“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.
“Everyone has a story to tell, a lesson to teach, and wisdom to share… Life is a beautiful masterpiece bound together by your experiences. Open up and share your story; become an inspiration to others. You can make a difference because you matter. You were created with purpose. Live your life with intention, go out there and make a difference by being the difference.” ~Melanie Koulouris
We are surrounded by stories. They’re everywhere! They are the fabric of life as we know it. Words are the language we use to tell our stories even though they are completely inadequate to describe most of what we experience.
Different stories mean different things to different people. Some people actually believe their lives to be insignificant when viewed through their own eyes. However, when viewed through the eyes of another, what was once boring and insignificant becomes both interesting and inspirational.
If you have ever overcome anything, then you have a story to share. Sometimes even the most insignificant things have a story hidden within what otherwise might have gone completely unnoticed, if not for the details being filled in. The smallest act of kindness can have the most profound effect…
A man was asked to paint a boat. He brought his paint and brushes and began to paint the boat a bright red, as the owner asked him.
While painting, he noticed a small hole in the hull and quietly repaired it.
When he finished painting, he received his money and left.
The next day, the owner of the boat came to the painter and presented him with a nice check, much higher than the payment for painting.
The painter was surprised and said “You’ve already paid me for painting the boat Sir!”
“But this is not for the paint job. It’s for repairing the hole in the boat.”
“Ah! But it was such a small service… Certainly it’s not worth paying me such a high amount for something so insignificant.”
“My dear friend, you do not understand. Let me tell you what happened:
“When I asked you to paint the boat, I forgot to mention the hole.”
“When the boat dried, my kids took the boat and went on a fishing trip.
“They did not know that there was a hole. I was not home at that time.
“When I returned and notice they had taken the boat, I was desperate because I remembered that the boat had a hole.
“Imagine my relief and joy when I saw them returning from fishing.
“Then, I examined the boat and found that you had repaired the hole!
“You see, now, what you did? You saved the life of my children! I do not have enough money to pay your ‘small’ good deed.”
So no matter who, when or how, continue to help, sustain, wipe tears, listen attentively, and carefully repair all the ‘leaks’ you find. You never know when one is in need of us, or when God holds a pleasant surprise for us to be helpful and important to someone.
Along the way, you may have repaired numerous ‘boat holes’ for several people without realizing how many lives you saved.
Make a difference…
Red Boat Story pulled from: bamradionetwork.com by Rita Wirtz, June 19, 2021, who credited the story to: Sharing is Caring, Sweden.
The Red Boat story was shared with me by a friend who knows how much I enjoy both stories and writing. I shared it with a room of individuals who were all moved by the words and now, once again, I am sharing it here with all of you to demonstrate just how significant our insignificant little acts can be…
Never underestimate an act of kindness or generosity. There is no way to measure the effect your words will have on another human being…
One of the elements of my own life story that doesn’t seem overly significant to me now because of the accumulation of years, is my own sobriety story. However, every time someone finds out I’ve accumulated over 31 years of sobriety, one day at a time, they’re almost always in awe. When I explain the days are the natural result of commitment and simply represent the outcome of choosing not to drink one day at a time, they don’t seem any less impressed.
If I hadn’t found the courage to finally tell my story, there might still be people out there thinking that they have to quit drinking forever, and because that seems so overwhelming to them, they never even try. However, when they hear about how I broke it down day by day, particularly in the beginning when it was really hard, then they understand that their commitment is only, “just for today.”
