To all our highly valued clients and acquaintances:
I find that this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt offers especially timely inspiration.
What can we learn, given the extremely turbulent times in which she lived her life?
More about Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962)
Eleanor Roosevelt was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She served as the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms in office, making her the longest-serving first lady of the United States. Roosevelt served as United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952. President Harry S. Truman later called her the “First Lady of the World” in tribute to her human rights achievements. By the time of her death, Roosevelt was regarded as “one of the most esteemed women in the world”; The New York Times called her “the object of almost universal respect” in her obituary. In 1999, she was ranked ninth in the top ten of Gallup’s List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century, and was listed thirteen times as the most admired woman between 1948 and 1961.
What are we learning, as individuals and as a species, to help us all progress?
I think that we are being seriously challenged to put aside any pre-conceived notions or judgments about any circumstances and/or current events. I envision a great need for dreams – new thinking, innovation, reimagining, and reinvention to effectively meet the moments – both our individual moments and our collective moments. The way that we think, and act now, has the potential to create more desirable destiny shaping outcomes for our potential futures – futures that are worthy of ourselves for great purposes, to make the most of our lives and our work.
I am often asking myself, “What am I giving my life to and to what end?”
Amid our most demanding, complex, and challenging circumstances, we can also consider how we can plant the seeds of shade trees for posterity, under which many others may sit, including our own next of kin and beyond, to all of humanity.
This can also help us access the highest possible transcendent joys that can be available for ourselves, while doing our utmost to be part of the best possible, solution-focused approaches. Thus, we can include the joys of the process of accomplishing, as well as the joy of the ultimate accomplishments themselves.
Beyond any sufferings or tribulations that we may inevitably encounter, we can intentionally offer more productive responses to the reality of current events and fulfill even greater potential in a seemingly confusing, non-sensical and sometimes incomprehensibly uncertain world, creating new paths of growth and development.
Simultaneously, we can expand our value within our circles of influence, as we fully animate and engage in life, in the face of all that we are in front of, gratefully working for what we value, in the most adventurous and dynamic ways possible.
Such is the intent of my published book, The Essence of an Accomplished Life
The intent of my book (A How-To-Guide for Fulfilling Your Dreams and Living Your Callings), is to provide processes to serve your efforts to move yourself forward, onward, and upward. I encourage to invest time to see for yourself how this may serve your inner and outer journeys, as you ascend your own mountains.
Self-care, as your foundation to have sufficient reserves to explore and create.
Recently, on a 2-hour peer call with Nancy MacKay and 100 other colleagues, I got one key takeaway, that really grabbed my attention and jumped off the page.
In brief, Nancy MacKay is the founder and a board member of MacKay CEO Forums, the highest impact and least time intensive peer group for over 1200 CEOs, Executives, and Business Owners, worldwide. With a dream to populate the world with inspiring leaders, she founded MacKay CEO Forums in 2005, after seeing firsthand the tremendous value of having CEOs come together to learn from each other, and to help each other deal with their toughest issues and challenges.
As busy as Nancy is with all her professional pursuits (I’ve known about her work since 2009), she considers herself to be a project unto herself and invests 2 hours per day on her own self-care. Her strategies can be accessed in her 10-page eBook.
How to Achieve Time Mastery – Five Strategies on How to Master Your Time
As your business grows, along with your other life aspirations, the last thing you want it to be is an exhausting or overwhelming experience. Let’s all work on this.
As we have recently discussed about Extreme Self-Care, Nancy is another living, breathing exemplar of working every day to be the best version of herself. I am encouraged to also revisit ways we can innovate and improve in this critical area.
This has many implications, for our personal life, never mind our work life.
This is a golden opportunity to upgrade the process of working on our lives.
As one of my mentors said to me, it’s a privilege to live in this time. We could say that these are the worst of times and the best of times. Those who understand that will take advantage of these times to be a plus and to be a part of the solution and not the problem. We can continue to reach out and be a voice to help other people. We can do our best work to build that up more, because there is a great need for it.
What say you, as you live your life and pursue your professional aspirations?
I look forward to further communications in the weeks ahead, as we all work to strengthen and expand our effectiveness foundations for greater freedom and fulfillment through both increased self-awareness and creative collaborations. We can all be fully engaged in worthy directions for satisfying solutions – a process that is sometimes described as a mountain climb with no top and a forever journey.
I look forward to expanding our relationship and our future efforts together.
Wishing for You the Best Possible Year in 2022 and certainly way beyond…
With sincere and deep appreciation,
Coach Don
