“Listen…
Are you breathing just a little
and calling it a life?”
Mary Oliver

This captures it all, doesn’t it?
Read it.
Read it again.

Now, answer the question…
Are you?
Think about it…
Are you??

And, if your breathing is shallow,
and it’s been that way for far too long,
what are you going to do about it?

~

“You cannot plough a field
by turning it over
in your mind!”

Anonymous

There is a point to planning, and thinking, and developing a direction in which you will head.
But, for many, they stay there…for too long (and some stay there forever!).

You cannot iron out all the wrinkles from the couch.
You cannot do everything in your head, or on paper.
At some point, you need to DO it, whatever “it” is.

Some things to think about:

• What goals are you currently planning to reach?
• How long have you been in this phase?
• Is it time to do something now?
• What will your first action be?

Know that you won’t have it all figured out before you start, but surprisingly, most things somehow get figured out once they are in motion…

Today, if you are ready, take a step.
Make a movement.
Do something.
(And, if that scares you, know that tomorrow you can go back to the couch, and spend more of your life thinking….)

~

“Take your life in your own hands and what happens?
A terrible thing: no one to blame.”
Erica Jong

I have had two very interesting exchanges with people recently, both cases were with people that were trying to convince me (which meant that they were trying to convince themselves), that they had no control around something in their lives.
Both examples were around work and focused on explaining why they had no power (or hope) that things could, or would, be different.

On the job, who is getting the glory, and who is taking the fall?
Both can wreak havoc on a team if some people are feeling like they aren’t getting the recognition that they should, for a job well done, OR that they are taking responsibility for something that they shouldn’t be.

It can be very freeing to feel like nothing can be done in a situation,
because that means you are free to tolerate (or even accept) the current state.
You can complain, become frustrated or angry, and feel quite confident in making your case for misery or angst.
There is something happening TO you, and you are an innocent victim of such circumstances.

The greatest tragedy in this is the fact that you have handed over your ownership and your POWER.
You can’t control external variables, but you can always control how you respond.

You have the power to determine how your process, and therefore how you experience, life.
Today, use that power.
You deserve to live a life that YOU create.

~

“As long as one keeps searching, the answers come.”
Joan Baez

Sometimes we can be impatient.
We want what we want…now.
We don’t want to work at it.
We don’t want to wait for it.

We want to know the answers.
We want to have the results.
We want every dream to come true…
every day.

While it is important to believe that we deserve what we desire,
the need for immediate gratification can sabotage any goal or dream…

Sometimes we don’t get what we want, even though we really wanted it.
Sometimes we get something different, that we didn’t know we even wanted.
Sometimes we get something even better…
Sometimes the answers don’t come easily.
Sometimes answers don’t seem to come at all.

That doesn’t mean give up.
It often means, keep looking…keep going…keep searching.
As long as you keep showing up for life, one day the answers you seek will be there.
It may take time, but they will come.

May these two men remind you that every step of your journey in life
(though the mist, through the haze, through the years…компютри втора употреба)
is worth taking.

Continue asking, searching and living …
and trust the answers will come.
~

“Your chances of success
are directly proportional
to the degree of pleasure
that you derive from what you do.”

Michael Korda

By all objective standards, he was good at his job.

He was able to fulfill the job description without incident.
He had been a solid, stable employee for the past seven years.
He produced…and completed…and performed…very well.

But, when he talked about his job, and how he felt he was doing,
it was striking that he never used either of these words:

• Successful
• Happy

Now, what does that mean?
He can do the job,
he gets paid (well),
and he’s had no complaints from his boss about his performance….
BUT, he doesn’t say that he’s happy OR successful.
That’s pretty telling, isn’t it?
When pushed, he admits it’s because he doesn’t find joy, or feel value, in the work that he does.
And, because of that, he will never be successful OR happy in his current position.

He has some things to think about, doesn’t he?

Question for you:
How would you describe your work?
How do you feel about what you do?
Do you love it?

If you don’t, what are you going to do about it?

~

“The more one hurries, the less time they have.”

The Universe

“If only I had more time…”
“There aren’t enough hours in the day…”
“I wish I could clone myself, because just one of me can’t get it all done!”

At one time or another, many of us have felt like there simply was too much to do, and not enough time in which to do it.

