What Is Life Coaching?
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler."
–Henry David Thoreau
Life Coaching is a profession that is profoundly different from consulting, mentoring, advice, therapy, or counseling. The coaching process addresses specific personal projects, business successes, general conditions and transitions in the client’s personal life, relationships or profession by examining what is going on right now, discovering what your obstacles or challenges might be, and choosing a course of action to make your life be what you want it to be.
How Does Life Coaching Work?
The Life Coaching Format:
- Complimentary Coaching Consultation
- 60 to 90 minute "Discovery" first session
- One 30 to 90 minute phone call per week
- Unlimited Email support
- Occasional brief check-in calls
Life Coaching is a designed alliance between coach and client where the coaching relationship continually gives all the power back to you, the client. We believe that you know the answers to every question or challenge you may have in your life, even if those answers appear to be obscured, concealed or hidden inside.
Our skills are about knowing the right questions to ask and having the right tools and techniques to empower you to find those answers within yourself.
You, the client, are the only expert in your entire life who truly knows who you are and what you need. You are the only expert who can recognize what is absolutely best for you. We are simply experts in the coaching process. As your coach, we help you discover what your own personal "best" might be.
Every day we make choices to do or not do many things. These choices may range from profound to trivial and each one has an effect that makes our lives more fulfilling or less fulfilling, more balanced or less balanced, that make our process of living more effective or less effective. Life coaching helps you learn how to make choices that create an effective, balanced and fulfilling life.
We help you connect your head and your heart in a way that transforms your passion for your dreams into action for your life.
We are highly trained as generalists and can coach superbly on any aspect of life. However, we may choose to specialize in one or more of the following areas :
- Relationships and Intimacy
- Stress Management and Balance
- Spirituality and Personal Growth
- Entrepreneurial and Small Business Development
- Career Planning and Development
- Motivation and Time Management
- Creativity for Artists, Writers, Musicians and Performers
- Finances and Budgeting
- Health, Aging, Lifestyle and Self-Care
- Family and Parenting
- And much more
An interesting article on Coaching ( Top 10 professional life coaching myths)
why it works
Unlike other forms of self-help or therapy, life coaching offers a new look on basic human needs. Partnership, support and know-how are areas that distinguish life coaching from other therapies.
Partnership
Tiger Woods, at the top of his game, still works on improving his skills. For this, he relies on his coach to make sure he still has the edge. A similar bond exists between the life coach and the client.
Support
Individuals are better able to make big decisions when they have the support of friends, family, peers, or a life coach. With a life coach a client is more comfortable taking bigger strides to getting the job done and making the appropriate changes toward a better life.
Know-how
It’s always best to pick a coach that has walked a similar line in life as you have. The coach will know how to help the client achieve his goal — whether it is to make more money or simply to make better decisions.
life coach vs. therapist
Life coaching and therapy are both based on support, trust and complete confidentiality. They also make equal use of listening skills and non-judgmental attitudes toward the client.
Some say that therapy deals with the past and handling emotional pain; whereas, coaching deals more with the near future and devising action plans toward a specific goal.
You can’t move toward the future without turning the page on the past. Attaining a life coach is recommended after unresolved matters are settled. Coaching may not be what you need if you have unresolved issues of the past. On the same token, if you need coaching you don’t need to get therapy first.
A therapist often seeks insight and understanding of a person’s psyche rather than focusing on strategies and life plans. Coaches are not perceived as experts — they are more or less a person with knowledge and skill, which they use to help clients achieve their goals. Coaches encourage and support the client while giving valuable advice to achieve specific life goals.
The major difference between a life coach and a therapist is the relationship between the client and the coach. The synergy between the two goes beyond what standard therapy offers. The sessions are not confined to the usual meeting rooms — more and more people contact their coach by phone, e-mail or even meet for a quick drink.
Need a life coach?
Only you will know if you really need a life coach or not. The following list of questions may help you decide:
- Do you often feel overwhelmed from the daily tasks at hand?
- Do you feel like you’re living life unconsciously?
- Do you suffer from low self-esteem?
- Do you feel like everyone seems to have a master plan but you?
- Is there a lack of support in your life?
- Do you feel like the whole world is out to get you?
- Are you going through difficult times in life and need a helping hand?
- Do you have deadlines you just can’t deal with and don’t know how to cope?
Answering yes to any of the above questions doesn’t necessarily mean you need therapy, but might suggest that you could benefit from some life coaching.
Is coaching right for you?