This subtle little difference, this insignificant detail can make all the difference between somebody deciding to make a change in their life versus saying there is no way it’s not worth it, it’s too hard! There is a saying that by the inch it’s a cinch and by the yard it’s hard and that’s totally true. When we take the time to break things down into the smallest components possible, what might originally have seemed overwhelming, is suddenly no great challenge at all and just another story to be told…
If you’ve ever struggled with drugs and alcohol and think there’s no way you could ever quit, please understand that’s simply not the truth. But rather than believe me, I would ask you to think about all the other things that you’ve done that seemed really difficult in your lifetime and simply ask you to think about how you did those difficult things? Each of the difficult things that you’ve ever done have all been done, one day at a time. And before you were ever successful at doing whatever the difficult thing was, you decided first in your mind to do it. You made a commitment. When we make a commitment to ourselves and then keep our promise, all kinds of magical things happen.
One of the greatest benefits of keeping our promises to ourselves is the development of self-esteem. Every promise kept is one step closer to having the kind of self-esteem and self-confidence that would make you, UNSTOPPABLE! The way that we go from unsure to UNSTOPPABLE, is by keeping our promises to ourselves, not all at once, but one day at a time.
The key to life is to keep the promises you make to yourself, one day at a time. It’s impossible to keep the promise of whatever it is that you’ve said you’ll do tomorrow, today. But when tomorrow comes, you have to show up, and you have to do the hard work, and you have to stay the course. And when you do, you will have done whatever needed to be done that day, and you will have kept your promise to yourself, and you will have built another layer into the process of becoming absolutely, UNSTOPPABLE!
Self-confidence is a one day at a time game. We build our confidence one day at a time with each and every promise we keep to ourselves. Once we get good at keeping promises to ourselves, then we can slowly begin to make and keep promises to others as well. As we do, our self-esteem grows, and when it does, we begin to believe that we can do almost anything, one day at a time. Suddenly, we understand that the only thing we ever must do is what’s immediately in front of us.
When we live in the now, when we live in the present, we can do, be, or become almost anything we choose. All skills are learnable. Simply ask yourself what’s between where you are now and whatever it is you ultimately want. Then, get busy closing the gap that exists between where you are and whatever it is you desire by accumulating all the skills and abilities necessary to close the gap, not overnight, but by steady, persistent, commitment, one day at a time…
“One day at a time” is a philosophy for success. One day at a time is a philosophy for living in the present. When we live each day with intention, with purpose, with commitment, we give ourselves the best chance to be our best. We are always best when we are in the now, when we are present.
If you ever find yourself up against the wall and feeling like there’s no way you can get through whatever’s in front of you, just remember, as my friend Michael reminds me on a regular basis, you can always come back to your breath. When we breathe, when we slow down, when we think, we ground ourselves in the present moment which allows us to block out the past and keeps us from worrying about the future.
Every time you struggle, remember, just come back to your breath. When we remember to breathe, we find the energy we need to do whatever is in front of us, we find the energy to do hard things.
Hard things are done one breath at a time. Hard things are done “one day at a time!” We can do hard things when we remember to breathe!
What’s your story?
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.
“Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.” ~Ernest Hemingway
The greatest gift you ever give yourself will probably come in the form of time…
Unstructured time is the gift many of us have forgotten to schedule into our busy lives. Sometimes, we must be reminded that almost everything works better if it is occasionally unplugged… Yes, that includes YOU!
I recently had an article delivered into my inbox by the prolific author Jeff Goins! You know you’re really on to something when you get an article in your inbox on a topic that you’re already writing about. His article was delivered into my inbox a week after my trip to Yosemite where I intentionally unplugged from my day-to-day activities so I could reconnect with both nature and my inner-being.
If we ever hope to accomplish what we’re truly capable of, it won’t be by working harder, hustling, grinding, or trying to find the 25th hour in the day. Trust me, it doesn’t exist, I’ve looked for it, I’ve searched for it, and I couldn’t find it anywhere.
