So what is the beginning? On this day, 55 years ago, my life began. I must say that even only a few years ago, my vision for this day was very different than today’s reality. I had envisioned a big birthday party in my desert home with family and friends from all around the country joining me to celebrate.

Instead, I am spending the day quietly continuing to sort and release old books, papers, cassette tapes, etc. – pieces of my history that no longer serve me. So I am releasing them to be of service to others. And as long as I keep that in mind, I can keep going until I complete this process.

Endings are clear here for me – the letting go is one level of that. The closing down of my old website is another. And of course the end of 2010 which is less than two weeks away. I want to create clarity, simplicity, and space in my life. So as 2011 begins, I will step forward into “what will be” instead of being surrounded and constrained by “what was”.

This will be the last entry on my old website. My apologies to everyone who has been following my blog from that site. I want to thank you for your interest, your time, and your contributions. I greatly appreciate the opportunity you have given me to be a part of your life, even if for only a few minutes each week. I will continue to blog, but there may be a delay while I set up a new site to post my entries to (and then link to my Facebook account).

In the interim, my wishes for you are for a joyous holiday season and an amazing New Year! May the New Year bring you peace and prosperity, good health and good cheer. May you be surrounded by the love and support of family and friends. And please remember to take time each day to celebrate what’s good about your life – even if at times it is only that you are still breathing! Enjoy!

I am finding the end of this year to be a personal challenge. It feels like there are a lot of endings – or maybe it would be more accurate to say there is a lot of letting go. I won’t be going to North Carolina to visit my nieces for the first time since they were born (over a decade). I am sad about this, but it is the way things worked out this year. I won’t be attending the holiday parties of several of my dear friends in Cincinnati. Timing and lack of cash flow were the key components there. I will be closing down the website that contains this blog because it didn’t create enough interest to justify its cost. And so on.

I have a lot of hopes and dreams and future thinking tied up in things like this. Not for reality the way it is, but for what I would like it to be. Most of the modern day spiritual teachers talk about how we have to accept what is – as the beginning of creating what will be. But I’m finding acceptance of “what is” a little difficult to embrace right now.

The good thing about all this is that I have arrived at a pivotal point with “what was”. I am very tired of being surrounded by stacks of paper and books, CDs and workbooks with marketing materials, and many things I think I might use, but never seem to. For example, I finally got around to using an old container of hand lotion the other day. I picked it up and gave it a squeeze to get the lotion out. The plastic container was so old that it shattered under the pressure and hand lotion went flying all over my bathroom!

Now you would think that I would get the message, right? Time to throw it in the trash. But instead, I used some of the lotion left in the broken bottle over the next couple of days until it dried out to the point where it really didn’t make sense to continue using it. Why? Because I was raised to think of things as scarce and to always use everything until there was nothing left of it. The old “waste not, want not” outlook on life.

That’s not a bad outlook – if you are approaching it from the viewpoint of someone who wants to be environmentally responsible and live lightly on the earth. But if you are doing it because at some level you are afraid that throwing out an old bottle of hand lotion means you may never get another one, there is something wrong with that fear. Time to change my perspective on that one!

So I am once again in the process of letting go. It feels to me like the past three years have been about that – ever since my father passed away. Maybe it is finally time to finish this process. To release the more important things like fear and sadness that fuel my desire to hang on to the physical things. To finally clear out the last of the old so that there will be space in my life for the new – whatever that is. And for the loved – like my family and friends.

So this week my motto is – let it go, let it go, let it go! If you find yourself surrounded with things that hold you down, hold you back, and/or keep you bound up in fear-based thinking, feel free to have your own “let it go” extravaganza! Enjoy!

I listened to a teleseminar given by Suzanne Evans recently. She is a mindset and marketing coach who helps solopreneurs develop their businesses into profitable enterprises while helping a lot of people. She said that one of the things that many solopreneurs do but really shouldn’t – is to chase more than one bunny! Essentially, to pursue more than one focus for developing a business. She said that when you chase two bunnies, eventually one gets away and the other dies exhausted in your arms.

I love the labeling of these things as “bunnies”. They hop all over, they tend to multiply rapidly, and they force you to turn and twist and double back and run around like a crazy person trying to catch them all. In my case, I am the one dying of exhaustion while (in the past) ALL the bunnies have escaped! Not the best way to use my energy. As Month Python would say, it’s all “knees bent, running around, advancing behavior” but without a tremendous amount of real advancing! My own issue – too many bunnies!

The movie “Up” had a dog that was easily distracted every time a squirrel came into view. His challenge was squirrels, mine is “to-do’s”. Every time I start one, I see another, and then another, until I’m several hours into something and haven’t really finished anything.