Before you frantically flip through the phone book for some help, step back and ask what exactly you wish to accomplish with a coach. Once you establish this, a life coach can strategize a winning plan to help you attain your goals.
Life coaching may not be the best option for you if you have a hard time digesting constructive criticism or you just don’t think you can devote the time and energy to make a change for the better. Due to the partnership approach of coaching, it is vital that the client be open and willing to the experience.
Read more: http://www.askmen.com/money/body_and_mind_100/141b_better_living.html#ixzz2W0J8tFxe
Interested in bettering your life, want to grow personally and professionally, but find it hard to get motivated? Then maybe a Life Coach is what you are looking for, a Life Coach can help you stay on track, define your goals and help you achieve your dreams. Why not make a call that can change your life, to find out more, visit http://guidedinsight.wix.com/guidedinsight and set up your free session.
God Bless
Paul Sposite
Guided Insight Life Coach
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Bearing compass (18th century). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The 4 Points of Leadership, like a compass, we need to make sure our leadership skills, our life skills are inline with the 4 main points on our internal compass. The goal of any leader, be they corporate leaders, group leaders or mom and dads, direction and clarity are important. The 4 Points of Leadership will help you set your compass to true north and help you to set your course to a leadership style of clarity and direction.
Point One: Environment
Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.
W. Clement Stone
The people and things we choose to surround ourselves with define us, they shape us and inform the world who and what we are. As my mother use to so, you are who you hang with, we choose to associate with like minded people, to frequent places filled with the atmosphere we thrive in. We do not often exit our comfort zone nor do we often drastically change our environment, we are creatures of habit and seek out comfort and security.
To set our compass to True North, to Clarity and Direction, we need to create an environment that is healthy and uplifting, we need to choose friends and associates that will help define us as productive and positive influences on our society. Our Direction needs to be one of upward movement, one set with the goal of creating a better world that we entered into. This includes \more that just donating to the local soup kitchen, it includes our actions and words as well. The simple act of teaching our children to say please and thank you, or to open the door for an elderly person. Respect and charity go hand in hand, and are all part of the environment we create.
Point two: Action
We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.
Abigail Adams (1744 – 1818), letter to John Adams, 1774
Actions speak louder than words, we all have heard this saying, most likely from our Mothers, and once again, our mothers were right. Actions do speak loader than words, in-fact actions define our words. It is easy to say “I will” or “Yes” or even “I love you” but if our actions do not back up the words, the words become hollow and meaningless. Yet, if we just do it, with out the words, the action stands on its own, becomes the truth with in the words not spoken. Actions are our currency, it is with actions that we gain trust and respect. And like money, we must learn when to spend our actions and on what. Well spent actions will provide us with respect and trust, where as miss spent actions or lack of action will deplete our account and render us morally bankrupt in the eyes of our creditors, our friends and family.
To set our compass to True North, to Clarity and Direction, we need to learn the value of actions, to see the outcome and consequences of our actions on ourselves and those who surround us. We need to learn that our words must be followed by our actions, and that our actions can and do define our moral character. We are what we do or don’t do. Our inaction is as important as our actions.
Point three: Laugh
A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road.
~Henry Ward Beecher
Nothing in this world is beyond a laugh. We cannot take life or ourselves to seriously. Life is to short not to smile to enjoy and to laugh. Learn to relax and go with the flow, and you will learn that life is not all that bad. We all have run into that one person who seems to have the personality of a arm pit hair, they find no joy in any aspect of life, and fine no humor in this world. They see the world as a cold humorless place, a place that needs to be pitied not laughed at.
Before you condemn them, stop and look at yourself, are there times, moments or days that you too feel this old world is just in to sad a shape to laugh to enjoy and experience. We all could use a little more laughter in our lives, we all can light up a bit more and learn to make this world a little more bearable.
To set our compass to True North, to Clarity and Direction, we need to learn to find the silly in life’s stressful moments. We need to learn to laugh at the ridiculous and find the humor in the outrageous. We need to teach our children not to be offended so easily and to find the funny in the sometimes not so funny world. The world can be, and often is a cruel place, God has given us the grace of humor, it is up to us to use this gift to help make this world a better place, for ourselves and the next generation of leaders.
Point Four: God
God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.
~J. G. Holland
Our being depends on only one Being,God, believe in Him or not does not change the simple fact that God is there and God is the Creator. God provides all that we need, but we must achieve it ourselves. We have faith in the outcome, but the work must come from within. We are not capable of achieving greatness without the graces of God flowing through us and within us. We must learn to respect and harness the graces God has provided for us, each to our needs, not our desires. God knows all our wants and provides for all our needs. Our wants and needs may not be the same, we may not understand the differences, but God does.
