The Best Years of Your Life… Now!

It’s late this Sunday afternoon and I’m just in from moving the water around. As I wandered over the 3 plus acres, Bob and I live on, I was thinking, “This is prosperity to me!”

The sky is blue, the sun is soaking into my muscles and the view… oh, the view!

This is prosperity to me: Being able to live where I want. In a place that brings me joy and feeds my soul. Being able to walk my land. Being able to own a small piece of the marvelous, mystic of Montana. Being able to enjoy the day!

Having the time to watch the birds; finches, sparrows, doves and more around the bird feeder and splashing around in the bird bath.

Having the time to garden. Fresh veggies; lettuce, radishes, snow peas and onions straight from the garden to the table. Yummmmm…..

I am so grateful for the life I live.

Are you?  Are you grateful for the life you live?

Living on the land is healing for me. It reminds me of the connection I have with Mother Earth. We all have that connection. So many lose it living in the city. I did for a while. Living surrounded by concrete and asphalt. If you live in a city, find some time this week to spend in a park or zoo. Be safe and reconnect with Mother Earth. Maybe she’ll remind you of what you’ve been missing.

When you take that time to reconnect, think about this: What is prosperity to me?

Have a marvelous day!

Gwen Baran

When life doesn’t turn out the way you had hoped, do you start acting in a manner which supports the way things are …or do you act contrary?

Acting as if life is happening the way you want it to, not as it appears to be.

Acting “as if” is a powerful declaration of personal commitment. You make it both to yourself and radiate its resolve out into the world. What you’re saying is: No matter how things appear to be, I have faith that what I expect will come to pass.

So you do things, think things and expect things that support the good you know is the true destiny of your life.

If you operate a business, you answer the phone because you know the next call could make your month or year. Just because the phone hasn’t rung for a few days you don’t assume it never will again… Any business person will gladly tell you about how those dark days, when the phone didn’t ring, tested their personal belief and resolve… how they didn’t lose their faith and how one call changed everything …and it’s always just one call that changes everything.

They will also tell you how they would never consider disrespecting their dreams by acting in a manner which betrayed their faith in the ultimate success of their endeavor.

The difference between a professional and an amateur is that the professional maintains the attitude and consistency, on a day-to-day basis, which always leads him or her to being in “the right place at the right time”.

It’s the dedication that creates the little daily miracles which translate into measurable success. The amateur is never around long enough to harvest the ripened fruit that takes both days of sunshine and dark nights to make possible.

The professional expects and acts “as if” success if a foregone conclusion and never quits a few minutes before the job is completed.

The amateur is always looking for the quick solution with minimum exposure.

You’ll never learn how to swim by only placing your toe in the water… and only your dedication will get you across the English Channel.

-Bob Baran

Even a self imposed limitation is a lie that requires life energy to maintain it as part of your reality.

Where am I going with this? I think we’re all carrying vital energy robbing baggage around with us …that continues to shrink the amount of “juice” we have to live our lives to the fullest.

Your life may be the result of getting by on five or ten percent of your true energy potential! The rest is being used up.

That doesn’t leave a lot of “headroom” as far as an energy reserve, does it?

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that when you get back in touch with your true self, dissolving the false constructs which represent the various aspects of your “baggage” and “mask”, you begin to experience more energy, more vitality and start to look younger too.

Hardened attitudes, opinions and beliefs are a form of spiritual concrete …a spiritual black hole that sucks up your natural life energy.

Add to this a number of falsely based assumptions, outright lies and little compromises, amassed over a lifetime and you end up with a web of energy absorbing constructs that cheat you out of the vitality and zest for life that is your birthright!

Maybe “unleashing yourself” really has more to do with letting go of the “mask” and “baggage”, instead of having that next big epiphany.

What good is an epiphany if you don’t have the energy, to make what you realize, an integral part of your day-to-day reality? Without the energy to transform yourself, that epiphany is relegated to the least energy intensive application: Memory data.

Your response to the epiphany becomes, “oh yeah, I’ve heard that before” or “that’s interesting” as you sock it away in your memory. You have little or no energy for taking inspiration within that epiphany and using it as a foundation for transforming your life.

So you find yourself living a life with all kinds knowledge and experience but no “juice”. Your vital energy sapped by your “mask and “baggage”, with no energy left over to change anything in your life

…so you get bored, bitter and old. You look around and tell yourself: “I’m just acting my age”.

