Life Coaching and Career Coaching

Today, many people find their lives thrown into chaos when they loss of their jobs. The loss is more than a stream of income, it is a threat to their self identity. For most people, their job defines who they are. Is this you?

Losing your job is like graduating high school and waiting to hear about going on to college, applying to the military and waiting to be accepted, or looking for that first job all over again. You were somebody in high school and now you are nobody, or so you think. But are you?

You are the only one who knows what you are worth to yourself. Other only see you for what you might be worth to them.

As a freelancer most of my life, I have been employed and unemployed many times. It happens every time a contract expires and new one has not yet come through. I have learned to use these times to step back, evaluate what I accomplished, and reassess my goals.

I also use it to assess my environment. I see this as an opportunity to take charge of my fate. I ask myself: Where is market for my skills and interests going? Is it time to change my employment strategy? And in this process, I have made a personal discovery I want to share with you.

I am the sole/soul proprietor of my life. My life is the time God has allocated to me in this world. It is a gift card with an undisclosed time limit. I own it and I can sell it. I sell part of it every time I take a job, form a relationship, or use it for myself.

How much is my time worth? It is worth what I need to accomplish what I want to accomplish in my time/life.

Too often, especially these days, we don’t have the time to reflect on where we are going or where we have been. It is like being caught in the wrong lane on the freeway at rush hour. Sometimes we miss our exit and when we finally get off we are lost, just like Tom Hanks in Bonfire of the Vanities

God gave me the freewill to be the sole proprietor of my soul. It is my responsibility to make the best of it.Taking the time to know what I want to accomplish, and what I have accomplished, has been a critical step in my life’s journey.

Janus says

If unemployment depression is setting in, I suggest that you find a mentor, or a life coach, at this time. Don’t be afraid or ashamed to ask for direction. He or she can help you find direction to bring you back to the life path to take you on the journey toward your goal.

Januslifecoaching.com is one such service you can turn to for help.

Your life depends upon how well you care for yourself. My life depends upon how well I care for myself. But, there are times when it depends upon how prepared others are to help us out in critical situations. One such case is that of cardiac arrest (a heart attack).

In the case of a heart attack, getting and maintaining fresh blood flow with its oxygen to the brain and heart are critical to survival and to the minimize brain and heart damage. American Heart Association has established guidelines for performing CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) which has become the generally accepted procedure for administering first aid in cardiac arrest cases.

However, there are drawbacks to CPR. Two of these is the mouth to mouth respiration which many people have reservation about, especially in this time of concern about AIDS; and second, the legal liability issues that requires CPR certification as a protection against a liability suit filed against you later by the victim.

Researches at the University of Arizona have developed an alternative to the traditional CPR technique. They named this, CCC or Continuous Chest Compression. They WARN that this technique should not be used on babies, young children or drowning victims.

This is a technique which I recommend that you learn. You never know when you might be called upon to come to the rescue of another.

Janus says

The best protection against a bad outcome is to be well prepared for the future.

Life is a challenge.
Every day we face problems that must be solved; issues, we are asked to take a stand on. As a free, sovereign individual, you and I are expected to make decisions for ourselves, to take responsibility for our decisions and to be held accountable for the results of our decisions. That is, we have choices.

Decision making involves making choices. Choices are value judgments, and value judgments are subjective, relativistic evaluations of our experiences. Our evaluations are not always rational although we may try to rationalize them to ourselves and others.

Economists assume that humans are totally rationale creatures. They act in their enlightened self interest based on perfect knowledge about the situation. Such creatures act to maximize the “utility” or value of their choices. If you or I acted this way, we would be the perfect “economic man/woman.”. This would make the life of economists so much simpler.

But we are not, Thank God!

We are animals, albeit, the TOP ANIMAL, on the planet. Part of our animal nature is to respond emotionally to the challenges in our immediate environment. We are biologically and psychologically programmed to make decisions that favor our survival — “the survival instinct.”

Here the economists are correct in their assumption that the “individual” acts in his/her own self interest. But, what that “self-interest” is, does not always prove to be rational. That is, it is not rational in a long term or from the “economic man or woman” perspective.

Survival is a short term challenge, while Life is a long term goal. Survival calls for action; life calls for planning.