The same way I searched for “someday” that fictitious place we create to park our dreams, I also was unable to discover the 25th hour because it doesn’t exist either. We each have 24 hours in any given day to accomplish whatever it is we choose and if we can’t manage our time within that 24-hours, we do make a mess of things! Resource on Time in the article link below:
We must, and I will emphasize the must, we MUST make time for ourselves. We need space between the space. We need time between the time. The only way to make sure you get this most precious time is to schedule unstructured time into your day. Avoid the temptation to fill up every single minute. It can be intoxicating to look at a schedule that is full, from top to bottom, front to back, side to side, and say to yourself look at all that I’m doing, look at all that I have accomplished, when in reality, what you’ve really done, is cheated yourself out of the most important gift you could ever give, to the most important creature on the planet, “you.”
No one will be impressed when you show them your schedule and there’s no time in it for you. And, the truth is, there’s no way you can be as effective as you possibly can without making sure that you’ve taken the time to fill up your cup first. If you’re attempting to fill the cups of others without making sure to fill your own first, there will be nothing to pour into the lives of others. You cannot fill the cups of others from a depleted cup.
If you wish to make a real difference in the world then you absolutely, positively, must make time for yourself. This is non-negotiable. Well, hopefully, after reading this article, it will NOW be non-negotiable for you.
The purpose of this article is to get you to slow down long enough to understand that the only way for you to be the absolute best version of yourself is to make sure that you’re taking time for yourself. Unstructured time is the time we create on our calendar to reconnect with our breath. There is a space between our breath. We breathe in, and we breathe out. Between the breathing in and breathing out there is a space, there is a natural pause. I’m asking you to extend that pause. I’m asking you to intentionally extend that pause. Then, after taking the pause, I invite you to take a deep breath… Breathe in, breathe out, now one more thing, embrace the silence of the space between the space.
Our minds need room just like we need room. One of the best places to find the extra room we need is in the great outdoors. If the outdoors is not your jam, then maybe it’s the spa. I don’t know what does it for you, but whatever it is, you need to schedule time for it. Schedule unstructured time to embrace the space between the space. Schedule time to reconnect with your breath, to reconnect with your inner-coach, to silence all the chatter, including your inner-critic.
This is one of the greatest gifts you will ever give to your mind, and your soul will thank you later… It is the greatest gift you will ever give to your soul. It’s the greatest gift you could ever possibly give to your TEAM, to your family, and to your friends.
The “you” that returns to whatever it is you do on a regular basis to earn what you earn to provide for those you provide for, will be a “YOU” that is 10 times better than “the you” that left, than “the you” that was in the trenches, on the hamster wheel, grinding out the daily grind. Take a moment right now to reconnect with your breath.
Breathe!
And if you’re wondering about how you’re going to get everything done, let me remind you of something shared with me by my coach and mentor. He reminds me on a regular basis that slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Let me say that one more time so it sinks in, so you don’t just read past the words.
Slow is smooth and smooth is fast!
When I slowed down to experience everything available to me in Yosemite National Park, I gained clarity about the direction of not only my next book but the future of my life. I saw in the space between the space a life that looks exactly as I choose, a life by design, a life designed by me, for me and those I intend to serve.
You will find my most recent article on Yosemite here: Bobby Kountz
I made a commitment to a life of service over 31 years ago and I’ve done my best to honor that commitment the best way I know how. However, until we’re ready to look in the mirror and truly see our own inner-awesomeness, or as Michael describes, our inner-awesome sauce, we will only ever be providing a sliver of what’s possible in the way that we can show up for others, because we must first learn to show up for ourselves.
I am done playing small. I am finished hiding in plain sight. I am ready, willing, and able to embrace my inner-awesome sauce and share it with the world in every avenue I can possibly think of so that I can create a ripple across the planet and make the world just a little bit better so that my grandkids can experience a world worth experiencing.
I can’t pretend the challenges that face our planet are so great that there’s nothing I can do. I may not be able to solve all the challenges that currently exist, but I can show up and do my part every single day. And one of the best ways I can show up is to make time for myself. If my cup is overflowing, then I will have more than enough to spread across the planet to create the ripple that I’m capable of creating to make the difference that only I can make by fearlessly sharing the story that is only mine to share and I invite each of you to do the same.
