“Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.” ~Oprah Winfrey
Inspiration is all around us. To experience it though, we must be willing to give ourselves permission to slow down, to focus, to breathe. With so many shiny objects vying for our attention, it’s quite easy to become distracted.
One of the best ways to come back to our center is to breathe. We have this underlying belief that somehow, probably because we are human and capable of amazing things, that we can multitask our way to success.
After all, if doing one thing is good, then doing several things must be better, right?
WRONG!
An old memory of a book title came knocking and it got me thinking about multitasking or focusing on multiple projects at the same time and in breaking down the title of the book, I realized it would be impossible to do the two tasks of the title at the same time.
The book title is Chop Wood, Carry Water.
As I tried to picture myself chopping wood and carrying water, it was immediately apparent that it would be impossible to do both at the same time. Can you imagine the chaotic scene of a character attempting to both chop wood and carry water at the same time?
It made me laugh!
Well, for a moment anyway… Then I paused long enough to take a breath as I reflected on how as human beings, we are continuously trying to chop wood and carry water at the same time. My mind quickly shifted to an image of an entertainer on stage spinning plates. As we watch the show, we are mesmerized as the entertainer adds more and more plates until the inevitable crash brings that segment of the show to a conclusion.
How many plates are you spinning? How many tasks are you managing? How many jobs are you doing? How many hats are you wearing?
If you are like me in any way, shape, or form, you probably believe you are a better multitasker than you actually are.
It wasn’t until I recently slowed down long enough to enjoy a vacation to Maine that I realized I was trying to do too many things at a time. I have been writing a weekly article for over a year now while I have simultaneously been working on my second book and trying to create a small business and create an online course to help people turn their dreams and aspirations into a tangible outcome by designing a course that would systematically and logically take them on a journey of discovery, opportunity, and action, a QUEST. And, I have been trying to do all of this while also working a full-time job…
When I finally came back to my breath, opened up my shirt and found there indeed was no large “S” emblazoned on my chest, I realized it was time for a change. Perhaps it was the changing of the seasons that prompted this idea of a need for a change. The trip to Maine was all about taking time to “enjoy” the changing of the season from Summer to Fall.
To enjoy the trip, I had written my weekly article ahead of time and had it prepared and ready to send out on time which is normally Wednesday. Today is Friday and I am only just now writing my weekly article as it finally came to me in my sleep. Yes, I awoke with the idea of this article in my mind and arose from bed before the alarm went off because I knew there was something profound that needed to be captured and that something is the words now methodically materializing on the page.
The profundity remains to be seen…
The reality is far more striking than anything remotely close to profound. I have simply been trying too hard to do too much and watering down and fragmenting my results in the process.
My mind has been silently working on a way to present this idea to my ego for some time now and it took me slowing down long enough for a vacation to begin to listen.
In the silence of the woods, surrounded by beauty, I found my mind wandering away from where I was and onto each of the various projects I have ongoing in different states of completion and I remember thinking to myself, this is crazy, look around you, this is where you need to be right now, all of your projects will be waiting for you when you get back, FOCUS and enjoy the moment…
As I processed that thought, I came back to my breath and I came back to the moment and as I became fully present, I was in awe of my surroundings. If I hadn’t given myself permission to be present, to be in the moment, I would have missed it!
What would I have missed? I would have missed the mushrooms growing in places we wouldn’t expect to see them.
Photo from Author’s collection.
I would have missed the fallen leaves laying on the ground in all their majesty, a tapestry that became natures carpet…
Photo from Author’s collection.
I would have missed the trees that held the leaves until they were reluctantly released…
Photo from Author’s collection.
I would have missed the stunning reflection of two hills majestically resolute and unmoving…
Photo from Author’s collection.
I would have missed all the different colors of green, a monochrome rainbow of tone and texture, from the moss, to the lichens, to the ferns, to the trees…
Photo from Author’s collection.
I would have missed the sound of the babbling brook and the raging waterfall, one subtle, one not…
Photo from Author’s collection.Photo from Author’s collection.
I would have missed seeing natures finest example of resilience, determination, and persistence…
Photo from Author’s collection.
I would have missed all these things and so much more and thinking about this got me thinking about how many other things I have been missing… It inspires me now to ask the question about how many things you might be missing too?
What have you been missing?
I know I have been missing golf and it wasn’t until I gave myself permission to watch some of the Ryder Cup matches that I realized just how much I miss playing and isn’t it interesting how the world will make us even more aware of what we are missing once we finally realize we are missing it. Like this article from my friend and fellow writer Billie for example who wrote an article about golf (it’s more than just another article on golf).
It’s not necessarily the game itself that I miss, its what happens to me as I play. When I play golf, I slow down and as mentioned at the beginning of this article, as my friend and mentor Michael constantly reminds me, slow is smooth and smooth is fast. When I combine the intentionality of the awareness of my breath with the understanding that golf is a game that can only be played and never won, I give myself the permission to enjoy being outside and at one with my surroundings.
Breathing is a huge part of golf because there is no way to make a smooth swing if you are not relaxed. We tend to hold on to our breath and the club too tight, and it is actually the relaxed grip that better serves the swing. Loose muscles flow, and golf, although a sport of speed when it comes to striking the ball, is also a sport of opposites. A great example is for the ball to go up, you must hit down on the ball. It is the descending blow in combination with the loft of the club that gets the ball into the air. It’s counterintuitive. You might think that swinging harder might give you a better result and I can assure you the exact opposite is true.
Ok, enough about golf and back to the article at hand.
Before I left to go on vacation, I discovered an article by Darius Foroux that got me thinking about this idea of trying to do too much. There were many other elements equally as influential as the article, but for some reason, the words of the article really resonated with me and I believe before I ever got on the plane, I knew that Fall would have a special significance for me this year, one well beyond the splendid colors and the experience of being away would afford me…
I will continue to Advance Confidently, but the advance will be in the direction of my highest calling NOW which is to fulfill my desire of completing my Create Your QUEST™ course, designed for anyone who has struggled with making a commitment to their ideal highest expression of themselves.
