Precision Of Purpose
Everything we do is connected to everything we do. Everything we do connects us to whom and what we become. Many of our life’s activities while seemingly routine are not. From the most seemingly mundane to the most obviously lofty, when all is done with purpose, it will lead you to your goal.
The athlete in a competition takes nothing for granted. Every step, tennis swing, pedal stroke is executed with the precision of purpose. In training everything an athlete does is done for growth and improvement. If you are not growing, you are getting smaller.
Everything and anything you do or say, should only be said or done if it elevates yourself and potentially those around you. If it doesn’t elevate, why do it? Develop a pause button that allows you a moment to ask yourself if the next words or actions are elevators or not. That pause moment may seem like a long time at first but with repetition and practice it will become instinctual.
The ultimate goal is to discover your full potential as the human you were uniquely created to become. To do this you infuse everything you do with the precision of purpose. The purpose of climbing your mountain purposefully!
“Excellence is a habit.” – Aristotle
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” – Michelangelo
“Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.” – George Halas
“Whatever you do, pour yourself into it.” – Robert Mondavi
Heart and Soul
“I’d Rather Be Here Now”
The title of this post was the words that I once saw on a license plate frame.
This sentiment and attitude is the one we should all and always have. You will find joy wherever you are with this mindset. This sentiment is in direct opposition to the one of “I’d rather be ……..now”, as in somewhere else and doing something else. Consider this thought not only from where you are at a specific moment, such as being stuck in traffic, but rather your current overall situation.
You may not want to be where you are right now, but this is where you need and are needed to be for now. Your life as your coach has determined that you need to be where you are for now. You are where you are so that you can learn something to prepare and strengthen you for the rest of your unique journey. Or, you are needed where you are, to aid someone else who needs to be where they are. Or Both.
“Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for G-d knows best what is good for us.” – Socrates
You can plan on changing where you are (sing along, “We gotta get out of this place” The Animals) but while you are where you are, enjoy it by making yourself open to the lessons and by adding value. By adding value wherever you are, you fulfill a purpose, your purpose, and prepare yourself for your next stop. You add value by being charitable and kind to everyone you meet where you are. Would you go to a party empty-handed? So, in the party of life, always bring something of value. Make people glad that you are there for what you bring and add to the party.
“Happiness is a way of travel, not a destination”. – Roy Goodman
“Being where you are is the best way to get wherever you are going.” — Noah benShea
“We must live in the present but not for it.” — Rabbi Shraga Silverstein
“The manner in which one endures what must be endured is more important than the thing that must be endured.” – Dean Acheson
Heart and Soul
An Oldie But Goodie revised from the original posted 6/9/11
Do This Everyday – At Least Once A Day
Feeling depressed, anxious, angry, lonely, low energy, and more? Well now there is and there always has been a prescription to cure all of that. It is called smiling and laughing. Smiling and laughing are the best medicines to keep you going. It begins with and/or creates a positive attitude. It also creates a healthy physiological response. An additional benefit, is that when you smile and laugh, you make others smile and laugh. Side effects may include: more friends, reversal of frown wrinkles, a busier social calendar, a need to get your teeth whitened, a need to buy more clothes…….
Smiling and laughing is and includes the ability to laugh at yourself and the circumstances you are in, self-imposed or otherwise. Whenever you are feeling any of the symptoms described above, try the following:
1)laugh at something about yourself
2)watch or listen to a comedy or comedian
3) say cheese
Much has been discussed and written about the Jewish sense of humor. It is often noted that there have been so many Jewish comedians over the years, long before Jerry Seinfeld. People always wonder how is it that after thousands of years of persecution, expulsions, pogroms, the Holocaust, etc., that Jews can still laugh and be funny. The Jewish sense of humor is both self and situational deprecating. The ability to laugh is both a survival mechanism and less discussed, it is a testament to our faith that teaches us to have faith that things will get better. Smile and it will.
“Laughter prevents hardening of the attitudes.” – Dunc Muncy
“Smile – it’s the second best thing you can do with your lips.” – Don Ward
“It takes 17 muscles to smile, and 47 muscles to frown. Conserve energy.” – unknown
“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.” – Phyliss Diller
“As long as you can laugh at yourself you will never cease to be amused.” – Unknown
“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” – Yakov Smirnoff
“If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it.” – Andy Rooney
Watch this video and Smile
Heart and Soul
“Tomorrow, Tomorrow….
