A Special Four Year Anniversary, My Best For Today Is Good Enough, Growing A Safe Person..... 9/2/14

     Part of my recovery is a thought often expressed here. My best for today is good enough.  So, nope, what you are reading is not in its finished form.  I will add more tomorrow, perhaps quotes, graphics.  I also cut stuff that looked good in the darkness of the approaching midnight hour, my usual dead-line.

     August 27th marked four years I have
written every day, for three hours, at least, publishing 946 posts here.  There are 68 drafts that need publishing, for a total of 1014.  That is 24.7 posts a month.  Plenty.  It has been a big commitment, hunkering over my desk, tapping away at the keyboard.

 It has been worth it.  I have grown as a writer. Soon,  400,000 will have passed through the doors of this inn.  Part of those four years as a writer was writing for another organization---seven months---before it went kaput.  This inn was birthed from that place.
 
     There is plenty of behind the scenes work done as innkeeper.  Most of you know by now that all posts are re-worked.  What you are reading now will be redone tomorrow, and probably the day after that and probably several times after that.

     That's my style.  When I see old posts are being read by guests, I check the popular post out, usually revising it.  My writing eyes have improved with time.  As the quote above says, we learn how to do something by doing it.

     In addition to what you find here, I add to the indexes, pages above and write material for clients, seminars, and public speaking engagements.

     For decades I taught, giving seminars, speaking at conferences.  Becoming the innkeeper of this inn and the previous one is an entirely different experience.  Writing requires patience, a slower, more deliberate pace. Plenty of blood, sweat and ink.  I agree with Tolstoy who said every time he wrote, he left a little of his blood in the inkwell.

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     Later this week I will help others who want to do the work I do.  I will help someone who has trained others for years.  He asked me to work with him.  In San Francisco, I will be busy from 8-6 p.m. this Friday through Sunday.  Can't wait.

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     How easy it is, making excuses.  Some people think I am gifted.  I am not.  I am tenacious. That is the difference.  I can't tell you how many people want success and its benefits but do not want to do the work that is necessary to achieve it.   Nonsense.

    I firmly believe we make our own luck.  The harder we work, the luckier we get.

My Gratitudes: 
1.  I rested today.  Yesterday wiped me out. My heaviest load of clients I see in one day.
2.  A client who was my greatest challenge is evolving.  Thank God.  She's getting the idea how I do things.  Instead of dwelling on the past, we are moving forward, staying in the solution.

     We are transcending her default mode, which has been to blame and kick herself, leaving her depressed and miserable.  Ya ay!
3.  I am happy with the peace and equanimity I enjoy, even during difficult times.  It is a gift of recovery gotten from a lot of hard work on my personal characterological work.  Let me be very plain about this.  An inner joy and a peace that transcends our circumstances is not a result of reading books, filling our mind.

    Not at all.

    It is a result of replacing  the vulnerable areas in our lives with new and better alternatives and behavior.  It is the result of developing and growing our supportive network, our Safe People. We will never get the growth we need by living in isolation.

    Here's the surprise.  Safe People do NOT exist.  We have to grow them. I share with my clients about the care and feeding of Safe People.  Are they glad.

    When we are with Safe People,we feel:
1. More alive, we are more energetic
2. That we are a better person, because of time spent with them.
3. That time with them is well spent.

    Do you have Safe People in your life?  Would you like having this type of relationship?

    If so, drop me a line, leaving your e-mail address and I will send you a Top Ten list of how you can grow a relationship you have in Safe Person.   My e-mail can be found in the contact button at the top of your screen.

How About You? 
What do you enjoy most about your best relationship?  Tomorrow, I will share what I like best in mine.

 Until then, may you have a great

and  grateful day.  I know I will!

         Pablo