If you are someone who picks things up, concentrates on them until they are finished, and then puts them down, I envy your ability to focus and accomplish things. I can get there. It just seems like it is exceptionally difficult to stay on track – and takes a great amount of energy to do so. If there is such a thing as past lives, then I am sure I used to be a scout of some sort. Always out in front, checking things out, looking at everything, and bringing back information others could use to plan their way forward.

So I now need to scout among my bunnies. To identify which one represents the best way to go forward with my desire to be of service to others in a way that helps them and compensates me. I have some ideas. I have gotten feedback from past clients. There are always clues along the way. The point is to be open to the clues, to be accepting of where they are leading, and to appreciate the journey of discovery. I don’t know about you, but I have had some challenges with these kinds of things in the past. With any luck, I will master these soon and be ready to face the next set of challenges that come along. It is a journey after all. Enjoy!

I started this blog in April 2008. It was part of a website about losing weight by avoiding foods that people test sensitive to. It was a great idea that never really got off the ground. Not sure why. It helped some people (mostly friends and family) lose weight and feel better. And I am very glad about that. I just wasn’t able to make it work as a business. Probably because the blood test for food sensitivities has to be administered by a medical doctor. So there was an initial step that was beyond what I could offer.

Also, I have talked about a lot more than just diet and exercise in this blog. I have written about personal growth and transformation, facing life’s challenges with grace and gratitude, moving to San Francisco, etc., etc., etc. I still love to cook and I still love to help people find foods to eat and ways to cook that help them look and feel better. But I have finally come to realize that this is not the best way for me to make a living. At least not right now.

So I contacted my web designer and asked if I took down the diet related website, would I lose this blog? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. The blog is tied to the website and if I close down the website, I will lose almost three years of weekly blog entries. Yikes! For those of you who read this on my Facebook page, it is linked to there from my website, so that will have to change too.

I have copies of my prior posts in my own personal archives, but it seems kind of sad to lose all that history online. Then again, the website is costing me almost $100 a month to keep up and running (domain name, hosting, shopping cart, etc.) which is a very high price to pay to maintain a blog archive.

So as I look forward to the end of 2010, I realize I have some decisions to make about all this. Certainly, when I decide on a date to close down the diet website, I will post a blog entry to that effect before I do it. Also, I will create another website, something more relevant to what I am doing now. And I will continue to post blog entries. I just won’t have my prior entries online any more.

Some decisions are harder than others, and for me, this one is hard. It represents almost three years of my life, a number of hopes and dreams for the business part of the process, and a significant investment of time and money. I learned something from the experience, of course, but I had really hoped for a different outcome. Sometimes you just have to let go and move on. For me, this is one of those times. I’ll let you know when the official final closing date is set. In the meantime, I will work on getting another website up and starting a new blog.

If you are facing a tough decision, one that you really already know the answer to, but just don’t want to make, I sympathize. Take time to mourn the old and honor its place in your life – what you learned from it, how it helped you, etc. And when you are ready, let go and step forward into a new future. Rock on!

In a few days it will be Thanksgiving. Every newsletter I get is filled with gracious reminders to be thankful for the many blessings that we have in our lives. They remind me that having a computer and being connected to the Internet makes me part of less than 5% of the world’s population. They remind that being able to celebrate Thanksgiving with a roof over my head and food on my table also makes me a very fortunate person. I agree. I am a very fortunate person.

I am also grateful that I am breathing (a very basic but important thing). I am grateful that I can see to read this and that I hear the music playing while I do so. I could go on and on, but I am sure you have your own many reasons to be thankful, so I will take a slightly different path on this Thanksgiving week.

I belong to various social and networking groups. Like many small groups, sometimes the interactions among group members get overly focused on the “dramatic”. Things get said and done that can’t be taken back. Feelings get hurt. Frustration increases. Not a pretty picture.

But for me, a lot of things depend upon the context. Sure Harry yelled at Sally and Dagwood snubbed Blondie, but at the end of the day, did anyone die? No. Did anyone go hungry? No. Did anyone lose their home? No. There are so many people who are truly suffering right now, but if that is not within your immediate context, you forget. Too many other things to think about.

So for this Thanksgiving, instead of just thinking about all the things you are thankful for or naming them on a list or in a newsletter, let’s all go put things into a larger context. Let’s volunteer at the local soup kitchen to serve a meal. Let’s take some of the money we use for holiday gift exchanges and donate it to a worthy cause. Let’s sort through our closets and take a load of useful clothes to a local charity. Let’s… you get the idea. Then we will truly know what we have to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

At the end of October, I started my annual “retrospective”. I am taking the next month or so to stand back and look over my past year. I am asking myself – what worked? What didn’t work? Where can I do better? What do I want to continue? What am I ready to let go of?