To set our compass True North, to Clarity and Direction we need to learn that God exist, truly exist and provides for our well being, but allows us to partake in the process, allows us to journey alongside the Creator. Our actions, words and desires need to be all for one purpose, glorifying God and praising Him for the graces He has bestowed upon us. Once again, believe in God or not, does not change the fact the God believes in you.
In Conclusion
The 4 Points of Leadership can and should be thought of as the 4 Points of Life, a life lived well. Each person is a leader, a leader of there life, there family there destiny. We choose the path we wonder, we set our compasses on the prize we seek and we gather around us the ones whom we esteem and hold dear to ourselves. God allows us the freedom, grants us the freewill to choose the path we walk, always offering us the graces we need to walk the path with Clarity and a sense off Direction. It is our decision to take up His offer to to choose to walk the path alone. Leadership is not about going it alone, not about forging a new path or even about making a name for yourself, Leadership is about understanding, understanding self, others and your place in the universe, it is about understanding your roll in Gods plan, not Gods roll in your plans.
God Bless
Paul Sposite
Guided Insight Life Coach
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In the Great State of Michigan we are going through a lot of growing pains as of late. In November we elected a new Governor, Rick Snyder. He won the Governorship overwhelmingly by stating exactly what needs to happen in this state to fix it. Cut corporate taxes, share the burden, fix the schools and all the rest. People liked hearing it, and voted him into office.
But, there is always a but when it comes to politics, the Gov. did something no politician ever does, and it is coasting him. He is doing exactly what he said he was going to do…. He cut corporate taxes, he shared the burden by removing loop holes in our income tax system, he raised personal income tax a tad bit, and now he is fixing one aspect of the school system, the unions and tenure. How dare him!
Where does he get off doing what he said he would do. Doesn’t he know that us voters like to hear the hard fixes, but we don’t want you to actually do them. We want to talk about shared sacrifice, but we, personally, don’t want to sacrifice, let others do that. Silly, silly man… It’s obvious that he is new to politics, he is trying to run the state like a corporation! But what irks me the most is, he told us that and now he has the guts to do it!
People are really upset, and the unions are, well pissed. Governor Snyder is working relentlessly to turn this state around and he has no political baggage to carry with him, no special interest groups beholden to and he don’t care what his poll ratings are, basically he is not a Politian, he is a business man doing his job, the job he was hired for. One of his campaign signs read “Hire Rick”. That basically says it all.
School reform is paramount to the turn-around of this state, we must educate our children to compete in the global market, but we must also create an environment were they want to remain in the state of Michigan after graduation. Rick is focused on this, he is laying the groundwork for this to become reality, not just some nice sounding campaign slogan.
I proudly voted for him, and I continue to support him. Do I agree with all his decisions, such, no, but I also understand that I don’t know nor do I see everything that he does. I only know a small part of the over all picture. The Governor must consider the impact on each and every citizen of this great state. That is a burden I would not want, but one Mr. Snyder campaigned for, using a very new method, truthfulness.
Hmmm, maybe it will catch on and we will see some of this from our other politicians. Just a thought….
What the legislation would change for teachers
Here are some of the major changes that are part of legislation approved Thursday by the state House:
• A beginning teacher would be in a probationary period for five years, instead of the current four. However, a beginning teacher deemed effective for three straight years would get out of probation sooner.
• It would be mandatory for a tenured teacher who is rated ineffective on an evaluation to be placed on probation.
• Seniority would no longer be a predominant factor in layoff decisions.
• Language that says teachers can be fired for only “reasonable and just cause” would be eliminated and replaced with language that says teachers can’t be fired for “arbitrary or capricious reasons.”
• The pay of a teacher would be cut off after 90 days if that teacher is appealing a firing.
• Six items would be added to the list of issues that teachers unions could not bargain, including placement of teachers, personnel decisions during layoffs, performance evaluation systems and discharge or discipline of employees. (Read the article here)
God Bless
Paul
42.303780
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Over the part few days I have been working on a presentation that I have to give in Chicago in August. I am giving a presentation on Communication skills. But unlike normal communication presentations, I am looking at it from the point of view of three prongs of the same fork:
Personality
Processing
Self Talk
Each aspect is unique in its defining of an individual, but each is interconnected to each other and each helps define our over all personality. The connections can be superficial and basically easily seen but the reality is that the connections between the three are deeply rooted to each other.
