YOUR LIFE A-Z:REFINE

DARE TO DREAM

REFINE

Yes, it is time to REFINE your goals.  To REFINE something means to upgrade its quality and make it better.  To REFINE something also means to get the impurities out.  Since you have been working with this TWENTY-MINUTE Coach program for this past year, you have spent valuable time and energy, writing, planning and REFINING your life.  There is no time like “NOW” to explore what has been working for you and what you want to REFINE to make exquisite in your life.  Everything can need REFINING, but to really REFINE something requires focused attention, energy and concerted effort.  Thus only choose one area of your life and decide to spend your energy REFINING that one area until it becomes exquisite to you.  For instance, if you are working on your health, what do you need to REFINE it, to take your health choices to the next level?  What do you need to start or stop that would enable to REFINE your health.  Getting the impurities out of your body is an ongoing task and taking the time to REFINE your health is a worthy investment.  Upgrade the quality of your life through the are to REFINING that which you want to be better and begin the steps to make it better now.  Don’t allow yourself to settle for second best or the ordinary, REFINE it until you make it exquisite.  By choosing only one area you will not overwhelm yourself.  Upgrading the quality of your decisions will REFINE your whole being.

YOUR LIFE A-Z:XANDU

XANADU

XANADU is a place of great beauty. XANADU is the name of Kublai Khan’s summer home in South East Mongolia.  Where is your XANADU?  In many of the previous blogs, the Twenty-Minute Coach has spoken about the need to have a special place in your home that makes you want to be in that space.  XANADU is a perfect name for that space.  XANADU goes beyond ordinary beauty and speaks of luxury.  Part of this A-Z process is to provide you with motivation to take care of yourself in very positive and enriching ways. The last “E” word was exquisite.  XANADU speaks to the luxury of EXQUISITE and is a definitive space and place.  Create your XANADU place.  Perhaps, you don’t even know how to start decorating a place of XANADU in your home and maybe you feel too overwhelmed to start.  First, make a decision you deserve XANADU.  Second, choose a space in your home (or outside garden area) that you want to transform.  Once you decide where XANADU will be created then ask, “What do I really want in that space?”  Do I want a comfy chair, where I can read and meditate?”  How about lighting?   Proper light is necessary to lift your spirit.  What colors do you want in your space?  And what art-work do you want on the walls?  Next take a look at Pin Interest, decorating magazines or websites.  Pull some pictures together that represent XANADU to you and sit with them for a couple of weeks while your ideas begin to take XANADU form.  Enjoy.

YOUR LIFE A-Z:EXQUISITE

EXQUISITE SUNSET

EXQUISITE

EXQUISITE is a word that defines something beautiful beyond the ordinary.  To have EXQUISITE taste speaks to your ability to discern what is quality and refined over ordinary and normal.  I dropped by a cancer treatment center recently and found the grounds, the water feature, the art and the ambiance to be EXQUISITE.  This setting took one out of the ordinary treatment center of all the same reception room chairs, terrible TV, ugly paint, and old magazines to a whole new level of EXQUISITE.   Everything about this place spoke to an ambiance of care, nurture, and hope.  Given this example, I invite you to take a walk through your home and choose a room or a space in a room and give yourself permission to make this space EXQUISITE.   Make this ordinary or perhaps even dingy space into one that transforms the energy into an EXQUISITE space of nurturance and hope.  Make it into a space that dazzles your senses, allows you to take a deep breath and smile when you walk into the space, by choosing paint, light, art, and design that makes this space into a space you want to be in.  If this is too much of a project for you, then take a trip through a wonderful recipe book and prepare an EXQUISITE dinner that is served with all of the ambiance of color, light, and EXQUISITE table settings.  You deserve to brighten your surroundings from the ordinary to the EXQUISITE.  Guaranteed to boost your mood. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z: KALON

The Leaf and the Bloom are Just as Beautiful as the Flower

KALON

KALON is a word that means more beautiful than skin deep and exquisite beyond the naked eye.  Ancient Greeks referred to it as the highest beauty!  Robert Mondavi, renowned wine maker, started one of the world’s earliest vineyards, KALON VINEYARD in KALON Valley, which is rich in fertile soil and perfect grape growing climates.  Do you see beyond your skin into your heart and do you nourish the goodness that already lies within you?  KALON the beauty beyond your eye is what you are looking for.  Our bodies are all flawed in one-way or the other.  Even Barbra Streisand hates her nose and will only let photos be taken from a certain side of her face.  If Barbra Streisand were to get a “nose job” it would affect her perfect voice in negative ways, so she learns to live with it.  So can you.  What part of your life are you destroying by focusing on the imperfections or the ugly?  Have you considered if your soil is fertile like Robert Mondavi? It is your choice where you choose to focus and you must ask yourself the real question, “What am I getting out of focusing on the negative parts of me?  Is my soil the best it can be?” There are many positive parts.  Who did you connect with today? Did I their day a bit easier or sunnier?  What do you do for others that often go unnoticed but you feel good about reaching out?  What are the things you do like about your KALON?  See your KALON TODAY.