Over the course of 16 years I’ve heard from thousands of people struggling with so-called career “problems.” These problems invariably involve reasons why they can’t (or won’t) pursue their true passion.

I don’t mean to be dismissive of anyone’s feelings. Clearly to them these things certainly *feel* like problems.

It’s just that when you view the world through the lens of optimism and creative self-employment as I do, you discover that most opportunities come disguised as problems.

This article began as a response to a deluge of FAQ coming in from people interested in “profiting from your passions” career coaching I do. Half way through my response I realized that the same mental roadblocks that keep the people you’re about to meet from pursuing this particular path are really no different than for most of my readers seeking to change course. Fortunately, the solutions are universal as well.

In fact, these problems are no different than those I hear from anyone on the fence about making the leap from having a boss to being their own boss.

The good news is most problems that seem daunting are actually pretty easy to solve.

Easy To Solve Problem #1:  “I have too many interests”

Kate has lots of interests – none of which have anything to do with her work as a financial analyst. She describes herself as “addicted to scrapbooking,” spends hours happily researching things online, and before she got stuck with a two hour a day commute, was an avid golfer.

Another one of Kate’s passions is being a cheerleader for following one’s passion. She writes:

“I’m always looking at possibilities and trying to help my friends or co-workers or even total strangers who know they’re on the wrong path.” Adding, “One friend who is a cat lover calls me the answer lady because I’m constantly researching cool things she could do in the cat world”

The idea of people actually paying her to do what she’s been doing all along for free is, in Kate’s words, “too good to be true.”

But Kate is worried. “What if I take your course only to find out it’s not THE passion?”

The Opportunity

First, I deal with clients on a weekly basis who have been so beaten down by their 9-to-5 grind that they no longer even know what they love to do.

So loving lots of things is actually not a bad “problem” to have. It means you have options.

Still Kate is afraid that by saying ‘”yes” to one thing, she’ll be closing the door on other options.

Barbara Sher literally wrote the book on so-called “scanners”. It’s called Refuse to Choose. Trying to pick just one interest she says, is like trying to decide which kid you’re going to feed! They’re your passions so you have to find a way to feed them all!

Being an “outside the job box” career coach or teaching scrapbooking or leading golf trips doesn’t need to be the one and only thing Kate does.

She can do any one of these things for 3 hours a week, 10 hours a week, 20, 30… Or in the case of the golf outings, it could be a few times a year.

Not only will life be more satisfying but in the end you may end up making more money. Which leads me to the next “problem.”

Easy to Solve Problem #2: “Will I make enough money?”

Matt has been unemployed for a little over a year. As devastating as it was to lose his job, he’d been miserable in his programmer job for ten years.

“I always wanted to be my own boss,” he tells me. “But I never had the nerve.” Matt is inspired by the idea of helping other burned out programmers find their calling.

His big worry: “Will I make enough money?” Sound familiar?

So often we get hung up trying to come up with that brilliant business idea to replace our salary that we miss the opportunity.

The Opportunity

Money is always going to be a concern.

The solution is to understand both the beauty and the functionality of Barbara Winter’s brilliant concept of creating multiple income streams.

When I started out, I had two profit centers – my job at the time (which my friend Suzanne Evan’s encourages aspiring self-bossers to think of as your “business loan”) and one eBook. Now I have at least seven.

Instead of feeling pressured to make $75,000 a year doing one thing, think in terms of doing say three things that each generate $25,000. In Kate’s case, these profit centers might be very different.

For Matt, they could all relate to the same central theme of helping other programmers escape the job box. In addition to having individual client’s he could do group coaching or offer workshops.

He could also research or do interviews with programmers who’ve started cool side businesses and create an information product called “21 Fun and Profitable Ways Recovering Programmers Can Make Money on the Side.”

When you realize that in order to hit your first profit center goal of $25,000 means only needing to bring in a little over $68 a day, it feels more doable. Heck I could probably sell stuff in my basement on eBay and make that.

And remember, you don’t need to do everything all at once. Start one profit center. Then once that’s got some head wind, launch another.

Bonus tip: Unfortunately too many people spend all their time fretting about whether they can make $100,000 that they never end up doing. If that’s you, why not see how much fun you can have making your first $100 and go from there.

Easy To Solve Problem #3: “Is there really enough of a market for this?”