-Bob Baran

Do you have a perfectionist always looking over your shoulder? I’m not talking about your boss or a coworker. I’m talking about the inner perfectionist! The one that is always telling you that you’re not good enough, that your work needs one more tweak and then, when you do that “one last tweak” it demands yet another.

• “It’s not good enough yet. It’s not perfect. I need it to be perfect.”

This inner perfectionist is part of your personality. Not everyone has a highly developed one. There are plenty of people out there who can say, “Good enough,” without being plagued by an inner voice that says, “Not so!”

If you, however, have that inner perfectionist riding you, here are some things to consider.

• 1. Is your inner perfectionist keeping you from accomplishing something important?

• 2. Would the project you’re working on have been done quite awhile ago if it weren’t for all the tweaks it “needed” to be perfect?

• 3. Is your inner perfectionist making you miserable?

If you answered yes to any one of the questions above, you aren’t in the driver’s seat. You’re being run around by your subconscious programming.

Do you want to get back in the driver’s seat? Do you want to be the one determining how and where your life is going to go? Then you’ve got to have a heart-to-heart talk with “the perfectionist”.

What do I mean heart-to-heart talk? Isn’t talking to yourself, crazy? No, it’s not. It’s actually how you keep sane. You’ve got to recognize that your subconscious programming has taken on the form of a perfectionist and is derailing your progress by a misguided belief that it is helping you be the best you can be.

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with being the best you can be! No, what I’m saying is the inner perfectionist has a view of perfection that is not humanly possible. It will ride you until you feel like you’re going nuts. If you feel you’ve reached that point, then it’s time to throw up your hands and say, “Enough!”

I’ll bet the project you’ve been working on is better than good enough. I’d even bet it was better than good enough, a few weeks ago. You have to tell your inner perfectionist, “I’m happy with this the way it is now. If you want to tweak it in the future, fine… But, for now, it is better than good enough and I’m going to put it out into the world.”

This little “heart-to-heart” will put you back in the driver’s seat. Now you just have to deal with your fear of failure or your fear of success.

Good luck,

- Gwen Baran

P. S. Contact us if you want some help with moving beyond the blocks your perfectionist puts in your path.

It came as a shock when I heard about Tim Russert’s passing at the young age of 58.

He was doing what he loved, living a life following his passion when he was suddenly taken. In a blink of an eye he was gone. I had only seen “Face the Nation” a handful of times through the years. But I felt as if I had a personal relationship with Tim Russert.

Why was he special?

In a world full of well rehearsed actors playing at the game of journalism, Tim was the real deal. The natural passion and love he had for what he was doing was not artificially subdued, or “packaged”. It was immediate, honest and engaging. He had achieved a balance between the boy inside, who’s unbounded joy for the adventure of his life was tempered and seasoned by the man who fearlessly showed us that passion. He reached through my “baggage” and cynicism. I trusted him because I felt safe. His energy was coming from an honest place.

I’ll never forget his white-board drawings of the potential red and blue state outcomes during the NBC News coverage of the last presidential race. There he was, with only a marker and his enthusiasm, making what could have been the most boring aspect of the election, the most fascinating thing to consider…

He’s the only reason I kept watching that night.

What made me feel as if I knew him personally was a story he once related about his father:

Tim had reached the point in his personal and financial success where he wanted to buy his father a new car. He told his Dad he could have any car he wanted, even suggesting a Mercedes. His Dad told him a Ford Crown Victoria would be perfect. Tim, surprised at his father’s choice questioned him about it. His father’s reply was that among his friends and neighbors (and in the world he lived in) the Crown Vic was an acceptable and much appreciated symbol representing the gift from a son to his father…In other words, a more expensive car would actually have less meaning.

That story connected me to Tim Russert.

In an instant I understood who he was and where he came from. His wonderful relationship with his father who he referred to a “Big Russ”, reminded me of the special moments I had with my own Father.

You see, Tim Russert had something you can’t fake. He fearlessly showed you his heart. Which is so unusual at the level of success he achieved in network television. His open heart was the source of his passion. That’s what made him a true original.

No matter what he was talking about… I was always glad to see him. I think it was the boy inside me recognizing another kid from my block...

Thank you Tim, for touching my heart and reminding me of what’s really important. Our time together was way too short.

-Bob Baran