Being Point

Month: February 2009

  • Granting A Reprieve In the Name of Love

    Our annual celebration of love has its roots in the martyred St. Valentine who is rumored to have sent the first “official” note on February 14th, 269 A.D., the day he was executed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius. It was signed, “From Your Valentine.”

    In concluding our week about LOVING YOURSELF, what would your Valentine to yourself say? Start with something like, “I love me because . . . . . . . ” and then list 5 or 10 things that, without equivocation, you love about yourself.

    Consider making a note in a journal, diary or calendar where you can be reminded of these things when, in the future, you might forget them.

    Consider letting others in your life know what you love about yourself and what how you express it. You can do this in personal relationships, but you can also do it in business. For example, “I pride myself on my attention to my clients” or “I love the way that our products help people.

    Tomorrow, consider granting yourself – and others – a reprieve and pardon any outstanding offenses in the name of love.

    Most of all, consider how loving yourself thoroughly and well gives you the strongest possible foundation from which to engage the world . . . another strategic advantage in the Land of Results.

    Happy Valentine’s Day, Valentine!

    Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

  • Discipline Is Self Love

    My friend, Carl Bressler, likes to say, “Discipline is self love” . . . a statement that speaks volumes about our topic of LOVING YOURSELF for this week of Valentine’s Day.

    The word “discipline” has the same root as “disciple,” which infers that discipline can be understood as “being true to and committed to core values like health, integrity, excellence, etc.”

    Thus, Carl’s statement could read, “Commitment to core values like health, integrity, excellence, etc., is self-love” . . . and that makes a lot of sense. It’s illuminating to understand discipline somewhat differently than its normal definition which often implies difficulty.

    Trying on this different definition of LOVING YOURSELF, what kind of discipline, for you, would represent self-love? How successful are you in adhering to your core values? Which core values would you like to focus on for Valentine’s Day as a means of loving yourself?

    Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

  • Not Belonging and Loving Yourself Anyway

    Groucho Marx said, “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member” . . . a poignant and funny thought while we’re discussing LOVING YOURSELF!

    The “club” to which all of us belong is the human condition. All of us know its ups and downs. Let’s use Groucho’s witty remark to delve into how we can love ourselves in spite of . . . or maybe because of . . . our humanity.

    What “clubs” have caused difficulty for you in the past? Can we embrace all the imperfections and faults that barred us from permanent membership in the “perfect club”?

    What would you teach your children about how to handle feelings of not belonging? Might your feeling of not belonging have prevented you from joining the best club of all . . . the club of full self-acceptance?

    Perhaps the path to truly belonging is LOVING YOURSELF! CELEBRATE YOURSELF TODAY!

    Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

  • Loving Yourself Without Condition

    Yep, February 14th is rapidly approaching. A time to celebrate romance . . . and a time to LOVE YOURSELF!

    Anthropologist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said, “The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others, but ourselves as well.”

    Unconditional love . . . a fascinating and often elusive ideal. It flies in the face of loving someone else or oneself as a REWARD for being “acceptable.” You just get to love yourself completely with no reasons or justifications . . . just because you exist.

    If unconditional love is possible for anyone (and I believe it’s possible for everyone), maybe it’s for our ourselves because we alone know both our “failings” as well as our “noble intentions.”

    What are the implications of unconditional love . . . just for today . . . to love yourself unconditionally? Has that been difficult? Do you consider it even possible? What are the practical effects of this kind of COMPLETE SELF-LOVE? Why does this matter?

    Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

  • Accepting Yourself Completely

    This is Valentine’s Week, and we are drawn to thinking about hearts and chocolates and romance. A good time to consider our topic for this week: LOVING YOURSELF.

    It’s been said that you can’t truly love another until you love yourself. We live in a culture that constantly engages us in comparison to images of perfect people living perfect lives. In a way, self-loathing is an integral part of consumer marketing.

    The message is something like: “You can only be loved / lovable if you are like these perfect people . . . and you can fix what’s wrong with you and your life by buying our products.”

    Living in that environment of conditional love, we have found it tough to be tender, kind and forgiving to ourselves. We often hear people say that they are extremely hard on themselves.

    Karl Jung said, “The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”
    This year, how about a Valentine’s Day for you, too, as well as your loved ones?

    What would that day look like? How could you make a clear expression of love for yourself this February 14th? What would you do? What would you not do?

    Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

  • The Power of Forgetting and Starting Over

    This week has been one of our best in Study Hall . . . thanks for attending and sharing. STARTING OVER is definitely a muscle that wants to be strengthened.