When we respond to our immediate fears, we are responding emotionally to some perceived survival threat. “I won’t raise my hand, so I won’t be noticed.” “I really don’t think I want to go there or eat THAT food.” “No way, I’m going to New York with all that violence I see on TV.”

When we satisfy our short term wants and needs, we also respond emotionally to some perceived survival opportunity. “I just can’t miss this sale.” “That dessert looks soooo good! I’ll diet tomorrow.” “She/he has the sexiest hot bod I’ve ever seen, I’ve got to …”

Each choice we make, no matter how small no matter how apparently inconsequential, has long term consequences. Each choice sets the conditions for our future choices. Each choice is the starting point for the next challenge and next decision. This how we create our own fate, our karma. The consequences of our choices shape our attitudes toward ourselves, others and the world. The consequences of our experiences slowly form the layers of our personality. Like the rings of a tree, the layers of an onion, or the strata of the Grand Canyon, our experience form the layers of our perceptions, habits and biases. These become the standards we apply in our decision making and evaluation of our choices.

We have choices.

You have choices.

What choices are you making?

Are you still making the same old decisions? And, are you still getting the same undesirable results?

Janus says

Understanding why and how you make your choices is the first step in learning how to make better decisions in your life.

The Janus Life Coaching approach helps you to peel away the layers of perception and begin the process of making better choices and achieving better outcomes.

Attitude is judgment. It is part of our emotional tool-chest.

Our attitude toward something, or about something, orients our emotional approach and response to the object of our attention.

Attitudes are “positive” or “negative” feelings toward the object. Attitudes are learned from our direct and observational experiences, and by what others have taught us. Because attitudes are learned behavior they can also be unlearned — that is, ATTITUDES CAN BE CHANGED.

What if …?

How do you know that you can change your attitude? How do you know that you can change someone else’s attitude? We know because we can ask ourselves the question, “What if —– ?” Because we can conceive of alternatives for our actions and responses, we can also conceive of what these might mean to us and others.

All to often we fail to ask ourselves the question. Instead we simply act or react emotionally to a situation. And once we react to the situation and experience the response, we begin to form an attitude toward the response. The next time we face a similar situation, that attitude will become the attitude that we will take into the situation.

Attitudes, formed in this way, can make our life so much simpler. We “know” what to expect and what is expected of us. We will seek out good situations. We will try to avoid bad situations. And we will try to ignore the unfamiliar or ambiguous situations. In time our attitudes become habits and our habits, left unquestioned, lock us into the attitudes we have about the world and everything in it.

As a child I had a bad experience with a raw onion. To this day, I don’t like onions. I will eat onions when I have no reason to suspect that they are there, such as in a sauce or a flavoring. But, I will not eat fresh raw onion such as in a salad or as a garnish. This is a habit I have. I hate onions.

I really don’t remember exactly what my negative onion experience was. Whatever it was, it has had a lasting impact.

Was these important the scheme of things? No, I don’t believe so! I have, over the years, learned to like the onion flavor. But I have not unlearned my reaction to raw onion. My attitude towards them is unchanged. I’ve never really asked myself the question “What if I eat this red onion in my salad?” Instead I just remove the onion and proceed to eat the rest on my salad.

The “What if …? question is a choice question. It is a question that can be asked before we chose to do something. When we ask it, we are saying to ourselves, “Maybe there is another way to do this,” or, “another way of looking at my choices.” The “What if …? gives us the option of controlling our immediate future before we act.

If only…?

The “If only …?” question is the question we ask when things go wrong. The Spanish Soccer players in the 2010 World Cup are not really concerned with the “If only…?”. They won the World Cup, they had a positive experience in the game and positive attitude about their play. The Dutch players on the other hand are probably still asking themselves “If only…?” questions about their lose.

When we ask the “If only…?” question, we are engaging in an evaluative process and a judgmental process. The evaluative process is where we try to look at the outcome from a critical and objective point of view. “If only I had zigged instead of zagged, I would have avoided the hole in the road.” This is a useful question and suggests an alternative course of action for you to consider the next time you encounter that hole in the road. It is something you can control, your car. And if you can control your car, you can change what happens to it.

The judgmental process, on the other hand, is where we place blame or responsibility for an outcome. Often this results in creating a negative attitude toward the perceived cause of the outcome. “If only the public works department would fix the road, then I would not need to avoid these holes.” This is an interesting, but useless, piece of information about how to avoid driving into a hole in the road. You don’t control the public works department.