With so many demands, and so many distractions, it’s easy to get off course and find ourselves deeply involved in great work that’s unfortunately not moving us in the direction of where we most choose to go right NOW!
Create Your QUEST™ has been formulated to help YOU focus on what’s most important to you not only now, but also in the future. It’s a framework that was designed to take you from where you are to exactly where you choose to be, not overnight, but one step at a time, one moment at a time, one day at a time, one breath at a time!
It’s called Create Your QUEST™ because I believe each of us has the potential to be the hero of our own story and I knew I could create a compelling framework to guide individuals through the arduous process of making a commitment to their dream and the future they desire to create for themselves and their families.
Therefore, I decided to put my next book on the back burner and will instead focus all my efforts on the completion of the project I am most excited about which is Create Your QUEST™!
It’s my intention to have the course ready for release by the end of October with a soft launch and a beta group to make sure it’s ready for prime time in the coming new year when most people are struggling with what to do next and how to make sure next year is different than last year.
If you are interested in potentially being part of my beta group, send an email to bkountz15@gmail.com with BETA in the subject line.
I know the course I’m creating and the book I will still eventually release, will be worth the wait because that’s my commitment to you, my readers. Thanks in advance for your trust and patience!
In the meantime, enjoy this special audio short story I originally released on Twitter to commemorate my Independence Day and my 31st year of sobriety. You can watch/listen here ( https://youtu.be/9zP4kk5OTlo ). You can find me on Twitter @bobby_kountz
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
Will you seek it out? Can you quiet your voice of judgment long enough to embrace the infinite power of curiosity and imagination? Can you quell the desire to be right over the desire to learn and grow? Can you hold two opposing ideas and maintain the ability to function effectively?
Listen to understand rather than listening to reply
Let the other person finish expressing themselves completely and then instead of adding to the conversation, ask if they have anything else to share before you reply.
I will be the first one to tell you that this is a real challenge for me. It is something I find myself working on continuously. All change comes through awareness. Now that I’m aware of my propensity to interject what I have to say into a conversation, I am intentionally trying to focus on letting the other person finish completely before I say anything.
Sometimes I do well, and other times not so much… Like most human beings, I am a work in process. However, it is only through my awareness of this behavior I have chosen to change that I can make progress. It is also only by being willing and vulnerable enough to talk about it that it will become something my mind is more focused on and when the temptation to speak without letting someone else finish, or the temptation to interrupt, or the temptation to express my opinion, particularly when it is uninvited, will I be able to control the urge!
Since this is something I have identified as an opportunity rather than labeling it as a shortcoming, I would ask all those engaged in conversation with me to be patient as I work through this process. Also, if you read this article then you’re a follower of my writing, or a friend, and I hope to empower you to be an even better friend by gently reminding me when I am not taking my own advice.
It is my intention to let the natural design of our communication system be what guides me as I work through this process. We were given two ears and one mouth and that might be a great indicator that communication might be better if it occurs in a 2:1 ratio by listening twice as much as we speak.
My new mantra when listening is: “Be curious!”
By listening with curiosity, I will be listening with the intention to understand rather than with the intention of preparing my reply. I will be listening from a place of presence, from a place of interest, from a place of curiosity for what the other person wants to share.
Embrace knowledge over achievement
Instead of being so focused on your goals, focus instead to acquire knowledge for what it will make of you in the process. Some of the greatest gifts are missed when we’re over focused on the outcome of our goals. When we’re only focused on achievement, we miss many of the lessons to be discovered along the way.
One of my mentors, Jim Rohn, always encouraged his audiences to ask better questions. What better questions can we be asking about our goals? Jim also encouraged us when communicating to be inclusive and one of the ways we can do that is by using the word “we” rather than “you.”
If you go back and read the previous paragraph you will see that I used the word we in reference to how it is easy to miss out on the potential lessons awaiting us while pursuing our goals.
Mr. Rohn also had another unique way of describing success that I am rather fond of. He said, “Success is not something to be pursued, it’s something we attract by the person we become.”
Is the person you’ve become a person that attracts success? If not, why not? What would you need to change to become a person who continually attracts more success?
When we pause long enough to ask ourselves empowering questions, the answers are sure to emerge.
Stop seeking approval
There is nothing wrong with approval as long as you don’t “need” it to validate whatever it is you are contributing to the betterment of society. If you are working within whatever it is that you have discovered as your gift, no approval will be required. It will be enjoyed, but it is not required. My friend and Author Larry G, Maguire has written extensively on this topic and it’s all about creating your “Art” whatever that is, not for a specific desired outcome, but instead for the sake of it. Creating art just for the sake of it is one of the purest forms of expression available.
For those of you reading this thinking I’m not an artist so this doesn’t apply to me, please allow me to clarify.
Your “Art” is whatever you do, whatever you make, or whatever you create. When you are in your gift, your “Art” almost oozes out of you without any effort the same way appreciation and gratitude oozes from a crowd at their favorite live performance.
The music artists don’t need the appreciation of the crowd, but they love and enjoy it and their passion for what they do fuels both their desire and the crowd’s desire to reciprocate equally. It’s a truly symbiotic experience.
At a live performance, there is a different vibe because the performers get to feed off the energy of the appreciative audience. And, the audience gets to reciprocate by expressing their gratitude and appreciation for the “Art” and they do so freely even though they may have paid handsomely for the opportunity. Remember, there is no requirement to applaud. It may be inherently understood that it’s appropriate, but the level of the applause will usually match the energy of the performers.
Here’s an interesting side note on needing approval. The less you “need” it, the more it will naturally flow your way. Think about it, the people who least need approval are often the ones who receive the most. If you can find a way to stay in your gift before the payoff makes its way to you, then eventually, you will receive praise for whatever difference it is you are committed to creating.
Be willing to begin at the bottom
Talking about the performers everyone was cheering for in the previous paragraph is a great transition to the topic of being willing to begin at the bottom.
Most performers didn’t start out with standing ovations. Most Artists spend countless hours working on their craft, often in the face of massive scrutiny and at the mercy of those around them who don’t understand their commitment. Instead of support and praise for following their gift, they get comments like, “You might want to consider getting a ‘real job’ if you ever hope to make anything of your life.”
