Living Life - Existing Fully

Dream as if you'll live forever.  Live as if you'll die today.  ~James Dean

Putting Focus on the Future is often the most difficult step yet also the most necessary of the steps that need to be taken in order to make the quality decision to make that change to progress through the challenges and to make each day, each moment count by making the most of each. In doing that you make the first steps in the new direction.

To do that is often easier said then done, but it can be done and should be a constant in making a difference a decision that must really be made in order to step up to the plate, to make the most of your efforts and making the progress that is important through the tough times that are often inevitable in the day by day existence.

The factor that is important to be considered, in making a definitive choice to make the necessary change in order to progress through the challenges of this life. To make a quality decision, with the clear idea of living life fully that is more important then most things. Following the idea, that if you never truly live, and you just let your life pass you by you will miss so much. You only have one opportunity to make the most of this moment and the next and to make a change now to improve the future in leading by example. We as human beings always learn by observing example the factor that aligns with such possibilities. The point being the only way to make a change, is to starting changing what you do to offer a better example, to those who have yet to explore what is beyond the walls of the sheltered existence that is childhood, only seeing their parents as the example.

To change the next generation then is depending on the example the current generation sets for the children of the next generation yet to experience the world beyond this moment. They are completely dependent, on being taught what should be the future. To do that though is a long and enduring process, and is a matter of rethinking and changing the understanding of the situations by also taking the time to re-educate yourself. To Change Views - is a matter of seeing things differently, of making a slightly different choice of each matter.

In re-educating yourself to understand things differently and to progress beyond them and through them by researching the possibilities that exist beyond the current scope of vision. That is a part of the full spectrum of color that is often forgotten when the focus is only on the Black and White Aspect of it. We do not live in a Mono Chromatic world, though often it seems that is what is taught to only see red or blue, black or white, to miss the full range of colors and ideas that when seen and understood opens up the eyes and the mind the see more of the existence, more of the story. To stretch the mind just a bit, in helping to realize there is more to learn, and more to offer as an example of the importance of living life fully.

2010 and The Focus Forward Project

There is power in that simple sentiment, in a quote, that we the people of this world, are being relied upon to make changes in the world now for the existence tomorrow. Those who need to make the change are those who want to make the change, who don't speak of doom or gloom, as a skeptic or cynic would, but instead to make a change there needs to be a belief there can be change. There needs to be action in that objective, by people with similar focus on actual progress not digression simply because they chose to believe the skeptics or cynics.

via Home Of Knatchwa - Posterously Speaking

As 2010 begins, there are thoughts, and thinking back to days before, ideas before, that when we the people elected Barack Obama we did it for the particular idea that there was change, we needed it and he jumped on it and begun the process, speaking to it extensively. And for that we the people decided to elect him the President of these United States.

Still even today, it is a necessity beyond compare, that we as the people and the individuals who are responsible to take action on improving the environment we live in for the next generation. The idea behind Focus Forward, was to be a pad to progress, helping people live their best life. Today it continues that legacy, the difference is that with a new year beginning, many set resolutions, to make their life better, but I ask you what resolutions have you set to help the environment beyond yourself?

As focusing forward is not only a personal journey but it is one that should be duplicated, in making this world the best we can by making a difference and taking steps to progress, to enhance living, by decreasing our Carbon Footprint, doing our small part to improve society as it is today. Focusing forward is beyond just a personal event focusing forward is similar to paying it forward, that as you are living your best life help others to do the same, by being a paradigm shifter, by setting new habits and teaching how it was done. To teach is to do and to do is to live life fully by changing old habits for new ones.

How will you make a difference in the society today? Will you take the time to make a difference or will just continue on with the Mono-Chromatic views of life without purpose?

Focusing Forward - Lesson Learned.

"well stated, indeed there is much to consider and when you need to keep with the pulse of the network, and the machine there is not much time for much sleep. Thanks for sharing the sentiment it is appreciated. How many years were you working as an IT Consultant?"  

