Life Updates of a Larger Magnitude

I'm reflecting on this one today and my first honest answer is that I don't know where I'm causing myself problems.  Or at least, I don't know of an area where I'm causing problems and I'm not working on it.  Patience, obviously.  Coaching with my team so that I empower and trust them instead of micromanaging.  Man, I'm not very humble right now. Probably the biggest problem I pose is that I think I'm in control.  I take all the credit and the blame, all the worry and the stress, for all my actions.  I need to give some of that up to God.  I'm working really hard at building this business and deep down I believe it will massively succeed because of MY actions and MY mindset.  But that's faulty thinking.  If I succeed, it's because God has given me many talents, and brought many amazing people into my life to help.  If I fail, it's because there are other things out there I need to learn through that failure.  I love the phrase ...

I'm giving in to this mental pull and really going to spend time exploring it.  What is my/our purpose?  Some philosophers have spent their entire lives trying to figure that out, and I have no intention of doing that, but I do want to make a serious effort.  In that vein, I just started reading this: I don't remember who recommended it to me, but it sounded good and I snagged it off Amazon.  After reading Chapter 1 I realize it's a 40 day chapter/journey.  A bit like Resisting Happiness.  I also know that it's very God centric.  I know that because the first chapter is titled "It All Starts With God".  Do you like my awesome powers of deductive reasoning there?  I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because at this point I've realized there is a large set of people who find their ultimate purpose along God's path and there is no swaying them.  Not that I want to, but I am a scientist at heart and so things are hard for me to wholeheart...

The teenage years and 20 somethings are filled with so much HOPE for the future.  We don't know exactly what it's going to turn into, but it's going to great.  And then at some point, we achieve some of our goals, perhaps at the expense of others, and a general feeling of malaise sets in.  Is this it?  Am I doing it wrong?  The hope for the future dials down a few notches - likely we'll maintain the happiness we have now and achieve some good things, but 20 years from now we know we'll probably be much the same person we are now.  I have a friend going through that right now and I'm glad to realize that, even though I was there a few months ago, I'm not in it right now.  But here is what I've learned since I was in the trough... The things that we all want to have a perfect life seem to be family, enjoyable job, and good friends.* When I consider the people I know, it seems like achieving 2 out of 3 is about as far as we get.  I think this was whe...

Last fall one of the businessy books/podcasts/articles I was absorbing talked about designing the life you love and scheduling the important stuff first.  So at that time, months and months in advance, I scheduled a camping trip for each summer month.  We just finished #3 of 4, and I could kiss whomever wrote/spoke that businessy thing that encouraged me to do this.  Normally with camp with my most amazing sister Lisa and her friend, Rose, and those ladies are QUEENS of camping.  They have it down to an art, and they are such amazing souls that they take care of everyone else who camps with them.  But this time, alas, we went without them.  And since I had to really think through the gear thing, I realized that this is the one vacation that you can do with a family of 5 for pretty cheap.  I put together an Amazon list of the basics as I see them, and even if you bought all the essentials on it for a family of 5, you'd be at $700*.  $700 and you ca...

Having kiddos is tough!  Tough because they force you to try to be unselfish and truly understanding of someone other than yourself.  I thought that dating and marriage forced you to do that, and it does, but not at this level.  When dating someone and they get to be a pain, you can retreat to "They're a jerk, maybe this isn't for me." or "We're not a fit."  When kids get to be a pain, you are basically left with, "I made this creature, and we're going to be together forever, so I better figure out how to get better at communication."  And that's what I am focusing on today.  I just did a brief read-through of "How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk."  A lot of it has already disseminated through today's society and wasn't really earth shattering, but it was still full of things that basically mean I have to be way more empathetic and put serious effort into how I respond, not just knee-jerk react...

I've been having low level headaches for about 6 weeks now, which means one of 2 things.  Either I have a brain tumor, or I'm not doing as great a job managing stress as I think I am. At first I thought it was a by-product of theWhole30 challenge that Matt and I were doing.  I've managed to stay pretty hydrated recently, so that's not it, but I thought perhaps cutting out sugar and dairy was effecting me in weird ways.  But we ended that, I binged on sugar, I'm still hydrated, and the headaches keep coming.  That, combined with the fact that every time I'm driving in the car I realize that I have to focus to get a full deep breath, makes me think my stress level is pegged even though I seem to think I'm mentally great.  Or I have a brain tumor.  I hope it's the stress thing. The downside to that is that I don't actually think I'm that stressed.  I do my whole Miracle Morning routine each weekday, so I'm getting some exercise, some meditat...

Today's morning challenge was inspired by my 2 current magazine subscriptions: Better Homes and Gardens and INC .  INC had a great article about defining success in your own terms, but also allowing that definition of success to grow as you grow.  BHG just always has beautiful, awesome stuff that makes me swoon. So here is what success looks like to me - time, and liquid funds.  And with that time and those liquid funds, I would... Throw gorgeous brunches and dinner parties, thus allowing me to cook (love), hang out with my favorite people (love), and decorate (love!). Decorate and redecorate things and blog about them.  And make little music videos. Build wooden things and then give them away (or maybe sell them for nominal fees). The thing with selling items is that you will never make money doing it.  Then it becomes a vicious cycle of wanting enough money to justify your time but your time was spent doing what you love so do you really need the money? ...