Sunday Story...The Big Mistake

Sunday Story…The Big Mistake

“Do not fear mistakes. There are none.” Miles Davis

For those of you who do not know, Miles Davis was a very famous jazz trumpeter who is considered to be one of the major influences in jazz music. So how can he say that there are no mistakes? After all even jazz music has some rules; there are the “right” notes to be played even if you are improvising the whole thing.

Your life is an improvisation. Has it ever really gone exactly as you planned? Chance meetings, decisions made, decisions not made, people met, have all happened and your life was changed. Sometimes life changed a lot sometimes by just a little. But you know just a one degree shift in the steering wheel will send you to a whole new destination after 3000 miles. But still aren’t there some mistakes? Aren’t there some things that we can categorically say…ooops that was a mistake?

The answer lies in your attitude. If you want to be judging, blaming, and criticizing, then yes, there are mistakes. You see, those things that we would Judge as mistakes lie in the judgment not in the mistakes themselves. Just as a number is not good or bad; decisions and things done are just that…decisions and things done. They are neither good nor bad. We can say that the decision fits into our world view, that the decision is going to move along to the destination we seek on the road we have chosen to travel but that in and of itself does not make it good or bad.

An attitude that says what can I learn from the decision, what is the message that this activity has given me is far from the blame game. What if there were no mistakes? What if there was no good or bad judgment on what notes you played? What if every note you played was the perfect one? Maybe the notes didn’t exactly fit into the piece you were playing at the time. Maybe the notes sounded different or discordant but what if they weren’t really mistakes but lessons in what didn’t work in that moment.

If Thomas Edison said to himself…”well there is this is another mistake that one must be about number 512.” Do you think he would have continued to try to create a bulb that would create electric light? I know after about 500 mistakes I would have been tempted to throw in the towel. I can imagine, however, that Edison said something like…”wow, there is another way it doesn’t work. I must be getting closer.” With that attitude I could keep on going, I could strengthen my resolve and try again.

This ability to choose your attitude is one of the greatest freedoms that can never be taken from you. No matter what someone does to my body I get to choose the story, I get to choose the attitude to take from it. No matter what you try to do to my mind or spirit I get to choose how I am going to react to it. This is the one freedom that can never be taken from me. Lock me up and throw away the key. Do terrible horrible things to me. Try to imprison my body mind and spirit. I still get to choose the story, the attitude I will take from those things.

Just like I get to choose the attitude I take from the other things that happen in my life. Some of those things may be horrible…cancer, car accidents, financial hardship, or worse. Some of those things may be just mildly irritating…a bad grade, losing a parking space, getting called a name, or the like. Big or small if we take the attitude that they are not mistakes but learning experiences our attitude will not fail us.

Every time I get on the mat to practice/play Brazilian jiu-jitsu I know I may have to “tap-out”. I could look at this as a loss. That some other person got the better of me...that I was not good enough, not knowledgeable enough or not “man” enough. If that was my attitude, how long do you think I would or could continue to train? I mean how long will you beat yourself up on top of someone else beating you up to continue every day? My guess is not long. Certainly not long enough to get good enough to rarely “tap-out”. Instead my attitude is that every “tap” is another lesson…a lesson in what is working and not working...a lesson in what to do and what not to do…another stepping stone on the path to the destination. Without that attitude I would have to quit.

Do you fear to try because you might be wrong, you might make a mistake? It would be time to get over that fear. You are not perfect and neither am I. We are going to hit a note that just didn’t work in the piece we are playing; we are going to take a path that pulls us off our destination for some period. These things are bound to happen. Are you going to beat yourself up and berate and belittle yourself for doing them? Or are you going to look at those things and say…”hmmm that was interesting. What is the lesson in that? What is the learning I can take away from that adventure?”

Maybe if I try for perfection I will hit excellence. Maybe if I swing at the ball I will hit it eventually. If I never take the shot, I will a never make the goal. If I am so afraid to make a mistake I will have no hope of ever getting it right because I will never even attempt it. Your attitude determines how you view these things. What are you telling yourself about your life and your trajectory right now? What would you really like to tell yourself?