But you do control your feelings and thereby your attitude toward the situation, i.e. the hole. If you have a negative attitude, you are most likely to complain about the department and do nothing about the hole. But if you have a positive attitude toward the situation, you might report the hole to the public works department and follow up to see that the department fixes the hole. The negative attitude blames the hole on the department, while the positive attitude takes responsibility for the problem and seeks a solution to fix the holes.

Janus says

Our mental chatter frames our attitude

“What if  —– ?” and “If only …?” are questions we ask ourselves all the time. They are an important part of that chatter talk that goes in our head. You know, that voice that is there when you lay in bed before going to sleep and when we first wake-up in the morning. These are the questions we consider whenever we are faced with a choice or decision or the consequences of a decision.

The “What if —-?” and “If only …?” questions help to separate us humans from other species. They helps us to examine our emotions and change our attitudes in a positive direction.

Is your life in balance?

Recently I was at a Toastmasters Club Meeting and the speaker describe an event of watching a rope walker, a man who mounted a rope suspended between two trees and began to walk from one end to the other. The speaker was impressed and curious by the performance. He asked the rope walker how he did it. The roper walker invited the speaker to try it.

The speaker got onto the rope next to the tree where one end was tied. After a few false starts, he succeeded in mounting the rope and maintaining his balance. He looked straight ahead, placed one foot directly in front of the other and spread his arms out straight at the shoulders. The rope swayed but he held his balance.

He slowly moved his back leg around placing in front and moved forward. The rope swayed again but he retained his balance. He repeated the moment once more. This time the rope swayed more violantly and the speakers legs swayed to and fro. Keeping his arms out he maintained his balance as the swaying slowed. The further he moved down the rope and away from the tree, the greater the swaying with each step.

Again, he brought his rear leg forward but this time the swaying increased. He looked down at the rope,  his legs stiffened and he brought his arms in closer to his body in an vain attempt to dampen the swaying. He fell off.

The rope walker explained that in order to successfully walk the rope you have to be focused. To be focused requires that you allow yourself to become part of the rope. First,  relax your legs to make them part of the rope and they will absorb the energy that moving your leg forward releases into the rope. Second,  spread your arms out perpendicular to the rope to distribute your weight across the rope and making your body the center of gravity. By extending your arms you can control the swing. And, third, most of all, look straight ahead, focus on the end of the rope tied to the other tree.  When you loss your focus, you loss your balance. This, the speaker said, is how the rope walker keeps his balance and can walk between the trees

Balance is what it is all about. That is what life is all about. Balancing your ego and needs  with your obligations and responsibilities to others.

The greatest balancing act we face in life is balancing our personal life goals and our professional goals. It is an act that only becomes more complex as we age. The sooner you start to learn how to balance yourself, then the better and more productive you will be in the time allotted to you in this life.

Toward the end of the second decade  in our lifecycle, say our late teens and early twenties, we are, or tend to be, very self-center. We want what we want and we want it now. Our personal goals are fairly short term and ill defined. Our professional goals are equally ill defined, if we have any at all, except where it comes to making money to support our immediate personal “needs.” This is when we get onto the rope, leaving the security of our family. We are drawn to the thrill and  uncertainty that comes with the independence  of  ”adulthood.”  While we are glancing into the future. our attention is more focused on breaking our connections with the past that we perceive as holding us back.

Around our mid to late twenties, if we are lucky, we have become independent and self supporting. We can experiment with life, take chances, and live a movie version of the hero in our own drama. Or we may find that we have made a few wrong turns and are now caught in a trap of our own making, one we may spend the rest of our life trying to escape. In either case, we have not yet addressed the issue of balance. In many respects this can be the biggest mistake we can make and introduce chaos into our life.

What we do and how we do it, in this our third decade of life,  set the “initial” conditions which will determine how our life will work out. Without a goal to focus on, without priorities, we, like the speaker who would be a rope walker, can slip and fall. What in chaos theory is referred to as the butterfly effect.

Janus says

What is your life goal?

What are your priorities?

Where is your balance?

Do you have a rope walker who can  helping you to navigate the rope of your life?

