Landing Our Connections

"I think people are isolated because of the nature of human consciousness, and they like it when they feel the connection between themselves and someone else.." ~ James Taylor

Many Monday mornings can be a blur for me. These days tend to be very busy days. I am either heading out on the road or catching up from the previous weeks travel. Many a Monday leaves me little time to even consider writing anything motivational.

Monday is a day of shift for me and for many of you.

Mondays are also a day when we to adjust our focus on clarity. It is a day we transition that focus from weekend relaxation to the work required to make the weekends much better. It is also a chance to bring life into focus by connecting with others and then doing something with our newfound clarity.

Connections are made by drawing closer, not further away.

When traveling by plane, the engines begin their deafening roar as the plane presses at increasing speed upon takeoff. The laws of gravity and air resistance seem in contradiction to lifting a fully loaded Boeing 737 airplane weighing roughly 75 tons.

Traveling down the runway at 170 mph, we lift off and the details of everything disappear as the plane rises higher and higher. When reaching a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, you can see huge expanses of the earth.

The earth spreads out before you in a wondrous view.

One also notices the buildings, the people, the cars and the small details are also gone. From such a high altitude, there is no ability to focus on the small details. The people, the cars and buildings are impossible to see.

It reminds me that if we back ourselves away from connection with people, we lose the same ability to focus on things. We lose our relationships to others around us. We might as well be 35,000 feet in the air.

When we draw closer, relationships reappear and come into focus.

A plane descends near the end of a flight and little things reappear again. The shapes of buildings become clear. One can see vehicles racing up and down various roads. The landscape up close becomes much more recognizable, more familiar to the eye.

We begin to more clearly focus on all of the details as we drew closer to them. The closer a plane comes to landing, the closer we draw towards others, the tighter our connection becomes with everything around us.

Connection can only take place when we draw closer to others.

When we draw ourselves into relationship with other people, our focus on life achieves much greater clarity. With newfound clarity, your ability to impact the lives of others becomes much greater. The ability of others to impact your life becomes greater.

Your best life becomes even more achievable with connection.

Do not isolate yourself at 35,000 feet. It may feel like you can see so much further, but in reality you only see a possible landscape of your life. To live that possibility you need to draw close to it. And you draw close by connecting with people.

Achieve focus through connections and gain a better life.

Stay inspired my friends.

A Nickel For Every Mistake

#FlashbackFriday

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." ~ Albert Einstein

If I had a nickel for every mistake I have made in life, my riches would be boundless. And without those mistakes, I would not be nearly the person I am today.

We all make mistakes at one point or another in our life. some of us make a lot of them while others seem to have a perfect track record. The amount of mistakes is not what is important though. It is how you handle those mistakes which is important.

To never learn or grow from a mistake, the mistake controls your life.

But with each misstep or failure, if something new is learned then it only improves your life. It puts you closer to a greater life. Certainly it can feel like one step forward and two steps back. But in reality a mistake is just the opposite.

One step back and two steps forward should become your way of thinking. Learn from those mistakes and try to never repeat them. You will of course repeat mistakes from time to time. Again its all about using those mistakes to move your life forward.

Maybe now is the time to put a nickel in a jar for all the mistakes you make. Allow those mistakes to add up in your favor. A jar full of nickels is not a jar full of mistakes, but a jar full of life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Fishing Lessons

"I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don't know what's on the other end. Your imagination is under there." - Robert Altman

This week is called Gma & Gpalooza here at our house. It is a chance for the grandkids to spend a few days with Grandma and Grandpa, while the Moms and Dads get a short break to have some time alone. The week is always a blessing for us as we get to watch these kids grow steadily in life.

We plan events for the kids and one particular adventure was going to the Georgia Aquarium. The largest aquarium in the western hemisphere at just over 10 million gallons of water. To put it mildly, this place is huge.

While watching the fish and my grandchildren pace the tanks and glass walls observing each other, it occurred to me how life can be like fishing. Seems odd I'm sure to think of fishing at an aquarium built with a conservation and environmental mission.

Then again, I find inspiration in the oddest of places sometimes.

there are four things we do when going out fishing and are very appropriate as we travel along our life's path.

1. Be prepared.

Be prepared for most anything that might come along. This doesn't mean planning for the worst in every instance, but also planning in the good that will happen. This can be accomplished by staying well read, keeping up with the latest news and simply bringing the basic needs along with you. Keep learning and always prepare yourself for what is needed during your journey.

2. There are surprises around every corner.

This means you will never be fully prepared for every eventuality. So when these surprises occur, roll with them, adapt and enjoy the experience of the adventure. These unknown events are normally opportunities disguised as a distraction. If a tree has fallen into shallow water in your path, it likely has become home to the fish underneath. Opportunity created by surprise.

3. To have patience and persistence.

Sitting for hours along the dock with a line in the water can seem useless. Yet much can be learned by watching the motion of the water, the movement of the shadows along the shore and where the bugs hang lowly over the water. Our journey in life has these same moments but continuing down the path, we crest a hill, round a bend in the lake only to find what we were looking for.

4. Be in the moment, and live it out.

Every moment of every hour or day is going to be filled with different adventure, boredom or despair. Those moments can also be filled with happiness, joy and laughter. The past has floated by and can not be altered. The future still awaits down the shoreline. What does exist is here and now, so enjoy the moment.

The sea, the lake or the stream are filled with many fish. Each is an opportunity or adventure waiting for us to capture it. Little do we know what lay beneath the water line. But what we do know is that life exists there and all around us, waiting for us to live every moment of it.

Stay inspired my friends.

Happy Firsts

“The soul is healed by being with children.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Today is a first in many first things to come along in the life of my youngest granddaughter. Madilyn Rose Primm is having a birthday and a year full of first everythings. As with all of our family, we will celebrate all that happens in the lives of our children and grandchildren.

In a single years time, it is very evident what a newborn child accomplishes. Eyes opening, grasping of your finger, smiling or cooing to crawling and holding the bottle all by them self. We focus on each and every little advancement with awed amazement.

While thousands of generations have accomplished the same firsts, our child's first is the most precious and inspired. Each first step, each first word and with each new activity we are encouraged that life truly is a good thing.

Each of us experience the first of everything.

In our own year whether six, thirty-six or ninety-six, so many firsts can happen. Each should be held in awed amazement just as we do the firsts of a one-year old. Life grants us these experiences or as I like to call it, a lifetime of firsts.

Live a life of first things not just in our first year of life but in all years. Take each birthday and embrace your past year of first things, of first wonders, of first experiences. And then prepare yourself for many more in the coming years.

Happy Birthday Maddy Rose.

And stay inspired my friends.