THERE IS POWER IN THE STILLNESS

Do you find the days, weeks, months and years flying by? I know I do. I cannot believe that the year is almost half over. Why, it seems that I just celebrated my 50th birthday, but that was almost 2 years ago.

Recently I heard about a woman whose life was so fast paced that on a hot summer day while running numerous errands, she jumped out of her car, leaving her toddler behind. Upon returning to her car she found her daughter’s lifeless body. I will never forget her saying, “How could a mother forget her child.” As she recalled the story she said that her life was full of busyness and she very seldom took time to slow down. It took losing her daughter for her to finally realize that she needed to reevaluate her priorities.

Although her story is not a common one, it does highlight how we can sometimes get caught up in the “To Do” of each day.

I believe we all need to get out of the noise, if only for a few minutes each day. We need to find a quiet place, which is just ours, a place of solitude. When you find that place, protect it from the noise of the world! I love to sit in my car in the morning to pray and read my Bible. It prepares me for the day.

Don’t let life consume you and dictate the pace if your life. Take time to reflect, reinvigorate and renew your mind and body.

There is power in the stillness!

What a Wonderful World This Would Be…

While sitting at Peets Coffee in Pleasant Hill, CA with my daughter, we engaged in a wonderful conversation with a woman.  She said she remembered my daughter because of her smile and her laughter.  While speaking with her she asked the question:  What if everyone smiled at someone they did not know?  And what if every day we focused on doing something nice for someone else?  We then started to discuss some of the ways we could make a difference in someone’s life in very simple ways:

Pay it forward – if someone does something nice for you, do something nice for someone else.

Open the door for someone – How many times have you held a door open for someone you didn’t know?

Buy someone a cup of coffee – While in line to buy a cup of coffee, someone bought my coffee for me.  It made my day!

Pay the toll for someone behind you – The woman we were speaking with said someone did it for her and the next day she did it for the car behind her.

Say hello to someone with authentic sentiment – A genuine heartfelt hello can be more than courteous, it can signal to the receiver that all is right with the world, if only for a few seconds.

Smile at the people you encounter no matter their response – There is a connection that happens between human beings that is hard to verbalize when someone smiles at another.  It can be a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.

Let someone behind you in line go ahead of you – If you are in a grocery or bank line, try letting someone ahead of you.  They may fall over from shock.

Call a friend that you have not spoken to for awhile to say an encouraging word.

Say thank you -   Be gracious when someone does something kind, say thank you.

Give a Hug - Hug every member of your household before you leave or before they leave the house and tell them you love them.  Make it a habit!   

With all of the negative news and lack of civility in our world today, if each one of us extended some small courtesy, what a wonderful world this would be.

Authentic Connections

There is something very special that happens when you truly connect with another human being in a genuine encounter.

Have you ever noticed how many people stand in line, walk down the street or even go into the restroom taking on their phones or listening to their IPods? What is so important? How did we ever get along without cell phones and IPods?

It’s also amazing to see how many people who are together texting each other, while they are in the same room. Is this crazy or what? Have we forgotten how to talk to each other without an electronic device? Connecting with each other and building authentic relationships seems like a lost art form.  
How do we then build authentic and lasting relationships?

• Be who you are – Don’t be afraid to be yourself. No pretense.
• Be approachable – Smile and say, “Hello,” or, “Good morning!” This is so simple, but few do it with any authenticity.
• Be interested in others – spend less time talking about yourself and more time listening to others.

If we can break down the barriers that prevent us from connecting and building trusting relationships, there is no telling how our world could change.

When was the last time you really connected with someone in an authentic way? How did it affect you?

Twelve Square Feet

Have you ever had a task that was so big you did not know where to begin?  In your head you start to think how long it is going to take to get the task completed so you procrastinate.  In other cases you might try to bite off more than you can chew and you give up after you come to the realization that you are not going to get it done in the time you thought.

After a speaking engagement, I was having dinner with some of the attendees. In the course of our conversation, we discussed the challenge of getting large projects completed.  As we continued to talk, one woman shared with me a story about her childhood.  She said her parents had a nice sized back yard which had become overgrown and unsightly.  Her father used to look at it, noticing how it looked, but after a long work week he did not want to have anything to do with cleaning up the yard.  She said that one day her grandmother got the idea that she would take on the project of cleaning up the yard.  What she did was so smart.  She sectioned the yard off in sections 3 feet by 4 feet, a total of twelve square feet.  Each day she would clear and plant twelve square feet at a time until she had finally cleared the back yard.  What was left was a beautifully landscaped yard.

Do you have a project that has been sitting undone because it is so big?  Well you do not have to take on the whole acre, just twelve square feet at a time.