It has been said that which we find the most difficult to do or overcome is just why we are here. As we move closer to realizing our dreams and goals there is always something that remains undone. That little thing, which we make big by putting it off, keeps us from the finish line. Sing along, “Tomorrow, Tomorrow I’ll do it tomorrow. Today is not just a day to waste”, not from “Annie”.
“I was planning to procrastinate, but I never got around to it” – Unknown
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” – William Penn
“On the other hand” said Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof”
“Always put off til tomorrow what you shouldn’t do at all”. — Morris Mandel
Heart and Soul
updated from the original post sent 6/6/11
No Time-Outs
The most important moment of all is Right Now! That being said, we know that every moment is precious and counts. Every precious moment counts and goes by whether you choose to participate or not.
An athlete competes and is alive during a competition. Then there is training and preparing. In between training and competing, there are time-outs. There are also time-outs during the competition.
In life there are no time-outs. The proverbial exceptions to this rule are sleep (although a case can be made that sleep is part of preparing) and an appropriate mourning period.
There are moments when we might wish for a time-out. If we were to take one, then we are not fully alive during those lost moments. How often have you said, or heard someone say, “I’m in a place in my life” or “I need to work on myself”? That’s asking for a time-out in a game where there are none. It’s like walking off the field in the middle of the game and watching the game go on from the sidelines.
This mindset is often the result of a tragic event and/or an epiphany that wrong choices have consistently been made producing negative results. This is a natural and understandable emotional response. To not allow this emotional response to control you, remember that everything happens for a reason. Therefore, everyone you come into contact with today and tomorrow is for a reason. That person may need something from you, or need to give you something you need. That can’t happen if you are not on the field and you have taken yourself out of the game. If you temporarily take yourself out of the game, then you are at best delaying the discovery of your purpose and fulfilling your potential for the benefit of one or all.
If your reason for “working on yourself” is so that you may be the person you were created and wish to be, then you can’t be a spectator of life. You need to be “working on yourself” in and during the game. The rest of us need you to play to your potential. If not we all lose.
A woman was considering taking a sabbatical from her teaching profession to travel and look for the meaning of life. She went to see her spiritual leader, a man known as The Rebbe, for advice. This is what he said to her,
“When you find the meaning of life, will you have enough time left to live a meaningful life? Better to live a meaningful life and find meaning along the way”. – Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson
“You may delay, but time will not.” – Benjamin Franklin
“The day will happen whether or not you get up.” – John Ciardi
“We cannot put off living until we are ready.” – Jose Ortega y Gasset
For those who take themselves out of the game of love, consider that a person presented to you may be the one and…
“If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.” – Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine in Casablanca
Heart and Soul
updated from the original sent 1/17/12
The Most Important Moment
If your life has purpose and meaning (and it does) then every new moment given to you has meaning. Everything you see and hear in that new moment is presented to you with and for a purpose. Everyone you meet in that new moment is presented to you with and for a purpose. The gift of that new moment is given to you so you may find and express your purpose and meaning.
Each new moment is like a new beginning. Each new moment is another chance to accomplish all that you wish to and are meant to. Therefore, every moment is precious and that makes it exciting. When you recognize how precious every moment is, you will approach every moment with gratitude and excitement.
When Michelangelo was an old man, he was asked “What do you consider your greatest creation?” He answered “The next one.”
So ask yourself these three questions* listed below with suggested answers
Q. What is the most important thing you will ever do?
A. Whatever I am doing RIGHT NOW!
“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.” – Proverb
Q. Who is the most important person in your life?
A. The person before me RIGHT NOW!
” We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.” – Lucretius
Q. What is the most important moment in your life?
A. RIGHT NOW!
“Not a single moment in a person’s life is extra. Each person is given a particular number of days to accomplish their dreams.” – Unknown
So RIGHT NOW
What is the most important moment in your life?
GOOD!
Heart and Soul
*Adapted from “The Three Questions” by Leo Tolstoy
Happy Day Of Independence
On the 4th of July in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed. It said,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.
This was a novel experiment in building a nation based on individual rights and freedom. We were all created with free will. America was created acknowledging and respecting that gift of freedom from our Creator. This is a blessing to cherish and use for the good. Without these rights and freedom we could not pursue our dreams, our individual purpose, and eventually have the world we all wish for. That’s something else to be grateful for! May we use our freedom to fulfill our greatest human potential.
G-d Bless America
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