The artist or writer everyone is talking about today, most likely came from humble beginnings and had a ton of courage and conviction along with a powerfully passionate level of persistence that no amount of negativity or adversity could ever extinguish!
Breaking through, is what happens when an artist, an actor, an entrepreneur, a writer, or speaker finally makes it in public, but long before they ever made it, they made a commitment to just make their art until they succeeded, no matter what.
Success is available to all of us, but just like the touchdown that is scored on any given Saturday or Sunday, it wouldn’t have any significance if adversity weren’t involved, if the defense weren’t doing their best to keep the offense from scoring. It is often the team with the deepest level of reserves that wins the game. The most talented team does not always win.
This is why many teams play like champions and practice like underdogs!
This is the same reason the Artist who knows their ability needs no recognition yet basks in the glory of it when it comes as a result of them sharing their gift!
Treat others the way you wish to be treated
Put yourself in the position of the struggling writer or artist who is passionately committed to their craft and ask yourself how you would like to be treated if you were the one performing? If you were the one who felt like they were always writing and never knowing whether they were hitting the mark with readers because no one could be bothered to slow down long enough to provide some feedback, how would that make you feel?
Questions like these ground us in the importance of making time to tell someone that whatever they did that made your day, or your experience a little better, it might just be worthy of praise. When we express our gratitude for what we appreciate we are creating a gratitude experience for both the giver and the receiver.
I find inspiration everywhere and Wayne Dyer has been a huge influence in my life. One of the best stories ever offered on the importance of guarding against things like hatred, bitterness, anger, and resentment is easily understood as Dr. Dyer speaks to the audience about what happens and what comes out when you squeeze an orange. When an orange is squeezed, the only thing that will come out is orange juice and not because it’s an orange, but because that’s what’s inside.
When we are squeezed by the challenges and difficulties of life, and make no mistake, we will be squeezed, what will come out, is what’s inside… If you harbor anger, anger will come out. If you harbor hatred, hatred will come out. If it is jealousy, jealousy will come out. If it be envy, then envy will come out… Guard your heart!
Guard your heart. Don’t harbor the things that will come out when you are squeezed. Because like toothpaste squeezed from the tube, it is impossible to put back once squeezed out… And once out, then you might have to add regret to your list, and no one wants that.
Guard your heart. Be curious, not judgmental.
Advance Confidently is the title of my next book, you will have to wait to celebrate its release as I celebrate my 60th birthday. I have concluded the world doesn’t need another self-help book from me right now, so I am listening to my muse and will write a sci fi personal growth story of self-discovery instead. Hmmm? Almost sounds like a QUEST, right? I believe you will be INSPIRED with the story that chose me to write it! I never saw it coming but now that it’s here, I can’t wait to share it with all of YOU! I know it will be worth the wait because that’s my commitment to you, my readers. Thanks in advance for your trust and patience!
In the meantime, I released a special audio short story on Twitter to commemorate my Independence Day and my 31st year of sobriety. You can watch/listen to the story here ( https://youtu.be/9zP4kk5OTlo ). You can find me on Twitter @bobby_kountz
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” ~My mother’s favorite scripture, Steve Harvey
As an Inspirationalist, I am an Architect of Light.
What does that mean?
It means that most of what I have stumbled upon, learned, and built, was discovered in darkness. As stated in the quote above opening this article, I have found that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. My translation is faith is belief without proof. Faith is listening to your intuition, your inner coach. Faith is commitment and belief in an outcome you have yet to experience in the physical realm.
Whether you attribute these words to Steve Harvey or to the Bible where they came from makes no difference. What Steve Harvey says after he utters these words is what’s important to me.
Quoting Albert Einstein he says, “Imagination is everything. Imagination is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
What does that mean?
In its full context as stated in an interview from the Saturday Evening Post in 1929, Einstein said, “I believe in intuitions and inspirations. I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am. When two expeditions of scientists, financed by the Royal Academy, went forth to test my theory of relativity, I was convinced that their conclusions would tally with my hypothesis. I was not surprised when the eclipse of May 29th, 1919, confirmed my intuitions. I would have been surprised if I had been wrong.”
He was then asked the following question: You trust more to your imagination than to your knowledge?
His answer was as follows:
“I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
Source for the above: Quote Investigator
In other words, imagination is infinite!
Here is another quote many people are not familiar with also attributed to Albert Einstein and whether he’s the one who actually said it or not is immaterial because the message is pure and in my mind that’s all that matters.
“I see a pattern, but my imagination cannot picture the maker of the pattern. I see a clock, but I cannot envision the clockmaker. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before for whom 1000 years and 1000 dimensions are as one?” ~Albert Einstein
If you know God, you don’t need me to tell you what God is; you already know! If you don’t know God, all you have to do is open your heart whenever you are ready, and God will be there waiting for you!
The God of YOUR understanding is waiting for YOU!
There’s a new publication on Medium and the creator is Melanie J. and she encourages us to share our unpopular opinions with her publication. I will submit a short version of this article over there because she has asked us to keep our submissions under 500 words.
Growing up, my grandparents didn’t make it their business to introduce me to God. So, as I grew up, I didn’t know God. I wish I could tell you it was different, but then I wouldn’t be telling the truth. I discovered the God of my understanding the same way that many who are like me find God, not as God, but at least initially, as their Higher Power. Let’s be real, if you’ve never known God, it makes the concept of God just a little bit easier to accept.
When I was finally ready to get clean and sober and at my absolute bottom, I reached out to this “God” and made a promise. Now I’ll be the first one to tell you that this is probably not the best way to reach out to God, but it didn’t seem to make a difference because when I asked, God was there for me.
When I made the commitment to get clean and sober, I asked God for one thing and one thing only. I asked God to take away my desire for drugs and alcohol and I can happily report to you that the overwhelming desire that I had for years to take things into my body that I knew were not good for me all but vanished after I asked.
