I can show you where the greatest advancement of mankind comes under stress and strain, not comfort.
— Don Young
One of my favorite whines has to do with how I look. Yes, I’m getting older and I’m showing my age (where I can’t help it), but that’s not what I’m referring to.
My problem is I’m showing my stress. For all of us who are carrying a little, or a lot, of weight around the middle, there’s good and bad news attached. The good news is that the weight that you’re carrying is less about a lack of discipline or an unwillingness to give up cake/chips/muffins/buttered popcorn, etc. than it is about the amount of stress in your life. The bad news is that if Continue reading » Making Stress Your Friend
Are you one of those got-it-together folks who – unlike Tootles – have their marbles all lined up and ready for play?
Peter Pan: How could you know Tootles?
Thud Butt: He was a Lost Boy.
[Thud Butt takes out a small pouch] These are his marbles. These are his happy thoughts.
[Peter empties out the pouch of marbles into his hand and laughs]
Peter Pan: He really did lose his marbles, didn’t he?
— From the movie Hook
I envy people who seem to have everything all organized and lined up… I myself am often on the verge of losing my marbles – they just keep scattering every which way…
Once upon a time, as I was preparing to go on vacation, I wrote in my journal: Why is it so hard to let go of my everyday life and take a few days off? I was feeling torn in many directions because I wanted to get so much done before I left and I needed to pack but wasn’t sure what to take along…which is why I wrote: Continue reading » On the Verge of Losing My Marbles
Do you ever feel as if your life is just one big struggle? I know I do.
In her book, End the Struggle and Dance with Life
, Susan Jeffers focuses on what it means to have a successful life. She takes issue with how goal oriented we are – often at the expense of the rest of our lives. In great big bold type she declares:
GOALS ARE NOT OUR LIFE. NOW IS OUR LIFE.
In even bigger type she shouts: Continue reading » Struggle Less
Wait… Can you? Will you?
Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
— Tao Te Ching
Do I have the patience to wait until the mud settles? Me?? Not a chance. I’ll be the one stomping and splashing about in my murky, muddy mental puddle.
I guess you’d call me a wader not a waiter. I want, I NEED to move, to take action. Waiting frustrates me. I want to “do” something. Something more. Something else. Something completely different. Something soothing. Something mind-numbing. Something brash. Something bold. Something.
Authors Charlene Belitz and Meg Lundstrom (The Power of Flow
) seem to support my inclination toward action… or so I thought when I was sucked in with one of their techniques for increasing the power of flow: Continue reading » Wait Until the Mud Clears
The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.
— Don Williams, Jr.
In a recent blog post, Terry Hershey, inspirational speaker, humorist and author, wrote, “Someone very wise once said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. This is all heart-warming and reassuring. Until you realize that no one ever tells you anything about the second step.”
Lately that seems very true to me. Often as we are setting out for a new destination, we plan our journey; but like a battle, the plan doesn’t survive the first encounter with reality.
When I first started working in Corporate America, I had two reactions: one – I couldn’t believe that I had actually set a goal and achieved it and; two – I couldn’t understand why I was so depressed.
Sure, I expected that I would graduate from college – after all, I’d graduated from grammar school and high school. College wasn’t that different. What I never really believed would happen is Continue reading » Where To From Here??
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