Daily Gratitude: How true this is. What a succinct way to sum up life. How much time do we spend (which, by itself, is an interesting phrase as if time is a commodity that can be traded- for what?) trying to decide what to do or what action to take? We think we are being “smart” by weighing all the aspects of something. But most of the time I’d venture to say we’re just procrastinating. We think that is we go over all the possible outcomes and list all the pros and cons, that we’ll come up with the perfect answer. Ha! We are fooling ourselves into thinking that we are so smart and we can even out smart the universe. Big news flash here – we can’t. We should spend more time feeling this “thing” and making our decision to act based on how much we want to do something; how much it means to you. Then, once you have decide to go ahead with the “project” ( call it what you want), then you can relax, let go and be guided as to what actions you need to take to make it happen. Letting go is a theme in most of what I write about. Perhaps that’s because it’s one of the hardest things for me to do even though it’s getting better and I’m getting better at it. If this is something you’ve “felt” that you really want, then you will let nothing stand in your way. This I do know from experience. Being told I was going to be a doctor at age 4, I let none of the “tests” (obstacles) that were placed in my path deter me. And you won’t either.

Daily Gratitude: Does this seem stupid to you? It kind of sounds like a “nonsense” Statement but it isn’t. It’s more of a common sense statement. Let’s take my learning to love running as an example. I hated running – absolutely hated it. One reason i was glad I joined the navy was that I could swim for the physical fitness test instead of running. Then in 1993 I tore my ACL. 6 months after surgery I realized I had to see if I could at least run to “cover” first base as softball season was starting soon. Never in my wildest dreams did I think my immense love for softball would lead to my loving running. When i first tried, I couldn’t run any at all other than a couple of yards. I was fat, I smoked and didn’t care about running. But I did care about softball (there was my “why”). So I vowed to do this dumb activity until I could run to the end of the block (.35 mile) without stopping. That took me a week and by then I was hooked. The little decision to “just see if I could run” led to being hooked on it. There is lots more to the running story but the point today is that that one little decision ultimately led to my actually realizing my dream of trying to cross the USA on foot. What’s a little decision you can make today. Don’t think about where it might lead. Just make a small decision and then tomorrow make another one. See what happens.

Daily Gratitude: I just love this. If I was still working, I’d print this out and hang it on my computer or wall so that I could see it and remember it. All too often we let one thing that went “wrong” ruin our day and sometimes even our week. How foolish is that? Why should one thing affect the rest of our day? We also have to remember William Shakespeare’s precious statement “nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so”. Perhaps you could pick a day, a day you think if going to be easy. Then set the intention of examining your opinions about things. Every time you think “yuck” or “damn” or “oh no”, stop and ask yourself why you made that determination. Is there a way you can look at that one thing differently so that maybe it’s not so bad? Make a serious effort to find something good about it. But even if you can’t, vow to sweep it under the rug and move on with your day. Make a conscious effort to tell yourself that that one thing will NOT start an avalanche of bad things happening. Be like a baseball player and “shake it off”. You can actually do the shaking motion as a symbol that you’re leaving that one thing behind and you’re not about to let it influence how the rest of your day will go.