Build reserves in all areas of your life.

“Having more than enough calms the mind and affords more experimentation in life.”

Reserves is most often thought of in relationship to money but for the purpose of building your personal foundation it also includes, time, space, energy, health, love support, opportunity, spirituality and personal power, and perhaps other categories of importance to you. We will deal with money in another foundation article.

How much, is more than enough? What does it take to have more than enough? It is up to you to create your own list, measures and method. Below are some thoughts for you to consider. The Reserve Index Program, if you chose to try it, will give your some additional ways to think about this topic. Click here to download The Reserve Index Program.You will need Acrobat Reader available at Adobe.com. Check off, as if completed, any statements that do not apply to you or never will be true for you.

Time, Space and Energy.
Daily, the stuff in our lives, like email and learning new things or the world in general seems to expand exponentially. Choices have to be made about what is really important to you in your life. My key word for dealing with this expansion is to continuously Simplify! Creating systems, which allow your business and life to run smoothly with little effort on your part, is worth ten times or more the time and effort you spent on creating and using them.

Time. The only way I have found to have the time for the things most important to me is to schedule the time in my day-timer. That includes, time for lunch with my daughter once a week, a nap, my Tai Chi practice and class, as well as, work related appointments (travel time) and projects, interruptions and unexpected events. Yes, plan time for interruptions and unexpected events. They happen every day whether you like it or not, so plan for it. A fabulous book on gaining at least 2 more hours in your day, is Vince Panella’s book, The 26 Hour Day.

Space. There is physical and emotional space. When physical space is cluttered and over packed it creates a subtle emotional drain on top of the physical space issue.

At least twice a year clean out your closets. Get rid of clothes that don’t make you feel and look exceptional. Even if your weight has not changed your shape probably has. Does that suite or dress your love really still look that good on you? If not, pass it on. It may be helpful to have an image consultant go through your closet with you to reevaluate, and simplify your wardrobe. It will save you time and money.

Once a year clean out file cabinets and bookcases. Get rid of or store, off site, your old dead client files. Make space for new business! Our needs and tastes change over time so there are probably many business and personal books and seminar materials that it is time to ditch or recycle.

Emotional space, in my view, is about giving yourself and others the space to make mistakes and still be loved and appreciated. It is about being free to make new choices about old beliefs. Just because you have always done something in a certain way doesn’t mean that way still serves you. You can make new choices.

Energy is an economy. Sleep and productivity studies show that people who get 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night are 25% more productive than people who get less. Sleep more and plan less in your day so you will have the energy to enjoy everything you do.

Some situations and activities are draining and others are energizing. Sit down and make a list of everything in your life that drains your energy. Then consider ways to eliminate as many as possible. Make a list of things or activities that give you energy. Planning more of these into your day or week will give your energy bank account a big lift
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Holding on to anger, resentment, sadness and disappointment are huge energy drains! By deciding today to forgive yourself and everybody else, for everything, forever, will take a big load off your emotional energy wagon.

Health, Support and Love.

Health. In my early thirties I was so ill I could not imagine making it to forty. My dad, who was an M.D., was studying nutrition and alternative healing methods. This was thirty years before anyone was taking such concepts seriously and we read hundreds of book on these subjects. Daily more information comes forward regarding the body mind connection.

What I have learned is that the body is self-healing, given half a chance. I have learned that nutrition and exercise are important and that fulfilling work and relationships are equally important to good health.

Our bodies and intuition will guide us if we will pay attention to our own internal promptings and body signals. Read books and follow your internal guidance.

Support. Studies have shown that people with loving supportive relationships live longer and in better health. Do you have a circle of at least 10 people in your life who love, appreciate and support you, just the way you are, and have no need to change you in any way?

Do you send at least one thank you card a week to someone who has been kind or supportive of you? Do you regularly receive notes of appreciation from clients and colleagues? If not, what changes may need to be made to have this kind of abundant emotional support in your life?

Love. Not long after I got divorced I started dating. Within a few months I realized that every man I dated wanted to change me in someway. The light bulb finally went on and I thought, “There must be some men out there who think I’m just fine the way I am. In fact, there are probably some men out there who would think I am wonderful!” From that day forward I made a new choice.

I decided to only date men who thought I was just fine the way I was and/or who also though I was wonderful. Presto! Like magic I started attracting the kind of men I wanted in my life as friends and lovers.

In fact all of my relationships, business and personal began to reflect this new decision. I had to shift in my belief in my self, as enough, regardless of my shortcomings, for the world to reflect it back to me.

Opportunity, Spirituality and Personal Power.

Opportunity abounds at all times, just look at the abundance of nature. A weed never seems to pass up an opportunity to grow in even the smallest crack. The problem is, we are not always open or ready to take advantage of opportunity when it arrives. Often we are so distracted by our belief or opinion of how it “should be” that we totally miss the opportunity that is sitting right on our doorstep.

Loosing your job could seem like a huge misfortune until you discover a job or career path that is infinitely more satisfying and fulfilling than the one you had. Sometimes, adversity gives us and opportunity to revaluate our choices and opens a door to possibilities we have not considered in the past.

Building reserves in Spirituality is a very personal matter. Honoring and living by ones values. Experiencing ones life, as being a valued part of the whole. Trusting in a higher power (or yourself), honoring and responding to your internal guidance are, in my view, all part of Spiritual abundance. How do you define it for yourself? What would it take to have a reserve here?

Personal Power in large part is about having and honoring your boundaries. Making requests rather that complaining. Being clear in informing others about your boundaries and walking away or letting go of relationships and people who refuse to honor your boundaries.

Asking for and respecting others input yet trusting your own final judgment in a matter. Being firm and consistent in your expectation of performance and results. Never over promising. Knowing that you at choice about how you interpret everything in life, never a victim. "Know" that you no longer needing to prove yourself, you are enough, just as you are. Giving up the need to fix others, they are also enough just as they are.

It is not easy to create reserves in all these area so be patient with yourself. Life is a process of continuous personal refinement, not a set of external goals. You get to choose when you are and have enough in each area.

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