For some people, it’s a constant state.
A state that leaves them feeling drained, on edge, overwhelmed and exhausted.
It doesn’t mean that they aren’t correct, there IS a lot to do.
There always was, and there always will be.
The question becomes, what is mine to do?

A lot of people are doing a lot, but much of it is elective.
They don’t need to own everything that they are owning,
and they don’t need to be controlling everything they are doing.

Being busy (and frazzled) can become an identity.
Think about how you talk about your days, and your life.
How do you describe your days?
Are you happy?
Or, are you too busy to think about whether or not your are?
Your answer will give you a lot to work with, won’t it?

Slow down.
(Not forever, just for today.)
~

“If you don’t go after what you want,
you’ll never have it.
If you don’t ask,
the answer is always no.
If you don’t step forward,
you’re always in the same place.”

Nora Roberts

You are right-
there IS a risk in taking a risk.
There IS an unknown.
There IS a possibility that something won’t work,
and a chance you will not succeed.

But, there is a guarantee of failure if you DON’T take a risk.

You only have a shot at winning, if you play.
Or, you can cling to the fantasy of possibility (forever) if you sit on the couch.

What are you going to do,
in this life that you get the chance to live?
Will you take a risk and play?
Or, will you spend your days just pondering the pros and cons of getting in the game?
You decide.
~

“Feeling gratitude
and not expressing it,
is like wrapping a present
and not giving it.”

William Arthur Ward

I’m going to say something that may surprise you.
You may actually (initially) disagree, but if you were to conduct your own experiment, you would find that this is true, for most (if not all!) people.

When you ask someone how they are, or how life is, you will often hear what is going wrong.
They don’t usually volunteer much that is going right.

BUT, when that same person is directly asked what they are grateful for, the person will suddenly find a lot of reasons!

Initially there may be a pause, because our conditioning is often to focus on the negative, but as the shift to the positive takes place, you will witness someone’s energy change right before your eyes.
You will see power of what focusing on the positive can do for someone, and how much that impacts their mood, their well-being and their state of mind.

If we so choose, there are endless opportunities to find fault…
in ourselves, in others and in the world we live in.
But, the other side is, we all also have endless opportunities to focus on the positive,
and tap in to the gratitude we have
for our lives, and the people in our lives.

Today, take time to take stock of your gratitude.
Then, share it.
Watch how your energy changes as you find it,
and how you impact the energy of others as you share it!
~

“The more you seek security, the less of it you have.
But, the more you seek opportunity,
the more likely it is that you will achieve
the security that you desire.”
Brian Tracy

I was thinking about how so many people are desperately grasping at attempts to secure promises about tomorrow- hoping against hope that if they line it all up correctly, tomorrow will be a guaranteed success.
If only things could be in order today,
things would still be in order tomorrow, right?

If only it was that simple.

Security is not something we can access externally, as much as we want it to be.
It’s not in a job, or a relationship, or even in the creation of your master, detailed plan of how your life will be.
Where do we get it then?
If it’s not in being prepared, where does it come from?

Security comes from knowing yourself,
knowing your strengths and your abilities,
and knowing that you have the resources, the capacity and the power to take care of yourself.
Always.
If you look for it anywhere outside of yourself, you are never going to find it.

Isn’t that great news …?
You don’t need to keep looking for it, because you already have it.
You ARE it.

~

“We must not allow the clock
and the calendar
to blind us to the fact
that each moment of life
is a miracle and a mystery.”

H. G. Wells

Today was the first day of daylight savings.
There is the camp that loves it, because it stays later an hour longer.
There are those that hate it, because the mornings will be darker.
Then, there are those that just lament the fact that they “lost” an hour today.

So many move through life feeling like they are “losing” time.
Our lives are grounded in the ticking hands that seem to threaten to steal our days, our lives, away from us.
We do not need to let the clock hijack our time, our attention or our energy.
We can pay attention to time, as a guide for our days, but we can also maintain our focus (and sanity!) in life by being present in the moment.
We can live fully present, and still be “on time” for life, and all that we need to do.

Notice where your time and energy is going.
What if the clock isn’t what’s causing you stress…?

The clock helps us to be where we need to be,
but once you’re there, are you present?
Try on the belief that you DO have enough time in the day,
and wherever you are, try just being there.
You’re missing a lot if you’re always (mentally) off to the next thing…
~