What are you playing at right now?

 Happy Friday! You made it through another work-week! Xmas is on Sunday and the season of joy is here.

Remember the opening of The Flinstones? The foreman looked at his watch and pulled the tail of a bird who acted as the pre-historic "quitting time whistle". Then Fred would slide gleefully down the tail of his dinosaur and jump into his car while yelling "Yabba Dabba Doo!,"(I know you want to sing the song - here, let me save you the trouble of looking it up. Click here to hear the song)

Well, if you don't live in Bedrock City and if you're like most people, "work" doesn't really end at quitting time on Friday. For a lot of people, it never really ends. We're workaholics, even in retirement we have trouble finding time and we still work, but we may not get paid.

So today, right now, two days before Xmas, I want you to think about your life for a moment. Not your job, your LIFE. Are you thinking about it? Good! Now I have two questions for you....

1. What are you working on right now?

• Maybe you're working on becoming more forgiving and having more peace.
• Maybe you're working on improving your health and fitness.
• Maybe you're working on increasing your finances
• Maybe you're working on deepening your relationships.

I want you to change "working to" to "playing at" and see what that does for your energy levels. Think about this time of year and when you were younger, we didn’t work, we played. So the question is:

2. What are you playing at right now? Do you

• Play at becoming more forgiving and having more peace.
• Play at improving your health and fitness.
• Play at increasing your finances
• Play at deepening your relationships.

What else would you like to play at?

What else would be possible in your life if you consciously embodied the energy of "play" in more of your daily activities (especially the important ones)?

Let's make a new year resolution to find out, shall we?

Winter arrives Dec 22,

This is the first day of winter, fall has finally yielded to winter.  

Do you remember the joy of the first frost, the first snow, the magic of sledding; making snow angels in the backyard? 

Or as many of us have, have you equated winter with shoveling snow, poor driving, feeling locked in because of the storm?

Winter is a magical time for children, maybe it is time to make it a magical time for you again?

I love winter, 
Frost grabs the window
Refusing to yield to the warmth 
Of the morning sun. 
Slowly, very slowly, 
the sun wins the battle,
Frost retreats, 
slowly tracing patterns 
across the pane
while drops of water cry 
as they fall to the ground 
Frozen in time
The battle won, 
frost is done 
mountains fill the scene, 
Trees sway white with snow 
the wind shakes the world below
A child appears, 
wrapped from head to toe,
Laughing in delight, 
she catches snow flakes
drifting from the tree
Eyes bright, face flushed, 
winter is here, 
can Santa be far behind? 

Wow, time flies

Wow! How did it get to be December 21 already??

In my den, I use a dry-erase wall calendar that lets me see my year at a glance. Yesterday I took the time to wipe away 2016 and get set for 2017.

Yes, I believe in living in the moment - but I also believe in being practical and doing what you can to plan ahead.

So where's your head right now?

• Are you pushing like mad to get the most out of 2016 before the ball drops in Time Square on New Year's Eve?
• Are you already in 'holiday mode' and have taken your foot off the gas and are planning to coast into the new year?
• Or maybe you're already dreaming and scheming about the life you're going to choose for yourself in 2017.

Seriously! In order to combat the 'holiday slide', I suggest you put together a small mastermind group of people who want to get a jump on 2017.

Imagine how much further ahead you will be on New Year's Day if you start now!

Thinking of new beginnings

For many people this season is all about new beginnings.  As we move to the end of the year, we start planning New year's resolutions and promises that "from now on, things will be different".

Right now, your social media feeds are probably full of pictures of people at the gym, doing a juice cleanse, and generally trying to make sweeping changes in their lives.

If you're on of those people - GREAT!! I'm cheering for you.

For the rest of here is a suggestion:

Change can be still be meaningful if it is done in small steps.

Think of one small change you can easily make in your life.  Not a massive overhaul of everything. Nothing that involves new memberships or equipment. Just one small change.

• ·       Drink more water.
• ·       Go to bed 15 minutes earlier.
• ·       Spend 10 minutes doing something in a meditative state of mind.

Or anything else you can think of that isn't difficult to do and that you can see yourself doing with some real consistency.

Yes, the big, actions get all the glamour and glory - but sometimes it's the small actions that form the foundation for the bigger shifts and changes.