ADVENTURE IN LIVING YOUR BEST LIFE HERE AND NOW!
I am extremely excited about going to school on Wednesday April 6th. I have been offered the opportunity of instructing some First Nations Youth from the Aboriginal Training for Employment Program. Developing Life Skills is one of the aspects of this program.
Since retirement, I have been working steadily with The Friendship Centre on various Personal Development Courses. I started with an American Program called Adventures in Attitudes. I did this for several years, then the cost of the course went up considerably, and at that time the American dollar was far ahead of the Canadian dollar. I saw the opportunity of developing my own course, and so I took out my business license with the name of my business: Total Development Enterprises.
Some of my main beliefs are: We become what we think. With God, all things are possible. Every day, we can become what we choose. Then I keep hearing the philosopher Socrates saying: The unexamined life is not worth living. We have the potential to become what we desire.
One of the important aspects of this course is that I become a participant. We are all teacher-learners in this most thrilling enterprise. Another important philosophy is the word embraced by the Japanese - Kaizen. It means continuous improvement in every aspect of our lives.
Each week, for the next six weeks, we will be reporting to our fellow students the changes that we have made in our lives during the past week. We are encouraged to take baby steps in our continuous growth. So, what would the class look like? Keeping a Life journal is essential. Here are the areas that we will examine in our daily lives. What changes have we made spiritually? How about your main values in life? How about your mental growth? Have you been reading? We have to take our physical development seriously. What are we doing to develop this aspect of our lives? Garbage in, garbage out. How is your nutritional intake? The body is your temple. Are you aware of what you are putting into it? It is my hope that Financial Fitness be included into our schools. We will look at our financial lives. How about our emotional lives? Think of anger, hatred, and forgiveness? How about our Life of Love? What about our sense of humour? What are we doing about the stress in our lives? Communication is very important. How well do we listen? Inter-personal relations? How well do we get along with others? Look at our lives, what are our purposes? Death: Let us write a living eulogy. What would you want people to say about you? What do you want your legacy to be? What are your dreams and ambitions? Let us look at our attitudes? Are they positive or negative? What are your passions in life?
I challenge the whole community to do this course at home. These are questions that we should be asking ourselves. I have heard people saying that they do not have time to philosophize and contemplate their navels. You will agree with me that we should face these important questions: Where did we come from? Where are we going? What is my purpose on this earth? What legacy will I leave when I have left this earth?
Now you see how excited I am to work with people who are attempting to live life CONSCIOUSLY IN THE HERE AND THE NOW!
Listen to the words of Dan Custer: Today is a new day. Today is my world made new. I have lived all my life up to this moment, to come to this day - is as good as any moment in all eternity. I shall make of this day -each moment of this day—each moment of this day—a heaven on earth. This is my day of opportunity.