Archive for July, 2009
Don’t Go Back To Sleep
Posted by: | CommentsMy post today is a poem by Rumi. (Thanks to my coach Steve Chandler for introducing it to me). The words are particularly apt because I’ve realised that this last week, although having moments when I was wide awake, I’ve spent much of the time asleep.
I started to fall back into my old numbing routine – way too much time in front of the computer, no walks by the sea and, horror of horrors, I had a mindless television watching session on Saturday night.
When I examine my week I see that apart from when I was coaching, or otherwise engaged with others, I felt dissatisfied. And I notice that there are 2 things gnawing at me that won’t go away:
1. Exercise – or lack there of! Some of the things I want to do in my life simply can’t be done at my current level of fitness (hike to Everest Base Camp for example) and I could definately do with more energy. So I am now making a commitment to improving my overall fitness. I will return to walking everyday as my place to start.
2. Stepping Out more in Creating my Coaching Practice. I think I am still a bit in hiding, waiting for my blog to build my practice. No doubt it can be done this way but it is a slow strategy and I want to coach more now. I need to fearlessly consider how I can go about creating that. One idea is to run some mini-workshops in the evening . . .
Anyway, here is the poem I mentioned:
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.
Rumi
My commitment to myself today is this: “I will stay awake”!
Schedule Time or Miss Your Life
Posted by: | CommentsAbout a week ago I mentioned returning to the enquiry of “what is it I truly want“? I did take some time to mull that over and this is what I came up with:
1. Time with family
2. Time with friends
3. Adventure
4. Learning
5. Time with inspiring people
6. Spontaneity, the unexpected, synchronicity
7. Fun
I started to schedule some time in my calendar for these things but then the redesign of the blog and my coaching practice took over and I left that particular task uncompleted.
This has just reinforced how essential it is to actually block out time on your calendar for ALL the things that are important to you. It’s just too easy to get caught up in a couple of areas of your life and the other things get missed. Paradoxically, I find this to be especially true when I’m really enjoying something.
So, having decided what it is I want to create, the next step is to decide what time frame I want to place these things within. For example, do I want an adventure once an hour, once a day, twice a week or once a year? Do I want to spend time with inspiring people on a daily basis . . . weekly . . . monthly?
Then having done that block out time in your calendar, both for the event itself and for planning the event, if necessary. So for example, under my travel heading I’ve decided I want to take a major trip of at least 2 weeks, once a year; a trip of at least one week, twice a year and have 4 weekends away per year.
I know I’m going to be returning to the Coaching School in Phoenix in December and I’d like to make that the major trip. So that’s going to take some planning. I’ve blocked out the trip itself on my calendar and one hour a week for 4 weeks to get the trip planned and booked. If I find that those 4 hours are not sufficient I will add more in 4 weeks time.
I went through this process with the other things I want to create more of in my life and made sure to leave plenty of gaps to allow for shifting things around due to the unexpected and to allow for spontaneity.
I plan to briefly revisit this every Monday morning (which is in my calendar, of course) to make adjustments as necessary.
Vanity URLs and Stuff in the Garage
Posted by: | CommentsWell that’s it. I’m doomed. My Facebook vanity URL has gone. Another Gillian Pearce beat me to it.
I’ve never really been that interested in using Facebook but my during a girls night in recently, my daughter asked “What one person would you like to see again, from your past, that you’ve lost contact with”? And that got me thinking about loads of people I’ve lost touch with and wondering what they’re doing now. So I thought it was maybe time to track them down and Facebook seemed as good a place as any to start.
But then I suddenly switched into internet marketing mode (old habits die hard) and I just knew I had to have my vanity URL. Basically, that’s your name at the end of www.facebook.com And, woe is me when I tried to sign up for it, not only do you need to have 100 fans (which I obviously don’t, being new) but it was already taken. So now what am I going to do? The more I stared at the usuper’s page the more essential to my well-being that URL became. Never mind the fact that I don’t even know what to do with a vanity URL anyway. I might need it in the future, dammit!
Which reminds me of all the stuff piled up in my garage that I’m keeping just in case I need it at some future date. And all the stuff saved on my computer just in case. And all the notes I’ve written in all the endless notebooks from seminars I’ve long since forgotten I attended. And all the other physical manifestations of my “just in case” life. And I find myself wondering if there is an inner equivalent. Is all this holding onto stuff merely a reflection of my holding on internally? And, if so, what am I holding onto?
Hmmmm. Need to ponder that a bit. I’ll get back to you . . .
Looking For The Positive
Posted by: | CommentsI didn’t write a blog post yesterday. And, although I’m only just starting out and have only a few readers, someone noticed!
Now I’d like to think I could say “I didn’t write a blog post yesterday. So . . . shoot me”. But actually I’m experiencing a whole range of emotions from panic (that I’ll never write again) but hang on a minute I’m writing so, “phew”, I’ve got that one covered. To, fear that I’ve got nothing interesting to say and even if I had, someone else has said it better.
Then there’re the voices in my head that run along the lines “you never stick at anything”, “nobody wants to read this stuff anyway”, “who do you think you are”, blah, blah, blah. But if there’s one thing in life I’ve learnt it’s that beating yourself up is a complete waste of energy and serves no purpose other than to make you feel like **** and keep you small.
So, let’s look for the positive in this:
I didn’t write a blog post yesterday and someone noticed. Hoorah, hoorah. Someone’s out there reading and cares enough to tell me they missed my post. That’s brilliant since this is so new.
I get to adjust my strategy a bit. I was advised before I started, to have 30 posts in reserve for days when I couldn’t write, but I thought – “nah, don’t need that”. Hmmmm. Maybe I could do with a few.
Adjusting my strategy makes the whole process more interesting. It demonstrates I’m learning which is one of the key things I want more of in my life.
And I’m having fun writing this – another thing I want more of in my life.
So, who’d have thunk it! I didn’t write a blog post yesterday and I’m celebrating.
Ain’t life grand?!!!!
Best YouTube Video Ever
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve committed to writing in this blog every week day but I’ve had a full on day today and can’t come up with anything very inspiring. So rather than force something I decided to post my favourite YouTube video of all time. If you haven’t seen it you’re in for a treat. I love it, love it, love it and I’m not alone. It’s been viewed 46,442,325 times.
This never fails to bring tears to my eyes and take me directly to a place of remembering what’s really important in life.
Free Hugs Campaign – Official Page (music by Sick Puppies.net)
“Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whose sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives. “
Read the full story of how the video came about at http://freehugscampaign.org/
Thank you Juan Mann for touching our world.