With that in mind, yesterday I spoke with an attorney friend of mine who said that there was a movement in the city of San Francisco for each person to own only 100 things. 100 things! Talk about simplifying your life! I said that I would fail immediately with books, but he smiled and said that I could own an electronic reader and have all my books there – so that would only be one thing. So maybe not quite as simple as I thought, but still, 100 things?

He said it included everything – clothes, furniture, computers, even kitchen goods! So of course, being the cook that I am, I had to ask about how one could possibly do that with kitchen goods. He said that they keep only one plate, one cup, one set of flatware, one pot, one pan, and very little else. My immediate comment? They could never have a dinner party!

My friend said that was true, but then he asked me when was the last time I had a dinner party? He had me there. I haven’t had a dinner party in a long time. I keep hoping to make that happen, but the reality is that it has not. So I have a lot of stuff for “maybe” and “some day” but not “now”.

Maybe 100 things isn’t such an unrealistic objective. If I let go of all the maybe’s, and should’s, and some day’s, and I-just-might-need-that’s, I could probably get fairly close – at least as long as I could get all my books into my iPad!

I think I am going to go see where I can further simplify my life right now. I doubt I’ll get to 100 things, but I certainly can get a lot closer than I am right now! How about you? What 100 things would you want to keep? And what creative ways could you find to keep more than you think (like e-books, scanned pictures, and mp3s)? Let me know. I would love to hear your ideas! Enjoy!

My friend Holly was just here for a visit. It was great to see her again and spend time together. We walked all over, went shopping, had a fabulous foot massage, ate, talked, and saw a movie. Essentially, we had a fun time hanging out together. It was great!

It also reminded me of how important it is to just take time and hang out with friends. I am often caught up in my long list of “got to get done’s” and I forget that at the end of the day, it is the time we spend with each other that really counts.

So thank you Holly for a great reminder about how much fun it can be to just take some time to spend hanging out. Thank you to my Mom and my sister Kary who I visited with last week – another wonderful reminder of how great it is to spend time with people you love. And thank you to my extensive to-do list because without that, I wouldn’t appreciate how much fun it is to take time away from it!

So as we move further into the month of November, with our national holiday of Thanksgiving only a couple of weeks away, I am taking the time to make sure I appreciate all the wonderful people and opportunities that are part of my life.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. It is both an honor and a pleasure to sharing life with you all on the planet right now. Enjoy!

I am home visiting my Mom at the moment. It is always great to spend time with her. She still lives in the house I grew up in so it is a home filled with memories for me. I still miss my Dad even though it has been three years since he passed away. It hurts less to think of him now, but I doubt the pain will ever go away entirely. I think it is like that for all the people we truly love.

So while I’m visiting my Mom, I also get to visit my sister and her husband, and another friend who lives nearby. I do truly live in an abundant world. As I wrote about over the past few weeks, I am in the process of changing my perception of reality. It is not an easy process because the messages within me that form my perception were taken in at a very early age. And the subconscious does not let go of its early programming without some specific and focused effort.

For example, although affirmations work for some people, they never worked for me. My conscious mind would repeat the positive phrase and a little voice in my head would say “not really” or “who are you kidding” or even “that’s a lie”. So instead of moving me forward, it became an internal war of words. Not very productive.

Positive imaging gave me problems as well. The subconscious likes images and it is a very powerful process, but it is easier to find pictures of a nice house than a picture of more love in the world, or of a great car instead of more acts of kindness. I would like a nice house, but part of me felt guilty about putting up a picture of a house. And I had friends who have often told me that I already am too focused on my stuff, so my “people pleasing” self was having difficulties feeling OK about certain things. And any of the “manifestation gurus” will tell you that to feel guilty or uncertain about the process is a sure-fire way of ensuring that it will not work. So true.

So after searching for a long time and trying a variety of methods, I have settled on a combination of three practices to reprogram my subconscious. My goal is to change its firm grip on scarcity and fear into a more loving and abundant perception of the world. And so that ultimately my conscious and my subconscious minds can then work together instead of being at odds with one another.

I am not saying these three methods are the right way for others to pursue their own goals. I don’t believe in “right” (vs. “wrong”) ways. I do believe in embracing what works – and the following three methods are working for me. First, meditation, stillness, whatever you want to call it. Spending time in quiet space and just letting go of all the “mindless chatter”, fears and worries that accumulate in my head (a practice I originally learned from Kenn Day in my study of Sheya).

Second, a process called “Eight Steps Into The Master Mind Consciousness” by Jack Boland. And third, the practice of Ho’oponopono as taught by Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. I understand that some people have found these methods controversial. They are welcome to embrace their controversy. I am embracing what works for me. Have a great week! And remember to – enjoy!