Get out there and play the piece of music that is your life. Learn something from it and then play it again. Repeat. Repeat and repeat. There is no getting it right because there is no right or wrong. There is just getting out and doing it. So go ahead…Just Do It.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...The Edge

Sunday Story…The Edge

“Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.” Walsch

Living at the edge of your comfort zone. This is not the edge of the couch. This is the edge of your everyday, humdrum, mediocre average existence. It is different for all of us. Maybe yours is turning off the television once a week. If that has you feeling wild and crazy then go for it. No matter where the edge is for you your life starts at that edge.

Why would you want to bother? Why would you want to live a life past the edge of that comfort zone? After all it’s comfortable here. It’s easy and simple and I don’t have to do too much to maintain everything as it should be. There is no stress, no hard work to do all I have to do is the same thing I always to and I get pretty much the same thing I have always gotten. No big deal, right?

Except for one small detail…you aren’t growing. You aren’t really challenging yourself in any area. Maybe you are working out but you just go through the same motions every day. Maybe your career is never going to really challenge you unless you get out and do something about it. Maybe your relationship isn’t bad but it isn’t really good or great either. You are dying; you are slowly, inexorably sliding into a rut that is going to turn into a grave at some point down the road.

Why do so many of us accept this as normal? Is it normal to sit on the couch and have our bodies rust from inactivity? Is it normal to have our closest personal relationships limp along from poor communication and unspoken needs and desires? Is it normal to not learn anything new once we leave the halls of our schools? Is it normal to never pick up a book after we leave high school? Is it normal to be overweight, sick and tired?

Apparently it is normal. All of these things are touted as facts. The lack of continuing education, physical fitness, sexless marriages, television, fast food, alcohol and drug addiction are all normal in our modern world. Does it have to be normal? Do you have to accept it as normal for you, your spouse, and your children? I don’t think so and I don’t believe you were placed here to do any of those “normal” things. You are here for more than that. You are here to be someone…you are here to be awesome.

But you are never going to get out of normal until you get to the edge of your comfort zone and start going past it.
If something makes you feel a little uncomfortable maybe you should look at it closer and see if there isn’t a growth opportunity there.
If the thought of doing something (jumping out of an airplane, learning a new language, public speaking) scares you maybe you should go ahead anyway.
If the idea of doing things in a new and different way, taking a different route to work, eating food you have never eaten before disturbs your idea of the status quo you should do them anyway.

Getting past your comfort zone may not be easy. As a matter of fact there will be times when it is hard, uncomfortable, and maybe a little painful. Remember the first time you lost a tooth? It hurt. Maybe it hurt a lot. But losing that tooth made room for a better, more permanent tooth. So it may be with going past your comfort zone. The space you make will leave room for something more interesting and different in your life. And if it doesn’t, well, normal is always there waiting for you like a comfortable pair of socks.

If you don’t know where your comfort zone is, it won’t be too hard to find. Just look at your life and see your habits and routines. That edge runs right along those things just like the boundary on a map. Your comfort zone lives and breathes where your life is effortless and easy.

You can do this. You need to do this. Your children need to see you stretching, growing and reaching for something else, something more. When they see you living in fear of change why should they want to change? When your children see you afraid to learn new things why should they pursue new knowledge. When your children see you afraid how can you expect them to have courage?

You mission (should you choose to accept it) to lead the way into new and uncharted waters…to find the edge of the sea and sail past it. When you do that you will inspire others, especially those closest to you to do something similar. You will empower the people around to you to have the faith that a leap into the unknown is going to be OK. If you don’t who will? Who else is going to lead past the comfort zone? Who else but you?

And you don’t have to go all in either. You don’t have to sell everything and move to the Amazon, or join Doctors without borders or enter a monastery. You can get past your comfort zone a little at a time. You can always put one toe in the water at a time. Maybe start small…try reading a book one night instead of watching television. Eat out at a different ethnic restaurant once a month. Eliminate one small bad habit from your life. Set a fitness goal and make a plan and follow it up. Create a life of purpose on purpose (oops! There I go again).

