November 22, 2007 Newsletter
Dear Subscribers,
Welcome to the Holiday edition of Own Your Life!
Today, here in the United States, it’s Thanksgiving Day. Tomorrow is Black Friday, the kick off of the traditional Christmas shopping season. Strange juxtaposition of names, if you ask me.
Of course, each year, this contrast typically invites comment on unchecked consumerism and the “real meaning” of the season. In the 90s, Ellen St. James, author of Simplify Your Life and Inner Simplicity, offered “opting out” as a tip for simplifying your life during the holidays. Of course, this was not a particularly new strategy. People were choosing simple avoidance well before the 90s – whether it was leaving town or checking out emotionally. So much for discovering the real meaning of the season!
So, what to do?
Although we’ll probably never resolve this tension as an economy, we each have the capacity to find our own answers to enrich our lives with real meaning – at any time of year. Of course, this takes developing personal insight. While there are many exercises to support your self-reflection, you can start with discovering your vision for your life; and you can also consider how to become more motivated through self-determination. While you’re at it, consider how you engage life. Are you caught up in the past, or are you reaching out to create relationships and value with others. In short, are you playing big?
Ultimately, your life is better when you can find the balance in all areas of living: career, family, relationships, self, leisure, and spirituality. In a sense, this is where the “rubber meets the road.” How you choose to balance your life will determine the degree of peace you feel – and the degree of peace you bring to others.
Paradoxically, it is only by truly owning your life that you bring your best to others. Yes, you can live in a way that gives full expression to your passions, and you can build on your achievement to bring joy to others. Consider Luciano Pavarotti. Certainly, in devoting his life to music, he made a choice to live in the most satisfying way he could for himself – and by using his talent and passion he certainly brought considerable enjoyment to opera fans. Yet, he achieved even more by joining with other musical talents, at his annual "Pavarotti and Friends" concerts, to raise money for children and other victims of war and civil unrest.
So, perhaps this year, the holidays can help you along on your journey of self discovery. Reflect on the best in yourself, and show a true expression of gratitude by giving to others.
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