A few years ago I received this from Joanne:

“I work in a large dysfunctional organization. There’s a big shake up going on and lots of bad management decisions. Everyone is miserable — including me. I’m the one everyone comes to for advice about how to get through this mess but I know they aren’t the types to quit their jobs to follow their bliss.”

“I desperately want out but I’m just afraid there’s not enough of a market out there for this kind of work.”

Even though Joanne is worrying specifically about the market for outside the job box career coaching, the same advice applies when considering any potential business.

Opportunity

Let’s review… Everyone around her is miserable… and Joanne doesn’t think there’s a market for people who can help burned out cubicle dwellers get the heck out?!?

Determining market potential is basically a number crunching exercise. Let’s just take Joanne’s own company as an example.

If there are 100,000 employees and only 5 out of every 100 were open to exploring creative ways to make a living without a job – that’s 500 people in her company alone. The same thing is going to be true for employees of the hundreds of thousands of big corporations around the world.

In fact, according to the Kaufmann Foundation, baby boomers are the fastest growing group starting businesses. As one of my trainees just told me, “I want to finish the program for one simple reason; with 10,000 Baby Boomers a day turning age 65 the market is incredible.”

Then there’s the fact that everyone looks to Joanne for advice.

Of course, as Joanne points out, not everyone is eager to jump on the entrepreneurial wagon. In fact, she says many of her co-workers are afraid to even change departments within their same company.

Here again, problem or opportunity?

What that tells me is Joanne has an additional pool of potential clients with a different challenge. After all, not everyone understands how to survive corporate life never mind thrive there. Joanne does. And remember people already look to her for advice.

She could expand her consulting practice to work with people individually or run workshops for people on how to navigate the stress of working in a dysfunctional workplace or going through a big organizational change.

Joanne could also help people who suck at positioning themselves for promotions or moving into more interesting functions within the same company.

You can do this same exercise for just about any passion. Not sure there’s enough of a market to buy your signature cheesecake or pay you to handle their social media?

Ask all your Facebook friends to tell you on a scale of 1-10 how much they love cheesecake or are comfortable in their ability to leverage social media to grow their business. If even 10 percent go with 8 or higher, you’ll know there’s a market.

Keep in mind too you don’t have to serve everyone in the world – just enough to start earning some money.

Wayne Dyer said, “There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.”

How can you turn your problem into an opportunity? And what one thing will you resolve today to realize your own dream of making a living at what you love?

Ironically, the ability to quickly translate problems into opportunities is one of the techniques these students master in the Profiting from Your Passions® Career Coach Training program.

Seats are going quickly for the February training. I’m not sure if I’ll offer this program again this year. To learn more about whether getting paid to brainstorm is right for you, go to http://profitingfromyourpassioncoach.com/

Stay at home moms, recently downsized or retired folks, returning vets, recovering attorneys all have one thing in common…

They’re hungry for ways to make money without a j-o-b.

If you’re bullish on self-employment, naturally think outside of the job box, and want to start or grow an existing coaching business doing what comes naturally, then in literally a few weeks you could be earning income as a licensed Profiting from Your Passions Career Coach.

I recently shared this short video with the 400+ people who’ve already expressed a keen interest in being a part of the next training.

You’ll discover the 3 key characteristics you absolutely must possess to effectively help others see ways to turn interests into income.

The video also answers to some of the most pressing questions received so far from the coach training survey.

And, you get to meet my dog Cokie Roberts. too!

Registration for the next Profiting from Your Passions Career Coach Training doesn’t open until next week.

Information truly can set your clients (and you!) free.

On this informational webinar, I’ll share 5 of my most frequently recommended resources.

These are the kinds of game changing resources that help my clients go from wishing they could make money without a job to doing it!

There’s a reason most people don’t know about these resources.

That’s why you’ll also discover 10 important ways in which Profiting from Your Passions career coaching differs from traditional career or life coaching.

Monday, January 23rd
12:00pm Eastern

Please understand that I want to be able to ensure I can adequately support everyone who registers. For that reason, spots are limited.

So if you feel called to help others to find their calling, I strongly suggest you sign up here to get your name on the “first in line” list for priority notification when the doors open sometime next week.

Katharine Graham said, “To love what you do and feel that it matters, how could anything be more fun?”

For those of you who’ve been reading this newsletter since 1995 or even for a few months, this may seem obvious. But I assure you, not everyone is on the same page.