Pretty soon living a life at the end of your comfort zone will become a habit. You will no longer be boxed in by your fears and hesitations. You will be walking out on the tightrope of your comfort zone, balancing a life of purpose, vision, compassion and genuine integrity while serving as an inspiration to everyone around you.

Go ahead and jump…the water’s fine!

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Hell

Sunday Story…Hell

Imagine it is your last day on earth. As you prepare for your final destination you see someone approaching you. As the figure nears a dawn of recognition begins. The person is you…the person you could have become. The person imbued with all the greatness, all the success, all the joy, happiness, abundance, prosperity and health you could have enjoyed. You are devastated. You are done with this mortal coil and going to your final rest knowing who you could have become.
This is one of the definitions of hell:
On your last day on earth the person you BECAME will meet the person you could have BECOME.
Think about that one. Who you are meets the person you could have been. What would that look like for you? Is who you are everything you could be? Are you doing all you can do to be all you can be?
Are you living today as the person you could become?
Really? Because I know I am not. Maybe you are, maybe not so much.
I guess the first question would be do you really care? Does it really matter to you that you are or are not living up to all the potential of who you are? Do you have any idea of the greatness that lies within you? If not, why not? Why not care about who you could become…is it too hard? Is even thinking about that shift so difficult that you can’t even look at it? Imagine that day in the future where you might have to face the you that you could have become…what would you like to say? It was too hard to be you? I just couldn’t face up to my highest and best?
Really? REAlly?
It’s too hard? Hard is getting up this morning and walking 5 miles to the river to fill a 5 gallon container with filthy water for your family to drink, cook and bathe with while knowing if you don’t return with a full container your father will beat you. That is hard. Hard is going to bed at night after another day of no food and listening to your baby sister crying weakly as she slowly slides into death from starvation. That is hard. Hard is not getting off your butt and doing the things you know you can and should and could do to fulfill your mission on earth.

It might be a little challenging to find your mission and vision but it really isn’t hard. It might be slightly daunting to start living your life like a world champion something. And no, there is no world champion couch potato or fast food eater. It isn’t hard (in perspective) to quit drinking soda, smoking cigarettes or watching hours of television. It might look hard but is it really? Do you think the person you could become is going to show up 100 pounds overweight, with a heart condition and diabetes? Or is that person in great physical condition?

Is the person you could become an emotional wreck, stained and drained by drama and trauma, ruled by their unconscious needs and desires? I think not. I think the person you could become is fully conscious of their emotional baggage and has worked every day at lessening that load in order to be an emotional giant fully in touch and aware of their desires and needs and getting those desires and needs met in the healthiest ways possible. That person is in touch with their own emotions and their own humanity and can see the good and best in each person they run into every day.

Maybe the person you could become will show up on that day, your last day defeated by the world, impoverished financially and spiritually, completely beaten down and vanquished. I think not. I think the person you could become is going to show up in abundance and prosperity, filled with spirit and spirituality, financially prosperous an example to the world of what is possible when spirit and determination meet in the soul of a person dedicated to transforming the world into a better, richer, and more abundant place.

But maybe you are going to get out of this life without meeting the person you could have become. Maybe on the day you die you won’t have to meet that person. Maybe you won’t have to die knowing all the things you could have done, been, or accomplished. Maybe you won’t mind the world being poorer for the books you didn’t write, the lessons you didn’t teach, and the music you never made. Maybe you are OK with plodding along living a life or mediocrity and quiet desperation, just another average person living another average life and dying another average death.

Really?
REAlly?
REALLY?
I mean really? You are OK with that? Go look in the mirror and tell yourself you are ok with average. You are OK with being overweight. You are OK with never learning a new thing, never learning anything new, not teaching something you know how to teach, or not singing the songs you can sing? Go ahead and go to the bathroom mirror and look carefully at the face looking back at you and tell that person you are never going to be the person you could have become.