Find a way to share your story in a way that only you can share it, because no one else can share the story that is “you.” If you want to make a real difference in the world then embrace your inner awesomeness, stop hiding in plain sight, find your voice, and share your message!
Here is my promise; when you find your own authentic voice, when you discover who you really are and what you’re capable of, you will have more confidence than you could have ever possibly imagined. It will show up for you in everything you do. Your family will notice. Your friends will notice. Your team will notice. Your employer will notice. Everyone will notice and the most important person that will notice will be you when you go to the mirror when you see yourself for the very first time. I mean, to really see yourself, the REAL you, the you that you always knew was somewhere inside…
Most of us are barely scratching the surface of what we’re capable of.
If you want to take your life to the next level, then give yourself permission to get off the hamster wheel. Go out and connect with your breath, connect with nature, connect with the space between the space and when you do, you will find the “you” that’s been hiding in plain sight all along. When you return to the mirror and you take a long look, what you will see will be a vastly different you than you’ve ever seen. Because you will be seeing you, the real you, for perhaps the very first time.
PPAUSE • BREATHE • REFLECT…
Image from Author’s Collection
My dear friend, mentor, and coach, Michael O’Brien has created a movement to get people to reconnect with their breath. The movement is very simply titled as you see in the line above, pause, breathe, reflect. He has a meditation room on clubhouse where he offers 5-minute meditations throughout the day, typically three to four times a day, and I’m inviting you to step off your hamster wheel and join us in the PAUSE, BREATHE, REFLECT room where you can get your breath on!
Get your BREATH on! Get your PAUSE on! Come reflect with us as we step off the hamster wheel of life to PAUSE, BREATHE, REFLECT… Join our 5-minute guided meditations to re-connect with your breath. You’ve got nothing to lose and a brand-new appreciation for life to gain! See YOU soon!
Finally, here’s a link to an amazing challenge: It’s the 20 Ripple Challenge to commemorate my friend’s last bad day ever! There are only 2 days left in the official challenge but any ripple you create is sure to make a difference!
If my words somehow inspired you to pursue your gift, then I succeeded…
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 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:
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.
“Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill there is a solution to every problem.” ~Anurag Prakash Ray
In life, over time, I have come to realize all events are neutral until we label them. Everything we experience or will ever experience, will be experienced, one day at a time. Life is perceived through the filter of what we bring to it. No two people see things exactly the same even when in full agreement on whatever it is they are seeing.
We are not machines and therefore, our emotions, our attitude, our confidence, our physical capabilities, our fitness, both physical and mental will all play their part in the way we perceive things. Our inherent nature, risk averse or risk prone, our ego, our pride, our fear, our humility, our concern for the well-being of others, selflessness or selfish, all will play their part in the decision-making process about what is and isn’t possible…
Mindset, belief, attitude, confidence, clarity, judgment, resilience, tenacity, grit, etc., these are the words used to describe the behaviors and actions of those who appear sure of themselves and their abilities.
Fear is not typically a word associated with the above list. The truth however is that most confident people feel the same fear as the individual lacking confidence. The difference is not in the fear they experience, but in their individual response to it. Confident people find a way to feel the fear and do it anyway. When they do it, whatever “it” is, they do it afraid!
For some, fear is paralyzing. For others it is exhilarating. For most of us, it is the common thread of the lived experience we each do our best to navigate. There is no all-inclusive instruction manual on how to manage fear. There are many theories, articles, and even books on how to manage fear, but the truth is, what works for one may not work for another.
If, however you are interested in one of the best manuals ever written, I highly recommend The End of Fear Itself by Steve Bivans which is available as a kindle read on Amazon for less than the cost of a gourmet cup of coffee. If you prefer a paperback you will have to separate yourself from $15, which is a bargain for a manual on unlearning everything you thought you knew about FEAR!
