And in Your Corner…

Who do you have in your corner?  Do you have a friend who will have your back?  Mom or dad?  Other family relatives? Maybe you have some people who stick up for you, and perhaps those backers are hard to find. Yet there is someone who you really need in your corner.  You.

It is surprising how many of us find it hard to back ourselves.  We make excuses for why we cannot possibly attain what we want in life.  Sometimes we even end up sabotaging our own work before we can obtain our desired goal.  We are not always our own worst enemy, yet often we could be a close second.

There are people in the world who like what we are doing and are supportive, even if they do not say so.  There are people in this world who may hate what we are doing, and although they might say so, they may not.  And some people do not care one way or the other.  These folks are called the silent majority.  You need to be in favor of what your passions are, or you need to find better desires.

Just as anything starts from a spark, whether it is the campfire or a worldwide movement, your ideas and dreams are the same.  You are the spark that needs to light your dreams and turn them into reality.  The neat thing is that you can attain just about anything that you set your sights on.  All you have to do is work at it and not give up.

If you give up on your dreams, finding that they became too hard to follow, those may not have been your true passions.  Passions may often be hard work, yet to the person who owns them, it never really feels like hard work, it only feels like the next item to do on your way to your goal.  Take your own inventory of where you are and where you are going.  If it is right, you will know it.

Thank you for being with me today.  I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

The Difference

Yesterday I wrote about how my wife helps me find things.  In yesterday’s blog, I miss wrote the word ‘Parochial,’ spelling it as ‘porocial’ instead.  I thank my wife for detecting this and correcting me. I also am sorry for anyone who may have been offended.  And, to the nuns who used to teach me, OK, your right, I cannot spell.

Today I am looking at the difference.  The difference between working with others or just setting out on your own.  We can all take some actions to get where we want to be.  We can also be alone faking something until we stumble on how to do it effectively.  Yet, the things we create on our own often feel superficial and hold less meaning than the things we do with others.

When we work with others, we find new ideas and perspectives.  These new thoughts help give everyone at the table a unique presence and a deeper understanding of the concepts and issues at hand.  The French used to do this in their late nite dinners with people such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

The real difference is that you can think you really understand something, yet until you try to explain it to someone else, you just do not know.  As a teacher of adults, I always believed,”If you want to know something, take a class.  If you’re going to learn something, try teaching someone else.”

This is very true.  The students in the class will ask you different questions and in different ways than you have ever thought of before.  If I teach a class, and I do not learn something new, I did not do a very meaningful job for those students.

Thanks for being with me today.  I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Everything in Its Place

I love living in a semi-Bohemian lifestyle.  Not too rigid on any one thing, and freedom of where I am going and the ability to move in different directions turning on a dime.  Yet lately, I have noticed that I am having problems as I get started in the morning. 

I seem to forget where I left things the night (or day) before.  I find myself embarrassed when my wife has to help me locate items.  I am happy, though, because she can almost always find them. Thank you, dear.

I could blame this on getting long in the tooth, yet please, believe me, that is not so.  I have been losing things since I was in early elementary school.

In the early days, I misplaced Everything from shoes to bowties (mandatory for Porocial schools back then), lunch boxes at bus stops, and even Homework.  How my poor parents got through all my losses, I will never know. 

Having this type of problem throughout my life, it has taken me almost 66 years to realize something else.  Look at all the time I have wasted along the way.  On average, 20 minutes a day trying to find something?  Over 65 years that is 474,500 minutes.  The time is better understood as 7908.3 hours or 329.5 days.

This is awful.  I lost almost a full year looking for the things I could not find.  There has to be a better way.  I am getting too old to waste any more time.  Wow!

Wait a minute.

I am a life coach.  Suppose I could show myself something new.  Yes, you can teach old life coaches new tricks.  I should set up a place where everything belongs and is taken care of to be ready for use.  Dirty dishes in the dishwasher, in the cabinets, when cleaned.  Dirty clothes in hampers and washed when the basket is full, or the clothes are needed.  Everything set out in a location to be worn or taken to work in the morning.

The organization of items is not only possible. Over a lifetime, it can save you almost a year of your life that you can use on activities that are more fun and less stressful.  All you have to do is want to have more fun with the time you have saved.  I will tell you how I am doing in about 6 weeks.

