"Grandpa Gary, I just want to be a regular person."

This from the wisdom of Trent, when he was five years old. He is very into Thomas the Train, Vader from the movie CARS, and Speed Racer. He loves to hide, play tag, get chased,  chase, and sanitation. He is a hand washer and toilet seat cover expert. He is cute, & playful with artist talent and moods just like your children, grandkids and all children. He is a player and a gift to the universe. 
             
 Recently Trent was asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Expectations were train engineer, race car driver, or artist, he replied “I just want to be a regular person.” 
    
Wow, what a surprising & curious answer. It felt like when one notices the first falling leaf of fall, or the first snow flake. It was cool; I wish I had said that.
    
 Grandpa Gary pondered this and began asking  questions.
    
    What does he mean? 
    What is a regular person?
    How has his experience of life lead him to this moment?
    Can he keep this simplicity?

        'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
        'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
        And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
        'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
        When true simplicity is gain'd,
        To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
        To turn, turn will be our delight,
        Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Will Trent stays this simple? Will life be this easy for him?  I don’t know, but I hope so.  I hope Trent, and our other grandkids Zoe and Gage and your children, all children can feel, love & enjoy a happy world. There will be suffering, but misery is optional. 

There is so much unknown in the mind of a five year old and this soon to be 63 year old.

I know I want, have desires, needs, goals, excuses, and much more.

I know children head down the garden path and will fall in the mud, smell and step on the roses, get lost, get found, cry & laugh & have little pockets of silence and converse with the divine.

I hope the simplicity and magic happens and we share it with each other. 

Making the Week Strong

This Church of Attention is dedicated to other entrepreneurs who create their own schedules.

Plus, those whose life has freedom, purpose & are attempting mastery. That’s all of us.

To those exiled by corporations, those who retired to pleasure & fame, those caretakers & givers, those with the freedom to ad lib & those who wish they knew what to do next, here is some feedback from Organization 102 at the University of Gary.

At age six, I was sent as emissary of the Smith family to the local Baptist Church. No one else in the family ever went, but my Sunday morning was structured.

I attended regularly even received a 2 year attendance pin. It was an experience I couldn’t wait to get over. I now realize I have an identity that regrets those times when I couldn’t wait to get it over. {Aha, a new entry in Managing Identities class-‘The Regretter.’ A ‘Regretter gone chronic I call ‘The Invalidator.” }

My Sunday night had a hole in it. Filled first with TV, Lassie, then Maverick and bedtime, I was missing something.

Missing a purpose to move toward, something more than the next week of my life. This feeling of emptiness followed me for years. It was somewhere between ‘Do not go gently into the night’ & ‘A long lost tea time of the soul.’

It was a revelation from my 2010 U of G class on Organization 102, my final essay, “How to Build A Monday (BAM) that Sunday night got a purpose.

This is what those Sunday nights ‘something else was all about. It was “The time of Preparation.’

The Sacred time of Initiation of my week. Time to ask what do I want? What can I have? Who will I see? Any incompletes, areas of consideration, new or refined goals, tools & skills needed. It is how to make my week strong & have a strong purposeful week.

Build a Monday (BAM) over a 6 month period evolved a new organizational tool Triday, a rolling together of Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday.

There was a pattern that repeated & more than a day was needed for completions. It was not a tryday, with a why or an effort that gets no where, (Just try and do something) but three days in one lump with three very useful naps. Three meetings, 2 classes, and one purpose, handle the BAM.

Today gives me a Friday that’s free to file & read what I write so I can find out what I am thinking, doing, & wanting.

Organization 102 has cleaned the desk & is starting to look like TGIF, Today Golf Is Fun.

As for Saturday, it’s class day. Be in class, share class, be classy, & for best results sit in the front row.

Conscience

One of the goals of the workshops is to find what you WANT and begin MOVING TOWARD that goal. The process is a wake-up, an opening up, it’s UP to you to do it; with the help of your team.

We use the Mark Twain quote: "I have met the enemy and it is me. However I underestimated the numbers"-Mark Twain. The alignment is assisting the enemy in becoming your teammates. For some the captain of the team is their Conscience.

In making the motivational switch from moving away from what you don’t want to be moving toward what you do want Conscience plays a big role.

Contrary to the mainstream beliefs where Conscience is conceived as the negative voice speaking the “thou-shalt-not- the constrictor of action, Conscience, ‘the still small voice’is the capacity to tap into our deep levels of insights, purpose and values that do not oppose us. Conscience is a guide, ‘beyond good and evil”, to an enlarged experience of yes And.

As Jiminy Cricket said, ”Let your Conscience be your guide.”

Or Will Homer decide?

Conscience gets bad press-“A clear conscience is a sign of a bad memory.”

“A conscience is the part when all the other parts feel good.”

“Why does a man have a clear conscience? Because it is unused.”

“Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.”

“Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos

taste a hell of a lot better.”

Yes, and Conscience is said to be the taproot to courage. If you knew you were doing the RIGHT thing would you hold back?

If your Conscience said to do it, wouldn't you?

Is your Conscience telling what to do or not to do?

Bob Trilia recently said that Transformational goals workshop is about finding your voice. That voice is Conscience.