Getting Started is the Hard Part

It gets easier once you've started an activity, so just start.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how hard it can feel to begin something new, like the exercise program I keep saying I will take on or the daily schedule I will keep to. Here’s the thing: Complaining about it only makes it worse. And getting started is the hard part. After you start, [...]

How to Stop Struggling to Focus

I’m spending the summer again in New York City with my son. Here, amidst the constant noise and motion, I find it difficult to focus. More than that I see how I am torn in too many directions each day. Because of that, nothing gets accomplished. Let me rephrase that last sentence. Things get accomplished…little [...]

Focus, Focus, Focus…On Your Goals

opportunity

The other day a friend of mine told me I’d missed an opportunity. I told him he was wrong. Well, maybe it did represent an opportunity–an opportunity for me to lose focus. Right now my life seems filled with distractions from my true goals. It’s difficult for me to remain focused on those goals and [...]

Tending the Garden of Your Soul

Today I weeded another section of my extremely large garden. Every spring it becomes totally overgrown with weeds. If I’m not quick, they become shoulder high or taller and go to seed. This year, I got to the job too late. Actually, I have way too many other things going on in my life to [...]

When Life Swirls Out of Control

I feel my life swirling somewhat out of control. Sometimes out of control seems like a good thing, like when you can let go and enjoy a water slide, experiencing the speed and the excitement of simply seeing where you end up. Other times it’s a scary thing, like driving down a mountain with no [...]

Do You Notice When the Spirit Moves You? (And What Do You Do In Response?)

Do you notice when the spirit moves you? I found myself pondering this question about a week ago amidst a pile of work I was trying to get done at almost midnight. Everyone else in my family had already gone to bed, even the cat, who is supposed to be nocturnal by nature. I realized [...]

In the Beginning There was Time

Shabbat ends ends and the week begins. It seems like time starts again. We finish reading the Torah and we begin again with the first portion, the first words of Genesis: “In the beginning.” These thee words been translated many ways, but scholars seem to argue that the words tells us something about the creation not [...]

Sometimes Living Fully Means Being in the Now

This summer my son suffered from an undiagnosed illness. For six weeks I had to juggle not only my work, which required meeting a variety of deadlines, but his needs and the other household duties I have, such as paying bills, cooking, etc. When my daughter was home, I also had to try not to [...]

What Does Not Living Your Life Fully Cost You?

It’s been over a month since I last blogged. I should be flogged! But I won’t dwell on the negatives of why I haven’t blogged. Suffice it to say, I’ve been busy. Too busy to write. Too busy to bicycle. Too busy to read. Too busy to relax. Too busy to garden. Too busy to [...]