I’ve been reexamining all sorts of issues and actually found a really great counselor with which to discuss these things. So good news, help is on the way.

And, of course, work life keeps getting in the way, darn it all!

I will post more soon.

This is a natural rock formation that starts in the mountains as the tail and humps of the dragon’s body and ends in the water with it’s head. Very cool to see.

This picture below is just plain paradise. Wouldn’t you agree?

I thought I’d share some of the pictures I took as it was so beautiful and It’s seems so fascinating to see such extremes on one little

island. And what gems. Hard not to take a good picture. Of course, now I’m getting hooked on photography. I can feel my next obsession coming up quick.

Like the caption says, this is the Byodo Temple, an exact replica of a temple in Japan. It was just exquisite to my eyes. This was one of the Oahu Eco Tours trips.  T’ was #8, I believe, to the North Shore. Superbly led with gorgeous views.

The picture below was taken just outside my hotel along the Ali Wai Canal, which overlooked a golf course… of course. I walked a long there in the cool dark night, although the pathway that was very well lit and nodded

to others taking advantage of the cooler temps.. I found a store off at the quieter end of all the action and got some good deals on t-shirts and summer dresses. Tourism in Hawaii is down 15% so venders will bargain with you.

The weather was mostly sunny and pleasantly warm. It rained a couple of times in the early mornings, leaving the air smelling delicious.

Overall, I had a great time and am looking forward to travelling more. I will share some more pictures as Oahu had many photo ops!

I’ll be back on the 4th of July.

Have a wonderful week!

Especially if they are what I call drudge work. Doing the books at the end of the month comes to the forefront of my mind. Sure it appeals to my logical mind. Can’t really mess up 1 + 1 = 2, now can you? (Yes, I know the answer is a loud and resounding YES but we have to move along here.) It’s still boring, time consuming and anything but electrifying!

Or how about sales? Yes, making a sale can be really exciting especially when you’ve closed a lot of deals that month. By then you’re on the gravy train and riding high. But what about the months you aren’t doing so well? It can be extremely difficult to pick up the phone or get out the door.

And what about working out? That’s what brought this subject to mind today in the first place. I started my thrice weekly workout this morning by groaning to myself about how much I hated doing it. And oh, it was so hard, why did I have to do it, it sucked and on and on the list went. Not surprisingly, I started thinking about ways to cut corners or just stopping the whole workout completely. I even tried working deals with myself - anything to keep from having to work out.

Then I realized I was behaving in a really self defeating manner. So, I switched my thinking.  I started running thoughts through my brain like:

“I just love how exercising makes me feel so alive! I love to feel my body move and it feels so relaxed afterward. My head space goes up a bzillion notches and people seem so much nicer.  I look better in my clothes and I feel better knowing I look better.” The lists just grows from there. Think of it as a spin off of the infamous gratitude list. Before I know it, I’m in the zone and feeling just fine, thank you very much!

So the next time you find it hard to get motivated, find out what drives you to do the stint in the first place. It could be avoiding the tax man, going on that dream vacation, feeling and looking better, the feel of a job well done, whatever. The longer the list the better. Then, when you find yourself in a whiney place like me this morning, you can turn it around by running this list through your head.

The task doesn’t get anymore breathtaking to perform but you feel better doing it and even better after it’s done. What more could you ask for!

Sure, I drank and drugged for years, lived life as a quasi-bad ass and then straightened up my act.

Sure I quit every bad habit I’ve had, and now live a life of purity and self congratulation. (Oh, I can so sarcastic at times.)

Sure, I’ve been addicted to spiritual and self help writings since I was in my teens. I’ve chased a few guru’s to the other side and back. Yes, I’ve tried it all at home and alone too.

Sure, I’ve had my fair share of miracles. (They are there if you watch for them). I’ve also had knock down, drag out fights with God and lived to tell the tale without getting struck by that highly anticipated bolt of lightening.