I’m not to hear to tell you that I didn’t still have the same cravings and the same desires that all Alcoholics and Addicts have when they attempt to get clean and sober, I did. However, I didn’t have the same kind of uncontrollable urge that others in meetings talked about, it was more of a missing the familiarity of what I knew as I was learning to be a productive member of society. The overwhelming urge and craving that most Addicts and Alcoholics deal with, I never experienced after asking for my desire to be removed. I credit the God of my understanding for taking away the desire because that is exactly what I asked for. Prior to asking, I failed miserably with every attempt to get clean and sober!
I am also not here to tell you that if you suffer from addiction that simply asking will take away your desire. I asked God first and then I was led to and got involved with the Grapevine Fellowship, AA, NA, the VA, and I had a counselor at the VA by the name of Ted who became my best friend because he was the one person, I could tell everything. As I was emotionally liberated from all my guilt and shame, all the things I had done while I was drinking and drugging, I was also spiritually liberated, and behind all that was my family and God, my Higher Power.
Fast forward to now and what guides me still to this day is the commitment I made over 31 years ago that if God would take away my desire, I would spend the rest of my life in the service of others making whatever difference I could along the way for those who were afflicted the same as I was, or for those who were struggling with just understanding who they are as human beings and why they are here…
As I have grown and evolved, so have my beliefs, and so has my knowledge. I am insatiably curious and a voracious reader. Because of my curiosity and my willingness to reserve judgment, I have learned more about myself and about humanity than I could have ever possibly imagined. It’s interesting to reflect that at one time, I wasn’t even interested in thinking about picking up a book, let alone picking one up and reading it cover to cover in one sitting.
As the cobwebs cleared, I realized the best thing for me to do was to get busy learning everything I could about myself so I could better understand why I did the things I did and why I behaved in a manner that was incongruent and inconsistent with all the values that had been instilled in me by my grandparents. The more I learned about addiction and more importantly about psychology and philosophy, the more I understood how my anger had taken over my life and caused me to make irrational decisions that were incongruent with my values.
The Alcoholic and the Addict that are actively using and drinking do not have the ability to rationally discern the difference between right and wrong. I’m not here to tell you that they don’t know the difference, they do, but the urge to drink or use is so strong that it overpowers one’s ability to make intelligent decisions about one’s own life.
Had it not been for the intervention of God as I understand God, my Higher Power, I wouldn’t be here writing this article now. The words you are now reading wouldn’t be on this page because they would have never been written…
So why did I change? What led me to God?
A college professor, a Psychology Professor, a History of Rock and Roll teacher, a musician, Ray Rich. A man who saw something in me that I could not see in myself. A man who for whatever reason took an interest in me and my wellbeing and changed my life by doing so.
One day he asked me to stay after class. He asked me a bunch of questions and then gave me a piece of parchment paper he pulled from a filing cabinet that had the following words on it:
“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes to make them possible.” ~T. E. Lawrence
He asked me to read the paper and then asked if I understood the words. Not wanting to appear stupid, I of course said yes. When pressed to explain, I lashed out and asked, “Why do you care?”
“I care because beyond the black leather jacket and rage, I see a bright young man with a promising future,” he said. “What are your goals, your dreams, why are you here in my class?” “What do you want out of life, who are you so angry at, and who do you think you’re hurting with your behavior, and how do you expect to learn when coming to my class smashed?” He asked me a lot of questions that day. I could tell he really cared… Unfortunately, I didn’t have any good answers and I embarrassingly left, but I left with that paper and the words of T. E. Lawrence to ponder…
Awakening from a blackout, covered in my own vomit, with my failed report card next to me, I picked up that piece of parchment paper, read it again, looked down at myself and began to weep… It was then that I felt compelled to reach out to God even though I had no real idea how to pray and instead of praying, like any resourceful addict or alcoholic will do, I tried to cut a deal.
I made a promise that day that if God would take away my desire, I would never drink again and I would commit my life to the service of others and I would learn to be a dreamer of the day. I also called my sister and asked her to help me and fortunately she said yes. She said there was something different in my voice this time and she would help but there would be rules and that was the best thing that ever happened to me! She helped me get into the VA program, and so many other things!
I asked, God answered! Maybe God whispered to my sister too… Who knows? All I know is that once I asked for help, I got all the help I needed.
Today, 31 years later, my life is as different from those early days as night itself is from day! Today, I am surrounded by abundance and gratitude. I have one of the best jobs in the world and a passion to help others. I went on to become a nurse and then went into pharmaceutical sales and have been a mufti-award-winning sales professional for the past 21 years and even won a global award for encouragement.
And now, I am building a foundation for the work I will do in retirement. I am a passionately inspired writer committed to empowering other writers, entrepreneurs, and small business owners to embrace the challenges and struggles of life as a personal quest to achieve and attain whatever they desire as long as it’s in the service of others and done with integrity and commitment to delivering whatever results are promised.
I asked for guidance as to my purpose and this is my calling. The accumulation of lessons over 31 years of sobriety has given me a wealth of knowledge and experience. Over the past 31 years I have studied the habits of the successful, invested continuously in coaching and training and applied what I’ve learned in my own life and over the last several years I have been learning how to effectively transfer what I have learned to others.
I credit God as my guide. Every time I show up to the keyboard, God is with me. I never write alone. I don’t believe I’ve ever had an original thought because everything comes through me.
That doesn’t mean my thoughts don’t pass through the filter of my lived experience. My ego, my shadow, my fear, my uncertainty, and my doubts are as real as ever, because each of these elements are always at play. However, as I become more aware and become more purposeful in the way I choose to show up in life, these elements have been forced into a secondary position behind the dominant thoughts that bring me to the keyboard to write!
Whenever I struggle, I know I can always come back to my breath. I know the God of my understanding will be here waiting for me. When I am present, when I am aware, when I am in the NOW, there is nothing to worry about and nothing to fear.
For years I have struggled with calling God by name and have used many other names to describe what I believe God to be. I have used the Universe, I have used my Creator, I have used Mother Nature, I’ve used just about every phrase you can think of, including “The Force.” My personal belief is that God is not unlike “The Force” the way that Yoda described it to Luke:
“Hear you nothing that I say…” “Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter” he says as he touches Luke on the arm. “You must feel ‘The Force’ around you, here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes!”