How long do you want to live? What do you want to achieve in your life time?

The two most important questions that you can ask yourself.

Do you have answers for your life?

JanusLifeCoaching.com is founded on the principle and belief that our lives are judged by our actions. Success  and failure are determined by how well we use the time and talents we have been granted.

I have lived long enough now to have witnessed a number of funerals. Regardless whether rich and famous or poor and lonely,  one question comes through in celebrating the deceased’s life . The celebration focuses on what was accomplished and what might have been accomplished had things been different.

In our 21st century youth oriented culture, we tend to focus on and try to perpetuate the youth phase of our life-cycle  and to ignore or hide the fact that we are aging. Medical science and medicine are giving us the tools to perpetuate the allusion of youth. Our pharmaceutical companies offer wondrous new creams, pills, dyes, and gels, to slow down, hide or reverse the appearance of  age.  Our commercial culture bombards us with images and products celebrate that wondrous youthful phase — 20 - 30 when we are/were young and healthy enough to do anything and old enough for society to allow you to do it.

But in today’s emerging global society, age and longevity are real issues for society, government, families and individuals. Technological and demographic changes are disrupting the established order. Cultural chasms are breakout and separating generations. They are breaking the traditional chain of growth and transitions in society and its parts. A growing, aging population threatens to overburden the health care system in many of the advanced nations, while a population explosion in the developing world threaten the very core of traditional cultures and institutions.

Life Expectancy at birth (years)

Life expectancy at birth (years) world map including:
1) 191 United Nations member states (all except Montenegro)

2) Republic of China - Taiwan

3) Western Sahara territory

4) 27 non-sovereign entities marked with a white hyphen (-) or a black asterisk (*):

- 23 dependent territories

- Hong-Kong and Macau: Special Administrative Regions of the People’s Republic of China.

- Occupied Palestinian Territories: West Bank and Gaza Strip.

There is not much anyone of us can do to change the tide of global development nor the evolving human impact on the planet. However, we can have a impact on that small piece of the universe which is under our personal control. For example, How we will treat those around us? How we will will treat our body? How we will use our talents and gifts, i.e. our minds? How we will use our spirit and energies? These are under our person control –IF we are willing, on the personal level, to responsibility for HOW we will use the time we have on this planet.

The Janus Lifecycle Strategy is based on the idea that, like the Roman god Janus, each of us is one body (head) with two faces. One face is looking back at the past as we perceive it and the other in looking into the future as we envision it.

The past and future are in the moment from Janus point of view

In this moment, you and I have an opportunity, as we have always had, to influence how long we each will live and what we can accomplish in the time reexamining to us. But to do so means taking responsibility.

How do I take responsibility?

Janus says

Start by taking  proactive control over your life today, by asking the question — how much time do I have left?

And once you have answer that question for yourself, take stock of where you are in your life and what you have accomplished and what you want to accomplish.

Have you ever had an epiphany?

Here is a simple story about Henry. Henry had one.

Henry is a simple man. He has a good paying job, a nice home, stable marriage and friends. He is in good health. Henry has no opinions of his own, only what the media and others tell him.  He does as he is told.

Henry is an ordinary man who worries about money, his job, the economy. He worries about his marriage and what people think about him. He worries about his health, his age, his lack of energy. He has unrealized dreams.

“I just don’t have that old spark.” He tells himself.

One day this past Spring, Henry’s wife said. “Henry, Time to mow the lawn.” So Henry went to his shed and got the lawn mower out. Since this would be the season’s first cutting, he decided to check out the mower.

He checked the gas tank. It was nearly empty. Retrieving the gas can, he filled the gas tank and replaced the gas cap tightly.  He pushed the primer button several times and then pulled the crank cord.

Nothing!   He pulled again.  Nothing!  Again, and Nothing!

“Better prime it again,” Henry said.

He pushed the primer several more times. Then he pulled hard on the crank cord. The engine coughed, puffed a cloud of blue smoke, then it died.

“Blue smoke!“

Henry tried again but to no avail.

“Better check the oil.”

He opened the oil cap, pulled out the dip stick, and wiped it. He put it back in, then withdrew it. The stick showed full. The oil was clear. He put the stick back tightening the cap.

“Huh! “He thought. “Gas — Ok!  Oil — Ok! What else could it be? “

He tried to start the engine again, still nothing.