This presentation will be given at a conference being help at the Chicago Hilton on Michigan Ave. I love the city of Chicago, so I am excited about both the talk and the visit to Chicago. It will be a time for me to do what I love to do, give presentations on communication skills and see a little bit of Chicago. As much as I love giving talks on communication skills my first love is my faith. I love to teach about the Church and God and our relationship to them.
I have not had the opportunity in about a year to teach the faith, last year I resigned from my position as middle school youth minister at my previous parish and have not, as of yet, reestablished myself at my new parish. I am not sure what I am looking for. That’s just a nice way to say, I am not sure were God is calling me to. I am sure there is a plan for me, just not sure what it is yet.
The ability to present/teach is a gift that God has given me, what he failed to give me was the gift of spelling and grammar. But the gift of gab I received in abundance, and I try to use it always to glorify God. I fail often, but I try. My dream job would be to be able to make a living giving talks and presentations, teaching, about my faith. God willing I will one day experience that.
God Bless
Paul
| Zechariah 14:9“The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.”
Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved. |
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As part of my job, my 9 to 5 job, the one that pays my bills, I get to travel the world. I love that aspect of my job, I love going to new places. Not only do I get to go to new places, I get to make new friends. I now have friends in five countries around the world and have traveled to seven different countries. So on this next trip I get to visit my friends I have not seen in over a year. It will be nice.
Sure, there is work involved, but still I get to visit with good friends. Sometimes its moments like these that make me thankful for all that I have. Not many people can claim to have traveled the world, not once but several times and even fewer can claim to have made very good friends. God has blessed me, of this I am sure.
But what does this have to do with anything about my faith, besides recognizing that God has blessed me? Well, the fact is, if I stopped there, just with the fact that God has blessed me, that would be enough. But I’m not going to stop there….
Sure Gods blessings is sufficient and I could blog about the blessings all day long. But there is something else at play here. I am reminded of St. Paul, and his travels. The book of Act’s is full of stories about Paul and his travels, and his friendships made. The letters of Paul to the other communities are because of his travels and the friendships he has made.
St. Paul was blessed by God, in many ways, but one way was through his friendships he was able to make on his travels. The friendships that lead to conversation. Sure Paul could have just arrived in each town, talked and left, and sure a few would have been converted, but not many. The words would have been the same, but the value behind them would have been lost on many. Friendship, true authentic friendship, is a powerful tool in conversation.
Words spoke without friendship, be they true or not, often fall to the ground. The hearers may be entranced for a time being, but they will fall. Jesus spent three years speaking the truth as only He could, and many were converted, but many more were not. Jesus also spent the three years cultivating His friendships with a few, getting to know each for who and what they were. If Jesus had not done this, upon His death the faith would have disappeared shortly after. It was the friendship of Jesus to the few that kept the faith burning. Mary Magdalene was the first to see her friend after His resurrection. It was the friendship that made Mary go to see the grave, and it was friendship that made her cry over the missing body. And the same friendship that allowed her to believe what her mind told her not too….
Friendship played an important roll in Jesus ministry, is not John referred to as the one whom Jesus loved? It was friendship that made the rag-tag followers of Jesus in to a community. Jesus understood the purely human need for friendship. He understood the need to make connections and the need for fellowship. The Christian community was founded on this very principle.
As a life long Catholic, I can say that one of the areas we fail in is creating a community, of fostering friendships with in the church and parish life. All to often attending a parish function is an obligation rather than a joy. All to often we have our “church” friends and our regular friends, as if the people we know at church are not regular people who dine out or play cards or other social activities. We, as Catholics, have segregated our lives into two compartments, the parish and the world. Yet are we not called to live in the world? Did not Jesus tell us to go to the ends of the earth and to all the nations? We failed Him…
The Catholic community can be and should be a vibrant one, one full of life. We have many talents hidden with in our community. Yet we fail to use them, we have many gifts, yet we fail to see them. It is a shame and in some sense it is a scandal that we, as Catholics, do not celebrate the community that Jesus gave us. Rather we squander it away, we hide it as if we are ashamed of it. Our faith, our Church, yes even in today’s world with all the scandals, needs to be celebrated. In-fact maybe just because of the current situation on the Church we should all be praising the good she does to the world. We should be joining together in friendship and our commonalities as Catholics and proudly stating our faith for all to hear. I believe that Jesus would be happy if we all would have the courage to do just that.
Yet we Catholics seem to be a scared bunch, we seem to be ashamed of our faith, even before the current scandal. We have always, in my life time, seemed to shy away from proclaiming our faith. We down play it, or totally ignore it when we are in the secular world.
