How often do we consider how abundant our lives are – and do so without any cloying, overly sweet sentiments? Just the facts: what do we enjoy in large measure that, for many others, might be considered a huge blessing?

One of the issues associated with abundance is that we can take things for granted. There can be so much of something or a situation or a person that we can fool ourselves into thinking that our life experience will always include those people or things in the same degree.

Writer, Jean Petit-Senn, said: “Not what we have, but what enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”

What are you enjoying now in your life? Where have you recently felt laughter, peace, satisfaction, fulfillment? What is abundant in your life to the degree that you are not only aware of it, but you actually enjoy and appreciate its presence?

I recently read an article which discussed how much we, as a populace, are reading and writing in email, blogs and other online activities. That kind of reading and writing is a far cry from what our English and Literature teachers and professors taught us was exemplary.

Juxtapose that for a moment against the likelihood that, because we are reading so much online, that we are reading less for the sheer joy and pleasure of reading. I just completed a novel called The Art Of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein which is narrated by a dog and tells a very sweet story about his love for his human family. It’s so touching that I keep remembering it and reliving the experience as if I actually know the characters.

Pleasure reading moves us into relationship with interesting people, animals, geographies and situations. And, lest I sound like one of the librarians from when we grew up, reading for the joy of it is a very enriching and pleaurable experience.

Many of you are big readers, so please send in some recommendations so that I can share your picks with others. What are some books that you’ve read recently for pleasure that you’d recommend? What are some works of fiction that you’d like to read that you’ve been intending to read for a while?

I once had the occasion to see Zig Ziglar speak to 12,000 people at the Anaheim Pond.  At an intermission, he drew my business card out of a big barrel of cards – which entitled me to win books and tapes (at that time) for a half dozen of his programs.  I went on stage to shake his hand, and I got to see how fun it is to stand in front of 11,999 people.

He said that the primary motivator for human beings is victory – not winning over someone else, but personal victory.  Being victorious in this sense means manifesting a result that is consistent with your core values.  Joy and delight were primary among the core values that I felt in that moment – and he was right: it felt like victory.

How do you define victory?  Has the concept of victory engaged competitiveness for you in the past?  If so, it may not be pure victory.  In fact, a focus on competition may miss the point of victory altogether.  What is the distinction between winning and victory?  There is no struggle in victory.

No discussion of poetry would be even remotely complete without mention of love poems. Most likely, all of us have at least one favorite. Whether or not we can recite it, there’s usually something that we have heard that has touched our hearts.

Here’s my favorite – and it’s best read aloud. I invite you to think about your favorite and to share it with someone you love today. Poetry can connect our hearts.

i carry your heart with me i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear
no fate (for you are my fate,my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

~ e. e. cummings

Please write me and tell me your favorite love poems. You can also post (so everyone can share) on the Study Hall blog beta site at:

http://www.coachingforresults.com/studyhall

Renewal can result in feelings of optimism and expanded energy if we process information as though we are experiencing something for the first time. I’m a big fan of first times, and I actively cultivate memories of wonderful first times in my life. They are full of joy and possibility.

To experience people, situations, places and things as though you are experiencing them for the first time is to be revitalized and, in a real sense, have your relationship to them be reborn. We have become so accustomed to processing situations as if they are always the same that we have missed the new-ness of each moment.

Try this exercise: Say, “I am experiencing _______ for the first time. What are things about this situation that I have never noticed before? How can I make it better? What can I learn? Where do I best look from the perspective of beginner’s mind so that I can have a fresh relationship to life’s circumstances?”

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

Thinking ahead may well be at the heart of service. Do you remember being in a great restaurant and the wait staff always stayed just ahead of what you needed? A pleasure to dine there; right?

Yes, unless the service is obtrusive and fussy. Excellent service is both forward-thinking and unobtrusive. Some restaurants think that an overly high ratio of wait staff to diners is optimal. I disagree because the experience often shifts to be about the staff and not about the pleasure of the diners.

A third element of great service is that it is performed with joy and caring. I recently asked a service professional if he enjoyed his job, and he said, “Not really, but it’s a skill I have, so I have to use it.” He did not realize that “skill” alone is insufficient.

Of these three elements – thinking ahead, unobtrusiveness and performed with joyful and genuine caring – how would you score yourself? Can you think of an experience where you would rate the service high based on these criteria?

What are the implications of these criteria for your own business or profession? Do you sincerely care when you are delivering a service? How often are you able to serve with joy?

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

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.