That point was really driven home a few years ago when I hosted a small dinner posted for a few friends.

One of my guests was taking a Spanish class. So I mentioned the invitation I’d received from International Living magazine to speak at a conference in Panama for people who want to live and work overseas.

Before sitting down for our dinner, I gave my dog Cokie his. As I mixed up a concoction of chicken and sweet potato, I reminisced about a delightful woman I’d recently met while in Paris who makes her living as a professional dog chef.

As we retreated to the living room for dessert, one of my guests picked up a copy of Sir Richard Branson’s biography on my coffee table. Much to her surprise it was autographed.

That of course required an explanation of how I wound up being part of an intimate “pick Richard Branson’s brain” roundtable followed by VIP seats atRock the Kasbah, Branson’s star-studded annual fundraiser for his mother Eve’s foundation.

(Click here for a cool video about her work helping impoverished women in Morocco to start small businesses.)

My friends have no idea who entrepreneurs like (counterclockwise) Ali Brown, Mari Smith, or Eban Pagan are.

But they definitely were wowed that I got to chat with the surprising T-I-N-Y Paula Abdul and was front row for Natasha Beddingfield, Estelle, Adelle, and Gavin Rossdale.

Then a friend and I traded compliments on earrings. She had no idea who made hers. Mine came from an impressive young Canadian jewelry designer and entrepreneur named Rachel Mielke.

I met Rachel while speaking at the Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan annual conference after which she invited me to tour her nearby studio.

I’m a huge fan of the hit television show the Shark Tank where entrepreneurs pitch venture capitalists to give them money to grow their businesses.

So you can imagine how impressed I was that Rachel had successfully pitched her business on the original CBS’s show known in Canada as the Dragon’s Den. And by the age of 29, she had been invited to attend a 2008 pre-Oscar Luxury Gifting Lounge in Los Angeles

As my guests were leaving one of them noticed my tube of lip balm “Chicken Poop Lip Junk.” With a name like that, I had to tell them about my recent interview with another determined entrepreneur named Jamie Tabor Schmidt of ILoveChickenPoop.com.

Everyone told her that you can’t name lip balm Chicken Poop. As it turns out, the novelty name is the reason they buy and why Jamie got her product into a huge national chain like Walgreen’s.

That was the moment my friend Joanne exclaimed, “Wow, you live in this total other world, don’t you?”

I honestly didn’t know what she was talking about. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, you just got back from speaking at a travel photography course in Paris. You’re speaking in Panama. You meet these fascinating people that no one else ever seems to meet. It’s like you exist on a planet all your own.”

As I looked around the table at my guests – a district court judge, the training director at a university, a clinical social worker, and a college professor – I realized that I may not live on a different planet, but in a lot of ways I do inhabit a very different world. It’s a place I’ve come to think of as the World of Possibilities.

Life in the Real World

Sadly, most people operate in a world they proudly refer to as the Real World. You can always tell when you’ve met someone who has never lived in – never mind entertained – the World of Possibilities.

All you have to do is start talking about how happy you are when you’re baking and how you’ve been thinking of starting a cookie business…

Or you talk about how you’d absolutely love to run tours to Provence, France…

Or that you have a life-long dream of moving to the country and starting an organic farm…

The first thing you’ll notice is that Real World people look at you like, well, like you’re from another planet. Which, compared to them you are.

Next they are quick to recite with great certainty all of the reasons why your ideas are completely unrealistic.

After all, having never started a business themselves and knowing zilch about either selling cookies or running tours, being from the Real World they nonetheless deem themselves authorities on what is and isn’t possible.

And to underscore your other world status they will flatly tell you that you just aren’t operating in the Real World.

They mean it as a dig. What they don’t realize is that this is actually a very good thing.

Because when you dwell in the World of Possibilities you know these things are doable for one simple reason: People are doing them!

The World of Possibilities

Look around and you’ll see people who have figured out that a dream + effort = profiting from your passion.

People like 55-year-old Marla Romash, who after an amazing career in politics felt the urge to do something new. Today she bakes cookies with a political theme.

Or MaryJane Butters of MaryJanes Farm. What began as a passion for organic farming has morphed into her own magazine, retail stores, a bed and breakfast, a line of food and other products, a farm school and much more

Or Cynthia Morris who, after leading successful tours to France for years literally wrote the book on how to lead tours for fun and profit (if Cynthia’s name sounds familiar, she was part of a panel discussion along with Barbara Sher, Barbara Winter, and me that’s part of Making Dreams Happen.)

