Daily Update from TUT

I get daily e-mails from http://www.tut.com - thought I'd post today's because I like it:

Aha! David, do you know what your thoughts did last week?!

Oh, yes you do.

They became the things and events of this week. The things you thought would be difficult became difficult; easy became easy; boring became boring; and fun became fun. Where you thought there might be surprises, you were surprised. And where you thought there might be land mines, there were land mines.

Bravo! You can add this week to the list of your most creative accomplishments.

Now, can you guess what your thoughts this week are going to do?

David, please, choose every single one of them as if nothing else mattered.

Today's life lesson: PUT GOD FIRST

I recently hired a business development coach to help me keep my business growing. Interestingly enough, one of the first excercises he had me do involves writing down what's important to me in 9 different categories - spiritual, health, work, etc... then rating each individual thing I wrote 1-10 in order of importance. Well, this little excercise can be very eye-opening.

One of the reasons I hired someone to work with is that even though I'm very busy, my results haven't been what I expect of myself and I've been feeling a little stressed because I'm not doing as well as I perceive I "should" be. Things feel a little "out of whack". So I hired someone from the outside to look at what I'm doing and find ways to get me back "IN whack" :)

This first excercise was very emotional and I realized right away what a great deal of the problem is. I've been focused on results, numbers, money, being #1 and all the stress that goes with that mindset. Letting my EGO control my life (Wayne Dyer says EGO = Edge God Out) and I've been edging God & spirituality from my daily life.

God needs to be #1 for me. Maintaining my sobriety needs to run a close 2nd. I have nothing without a solid relationship with God and my sobriety. I know what happens to my life when I allow my inner demons to control my thoughts. And it's not so easy to catch yourself when EGO centered thoughts and actions begin to take control again.

Looking back on my life the periods I remember most fondly, when my life flowed easiest and I had the least amount of stress was when I was in the best shape both spiritually and physically. I went through a period of rapid personal growth after getting treatment for alcohol abuse now over 21 years ago. I read and meditated 2hrs/day before work for many years. Several years later I started working with a fitness instructor and at age 42 was probably in the best physical shape of my life. Eventually I fell out of both habits, though. Keeping life in balance can definitely be a struggle.

I don't believe has to be a struggle, though. For me that means a strong faith based foundation from which the rest of my life can be built upon.

Here's my music-based analogy for this: I've long said the drummer is the heart & soul of every band, bad drummer = bad band. Add a decent bassist and the band has a great foundation to build on. A poor rhythm section means a layperson might not specifically know why the band isn't that good, but it just doesn't sound right. Your relationship with God is the rhythm section for your life. If it's not so good tighten it up to see improvement in all areas :)