I do believe God is everywhere and in everything, except my vocabulary in public, that is until NOW! I will no longer be hesitant or apologize for using the word “God.”
I don’t believe I’m alone in this struggle to declare the God of my understanding God. There is often a hesitancy now to call God, God. Since I’m not part of any specific organized religion and have a broad-based understanding of spirituality and am accepting of all belief systems and particularly fond of the Tao, I have hesitated to use the word God.
Consider this article my “God” coming out party. Consider this me no longer being afraid to use the word God out of fear it might offend someone else, because if it does, then that’s not my issue but theirs. My understanding of God is a universal loving presence that is non-denominational and only cares about one thing and that is love, unconditional love of the human being.
Call me naive, but that’s what I believe. I believe the words that were uttered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. so many years ago when he said, “I choose love because hate is too great a burden to bear.” I choose to believe the words of all those who are committed to the betterment of humanity. I choose to believe in the inherent goodness of mankind. And because of what I’ve learned from the Tao, I also know that man is capable of unthinkable things.
So as naive as I am in my belief about what I believe is possible for the world, I also understand that sometimes we must stand up and protect what others might try to steal from us particularly when it relates to our freedom. I also understand from the lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and of Gandhi that violence will never be the way and I refuse to be a part of that.
I can’t pretend that because the problems of the world are so great that there’s nothing, I can do about them. I may not be able to solve the problems of the world, but I can do my small part and I believe that’s enough and that’s why I show up every day the way I do in service of the rest of humanity, and I am committed to continue for the rest of my life.
One of the greatest shifts in my life has been from scarcity to abundance. When we move from scarcity to abundance, we experience a Mind Shift. I believe life will always provide MORE than I need and because it does, it gives me the opportunity and the liberty to be able to share some of what I have with some of those much needier than myself.
If you don’t have money to share, you can share your time. You can also share your wisdom. You can share kindness. Many of the things we can give are much more valuable than money. If you take the time to share your wisdom with another human being, or inspiration, or encouragement, or whatever it is you have to give, whatever it is that’s your gift, if you share your gift, your gift will make room for you.
“Your gift is the thing you do the absolute best with the least amount of effort.” ~Steve Harvey
It is my intention to continue to share my gift with as many people as I possibly can, to serve as many people as I possibly can, for as long as I possibly can, because when I am in my gift, I am UNSTOPPABLE!
You have not because you ask not.
I ask regularly and I have never come to the keyboard without assistance. When I get up in front of an audience to speak, just like Maya Angelou, I never go alone. God is always with me when I ask. If you find yourself struggling, I can make one suggestion and that is to ask for guidance and then find a way to get silent and listen for an answer and in the space between the space, an answer will emerge if you are prepared to receive it.
You have not because you ask not.
At a seminar I attended 30 years ago I met the great Jim Rohn. At that seminar he shared more value in the half-day I was with him than most of the other teachers I’ve experienced throughout my entire lifetime. One of the key lessons that day was an amazingly simple lesson and the simplest of lessons are ones that are often missed. In my notes from 30 years ago is the word ask. And after the word ask and the humor that was only possible because of the man known as Jim Rohn with the words, that’s it, seminar over, you can go home now. Ask!
Ask, that’s it!
You have not because you ask not.
Stop trying to do everything on your own, make peace with whoever it is, or whatever it is that you call your Higher Power, and ASK!
My recommendation is to ask God. Ask the God of YOUR understanding and then do the hardest part, listen…
One of the best ways to listen is to meditate. All you have to do to meditate is Pause, Breathe, and Reflect. If you struggle with meditation, check out the PBR Movement at pausebreathereflect.com or go to Insight Timer and check out the Pause Breathe Reflect Sangha “Circle.” You can also follow meditation instructor and Executive Coach, Michael O’Brien on Insight Timer or at michaelobrienshift.com — Pause, Breathe, Reflect…
I will pick this article up in the next session where I will talk about why it’s so important to commit to whatever is important to you and the importance of creating your own individual ripple “One Day At A Time.”
In the next article I will also talk about why I believe it’s so important to discover your gift and create your quest!
Advance Confidently is the title of my next book, you will have to wait to celebrate its release as I celebrate my 60th birthday. I have concluded the world doesn’t need another self-help book from me right now, so I am listening to my muse and will write a sci fi personal growth story of self-discovery instead. Hmmm? Almost sounds like a QUEST, right? I believe you will be INSPIRED with the story that chose me to write it! I never saw it coming but now that it’s here, I can’t wait to share it with all of YOU! I know it will be worth the wait because that’s my commitment to you, my readers. Thanks in advance for your trust and patience!
In the meantime, I released a special audio short story on Twitter to commemorate my Independence Day and my 31st year of sobriety. You can watch/listen to the story here ( https://youtu.be/9zP4kk5OTlo ). You can find me on Twitter @bobby_kountz
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
“The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.” ~Joseph Campbell
Plug YOURSELF into a pathway, a process, or a framework.
Both blessed and cursed with the unique ability to think AND reason, humans are different than all other life forms. We were gifted choice, free will, or at least the appearance of it. Some would argue that no such thing exists…
The truth? That’s up to you… Yes, even the truth is a product of choice.
That which I believe to be the truth will be my truth. That which you believe to be your truth will be your truth. If I believe my life to be full of grace, gratitude, and abundance, then there is an excellent chance I will experience the same. If I believe my life to be devoid of pleasure, happiness, and joy, then there is an equal chance that is what I will experience.
“Your belief determines your action, and your action determines your results, but first you have to believe.” ~Mark Victor Hansen
I believe that hidden within each of us is everything we need to achieve anything we can imagine. I believe each of us was born with a gift. I believe that if we embrace our gift, it will make room for us. After all, we are human beings. Well, at least by outer appearance, we are human beings. Many believe we are spiritual beings having a human experience. This is where we come right back to what you believe.
Which do you believe is right? Are we spiritual beings having a human experience? Are we human beings having a spiritual experience? Or is it something altogether different…?