You didn’t do it did you? Maybe you should go look in the mirror and start looking for the person you could be. Maybe you could start seeing the person you could have become right now. Maybe you should start living your life like you are the person you could have become. Maybe the person looking back at you right now is that fully aware, amazing, self fulfilled human living up to the fullest potential possible. Maybe the person you could become is sitting next to you right now and all you have to do is take a look and see them waiting for you.
So….who are you looking at in the mirror?

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Integrity

Sunday Story…Integrity

Integrity. Truth. Honesty.

There are few things more important than your integrity. It is the one thing that no one can ever take from you. But it is something you can give away, lose, or destroy on your own.

I define Integrity these days very simply…Be honest, Tell the truth, Play by the rules, Keep your promises. I have also Integrity defined as “doing what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it.”

Be honest…first with yourself, then with the world around you. If you cannot be honest with yourself you are in serious trouble. If you ask yourself if you are doing your best work and the answer is “I don’t know” then you are not being honest with yourself. Usually answers like I don’t know, I’m not sure, and the shrug of the shoulders are answers that include a certain amount of self-delusion. Be honest with yourself first. Look inside and be brutally honest about how you feel and what you are thinking and doing. Then when you are asked a question you can do the next thing…

Tell the truth. This does not mean to be mean or rude or disrespectful. It means to tell the truth and tell it in a way that is honest. On one hand this is very simple…don’t lie. If the answer is white don’t try to tell me the answer is black. Just don’t do it, it is not ok. Lying is pervasive in our society. We see large companies telling us things that are not true and using the excuse that it is marketing. Telling me something is good for me when it is not good or is marginal is a lie.
Then there are the lies of omission…in other words those times when I leave something out because you didn’t ask the right question or ask it in the right way. And that way allows me not tell you something that I really should. You know when you do that, it feels a little dirty coming off your tongue, just a little bit sleazy. In the back of your mind you know you left out a vital piece of information. If you are telling the truth, you don’t leave out that piece…a lie of omission is still a lie.
Let’s not forget the lies of shading. Those are the lies when we take the truth and cover it with an umbrella so the truth is there but not quite visible. I spin a tale that is true but the truth is hidden, but just a little askew, obfuscated under the spinning story I am telling you. Still a lie isn’t it? Maybe a little nicer but still a lie.

Play by the rules. Simple really, right? I mean the rules are the rules. They are usually written down and clear. All you have to do is follow them. Well…sometimes the rules are not exactly clear right? So do you go by the letter of the rule or the spirit of the rule? And what about the games where the rules are not written down? Where we all just assume the rules to be one way, to be the way we have always done things. Where is your default position? The spirit or the letter? For me, I look to the spirit of the law first. What is the way to play the game with the most forthright and honest position, for the game or the playing field to be the most level? Is it so important to win that you will shave the issues and jeopardize your personal integrity? How much money is that worth to you? We have seen the answer over and over again in the professional sports world…people who are making millions and millions of dollars who cheat to win or shave their way around the truth to get more accolades or titles. When we find out they have been lying or cheating we are crushed…we expected better, we deserved and hones game, one of integrity and honor.

Keep your word. It used to be that a man’s word was his bond. I kept my word even if it cost me, and cost me dearly. If I could not keep my word, my bond then I had to go forth and make it right. Million dollar deals were consummated on a handshake. I trusted you and your word even if I did not know you. Now it seems even the people I know can’t be counted on to keep their word. To look me in the eye and tell me the truth even when they are doing me wrong, not keeping their word. This is a very, very sad state of affairs. If you say it make it so. If you can’t complete, especially due to circumstances out of your hands, then do what you have to do to make it right. Better yet, move heaven and earth to complete the task , to fulfill your bond. Help us regain the trust we should have in each other, in our fellow man. Because, sadly, we have lost it.

I can’t force you to live a life of integrity. I can live my life as an example of it. And not just outwardly. I must, and most importantly, like a life of integrity for myself and with myself. I must live a life of integration (it’s part of integrity), a life that is complete and whole and aligned with who I say I am and who I am being. Will I fail? Will I fall down and come up short? Of course I will. Of course I have. But I will get up and admit my mistakes and start again down that path. For me this path appears to be the only one to walk? What say you?

