Every Day is an Adventure

It’s 10:44 PM and I’m looking back over a day that has been full of activity and productivity: prospecting for clients and business partners over the phone; a business luncheon turned into training; a late afternoon appointment to write a product application; connecting with a person I’m working with in recovery; attending a recovery discussion group together; coffee with my new gal afterwards; a team training call related to my network marketing business, and a phone call to one of my team mentors to top it off.

Our business luncheon took on a personalized “what daily activity do I need to do to reach my financial goals for the coming month” as our Regional Manager went around the table to grill each business partner. She worked out the numbers with each one of us– what is each sale worth (according to us respective positions), how many appointments do we need to get one sale – how many prospecting calls will it take to set one appointment? It was a “come to Jesus” meeting of sorts – but she could have just left because our guests failed to show, or worse yet if we hadn’t done the activity required to get someone there.

Coach Parisha Taylor has worked numbers with us on many occasions in a variety of business ventures. “Success is a numbers game” is a tried and true wisdom in any kind of sales. Persistency pays off. Quitting does not.

Coach Parisha Taylor has also shared the value of living each day as a complete “life” – including work, play, service to others, and communion with God.

This day has held many gifts. I’ve been able to reconnect with an old friend and help him with my business service, as well as support a local business person by meeting in his neighborhood café. Listening to another person in recovery – especially when they are new – is a gift I give to myself. I get to share the wisdoms of those who helped me along the way, and renew my appreciation for my own recovery. It’s an awesome win-win.

Looking back over my day, I’ve had a rich “life” this 24 hours. It’s been a good day and I am blessed.

I give appreciation to all who have added to my experience today, to all I have touched and have touched me. As always, I give great appreciation for the one known as Coach Parisha Taylor for being a part of my life today and every day!

©2010 Deborah Adler. All rights reserved.

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Parisha Taylor on Spending Time

More and more I am aware that when I choose to go to bed, I am closing another chapter on the book of my life. To bring closure to a day and end it, it is gone forever.

Grandmother Parisha always reminds us that “Time is the only thing we spend that we can never get back. What are you doing with yours?”

Each day is precious and I must seek to live it to its fullest. How have I added value to myself today? Whom have I served? Positive answers to these questions will help give greater meaning to my time here, and greater peace when it is my time to move on. -Deborah Adler

©2010 Deborah Adler. All rights reserved.

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When The Going Gets Tough, Do You Keep Going?

“You have nothing to lose if you fail, but everything to gain by trying again.

“When you journal daily make a point to highlight what you have learned and what has changed in you. It is always what is inside that determines what we experience in each situation. We are human and this is the way we evolve and mature.

“We exchange time for experience…That is life.

“Take charge of yours…make goals and keep them.

“Make goals that involve stretching, but allow them to be within your means.

Daily accomplishments strengthen us.

Make some goals accomplishable on your way to major leaps!”*

These words are from my long time business coach and mentor Parisha Taylor. She is constantly reminding those of us she works with of the value of “failing forward.” In her words, when we experience a “mis-take” we can easily do a “re-take” thus turning the learning experience from our “failure” into the building blocks of the next success. It’s that simple.

Grandmother Parisha was raised in a culture that provided a nourishing environment for learning through mis-takes and re-takes. So it’s natural for her to live and teach from this simple truth. For those of us who grew up with parents, teachers or other authority figures who might have admonished, criticized or demeaned us for our mistakes, we have to overcome old feelings of embarrassment or being “wrong” which we learned to equate with being “bad.”

Our upbringings are what they were. We can’t change the people from our past. But we CAN change the lessons we bring forward from the past.

Long after those “authority figures” are out of our lives, we allow their voices to occupy space in our heads. We bring forward those feelings of shame, hurt, or anger that block us from the freedom to make mistakes. We live in a culture that confuses “ignorance” for “stupidity,’ and condemns anything less than perfection, which in itself is self-defeating. Self admonishment is not an effective teacher. I know.

Life is a perpetual learning lab. It’s up to us to decide to be the perpetual student. By freeing ourselves from the old stigmas of making mistakes, we create an environment for ourselves that inspires success through persistence. Far too many people quit when they are closer than they realize to their goal.

By journaling our day at night-time before going to bed, as Coach Parisha Taylor advises, we can stake stock of the day’s successes and failures. We take note of what worked and what we could have done better or differently. These are the lessons we bring forth from our day – be it business, relationships, whatever.

Our experiences change us, if we chose to learn from them. Journaling can assist to gain a perspective on that as well. “It is always what is inside that determines what we experience in each situation.”

Coach Parish once shared these words with us from another great motivator, Brian Tracy: “RESOLVE in advance that you will never give up…RESOLVE to persist until you succeed.” She reminds us that by refusing to stop, we become unstoppable!

She’s also taught that time is the most precious commodity we have. It is the only thing that we spend that we can never get back once we have. We can always get more money, more things…but time, once it’s gone, it’s gone. So exchanging out time for experience is a great way to make sure we get the most out of it every day. Miss no opportunity to learn from an interaction, a situation, however seemingly small or insignificant. For those moments will become the building blocks that we can utilize to take on the mountains we dare to dream about!

By treating life as an opportunity instead of a “sentence” – by realizing that every day is a gift, an adventure – by nurturing and loving ourselves – we can take on the most horrendous of circumstances and triumph – One victory at a time! – Deb Adler

*©1986-2010 Parisha Taylor. All rights reserved.

©2010 Deborah Adler. All rights reserved.

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