I QUIT.

I Quit.

Yes, I do. And tomorrow I can say, yes, I did.

Quit what? Quit my first job that I have held in over 6 years and I have held it all of 4 weeks.

Why of all things? Why in this time of vanishing jobs, the jobless economy, and record unemployment, would I leave this seemingly desirable institution of American culture, the “9 to 5”?

Not because I dislike my co-workers. The opposite. What a sweet bunch of women (and a man or two). No complaints with management, in fact I have found them caring, one and all, and sharp, as well. Not because I am unsuited to the work, because after all, if you love sales, and I do, then a sales job is a good job.

No, there is a different reason. That reason is, working this job leaves me out of my “integrity zone”.

For 15 years now, I have been preaching the gospel of “do what you love”, “create a project and create a cash flow”, promoting Enlightened Entrepreneurship to women and men alike. And there was nothing like getting a job to shove right back in my face, that I have a mission.

Every moment that I was dialing at my job, I was thinking, what about helping women start their own businesses? What about doing what I love, meeting people, leading seminars, inviting people to take the risks that set their hearts to pumping with joy? What about teaching classes for families with my son and husband? What about our family band? What about being my own outrageous self and sharing my passion with as many people as I can possibly touch?

It took me 4 weeks to realize, I gotta do what I gotta do. As genuine cosmic timing would provide, what was the topic in a meeting I went to tonight, but doing what you love. One woman asked the question, what do I do now that I am 60 and hate my job? And another man shared, he is 52 and finally doing everything that he loves. Another man mentioned he earned an MBA because his dad said to, but now is finally working in the arts, which is what he loved all along.

So tomorrow I go in, clean up, and say good-bye. Let them know how much I respect them and appreciate them. Tell them I hope we stay in touch. And then come back to my home, soon to be my launch pad, and get on the phone with my national team, which stretches from California to New York, and have a day of team calling.

This is my integrity, a life of boldness, daring, risk and appreciation. A life where each and every sale I make has the opportunity to impact someone’s life for the good, for the rest of their lives. A life where I share my joy and my experience in the service of others’ dreams coming true. A life where I am living my dreams, doing what I want, and declaring to the world that it is not only possible to design your life from pleasure, in fact, it is vital.

Practice Joy

Practice Joy

One of the ways that my Aunt Harriet practices joy is by driving through the country with her husband of 50-something years, looking for mailboxes with funny names on them. When she finds those country names she writes them in a little notebook. She writes my dad (her brother) letters, sharing the funny names she found. We have literally roared out loud with laughter, reading some of the names she has noted.

Another way my Aunt Harriet practices joy is by purchasing whimsical picture frames on sale wherever she can find them, then filling them with photographs of all of her favorite family members and putting them up in every corner of her house. Not only does she have older, dated pictures, but also up-to-date snapshots of every loved one she has ever known.

So now my sisters on our women’s circle are on a mission: searching for ways to practice joy. Some of the ones that I have found: telling funny stories to an audience of sympathetic friends…the ones you know will laugh. Spending time around a young child, enough time to hear some of the funny things they say. This evening my son said, as we pulled out of his school parking lot, “Mom, you have to venture into my hair to search for mice.” This was his way of telling me that a child in his class had been found with lice.

Tonight my friend and circle sister Jenn told the story of the “happy basket” she created. Her children and she add daily to the basket: tickets to a movie they loved, comic strips, notes, anything that makes them feel happy. She said that it’s really working and that her family is sharing their happiness more freely, now that they have a ritual “basket”.

I will be searching for more ways to “practice” joy. I trust that some of you will send me your ways.

Through the years I have practiced self-pity, resentment and other darker moods. Now I am curious about practicing joy. Stay posted.

Determination

Today the writing that wants to come forth, as I continue to heal myself with each and every action that I take, is about determination.

The word itself is solid and enduring. Look there, a noun sitting squarely at the end of the sentence. Very few tall letters and no low ones, just a solid block of letters announcing itself: Determination.

And endure it must. While each and every distraction can and will get in your way when you have a plan and a project, determination will wait them all out. Sometimes determination will plow through the obstacles in its way, sometimes it will just bide its time, knowing that its destiny is to triumph.

My special expertise is the distraction of a young son at home and the special pleasure of almost unequalled enjoyment spending time with him. His music, his games, his enthusiasm and frequent requests for play, all these can easily keep me from attending to my own goals and commitments. His very vociferousness keeps my own desires in check; therefore determination becomes vital because the force of his personality and youthful exuberance is compelling. So I have got to determine for myself, what is as important to me, as his needs and wants are to him, so that I can follow my own drive and my own desire to their destiny home. What are those things?

I am determined to share my wisdom, intelligence and passion with others. I am determined to get up, in front of audiences of women, and share the learning that I have done over the years. I am determined to be well paid for these workshops and speeches that I deliver. I am determined to have music and dance in my life. I am determined to have women actualize their own gifts, as well as to actualize my own. I am determined to promote the cause of happy women inhabiting and overrunning the planet. I am determined to give my gifts and share my vision, so that it clarifies and intensifies in its ability to compel. I am determined to be competent financially and wealthy in all ways. I am determined to have a good time through it all. I am determined to set a date for previews and then to follow up with partnership and requesting. I am determined to become mentor to thousands of women.

Currently I see that I do have determination and it is a long-range thing. It is a sometimes-underground movement, sometimes public policy declared from the steps of the capitol building here at home: I have my rights. The mother of the family has the most rights of anyone. She must be happy, fulfilled, self-actualized, self-satisfied, turned on, juicy, invigorated, partnered-with, supported. She must have her needs for becoming and contributing satisfied, or else her children will have no modeling for a happy and fulfilled woman.

Then again, sometimes I forget and get sucked into the routine of motherhood that the routine itself has prevented me from replacing myself in: laundry, meals, discipline, tidying. Forgetting to make myself important is a piece of the lack of determination. No one person can be expected to do everything. If the author is doing the laundry, she is not writing on her publication. It is not a luxury to work on the publication; it is a priority of the utmost importance. The laundry will wait…until when?

That is not a question for the writer to answer. That is a question for the laundry staff to answer, whoever it may be that day. Determination will cause the determined to learn new skills, be they delegating, requesting, postponing, prioritizing…

This writing is the product of said determination. Actions taken over time cause movement, movement over time creates duration and duration over time becomes momentum. And so determination manifests desire.