“The engine isn’t catching.” “Spark plug!?” He had had this problem before.

Henry went back to the shed and returned with a spark plug wrench. He disconnected the spark plug cap and with the wrench, he pulled the old spark plug and inspected it. The tip was black with carbon.

“Ah! This must be the problem.”

He took a rag. Put some gasoline on it and wiped the spark plug and cleaned the points. Smiling to himself, he reinstalled the plug, reconnected it. Priming the engine again — he gave the crank rope a hard jerk

Cough, cough, Nothing!

Now Henry was getting very frustrated and angry. He had had this mower for 10 years. He did all the things people told him to do to keep it running. He fed it gas, he change the oil when needed, and he cleaned the spark plug. These had always worked, just like they told him.

“I don’t need this,” “I don’t need this.” He felt totally defeated.

He began to worry, “Will I have to buy a new mower? Or may be I have to spend a small fortune to a small engine repair service — if I can find one?  He looked at the old machine once more.

Henry called his wife to come out and look at the mower. He was afraid she wouldn’t believe him when he said the mower wouldn’t work.

She walked around the old machine and noticed a panel cover attached by screw. “What’s this for,” she asked.

Henery had not “seen” or noticed it before. He got a screw driver and unscrewed it. The cover folded down and revealed a metal screen sealed with a blue rubber gasket around the edge. He removed the screen and inspected it. On the back was accordion folded paper filter. A layer of dirt, grim, flecks of grass and leaves bonded by oil, and water, had collected on the surface. It was thickly layered in between the paper folds.

Suddenly, he knew what to do!

“It can’t breathe!”

Taking the screw driver Henry cleaned out each fold. Thick mats of crud fell out as he passed the screw drive down the fold. After removing the crud, Henry reinstalled the old filter.

Henry tightened the screw on the cover. He primed the engine, and pulled the crank rope.

BANG, POP, a cloud of blue smoke, putt, putt putt, putt putt putt, ROAR. PurrrrrRRRRRRR.

The engine jumped to life. As he pushed the machine around the yard, he smiled.

“I’ll have to buy a new one when I finish,” he thought. Henry had had an epiphany.

——

What is an epiphany?

It is “A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.”

——-

Reflecting on his discovery, Henry realized that his spirit, was like the mower’s air filter. It was clogged with the crud of his accumulated worries, doubts and other people’s opinions.  Henry determined to clean his spiritual filter so that he could start living and breathing again.

Have you had an epiphany? Would you recognize one if it happened?

Janus says

Sometime it takes a comment or observation from someone else to trigger the revelation, insight or epiphany in you. This is what a life coach can do for you.

Give it a thought.

If you have questions, please contact us.

What one sees and does not see will often surprise you. This story came via an email that was sent out to several hundred on a mailing list. I almost ignore it as a piece of political xenophobic reactionary propaganda, so common in these times.

But for some reason I took the time to read through it. I was both amazed and yet surprising not surprised by the lesson it  teaches about the modern Homo americanus urbana.

….something to think about…

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule. 4 minutes later: the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk. 6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace…  The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

Janus says

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:  If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…. How many other things are we missing?

How long is your life cycle?

Knowing your estimated longevity is critical for taking control of your life. The Janus Life Cycle Strategy is based on  knowing where you  are currently in your life cycle and your estimated length of  life.

On a piece of paper write down the following:

The average life expectancy of an American is ____78.5____

How old am I?   (write down your age)          ___________

How long do I have to live?    (78.5 - age)        ___________

This is a rough estimate of your longevity. Your individual life expectancy may vary significantly from the average.

Knowing what you have accomplished, and what you have done to yourself so far in your life, defines who you are TODAY. This identifies the risk group you should be compared to when determining your average life expectancy.   This will give you a more accurate estimate of the time you may have to:

(1) accomplish what you set out to do with your life; and more important,

(2) take charge of your life and maybe extending your life by changing your risk group.

Remember that today is the first day of the rest of your life. That is true today and it will be true tomorrow.

When you REGISTER with Janus Life Coaching, you qualify to have FREE access to a wide range of resources to assess your risk group and begin to manage your life cycle and your life. We continue to assemble and make available resources to help our members manage their lives.