It’s likely that you have a foot in both worlds.

A big part of you knows in your heart that it really is possible to open an artist’s retreat or design your own skin care line or find some way get paid to research holistic healing techniques.

But the gravitational pull to “be realistic” keeps pulling you back to the Real World.

When I started this business in 1995, I could never have imagined speaking in Panama or reviewing travel photography courses in Paris or getting to pick Richard Branson’s brain or running my own career coach training program or meeting people who run the most fascinating businesses…

And yet, here I am doing all of that and more.

And so can you.

Dale Carnegie once said, “We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.”

The vacancy sign is always out in the World of Possibilities.

Whenever you start to think your dream is not possible, find someone who is successfully doing the thing you want to do and follow them. I guarantee that this road will lead you to a lifetime of satisfaction, well-being, and even greater possibilities than you could ever imagine.

Being realistic is not all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, as hip-hop artist and actor Will Smith reminds us, “being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.”

NOTE FROM VALERIE:

Welcome to my world…one that’s about to get even bigger. That’s because next week I’m opening registration in my new 2012 Profiting from Your Passions® career coach training program.

I’ve put together a short video that spells out some of the key qualities and characteristics of people of my fellow Possibility Dwellers. Whether you’re curious about what it would be like to get paid to brainstorm business ideas as I do or not, I think you’ll enjoy video. Click here to watch.

Let’s take a look at three common mental roadblocks and learn how to overcome them.

ROADBLOCK No. 1: Wishful Thinking

How many times have you wished you’d hit the lottery? Now, how many times have you actually won the lottery? Far too many people spend far too much time wishing when they should be dreaming.

So, what’s the difference between wishing and dreaming?

Wishing is passive. We wish for things over which we have little or no control. We wish we were taller or thinner. We wish the waiter would hurry up. We wish our boss wasn’t so [you fill in the blank].

The other thing about wishes is that they are often tinged with regrets about past decisions − both big and small. We wish we’d ordered the fish instead of the chicken. We wish we’d taken the other job. We wish we hadn’t let the love of our life get away.

Dreaming is different. For one, a dream is active. Unlike wishes, we can actually do something about a dream. After all, you don’t “wish up” a plan, you dream one up!

You may not get everything you dream of getting, but two things are certain:

1. It doesn’t take a single extra ounce of energy to dream big than it does to settle.

2. You’ve got a lot more to gain by shooting high than by shooting low.

ROADBLOCK No. 2: What If Everyone Thinks You’re Crazy?

You’ve probably already thought about the people you can count on to support your plan to create a more meaningful work/life. But have you also taken stock of those you should make a point NOT to turn to?

Unless you come either from money or from a long line of pioneers, you may not get the support you want from your family. With the best of intentions, you may find your dream of quitting your job to pursue your dream career met with advice to “play it safe,” reminders that “you’re lucky to have a good job,” or a lecture on the seemingly insurmountable odds standing between you and success.

No matter how old you are, or how much you deny it, family approval does matter. This fact, of course, makes it all the more painful when the people we love fail to give us the emotional green light we so desperately seek.

Other people’s fear, skepticism, and negativity can be as contagious as the flu. And unless you’ve built up your immune system, these dream stompers can knock you for a loop − especially when they are right in your own family.

You have a choice. You can either continue to turn to these naysayers in hopes that they’ll respond differently, or you can choose the saner path of acceptance.

Don’t look for support from people whose life experiences have not prepared them to know how to support your dreams. Instead, take advantage of the support that really is available.

ROADBLOCK No. 3: Fear of Change

The closer you come to leaving the security of your 9-to-5 job (no matter how much you want out) the greater your level of excitement and trepidation (see “Word to the Wise,” below).

Anyone who has ever ventured out of their safe little world will tell you they had doubts. But when it comes to making a major life change, not only is a certain amount of fear perfectly normal, it’s actually helpful. There is a reason the web site is called ChangingCourse.com and not Jump-off-a-Cliff.com. The healthy part of fear is what will keep you from quitting your in a huff before you’ve put some other things in place. And the great thing about fear is that there are ways to deal with it.

