YOUR LIFE A-Z:ZEALOUS

FOCUS ON YOUR GOAL

ZEALOUS

What are you ZEALOUS about?  What makes you care?  What gets your adrenalin going and get up off the couch to make a difference?  I am a child of the sixties and everything mattered, the Vietnam War, racism, personal freedoms and those causes rocked the world as we knew it.  Then I noticed that in the nineties when I was teaching that it seemed to me that no one cared.  During our first war with Iraq, not one college protest made the news.  During our second war of “Shock and Awe,” young people didn’t seem to notice that for the first time in our history, we invaded another country.  But finally, a change seems to be brewing.  Alicia Keys, the thirty-three year old singer is showing a ZEALOUS spirit with her knew song, “We Are Here” Her ZEALOUS spirit is raising a voice of compassion, connection and caring.  Her ZEALOUS energy is taking political action and beginning a grass roots movement to make a difference. Let’s face it, Maya Angelou is gone and most of the activists from the sixties are dead.  It is time for a new ZEALOUS energy to take over and bring America back and make it even greater than it ever has been.  Moving the mountains of apathy and greed is going to take thousands of ZEALOTS with ZEALOUS energy that will not be stopped until change is accomplished at the very basic heart and soul of humanity in this country.  Give yourself permission to be ZEALOUS today and join a cause, any cause, with all of your heart. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z: CERTAINITY

BE PREPARED AND FLEXIBLE

CERTAINTY

CERTAINTY is an illusion.  CERTAINTY can be changed in a moment’s notice.  Many people do not believe in the Divine or God because there is no CERTAINTY in that.  Guess what, there is no CERTAINTY that you will wake up tomorrow morning either.  It is important to make educated and calculated decisions in your life but do not let yourself drop into a dark space if those decisions do not pay off just like you thought they would.  You are responsible to investigate, research and educate yourself about the decisions you are moving toward but you cannot know the future.  Do the best you can and always do your home -work.  CERTAINTY is illusive and not something that one can count on.  Can you name the things in your life that you think are CERTAIN?  Go ahead and list those CERTAINTIES.  Then think about those CERTAINTIES by asking yourself, what is plan B?  Plan B is a necessary insurance policy about the CERTAINTY that you think that exists.  CERTAINTY is easy to default to, especially if one does his/her homework. CERTAINTY cannot be counted on.  CERTAINTY is a helpful target and the target needs to be as stable and planned as possible.  CERTAINTY is also helpful when making important choices in your life. Choosing the right college, the right health plan, the right retirement plan, and making those choices viable in your life are very important.  CERTAINTY often needs to be reduced to the question, “If I choose this, what is the worse that can happen? 

YOUR LIFE A-Z: UBUNTU

ALL FOR ONE-ONE FOR ALL

UBUNTU

Sometime ago there was a post on FB of children sitting in a circle and creating a another circle by touching their feet together with outstretched legs.  The story was about UBUNTU.  UBUNTU is an African word that means human kindness in a very progressive sense.  These children were told that candy was beneath a tree and the child who got there first won all of the candy.  Instead of running off to the candy, the children reached for each other and ran together holding hands for the candy.  They explained to the reporter that it is not kind for one to be happy and the rest to be sad.  UBUNTU is a word that has woven itself deep within the African culture inclusive of its socialistic politics.  This deep equality of UBUNTU brings people together on the same playground and motivates them to work together for the good of the whole.   How do you practice UBUNTU in your society and community, even if some are strangers or they look and act differently than you?  Desmond Tutu writes in 1999, “A person with UBUNTU is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated, or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.” The stranger next door is your brother or your sister so practice UBUNTU toward him or her.  Let UBUNTU exude from your heart everyday.

YOUR LIFE A-Z:INSPIRE

LISTEN TO ALL THAT IS AROUND YOU

INSPIRE

Now allow the science discovery of yesterday, to INSPIRE you today.  If you are connected to everyone else and you begin to act like each action you take really matters, then be INSPIRED to make a difference today.  INSPIRATION is the energy that motivates change and creativity.  Perhaps, you have been one of those wallflowers sitting in the back row waiting for someone else to do something good for the world. Well, what about you?  Get up out of the shadows and go make a difference today.  Yes. Right now.  Be INSPIRED and INSPIRE others.  Allow yourself to feel good down to the bones of your soul by getting out of your rut and help someone else today.  Go back through the TWENTY-MINUTE COACH’s blog and re-read blogs like pay it forward, compassion, action, and other words that INSPIRE you to take action for the good of others today.  Turn on some music and move toward the INSPIRATION within.  Open your eyes and see the needs of others around you and be INSPIRED to meet those needs.  Get out of your backyard of misery and give to someone else.  That action will INSPIRE you to keep moving forward in your life, because you begin to realize you matter.  Why do people sing in choirs?  I believe people sing in choirs because it makes him/her feel good.  Those feel good feelings radiate out of those voices to the listening public.  Both choir and audience are INSPIRED by what they hear.  Do something with that INSPIRED feel good feeling today.

YOUR LIFE A-Z:XENODOCY

GIFTS OF HOSPITALITY AND COMPASSION

XENODOCHY

As the Twenty Minute Coach has said, “X” words are complicated and practical ones are hard to find, but XENODOCHY is a very useful word for each of us to practice. XENODOCHY means hospitality.   It is easy to forget that we are a community on this planet and that we need each other.  Little things like offering a homeless person a bottle of water are an act of XENODOCHY.    A hand gesture inviting someone to take our seat or letting someone go in front of us at the check out line are also acts of XENODOCY.   Practicing XENODOCY on a daily basis is an important value to cultivate in our daily life.   Most of us have been on the other end and needed and act of XENODOCY and remember how awful it felt to be overlooked or not invited to participate in an important event.  Those hurt feelings were very painful at the time.  It does hurt when others do not practice XENODOCY.  Thus think ahead and ask, “What will our guests need while staying with us?”  Be observant to the needs of others around you and ask yourself, “What act of XENOCOCHY can I practice right now?”    Acts of XENODOCHY are important to practice in order to make our world a kinder more positive place to live. We can walk around in a selfish stupor or we can get outside of our individual narcissism and think about what others need and make our world a better place to live.  Be a person of XENODOCY