I would have related the story of my Bible, the only one of many Bibles I owned that had a white cover, found amid rubble.  It was in my living room, alongside hundreds of other books rendered completely unreadable so ragged and filthy with mud they were.

The white Bible only had a miniscule bit of dirt on the cover and some insulation and dry wall dust tucked between the pages, but otherwise looked as if it had been dropped from the heavens as a sign of God’s faithfulness.

I would have told how the Red Cross showed up with a box truck within 15 minutes of our need of….not food or water…but unbelievably, wheelbarrows and rakes.   We’d never heard of the Red Cross providing wheelbarrows and rakes, yet there they were exactly when we needed them.

I would have described my realization that after nearly 30 years of marriage, a tornado was far more effective than a yard sale for disposing of the things you accumulate, but can’t seem to part with.

I would have told of the kindness and generosity of people–family, friends, casual acquaintances and even total strangers–who just wanted to help us in whatever way they were able.

I would have blogged of the humbling experience of learning to receive graciously.

In the rear view mirror, I am humbled by and grateful for every low and high of that ordeal.  It so changed our perspective of the things in life that are really important.

I pray none of you ever have to go through something so disastrous.   But if you ever want to talk about what’s really important in life, I’d like to have that conversation with you.

Thinking 2 steps ahead about how you’d react if something so life changing ever happened to you is a good way to cultivate gratitude.  How about it?   What’s really important in your life?

We were sitting on the couch watching Go! Diego! Go! when she jumped up and ran over to pick up my cell phone off the floor where I was sitting with her before I had to move to something softer and higher.   I have a dark blue flip cell phone with a hot pink cover (after my bout with cancer a few years ago I developed a passion for pink anything).   Obviously bored with Diego, she asked if I had games on my cell phone.   I explained that no, I don’t have a Smart Phone like her mom and dad.   She nodded, thinking a bit about that, and observed, “oh, so you have a dumb phone.   It’s really pretty though.”

Maybe you had to have been there, but it really cracked me up.

I have a dumb phone—and I’m kind of proud of it.   I talk on my phone.   That’s all, just talk.

There are three good reasons why I have a dumb phone.  First, I’m cheap.  I have access to all that stuff that Smart phones do with older and less expensive technology.  I’ve never found it inconvenient to not be able to transfer money from my checking to my saving account while I’m driving to work.

Second, I don’t want to lose the chance or ability to speak and write and interact with people.   I find there are an increasing number of Smart phones equipped humans who can’t spell, can’t carry on an interesting or intelligent conversation, and often ignore everything and everyone around them in favor of interacting with a colorful and animated screen.

But mostly, I want to maintain the upper hand in the Smart category in my household.  I want to work at remaining smart.   And I’m afraid Smart phones just dumb people down.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Too many people play “if only.”   You know the game…if only I had a better job, a bigger house, a boat to get out away from the rat race.   If only I had less blubber to haul around, or my kids listened to me when I talk to them.   Or, if only my spouse would stop drinking, or my boss would notice how hard I work.   The unending game of “if only” creates an existence of discontent and stress.

Contentment is a conscious state of mind.   It’s a decision to simply be grateful for what you have, rather than concerned about what you don’t have.     It’s a mindset that must be actively reaffirmed to be maintained.   And exercising that conscious choice, just like exercising a muscle, gets easier the more it’s done.  And like exercising a muscle, the benefits accrue to create a better situation.

Next time you find yourself desiring something other than what you already have, ask yourself this:   do I need that or do I just want it?   Be honest.   If the answer is that you want it rather than need it, further ask yourself why you want it.   Examine your motives, and then think 2 steps ahead about obtaining it.   Once it’s yours, what happens?   Will you acquire debt or additional financial cost with it?   Will it cut into, or create, time more effectively spent elsewhere?  Will it impress someone?   Are the reasons you want to impress someone valid?  Will the end result of acquiring it complicate or simplify your life?  What would happen if you don’t acquire this thing?    Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

We lost our home and everything (really….everything) we owned in a tornado several years ago.  It was incredibly freeing to be able to make conscious decisions about replacing only what we needed and would enrich our lives.

I’ve been making more conscious decisions to be content with what I have.  It’s added significantly to my happiness.

What can you put the “I’m Content” stamp on in your life?   Think about that for a few days and see what happens.

Are you happy?   Will you be happy when you have more money, a different job, a good relationship, lose weight, spend more time doing what you want to do, or …. fill in the blank?  The dictionary definition of happy (in the context of this post) is characterized by good luck, fortune, pleasure or satisfaction, being cheerful.

I remember very clearly the first time I consciously realized I was happy.   I was in a Walmart store in Stevens Point, Wisconsin in the mid 1990s.   I walked briskly down an aisle, my posture good and my head held high, greeting and smiling at people I met along the way.   It was a defining moment, a PROFOUND IMPACT moment, for me, although I didn’t recognize it as that until just this minute as I’m writing this.   I was happy and I acknowledged it.  I don’t remember why I was happy, whether there was something wonderful going on in my life at the time.   I just vividly remember being happy.   But that feeling was short lived.