So, try laughing in the face of fear. Am I kidding? No. Ridiculing your fears is actually a very effective technique for banishing them − because the mind rejects that which it considers absurd.

The trick is to turn your fears into a ridiculous event in your mind. That way, you allow your natural human reaction to absurdity to take over and dismiss them.

Try it yourself. Take your biggest fear and take it to extremes. Really exaggerate it. Let’s say you’re paralyzed by the fear of failure. Try picturing your entire family, all of your friends, your neighbors, everyone you went to high school with, even your boss, standing outside your cardboard-box home holding up signs that read: “We Told You So!”

Pretty ridiculous, right? When you realize that your worst-case fantasy is just that − a fantasy − what felt overwhelming will now feel much more manageable.

Another way to manage the fear of venturing out on your own is to start small. If the thought of just up and quitting your day job frightens you, start building your client base on the side. Begin with low-risk steps and gradually work your way up to the harder stuff.

Remember, courage is not a matter of losing your fear so you can take action; courage comes from taking action. And that, in turn, helps you overcome your fear. When you can act despite your fears, you will be rewarded many times over.

And just like a relationship that’s gone bad, it can be hard to walk away from a career or a small business into which you’ve put so much time and effort to say nothing of the financial investment.

Take my friend Donna. After earning her master’s degree in social work some fifteen years ago, she went into private practice as a family therapist. For the first five or so years, Donna got a lot of satisfaction out of helping others. For the last ten though, her work has felt more like a burden.

So what keeps her there? It’s simple. Donna doesn’t want to “waste” the degree.

I know it’s not easy to turn your back on an established career, especially if it’s one that pays well, has some prestige associated with it, or required earning some kind of advanced degree. And yet, think about the logic here.

What you’re really telling yourself is, “I’ve wasted the last 10 years of my life so I might as well throw away the next 20 as well. To hell with my true gifts, I’ve got more suffering to do”

John Powell once said, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” The fact of the matter is we all get lost from time to time. That’s life. The danger comes when we fail to heed the road signs and thus remain stuck in the breakdown lane.

I have an abiding belief that everything in life happens for a reason. The key is to find the lessons. Even my own job with the boss from hell offered invaluable lessons and experiences.

In addition to getting to travel the country, I learned in no uncertain terms to trust my instincts. That job was also just the catalyst I needed to make my final exit from the j-o-b world. And, as importantly, it introduced me people who’ve been integral to helping me succeed as a solo entrepreneur.

What should you do if you find yourself on the wrong career path? We’ll, if you’re living with the consequences of having long ignored your better instincts, get a pen and paper, find some quiet space, and put your listening ears on. Then write down everything that little voice has been trying to tell you but this time without censor or rationalization.

If you find for example, that you’ve been living someone else’s dream ask yourself:

• What does having other people’s approval or meeting someone else’s needs help me avoid or get?
• What price am I paying for this approval?
• Do the costs outweigh the benefits? If so, it’s time to start exploring your own dreams.

If you’re hanging onto a job or career solely because of all the time and money you’ve invested then the first thing to do is to let yourself get close to your fear. I’m not talking about the fear of letting the world know you made a mistake or the financial angst.

What I’m talking about is getting in touch with the one thing that should really scare the heck out of you – namely, never getting to experience what your life would be like if you pursued your true gifts and passions.

Once you let that little reality sink in, sit down and write a “Dear John” letter to your past love. Talk to your career or business. Explain that while it has been a good and faithful partner for some time that you have simply fallen out of love. It will understand.

Then pick up a paintbrush, look into culinary school, or otherwise start courting your new love interests.

It’s easy to find yourself on the wrong career track. When that happens, the key is to stay alert for warning lights, watch for the signposts along the way, learn from those inevitable detours, ask for directions, and then start slowly inching your way onto that big expansive highway called Your Life!

As George Bernard Shaw once observed, “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

Unfortunately I can’t do that full-time because I’m too busy marketing my own book. Since the last update, I’ve done four interviews for The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women. Two were for on-air radio shows, one for Yanik Silver’s Maverick 1000 club, and one for Maureen Anderson’s The Career Clinic show. I’m honored to be in such brilliant company.

I’m also just back from Las Vegas where my friend Ryan Lee organized two days of brainstorming and socializing with fellow entrepreneurs. On the first day, we took what was for me a repeat tour of Zappos. If you can take a tour, I highly recommend it. It will totally change how you think about work.