"....about 30 years...I held various entry level management and technical positions and finally moving to Consultant status because managing  careers of 40-60 people when you have a lousy executive VP as your boss is not good or healthy.   I did not want to put peoples careers on the chopping block and miss-lead or get their hopes up (because management said to) because it will cause me ill-fate on my performance record if I don't.....  Where I had worked, I found management types were people who wanted the be the focal point, wanted the glory, the ultimate word...but were not the personable caring types of people who would help you with your career.....their bottom line is the money......and personal glory and gratification of being on Top.......the real people are ones who are the backbone of the corp and those are the hardworking, low paid workers who don't get the respect and recognition they deserve......."

---

    Yeah probably for the best, it is that profit motive that can make or break a person. And to go against your own thoughts only because management says so is like being, just another pawn on a large chessboard. It is interesting though as I also consider that I strive to be an IT Consultant but as an independent entity, that takes care of my network and others that I may setup, not so much an on the job type of person, rather I would use my talents and abilities how I see fit, to make the decisions as an independent entity, a human being, who understands and realizes that within myself there is growth opportunities.

    The job is the traditional view but in that you do deal with the upper level types, and sad to say they are really only accountable to the shareholders, or a board in the upper echelon of some unnamed office building, where decisions are made like a chess game is played, the only objective increasing the bottom line regardless of what sacrifices that may entail. It is a sad but true story, and by making up your own mind to live your life to see how you choose, that is commendable and bravo to that. I have dealt with the same experiences, and I chose to no longer be a pawn even if I was aware from the outset that it would not be easy. Regardless of the work it may consist of it made sense to me to make my best effort, not even aware that the economy may go south, instead only aware that there are better things then just working a job no matter the pay they may offer.

    Whether I read to much into it or not, your statements hold so true and in your sentiment I really started to think and to remember those challenges I faced when in the job market, a slave to money, barely surviving and having to live a frugal life, simply because I made the mistake of putting all my eggs in one basket, and thinking the traditional idea held true. I learned the hard way, when I had a job that paid well, and seemed like it was something that would last, until I became a target of the management, and my only income being from that job when I lost that job the income stopped. This after I had rented my first apartment, and was getting my life together, the problem was I put it all in one basket, and if there is a hole I lose it all. After becoming a target it was only a matter of time, and the day came when I was told not to come back tomorrow. There I was, no money, no job, and an apartment that still had bills that needed to be paid, everything based on the income from a job, that ended far to suddenly and really it took me awhile but I eventually recovered. The point is that in this day and age, no matter how difficult that situation was, I chose to learn the hard lesson and to redirect my focus on making sure it did not happen again.

    I am not claiming to be a millionaire, instead I am claiming my own particular independence through pride in what I do, the enjoyment of writing and the experience of learning, to keep a website alive, to incite thought by inspiring people to realize there is more to it then the generally expected journey. That the job is nice, but you never know if it could end tomorrow and in that a life lived in fear, is that a life lived at all?

realizing the power of you as an individual.

If man no longer finds any meaning in his life, it makes no difference whether he wastes away under a Communist or a capitalist regime. Only if he can use his freedom to create something meaningful is it relevant that he should be free. That is why finding the inner meaning of life is more important to the individual than anything else and why the process of individuation must be given priority.

- Man & His Symbols p222 by Carl G. Jung

When I consider what it means to focus forward this quote seemed to say quite alot more then I could about the situation, because really when you consider it, to focus forward means to step outside the comfort zone of your life. Unless of course as the quote aptly states, regardless of the regime, not taking action, not making the choice to change is just fine. To truly take the step in the right direction to progress requires each person who wants to progress to take that first step. To realize we can do more when we live life fully then let life control our every aspect of our existence.

So to focus forward is to step it up, to make the first steps to make a change, to say outloud

I am tired of life controlling me, instead I am making the quality decision now to progress in my existence, it's my life and I am in control of it.

In that simple statement, that particular mantra to speak it with conviction means right here and right now you are looking at stepping out of the regime, moving away from the commonly held views and making a quality decision to focus forward in your life and to help others do the same. What are your thoughts on that? Share it in the comments.

