YOUR LIFE A-Z:WHEN

WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO BE YOU?

WHEN

When is an important word because WHEN allows us to put a start and stop time on any project.  Without the word WHEN added to any project, idea, or dream usually nothing happens.  WHEN are you going to change?  WHEN are you going to eat healthy? WHEN are you going to save money?  WHEN are you going to make new friends or get out of your rut?  Are these questions making your feel guilty or are they motivating you?  WHEN can be a motivating word that gets you up off of the couch and out into the life you want to live.  Stop being so afraid of new experiences and procrastinating.  WHEN are you going to stop being bossed around by your fear?  WHEN are you going to take charge of the changes you want to make in your life and make those changes?  There is not better time than right now to get started.  You are reading this blog for a reason.  Get up and do something active about your goal or dream right now, even if it is making a post-it note and placing it on the door you go out of every morning.  Let the post-it note read,  “Do one thing to reach your goal today.”  Maybe you need a post-it note on your door to remind you of what your goals are and be sure to place a due date on each of them.  The word WHEN is an important tool for success.

YOUR LIFE A-Z: ORGANIZE

ORGANIZE AND PLAN AHEAD TO ENJOY THE BEAUTY

ORGANIZE

I don’t know how this important O word did not show up until now.  However, when it comes to Neat, List, and Next, it seems like synchronicity is bringing it around at just the right time moment. ORGANIZE your life.  ORGANIZE every part of it and use your important List and Next to help you.  It is a well-researched fact that the more ORGANIZED our life, home, finances, plans, and activities are the happier and less stressed we tend to be.  Don’t worry about getting obsessive.  That is just an excuse to keep you from being your best self. 
ORGANIZE one drawer today and notice how it makes you feel.  Make a List of what else needs to be ORGANIZED in your home.  Next, ORGANIZE your finances.  Create and stick to a budget.  A healthy budget takes three months to create.  It takes a month to List every expense.  The next month you ORGANIZE priorities on that List and do your budget cuts.  On the third month you have a budget to live by for the next six months and then ORGANIZE it again.  ORGANIZE the places in your life that are creating chaos.  Use your List to ORGANIZE and prioritize your time so that you can make the most out of your day.  Remember you are the CEO of your life and you have the power to fix what is not working and add what you would like to the management of daily life.  ORGANIZE it in ways that make sense and that are useful to you. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z: NEXT

Life is Waiting for You.  What is NEXT?

NEXT

If you are like me you have a list of things that need to be done.  That list can keep us busy twenty- four hours a day.  However, that list is not really NEXT in our life.  NEXT is a very important word.  On April 24 1996, the Women’s National Basketball Association was born with the words, WE GOT NEXT.  Those words echoed for the first few years as the WNBA took to the court to prove that women were a valuable denominator in team sports.  NEXT meant we are here now.  We have business to do and we are doing it.  What is NEXT in your life? NEXT is not doing the dishes.  NEXT is that important step of action that allows your life to open a new door of self-discovery.  What is it that you have wanted to do that is really important to you?  What keeps you putting it off?  What is the NEXT step that you need to do now in order to breathe life into your NEXT?  Has there been a class you have put off?  Or perhaps there is an entire college degree that you have yet to achieve.  Life changes in a moment’s notice, but nothing happens without forward action.  You have heard the saying; you don’t drive forward by looking in the rearview mirror that is true too about the quality of your daily life.  NEXT is a process of many small steps toward a goal.  It is showing up and establishing yourself as a person worthy of voice and presence in the world you live in.  

YOUR LIFE A-Z: BOOST

You Might Feel Small but Just a Small Boost Can Go A Long Way!

BOOST

To BOOST something means to raise, promote, increase, lift and heave.  These are all action-orientated words.  To get what we want might mean we need a BOOST.  I require a BOOST of energy around two in the afternoon during the summertime.  So a jolt of caffeine through coffee or tea is often just the fix to keep me going the next four hours.  When I am down about my projects or work a cheerful call to a colleague will BOOST my morale.  BOOSTING often requires Asking for what you need.  The next time you go to a juice bar notice that you can add BOOSTERS to your drink of choice.  To BOOST ourselves over our humps and hurdles is a necessary action to keep us motivated and moving forward in our life.  Without a BOOST it is easy to become idle, stagnant and stuck.  Where do you need a BOOST today?  Are you stuck in a place where your goal, dream, or desire feels meaningless and futile?  If that is the case then a BOOST is absolutely necessary.  How are you going to get it?  Do you need to go to the gym or for a walk to change out your energy?  Do you need to call a friend for coffee?  Do you need to download or go to the bookstore and look for an inspirational book to help you over this hump?  Perhaps you need a nap to BOOST your energy.  Whatever it is, give yourself permission to BOOST your morale. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z: ASK

AN INVITATION TO ASK AWAITS YOU

ASK

To ASK for what you want and for what you need is often very uncomfortable.  Somewhere along our life’s journey many of us heard critical statements like “You always want to much? “  “Don’t ask for anything that is not offered to you?” “How selfish!”  Janet Conner in her book, The Lotus and the Lily, offers a freeing perspective on this three-letter word, ASK.  Conner does not say it exactly like this but she implies that to not ASK for what you want and need is a position of arrogance and isolation.  The mentality that you can do it all by yourself and alone is a mentality of arrogance and self-absorption.  To ASK implies interdependence and a state of vulnerability.  Being vulnerable is scary and requires a certain amount of inner strength to allow someone else to see that you have a need.  To ASK is to risk being told “no.”  The question must be running around in your head, “ASK whom?”  Start with the people in your life?  Who do you need something from?  ASK for it?  How about work?  What do you need to be different there for you to be at your best? ASK for it?  ASKING is not a passive energy.  To ASK for something is present energy.  To ASK means you have defined what you need and how your life will be better, bigger, and more effective if you receive what you are ASKING for.  Regardless of your spiritual proclivity, ASK the universe, God, nature, or the divine Other and watch it come into being over the next while.  Be brave - ASK.   

YOUR LIFE A-Z:INTENTION

INTENTION

RITUALS HELP US FOCUS ON OUR INTENTIONSINTENTION

Intention is a word used often, especially after the book and movie, The Secret.  Intention is a powerful word but it is a word that also requires your buy-in. You have to really want it.  You have to be hungry for it, maybe even starving for it.  

Basketball is a game but the winners are those who want it more than the other team.  One game loss becomes a platform to get better, not a place to give up because you lost a game.  Intention requires energy, action, focus, and developing a taste for success.  It requires practice everyday at your intention.  It requires more than a vision board.  It requires action.  Meditation, visualization, imagery are all actions that bring our intentions to home plate.  Often meditation or prayer feels as if we are doing nothing, but in each of those actions we must invest our heart.  

Prayer is about relationship with “OTHER” and meditation is an action in “BEING.”  They go hand in hand for me.  Showing up to have tea with the Divine is a way of buying in to our INTENTION.  Showing up nurtures, feeds, enhances, tweaks, and sheds light on what our part needs for INTENTION to materialize.  Our INTENTION becomes real by us giving it legs, arms, lungs, and heart.  Our INTENTION takes us to where we want to go often effortlessly; as if it grows wings and flies into our life.  Breathe life into your INTENTION and dance with it.