What other company do you know who has on staff a full-time life coach whose job it is to help employees achieve their goals outside of work? Here are a few of the outcomes that were written on the stairwell walls.

After the tour, we got to meet in one of the conference rooms to do some serious masterminding. These guys are all extremely accomplished and smart. But even the most successful people can get stuck in their world. What I LOVE most is brainstorming ideas and solutions.

Beau Blackwell, Client Knowledge Guru at Clickbank

All of their businesses are online. Several came up to me afterward to say I helped them think beyond the on-line world.
One guy who is huge in the fitness world wants to write a New York Times bestseller aimed exclusively at men. He was looking for input from the guys in the group on the title and overall direction.

Like I said, ideation is my thing. So men, women, on-line, off-line… it really doesn’t matter. It’s just a matter of using your creative mind to generate creative ideas and being willing to venture creatively outside of the box!

And speaking of getting outside the box…

I actually flew into Vegas a day early to sit in on a marketing workshop Ryan was leading. The positive energy in that room was off the charts. As I chatted with people in such diverse businesses as roofing, fitness, scrap booking, self-defense, motivation, and voice coaching for Grammy award winning singers, I thought “I wonder who my readers are hanging with this week?”

I ask because when you surround yourself with entrepreneurs, you put yourself in the company of what I call YES people.

Regardless of whether they’re just starting out or have been self-employed for years, entrepreneurs said yes to their dream, yes to stepping up to become their own boss, yes to moving ahead without knowing everything first, and yes to continually learning and growing.

So who did you hang out with last week? As importantly who will you spend time with this week?

Yes, I know that it’s Thanksgiving in America. But still, you can make a point to chat with a local business owner in a wine shop or join in a conversation with inspired entrepreneurs on Facebook or other social media. Who knows, you just might give them a great idea!

Whether you’re celebrating Thanksgiving or not, I am truly thankful for all of you.  And I’m honored that you continue to allow me to help you change course so you, too, can work at what you love.

I happen to believe every day is meant for thanksgiving. I also think that recognizing the riches in our lives is integral to the process of changing course. Let me tell you what I mean.

Chances are, the reason you’re considering shaking up your life is that you’re unhappy with the way things are right now. In fact, you’re probably painfully aware of exactly what – or who – is contributing to your current misery. It’s your lousy job… or disagreeable boss… or annoying co-worker… or maddening commute… or the day-to-day pressures and stress of the job… you fill in the blank.

You’re “here” but you desperately want to be “there.” And while you may not know exactly what “there” looks like yet, you do know this: You want your future to look very different from your present. And herein lies the challenge. How do you strive to fashion this future life, yet still live happily in the present?

In a word: gratitude. If you don’t like that word then try “mindfulness.”

You see, I believe that the key to our current well being AND our future success is the ability to be mindful of all that we have right this very minute. This is all the more true if the present is less than desirable.

That’s because, as Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin point out in Your Money or Your Life, “So much dissatisfaction comes from focusing on what we don’t have that the simple exercise of acknowledging and valuing what we do have can transform our outlook.” Let me share with you two personal examples of how living in the present and gratitude have transformed my own outlook.

I was on a road trip through Connecticut. I don’t remember now where I was going but I do know that as usual, I was in a hurry to get there. I was making pretty good time when suddenly traffic on the interstate slowed to a crawl.

As I sat there fuming a big tractor-trailer truck edged alongside me. Even in my agitated state, I couldn’t help but notice that the side of the truck had nothing on it. It was completely devoid of advertising, company name, or words of any kind. There were no clues as to its contents whatsoever. It was completely white.

As the truck inched ahead, I could see some writing along the back. Maybe it was one of those “How’s my driving?” messages encouraging motorists to call in to report the driver’s performance. As the truck slowly pulled in front of my car, three simple words written in neat black letters came into view. The words were: Be Here Now.

I don’t know what the truck company had intended by that message but I do know the effect it had on me. The first thing I did was take a long, deep breath. My breathing slowed, my muscles relaxed. Heeding the message, I decided that instead of raging at the traffic gods I may as well pop in a CD, sit back, and do the only thing I could do – enjoy the ride.

