Where do you stand?

Definite Chief Aim

Jan 14

“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.”

— Lao Tzu

As you continue to take the important action steps towards your goals this month for the future months ahead, it’s important to remember your lessons learned and special memories from the year(s) gone by. Then you can begin to turn your focus onto what’s happening right now and fully understand where it will lead you into tomorrow.

A gift from the past

Most of us have pictures from our life gone by that bring us back to another space in time just by a single glance.

Recently as a gift for my grown children I gave them photo albums from their school days - preschool through high school. This was no small feat for me to be sure that took several months this past fall. It required that I go through a multitude of boxes that were full of pictures that were not so greatly organized I am sad to say... but are now!

My kids grew up just before the dawn of digital photography so I would develop pictures, get their school photos each year with multitudes of copies, as well as sports, dance and other extra curricular activities that all eventually ended up in these boxes.

With raising a family, renovating our home, and growing several businesses I found myself too busy back then to organize these pictures in albums. Saving them as I did in fact turned out to be a blessing and a treasure chest of items to give to Travis and Bailey.

What was interesting is that when I spent too much time in a single day working on these albums it would put me into a funk of sorts. It gave me an aching for my babies that would never be again, the little people who I cherished who no longer existed in that form. Basically, I found myself getting stuck in the past.

While it at times was depressing, it was worth it in the long run because of the smiles it brought to their faces when they opened the photo albums. As I looked at them as adults enjoying the fruits of their childhood in those albums it shifted everything for me to the present and the ability to enjoy the wonderful adults they have become today.

Stay in balance

The process of it got me to thinking about the danger of living in the past as Lao Tzu speaking of in today’s quote. In fact this past, present, future part of our thinking is such an intricate balancing act all by itself within our human psyche. Too much of one can throw the other two out of balance.

The past can be filled with great memories and with great memories can come great sorrows for those people and places that may no longer be in our lives or great times that will never be again.

There is also a danger if we spend too much of our energy and efforts only living in the present because we might not be paying any attention to the road ahead or enjoying the riches of our past.

Subsequently, if we spend too much time thinking and working only towards our tomorrow’s we can stop enjoying today!

3 questions

If you are feeling out of sync and out of balance with the past, present, or future elements of your life stop and take a few minutes to journal about these three questions below. It’s a great wake up call to begin thinking about changes you might want to contemplate.

1. How much time lately have I been dwelling in the past with regret and/or sadness knowing fully well that going back is not an option?

2. What is the coolest thing about my current life circumstances that I should spend more time enjoying? How am I allowing myself to feel in the present?

3. How can I continue to plan for the future without it causing me stress and anxiety – especially if there is a lot of work to be done to get me to where I want to go? How can I look towards enjoying the steps that will take me there?

For those of you who want to dive deeper there is an online assessment in the tools section of this letter to get some deeper psychological feedback on where you stand.

I would recommend doing the journaling first as it will warm you up for the many questions in the assessment. It’s free with immediate results and no email required.

As you discover where you currently sit on this topic it can assist you to make the appropriate adjustments.

Wishing you the peace of enjoying the present moments in this year ahead by finding the clarity and purpose for your tomorrows, driven by the joys and life lessons of your past.

Workshop of the week

Marketing Confidence Webinar
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
12pm MT (11am PT, 2pm ET)

Create your Five-Minute Marketing Plan that will change the way you look at marketing.
Zero in on your target audience, learning to appreciate why it's so critical.
Understand the power of a content calendar and design it to get your message out in front of the people that matter most - your customers and potential customers.
Gain insights, stats, and case studies from those who are fully into the game.
Begin to build stronger relationships from the ground up - beginning with your marketing efforts.

Anyone who has attempted to create successful marketing tactics knows how challenging it can be. From email marketing to social media, this webinar will give you a step-by-step action plan to move forward with the confidence that builds bottom-line revenues.

Be sure to register to get the on-demand recording.

Book of the week

Judgment Detox
by Gabby Bernstein

Release the beliefs that hold you back from living a better life. This is a great book that takes you on a deep dive into how the judgment we have for others and ourselves can affect our life. In addition, how others judgments towards us have effected us along the way. Learning to love yourself as you let go of those beliefs that don’t serve you.

View on Amazon

Challenge of the week

The Zimbardo Time Perspective

A quick online assessment (takes about 15 minutes) to see where you mindset sits in a whether positively or negatively as you spend time in your past, present and future.

Created by two acclaimed psychologists from their book The Time Paradox.

Start this challenge