There is one thing I know that’s an absolute fact.
YOU are not an inanimate object. YOU are (Hu), the human element. YOU are the Swiss army knife of awesomeness! YOU are the MacGyver of mastery.
As a human, you have infinite capacity and a finite purpose. You were born with a gift that is yours and yours alone to share with the world. Your only priority in life is to transfer your gift to as many other people as possible. Musicians transfer their gift with their music, writers with their words, physicians with healing, craftsmen with their tools, artists use a medium. Whatever it is you do, or aspire to do, find a way to share your gift.
If you were an inanimate object like a curling iron, a regular iron, or a blender, then your options in life would be limited. If you were a tree, a dragonfly, or a grasshopper, your choices would be limited. Here’s the good news, you are none of those things. You are human and because you are, you can choose to do almost anything.
This gift, the ability to do, be, or become whatever you choose is both a blessing and a curse. Why? Because left to our own direction, it’s easy to wander, it’s easy to walk around undecided about what it is you actually want to do and the difference you want to make in the world.
Fortunately, there will come a point when you will feel “it.” You won’t know exactly what “it” is, you won’t be able to describe “it” clearly, you won’t be able to label “it.” You won’t be able to name “it”, but “it” will feel as real as if you could.
What is this unknown thing that you sense but can’t quite put your finger on? It’s the calling… Most of us ignore “it” when “it” comes… That is, we ignore “it” until we no longer can. There comes a day when the call is so loud “it” can no longer be ignored. What began as a whisper now follows you everywhere. The proverbial tap on the shoulder becomes so annoying that you get tired of turning around to look to see who’s doing it and instead you begin the process of self-discovery.
Self-discovery is the path to the promised land. It’s the place we’re most afraid to go because our ego fears what we might find there. If we were to find our true self, then that means death to the ego. And just like a momma bear, the ego will do everything to defend its cubs. We, are the cubs.
What do you mean Bobby, why are you referring to us as bear cubs in relation to the ego? Simple, I’m using a metaphor that most people understand. When we take a concept that’s difficult to understand and plug it into something that’s known, something the brain clearly understands and can process, then it makes what might otherwise be difficult, easy to understand.
You mean you chose a momma bear as an example because we all know from stories told about how momma bears protect their cubs, that we would understand that’s just how hard the ego will fight to keep us under its control?
Yep!
As long as we are under the spell of the ego, then there’s no way we will ever have the confidence to go after our dreams. If the ego is in control, we will acquiesce when we run into difficulties, troubles, and challenges, because the ego will be right there to tell us, “I told you so.” It will be there to say to us; ”Who do you think you are to do such a thing?”, you’ve never done anything like that before! “You’re going to fail, and everyone is going to laugh at you!”
Sound familiar? If not, then you can probably stop reading right now because this information won’t be for you. If you don’t feel any of those things or you haven’t heard any of those thoughts, then you’ve already somehow found a way to master your inner critic. The ego uses the inner critic to keep you playing safe and small because the ego’s job is to keep you safe.
Until you find a way to make peace with your inner critic, you will always be fighting the battle and I would suggest there’s a better way. It’s the way of self-discovery. As you discover who you really are and you begin to collect the evidence of all that you’re capable of, the ego slowly begins to change and starts to understand that you might actually be capable of doing the wild and crazy thing that’s been running around in the back of your mind, the thing it’s been trying to keep you safe from, all these years.
As the evidence mounts, if you embrace the ego as an ally instead of an adversary, you can get your ego to become a Benedict Arnold. And once that happens, you will have flipped the switch and for the most part, you will find your ego to be an astonishing ally.
What if? What if there was a process, a pathway, a framework for you to discover just how amazing you actually are? What if that process was self-discovery, and what if you had a framework to help you discover your truth?
The call was your awakening. The call is what has you reading this article right now. The call is what creates the insatiable curiosity you have about life. The call is your inner gift trying to find a way to express itself. Regret is what happens when people ignore the call.
At varying points in life, like milestone events, turning 30, 50, 60, at retirement, or lying on our deathbed, we think about all the things we might have done, could have done, should have done… when the hourglass has been turned over for the last time, there will be a reckoning. If we have lived our life If to the fullest, there’s a good chance we will gracefully watch the sand pass through the neck from the top to the bottom for the last time as we quietly close our eyes and drift away.
If, however, you have done like most, and put the important things on the back burner waiting for SOMEDAY, there’s an exceptionally good chance you’ll be wishing you could turn the hourglass over one more time.
As I write this, I am thinking about my own hourglass and how many more times I’ll be able to turn it from one side to the other. When the last time comes, will I have done everything that’s important to me? Will I have made the world a better place for my grandchildren? Will I have made a difference? Will anyone even know that I was here?
As a writer, one of the things I know for sure is that I will have at least left a trace, a fingerprint… I may not have created a tidal wave, or a tsunami, but I will have created a ripple and there’s no telling how far that ripple might spread…
Everything begins first with thought and then we take our thoughts and turn them into words to communicate first with ourselves and then with the world around us. We label things in an attempt to understand them. We use words even though they are a poor substitute for whatever it is we’re trying to describe. Since words are all we have, I do my best to describe what I see, what I think, what I feel, and what I believe. I believe with all my heart that as a fellow human being you have infinite capacity to do, be, or become whatever you choose, if you’re brave enough to begin your quest.
What do you want? Where do you want to go? What do you want to see? What do you want to be? What difference do you want to make in the world? What legacy would you like to leave behind? What would you like to accomplish NOW, instead of someday? Whatever it is, all you must do is turn it into a quest and then begin the process of living your quest, one day at a time.
Your quest will give your life meaning and purpose. Your gift will guide you through the process if you give yourself permission to discover it. And how do you go about discovering your gift? As you begin the process of self-discovery, you will begin to learn things about yourself that you’ve always known but didn’t KNOW. You will slowly become sure of certain things. You will begin to believe in your ability to do specific things. The more you do the things you believe you can do, then the more you will do them. And the more you do them, the easier they will become and when they become so easy they seem effortless, that’s when you know you are in your gift.
