Remove the drama and chaos from your life!  It stifles creativity.

As I look out my window, a half smile comes across my face.  I think to myself, this is why we live in Arizona.  When the rest of the country is suffering from the cold, we are still enjoying sunshine.  However, the one thing we cannot avoid are the economic challenges facing our country.

So what do you do when everything seems to be going wrong and people are speaking fear and doubt?  What do you do you’ve lost your job and you have no money in your savings account?  How do you llive from day-to-day when the bills are piling up and there is no end in sight?  Below are six helpful steps to keep you on track.

1.  Be thankful for what you have.  As simple as it may sound, it works wonders for the mind.

2.  Implement a plan of action–identify steps you can take to deal with the challenges your are facing.  Focus on solutions–not problems!

3.  Remember you are designed to live by faith.  In siutations like these, mindsight is better than eyesight.  So keep your mindsight on His promises and the prize.

4.  All fighters have to have someone in their corner.  Look around and make sure you have the right people in your corner.  This is not the time for a solo flight.

5. Focus on your vision and purpose.  They will give you a reason for getting out of bed in the mornings. 

6.  Dare to dream again…live beyond your today on the canvas of your mind.

You know life is challenging when you find yourself reading your own articles to stay inspired.  I wrote this article about 4-years ago.  At that time in my life, I felt as if I were in a hot skillet with the power burner turned on high.  I’m sure some of you can relate. 

I hope this article will also inspire you as we progress through these difficult and challenging times. 

When things start to warm up, we look for a place of refuge, somewhere cool and refreshing.  No one wants to be consistently hot and sticky. No matter where you live, over exposure to heat can cause some serious physical and emotional damage unless you take precautionary measures.

Life is pretty much the same way.  Different areas of your life can get pretty hot.  The temperatures of your finances, health, marriage, family, and job can all reach an uncomfortable boiling point—a boiling point that is different for each of us.  Sometimes the temperature in one area of your life may go haywire, and sometimes everything surges at the same time.  Not only does it get very hot, but it is humid too. 

You ask yourself, how long can I stand this?  How long before I get a break?  Where can I go to cool off and refresh?  You frantically seek for a way to release the pressure before you explode. 

This is the time when nothing you do seems to work and life becomes a literal minute-by-minute existence because you’re too scared to think about tomorrow.  You don’t even want to get out of bed in the morning.  However, you are going to make it because you have a purpose. 

I’ve provided a short list of things that you can do to help navigate your downturn:

• Remember, your downturn is temporary.  As far as I’m concerned, there is only one way out and that’s up!
• Focus on your purpose and your vision. 
• Keep dreaming no matter how discouraged you may feel about focusing on things you haven’t yet obtained.  Do not rewrite your dream to  accommodate your circumstances.
• Revisit your plan of action—make the necessary adjustments and move on.  
• Do a mental replay of your past triumphs.  Read them as often as you need to.  You will be surprised how blessed you are.
• Visualize your future successes.  You must first achieve them in your mind before they can become a reality. 
• Examine your thoughts daily.  Negative thoughts will affect your attitude and a negative attitude can jeopardize your dream. Not only that, your attitude acts as a thermometer and can determine the comfortability of your current situation.  

Finally, your downturn provides an awesome opportunity to develop faith, patience, and perseverance.  All great people need these three.  Your faith will help you to see beyond the circumstances of life and patience will give you the strength to endure.  This doesn’t mean that you should sit around and twiddle your thumbs.  According to Webster, persevere means to persist in a purpose, an idea, or task in the face of obstacles or discouragement.  So keep moving!

There are times in your life when nothing seems to be going according to plan.

·         Things aren’t working the way you thought it would

·         You’re not where you want to be

·         Things aren’t moving in the direction you wanted them to go

You start to question yourself and your dreams.  You find yourself crying and praying at 4 a.m. in the morning about the deep yearnings in your heart that go unfulfilled.  Your enemies of fear and self-doubt are magnified and your mind turns against you.  Then you get up, you go for a walk, and you take a route that you haven’t taken in a while.  It is not as hot as it usually is, as matter of a fact, there is a slight breeze caressing your face and the birds are chirping. 

The cool breeze helps, and you thank God for the sound of the birds.  Your headphones are pressed snuggly into your ears and you are listening to inspirational tunes to help bring your vision back into focus.  This is your vision walk.   You walk, and walk, and then you turn around and start for home.  Your mind starts to drift on things that are better left unsaid and you are diligently trying to capture your thoughts so you can stay focused on the vision. 

You are almost at the end now, and and soon you will be in your car, and headed off to the house.  You start to think about your life and your accomplishments.  You realize that you have two major accomplishments up to this point and if you should die now, you would have accomplished something.  But, is that all there is?  Just two!

You think about the other things you would like to accomplish and suddenly you realize that all are written in your legacy.  You know, the legacy that you wrote about your life.  The eulogy you want your family to read at you memorial service.  As you ponder the legacy, and what want to accomplish in your remaining years, you feel refreshed, driven, and hopeful.  It gives you that YES, I will get there!  Yes, it will happen!  I just need to keep moving. 