Why? Because we have no community, we have no friendship, with each other but mostly with Christ. Anyone of of you would gladly defend a friend who was in need. And if asked why, you would reply “They are my friend”, and rightly so! Yet we fail to do this on a daily basis for the Catholic Church, the Church the Jesus himself established here on earth. We seem to forget that Jesus did stand up for His friends and defend them, He defended them, and us, upon the cross of friendship. Yet we are not even willing to defend the attacks upon the Holy Father or the Church.
The media is at war with the Catholic faith and the Holy father, yet we sit back. Sure, some of it is necessary, yet much of it is just plain mean spirited. Designed to harm the Church not help heal her. They attack based on false reports or fail to reveal the whole truth, they design the attacks to inflect the most damage, and we sit back and do nothing. Sure we may say “What a shame” or “That’s unfair” but we do nothing. friends defend friends when that friend is being attacked. Yet we fail to do so.
Judas did the something, he failed his friend. He sat back and allowed the attacks to go on until it was to late. Are we going to allow that to happen to our faith, to our Church, the one and true Church established by Jesus himself?
“But what can I do?” is the question you most likely have, “I’m just little old me”. Yes you are, but there are millions of “Little old me’s” out there, and if all of us stand up in friendship for the Church the media will take notice. Write letters to the editor, hold Catholic and proud marches boycott the media, money talks, and in this economy it
talks loudly. Form a prayer group to pray for the healing of the Church or blog about it. There are hundreds of actions that can be taken, and each and everyone one of them should be taken. It is time that the world understands that the Catholic faith is not a monster, it is not a predator and her people are a community of friends.
God Bless
Paul
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Why am I here, what is my purpose? A question we have all asked ourselves and God. And yet I would guess that not many of us have received an answer, or at least one that we wanted. I know I have and continue to ask to this very day. At the age of forty-three you would think I would know the answer to that one simple question, but nope, I am still asking.
I have friends that claim to know why they are here, why the God placed them here now on this earth. I must admit I look at them with a look of bewilderment, I am not sure I can believe them. The question to me is one that will never be answered, I am not sure God wants us to know or to better state it, I am not sure we have to ability to know.
Gods plans for us are not plans in a void, they are plans that include all of creation and all of time. We live on this earth for a limited time, but God does not deal in limitations. We have a more linear understanding of salvation history but Gods understanding multidimensional. We are mere humans trying to understand the pure divine, we are just to limited to understand an unlimited God.
Yet I have friends who will tell me as a matter-of-fact that they know, they have the knowledge or the plans and they are doing Gods work. As for me, I hope and pray that I am doing Gods work. I feel that I am on to His tasks, but I am not certain. I feel comfortable doing what I do, but my human comfort is not an indication of Gods pleasure.
If we read the lives of the saints we know that they often times suffered more than anyone. But they also did not complain or notice there own suffering. So am I suffering and do not know it? I can not answer that question, only God and time know this. Now please understand I do not consider myself a saint, no rather I look at myself as a sinful man, one in great need of salvation.
But here also lies a problem, is my humility genuine or is it the work of the evil one? I pray that is is from God and not from the prince of liars. If we were to look at our lives and take them apart, examining each individual aspect of our lives, we would find that our imperfection was perfect.. That we, a fallen race, can not begin to presume to know the mind of our living God. This is the issue I have with those who claim to know there purpose here on earth.
If it is true, and I believe it is, that God has granted us freewill than our choices here on earth have to be our own. If it is true, and I believe it is, that God uses the evil in the world to create goodness, than the plan or purpose of our lives must always be changing. If our daily decisions are ours to make, than the choice of kind work or action is as likely as a choice of a unkind word or action. Daily we make thousands of choices that affect the lives of people not only locally and today, but globally and forever.
The actions of St. Francis are still affecting us today as are the actions of Hitler. Now both are extreme examples but the concept is no less true. The actions of Jabez affect not only his time but is still being felt today. Don’t know Jabez, to worry lots of people don’t but his prayer offered up to God is still said today:
"Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, ‘Oh that Thou would bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast [territory], and that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!’ And God granted him that which he requested." 1 Chron 4:10
Thousands of ears later an international book is written based on the one small prayer. Did Jabez truly understand his simple prayer would have, bit he truly understand his place in salvation history? I doubt it, I am sure that Jabez may have had a rudimentary understanding that God had called him to proclaim that prayer, but did he know that it would affect lives in the year 2010. I doubt it.
