End of month questions

What are you fulfilled by doing? (Do it more.)

Who are you happiest with? (Be with them often.)

Do you have an insatiable appetite for life? (Get somewhere where you do.)

What are you hungry for? (Options vary with individuals ... love, peace, greatness.)

What are you doing about achieving it?

What disappoints you? (How can you avoid it in future?)

Who is important to you? (Do they know? How can you show and tell them?)

How to you get to be better than you thought you could be? (Remember and repeat.)

Do you expect more of yourself? (If not, why not?)

Do you work to 100% of your ability? (What is gained from holding back?)

As this is traditionally a month for making resolutions I thought it was a good time to check the progress of the New Year and new improved you. How is it going?

I’m through with making resolutions instead I make daily revolutions of change in my life. Join me.

Now ... Didn’t I do well? Clap your hands!

According to Howard Jacobson, author of The Mighty Walzer, some people never grow up.

Jacobson was talking on the BBC Radio 4 programme The Book Club on 2/1/11. He said that if anyone who is essentially a child in an adult’s body, were to “forever go on seeking applause” then he wasn’t at all sure if that person would be able to give genuine applause and praise to others. His prime example was if one became a parent and was then unable to handle the ‘competition’ for attention from their own children.

I guess that makes some sense.

In some respects I agree with him, but only if you have the desire to always be the centre of attention, the headline act.

When people are prepared to work as part of the chorus line – without which many shows would fall completely flat – then I think that there is justification in them saying, “Didn’t we do well? Clap your hands!”

The entire cast can then take a bow, join hands and accept the recognition for success, together.

Sometimes, it can be your time to stand alone, centre stage, accepting the applause.

There is a time for everything.

Ecclesiastes 3 v 1 – 8

¹To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

²A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

³A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

⁴A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

⁵A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

⁶A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

⁷A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

⁸A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Piloting your own life

Days are always busy. We get busy just living, merely existing and making ends meet can take up all our energies. It can get to such a situation that we no longer have any time available for the small pleasures of life because we are so overrun with the repetitive and necessary tasks that make up 21^st century living. Working, paying bills, shopping, cooking, ironing, cleaning … after a while we can seem to be in a daze as we stumble through life always trying to catch up with something.

Managing resources, time and focus are all important as you become the pilot in your own life. You need to manage the small aspects of your life so that you can take the lead in your whole life.

It takes conscious effort to:

PLOT YOUR DESTINATION

MAINTAIN YOUR COURSE

HOLD FIRM TO YOUR CONVICTIONS

It is advisable to become the captain of your own life instead of getting lost in the trance that we sometimes accept as living. When you make the choice about your future you give yourself FREEDOM to be YOU.

This calls for consistency as you …

“Manage the small, seemingly insignificant things in order to direct more important matters of life.”

(Dave Pelzer, Moving Forward)

We have to have an AMBITION and … work towards it.