Honored Being.com Launched!

 Get a sneak peak at https://www.honoredbeing.com/ for inspiration and guidance on personal growth and spirituality.  Let us know what you think under Customer Inquiries.

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HonoredBeing.com Launching Soon - Your source for personal transformation, spirituality, and growth

I'm excited to make you aware of a new website launching soon:  Honored Being – Your source for personal transformation, spirituality, and growth.  Go to HonoredBeing.com for a preview.

The site offers self-improvement guides adapted from published books with a short and “to the point” approach designed to meet your needs quickly with the trusted quality you want.  The goal is for you to find peace, comfort, healing, growth, and contentment.  

Our first set of Guides help people with:

• Changing Toxic Thought Patterns
• Grieving Losses & Mistakes
• Living Regret Free
• Using Spiritual & Psychological Tools
• Prayer

Once the site launches come back regularly for new Guides and Workbooks...and suggest topics that would be of greatest interest to you.  Go to HonoredBeing.com to enter your email and receive the official announcement when the site launches in June.

Effort Makes a Difference

Since the last post I launched a new business. Also in that time I had a baby. I'm fortunate because I won two significant 12 month contracts; however, I used that stability to rest on my laurels. Recently I realized if I continue working 75% my company won't be around after those contracts expire. So I started working more hours and harder. Already the result has been new sales, greater joy, and increased vigor. It was actually hard to only work 75% because I felt bad about my performance, which brought down the quality of the work I was doing and the enthusiasm behind it.

They say luck (another word for blessings) is a product of preparedness and hard work. I'm a lot more blessed when I'm doing my part.

Take Responsibility Rather Than Blame

I didn't manage a business call correctly today. Sometimes I rush to speak without being sufficiently strategic. I need to be patient, pause, and take my time. There is no rush.

The result is that I've led an employee of partnering company think I'll be moving forward on a potential deal with him when I really need his company's president to be in the meeting given the level of the person we'll be dealing with.

What's interesting is that two hours ago I was angry and disappointed with my friend (the firm's president) for acting in a way that differed from a previous agreement but the fact is I pulled the employee in deeper to the deal by speaking without thinking through my words. I am responsible and once again I tried to push blame off on others. It is my responsibility to manage situations the way I want them rather than letting others do so and then being disappointed with the results.

Don't Let Negative Thoughts Find a Place to Stay

There are five weeks left until I leave my safe job to start my own business. Up until the last month or so I've been very much living in faith. Trusting that even though not everything will work out as I hope it will ultimately work out for the best. However, fear has crept in a bit more deeply and I'm finding it challenging to trust as fully that if I take a leap I will fly, not fall.

I must remember that the fears are natural, especially since I have my first child due in October. The key is that I must view the fears as passing thoughts that serve a protective function to motivate me to not take expected outcomes for granted, but the fears need not define me. I tend to believe my thoughts. I think because I'm having a thought or feeling it must be true. The fact is that thoughts and feelings only define me if I choose to let them. Today I will give more credence to the positive thoughts rather than the negative ones.

R.A.I.N.

In meditation class last night the teacher, Tara Brach focused on an acronym that is useful, RAIN.

It is intended to be used when we're suffering.

R = Recognize
Pause and recognize that you are experiencing suffering

A = Allow
Accept and allow the suffering without judgment

I = Investigate
Ask yourself why you are experiencing the suffering. What is going on? Is the situation itself causing your suffering or is there a larger source of suffering impacting other aspects of your life? This is to be done without judgment. It is simply about what is.

N = No identity
We acknowledge that what we are experiencing is not a reflection of who we are. It does not define us. It is not our persona; it does not make up our identity.

This is useful to me because I get caught up in fears about a new business I am starting and those fears generate negative thoughts. I tend to believe those negative thoughts. RAIN gives me a framework to look at myself and my thoughts from the third person, "Look at Dave giving energy to his fears and getting stuck in negative thoughts. He does this all the time even though his experiences prove that 99.9% of the things he worries about never happen. The negative thoughts are not real and he does not need to identify with them."

Stop Being So Serious

Spirituality is about not taking myself so seriously. The more I grow spiritually, the more I see the joy and humor in many moments of life.