Goodbye comfort zone and hello brand new territory….yep, that’s me; a complete novice writing a first blog.  I have no idea how much I am supposed or expected to share in a blog, so I will keep it short and to the point for now. I have been thinking about using this venue for some time and tonight I finally sat down and started this process.  Hence the title “being versus becoming”.  See, I am often thinking about what I can become, what I can learn, or what I need to do on some task list that exists either on a piece of paper somewhere or on a fragmented thought that I had earlier in the day.  And recently I have realized that I am so busy creating these lists, figuring out how to improve myself, and thinking about ways to get ahead that I have essentially become stuck in an inner state of chaos and criticism that bogs me down and keeps me from fulfilling my own potential.  So today, I am practicing ‘being’.  My goal is to continue  to practice each day and use this blog as my platform.

“Intentional Luck” stands for living my life of intentional Love, Understanding, Compassion, and Kindness. I want to be so many things, but the most important thing for me is to be true to myself.  And being true includes loving myself, understanding myself and the world I live in,  as well as practicing compassion and kindness for both myself and those around me.    I came up with this idea one day as I was talking with friends and realized that we were all going through challenges and all of us were being pretty hard on ourselves.  I sat down and thought, what is going on with me right now?  Why am I being so critical? Then I started asking myself, what is it that I need right now?  I came up with four things I needed….love, understanding, compassion, and kindness.  As I looked down at those four things, I laughed out loud because they all spelled LUCK.  Lucky was the last thing I was feeling at that moment.  But I had to ask myself whose was responsible for that feeling?  I mean, if I wasn’t feeling lucky, why not?  Now, when I catch my inner critic being a little too loud I try to pause and think which part of my luck is not active?  And how can I change that?  Don’t get me wrong, this is a work in progress.  But it sure is nice to have such an easy way to remember the most important things I need in my life and a quick method to take inventory of what’s lacking that may be creating an inner agitation or feeling of tension.

I know there is much for me to learn about loving and understanding myself as well as practicing self compassion and kindness. Some day when I am much older (and wiser) I will think back and smile with gratitude for all the experiences that have helped me learn how to live intentional luck with minimal effort.  Until then, I will document my ideas through this venue and simply enjoy being here today.