So, you continue to review the legacy in your mind.  By the time you get to the car, you are inspired, inspired to keep pressing on no matter what the circumstances may be.  

Well, that’s my story!  What’s yours? 

Have you written your legacy?  Do you have something that you can look at when things get challenging and your mind starts to work against you?  Write something down and make it plain so that you can keep pressing toward that dream and the goals that burn deep within.  Your moment of opportunity is around the corner.  The corner is narrow, sharp, and there is a cliff on one side but you will make.  The fact that you have gotten this far up the mountain means that you were designed for the ascent.  Go for it! You can’t stop now!

junes-legacy1

Hope is not just for those who are spiritual—it is for those who have eyes to see what others miss.  For the timid at heart who moves forward in the midst of uncertainty.  For the bold and courageous who will not be deterred.  For those who haven’t yet uncovered their hidden and sometimes obvious potential.  Hope is for you!

I’m standing in the mirror, tears streaming down my face; I’m looking at myself intently with my electric toothbrush pressed vigorously against my braces and tooth enamel.  I’m telling myself, it’s okay, you have plans; God has things in stored for you, stop crying… 

How did I get to this point?

I was sitting in Ron’s big daddy chair and the phone rang.  It was my sister on the other end; she gave me my niece’s phone number to her dorm room at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  As she gave me the number, I felt the tears traveling up my throat but I was able to hold them back.  I took the number but I wasn’t much on conversation.  When we hung up, I thought, Blaze is in her dorm–Monique is next.  That’s when the tears started.  My daughter will be moving into the dorms on Wednesday.  I thought back to a brief conversation I had with her on the on the phone the day before.  She called to share some information with me and then she said, “Just think, in less than a week, this is how we will be communicating.”  As soon as she said that, reality kicked in.

So here I am, alone, at home, and fighting back the tears. 

For months, I knew this was coming and I was excited about the transition and change that would take place.  I started to envision what life would be like without her being at home.  Oh, I had all kinds of visions in mind.  I was okay at her graduation.  Even up to last week, I was doing great knowing that transition and change were around the corner.  My attitude was good, and yet, at this moment, I find myself bemoaning the transition. 

You see, no matter what you envision, most of the time, it does not occur quite the way you planned.  The older I get, the more surprises life seems to throw at me; it is life’s way of reminding me that I’m not in control. I used to get very frustrated at the curve balls; but now, I just roll with the punches.   However, it really does help to have goals and plans. 

So, I as was looking in the mirror, my coping skills kicked in.  Below are a few things that came to my mind while I meticulously polished the metal in my mouth.  Trust me when I say, that I was mentally deploying as many of them as possible.  I teach the stuff—I might as well practice it.  Here we go!

• Do not suppress your feelings–find a good outlet for them.  Share your thoughts with a friend or write them down.  Better still; write an article on your blog about your thoughts on transition and change. 
• Review your plans—remind yourself of the positive things to come.  Plans help direct your present; however, they do not determine the future.  
• Do something constructive like brushing your teeth…ha ha ha.  I’m being funny but if it works, do it.  
• Remind yourself about those upcoming projects that bring you excitement.  If nothing else, it may save my tooth enamel.  
•  Think positive about the new growth and opportunities that are ahead for you.
• Focus on your blessings—not your deficits.
•  Laugh, laugh, and laugh some more; it is like medicine to the soul.  

You may not be able to relate to my specific experience but transition and change comes in many forms.  These principles can be applied to various circumstances, it up to you to determine how, where, and when to apply them. Oh, remember, it’s okay to cry.  A good cry never hurts anyone; it removes the clouds from the mind. 

Several months ago I created a mindmap that included the important elements of my life.  I created it so that I could do a quick review of what’s possible for my future whenever I needed some inspiration.  At first, I thought about doing a diagram in Microsoft Word and adding a few pictures that would depict each area of my life.  Guess what?  I didn’t do it.  Finally, after about two-months, I sat down, did a diagram, and placed a picture of myself in the center of it.  Each box contained different elements of my life and my hope for the future.  I was going to print it out but for some reason I never got around to it.  

One day I was changing the picture on my desktop and I decided to add a picture of my husband.  I was tickled with the thought of seeing his face every time I looked at my desktop.  In some small way, I guess I would always be the center of his attention.  Well the great looking guy saw the picture and asked me to remove it because he didn’t like it.   Immediately it popped into my mind, why not place the diagram of your life’s vision on your desktop? This will allow you to you see it on a regular basis.  Well I listened to the voice in my head, I placed the diagram on my desktop, and the rest is history.  I love it, love it, love it.  

I spend a lot of time on my computer so it really is a great way to keep me motivated and inspired especially on those days when my mind is a little hazy or I’m simply not feeling like the world-class go-getter that I really am.  My desktop inspiration keeps me motivated and inspired to do my best.  Plus, the lady looking back at me is all right in my book.  

Now some of you may have thought of this and you’re already doing it but it was new to me.  For those of you who spend a lot of time on your computer and you want to stay focused and inspired on a regular basis, you may want to implement something similar.  It is really helpful!   For me, desktop inspiration is like vitamin B-12 for the soul without the possiblity of side effects or an overdose.