Some days I feel like a fake writing this stuff ’cause I don’t feel too cheerful nor too motivated. Yeah, make lemonade out of lemons. God, sometimes I think if I write that saying one more time, I will retch till I absolutely can’t retch anymore.

I also get intimidated when reading my supposed colleagues, like Dave Navarro or Clay Collins. They are so brilliant and prolific. How do they do it?

Anyway, back to me, ’cause it’s my pity party.

So, who cares? Who wants my advice? Who’s interested in my version of the truth?

And then I realized it doesn’t matter who else it’s for. In the end, it’s for me and my growth.

But thanks for reading anyway.

PS the next book on my reading list after Tim Ferriss’s The Four Hour Work Week and Darren Rowse’s The ProBlogger is Seth Godin’s The Dip. It just might come in handy. Ya think?

I think it may have had something to do with writing the article about igniting one’s passion but something has been stirred.

Many of you may not know it (or care for that matter) but I’m pretty shy. That even shocks me but I know it to be true. Oh, once I get out and into a group of people, I have a great time. I love talking, kabitzing and carrying on. But to get me out? Well that’s a different story.

So, this week I decided that I’ve had it with the stay at home hiding from life type of existence I’ve been keeping. I am gonna get out there and LIVE! And LIVE LARGE, darn it all!

And, what exactly does this mean, you ask? A lot of things. As you might be able to tell by that last link, I’m currently reading Tim Ferriss’s Four Hour Work Week or 4HWW, as it’s known around the blogosphere and am mightily inspired.

The first thing I did was book a trip to Hawaii. I was supposed to go with my ex-boyfriend but now he’s an ex, obviously so that won’t work. And I also thought that it really made no sense to go there in the summer. Then I realized that we’ve really not had a summer in Vancouver yet this year so what the hay. And, I really just need to relax on a beach somewhere and rethink my life. So, I’m going for a week starting June 26th.

I’ve secretly been working on losing the weight I put on from stopping smoking this past January. I really only need to loose about 10 lbs because when you get to my age (no, I’m not telling) a little fat is good. I’ve been working out 3x a week doing 15 minutes of cardio and 45 of weights. I also walk fast (not speed walk) at least 1/2 hour per day. I’m going to start doing some muscle confusion to spice things up. The rest, I believe is fine.

I’ve also been cutting down on my calorie intake. As of the last week of May, I’ve lost zero pounds and one inch from my waistline. As my chiropractor said, I’m less jiggly.  I suppose that’s better than nothing but I’m disappointed with the lack of weight loss. So I’m gonna switch to a low carb diet and see how that works.

And so goes the first installment of my Living Larger project. Stay tuned, folks, ’cause there’s more to come! I’m no longer going to just take up space.

Denis Waitley

I was going to write an entirely different post today and in fact had it started last Thursday before life got in the way.

Then, as I lay sleeping, a different post began to compose itself in my head. It was about gratitude or more specifically, a list of all the things I’m grateful for in my life today.

Acknowledging the good things in our lives encourages us to want what we have rather than always chasing what we don’t. In other words it fills us with a sense of satisfaction with our lives rather than the feeling of frustration.

Chris Garrett adds in his post that “…positivity and gratitude energize, motivate, get your brain in a creative mode and attract people to work with you.” And Joanna Young at Confident Writing is so keen on writing with the attitude of gratitude that she gives us 12 very good reasons why we should do so. My favorite is that it boosts our serotonin. Yeah, gratitude!

So I’m grateful for the following:

1. My health. I am in pretty good shape and capable of doing pretty well what I want. And, as we all know, if you don’t have your health, you don’t have much.




2. My friends. I don’t have many but the ones I have care deeply about me and I them. What more can one ask?




3. My country which is at peace and has a reasonable facsimile of equal opportunity.




4. My city which is beautiful and I can safely roam it’s streets all day long and most of the night.




5. My quiet cozy apartment in a popular area where I can walk to most anything.




6. My work of which there is plenty of with pleasant people this week. It also affords me lots of spare time with which I can indulge in my hobbies.