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Total Wellness

Sunday Story...Total Wellness…
I have been listening and talking to a lot of people lately about health and what it means to be healthy.
Let’s be honest…health is not just the absence of disease, just like peace is not just the absence of war. Health is much more than just absence of something else. Optimum health is a dynamic process. It includes several parts or your life. Your physical health. Your mental health. Your spiritual health. Your financial health. Your social health.

Physically you need to eat right, exercise often, and feed your body with the proper nutrients (which are not always obtainable from food). If you are a regular reader you know where I stand on food…real natural organic (when possible), mostly plants, prepared carefully with intention and purpose. Diet can be the most simple or the most complicated, it really depends on you and how you want to approach it. For me if I have to read a label it is too complicated. I want to eat food that I can recognize from its source. I want to know that the meat I am eating has been raised the way it would have been in a natural state (if such a thing exists.) Then I am going to prepare the food with love and the intention to nourish myself in body and spirit. In terms of supplementation…do your due diligence and ask around. For my money I use mostly Univera products...the science is right and the products are guaranteed to work. And yes that is a shameless plug! If you want to know more call or email me and we will talk.

Exercise means to get out and sweat. To go 100% all out in your pursuit, increasing balance, flexibility, agility and strength. You can do this at any age but you have to be ready to work, to learn new skills and push your limits…no more sitting on an exercise bike and zoning out…you must be connected to your body as you sweat and strain to improve. It also means to just move. To walk or ride my bike or swim easily and with minimal effort...easily and with joy. Work hard and find that sweet spot where there is only the single activity and effort.

Mentally we need to learn new things, read books that inspire and uplift, think our way through problems. Crossword puzzles and other brain exercises are an excellent way to keep your mind active. Writing letters or blogs or stories will also keep your mind moving and stretching. Having a certain elasticity of mental power will serve you as you age. Remember minds are like parachutes…they work best when they are open.

Spiritually let’s get connected to whatever you consider to be the divine source of the universe. Let’s find our purpose, our reason to be here. I am not here to tell you about religion. But I am going to tell you that finding a way to be connected to the creative source of the universe is vital to your health. When we pray we are talking to that source. When we meditate we are listening to that source. When we give gratitude for the gifts in our life we are connecting to that source. When we do kind things for each other we are expressing divinity in our human forms. Spirit exists if we allow it to infuse our existence.

Financial health is a whole different ball of wax. You get to determine what financial health looks like to you. Maybe working less for more money is your goal. Maybe it’s making more money, having a newer car, or a bigger house. Freedom from your boss, the ability to give more generously to charities, pay for things for your children or maybe just pack up and go on vacation for a day or a week or a month. I don’t know how you will define financial abundance…do you know? Because if you do not know you might want to start defining it now. If you don’t how will you know when you get there? Or what the plan is to get there? We leave in precarious times economically. Many of the old rules have changed and shifted and the new rules are not yet clear. But understand that you need o take charge of this area…start a home based business (I can help you here), find an investment you like, get multiple streams of income coming in. There are more opportunities than ever out there…start looking and find one that inspires passion in you. You will be glad you did.

Your social health is a bit more ethereal. This one includes your personal, intimate relationships as well as the other relationships you have…you dentist, the checkout person at the store, your Facebook friends, your work associates. All of these relationships are different and yet every one of them relies on communication to grow and be fulfilling. In my very close relationships I get so many of my needs met and also can experience the biggest frustrations. Most of these frustrations stem from poor communication…not asking for what I want, not expressing my unmet needs and not being willing to hear from my partner. Communication is both listening and talking and they are both skill we need to work on and get better at…just like learning a new language, a new game or trying out a new puzzle.

Your total wellness depends on all of these areas. If you neglect any one of them you may find your life to be less healthy than you are comfortable with. Optimum health and total wellness, physically, mentally spiritually, financially and socially sounds like a pretty good goal to me…How about you? Care to join me on the road?



Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Rest; Not just for the wicked

Sunday Story…Rest; Not just for the wicked

There is an old saying that goes something like this…”You can rest when you are dead.” For a long time that saying was a mantra of sorts for me. Sometimes it still is.

I believe you should be in action. I believe hoping and wishing are wonderful but without action there is no result. Laying on the couching wishing you were a different shape just won’t get the job done. You can’t win the lottery without buying a ticket. Action gets results.

Often, though, we hide behind action. Rather than planning and moving intentionally we are just moving willy-nilly deluding ourselves that action for action’s sake will give us the results we desire. This sort of action generally results in just creating an energy drain. I am guilty of this quite often.

We do this sort of thing with our jobs and careers quite often. We show up every day. It’s what we are supposed to do. Show up at the designated time, do some stuff and go home at the designated time, take a lunch break, repeat day in and day out, year after year. It is what is expected of us. It is what we “do”. Good on you. But are you really getting anything done? Are living, doing, thinking, and acting with intention and purpose?

It is one thing to set goals. It is quite another to create a plan that will have those goal come to fruition. And yet another to actually take the actions that will have that plan be mobilized. Imagine the General of an army about to invade the enemy country. He just can’t say go and hope everyone and everything falls into the right places. And so he makes a plan after setting the goal---invasion! The plan or campaign has different elements and different factions doing different things. The activity is planned out and deliberate. Nothing is left to chance. If things to go as planned there is an alternative. A plan B and a plan C designed to cover the contingencies that can and will occur. Then he will put the plan into action…deliberately and intentionally.

Our General is meticulous in his planning. And he is just a meticulous in his execution of the plan. And he is willing to shift and transform the execution when the situation calls for a shift. The outcome is still on the horizon but the plan can change. What would happen to your life if your actions had the same meticulous planning and execution as that of our General? What would your job and career look like? How about your relationship? How about your education (yes even if you are no longer attending school you are still being educated --- or not!)?

It is said that if you had 8 hours to cut down a tree you should spend 6 hours sharpening your ax. In other words spending the time creating the right plan is time well spent and might actually result in an easier execution than just rushing in and doing anything. The proper plan, properly executed is much more likely to succeed than a flurry of activity whirling around with little intention or purpose.

All of which brings us to rest and restoration. We need to rest. We need time to re-set the set-points. Rest is an activity. Rest is something we do. Rest allows us to find new ways to execute our plans. Rest isn’t just sleep and it isn’t just laying on the couch flipping the channels on the boob-tube.

Sometimes rest is meditation. Meditation is the activity of sitting and listening to the rocks move, the leaves fall and the raindrops form. It is allowing your breath to find its way through your body and into your emotions. It is a way of connecting with all those things greater and more mysterious than yourself.

Sometimes rest is play. You know the kind of play that happens when we allow ourselves to play freely without expectation of outcome. Without a win or a loss or even a critic to say what is right or wrong. When we watch toddlers at play…this is the sort of play that is rest, the kind of play that restores energy even while expending it. When we see the youngster singing and spinning and just living in the very present moment we see a body in motion that is being restored. It is an amazing transformation.

Sometimes rest is doing the thing that pleases you the very most in the world. Those things that, when you do them, have you completely present in the world. There is no time before and no time after. There is only that moment, that sliver of time where you exist in an exact state of perfection. It may be painting, dancing, writing or reading but there is or has been something in your life that creates rest in action for you.

Rest is being in the moment. Restoration can occur when we are at one with the flow of the universe. This is why we often think of sleep as the only time we can rest and recuperate. In sleep there is only that moment. There is no before sleep or after sleep while we sleep … we just sleep. So go get some rest today and restore your energy so you can execute all your world changing plans tomorrow!

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Health, Wealth, and Purpose

Sunday Story....Health, Wealth, and Purpose

This triumvirate can create a life designed by you for you if you will embrace them. I have been
fortunate to have spent some time recently with some highly motivated people who have embraced this trio in all their lives.

Here is my take on it!