Even the greatest of Gods children could not truly understand the calling that God has given them, Jonha could not have known nor understand the timelessness of his actions. The stories affect on the whole of humanity. The fact that the action itself was placed in time, but the affects are places outside of time.
In today’s world were we have YouTube and Facebook and Twitter we all feel an importance that is not truly there, we feel that our actions and words are of great importance. We have a perverted view of time and place because of the miracle of the internet, time can be lifted, we can see the news of yesterday and of fifty years ago. We know that our simple blogs and other social networking sites will last forever. The digital age has someone retarded our understanding of time and place. I can chat with someone in India and the same moment I am talking to someone in the states. I can Google my name and find websites I created ten years ago and links to my blogs from yesterday.
Jabez and Jonha had not concept of this, they had no false vision of greatness due to the number of hits on their blog sites or the number of friends that follow them on Facebook, they had no concept of prosperity, real or fake, they did what they did because God commanded them to. But they did not know the affect it would have, nor did they the plan that God had laid out for them.
Moses and the story of Exodus is a perfect example of this. Moses did not know the plans of God, he only knew what God told him, to lead His people out of slavery into the Promised Land. Think about it, do you think Moses and the people would have been all excited to go if they knew that Gods plans also included forty years in the desert. I think not, forty years is a generation, the ones who suffered under the whip would never make it into the Promised Land, including Moses.
Moses did not know the plans of God, nor did he ever claim to, rather Moses like Jabez and Johna, just did as God asked of him. And Like Johna, Moses also questioned Gods wisdom in choosing him.
Just think if Moses had even the faintest idea of his part in salvation history, if he was like most in the world, he would have created monuments and alters to his own glory, He would have marked his place in history. If Moses was in our world today, he would have a Facebook account a Twitter account and I am sure a website selling Moses in the desert tour items and a blog or two. Now I am not saying blogging, Facebook, YouTube and websites are wrong. I myself use them to get my message out. But all to often people gain a false scene of importance, a false scene of Gods will in there blogs, website and other social networking tools.
Don’t believe me, look that the number of “famous” people who have done nothing more that made a video for YouTube or write inflammatory blogs. Our society now celebrates nothingness as if it was greatness. But that is another blog, not this one.
So what do I say to those who tell me they know they are doing God’s work. What do I tell them? I simple smile and say, I hope so, I truly do, but I do not assume to know the mind of my God. I pray I am doing His work, but will not truly know until I enter in the His glory. Or at least I pray that I will enter into His glory> God willing!
God Bless
Paul
Romans 1:20“Fo
r since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
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It has been sometime between blogs as of late, it seems that I write with the intentions of getting back in to the daily routine of blogging everyday, but never seem to do it, something always seems to get in the way. For example, yesterday was I just had no ideas, the time before was no time before I start working…. All of them excuses to be lazy! That’s all it is, excuses… I can create a million of them if I choose too, and as of late it seems I have chosen too. I have used everyone in the book except for “The Dog ate it” but I am sure that one will come up next.
The funny thing is, I really enjoy the process of blogging, at first I didn’t, I hated it. I hate that my mistakes can be seen by all, and knowing how bad I am at spelling, I knew there would be tons of mistakes, not to mention the fact that I love run-on sentences, they pop up everywhere, it’s like I just keep talking and talking and never stop for a breath, in truth that’s the way I talk, so that’s how I write…
I also like to use … (three dots) a lot, to me it represents a pause to think, it’s like a computer that is booting up, the dots represent the process for me, this way I let you know that I am thinking of were to go next with this rambling… Do I continue on with it or do I chance course, and start a new paragraph?
I am sure an English teacher would have a field day with me and my odd ways with the English language. But such is life, in a world were we are politically correct concerning every aspect if life, I feel that I to deserve protection from the cruelty of 
others for my bad English. Were is the ACLU fighting for my cause, why hasn’t the congress passed laws to protect my right to miss-spell and us bad punctuation? Why do I have to suffer under the voices of correctness?
It seems to me that my blogging has improved my ability to spell and my over all English. This blog has nurtured my ability to write, has given me confidence that I never had before and has allowed me to process my views and thoughts in an open forum. What a truly marvelous thing it is!
The ability to blog has also allowed me to be a tad bit split in my personality, you see I write to blog’s, this one (STATIC Youth) my Catholic voice blog and my more touchy feely blog (You can be new). The You can be new blog allows me the ability to explore more of the mind more of the positive feelings and positive thought process. Allows me to dive in to the project your destiny point of view. Some would call it “New Age”, but in truth it is not, it is based in solid Christian teachings, but with a more secular voice behind it.