Understanding Unconcious via Dream Sessions

A man likes to believe that he is the master of his soul. But as long as he is unable to control his moods and emotions, or to be conscious of the myriad secret ways in which unconscious factors insinuate themselves into his arrangements and decisions, he is certainly not his own master. These unconscious factors owe their existence to the autonomy of the archetypes. Modern man protects himself against seeing his own split state by a system of compartments. Certain areas of outer life and of his own behaviour are kept, as it were, in separate drawers and are never confronted with one another.

via Man and His Symbols

When we as people realize, that change is not an easy process, but a necessary one to progress in your own life, and once you have reached that consensus between you and the person in the mirror to make the necessary changes to grow and progress through life, it is at that moment the real challenge begins. Change is surely a necessary step to make that change you must start to make deeper changes. Though you may be compartmentalized in your mind and concious and unconscious self to truly make the necessary change to truly progress you must take the time to analyse your own life, and not just the concious life but the unconscious life so far as you can explore it.

To make that specific change the first step would be to take the time to write down your dreams and your ideas, as their are many clues often in a dream that you may not be fully aware of until you take that time each morning to write out what you dreamt of the night before. Meaning, before you get up in the morning take a few moments to slowly welcome the day to keep the dream images fresh in your mind and when your eyes slowly open have a journal with a pencil ready and just write, use keywords look for clues in the dream through it's images. As I have begun to do just that myself, I feel it has opened my eyes to taking the steps towards the change that is so necessary to truly live life fully. So I begin, reading Man and His Symbols, by Carl G. Jung, and using, Tony Rice's Dream Dictionary to help you interpret these ideas and images. Both resources I use on a regular basis and have found them to be an important part of the process of initiating the necessary change. Both Consciously and Unconsciously, meaning by grasping the power and abilities within yourself we are all able to make the quality decision to Focus Forward in our lives don't you agree?

More About Dream Sessions Can Be Found @ http://dreamsessions.blogspot.com take some time to look it up and explore it.

Focus Forward - To Exist Fully in Your LIfe.

I had always been impressed by the fact that there area a surprising number of individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and an equal number who do use their minds, but in an amazingly stupid way. I was also surprised to find many intelligent and wide-awake who lived (as far as one could make out) as if they had never learned to use their sense organs: They did not see the things before their eyes, hear the words sounding in their ears, or notice the things they touched or tasted. Some lived without being aware of the state of their own bodies.
There were others who seemed to live in a most curious condition of consciousness, as if the state they had arrived at today were final, with no possibility of change, or as if the world and the psychic were static and would remain so forever. They seemed devoid of all imagination, and they entirely and exclusively depended upon their sense-perception. Chances and possibilities did not exist in their world, and in "today" there was no real "tomorrow." The future was just the repetition of the past.

from Man and His Symbols

When I saw this particular statement from Man and His Symbols, I thought about it and realized how appropriate it is to the Focus Forward Project, as the pet project that it is, and understood how correct it truly is. So much so I felt it should be shared and so here it is.

As we as people have a choice, to actually exist to live life fully or just sit on the backside and let the days fly by until you reach the end of your dash. The choice is where the power is but truly it is you and the person in the mirror who truly must reach a consensus to make that change, to expand the mind and see beyond what has always been accepted even if it did not have to be near the same.

Why not you as a person, with the free will that was given to you from so many years back, why not make the choice to make a change, to start now in this first month of January 2009, to set the resolution by year end to make the quality decision to start living your life, to experience what it is fully.

Life is for living not just existing so make the change to make some progress, it takes that first step to progress beyond now, so why not step it up and move your backside off the chair and enjoy this life, this blessing that is your life. Will you make that choice? If not why, share your comments down below.

Doing what it takes 140 Characters at a Time @lynnterry on twitter

A friend of mine on twitter had this story about doing what it takes in 140 character increments:

So I was driving home from the city one night when this grand idea hit me square between the eyes. No recorder on hand, no paper with me...

I do find a pen though, and in the dark start jotting notes on my left hand. Lots of notes. Takes up all 5 fingers, palm & starts down wrist

Steering with knee of course, and must have been looking down long enough to miss the "reduced speed ahead" sign (oops)...

I was completely unprepared for the pull-over. Fumbled first for license, then for registration, then for proof of insurance...

