expert on leadership and personality development.
Louise Hay has had an incredible life story, from surviving rape at age 5 to curing herself from cervical cancer as well as being an early champion of support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS. She is the founder of the Hay House publishing company, which publishes books by others on this list, including Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer.
As an entrepreneur, Jim Rohn became a millionaire by age 31 and over the past 40 years has shared his story with millions of people worldwide that seek the guidance of Rohn’s unique personal development philosophy. He’s helped launch the careers of other motivational speakers in this list, such as Tony Robbins and Jack Canfield.
Sonia Choquette is an internationally acclaimed spiritual teacher, intuitive guide and masterful catalyst whose special gift is to energetically activate the highest vibration and free the authentic spirit in everyone she meets. She releases people from the restriction and fear of the ego and guides them through the portals to joy, wholeness, and personal empowerment in every area of their life.
Debbie Ford is an author who writes books that take the reader on amazing journeys into the internal world, laying out the blueprint of the human psyche. Debbie’s books are used by universities, teachers, lawyers, mediators, and therapists around the world to support others in a true healing of the heart.
Considered a management expert, Ken Blanchard is the “Chief Spiritual Officer” of the international management training company he and his wife co-founded in 1979. Ken has also co-authored over 30 bestselling books on the subject of leadership.
Marianne Williamson is a spiritual activist, author, lecturer and founder of The Peace Alliance, a grass roots campaign supporting legislation currently before Congress to establish a United States Department of Peace. She is also the founder of Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that serves homebound people with AIDS in the Los Angeles area. She has published nine books, including four New York Times #1 bestsellers.
It's time for the "Top [Blank] of 2009" lists and "Top [Blank] of the Decade" lists and there's literally a [blank]-load of stuff getting cut-and-pasted and linked to all over blogotopia. Yahoo, Google and Bing have revealed the year's top Web searches. Says Switched: "2009 looks like it'll go down as the year of vampires and a dead pop star that looked like a vampire." Michael Jackson led both Yahoo and Google's annual "Zeitgeist" (that's German for time ghost!). "And a new star was born, too" adds The Official Google Blog. "Quirky pop singer Lady Gaga became a search sensation the world over" and the most Googled image on the Web. "Microsoft should have named its new version of Windows 'Lady Gaga'," says Marketing Pilgrim. Microsoft's Bing top search list has the usual suspects (Michael, Twitter, Swine Flu, Stock Market, Farrah Fawcett).
As usual, HuffPo makes the very most of somebody else's content with a photo slideshow of Google's Top 10. Technologizer rounds up all the lists, including the global Google fastest-rising list that includes four things you may never have heard of. Politics Daily likes Google's break-out of top searches about U.S. Senators: "No surprise, Ted Kennedy tops the Senate Google searches...second on the Senate list is Nelson, but the Google people don't tell us if this search is for Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) or Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) or if the American public searching for Nelson even knows there are two of them." Most important, Yahoo lists the top 10 blogs sought via search engine, from TMZ at #1 to mixed martial arts blog Sherdog in the 10-hole.
Ask.com has gone ahead and released the year's top questions, "a refreshing departure from the usual fare seen on the end-of-year lists," says Search Engine Watch. No. 1 is "How much should I weigh?" But we like the three unanswerable questions that form the 5-7 sequence: What is MIley Cyrus' phone number? What is the meaning of life? When will the world end?
It's not just the end of a year--the decade is wrapping up too. Going for the decade one year at a time, The Playlist is out with its Top 10 Films of 2002. (Solaris? Really?) Flavorwire lists the top 10 shows of the decade with as art. PopEater's top pop albums of the decade gives Justin Timberlake its top spot with high praise: "FutureSex/LoveSunds put him on the map as one of the great talents of his generation." A Journey Through Cinematic Heaven and Hell presents the top 5 actors and Top 5 actresses of the decade, with a defense of Nicole Kidman as "the best actress of her generation" and a rave to Johnny Depp for making pirates awesome.
Some may find Moviedrome's top 20 films of the decade a little idiosyncratic (it starts with There Will be Blood, Apocalypto, and The Incredibles). Ahead of the Curve offers the Top 10 gadgets of the Decade, and finally the USB flash drive gets some overdue love. Destructoid's top 50 videogames of the decade offers thousands of hours of gameplay, and "any gamer on the planet should own, or at the very least play, every single game on this list." Going beyond 50, Invisible Oranges endorses (but does not reproduce) Decibel magazine's 100 greatest metal albums of the decade, saying it "may be the best $5.99 you'll ever spend." And The 9513 has the Top 100 country albums of the decade, if that's country enough for ya.
November 27th, 2009 | by 