    Fact: the past is over! As Will Rogers famously said, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” The advantages of resetting . . . and restarting . . . are enormous!

    Think of the freedom . . . the thrill of being able to create without the limitations of the past! And it’s so simple: only recognize that it’s reality that this moment is the first moment between now and the future.

    THE POWER OF FORGETTING AND STARTING OVER IS ENORMOUS!

    We can also forget the laurels we’ve rested on . . . and, similarly, we can release all the limiting perceptions. Both have kept us stuck.

    In what area of your life would STARTING OVER make the biggest difference in your life?

    Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

  • Starting Over From Things Beyond Our Control

    In law, events beyond our control are called “acts of God” or “force majeure.” Working with our topic of starting over, we considered the topic generally . . . then how we can start over ourselves . . . and how we can allow others to start over.

    So, today: what about those pesky circumstances beyond our control? And their “first cousins,” the decisions we made long ago that may have continued to “haunt” us to the present. Decisions made by others that have impacted our lives, as we perceive it, negatively. All of these are fuel for lingering regret and remorse if not fully processed.

    Starting over means releasing those events, decisions and dynamics. They have already occurred. We can’t un-do the past, but we can start over and assess where we are as regarding these issues.

    Today would be an excellent day to put to rest all concern for things that already happened . . . especially long ago . . . so that the day is open to joy. They’re already gone. Start over today!

    We want to be able to have a long list at the end of day when we ask, “What brought me joy today?”

    Releasing old events, patterns and decisions increases joy . . . AND . . . remember, starting over is a strategic advantage in manifesting the results that you want today!

    Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

  • Releasing Attachment to Wrongs and Starting Over

    So far this week, we’ve focused on our own starting over. Today, consider the wisdom of allowing others to start over with you.

    Everyone has made mistakes in life. It’s just a matter of degree, but . . . face it, no one escapes doing some really dumb things.

    We can assist others in their journeys by losing the attachment to past wrongs and saying, “The rest of my relationship with this person begins now.”

    Imagine what a difference that would make in business, family friend and romantic situations.

    Allowing others to start over means that you don’t hold their past performance against them. By giving them a clean slate:
    * Grudges disappear

    * Wounds heal

    * Harmony expands

    * Freedom grows

    This is not a “touchy-feely,” “lah-lah” strategy. Rather, it has highly practical outcomes. Life gets better! Results improve!

    Please think of some people whose conduct you can reframe in your mind as only in the past . . . and consciously allow them to start over. Breathe and observe the way you feel as you release the past and allow the present with nothing but possibilities.

  • Beginner’s Mind Is Starting Over

    Yesterday, we began discussing starting over – how recognizing that every moment REALLY IS starting over . . . whether or not we recognize it as such . . . for one simple reason: the past is OVER!

    That means we have a blank slate in this and every new moment to CREATE the present . . . and to IMPACT the future.

    F. Scott’s Fitzgerald (whose story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is winning huge critical acclaim) said, “Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist, but the ability to start over.”

    The benefit of DEVELOPING A ROUTINE PRACTICE OF STARTING OVER is that we are unencumbered by beliefs or limitations from the past. Starting over means fresh, new, clean, open, willing and present.

    Where in your life can you see tremendous benefit for starting over . . . for adopting what in Zen studies is called BEGINNER’S MIND?

  • The Ability to Start Over Is a Strategic Advantage

    This week: STARTING OVER.

    When I ran my first marathon it wasn’t planned: I was inspired by the signs for the race when I arrived at the Honolulu Airport for a three-week business trip. I immediately wanted to do the race. I had been running about 25 miles a week . . . good, but considered insufficient for a race of 26 miles. So I made a decision that, no matter how slowly I went, I would run every single step.

    One of the devices that I used on the course was to say to myself – sometimes aloud, but mostly internally – “This step is now the first step of the race.” That was my mantra, and I’m sure I said it thousands of times . . . and it allowed me to achieve my goal of both finishing and running every step – no matter how slow.

    The ability to start over is a strategic advantage in achieving results. We humans have often been burdened by our individual or collective history. In the case of the race, I wanted to avoid thinking that because I had already run 8, 12, 18, 22, 25 miles, etc., that I should be tired. By recognizing that that history was over each moment . . . and by not carrying it around like baggage . . . I was free to create a different reality.

    How can a deliberate decision to start over to assist you in getting what you want? Are there places where you have been allowing history to hold you back? Choose a place to practice starting over today!