Health
If you don't have your health you have a serious problem. All the money in the world won't fix bad health. Whether you caused poor health through poor life style choices, it was foisted upon by genetics, or you were in the wrong place at the wrong time you will realize the value of it once it has been gone for a moment or two.

You can't fix bad genes. You can mitigate some of the effects through proper diet and nutrition. You can work on having the “bad” genes not express themselves but only if you are aware of them. Fortunately this is only about 35% or your aging process. Granted it is an important 35% but it is still only 35%.

Finding yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time is an unfortunate accident. Sort of. On one hand if you ascribe to the radical responsibility theory (as I do) then you are responsible. But that theory is at the upper reaches of consciousness. So lets assume a very small percentage of your health woes may be accidental...an environmental exposure, an automobile accident, or some other unforeseen occurrence.

So the bad news or the good news, depending on how you look at it is that your health is largely in your hands. You can choose to exercise...or not. You can choose to eat healthy...or not. You can choose how you experience the aging process. Because no matter how old you are today, you will be older tomorrow. You will create 300 billion new cells in the next 24 hours whether you like it or not. How healthy those cells are is really up to you. And do not doubt that those cells will affect, whether you like it or not, how you experience life.

So let me give you the simple formulas:

Move. Often. Slowly and deliberately. Move heavy weight long distances quickly. Work on your balance and flexibilty daily. Maintain a strong core by using highly varied functional movements. Regularly learn and play new sports and physical games.

Eat natural food...mostly plants. Avoid processed foods, drinks, and other edible non-food products. Eat lean meat and green vegetatables, seeds and nuts, some fruit, littlie starch and no sugar. Eat in quantities that will support exerces, movement and work, but won't contribute to fat storage.

If you are over 30 years old, you may need supplementation to achieve optimum fitness and health. Your body has already peaked and now you need to re-achieve those optimumcellular and hormonal levels you enjoyed in your mid-twenties.

Your health is paramount...get to work on it now.

Wealth
Wealth means different things to different people. Maybe it's monetary for you...a million dollars or 100k a year in income, or just the ability to spend your time how and where you choose. Maybe you measure wealth in your relationships with the people around you. You get to decide what and how much. For the sake of this article I am going to say wealth is related to money...having enough to do what you want when you want...whatever those things are...to live life on your own terms rather than be dictated by your financial circumstances.

Your wealth is necessary to help relieve the stress of this modern life. Your wealth needs to be controlled by you and not outside influences and should have a number of ways of making it to you. Your monetary wealth will help you be healthier...since you can eat in certain ways with money that you will be unable to without money.

You need to be able to generate and improve your financial situation based upon your own efforts and not rely on others to do it for you. Get to work on this...open your own business, get some passive income and some residual income. Find multiple streams of income.

Purpose

Once we have taken care of health and wealth we can look for purpose. What drives you. What creates passion inside of you. For many of us the concept of service or “seva” is closely tied to purpose. We have talked about this a number of times...finding your purpose. Creating a vision for your life, a mission for you to act upon.


Working for something greater than yourself, helping others with their lives is part and parcel of who we are as humans. It is one of the reasons we become parents, teachers, volunteers. We feel better when we give.


Here is the cement that will hold this building up...Gratitude. Gratitude is the glue that we can put our health wealth and purpose together with. Gratitude exists for us when and where we want it to because we choose gratitude.

You should have gratitude for your health no matter how good or how bad it may be...if you are reading this t could be worse. Be grateful for the health you have today. Be grateful for the ability to improve it even if it is just a little, a small bit of improvement.

You should be grateful for the wealth you have today. It could be worse, much much worse. Start living in a land of abundance, not scarcity. You have much. And be grateful for the ability to do something about it...even if it is as simple as changing your attitude.

You should be grateful that you can look for purpose. What will give your life meaning? What are you doing right now on purpose? Are you living with passion? If you don't know try some gratitude that you can ask the questions and start you search for the answers.


Health, Wealth and Purpose with an Attitude of Gratitude. Sounds like a life I want to be part of...Care to join me?

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
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