Change: Pain to Blessing for 2006

Sitting in the living room, listening to music, enjoying some personal time, the mind wanders across the recent pages of life reflecting on the decisions and choices that led to what is my life right now. Despite the lack of material and financial success, I am very happy with where I've been and to where I've come. This isn't the destination, this is part of the journey.

Reviewing what has happened, I see the values that exhibit themselves through my choices; the reasoning behind the result. Individually, they seem to be rationalizations but, seeing them linked over time, I recognize a value or sets of values that have a strong resonance with who I am. I can still wonder why the material and financial success has not happened. I can still wonder why this happened this late in life. Better yet, I can share some truth about the journey of life.

We are raised in a system that educates us and our future choices. This education takes place within the family and within the social structure and schooling of our society. We've become good at accepting the truth from others and have not been given full access to our own creative spirit and truth. Given the fairy tales we are conditioned by, we make our choices and can go astray. When the questioning, doubt, or failures give way to momentary reflection, isn't our spirit calling out?

"Over here, over here! You've been going the wrong way. Your purpose and passion lives this way." the spirit calls. Dismantling the past, dismantling the beliefs, and living a new way takes time and, trial and error. The conflict of the the old life lived can rebel, through the body and emotions, creating conflicting desires and results. With some time to reflect, they can be reviewed and the pattern discerned. A quieter, stronger self is fighting the good fight within, unwilling to settle for anything less than ALL of who you are and what you stand for. One day, you will be grateful for all that you have been given.

The fight, the struggle, the testing, all work to your good. With this battle for our purpose and passion we develop a character that understands much from a place that invites others in. We are not on this journey alone and each person is there for our betterment. Sometimes, rather than through what they give us, our gain is experienced through what we give them.With each step forward, a time comes when we can see the net effect beginning to shape our future, a future we couldn't foresee but sensed.

It is this big a change in your life that is difficult to envision. All that you believed being dismantled and a new possibility, unclear and overwhelming, looming on the horizon. There is nothing else to do but stay in motion and take each step a day at a time. As the days add up, the events unfold, the path of the heart will become clear. As this clarity gains strength new choices and decisions will take a bolder step straight towards your future. The battles will ease up and the blessings will be more clearly seen. The standards you measure with will shift from the values of adopted belief to the values of who you truly are.

The Year 2006 will soon be upon us. The Eve of Promises, of New Year's Resolutions, will hear whispers that will fall down unfulfilled. This year, I give you your power back. With each uttered whisper, each promise to live the life you deserve, I will remind you that you will succeed with each failure that you get back up from and take another step boldly toward your future. Your success will be born of the experiences combined when reflected upon. Give yourself the time.

Balance: Time and Money

This is such a valuable commodity. Many people trade time for money and we seem to be doing it more and more. Yet, when I stop and sit down, turn off the TV, and let myself think, to process a slice of life, then I really begin to wonder where I can find this time.

This time, this very moment, is so valuable to me, to you. That moment of slowing down, to just be more in the moment, to reconnect, seems to be the time that demands so much monetary value. Unwittingly, most of us have completely forgotten what is truly important in our lives. We, being so competetive, have become caught up in the measuring the dollars instead of the time. Our success is being measured in dollars and not the value of life's special moments to oneself.

We sacrifice irreplacable moments to our pursuit of material success; be it career, the sheer chase of money, or the pursuit of power and prestige. For me, as a single man, I enjoy the time to relax without a worry to distract me. We are told to forget our problems and work towards our goals. Being distracted by worries is a place of fear; a very subtle fear. Fear always keeps us seeking, and blindly influenced by a subtle panic or anxiety. We're never truly right here. Intimate moments with oneself, with our loved ones, connecting with friends; all of these moments are marginally experienced. I deserve better than that. You deserve better than that.

This isn't saying it is wrong to engage in career pursuits, or to enjoy the building of wealth. Their pursuit is a good and wonderful thing to be experienced. Let's just make sure that we recognize when we're getting too caught up at the expense of our personal time, our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. We must also not forget the people that are important to us in life. Nurturing these moments will actually return a higher yield in both your personal and financial life. This means that it actually fuels your earning potential, your creativity, and your energy levels.

Too often, too late in life, we begin to wonder: Who am I without work? What am I going to do? As a coach, I will hear these questions that people will ask, are asking, of themselves today. I hear some of their worst fears. What it teaches me is how we are all dealing with these subtle, unnerving fears, on some level or another and at one time or another in our life. We're all on a journey doing the best with what we've got. Connecting with others gives us access to so much more!

Time: What's it worth? Where do you want to spend it? How do you want to use it?