So go ahead, remove all the clutter and the unused icons from your desktop and replace it with possibilities for the future.  You will love it, love it, love it.

–June

Here is where you begin the rest and the best of your life!

So many people are waiting on life to simply hand them the icing on the cake.  You know, that just doesn’t happen most of the time.  Every now and then something may come your way but most of the time you have to pursue the best.  

Lake Tahoe Mountains

Do you wonder about the journey you are taking in life?  Are you sometimes disappointed about the delays, pain, hurts, brokenness, and detours?  Do you long to arrive at a place where you are totally at peace with yourself and with what you are doing? Have you ever felt as if you’ve arrived at a point where everything seems to be working well only to find that it’s only a moment in time?  Just enough R&R (rest and recuperation) for you to catch your breath before another wave hits.  I think most of us would answer yes to some of these questions.  

Well, I think I have an answer!  Yes, that’s what I said, I have an answer.  So what is it?  The answer is it’s all working together for your ultimate good and best possible outcome. 

Several of us are reading Hinds’ Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard.  This is my second time reading the book.  I read it three years ago and it gave me such insight about the journey that I was taking.  I felt as if I was the main character in the book and as she took her journey to the High Places so did I.  I empathized with each delay and setback that she experienced with heartfelt agony.  Every question that she asked of the shepherd who promised that he would take her on this journey, I’ve asked in my prayer and talk time with God. 

Come on now, you know that sometimes life just doesn’t seem fair and you want answers.  Even Habakkuk had questions for God before he wrote the last two verses of the book.

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like

deer’s feet and He will make me walk on my high hills.

                                                                                           Habakkuk 3:18-19 NLT

You and I are on our individual journey to our high place.  Below are some insights that I gleaned from the trip up this point: 

• Trust God!  You only have part of the story and you need the complete picture if you are to be successful; so trust him for the rest of the story.

• Ask God to show you your real beauty.  What is that distinctive quality about you that causes you to stand out?  Is it your warmth, your trusting eyes, your wisdom, or your hugs that give comfort to all you embrace?

• Remove the worm of fear from your life—it is the major hindrance to your faith.

• Stop being so impatient!  Impatience causes us to doubt, but it can also bring us to the cave of self-pity, resentment, and bitterness.

• Postponements are not contradictions of God’s promises to you; they are sometimes designed for the best to become possible. You can read that on page 82, it floored me.

• Sorrow and suffering are part of life.  In his book, Right People, Right Place, and Right Plan, Jenzten Franklin said, “Suffering never leaves you where it finds you; you either become bitter or better.”  The outcome is up to us.

• Everything about you is significant to God.  There isn’t a tear that you’ve cried, anger you’ve felt, or joy that you’ve experienced that escapes his gaze.  You’re probably saying to yourself, that sounds nice,  however, if my experiences haven’t escaped his gaze, why doesn’t He do something about the challenges I are now facing?   The answer is maybe, just maybe, he is waiting on you to trust him!

 Closings Thoughts

Keep aiming for the high places.  Your transformation has already begun in the secret places of your heart.  You will develop the strength and the character that you need to walk on YOUR high place IF you trust in him and trust him completely.   Remember, it’s all working together for your ultimate good and best possible outcome.

My Disclamier 

I haven’t arrived yet.  I think I still have a few valleys, mountains, and caverns to go through.  I’ll get there…

I was listening to a CD by Dr. Myles Monroe on setting effective goals.  He began his teaching with Ecclesiastes 5:18, “Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is for one to eat and drink, and to find enjoyment in all the labor in which he labors under the sun all the days which God gives him–for this is his [allotted] part.” (AMP)

For some reason, when I heard the scripture, it went straight to my heart.  Immediately I began to ask myself are you enjoying your life?  Are you making full use of the time God has given you?  The answer was NO! 

He then proceeded with Psalm 90:12, which talks about teaching us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.  That scripture also caused a slight twinge in my heart.  I mmediately asked for forgiveness for not making full use of the time He’s allotted me and then there was a shift. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure how much time I have remaining on this earth and I would like to use it wisely and enjoy the allotted time He’s given me.

So, what am I doing about it?  I’m reevaluating my goals!  I was going to do it anyway but now I have a new sense of urgency.  I’m not sure what the rest of the year will bring but I’m on a mission to enjoy whatever comes.  A friend of mine told me this weekend that I need to enjoy the ride of life.  My pastor also spoke a message on Sunday that encouraged us to stop wrestling with God and embrace him and the plans He has for our lives.  Maybe some of you would like to join me in this venture.

  I challenge each of you to do the following:

• Assess where you are in your journey.
• Strive to enjoy the journey even during the difficult times.
• Reevaluate/set goals for yourself, your family, etc.
• Stop procrastinating!  For me, procrastination is like a heavy weight hanging around my neck; it focuses me on my limitations instead of God possibilities and opportunities. Personally, I’m no longer willing to wear it, it just doesn’t fit the way it used. 
• Enlist the aide of family and friends who will support and encourage you to reach beyond the stars.
• Finish the work which God has given you to do!
• Enjoy your life!

June