Moments of Change


We, humans, use time and space to measure change, or the rate of change. The units differ depending on what we measure. Astronomers use light years, builders use meters, and quantum physicists use nanoseconds. No matter the unit, change is constant, within and without us. Furthermore, time is a concept represented by space. Have you ever seen or touched a minute?

Some changes happen regardless of our observation. Others force us to listen and have our eyes wide-open. What change has made you stop and think deeply, lately?

Resisting change is a common human mental habit. Other creatures flow with change in the environment surrounding them. Have you heard of a tree resist shedding its leaves in October to grow new ones in March? Or a flock of birds decides to stay in Alaska after the first sign of winter?

Whether we see change as an opportunity and flow with it, or consider it a threat and strive to prevent it from happening, most changes are natural and inevitable.

In business, change always hit the three vital elements of a project or a venture: Time, cost and resources. These three are interrelated in ways that are sometimes mysterious. Shorten the time, and cost goes up. ‘Restructure’ the organization, and time extends on its own terms.

What we must stay fully aware of is the following:

When you plan anything, make sure all variables involved are on the table.

What does that entail?

  • Know your financial capacity
  • Have key resources present
  • Understand, right from the main stakeholders, the time limits placed upon what you’re planning

My intention in this post is not to give you a project management crash course. You can find ample resources online and off-line on that. The intention is to raise our awareness, in life and in business, of the changes passing through our lives without us noticing, appreciating and effectively utilizing them.

One way to approach this is to start a journey of raising our awareness of both attention and intention.

While one’s attention could easily sway and wonder, following the feed of the five senses, and the flood of unguided thoughts and feelings, this can dramatically change if that attention follows a well-thought-of intention.

Attention could be the most valuable gift we’ve been given. It’s like a beam of light that we can focus on anything we want, intentionally or unintentionally. And that is the key lesson here:

Let’s choose, as much as we can, to focus the beam of our attention intentionally.

However, to do that, we need to have intentions, to begin with, don’t we?

How to set good intentions will require its own post. For now, it suffices to say that each one of us needs to set aside enough time and positive energy to know, write, and commit to a set of intentions that spans the dimensions of his or her life and business (as if they are separate 🙂

As that evolves, and as we re-shift our attention to be more and more inline with the intentions we’ve set to ourselves, those passing changes I mentioned above will become visible and accessible.

In conclusion, accepting change as a fact of our being, and then using the energy it presents to reach higher levels of awareness and achievement, is a prerequisite to true success.

Post Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

TWM

The image below shows a recent addition to our StoreFour‘s Digital collection (a positive change), in case you’d like to use a new technology to measure time in conjunction with your cell phone.

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How to Weather Financial Storms


fin-storm

Wealth is a state of being. An orientation towards abundance that is unique. On one hand, you do not feel “entitled” to anything. You see what you have as a pure blessing. On the other, one believes he or she deserves prosperity as a birthright, and go out in the world to attain it, ethically and effectively.

Financial wealth is no exception. It comes as a result of who you are, and how you translate that into enlightened, guided and productive actions.

Like everything in this short passage called “life”, like the oceans that ebb and flow, the state of our physical wealth may go through ups and downs. The frequency of such changes could appear over the course of years, or months, depending on the structure of your financial foundation, and your short-, mid- and long-term decisions.

When everything is alright, everything is alright! Friends and family are close, all is well, and everyone is “seemingly” happy.

As things start faltering, guess who sticks around? Only those who love you, or like you, regardless of your financial status, or any status for that matter. This is important to know in good times, not only in bad times. It helps choose whom to trust.

On the practical level, it is advisable to always have, stowed away, a six-month reserve to cover basic, essential needs: Food, shelter, car, school tuition, etc.

What if the downturn lasted more than six months? It is possible, and we’ve seen it, especially in a soft economy. Here comes the importance of long-term planning, and preparation. As a master of your ship, you can “see” those black clouds before they hit home, and get to work on your plan B, C or even D (of course, you do have at least B 🙂

How about the emotional side of things? This could be tougher!

How can you maintain your composure, your strength, and your trust in a higher Power that knows what you’re going through, and will never leave you alone, as it always has?

This is not theoretical, or abstract. It is as real as it can get. We need our emotional and spiritual energies at their best. Otherwise, the storm might wipe us out, no kidding about that …

What we do when “everything is alright” comes to the rescue when things are not alright. Serving others quietly and candidly, helping the needy, being active volunteers in our communities, nurturing the relationships we’ve built upon love and trust. But the most important is cultivating an unwavering faith, a special connection beyond space-time and cause-effect restrictions. All of that is a different kind of “deposit” in a mysterious, yet real, emotional/spiritual account. We deposit without keeping track, for it comes naturally out of who we truly are!

And finally, we need to remember that no storm lasts forever, and that every storm brings with it opportunities for growth, which would’ve never been possible otherwise.

The Wealth Maker

© Image Credit: http://www.comparethemarket.com.au/