Each time I handed something to him, he was trying to read my hand (lol)- flashlight pointing, head cocked to the side. And I'd jerk it back

You really had to be there (and know the nature of the notes I had on that hand lol). Told you it would lose its humor in text ;)

Lynn Terry @ ClickNewz.com

A great story when you focus forward you do what it takes to grow to take a thought and materialise it in writing even if it takes a different approach. The mind is a wonderful thing and an idea is something you want to keep by whatever means. And Just as you can see Lynn Terry is well aware of that and her site ClickNewz.com has some great resources worth looking through.

A real life story and experience is always so much better, and I am sure we each have a story. Why not share yours @ iDiscuss v2.0 of Home Of Knatchwa.

For now keep doing what it takes to progress in your own life and to grow through each day in Focusing Forward.

The Power of the Spoken Word In Focusing Forward

This is how the brain works Programming creates beliefs.Beliefs create attitudes. Attitudes create feelings. Feelings determine actions.Actions create results.Start with the first step. Change your programming.What would you do if you had no chance of failing? -Elizabeth

@ Dumb Little Man

This makes some great points about life and the choices we are each a part of, in the journey that is life. The power of the spoken word can make a world of difference, as my recently acquired friend @ Twitter when she was speaking on keeping things positive, focusing forward and interpreting in the best possible way to keep your mind fresh and to grow through it and become stronger because of it.

It is wonderful to see such a forward view on life and living, and as I am a recent addition to the Twitter World I can appreciate it more. There are many great resources available through this place called twitter, why not join in, and chime your views?

Further Exploration: Discussion Forum (Coming Soon)

follow knatchwa at http://twitter.com

So Now you Know What I am doing? So come and join the party @Twitter.

To Focus Forward - Set the Goals in Place

When making the quality decision to Focus Forward the next step is to set the goals in place, to plan out the up and coming week as you begin this exciting journey. The process of change requires a different view and different experience. Setting goals is the key to making the change in the right direction.

In writing your goals, there is a simple format to follow:

1. Set an Objective - Realistic and Possible
2. Write out the Challenges that you may face in this new excursion in setting in motion the first step to walk. I call them challenges because any challenge can be overcome, using the term problems can set a series of things in motion that may not go the same way. Consider, that any experience in change will not be easy. Take an honest look at yourself and figure out some of the challenges you may face. Write Them Out right below the Objectives.
3. Next write out the necessary Action Steps to overcome the challenges you will face in this exploration of change. In doing this you have steps to take to get what needs to be done finished and progress from there. When you write them you will overcome then.
   
4. Finally, and this is usually the most fun, write out a Reward for fulfilling your goals through understanding the challenges, and executing the Action Steps to counter each challenge.
5. To Improve this simple process, Each night Analyze what you got done that day, how you overcame some of these challenges. A clear analysis of where you are each night will improve the Clarity of the challenges you still need to overcome.
   

Five simple steps to begin your life changing goals, to begin to live life fully as each goal is attended to and overcome. It is not to say that it will work out every time you write out the goals only that through this simple process you became considerably more Efficient in making changes, establishing new habits that will be that magic carpet to a better future. To focus forward is not to forget about today, instead it is to take each day as a new opportunity for change, to reside in the present while taking the steps to a better future.

More Coming Soon ... Thanks for Reading .... And life is meant to be lived not just left to pass you by.

There is also an example of my own goal plan for this week ahead that cane be found: blog.hok-international.net which serves as a simple example of the endless possibilities.

Keep Riding - Through The Ups And The Downs

Life can be a challenge sometimes, you live you learn and you grow. Through all this you only improve, the wonder of the glass, is it does not need to be half empty, we each have a choice to interpret it as you will.

To my friend UnsafeAlpine on bikeforums.net your health is important, and though it may be frustrating sometimes it is best to remember that even this you shall overcome. You'll be back on the bike quite soon I would imagine. And if it gets so bad couldn't hurt to explore recumbents for the increased comfort of it.

Just as each person deals with lifes on their own terms, to realize that possibilities are endless in a life that is lived fully, aware of the half full glass through the highs and lows. Recovery though sometimes difficult can only improve and so I finish, more to come at a later time.