Blogs allow me to have several voices, I can be the conservative I am, or if I choose I can play the voice of a liberal, as I see them. Blogging allows me the freedom to be who I am and who I want to be all at the same time. I can cry with out shame and at the same time beat down my foe’s with out anyone the wiser to who I really am. Blogging is the freedom I long for and the responsibility I all to often run from…
In this blog as in my other blog I have often talked about freedom, or as I like to call it Authentic Freedom. To me there is a vast difference between Freedom and Authentic Freedom. One is more or less what we chose it to be were as the other is our God given gift. Freedom all to often is defined as a human choice, I chose to be free, I choose to do this or that and be dammed with the consequences. That is freedom as humanity defines her, not as God had intended her to be.
Authentic Freedom, the Freedom God intended for us is a freedom with responsibilities. We are free to love Him [God] or not, we are free to care for our neighbors or not we are free to pursue happiness in Him or to find sadness outside of Him. This is Authentic Freedom a Freedom that will last forever.
Here in the United States of America our founding Fathers understood that, they wrote
that in to our Constitution, that all People are free to pursue Happiness (please note that they never guaranteed Happiness, just the ability to pursue it).
[By the way my random capitalization of words is not as random as you may think, I use capitalization as a way of showing importance, so when I capitalize the work Happiness above I did so to inform you that I consider that an important word.]
Happiness is more than just doing as you please, or obtaining pleasure for the moment, Happiness is a life long journey. One that we embark upon as young men and women, in pursuit of the American Dream. But sadly what happens is people confuse Happiness with I’ve got everythingness, or I want everythingess to be happy. It truly is a sad thing to see so many people so truly unhappy. When in truth Happiness is not hidden from us, but rather it is in the wide open. We can see it from every corner and field, we can hear it in the songs of the birds and smell it in the 
memories of our minds. Happiness is not elusive, we are.
We, as a fallen race, find ways to evade Happiness, we look for ways to cheapen it, to dilute it. Take sex as an example, we have cheapened it to point were sex is nothing more than a way to gain instant gratification, yet we now wonder why our society has lost the ability to love. We have taken the value of humanity and cheapened it to the value of a cup of chemicals, yet we as sickened by all the abortions we see.
We seem to find ways to cheapen our humanity, ways to draw us further from Christ, yet we act surprised when our Happiness is still out of our grasp.
Authentic Happiness is there, we can achieve it, if we truly want to, the problem is most of us do not wish to. We do not want to give up what we perceive as our happiness, yet we want what is truly Happiness, but on our terms…
So what are your term, what are you willing to do to find Authentic Happiness? What are you willing to give up or give in to? It is the question of the ages… One that has been asked since the first human walked this earth, and we all know what Adam did, he too chose what he thought would “feel good” he too chose the instant gratification route.
Nope this isn’t a new question, but it is the pivotal question for all of humanity, and one that can only be answered one person at a time. A few have done it, to one degree or another, St. Francis or Mother Teresa, but most of us are not St. Francis or Mother Teresa, most of us are just plain and simple us.But come to think of it, so were they, St. Francis was just plain and simple Frances and Mother Teresa was just Teresa. So why can’t we to find that Authentic Happiness they did, what did they have that we have not…
Faith
Plane and simple faith, the uncomplicated kind the kind that doesn’t look for the loop holes or the kind that doesn’t try to pigeon hole us, the kind of faith the in-of-itself is Authentic, the faith that comes from God.
Most of us follow a faith that has been corrupted by humanity, mainly ourselves, we try to be over analytical or over educated or over achievers or over this or under that, yet we never try to just let it be, plane and simple faith, as it was meant to be. As Jesus himself said, the faith of a Child is what we need to enter heaven. Note that Jesus did not say the faith of an Doctorate was needed, nope just that of a Child. But all to often we over look this, or we look to deeply in to it, yet a Child is simplistic it it’s love and understanding, there is nothing complex about it. It is adulthood that muddies the water and makes the simplistic complex.
How Jesus must shake his head at us sometimes. I can hear Him talking to His mother “Mom, why are they making it so hard on themselves, can’t they see that it’s not that difficult!” And Mary would respond with “They are only human, they can’t help it, not everyone was born both God and Man as you were my son, they are slow to learn and even slower to act.”
We are simple creatures that like to complicate the world we live in. It makes us feel superior to others, but mostly to ourselves.
… This to me seems like a good place to end this blog… So I will
Paul
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I like to read, I like reading Stephen King, Dean Kuntz (only the Odd Thomas stuff) books on the catholic Faith, general spiritual books and as of late political books. The last in the list is new to me, I never read them until last year prior to the election, now I’m hooked.
