Past, Present, and Future

We humans are funny creatures. We have wonderful imaginations and use them so poorly. Think about all of the trouble we’ve had. The truth is you’ve come through 100% of the hard times you’ve had.

You’ve survived. At the very bare minimum, you’ve survived every single one of the hard times you’ve had in your life. And yet…  

If you’re like most people, you carry the past with you. You cringe at old thoughts as waves of guilt course through your body. The trouble we had in the past we can’t fix. We can make amends today, but we can’t go back to change what was.

That goes for wishing for a different childhood.

And it’s true for any transgressions you might have had. 

Guilt is there to remind you that you have choice. Guilt itself is your way of continuing to pay the price for something. You’ve already experienced the “wrong-ness” of...

To be clear, you must focus on the right thing. Each thing you focus on gives a new meaning.

So you must put the EmPHAsis on the corRECT SyLAHble!

What you focus on matters.

Let’s look at a simple sentence and you can extrapolate that concept to pretty much everything in your life.

Do I Need To Do This?

DO I need to do this? I mean do I?  Is this a thing I need to do?  DO I need to do this?

Do I need to do this? Can anyone else do this or do I need to be the one to do it?

Do I NEED to do this? Sorting the pantry, taking out the garbage, watching NetFlix, getting lost in TikTok videos… Do I NEED to do that? Yeah, think about priorities!

Do I need TO do this? Is it something that’s coming? Something to look forward to? 

Do I need to DO this? Is it something to think about or take action on? And when?

Do I need to do THIS? I mean, there are a million other things to do. Is this the...

The idea that life is a Worthy Struggle became the foundation for my first book. I thought about how important it was that we each engage in our passionate purpose, each day, every day, in whatever way we could. 

In committing to doing so, we will enjoy victories. Yet with victory there’s a price. The price of practice, of defeat, of perching on the precipice of something big while knowing it could evaporate at any moment. Facing daily challenges is a worthy struggle.

And I set out to write that book. 

As I wrote, I found myself being dragged down. I had to define and describe the struggle before noting how worthy it was. Everyone has a different sense of strife. And what was really hard yesterday isn’t so difficult today. 

I changed the writing. I focused on the message. I didn’t want to celebrate the struggle and the focal point was leading there. So, I changed the core message to how to become better every day. I wrote and...

I recently lost my father.

I mean, it’s not like I lost my car keys. I know where we placed him… he passed away. Dark humor, I suppose. He might’ve even appreciated that.  

Here’s what I know about loss – it’s very personal. Very. We each process it differently and in our own time.  

When my mom passed away fifteen years ago, I was devastated. Crushed. Done. I thought I’d have more time to see her. She had been bravely battling cancer for five years and I told her I’d see her soon. I felt guilty for a long time. I had grief-storms in my closet; I was fine one minute picking my clothes for the day and the next second I was flooding with tears. Those blew in and out for about a month.

When my dad passed away last month, I had a rush of feelings all at once. I was sad, angry, depressed, relieved, confused, and curious. The feelings didn’t rock me. They swept through me. I experienced,...

Well, I’m back to feeling like my old self. 

I used to strive for that.

I felt “off” and would want to feel “normal” again. I’d eat better, drink more water, and attend to my sleep. 

I recently realized that I was headed in the wrong direction to want to be back to some former self.

I’m getting used to feeling different, like I’m being pulled toward something bigger.

The whole journey of “finding my purpose” is both scary and exciting.

Now I KNOW there’s no way that I’d want to be “back to my old self.”

You know what a toddler looks like running down hill? They’re excited and petrified at the same time. 

“Wheeeeeee”  

      “Ohhhhhh”  

            “Ahhhhhhhh”

Legs moving fast, arms up and flailing, a wild grin growing wider…

That’s...

There's a lot of talk about the big Why. 

When you fall into SHOULD it's easy to lose your sense of what it's all for.

• I should get up
• I should exercise
• I should eat better
• I should get that report done
• I should read more

We lose our sense of purpose when we feel like we’re doing it for someone else.

Conversely – 

We return to our purpose when we remember that we positively affect the lives of others.

When you deliberately, actively, positively® affect someone else’s life, you’ve made the unconscious drudgery of getting through another day something much more conscious and unfathomably priceless.  

Priceless – unbelievably valuable – you showing up…  

Do you have a lot going on in your world right now?

It’s weird, right? We’re seeing the same things over and over and yet, as you read this, your day is probably scheduled far beyond what you want it to be. What...

I’m sitting here in my robe, getting focused for my day – My exercise clothes will come next. And then I’ll decide when my shower comes. I clean up a little sooner when I know I’m doing another television interview. 

I feel good no matter what I wear.

Some people have the mindset of having to “get up and dress up” in order to show up. The truth, at least my truth, is that my presence is on because I turn it on when I open my eyes in the morning. It’s a choice. I get up and show up. 

There’s a community I’m in that meets at 6am. They’ve seen me in my button-down and sport coat, they’ve seen me in my sweats and they’ve seen me in my robe. Am I any less present?

In a recent interview for the Huffington Post, the reporter really wanted to use my credentials as a PhD in Clinical Psych to underscore the need to get dressed and how that affects your mood. Her bias was there. And I kept...

You’re not lazy.

You’re not procrastinating.

You’re not even self-sabotaging.

What is this distractibility that comes on like a heavy fog blowing through? What happens when, on the verge of doing something big, there’s some other stuff that needs attention.

Is it that squirrel thing?

It’s deeper than that.

You want more.

You know there’s more and you’re aching to get it. But you’ve gotten good at ignoring what feels like a dull ache from inside, so you just carry on. You allow the fog and distractions to wash over you.

I’m here to poke you a little and to remind you about who you are supposed to be, who you deserve to be.

I’m also here to give you a torch to shine the light on what’s really going on with you.

You know that drawer that needs organizing? Or that social media post or article? Or that show that you just need to see the end of? Or that snack that’s...

A couple of months ago, I wrote a note to myself. It said, “I have a prediction – 2021 is the year to take back your power.”

It’s an interesting thought and I really had no idea what it meant at the time. It felt bigger than just a note to myself. It felt like a note about US, who we are becoming. I saw resilience in the world and, I suppose, this prediction came from the pandemic thing we’ve all experienced. 

It’s been over a year since COVID-19 was introduced as a “Novel” Corona Virus. Remember that the 19 part of that name reflects 2019, the year it was detected as a new strain of something to be alert to. We felt the effects in the United States take hold toward the end of the first quarter of last year and… dang, well, here we are.

This year you declare…!

We’re well on our way into 2021 and you may have noticed something: You’re getting used to it all. It’s not...

I don’t like gardening. I’m supposed to like gardening, but I don’t.

Maybe you’ve approached your business that way.

I don’t look forward to getting dirty, sore, or scratched up by the branches that I prune.

And I really don’t like the idea that no matter what I do today, it’ll all have to happen again.

That’s all past-tense thinking. 

Prior to going outside with my wife on Saturday, loppers in hand, I had a little chat with myself: “What if I approached this as something I loved?”

“What if this were fun?”

“What if the process of gardening isn’t some end result, but some small portion of the journey?”

When I began asking myself those questions, everything shifted. 

I was surprised by how many times my wife thanked me for helping her with the garden. It’s our garden. I thought it was a shared project. Apparently, my prior disdain for this kind...