Nothing Lost
People and situations will change, things will come and go in and out of your life. Yet nothing is ever lost. The love you know. Stays with you always, even when the person you love is no longer with you. The good things you do stay with you always, even when time has erased all physical evidence of them.
When you live in fear of losing something, then you never really have or experience it. When you avoid attempting anything because you fear failure, then failure is exactly what you get.
No good effort is ever wasted, for even if it fails to produce any outer value, the inner value is always there. Even when what you do is not recognized or reciprocated or appreciated, still you have had the priceless blessing of doing it.
If you constantly seek the validation of others, you will often be disappointed. Yet, when you live, love and act in each moment with the best that you have to give, the real value you create can never be diminished!

Inventory !!!!!!!!!!!

Today I am thinking about success. Recently I have been looking at my life and wondering what else I can do to be a success. What I have realized after I did a little inventory is this, I am already a success anything else I am blessed with is a gift. What it took for me to accept this is very simple, I took my inventory! See some of us in recovery forget what we are suppose to do, our literature tells us that we continued to take the inventory process, we as human beings have a forgetter and find it hard to remember what it took to get to where we are at.
 See I am so afraid of my past that I will apply to my life everyday what it took to get here that is positive. I refuse to be that person in recovery who rests on his laurels, if I do that my past will become my reality and today I am not only unwilling, but deathly afraid to live my past again. See my past is just that and I use it to influence me to move forward, I use it to help others never live that way!
 See a person like me can never stop living the 12 steps because if I do I am DEAD. There is no in-between for a guy like me, I must be living this program to the fullest or I am lying to you and to me! There is a price to be paid for this life I have today and for what I lived before and I not only have paid it but continue to pay it for this beautiful life I have today.
 Today I align myself with powerful people, people that empower me, people that I can learn from, people that  what more out of life. I seek to get on top of life because it is crowded at the bottom. I will continue to grow I will continue to redefine myself, what must I change daily, what doesn't fit! My HP has instilled this in me, with my HP 's will and mine aligned properly my life becomes better and better. I say yes to my future, I say yes to my dreams, I say yes to my inventory! It doesn't matter what happened to me it matters what I do about it. Let my past be that, my future is unlimited!
 DO WORK!

Easy Does It.

Today was my first day back to my routine of exercise in at least 90 days and I was reminded of easy does it as soon as I sat down into the rower to start! I heard all my trainers voices in my head saying easy does it Michael, and then my two sponsors faces appeared and voices saying easy does it buddy! See its funny how my days consist of huge similarities with my personal life and my clients, today was a very stressful yet a very complete day. During my workout I used what I have been taught in the rooms and by my sponsors as did I from my trainers in crossfit! See easy does it is interchangeable in life, this is the great news when remaining teachable!
 Todays stress of the day around what I do was immense but again the term easy does it jumped into my head and I relayed it to my friend, the day was full of the  possibility of bad decisions and all I kept telling him was easy does it friend think about today and make the right decision for today and your future will be fine. Today started with me getting back on track with my body and taking suggestion and gaurding against another injury by retraining my thinking and going easy and passing that on to a friend in despair, when we remain in the solution and stay teachable our lives change. I have learned that the solution is not in going hard all the time, we must be smart, we must train smart, we must live in the now to live in the future!

Love And Tolerance.

So today I was slapped in the face with societies judgements and to be honest it cut like a knife! But how life has funny twists and ways for me to use the tools given to me to carry the message of hope and change to people! See I had a client with me today when I was accused of stealing, now I can honestly say I was furious but my HP stepped in and said to me STOP Michael, Stop, fight your way through the demons of your past right now and bring this man hope for the world, show him that people change and even when we make mistakes all we have to do is make amends and hold our heads high and move forward and learn from this.
 See today was not a test, I don't believe in tests I believe in hard work and change,  my HP has instilled in me a new way of life and that is LOVE AND TOLERANCE by hard work, today I was given another opportunity to be the man I want to be and that is a man of love a man of integrity a man that lives by principles a man of change! Today I was given an oppurtuntiy to not only show change but to walk what I talk to a person who needs to see change, my HP gives me gifts in my life now and I either accept these gifts or throw them away, I am not in the habit of throwing gifts away these days, I may not always like the gifts but I use them and take advantage of every opportunity to grow and not to fail! I don't ask whats wrong with something today I ask whats right with it!
 Today was a chance to show Love And Tolerance to someone that needed to see that change happens one day at a time, see the old me wanted to say do you know who I am, do you know what I use to do, that all flashed in my brain before I reacted, that is the gift I was given today, an opportunity to think before I act, and not act as in something fake but show how I really am today, it isn't an act it is the man I am today, by no means am I cured, but what I am today is a man of integrity and principles, a man who carries the message of HOPE, the message of CHANGE, the message of LOVE AND TOLERANCE! Thank you world for my struggles you can't out work me!
DO WORK!

