MaXIMIze - Harvest - What Are You Harvesting This Year?

As we look at the harvest this fall, what are you harvesting this year? What has changed in your life and what energy did you put out that fostered that change? Did you harvest the crop you thought you planted? If not, why not?

For me, this is the year I achieved financial freedom. I had to make hard choices in order to do so, starting with practicing extreme self-care. I had planted the seeds for this crop nearly two years ago by choosing to track all my expenses in an Excel spreadsheet and only buying the things I truly need. Okay, there were a few wants, however not the binge shopping I used to do. And I even returned things that, once I got them home, didn't fit for whatever reason. I track my grocery purchases to the individual item cost, so I can see where those funds are really going. My diet is probably the healthiest it has ever been - I'm even eating less of the holiday foods coming into the office at this time of year! By doing the hard work to get to this point, I not only achieved financial freedom from debt, but also planned to buy a new car this fall, so I had the funds to do so when my car was deemed a total loss by the insurance company after I got into a fender bender week before last.

I looked back through this year's posts, and found these power words in a post from February: Money means More Opulent Natural Energy - Yeah!

As I look over the areas in my life - finances, career, relationships, spiritual health, physical health, overall well-being - I can see the growth of the seeds I have sown in each of these areas over the last few years, and that growth is amazing!

I can also see the bare spots, the spots where I need a bit more cultivation, fertilizer, and potentially some re-seeding. And that's okay, for it gives me a place to start from when planning next season's plantings.

It is said that the unexamined life is not one worth living. In order to live our best lives now, we need to take the time to review what's going well and what's not going so well in our lives and reflect on what works and what doesn't so we can harvest the gold and toss the dross.

So, have you taken the time to answer the questions I posed in the first paragraph of this post? If not, I challenge you to do so during this time of harvest.

Next week's topic hasn't come to me yet - perhaps something related to fall events - fires and weather and what can happen when the two collide.

Until then, Namaste!

MaXIMIze - Overall Well-Being/Harvest - The Myth of Multi-Tasking

"Slow down and you'll get more done." ~ Karl Palachuk

This was supposed to be the topic of last week's post - which, of course, I never wrote and posted.

My day job, as some of you know, is as a budget analyst for the Federal government. That means the last week or two of September is an extremely busy time as we are trying to finish up getting our contracts and other financial obligations wrapped up for one fiscal year and get things in place to start the next. So, the end of September finds me drained at the end of the day and at the end of the week. Hence, no blog post last week.

Okay, back to the topic at hand - the myth of multi-tasking. And yes, it relates to, well actually, all parts of our lives. In my case, we just saw how it affected my coaching career, as it had to take a backseat to my budget analyst career. In order to focus on doing my analyst duties to the best of my abilities, I had to put the blog on the back burner for a week or two. However, the harvest of doing so is that we did over 95% of what we said we were going to do financially on my projects in Fiscal Year 2015 - which means we were Green as far as our metrics go. A job well done!

The quote at the start of this blog is from Karl Palachuk, author of Relax, Focus, Succeed. There used to be a free download on his website of a talk he gave where he shares what brought him to this, well, philosophy or mindset, if you will. Karl was diagnosed with a chronic illness that caused him to slow down and focus on the important things in life. It could have brought him to a screeching halt, but it didn't - he is a very successful businessman, author, and speaker, and a inspiration for us all!

We can have it all, just not all at once. We have to figure out what is truly important in any given time and place we are at in our lives and then act on that determination.

For me, when my children were growing up, it was important for me to be involved with their schooling and extracurricular activities. So I chose to put my career and higher education on a back burner to ensure I could be there for them. When the older two (I have three) were in junior high and high school, I then went to community college and changed career tracks from administrative assistant to budget analyst.

Are my children as successful in their lives as I would wish? One yes, one no, the last getting there. They are, after all, individuals and have their own paths to choose and live. However, I was able to be there when they were young to support and guide them as far as I could, so I know they have the tools to make the choices in life that will enable them to succeed.

Now, I have a successful career as a budget analyst and am five years out from retirement - if I choose to - from that career.

Could I have done that if I had wanted it all at the same time? No, I don't believe I could have.

I don't know how many of you have heard the story of the many balls we have to juggle in life. The main thing is to not let the glass ball drop.

The glass ball is where our focus needs to be at any given moment to ensure success rather than failure. It also changes as our priorities change in life. At any given moment the glass ball could be family, health, or career. For each of us, that is a choice we make by where we focus our energies.

If we try to focus on all the balls in the air in our lives, the glass ball will likely fall and shatter.The rest will bounce or land unscathed, but the glass one will break. And nothing, once broken, is ever truly repairable.

So it is up to each and every one of us to determine what our glass ball is and work to ensure it does not break.

What is your glass ball, right here, right now?

What are you doing to ensure it doesn't break?

Next week, we will focus on Harvest, the theme for October - until then, Namaste!