  

Time Based Currency

Have you ever said: I don’t have the time?  I wish I had the time?  If only I had the time?  I know I have on numerous occasions.  It reminds me of an interesting question that gave me a different perspective on Time.  The question was—

Imagine there is a bank which credits your account each morning with $86,400, which carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever you had failed to use during the day.

What would you do?

Draw out every cent, of course!

Well, everyone has such a bank. Its name is TIME.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.

Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.

It carries over no balance.  It allows no overdraft.

Each day, it fills your account for you.

Each night it burns the unused funds of the day.

If you fail to use the day’s deposit, the loss is yours.

There is no going back.  There is no drawing against tomorrow.

You must live in the present on today’s deposit.

Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success.

Now what are you going to do?  Will you say, "that's a great question" and do nothing, or will you say, “I need to change the way I am living?”  If you are one of the few who live life as though you are drawing out every cent, keep it up.  I know I have left money on the table, but I am committed to drawing out every last cent of time that I can to serve people and my family. 

Time is a bank that you want to keep at a zero balance, especially when it is being spent on others.  Spend it wisely.

“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't
own it, but you can use it. You can't keep
it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it
you can never get it back.”  Harvey MacKay

Never Too Late

“20 years from now you will be disappointed more by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain

“I am having a terrible day!”  “I cannot wait until it is 5:00.”  “Is Friday here yet?”  “It has been a hard day and I cannot wait to get home.”

I know you have read these statements like I have on Facebook.  Each time I do, I wonder if the fatigue or the sentiment expressed is driven by just a good day of hard work or out of a dislike for the work they are doing.

There are so many people just going through the motions of living life here on this planet.  They get up, go to work, come home, look at TV, go to sleep and wake up and do it all over again.  They live for the weekend.  They cannot wait for the time they can take that one or two week vacation that goes by so quickly it feels like a day.

Is this your life?  If you knew you were going to die tomorrow would you be content with the way you lived your life.   Have you accomplished the things you wanted to achieve?  Are you living your life in regret?

If so, it is not too late to change.  It is not too late to act on your hopes and dreams, to do the things you really want to do, to live out your purpose.  It will take courage to step out of your comfort zone and take risks.  But it is better to try and to have failed than to never have tried.

Here just a few thoughts to help you move towards living your life with power and purpose:

• Write down your goals, “Goals are dreams written down.”  ~Unknown~   Every successful person I know has written their goals down.
• Be bold; do not place barriers on yourself.  Stretch yourself, but be realistic.
• Review your goals daily, as it will serve as the fuel to achieve them.  I have placed a reminder on my phone and my Outlook to review mine daily.
• Stay focused and do not worry if you do not meet your goal by the date you set.  The important thing is to persevere.
• Don’t forget to live, laugh, and love. 

When you are dream-driven, your life takes on so much more meaning than just going to work and waiting for the clock to strike 5.  Instead of dragging yourself out of the bed, you will find yourself getting out of bed.  There is a big difference between the two.

Black High Top Shoes

In a world where there is so much selfishness, it is always great to see people who are willing to serve others in a way that is genuine and powerful.

While watching the television series Secret Millionaire, John the millionaire met a man named Amin who ran a thrift store where he receives donations and puts together hygiene kits and distributes them to the homeless on Skid Row in Los Angeles.

While passing out the kits he noticed a man using a walker and wearing shoes that had human excrement on them.  The man explained that he had accidently stepped in it after someone had relieved himself or herself.  Without batting an eye, Amin took off his nice black high top shoes and gave them to the man.  The man was overwhelmed by this gesture and after putting them on he said they were just what he needed and expressed his gratitude.  With Amin’s help, the old man got up and went on his way, one step at a time, wearing his new black high top shoes.

The millionaire, who was incognito, observed this selfless act and was completely blown away and began to weep.  He could not believe what he had just witnessed.  You see, in his world he has been insulated from the needs of the common and the poor.  However, after this experience he committed to getting out of himself and helping others who are struggling in life.

Although not on the same level as the story above, I recently had a similar response from a lady at the post office.  I had to mail a package out of the country and found that the area where the customs forms were kept was completely empty.  I went to the counter and informed the postal worker who asked if I would restock the forms.  I did without hesitation.  After completing the form I got back into line and a lady at the counter was in the process of looking for the trash can.  I asked her if I could throw the trash she had in her hand away, and she thanked me.  It was nothing big.

After I got to the counter the postal worker said, “I noticed what you did, you restocked our forms and threw away the trash for the lady in the line, no one does that.  It is very unusual; no one wants to help others anymore.”

There are so many ways we can serve each other, giving someone in need a pair of black high top shoes, restocking forms or just throwing away trash for someone.  With so much going on all around us we must never get so busy that we won’t help each other.

Small gestures can have a HUGE IMPACT in the life of the person who receives the help or observes someone helping someone else.