FAITH

On this weekend of this Holiday weekend I reflect on faith, as I sit here on my current assignment everything that comes to mind daily is faith. See faith that those who have come before me and those who have passed did not do so for nothing! I have the faith that everything happens for a reason, my HP is in charge of life! If tomorrow wasn't promised what would you give for today? Would you spend today thinking of you or someone else! My faith has guided me to others, my first instinct is others, there is a price to be paid for this and I believe I have paid that price and for that God has instilled in me faith that my will is aligned with him and his work is what I do.
 Sometimes while on the road away from my two special ladies, my loves, my wife and daughter  I question my HP and ask am I being selfish by being away to carry his message and then I see a sign, usually in my clients actions that reminds me I am uniquely qualified to help someone just like me and if I stop falling forward and falling backward then I am selfish and I have lost faith in his direction for me and my family! Moving forward is his path, he has my future and my family in mind, I am not alone nor am I meant to be alone, I am a father, a husband, a friend and I am meant to carry his message of recovery to the masses it is his plan not mine, I just must remain in faith that is plan is "THE PLAN", no one said it would be easy.
 My family and I have the faith and believe this is his will for us and all that happens is not in vain but in faith! I DO WORK every day because the future isn't promised only today is!

Working Out The Mind.

My mind needs more exercise than my body! My mind needs constant challenge constant changing and constant growth.  For me my physicality is and has been used as an excuse to not expand my mind, to rely on my look and presence as to not have to engage in challenging situations or conversations.
 Today my mind leads the way as I am confident not arrogant with my ability to have meaningful conversation with my fellows and business associates. They tell us in our literature that we used to lead with our chin, well today with constant work and growth I lead with my mind not my chin.
 See with constant work and A willingness to remain teachable I have evolved into a complete human being that is focused on growth and helping others. We know that our purpose on earth is to be of maximum service to others but that is not possible without the willingness to do the work to be that person! Are you doing the work? Are you challenged daily mentally and physically and if so do you face them or settle? For me I refuse to be that old me ever again,  challenges are welcomed with determination and hard work, I always say to people you may have more natural talent than me more money more this or that but you will not out work me. My work ethic is like no other you have ever seen, I was not blessed with financial security or family help and love what I have today is because my faith in a higher power and the man I have become is because of my HIGHER POWER and the work he guided me to do and then I was blessed with a family and love! I am purely driven to be a man of love a friend a father a husband,  all if these are learned not given, I have worked at being this man, it was not and is not easy but it is worth every minute. I have found my purpose,  my why! All by challenging my mind! I will live to my full potential. I am powerful, not ego driven I am god driven it is necessary!  I will not settle for my past I am blessed to live for today!
DO WORK!

Second Half Of Step One.

So in my journey's across the country I am always reminded of step one. I get to really understand this step in my life but also experience other's unmanageable life and help them see it and redefine success in their own life.
 See when I got sober this was the hardest part of step one for me because being powerless over alcohol was easy to admit but saying I needed help with my life management skills was hard because of ego, see even with all the bad consequences very apparent in my life I still wouldn't surrender my way.
 For me I needed to see the consequences and really feel them and I don't mean going to jail I just mean see and feel it in my life, these are not always jail situations but say not being able to pay bills due to irresponsible spending. See when I couldn't go do something because of this I felt it and was embarrassed and ashamed and never wanted to feel this way again.  For me not being able to provide for my family due to my selfish acts would destroy me so this is easy for me now, but for those I am around guiding through this process of change I must let them feel it and not bale them out but support them in change to never feel this way again and show them where they may have went wrong and change what they did and redefine what is unmanageable in there life.
 For me when one said your life is unmanageable the first thing I did was puff my chest up and lead with ego, today I want a solution and immediately go into action of change because I don't want to feel the pain I once felt. Today I share my experience with my fellow's but I do not enable them so they don't feel the pain because pain is temporary and provides an opportunity to learn a new way to live and in this journey one needs help and support but also must feel to change. Being numb and resistant to change is lack of surrender and an incomplete step 1 there are two parts in step 1 and we must be thorough if we want a better way!
DO WORK EVERY DAY TO LIVE YOUR DREAMS!