Some of us are defeated before we ever make the attempt. Some just know their natural limits and I have the utmost respect for them for they are bold enough to face the ridicule of those that might heckle them or call them a quitter, or even worse, make fun of them behind their back in private conversation.
It often takes more courage to say no than it does to say yes. I applaud those who consciously say no after weighing their options and measuring their choices against their abilities. Deep consideration for the safety of others, particularly strangers, is a rare quality indeed.
The climb from the bottom of the Half Dome trail departing out of Little Yosemite Valley to the top is approximately 2700 feet and about 3.5 miles of switchbacks, granite stairs, some of which are carved right into the rock, and standard steep ascent paths. It is a serious hike for serious hikers and a true test of patience and resilience.
Many casual hikers make the attempt as well. Some even succeed.
The casual hikers will be those starting as we did from Little Yosemite Valley because from the valley floor, Half Dome rises nearly 5,000 feet to a grand height of 8,839 feet!
Photo from Author’s Collection
For me, this hike was a test of my will. To begin with, it’s at altitude. It’s steep and requires a steadfast commitment to keep moving even when tired and short of breath. Determination and persistence are the words of the day…
When you finally make it to the top of the Half Dome approach, or what many refer to as the sub-dome, what you find waiting for your is a pair of cables suspended from poles that fit tightly into the drilled-out holes that await their replacement every year when the season reopens. (See picture below).
Photo from Author’s Collection
The final elevation gain on the cables is 400 feet of what sometimes feels like straight up, which translates to about a 50–60-degree slope! The poles are set about 8–10 feet apart with a 2×4 strapped to them to provide a little extra footing. The mantra was to go from board to board as you wait for the person in front of you to advance. Where it gets tricky is when you run into someone coming down at the same time as you are going up or vice versa. There is only so much room between the cables and cooperation from both ascenders and descenders is mandatory to navigate the journey safely!
As you can imagine, there is always one chucklehead in every crowd and for all of us it was Mr. Pink Shirt! He was overly impressed with his own ability to descend facing down the mountain rather than backwards and showed little concern for anyone who got in his way or was too slow to get out of his egoic charge down the cables… Fortunately, no one was hurt!
Where was I? oh yeah, the ascent…
When you finally reach the top, you are either exhilarated or terrified and I saw both this past Monday. The face of one of the ascenders I watched come off the final steps looked like one of those faces you see in a movie like Friday the 13th!
Fortunately, my friend Joe was at the top taking pictures and the one of me looks like someone who both felt and looked UNSTOPPABLE! (See Picture).
Photo from Author’s Collection
The view from the top is almost unimaginable… The meadow floor of Yosemite valley is thousands of feet below and everyone waits for their turn to get a picture taken on the promontory point! (Mine is Below).
Photo from Author’s Collection
After a leisurely break of about 20–30 minutes for hydration and a quick snack, the process of mustering the courage for the return trip down the cables begins.
Photo from Author’s Collection
It’s easy at first, facing forward, no problem, I got this and then the slope begins to change and the decision to begin the slow and methodical backward descent begins. As a descender, you must constantly be looking behind you which also means looking down to make sure you don’t run into anyone.
FEAR can be friend or foe and I found it best to embrace it as a friend. I said to fear; I AM Feeling Excited And Ready. I know I CAN Face Everything And Rise!
I did!
In the next article, I will give a little history of the area and discuss the Wawona Hotel and Restaurant where breakfast was thoroughly enjoyed the next day…
Did I mention the adventure was epic? Now I have! Until next time…
My name is Bobby. I am The Inspirationalist!
I inspire people to pursue their gifts!
If my words somehow inspired you to pursue your gift, then I succeeded…
Advance Confidently may still be the title of my next book, but it will not be coming out on the 4th of July as I originally anticipated. I have concluded the world doesn’t need another self-help book, at least not from me, so I am listening to my muse and will write a fable of self-discovery instead. I don’t know for sure when it will be ready, but what I do know is it will be worth the wait because that is my commitment to you, my readers. Thanks in advance for your patience!