I participated in a four-hour webinar on Saturday morning. It started at 8 am Eastern time, so being on Pacific time, I had to get started at 5 am. Not being a morning person, I was a few minutes late, but there was a lot of great content in four hours, and there was no cost to participate in that way, so it was worth it.

Several things the presenters said made a lot of sense to me. Most of them I had heard before, but this time I was able to hear some new meanings in the old phrases. One of which is that nothing happens until you make a decision to do it. In this context, decisions are final – they are do-or-die moments when all other options are set aside and you are going for it – all out, without limits.

What I realized is that a lot of things I have previously “decided” about my life were actually more about exploring options than really deciding something. I have always been someone who likes keeping my options open, but that means I am always at the crossroads of choice and seldom get very far down any particular path. To be truthful, I’m afraid of making a wrong choice and failing, but making no real decision is also failing because I’m not getting to where I want to go.

I looked up the root meaning of the word “decision” in my online dictionary and it referenced the roots of the word “determine”. Under the definition for “determine”, it explained that the root “de” meant “completely” and “terminare” meant “terminate”. So “to decide” is to completely terminate all other options and go for it! One of the presenters’ messages was “stand up and stand out”. Otherwise you’ll just get lost in the 10,000,000 other Google searches that show up on someone’s screen!

And they finally answered one of my enduring questions – if I was so successful as an employee (rising to a high-level position in Corporate America), why am I not so successful in my own business? Specifically, they said the skills that make people successful in big business are often directly opposed to what works in your own business. In big business, we are rewarded for figuring out what our bosses want and then delivering it – essentially we are using our skills to “people please” and we are particularly good at it when we lack self-confidence and are seeking external validation.

In an entrepreneurial venture, confidence is king! I have to believe in myself because plenty of people are going to tell me “no” and I just need to keep going until I find the people who are going to say “yes”. So instead of focusing on pleasing people, the successful entrepreneur is focused on how best to get their product or service to the people who really need it. I have to believe in myself – so that I am not looking to others to validate me, take care of me, or even love me. Then I can offer a real benefit to others – without attachment or expectation on my part.

By George, I think I’ve got it! Hurray! So today, I have decided to change THE world by changing MY world. I want the world to be more love-based and less fear-based, so I need to act more often from a place of love, not fear. I want the world to be simpler and kinder, so I need to simplify my own life and be kinder to myself. I want the world to provide abundance for all, so I need to embrace all the abundance in my life and let go of my focus on what is lacking. Today is a new day with a new way forward for me. How about you? Enjoy!

This past week has been interesting. I feel like I have been working very hard and very consistently but not always on the things that matter most. I realize that when I feel like that I need to look for the lessons in my choices and their outcomes. So what did I learn this past week?

My first lesson was to remember to review my priorities BEFORE I start to work on something. If the most immediate thing in front of me is not my highest priority, refocus on what is more important and put my effort there. Not rocket science, but in the heat of “doing”, remembering to take the time to make sure I am working on what really needs to get done is not always easy to do.

My second lesson was to remember to plan first before jumping into action. Again, fairly basic stuff, but if my to-do list is long and I am feeling pressed for time, I tend to just jump right in with that old “can-do” attitude. The problem is that without some initial planning, I often spend too much time getting the job done and/or don’t reach an optimal outcome – because I didn’t take the time to identify the best way to reach my goal in the most effective manner.

A corollary to this second lesson is if the project is long, I need to take a break a couple of hours in and assess how things are going. Is my initial plan working? Am I making good progress toward my goal? Or am I wandering down a side road that is interesting but not the most important thing to focus on in the moment? If it looks like I’ve gotten off track, or like the initial plan needs adjusting, then I can make the changes and get back on track.

However, if I don’t stop to assess my progress and see how the plan is going, I get further and further off track. By the end of the day, I’m tired and frustrated because I am not where I had hoped to be after all that effort. Something that could have been fixed if I’d just taken the time here and there to stop and made sure things were going according to plan.

My third and final lesson (at least for today) is to remember that I am not alone in the world. I don’t have to do it all. I don’t have to figure it all out by myself. I can ask questions. I can ask for help. I can even ask for changes that will improve the process. The answers may not always be “yes”, but until I ask, the potential for “yes” doesn’t even exist. So why not ask?

I know that I know all this. The trick is to remember it when I need it. When I let myself get pulled into a project and just try to buckle down and work my way through it until it’s over. Maybe that’s what they mean by enjoying the journey. If I can focus on the process instead of always looking to the goal, I may slow down enough to remember what I need to remember in order to improve the process – which will ultimately improve the goal. Now that’s a great lesson!

Did you learn something of interest today? Something that someone else may also benefit from? Please feel free to share it with others here on this blog. And thank you for sharing this journey with me. Enjoy!