I
t was the same way when I started out reading, all through school I hated to read, than one day I read “Catcher in the Rye” and I have never stopped reading, went from J.D. Salinger to Stephen King and on… One of the many strange facts about me is I like to read 4 or 5 books at one time, I’ll have a Stephen King book going, a book by Kuntz maybe a book by Fulton J. Sheen and Wayne Dyer all at the same time along with a few magazines and papers. I love the ability to change directions, to find something that fits my needs at the time. Sometimes the character development of King is what I need and other times it’s some straight talk by Sheen, but what ever it is, I have it at hand.
This method of reading takes time, some books I have been reading for over one year, others last only a few weeks, all depends on my over all needs and the ease of 
reading. For example I have been reading “An introduction to the Devout life” by St. Francis de Sales for well over a year, i think it’s going on 2 years. And in that same time I have read several King and Kuntz books.
Why such a difference in time, why one book takes me 2 weeks and another 2 years, well it’s not size, Kings are 500 or more pages and The Devout life is just over 200. The disparity in time is due to the depth of reading. When it comes to King, as much as I love his writing and think he is an amazing story teller, in truth the depth is only so deep, St. Francis de Sales on the other hand offers fewer words and, well his story telling is not his strong point, but the depth of each word can make an ocean seem as a kiddy pool. It’s all about processing time and how much my mind can take, and my need at the time of reading. I have devoured faith books as fast if not faster than a King book. It’s all timing and need…
Our faith life is much the same, there should be more than one aspect of our faith life, just as I like to read King and Sheen, two very different 
styles of writing. King, more a character development, more in to the need to set it all up. King can take one hundred pages to set up an event that only takes ten pages. Some would say over kill, others, like me, would say nope not at all, with in those one hundred pages are the souls of his characters the very essence of there beings. On the other hand, Sheen has the ability to take complex concepts and turn them in to, almost, sill ideas. He has the ability to use the absurd to relay the truths of the faith. It is the multi-faceted aspect of reading 5 books at the same time that invigorates my mind, and it is this same multi-dimensionalness of faith that invigorates my soul. To challenge my soul to think and love and live in 4 or 5 different ways, all at the same time. To offer up the heart aches and the joys of life all while harvesting the wheat of passion that was sown the year before. To live in the light of Christ and still choose the path, that often times delivers me in to that darkness of lies. To turn the page of defeat in to a page of victory to live out my life in the fullness of the truth as I discover the deeper meaning of my relationship to my God.
Yep, my faith is live a Stephen King book mixed with a little Kuntz and a dash of Sheen. Each offering me a new way to see the light of Christ. A light that will help me to keep on reading my soul…
Paul
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The manual that God wrote; that we were all supposed to receive at birth, explaining how to interpret the body’s signals, is out of print.
-unknown philosopher from antiquity
How very true, we have seem to have lost the ability to hear our own bodies communicate to us. God created this perfect machine, and we abuse it, and neglect it. I know, I am one who does just that, I allow my body to run in an imperfect state. I over eat, I eat the wrong things, I fail to exercise I use to smoke (just gave that up) and I am sure the list could go on and on.
I would be nice if we still had the owners manual, you know look up an error code when the check body light came on, see what we are to do, what needs replacing and what can just be repaired. But the fallen nature of humanity has lost that ability, and the book is out of print.
Or is it?
I would venture to guess that the book is not out of print, I would have to say that it is still in print, and in fact it is on the best sellers list. It’s a thick book, I have read parts of it. the book gives detailed instructions on the body, it deals with all sorts of issues you may run across and even gives you solutions to the issues.
If it were up to me, I would make this book a must read, requiring it to be in every school and using it as the basic grounds for all medical students.
The book is a collaborative effort, it contains information from doctors and holistic points of views to the everyday type of person, it looks at you as a whole, not just a 
part. Your ailments are treated holistically, and because of that, your body and soul are treated, not just the body.
This book has spurred many other people to write cliff note type books and books that look at one aspect of it over another, and some have even written books to dispute this book, and yes some even hit the top 10 list, only to fall off a few weeks or months later. But this book, well its still here, still a top seller and still true today as when it was originally written. Now some of the secondary books are very helpful and needed, to help us navigate this book, to give us new understandings and to help translate some of the more complex passages.
God has provided a manual for us, and it’s not out of print, it may be out of use, or even miss used, but it’s still in print, The Holy Bible, the only manual we need.
Paul
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