7. My car works well and gets me where I need to go.




8. The fact that I made two great necklaces this week.




9. That we’ve had sunshine for 2 days in a row!




10. That I am smiling because I wrote this.

Anything you’d like to add?

Well dang it all if it didn’t work and a little sooner than I expected! As soon as I decided to post about it, I got my passion back again. I guess it’s just that simple sometimes. What is it they say? Seek and ye shall find? Might be some truth to that.

But to be honest, I’ve had other times when it has not been so simple. And, I’ve met others that have said the same thing.

So I decided to put together a list of suggestions for those times when our brain runs to the dry side of life. I hope these words of wisdom will help to make our souls sing whether we’re looking for a posting idea or a new line of work:

• Think about what you spent your time doing as a child? I used to draw and color, usually dogs, horses, house layouts, clothing designs, etc. I loved it and would spend hours perfecting my masterpieces.
  

  Now, I enjoy making jewelry or as I call them, necklace sculptures (see picture). It’s still all about lines, color and balance. And they sell well too, so that doesn’t hurt.


• What touches your heart, I mean really makes it swell? Andrea Bocelli or Sarah Brightman hitting a high note just about puts me in raptures. A beautiful vista can bring a lump to my throat. The raw honesty of Oriah’s writing really moves me. These are but ideas of those things that really affect me on a deeper level.

 

• Take a course on anything that even remotely sounds like it would interest you. If we don’t know about a subject, how can we know if it really turns our crank or not? I took a course about computers way back when the desktop models were just coming out and found I was fascinated by them. Who knew?

 

• Go to a magazine/book shop and wander around for a bit. Pick up any publication that catches your eye and browse it for a bit. Again, it’s hard to know if you would enjoy a subject unless you know about it.

 

• Surf the web for ideas. Google to your heart’s content. There’s no end to the possibilities on the Internet.

 

• Join a forum or a hobby club in your area. Try things out. If there are some real keeners in the group, their enthusiasm can be infectious.

 

• Read what others have to say about their search for passion.

And if those don’t work, shoot me an email. I’ll commiserate with you and then we can brainstorm some more ideas to get your passion back. Who knows, it may just be what I need to give my passion for life a little extra boost.

By all rights, this weekend should have been a pretty good one.

Saturday morning I measured my waistline and found that I lost 1 1/2 inches in the last two weeks via my new exercise/diet regimen. Some of that is probably water as this is just the beginning but I’m still thrilled. Add to that the fact that on the weekends I can eat anything I want to spike up my metabolism so I’m looking forward to being in chocolate heaven. Also, sunshine was forecasted for Saturday and for once the weather guessers were right!. It was intermittent, but it was there. One would think that would make for a good start to any weekend.

But no. Instead I spent my time moping around feeling sorry for myself. Oh poor me.

Also, In the past I have found that if I have too much time on my hands, my ability to motivate myself can be a challenge. As my life stands right now, I don’t have many responsibilities and I don’t know that many people in Vancouver.

So, with all this time on my hands, you would think that I’m off doing all sorts of cool things. Nope. This weekend I mostly spent feeling sorry for myself. Feeling lonely. Did I do anything about it? No. I just wallowed in it. And that’s a problem because wallowing just begat’s more wallowing. Arrrgh!

Then a post on Twitter sent me to the New York Times this morning and it was like I came to out of a fog. I realized there’s a whole world out there filled with so many interesting things to know, places to go, things to do. And, I saw that in comparison to some, my life is pretty darn good.

Stephen over at Adversity University has got a great idea going there with his End of the Week Gratitude themes. (Talk about synchronicity, last week’s theme was about people who are promoting him! ) Perhaps that’s what I should have been reading Friday afternoon before my descent into my funk. There’s nothing better than appreciating what we’ve got in life.

So, thank goodness, I’m back in the saddle but man, sometimes I could just kick myself. Instead, I think I’ll just work on better ways to keep myself motivated.

How do you do it?