Many times since then I wanted that happiness back.   When I thought about it, dissected it, tried to recreate it, there were times when I knew I wasn’t unhappy, but I just didn’t achieve the happiness mark I felt that day.

It’s been about 15 years since my aha! moment in Walmart.   I’m older and wiser.   I covet less than I did when I was younger.  I learned what was important and not so important in life and made adjustments along the way.   And now, thankfully, I’m feeling, and consciously recognizing, being happy more and more often these days.  There’s an incredible rush associated with being consciously happy.   I feel joy…defined by Mr. Webster as the intense feeling of happiness….really feel it.

Some of the folks in my daily life think I’m kinda weird when I’m joyful.  That just makes me happier.   What a great place to be!

What small thing can you identify today that will increase your pleasure and satisfaction, and result in you being more cheerful?

What are you going to do about it?

Go do it!

It’s true that we all have these moments.  They can change behavior, attitude, and life in an instant, even though it may take much longer to realize that the change occurred.

A defining moment can be triggered by any number of things.  Maybe a confrontation with someone, a book, the chorus of a song particularly relevant to your live, a sudden, crystal clear realization of the truth, a billboard on the highway…anything has the potential to produce a defining moment in your existence.  If you are open to truth and change and allow yourself to imagine the possibilities, magical, positive change can result from a defining moment.

I call this change, in thought and behavior, PROFOUND IMPACT.

PROFOUND IMPACT precipitates CHANGE.   When you encounter PROFOUND IMPACT, your behavior, or your attitude, or your paradigm is changed.  And as a result, your life is also changed.

Case in point:  Last July I read a book called Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It by Gary Taubes.   It was eye opening and life changing.   It was so PROFOUND; I was motivated to completely change my eating habits.   Here’s the impact:

1. Weight lost:  55 pounds and counting.
2. Triglycerides:  Over 500 a couple of years ago, 233 in July  (3 weeks after reading the book and changing my eating habits) and 119 in February 2012.
3. Cholesterol:  209 in July to 189 in February.  Good cholesterol increased, bad cholesterol decreased.
4. A motivation to change some other things in my life that were wearing me down.  Changing those helped produce a conscious happiness.
5. Better, more restful sleep.

That’s pretty profound.   And it was easier than I’d ever dreamed possible.

Another book I found recently (free on my Kindle) has the potential to have PROFOUND IMPACT in my life.   It’s called Achieve Anything In Just One Year: Be Inspired Daily to Live Your Dreams and Accomplish Your Goals by Jason Harvey.  I’ll write another blog post later on this.

How about you?   What has had PROFOUND IMPACT on you?   Are you open to things that might have PROFOUND IMPACT?   If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?   Now, what are you going to do about it?

There’s no air conditioning…don’t need it.   Every night we sleep with the windows open.   As the world around the cabin wakes up each morning we hear the birds singing and the surf lapping.   Morning in Hawaii has a unique smell….fresh, clean, alive.   Heaven on earth, really.

The Bellows beach is on the east side of the island of Oahu.   And the time difference between where I live and Hawaii is 4 or 5 hours (they’re earlier) depending on the time of year we’re there (Hawaii doesn’t have Daylight Savings Time).  So I always come awake up  there in the middle of the night.   That works quite well to get up to watch the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean.

Every morning I’m there I drag a lawn chair down to the beach to watch the sun rise and pray…about how blessed I am and how beautiful the day is.   Every morning I’m amazed again that no one else is on the beach with me to see this spectacular event.   And I’m humbled by the feeling, every single morning I’m there, that the whole world exists just for me.  It’s heaven on earth.

This morning it’s mid March, I’m in mid Missouri, and last week we had several record high temperatures.   We’ve slept with the windows open 4 nights this week.   Because daylight savings time started last weekend, it feels like we’re getting up in the middle of the night to go to work every day.  But today, Sunday, we slept past the normal alarm time and were awakened by birds singing and breezes wafting and sunlight sneaking in through the cracks in the window blinds.   It smelled so clean, fresh and alive this morning I felt like I woke up in Hawaii.

I made a conscious decision.  I am going to spend my day in Heaven on Earth.  My body might be in mid-Missouri, but the State my mind is going to be in is Hawaii.

The birds are singing, I smell the clean, fresh air blowing through the open windows and the same sun that shines in Hawaii is filling my beloved and comfortable home with light and joy and…peacefulness.

I can choose to make a vacation any time and any where I want.   I don’t care that I’m in Missouri and technically, it’s still winter.   Today I’m creating Heaven on Earth for one day right where I am.

The question to ask them is…What are you going to do about it?

Here’s the dirty little secret that folks like this don’t get until they’re hit over the head with the truth.   If they want something to change…they have to change something.

Chronic complainers will try to convince you that they don’t have a choice.   Don’t believe it.   Doing nothing is a choice.   

It’s true that sometimes the choices available aren’t necessarily good or easy choices.   But allowing the situation to continue is the unconscious choice made whenever no action is taken to change the situation.

Remember the definition of insanity?   It’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

If something in your life is making you unhappy or uncomfortable, if you’re exhausted from simply existing from morning to night, if you’re angry about something over which you feel you have no control, if you long to do something different, or try something new, ask yourself what you can, and are willing to, do about changing the situation.

