Wisdom from the Stoic Seneca.

Quote One:

“So called pleasures, when they go beyond a certain limit, are but punishments.”

Even the noblest practice taken too far becomes a bane.

“For both excessive and insufficient exercise destroy one’s strength, and both eating and drinking too much or too little destroy health, whereas the right quantity produces, increases or preserves it. So it is the same with temperance, courage and the other virtues… This much then, is clear: in all our conduct it is the mean (middle) that is to be commended.” -Aristotle.

Buddha calls this the middle path.

Here are my pleasures that when taken too far become detrimental.

• Spending time on-line
• I am actively reducing the time I spend in social media forums
• Working
• I am ending my work day by 6:30. I am keeping evenings free from my own needs and recovery. I am pretty good at this. I take one day off per week. I need to plan a three day weekend every month
• Drinking coffee
• I am switching to tea. I have been without coffee for a week now and I feel the difference.

Here are my insufficiencies that I struggle to engage in enough to build strength or mastery.

• Finances (Giving, Saving, Investing)
• I am learning to do a monthly business profit and loss
• To give save and invest 30% of my NET earnings.
• To do a monthly budget
• Home maintenance
• Need to take actions to clean garage
• Clean pool.
• Rake leaves, landscape
• Friend  relationships
• Make time to be with friends, invest in them.  
• Dinners, events, games

Everything above represents several of my growth areas where in I have room to find equilibrium.

Quote Two:

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.”

I really hear, “What human beings can be, they must be.”

Abraham Maslow: “Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What human beings can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature. This need we may call self-actualization… It refers to man’s desire for self-fulfilment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything one is capable of becoming.”

The alternative is to live out of integrity with our being. For 10 years I sold real estate knowing that I was on a default path, the path that was carved out by my Grandmother, Mother and Uncle. It was easy to follow this path. It was not rewarding. It was a struggle simply because I wasn’t daring to be that which I dreamed of being.

Interestingly enough it was the business coaching I received in real estate that made it crystal clear that coaching was a calling for me. Today I am daring be what I can and must be. Of course there are challenges; however, I have the passion to meet the challenges as I continue to become more and more of my ideal which is a world class health and fitness trainer and coach.    

What else am I not daring at the moment that I know to be holding back on?

• Music
• My guitar skills and enjoyment of playing
• Dating
• It is time I enter this area, learn the ropes.
• Meditation Facilitation
• I am clear it is time for me to create a daily meditation conference hotline.  

Quote Three

“The worse a person is the less he feels it.”

I interpret this as an unaware person is unaware that they are unaware.

They are unaware of the pain they are causing themselves and others. They are unaware of their self talk, the treatment of their body, their habits and behaviors.

As I have embarked on a journey of increasing awareness I have noticed that I can no longer harm anything without harming myself. I feel the pain of others. The more impeccable I become the more in tune and sensitive I become all everything around me. This is a gift. Those without this gift may not understand. I like how Gary Zukav calls this the evolution to Multi-sensory Human Being.