Your gift is the thing you do the absolute best with the least amount of effort and if you can find a way to do that, you’ll be well on your way to living a life of happiness, joy, and most importantly, freedom. The longer you persist in whatever it is you’ve been doing that isn’t your gift, the longer you will suffer. We will always be happiest when we are working with our gift.
When I wrote The Someday Solution, it was the beginning of something I didn’t even completely understand at the time. I have now come to understand it was the beginning of my quest, not the completion of it.
I have come to understand that when I write, when I’m with my muse, it feels almost effortless. As a matter of fact, as I write this now, I have a huge smile on my face because I know that whatever words appear on the page, are appearing as an expression of my gift, are being expressed as my gift. When I write, my soul expresses itself, and it is my greatest hope that my words will reach one other human being and wake up that something in them that has been ignored for such a long time…
It is my hope that my words will somehow wake you up to answer “your” call.
I believe there is a hero in each of us. I believe the challenges we face are placed in front of us to temper us the same way steel is tempered. I believe the challenges and difficulties we face are there to show us what we’re truly capable of. I believe they are there as proof of our strength and our courage. I believe they are there to teach us resilience. The inner journey of self-discovery is part of the hero’s journey, and your quest will be the process or framework that allows you to discover your purpose.
“Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It’s a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.” ~Joseph Campbell
“Advance Confidently is the title of my next book, you will have to wait to celebrate its release as I celebrate my 60th birthday. I have concluded the world doesn’t need another self-help book from me right now, so I am listening to my muse and will write a sci fi personal growth story of self-discovery instead. Hmmm? Almost sounds like a QUEST, right? I believe you will be INSPIRED with the story that chose me to write it! I never saw it coming but now that it’s here, I can’t wait to share it with all of YOU! I know it will be worth the wait because that’s my commitment to you, my readers. Thanks in advance for your trust and patience!
In the meantime, I released a special audio short story on Twitter to commemorate my Independence Day and my 31st year of sobriety. You can watch/listen to the story here ( https://youtu.be/9zP4kk5OTlo ). You can find me on Twitter @bobby_kountz
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason, mastery demands all of a person.” ~Albert Einstein
Everything begins with our thoughts. All things are created twice, first in thought, then in action. Wherever you are right now, look around you. Whatever objects you see, first existed in the mind of their creator, and only became manifest when acted upon with human hands. Even many of the natural objects surrounding us had to be gathered and placed by human hands to create their significance.
Our lives are no different than the objects surrounding us. Look at your life. The way it currently looks is most likely a result of your thoughts about what you believed was possible for you. Our lives are a representation of our thoughts. Our thoughts determine how we respond to external events and stressors. Whatever we currently have, or don’t, is most likely related to whatever we believed was possible for us. Please remember, there are always exceptions, but our hardiness or resilience equation, which also ties back to our thoughts, will directly impact our outcomes.
There is a phrase, expressed with some subtle variations, that was made well known by Earl Nightingale and other early pioneers in the field of personal growth and development. It also has strong spiritual ties. The phrase, in one form or another, can be found in many spiritual texts as well.
We become what we think about. “A man is what he thinks about all day long.” “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” “As a man thinketh, so is he.” “A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” The phrases above are attributed to: Emerson, Hill, Allen, and Gandhi.
“We become what we think about.” ~Earl Nightingale
What made this short phrase so powerfully popular was the context in which it was shared by Nightingale. When Earl Nightingale wrote and recorded TheStrangest Secretin 1956, it sold over one million copies and received the first Gold Record for the spoken word. His work was responsible for launching and creating the field of business motivation and audio publishing.
Earl Nightingale is the only man I have ever known to use more quotes than me… And trust me, that’s saying something!
The following quotes are from the opening of The Strangest Secret.
“A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.” ~Marcus Aurelius
Disraeli said, “Everything comes if a man will only wait. I have brought myself by long meditation to the conviction that a human being, with a settled purpose, must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will that will stake even existence on it.”
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.” ~William James
“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” ~William Shakespeare
“George Bernard Shaw said, “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, make them.”
AWARENESS
“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” ~Nathaniel Branden
Our thoughts are constantly taking us into the future or revisiting the past. Unfortunately, this is where many of us spend much of our time. We are either thinking about the future or dwelling on the past. The future is kept for us. Impossible to go into debt, as was outlined in one of the greatest pieces ever written on time, by Arnold Bennett.
To be aware is to be in the now. Eckhart Tolle has made an entire career around this concept. The now is where we connect with our higher self. The now is the place where we exhibit our essence. The now is a place of being, not doing. When we are aware, we can see ourselves and our actions from the third position, which is the position of observer. It is from this place of observation that we learn we are not our thoughts, and with this awareness comes the realization that if we are not our thoughts, then we can change them in any moment. It is this awareness that opens the door of enlightenment.
Meditation has been called a direct route that will give us access to pure awareness, or to our higher self. It is the place that allows us to experience the space between the space, the silence between the silence, the pause between the pause, the breath between the breath. From this place of awareness, a door of infinite possibilities awaits. This door often swings on the hinges of gratitude, because “Gratitude is the little hinge that swings big doors” as was shared in the book, Dear Gratitude, by my friend and fellow author, Chris Palmore.
If you think your life is too busy for meditation, then that’s the first indicator you might just need meditation more than you could have ever possibly imagined… Fortunately, there’s a movement created by my friend and Executive Coach, Michael O’Brien, called the Pause, Breathe, Reflect, movement and you can experience meditation in 2-, 3-, 5-, or 10-minute segments on either Clubhouse or Insight Timer, your choice.
Meditation really is all about our breath. It’s about the awareness of our breath. When we breathe with purpose and intention, we open the door…
CHOICE
“Choices are the hinges of destiny.” ~Pythagoras
We are always at choice. Our choices create the life we live. The energy of the ego resonates at a lower vibration. The energy of compassion, forgiveness, gratitude, and truth resonate at a higher level than the ego. Another word for choice is discernment and you will find it often used when discussing mindfulness. It literally means to choose wisely.
