#life

Never Trust a Rudderless Ship to Take you to Your Heart’s Desire

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Destiny is manifested by one’s true purpose, thoughts and actions — not by doing what other believe you should do; what you’ve been taught, or through following someone else’s dreams. Are you living the life that was assigned to you or living a life you have chosen? For many of us, choosing our work, usually by working for someone else has never been a true choice. It is through circumstances or the beliefs and/or personnel fears of others (family, friends, or lack of self-awareness) influenced our choices, thereby placing us into our professions. A sort of benign ignorance of what we really want – work that is attuned to our inner desires that provides inspiration and fulfillment.

“There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny” (Pressfield, 2002, The War of Art, Kindle Version). As I’ve said before, I am a fan of Stephen Pressfield’s book, “The Art of War” as it clearly describes self-sabotage and how to fight against it. Whatever is keeping you from your life’s purpose needs to be identified and understood. It is only by knowing your enemy that you can defeat it. Procrastination, the subtle sabotage by family and friends, sex, alcohol, fear and other diversions that keep you from your life’s purpose are all forms of self-sabotage or as Pressfield labels it – resistance.

For those that have discovered that the daily pursuit of a business goal is more than just a vehicle of making a living, it is part of the self-realization, that spark of inspiration, that we can — with all our being — take control for our lives and responsibility for how we intend to live it. This is the sometimes underlying, sometimes overt overarching theme by which we try to live each minute of every day…when either with the weight of a hammer or the subtleness of a whisper, resistance takes us from our chosen path. The thing is, once you’ve awaken to the possibility of living your life based on your self-chosen path, you cannot help but return to it. There is no other choice.

We have to be constantly vigilant of when we move away from our path either willingly or from benign neglect. Our very lives depend upon it. To seek out like-minded people can help you keep moving forward whether your work is launching a business, writing a book, or getting healthy. Reading book’s such as Stephen Pressfield’s War of Art, listening to Podcasts, and other content can help keep you focused as long as keep working on your goals each and every day. For those who feel they must know every detail and learn as much as they can before they pursue their destiny – you, my friends, are rolling in self-sabotage. The time to take action is now for we cannot afford to waste time. Too much of our lives have been wasted out of loving ignorance. So let there be an urgency in starting our work; then, once you have started, slow down and methodically do your work each and every day. As long as you are on your path, the sense of urgency is no longer needed – just keep walking.

With Love and Respect,

Gary

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Thanks and Gratitude (or Learning how to be Joyful)

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Greetings All –

I’m visiting my family for Thanksgiving this week.  As I am already feeling grateful for being able to travel this Thanksgiving to visit with my family, the holiday is providing another opportunity to reflect on thankfulness in general.

There comes a time in life, if we are lucky, through personal experience, growth, and wisdom we come to realize we are responsible for every element of our lives.  As such, blame is no longer a welcome companion.  We do not blame others for the state of our lives, and interesting enough, we do not blame ourselves — we simply take responsibility for our lives and are thankful.   It doesn’t matter if we prescribe to a religious philosophy or not, the simple act of accepting responsibility and being grateful adds such substantial depth to life that it can be described as being almost magically transformative.  The freedom and joy that can be experienced from this act is tantamount to love — love of self and others.

Accepting responsibility also means giving credit to those who have shaped us into the person we are today … regardless of how the actions of others may have shaped us or propagated our personal growth.

So how does this work?  Responsibility give us freedom. When we accept responsibility, we suddenly have the power to change our lives.  We no longer need permission or approval from anyone to direct our lives into the direction that best serves us.  It doe not matter what anyone else believes what it is to be a father, mother, brother, sister, man, woman, business person, lover, success, failure, good, bad or any other preconceived notion. We are good enough the way we are and moving forward to the person we are to become…whatever that may be.

Our thoughts and actions start to align and our thinking starts to see possibilities rather than limitations.  When responsibility is combined with gratefulness — peace, love and joy enter into our lives and we are no longer prisoners of the blame game or our a painful past.  We can forgive and move forward.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  I am grateful to you all!

Here’s to taking action and being grateful each and everyday.

With Love and Respect,

Gary

P.S.

I’ve discovered this little app that I think is wonderful; it helps keep me on track for several small personal daily goals; one of which is to be thankful.  http://balancedapp.com/  FYI:  I do not have a relationship with this company nor receive any sort of compensation from them. I simply like the app.

First Things First

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Hi All –

As is usual for all of us, finding a balance between self, family, and my pursuits has been a struggle.  The realization I’ve made is that the balance between choices that provide depth and meaning to my life and necessary daily tasks is more like a seesaw than a balanced scale.  Depending on the hour or week or month, I tend to pay more attention to one aspect of my life than the other…and it’s ok.

I believe that intuitively (when our lives are focused on our self actualization), we will place our attention where it needs to be — self, family, work.  It doesn’t need to be an equal balance; we make choices on what is important and those weighted factors tip the seesaw one way or the other…and sways from one area to the other in constant realignment.

What should drive everything we do is our focus on what brings us the most satisfaction, joy, and peace regardless of where we tend to be focusing our attention on at the moment.  If we are not feeling satisfied, joyful or peaceful, then it doesn’t matter what we are focusing and spending time on.

So as we pursue our business interests there may be times when we are distracted or believe we are not in balance with ourselves or our friends and family, but this is not an excuse not to push forward as soon as you can.  My mantra remains:  “Take Action Every Day!”

The other thing to keep in mind is that we will not do everything we want to do. Period.  We simply need to focus on those things which ultimately brings us satisfaction, joy, and peace in our work and private lives.  Because at the end of the day,  it’s all part of the same thing.

With Love and Respect,

Gary