In the meantime, I will be releasing a special audio short story on Twitter to commemorate my Independence Day and my 31st year of sobriety. You can watch for the story on the 4th. 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.
“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” ~John Steinbeck
I once believed that Winter was simply a season. Then, as good fortune would have it, I met Jim Rohn. He described winter in a way I had never heard it described before. He spoke about winter as a season of life.
As a matter of fact, he wrote The Seasons Of Life in 1981 and I heard about this “philosophical glimpse into the common threads interwoven among the laws of nature and man” when I attended my very first seminar in 1991. It’s interesting that I attended this seminar 10 years after he wrote the book and was blessed with the opportunity to get a copy of the new book he was releasing at the time.
It wasn’t just any copy. It was a signed, limited edition copy that is now one of my prized possessions. The Five Major Pieces To The Life Puzzle, Copy Number 251 of 2,500 and is hereby certified by the author on the date indicated below and signed Jim Rohn, 2/21/91.
Inside the front cover of the book are scribed the following words:
Bobby,
For the best of life and treasure,
Jim Rohn
I left the seminar with both book and notebook in hand and inside the notebook filled from front to back were the words of wisdom he shared that day. As a newly sober college student I had no idea what to expect when I walked in the door. The only thing I knew was to come prepared to take notes and because my mother prepared me, I had my notebook and I managed to get out of that seminar with all of the information that would become the foundation for the rest of my life.
“The first great lesson of life to learn is that winter will always come; not only in the winter of cold, and wind, and ice, and snow, but the human winters of despair and loneliness, or disappointment, or tragedy. It is winter when prayers go un- answered, or when the acts of our children leave us shaken and stunned. It is winter when the economy turns against us, or when creditors come after us. It is winter when competition threatens, or when a friend takes advantage. Winter comes in many forms, and at any time, both to the planter of crops as well as to the person in business, or even to our personal lives.”
Prior to attending Mr. Rohn’s seminar, I had never heard the adversity of life described as winter. I knew Shakespeare had words about the winter of discontent and Mr. Rohn did not disappoint in this arena either.
He talked about the winter when you can’t figure it out and the winter when it all goes wrong. He talked about the winters of our life. The winters of a death, of a divorce, of a tragedy, of the things we can’t understand; things like Covid for example… However, he also talked about what we do know and that we know it’s possible for us to weather any storm. It’s possible for us to get through all winters.
Mr. Rohn talked about the passing of time when he described how we get through winters. He simply said you can’t change the winter and you can’t change the seasons, but you can change yourself!
His answer was for us to all ask ourselves about what we can do to get through the winters of life. He suggested we could be better prepared to deal with the winters as they naturally present themselves with the same regularity of the seasons.
He suggested we could all get stronger, we could all get smarter, we could all get better. He then stated this applies to all of us, me included. I’ve gotten better, we can all get better.
I remember him describing what happened the first time he stood up to give a speech. He said I stood up and my legs sat back down. I stood up and my mind sat back down. He then went on to describe the secret of his success… He said, I stood up and did it again, and then I did it again, and then I did it again and I kept on doing it until my mind and my legs stood up with me. I did it when I was scared, and I did it when I didn’t want to, and I even did it when I was ill. I did it when it didn’t work well, I did it when it wasn’t appreciated, I did it a lot of times when I didn’t really even know what I was doing and I did it anyway and eventually, I learned, I got better. I got better in spite of the winter, in spite of the downturns, in spite of money problems. I got stronger, I got better… I can still hear those words in my head 30 years later because that’s how profound an impact his words had on me that fated day.
I also remember him saying the key is not to wish for a better winter but to wish for more strength, more wisdom, more courage, to get better, to get wiser, to get stronger. He said, there’s no winter that you can’t overcome, there’s no winter that you can’t figure out how to survive. He finished with the understanding that winters don’t last forever, hang on!