Discernment is all about conscious choice and we often find books written on habit change discussing this idea of choice. When we ask the question, “What would my inner coach, or higher self, do?”, we are asking a discernment question.
TRUTH
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
This element is all about being honest with ourselves. It may be best represented by the Delphic maxim of “Know Thyself.” Truth is the place where we create the courage to act on the conscious choices we have made because choice without action is folly.
Waiting in the shadows, our ego will attempt to distract us from living out and speaking our truth. The closer we come to our breakthrough while on our personal growth QUEST, the stealthier the ego will be about derailing us from our desired outcome. Self-mastery is the first step to the banishment of our ego and the birth of potential enlightenment. The ego will do everything to preserve itself.
When we can stand in our truth and take up the space of that truth, our ego begins to realize its days are numbered. This is where we typically meet with resistance, which is another tool of the ego to keep us playing safe and small.
SELF
“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” ~Leonardo da Vinci
When we finally overcome the resistance of our ego, we will have an opportunity to meet our true self for perhaps the very first time. When we come into alignment with our true self, we will no longer feel at odds with the difficulty of choice, because our actions will finally be in synch with the natural laws of the universe. This is the place where we realize the difference between being in the world, but not necessarily of it…
Ego will have been put in its rightful place and awareness will be in the driver’s seat, at least temporarily. Ego is a persistent adversary and absolutely despises the back seat of the car and will do everything to regain its position. If it can’t regain position, it will quickly call “shotgun” at the earliest opportunity and push awareness into the back seat to take its place.
(A note on the term “shotgun” for anyone wondering. According to Wiktionary, the front passenger seat in a vehicle, next to the driver is referred to as the “shotgun” position because the position of the shotgun armed guard on a horse-drawn stagecoach, wagon train, or gold transport was next to the driver on a forward-mounted bench seat).
Self-mastery is available to all of us, but only if we are willing to walk through the trials and tribulations of self-discovery. The QUEST of self-discovery is not for the weary or faint of heart. It will most likely require us at a minimum, to do battle with at least one dragon, and we will most assuredly be forced to enter the cave we fear.
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” ~Joseph Campbell
If you are wondering what awaits in the cave, here are a few of the elusive prizes we are all looking for: Happiness, Joy, Bliss, Wholeness, Oneness, Consciousness of the brightest and purest form, and an Awareness that transcendsthe bonds of everyday life and the presence of Light, Love, Truth, and Prosperity. Oh, and let’s not forget my favorite, Equanimity! This is the place of our unfulfilled destiny now realized. This is facing difficulties and excitement with equal anticipation. This is the NOW!
For us mere mortals, energy is rarely sustainable at this level. However, wouldn’t it be nice to visit it at will? That is the power of self-awareness. That is the power of self-mastery. That is the power of mindfulness. These are the ACTS! The potential prizes listed above generally emerge as we embrace the ACTS of Mastery. Act NOW!
Advance Confidently is the title of my next book, you will have to wait to celebrate its release as I celebrate my 60th birthday. I have concluded the world doesn’t need another self-help book from me right now, so I am listening to my muse and writing a sci fi personal growth story of self-discovery instead. Hmmm? Almost sounds like a QUEST, right? I believe you will be INSPIRED with the story that chose me to write it! I never saw it coming but now that it’s here, I can’t wait to share it with all of YOU! I know it will be worth the wait because that’s my commitment to you, my readers. Thanks in advance for your trust and patience!
In the meantime, I released a special audio short story on Twitter to commemorate my Independence Day and my 31st year of sobriety. You can watch/listen to the story here ( https://youtu.be/9zP4kk5OTlo ). You can find me on Twitter @bobby_kountz
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Mentor, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
“Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.” -Stephen R. Covey
If our character is basically a composite of our habits, we can effectively completely change our lives by changing our habits. Our current habits only define who we are at this present moment in time. They are only a snapshot of our current knowledge and understanding in this moment. At any given time, we can make a conscious choice to embrace new habits.
As important as they are, they don’t define who we will eventually be, because we have the ability to change our habits if we commit to making the necessary changes. The paradigm shifts we experience will be in direct proportion to our efforts in the application of each habit.
What do you want to be? A teacher? A writer? A computer technician? A pilot? A social worker? A coach? A business owner? An entrepreneur? What kind of life do you want to live? Everything is possible, one day at a time… If you’re not living the life you’ve always imagined you could, the one you’ve dreamed of living, choose to do so, and take the first step toward it.
Delete one habit that no longer serves you, that’s not moving you toward your goal, and replace it with one habit that does. Then do that again… and again. Change your habits one by one, one day at a time, and you will also change your character and eventually, you will change your life as you become the person you choose to be.
Excellence is a choice. Commitment is a choice. The willingness to change is a choice. Learning is a choice. Reading is a choice. There is no shortage of material on the subject of habits. All that’s required to change a habit is an open mind and the commitment to do the work. Change is only hard if we frame it as hard. Our belief about a thing is what will determine the level of difficulty or ease. If we believe it to be hard, it will most assuredly be hard…
In his best seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey lists being proactive as the first habit. Be Proactive! Take complete “response-ability” for your own life. When we take full responsibility for our life, we empower ourselves to make any and all changes necessary to achieve the results we desire. By changing the habits at the core of the results we experience, we also change our character and our life. We each have the ability to elevate our life through conscious endeavor.
“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.” -Henry David Thoreau
Advance Confidently is still the title of my next book, but you will have to wait to celebrate its release as I celebrate my 60th birthday. I have concluded the world doesn’t need another self-help book from me right now, so I am listening to my muse and will write a sci fi personal growth story of self-discovery instead. I believe you will be INSPIRED with the story that chose me to write it! I never saw it coming but now that it’s here, I can’t wait to share it with all of YOU! I know it will be worth the wait because that’s my commitment to each of you, my readers.
Thanks in advance for your trust and patience!
In the meantime, I released a special audio short story on Twitter to commemorate my Independence Day and my 31st year of sobriety. You can watch the story here ( https://youtu.be/9zP4kk5OTlo ). You can find me on Twitter @bobby_kountz
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
