We believe that the price of success is Connection, Trust, and Joy, Dear One.

What do you believe the price of success is?

Because whatever you believe, is what you are going to have to pay to achieve it.

If it did not bring you joy yesterday, or the day before that, or the day before that, what makes you think it is going to bring you joy today, or tomorrow?

Unhappiness is much too high a price to pay for loyalty, Dear One.

Create from an angry, frustrated, stressed out, fearful place, Dear One, and no matter how hard you work, how hard you try, how good your intentions are, the very best that you are ever going to be able to do is create more of the same.

You can’t make an apple pie with peaches.

Make sense?

You have been blessed with a great many gifts, Dear One.

We implore you to please remember to use them.

They serve a far greater purpose than you might be aware of.

If you are not yet sure what yours gifts may be, we would be happy to help you to figure it out.

You can do so by answering these questions:

• What it is that you do, that you can do, that brings you joy and connects you with others?
• What is it that you do, that you can do that brings others joy and an opportunity to connect, with you, with themselves, with each other, with their community, with their bodies, with their spirits, with their passions, with their emotions, with the natural world, etc..?

When you figure out your answers, you will have discovered what your gifts are.

A gift, Dear One is anything that you are able to do that creates joy and encourages connection in your world.

Your gifts Dear One, are the channel through which joy and connection are created.

Without them, without you, countless joys and connections would never exist.

You are the creator of joy, of connection in this world, and your gifts are the tools of the trade.

So we will say to you once again:

You have been blessed with a great many gifts, Dear One.

We implore you to please remember to use them.

Keep looking ahead Dear One, no matter what.

Where you are going matters so much more than where you have been.

There are three things that you should know about guilt Dear One:

• No one can make you feel guilty. Feeling guilty is a choice that only you can make for yourself.

•  Guilt’s greatest function is to serve as an anchor that holds you in a position of weakness.

•  The quickest way to relieve yourself from guilt is by taking responsibility, by shifting yourself from a position of weakness to one of authority over your own life.

You know you don’t have to try so hard to be nice, agreeable, and accommodating to others Dear One if you are not feeling nice, agreeable, and accommodating.

Yes, of course you always want to do your best to be respectful, courteous, and compassionate to those around you, but know that there is no less courteous an act then that of being inauthentic, false or phony.

Don’t pretend to like something that you don’t.  Don’t pretend to agree when you disagree.  Don’t pretend to be interested when you are not. Especially if you are doing so out of a sense of respect.  Because we can assure you Dear One, that there is nothing respectful about being disingenuous, deceptive, or fake.

While you are the process of learning something new Dear One, it is not the right time to be hard on yourself.

It is the time to be kind, loving, patient, forgiving, encouraging, nurturing, compassionate, and generous with yourself.

And since you are pretty much in the process of learning something new all the time…..

The right time to be hard on yourself, is, well, never.

You can never undo that which has been done, Dear One.

It’s impossible.

So please don’t waste your precious time and energy trying.

Once you have had an experience, for better or for worse, it is yours forever.

And regardless of how deeply you wish it could be so, no amount of regret, guilt, remorse, anger, self-pity, self-loathing, sadness, or hatred is ever going to change that.

But know this, that you are never without options, that there is always something that you can do.

It is always within your power Dear One, to change the way that you feel about it, to change what it means to you, to change its significance in your life.

And changing that, changes everything.

• There is no race that you must win Dear One.
• There is no pinnacle that you must reach
• There is no amount that you must accumulate
• There is no title that you must earn
• There is no level of notoriety that you must achieve
• There is only a life for you to live.

And success in this life is totally and completely determined by the amount of joy that you experience while living it.

We can see how hard you have been working Dear One.

Are you successful yet?