Awaken Your Day - July 30 - To Grow or Not to Grow

"And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
- Anais Nin

Sadly, many of us do not even know that we are living so tightly in our familar and secure bud.

I am an example of one who wishes he had explored a little more. I do not mean all of a sudden one day I wish I just decided to go bungee jumping or skydive. It is extreme thoughts like that that discourage many people from the simple act of thinking of what "blossom" might mean to them because they see it as a drastic change.

I just wish to encourage you to take some time NOW to grow. Grow in any amount, at any speed that suits you. But Blossom you should...Please.

Take a class.
See something new.
Read a book.
Try new foods.
Learn to swim.

Just open yourself to something you want to experience. Expose yourself to new sights, sounds, smells.

A day, or many days do come.... when we far too often say, "I wish I would have..."

I did it this morning, and now it is time to erase a wish from my "Is it too Late?" list.

Good Morning.

Pierre Couturier

Awaken Your Day - July 28 - A Duel

Quick, short and simple today.

I challenge you to a duel...or should I say I invite you to participate in a duel. Between the "Have" and "Have Not". Between the "I Want...I Wish... I Need" and the "I Have...I Did.... I Acheived".

Everytime you see something today that you want, or you think of something you need ( training, material thing, feeling ) I want you to list - yes...actually write down - something that you have already achieved .

For example - I wish I could have a new car. And... I bought and have paid off my old car.

Our mission today...is simply to recognize the skills we have already displayed to get to where we are and to have attained steps and things that we wanted in our lives. Once we recognize that we already have the skills to achieve, we can begin to push ourselves to reach for the next level of our goals.

In recognizing our achievements we stand a better chance of harvesting further belief in ourselves and our abilities to grow further.

Good morning, and may you be pleasantly reminded by a large list.

Pierre Couturier

Awaken Your Day - July 27 - 39 Fresh Start

Milestones.

Not just to reach for, but also they act like a rest area on the dream trail to pause and reflect. You have heard me say numerous times that we need not look ahead and be discouraged by the mountain of a journey before us, rather we need to look back with enthusiasm and express boistrously, "Wow, look how far I have come!!"

Hitting a milestone in age always causes one to reflect; and often that reflection hilites regrets.

We cannot do this.

My wife asked my yesterday if I was happy with where I find myself at this stage of my life. I told her I am thrilled where I am with my marriage, and our child, but I admitted that I had a few things I would have liked to have put more energy too. In saying that, I was happy to realize that I was not dwelling on regrets of incomplete attempts; instead I was calmly identifying those few things where I could improve my effort for the next push - but the dream was not dissolved. My awareness was and is my companion.

I have far too many blessings to be feeling self pity, or self anger for things I did not complete.

Milestones.

I turn 39 years old today. 39. I find it hard to believe. Where did the time go? What have I done? What do I long to do? How much time is there left for me? Have I found my skills? Have I touched my inner belief ? Can I share my passion? Am I successful?

39? Really?

"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams." - John Barrymore

I have defied the odds in my lifetime.
A few times. Definitively. Luckily.

So I am only mildly surprised as I discover how I feel this morning, and ... for the first time, it is really sinking in. I do not feel 39.

I do not feel lost. Nor panicked. And I do not feel like it is a race now to accomplish something because of this number. No. Instead I feel quite different than I expected. I know I am where I am because of decisions I made along the way, and I know that where I will be tomorrow will depend on the decisions I make now, moving forward from this marker.

It may have taken me this wonderful journey to now, to properly see the vibrant picture layed out before me - but at Mile marker 39 - I truly feel like I am just warming up.

How fitting is it for me, that this next stage begins on Opportunity Monday?

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen....we are starting the engines.

Pierre Couturier
Father, Husband, Author, Entrepreneur, Friend... and Believer.

Awaken Your Day - July 21 - Do you see what I see?

"The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning."
-Ivy Baker Priest

What does Ivy's comment mean to you?

It's not the end of the world.
Whenever one door closes, another opens.
Find the positive in every negative.

I am a firm believer that we all receive and process messages in our own way. We all paint a different picture in our minds even though we have heard the same words. The meaning you may not grasp today, you will when it is painted differently tomorrow or a year from now with a different sentence. And maybe that is right when you need to find your own understanding of the message.

I like the way Ivy put this today, for it gives me a simple, yet easily referenced picture that tells me a thousand words of reassurance. Like the old association techniques for remembering things, I can, in a moment of anger or maybe despair, I can picture a blue world, and I will then think 'round', and then 'no beginning, no end' and then 'flow' from this negative moment into a new one and I can think 'end of one chapter, and the turning of the page,' and so on.

I can draw on this resource, no matter how fast my real world is spinning out of control. And I can draw a full breath, clear my head and calm the waters before I ride the rapids into the day.

We find our messages in different paintings by the same artist. That is what makes us unique.
That is what keeps the dawn always coming around.

The world is round. I may come to the end of a road ... but I am sure that is a path I see up there to the left. I wonder where it goes.

May you encounter a new beginning today, in anything you need to.

Pierre Couturier