Longevity Explained

Your life cycle is the period between your conception (birth) and your death.  Normally, and the insurance industry depend on this, you will live a normal (average) life span for a person with your characteristics. Some individual life cycles are cut short by accidents or disease.  This is the tragedy of war, accidents, disease and violence.

Your normal characteristics are your genetic potential (heredity), your behavior (lifestyle), and your activity (risk exposure). Insurance companies spend a lot of money to refine their knowledge of each of these categories to determine the differences within and between categories. They then use this information to “value” the risk that you will make it average age for your classification.

Life Insurance and You

That’s what insurance companies do — they offer you the opportunity to bet against yourself living as long as is normal for people just like you. And, when you buy the contract, you are betting against yourself. You are betting that you will die before the others just like you do. They profit from this information, why shouldn’t you?

This is the financial side to knowing why the length of your life cycle is important.

Personal Responsibility and You

On the personal side, knowing what your life expectancy can be wonderful and frightening. Wonderful because it would allow you to plan your life and have greater control over how you invested and spent your time.  Frightening because knowing with certainty the time you will die would imposes  tremendous responsibility and burden on you.

Luckily, neither you nor the  insurance company know exactly how long your life cycle will be.

But wouldn’t it be helpful to know, in general terms, just how much time you have left. Wouldn’t it make you stop and consider what you are doing now with your life?  Wouldn’t it make you ask, “What do I want to accomplish in my remaining time?

People, who come through a near death experience, report themselves asking.

“What if I had died?”

“Why did I survive?”

“What have I accomplished in my life time?”

“Would I be leaving my loved ones better or worse off without me?”

Asking such questions can lead to significant changes in one’s outlook on life and behavior. You don’t need to survive a near death experience in order to ask yourself the same questions.

Janus says

By  answering these questions for yourself, you can take responsibility for you life today .

YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE — IF YOU WANT TO!!!

REGISTER TODAY

Why is a life cycle approach a powerful tool for evaluating and planning your life experience?

A recent news story ,  “Recession might make young investors gun-shy”, reports on studies that show people who start their investing or continue to invest in their retirement plans today in the depressed stock market stand to gain in the long term while those who invested at the height of the markets stand to loss if they withdraw today.

I can relate to this. Years ago I had the opportunity to be employed in an organization that offered a retirement program. I contributed to it regularly and stayed there long enough to become vested in the program. The small personal investment I made through my contributions were doubled when I became vested.

Over the next 30 years this initial investment grew. And while I have not contributed to the plan since leaving the organization — today that plan has accumulated enough value to provide me with a cushion in my retirement.  Had I started investing 5 years ago, or even 10 years ago, I would not have weathered the recent economic meltdown.

Just as investing at the right time can make a big difference in later retirement or family plans, any decision we make will have a differential playoff depending when we start or stop some action or activity.

Taking up golf when you are in high school or college will open opportunities that starting at 50 will be closed to you. Waiting to have children until your late 30’s or early 40’s will produce a different experience and challenge than having your children at 15, 25, or 30.

The choices you make, and when you make them, strongly impact your life course and your chances for success and failure.

Sometimes it seems like we are in control.  Other times, it seems like fate is in control. We exploit our opportunities. We withdraw or defend ourselves against threats. Our hopes and  fears are made real by what, when and where we exercise our choices.

We are always making choices in our daily lives. More often than not, these are made in the spur of the moment and with not much thought about the longer term consequences. This is our habituated behavior. This is not only natural, but it has had survival value for our Homo sapiens ancestors as well as the modern shopper.

But not today, not in the emerging global economy and cybernetically networked virtual world of  human/machine interface.

An event that once traveled slowly over relatively short distances, now travels instantaneously globally. Choices made in a moment of passion or despair and soon forgotten, now become sealed in the global memory forever, or at least until someone pulls the plug.

The life you want to lead and the life you live are determined by how you use your time and when you use it.

I speak from personal experience. If we are not aware of the natural cycle our life is following — we risk losing out on many of the joys and challenges that life offers.

When we say that YOUR LIFE IS YOUR BUSINESS, this what we mean. Your life up until this moment is a record of what you have done — it is your balance sheet in the game of life.  Do you know your score?

Have you taken the time to check your balance sheet?

Janus says

Maybe it is TIME that you did.