The final piece of advice I remember was Mr. Rohn reminding all of us to never let the effects of winter interfere with the arrival of Spring!
Spring is here! What will you do with this one wild and precious Spring?
My name is Bobby. I am The Inspirationalist!
I inspire people to pursue their gifts!
If my words somehow inspired you to pursue your gift, then I succeeded…
By the way, if you enjoyed this article, I believe you will thoroughly enjoy my next book, Advance Confidently. I look forward to sharing it with you on the 4th of July.
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.
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” ~Vincent Van Gogh
Masterpieces are created one word, one note, one brushstroke, and finally, one day at a time. The wizards that flew around in an author’s head found their way to the page, one word at a time. Amazing Grace became amazing, one note at a time. Mona Lisa’s smile was created one brush stroke at a time…
Each of these well-known creations, just like everything else in the world, were all created, one day at a time. They were cultivated from thought, fertilized with effort, tended with daily activity, and finally, after a consistent daily commitment to their finish, they were abandoned first and only then harvested, because as the great Leonardo Da Vinci once said, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
Da Vinci represents the essence of everything my “ADVANCE CONFIDENTLY” mantra stands for. He was a writer, poet, musician, sculptor, scientist, painter, mathematician, botanist, engineer, geologist, inventor, cartographer, and author. Leonardo had an I can do anything and everything kind of mindset and I believe the reason he was able to do so many things was because he simply made a commitment to try!
It should be noted however that anything Leonardo either did or attempted to do, was not done in a rush or all at once, but instead, one day at a time.
The one thing we don’t know is “how” he managed to do all the things he did. What we do know though, are some of the things we can learn from his UNSTOPPABLE, do-it-all style. One of the things said about Da Vinci, other than perhaps being called crazy, was that he didn’t understand the word impossible. It wasn’t part of his vocabulary. The word had no relevance in his life.
One of my mentors has a great saying that came to him from his mentor who said, Michael, “Everything is neutral until you label it.” We are the ones assigning value to our experiences. We are the ones labeling the good, the bad, and the ugly. There is no way for us to initially know whether something is good or bad. Good and bad are words we assign in the moment based on our interpretation of the experience.
Image courtesy of Michael O’Brien
Wayne Dyer, who was clearly a student of life, once stated, “No one knows enough to be a pessimist.”
Here’s some more Wayne Dyer WISDOM:
“Have a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing.”
“When YOU change the way you look at things the things you look at change.”
“As you think so shall you be.”
Wrought with despair, a man found himself admitted to an asylum. In the early days of his stay, most of his time was spent laying on his bed in the dark. After a bit, he grew a little stronger and eventually ventured out onto the grounds where he discovered a garden. It was here, in the silence and without the daily pressures of everyday life that he noticed the blossom on an apple tree, the journey of a caterpillar making its way across a leaf, and the gnarled roots of a Southern Pine.
When spring came, it was the bloom of a group of purple irises that garnered his full attention and brought him back from the edge where he had once helplessly stood next to a puddle of blood and his desperate attempt to remove his ear from his head.
The transcendent beauty of everyday life was captured eloquently in a vase full of some of those beautiful irises that came from the garden where his recovery unfolded, where he slowly found himself again, struggling toward the end of the day, hopefully not trying to harm himself, and putting the pieces back together, “One Day At A Time.”
In my own life, it was my decision to approach recovery day by day that has methodically allowed me to slowly but surely accumulate over 11,190 days of sobriety, “One Day At A Time.”
And finally, if I may leave you with a parting thought, a point of reflection from the great Walt Whitman, the four words with the potential to change the world as we know it.
“Be curious, not judgmental.” ~Walt Whitman
Deb Sofield ~ Public Speaker I was happy to find your article while searching the web for material to support this article. #Grateful for YOU and your work.
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.