Thank you for being with me today.  I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

New You?

Everyone wants something bigger, better, shinier and, of course, new.  I do hold a concern, though.  Not everything old is rusty, cantankerous, or falling apart.  I believe in keeping up with new designs and developments in the various areas of our life.  I also think that not everything new is necessary.

The smartphone is a great education tool.  Everyone should have a cellphone for safety, and being connected to the internet is a great way to learn more about everything around you.  Some of the games and other diversions on the smartphone are not so good because they can be as addictive as some drugs.  Even worse are some of the scams that steal money from the poor and elderly each year. 

The smartphone is all right, we just need to learn how to use it.  You could say that about almost any new thing.  And, you could say that about nearly anything that has been invented or used before.  Don’t get me started on the apple.

When it comes to good or evil, we need to remember the fault does not rest within the inanimate and unconscious object, the positive or negative use lives within ourselves.  We are the ones in control, and we get to make our own determination as to how we use objects and how we treat others who also employ those objects in their lives.

We should treat others the way we would want to be treated and use what we have to leave our place in the world better than we found it.

Thank you for being with me today.  I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Time to Act

You cannot mourn the fact that you did not act sooner. If you did not, you had your reasons.  There is no going back to change the past, and there is really no reason for beating yourself up over a history that you cannot change.  You can only work on today.

You can plan to do something in the future.  Many of us put off as much as we can and relegate it to the future.  Unfortunately, the future is not here, and you do not know what may come up in the future.  Remember, the future is a ‘maybe’ on many levels. There are no guarantees.

So you are in the here and now.  I like to call it “Today.”  What are you going to do today?  Make a list of what actions you wish to start and/or complete and go do it.  No excuses. And never, “I am going to do this, but I am starting by taking a little rest.”

If you are tired, then work on your sleep habits.  Set a plan and stick to it.  The project is not something you should have done or will do.  Put the plan in place, and take care of your needs.  And yes, even the work for better sleep will not happen overnight. 

We are not machines.  We do not upload a program and go off never to error again.  We are biological creatures, and a learning curve is almost always in place.  Remember, do your best, but don’t beat yourself up in the process of self-betterment.

Thank you for being with me today.  I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Today Is the Day

Yesterday is gone.  It will hopefully be remembered for the lessons it brought and the good it gave us.  Tomorrow is a dream.  We are not there yet.  Today is the day we can work to change and make better.

Today I will help others less fortunate than myself.  I will build my business as a life coach.  I will help where I can, and I will strive to do no harm.  Today is the day where I can do my best and use the work which I do to make a positive change in myself and others.

I cannot worry or grieve over the past, for it is gone.  I, nor anyone I know, can go back and change anything that happened in the past.  I also cannot worry about the future.  How can I fear for something that has not happened and only has a 35% chance of actually coming to be?

If I ignore that which I cannot change or has not happened yet and concentrate on what I can do now, think of all the good I could do.  The actions I take today may help the future go smoother. 

We honor the past and hope for the future. We live and work today.

Thank you for being with me today.  I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Late Nights Early Days

Ever have trouble either going to sleep or staying asleep through the night?  If you do, you should take a little time to figure it out and make some changes to ensure sound sleep.  Lack of proper sleep is as bad as any other medical condition and could easily hold you back from achieving what you want from life.

If you had stomach pains or a broken leg, you would not just hobble around the house and say it is ok and would get better in time.  You would go and talk to a doctor.  The problem would be a medical issue, and the doctor would fix it.  There is nothing wrong or shameful about needing help with such a concern.  It shows wisdom on your part that you recognized the problem and took action to get it fixed.

We often overlook problems with diet, exercise, and sleep because we think they are controllable, and professional guidance is not required.  Nothing is farther from the truth.  Help from knowledgeable professionals that actually put actions in place to remedy the problem can save you time, stress, and money that could all increase as the diseases grow over time.

Willingness to seek assistance is often not a mark of weakness, it is actually a flag of intelligence. Consider this if you have problems or concerns.

Thank you for being with me today, I hope to be with you again tomorrow.