Getting started

I have been absent for a few weeks, enjoying a wonderful overseas holiday and am now ready to jump back into work. Today I start my new job of full-time student. Though I have had a productive morning, I cannot stop thinking of all the housework that needs attention! That is going to be a big issue with working from home. It is time to bring into practice all my time management skills and be disciplined at following a daily schedule.

Why is it always so much easier to see what others need to be doing and to give advice to them? So, I will lead by example and walk the talk so to speak and put procrastination behind me and plan my diary. I think that once you have written something down, you are more inclined to commit to it.

Earlier this year I sat and listed all the components to my ideal job and also a list of things that I wanted to achieve for the year. Well, I am happy to report that my ideal job is life coaching and I have taken all the steps to make this happen. On my second list of things to do, I am still working through it, but it is good to have and to revisit every now and then. I don't want to come to the end of another year and feel that nothing has been achieved. It is in every ones power to change that around and live a fuller life.

Why not do a list for yourself and title it:- In The Next 12 Months I Will .... and you can then think of 4-5 things you'd like to achieve under headings such as health, spiritual, family, work, finance and leisure. See what you come up with, it is fun to do and a great sense of accomplishment when you can tick some of them off.

But now, its time for a coffee!

“...the greatest miracle for me was getting started.”
—V.S. Naipul

Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

“Oh, the Places You'll Go!”---Dr. Seuss

This is such a great passage from one of Dr Seuss’s children’s poems. It really tells us, that what we decide to do is really up to us. We get to make the decision; do we decide to move forward or to play it safe and stay where we are? There is a lot of power in choice. There are also consequences in staying safe! When we decide to make a move, whatever it may be, whether in our work, relationship, where we choose to live, we are giving up a secure place of what we know. We are making a conscience shift to a place of possibly no power, of the unknown, even though (through past experience) we know that it is usually only for a short time. Eventually the fear we hold becomes familiar territory and as it fades away we take new ownership. So decide to be brave and move forward, take the first step. Make yourself proud and as one clever marketer likes to say – Just Do It!

You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way! -Dr. Seuss

One door closes

This week has been a turning point for me. I have handed in my resignation to my employer and after months of looking forward to doing this, when the time finally came and the conversation was complete I felt quite flat and even slightly teary!
There is a whole new adventure waiting for me in my coaching career and I am certainly looking forward to devoting more time to creating my new business and finishing my training.
As with many areas of ones live, there are different emotions with closing one door and walking through to the next. Just like with some friendships and even marriages, they can come and go, but the memories are forever there to think back on and cherish all the happy times.
Being at a point in life where we grow out of relationships and careers, does not lesson the commitment that was there at the time. It is a natural progression, to grow and change and eventually there comes a time to move on.
So as I am sad to finish working with people who I have spent much time with over the years, I am very satisfied that I have made the commitment to myself to allow myself to grow and develop. I have taken one more step into the future and know I will enjoy what unfolds. I have already made that decision, that it is up to me and I will have loved every minute even the challenging ones. For to look back in years to come and be saddened by not trying something new, would be so much harder to live with than the fear I may have of taking that step forward.

Celebrate

Celebration is something that most of us do not do often enough. Certainly the big things in life do get acknowledged, like weddings, birthdays, graduations and the like, but the little daily things seem to slip under the radar. There are so many things in our life that can call for celebration, or even simple acknowledgment.
We can celebrate the fact that we live where we live. Our family and friends, a smile or kind world from a stranger, having food in the cupboard and a roof over our head, even the air that we breathe. It all becomes then a question of attitude. To live with an attitude of gratitude and to be mindful daily could be a very insightful exercise.
What would happen if you were asked to live one whole week in a constant state of celebration? Would that be so much of a challenge that you would not be even considered it, or could it be a fun challenge? Would you be able to turn every situation, into a positive experience? To let off some internal fireworks and to acknowledge yourself, to change your perspective to gratitude could be very difficult for many people, but well worth the experience. I feel that the week could end up by being a positive and much happier experience to you and ones around you.
Or on the other hand do we have an attitude of entitlement? Has our environment, relentless commercialism and the fast pace of our world given us the false sense of expectation that we are owed?
Lets not take others, our environment or our life for granted. Celebrate (whether out loud or just to yourself) and be grateful, we are truly blessed.

The greatest gift we can give ....

The greatest gift we can give to a person in pain is to hold in our own minds the thought that there is a light beyond this darkness. What goes on externally is only the tip of the iceberg in any situation. The lessons, the real changes, the opportunities to grow--these are things the body's eyes can't see. They remain beneath the spiritual water line, but they are there. And they represent a much more vast picture of the soul's journey than what we can see from the perspective of our physical senses. Growth is not always about getting what we think we want. Always, it's about becoming the men and women we have the potential to be. Loving, pure, honest, clear.

—Excerpted from A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

Different but same!

"The world is to big for us. Too much going on. Too many crimes, and too much violence and excitement. Try as you will you get behind in the race. It's an incessant strain to keep pace and still you lose ground. Science empties its discoveries on you so fast that you stagger beneath them in hopeless bewilderment. Everything is high pressure. Human nature can't endure much more."

Atlantic Journal
16 June 1833

I found this piece to be amazing, it could be an article of today. Through the generations, people have had, do have and will have so many of the same issues. We are not so different at all from past generations when you really think about it, humans all have the same needs and wants to be satisfied.

Commitment versus trying

Last week, I made a conscious decision to commit to some of those things that never seen to get done. All those little things we talk about doing and know they need to be attended to and we will eventually get around to doing. We all know (I hope I’m not the only one here) what that’s like.

So instead of trying to make time, I decided that the time had come to commit and just do it. Time to stop making excuses and start crossing some of these “need to’s” off my list.

I have, with a little help, set up my own skype address just for me! Though quite small in the big picture I know, it is quite a large step for me into the wondrous world of technology!

It is such a good feeling to have this done. It really didn’t take too much time or effort either and that makes me wonder why I kept putting it off?

Commitment versus trying can be a very powerful statement. It can take us out of the void zone and into the glad I’ve done it zone. I really do agree with someone I heard say that the word “Trying” sounds very whinny! Doing is a much more positive action to use.

Do, doing, done – don’t you love it and it feels so good.