Happy New Year!

As we headed into 2015, I asked for your thoughts on a few topics. Here are the questions, and a compilation of all of our responses!

1. If there were one thing in your life you could change right now by waving a magic wand, what would it be? If we had a magic wand, we would: be less reactive; bring a loved one back from the dead to spend more time with them; make everyone kind and generous; make a family member mellow out and not be so accusatory; have more time; want to get up and move around each day and not be so happy sitting at the computer; get rid of family conflict; spend more time creating art; remember that it’s only our thinking that gets in the way; find romance; make our family members healthy; simplify life so that there is time for everything – work and fun; be physically closer to family members who live far away; remove violence, terrorism, and aggression from this world; do away with all menopausal symptoms; grant ourselves and our children extra patience; exchange darkness for 4 more hours of daylight; not change anything; change our weight; be able to work part-time and still make a decent salary; do away with physical and emotional pain; make it so people have to be authentic with each other; be physically fit; finish everything on our to-do list; and return to having a childlike wonder and imagination.
2. Are there high school or college students in your life who are stressed out? If so, what about? Yes, and they/we are stressed about: grades; trying to work, take care of a family, and go to school and do all of those well, all at the same time; deciding where to go to college (same school as significant other, or not); getting and staying organized; dealing with social stress and loneliness; being overwhelmed by the amount of work to do; worried about grades not being good enough to get into a desired program; what to do after graduation; whether or not to go to college; what major to choose; all the other things we have to do when what we really want to do is other cool stuff; grades; finances; getting into grad school; personal identity (figuring out who we are); personal relationships with family and friends; starting college and becoming an adult; leaving behind a long-time significant other; living on our own; deciding on career choices; money, time, and health combined with working and going to school; boy-girl troubles; academics and self-inflicted pressure to do well; unhealthy relationships; pulling the trigger on what to do with our life; and finishing school and finding a good job.
3. What are you meant to do? Are you doing it? If not, what’s holding you back? Lots of us are doing what we’re meant to do, at least some of the time: helping others through self-awareness; being the driver of our lives and not a passenger; being outdoors both on our own and with others; spending time with the people we care about; coaching; influencing others through the way we see and experience life; helping people do what they’re meant to do; living an authentic life; teaching; writing; spending time outdoors; working in the field of health; helping people arrange the vacations they’ve always dreamed about; helping people through coaching; making a difference with people in their vision for their life and the world and empowering them about their own intentions; and loving, encouraging, and keeping a compassionate heart towards people, especially when they are going through difficult times. If we’re not, what’s holding us back is: we don’t know what we’re meant to do; we’re so busy being a parent, spouse, and taking care of other obligations that we don’t have time for ourselves; we’re afraid to even think about what we’re really meant to do; fear of failure; we do a really good job taking care of others but not ourselves; we are afraid that it will be too hard and we’ll fail; we’re not exactly sure how we are supposed to do what we’re meant to do; our own insecurities; and we don’t have enough time.

Thank you so much! I really enjoyed hearing from you. Best wishes to you and yours for a fabulous 2015!

Kim 🙂
(and Tucker, too!)