Often, a big change is necessary.   But sometimes only a change in your attitude is the best prescription.   When you know something has to change, change something!   Use the thinking 2 steps ahead process to determine what, specifically, has to change to get to a more acceptable outcome.

In the next post we’ll talk about some of those specific situations.   Send me some of the things you’re dealing with.   We’ll take them through the thinking 2 steps ahead process (anonymously) and see if the “win” you seek is achievable.

ACTION is the key to making something, perhaps something really big and important, happen.

When a director calls for ACTION, he’s nearly at the end of making happen whatever it is he’s trying to create.   Long before (sometimes for years) the ACTION call he had an idea, perhaps a dream or a vision, of what he wanted to create.   He (or she!) had to plan how to bring the idea to life, gather resources and support, envision the final product and practice how the idea would come to life before he ever commanded “ACTION!”

Yet for all the work and resources and envisioning, he would have nothing to show for it without the ACTION.

One of Dr. Phil’s Ten Life Laws, #5, is Life Rewards Action.   Those who dream of being an NBA basketball star or a US Figure Skating Champion have zero chance of achieving that dream if they don’t get off their butt and actually play basketball or skate.   It doesn’t matter how much dreaming, praying, wishing, hoping, planning, studying, or watching the greatest players or skaters of all time you do.  You must take ACTION.

ACTION certainly doesn’t guarantee success.  But as the great Hockey player Wayne Gretsky once said, “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”

What ideas, hopes, and dreams are you holding close?   What are you willing to do to make those ideas, hopes, dreams come true?   All the preparation in the world won’t create the reality you envision.   You must take ACTION.

I dream that the phrase “Let’s think 2 steps ahead about that for a minute” becomes a common phrase in the human vocabulary.   To do that, the readership of this blog has to explode.   I must keep people checking back often, knowing they’ll get value from what is written here.   To create that value, I must faithfully write about interesting and important things far more often than I’ve been doing this past year.  I need to take more ACTION.

My ideas are many.  I’ve planned, I’ve hoped, I’ve dreamt, I’ve prayed and I’ve envisioned.   It’s time for more ACTION.

Will you help hold me accountable?   Please comment and encourage me if you feel led to do that.  And share, if you would, what you want to create with more ACTION in your own situation.

Honestly, no matter what day the calendar proclaims, every morning is a new opportunity.  The past is gone…finished…ready to lay to rest, good or bad.   The future is stretched out in front of me…a fresh, clean slate on which to write and create any dang thing I please.    But there’s something about January 1 that makes a much bigger impact than, say, July 26.

Last spring I wrote about 40 days of focus.  It wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped, but it wasn’t a total loss either.  When the 40 days were finished, I wrote a blog entry titled My Life is a Mess.  I promised to take control of my life again and check back in another 40 days.

Far more than 40 days have since passed, but I’ve accomplished much on the four goals I set out in the original Focus post.  I’ve lost nearly 50 pounds and feel better physically than I have in years.   (A book that had a Profound Impact on helping me lose that weight is Why We Get Fat, And What To Do About It by Gary Taubes.)   I rediscovered how much feeling better physically positively affects my mental state.  I’m optimistic, hopeful, energized and raring to see what comes next.

I did convert the Thinking 2 Steps Ahead website to a blog and am well into a writing routine.  Beginning this week (January 1, 2012) my working hours will be reduced by 20% so I’ll have one day a week to focus on writing.

I am jazzed about today, jazzed about tomorrow, and the day after that.   I invite you to share my journey this year as I finish the Thinking 2 Steps Ahead book, and develop other projects that help people be the best they can be.

Life is good.  Bring it on!

What new beginnings can you get excited about for 2012?   Share them here by commenting.

But I got a new perspective and understanding of just what that means recently when I picked up a book and read three chapters on wisdom, discernment and sound judgment.   Very short chapters, actually, but for me, very long on insight.

I always thought being wise meant smart, intelligent and able to give people good advice.  I
remember being asked in a job interview once if I considered myself smart.  I answered that I think there are two kinds of smart….book smart and common sense smart.
I think I have a good mix of both.   I’m not a super brainiac, but I am privileged to have two great parents who trained me to face life head on, to prosper and thrive by making good and effective decisions and choices.  Compared to many, I am, I think, smarter than average.

What I understood in a new way after reading the book is that wisdom is sometimes a gift one is born with, but that it can also be nurtured and developed.  Wisdom leads to
discernment and sound judgment.   And that discernment and sound judgment yield many tangible and intangible life benefits.  Wisdom can protect you from being taken advantage of, from being sucked in by people who don’t have your best interests in mind or who are downright evil.  Wisdom is what keeps you open to new ideas.    It helps drive away fear and cope with disaster.  Wisdom protects us from making bad choices.   Wisdom makes us discerning and able to make sound judgments which yield those aforementioned benefits.

Now, more than ever, I want to be remembered as being wise.

The book, by the way, is the Bible.  Proverbs, Chapters 2, 3 and 4.  Worth the read no matter what your religious persuasion.