Sunday, June 29, 2008

Vegas, Baby!

Ron and I went to Vegas this week. By the end of the weekend, he had gotten an advanced kettlebell / fitness certification, and I had lost $60 on the roulette table. Not without winning first, of course. We both learned some things in the process.

I started out on the nickel blackjack machine. Doubled my ten bucks and was feeling dangerous. So I moved to roulette. Won a lot. Got risky. Won some more. Risked some more. Lost some. Got desperate. Lost a lot. I won't make a long boring story into a short boring story, but I learned some lessons by standing there watching that darn wheel.

Picking up momentum by getting excited about possibilities is a good thing. It keeps you in the game, keeps you hopeful, and makes you able to step outside of what's comfortable and take some risks. Like life, isn't it? Things going your way. Feeling good. Making choices that you might not if you lived in fear. And it pays off. Energy. Excitement. And the willingness to play.

Until the momentum dies, and the desperation and ennui sit in. Complacency Arrives. At one point, I didn't even CARE if I won. I was done playing, but I just couldn't leave. Or I thought I couldn't. I should have. I should have picked up while things were good and used that energy to do some other things. Are you getting the analogy?

Moving ahead while things are going well is easy; it's when it's not easy any more that we have to face who we are and see what we've got. Sometimes it's good to stay and risk. Sometimes it's better to leave the table when you're up and look for other opportunities before the hope leaves and you start getting cynical.

So recognize when you're up and carefully evaluate if you're using your resources in the right place by staying. Or maybe it's time to take your chips and put them elsewhere. And only risk what you can lose.

Friday, May 02, 2008

You Always Get It Back

I'm returning from a week-long Conference in Phoenix where I was assisting at a Life Coach Training Foundations Course for the Adler School of Professional Coaching. It was a Foundations Course for coaches from all over the world. (Hello to Mary, Murray from New Zealand, and Margie from the East Coast!)

Anyway - it was a phenomenal week, and the most amazing thing is I learn new things every time I revisit old topics, trainings and opportunities. In fact - sometimes it's as if the material is brand new.

This time, I learned throughout the week (and some personal coaching) that I might have a purpose, and that identifying a "purpose" in ones' life can be a real pain in the UNOWUT if you're not ready to accept responsibility for what comes with identifying it.

Sometimes it's just a gift we get, a passion we have, a talent, a desire, or the way the stars align. Sometimes we have to work for it and name it; sometimes we wish for something to be our purpose; and sometimes we just wonder what it is. And all of that is okay. We don't always have to identify what it is or even know that we have one. And you know what else? Purpose can change along the way, so once you find it, don't hang on too tight.

Fr me, it's a nagging item on my "to put on the to do" list. Although I've made a lot of great changes and accomplished a lot of things I've wanted to, there are some nagging un-done things are still lingering and haunting me. And they're the same ones they've been for a while. They're the ones that haven't even made it from the "to do" list to the "being done" list.

So what is my block? Why do I think of a million things to do to stay busy, but still have such a hard time settling in and accepting that I have a purpose that I'm neglecting? Why do any of us procrastinate, make busy-work and ignore our gifts? Why do we react instead of create? It's not that hard to figure out, really. What I want to do and need to do to is going to be hard! And I might suck at it, and I'm going to do it anyway. Like it or not. Because I have to. And then I'm going to try really hard not be attached to the outcome and just LET.....IT.....GO!!!

Friday, January 04, 2008

Happy New You!

I started off the New Year with a little cold. Nothing unusual - just the typical sniffles, cough and sore throat. But what it's allowed me to do is spend some time alone, thinking about what 2008 holds, and what I can make of it.

With each new year, I find a kind of anxiety in the air. Yes, anxiety more than excitement in most people. I think this stems from the fear that all the hopes and dreams we have for the new year just might not occur in reality, and so the disappointment starts before the new year gets off to a good start. Missed opportunities, failed attempts, and wasted time are everyone's fear. So why set yourself up

No resolutions for me. A resolution is a promise. And why promise something that might not get delivered? I prefer, instead, to think about the opportunities I can TAKE during the next quarter. A year is hard to manage; but a quarter - 3 months? I can do that! And I try to never set goals that involve quitting something, or taking something away. Sometimes even just changing the language makes the goal more palatable.

So I set my sights on things like Doing, Making, Creating, Writing, etc, using terms that are positive, action-oriented, and get me revved up!

So I won't be quitting anything this year; or maybe I will but will focus on what I'm gaining. And I'll do a lot more of the things I like doing, am good at, or just plain have fun doing.