I began to compare the simple, yet powerful, message to “be here now” with the popularity of those “I’d rather be…” bumper stickers. Some of our fellow drivers would rather be fishing. Others would rather be shopping. A personal favorite common here in this college town is, “I’d rather be smashing imperialism.” We may all fill in the “I’d rather be…” blank differently but the message is still the same – we’d rather be just about anywhere but “here.”

To be fully in the moment is no small task. Even on a good day our minds have a tendency to race ahead with plans or worries or ideas. Being present is even more challenging when the current state of affairs is the very thing we so desperately seek to change.

And yet, neglecting the present invariably leads to future regrets. Being too busy to spend meaningful time with our children, visit a sick or aging relative, exercise, or even have fun is the stuff regrets are made of. None of us will look back at our lives and wish we’d done less, but we will all wonder why we didn’t do more.

John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” Lennon understood that life is for living… today. What I’m trying to say is this: As you work to create that new and different future remember that changing course is as much about the journey as it is the destination.

To fully enjoy this ride called life requires that we appreciate each and every day and that we be mindful of all that we have. I realize this may not always be easy… especially when faced with illness, or hunger, or loss.

Yet even in the most dire circumstances, I’ve learned that there is always something to be grateful for. My friend’s Aunt Nancy had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was given no more than six months to live. She hung on just long enough to attend her grandson’s graduation. As we were driving Aunt Nancy to the ceremony, we saw the most beautiful sunset. Grinning from ear to ear I heard her whisper, “I’m so lucky. I’m so very, very lucky.” I can tell you, we all felt pretty lucky that night.

“Once we are above the survival levels,” say Dominguez and Robin, “the difference between prosperity and poverty lies simply in our degree of gratitude.” When you consciously focus on life’s gifts instead of its challenges, you’ll begin to feel rich beyond measure.

So as you enjoy a drink of clean water, a warm bed, or the company of a loved one, pause and be grateful for who and what is in your life right now. Strive toward that new future, but remember to be here now and savor the journey.

To all who celebrate this special holiday, I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving.

At long last The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women came out. At one point it was on three Amazon top 100 lists but the stats change hourly so now it’s just on one. I’m grateful to all the speed readers who took the time to write a review at Amazon and for to everyone for helping spread the word.

The next day I did a 19-station satellite radio tour from my couch before taking off to speak to the engineering department at the University of Colorado-Boulder about overcoming the impostor syndrome (rampant on college campuses).

I arrived early enough to be able have lunch at the Dining Hall at Chautauqua. Being there brought back SO many wonderful memories of the Making Dreams Happen workshop I’d put on there back in 2003 with the phenomenal Barbara Sher and Barbara Winter. It truly was life changing. I was so inspired I’ve been thinking about a reunion! If you were there — call me!

It had snowed in Boulder earlier in the week and the combination of fall leaves on snow was exquisite. I hiked for maybe a mile until I saw the “What To Do If You See A Bear Or Mountain Lion” sign and a big ol’ paw track. I decided shopping was safer.

(loved the advice to fight back)

I bought so many clothes at the Goodwill I had to buy a duffle bag to get them back to Massachusetts where I proceeded to fly into the freak October blizzard that dumped a foot of snow on New England. Suddenly I lost my love of snow on autumn leaves.

After driving around numerous downed trees and power lines requiring a series of long detours I finally arrived home to find I was locked out of my house. Fortunately I was able to pick up Cokie at his new sitter Patty’s (that’s him sleeping with four of her six dogs on her bed… he’s the black dot in the middle).

So I turned around and drove to my Dad’s. He and his girlfriend had no power either, but at least it was a roof and a fireplace. Boy, you don’t fully appreciate how much your business demands electricity and phone service until they’re gone.

Four days later the power went on just in time to attend the annual Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts dinner. The keynote was Jennifer Buffett (Warren’s daughter-in-law) who spoke about the positive global impact of funding projects that improve the lives of girls and women. When I asked her what I could share with my readers, she said to send you to the video on www.girleffect.org

Sadly this is also the week I send off my trusty assistant Lisa Tarrant who along with her creativity-to-spare husband Mark and her brilliant daughter Haley are moving to New Mexico. I’ve known Lisa for going on 20 years when we worked for the same company.

That is until I drew her into the world of self-bossers and she’s never looked back. Her first day on the job was the Making Dreams Happen workshop! What an initiation!

Sparing no expense I took the family out for a hot dog at the famous Nick’s Nest restaurant (more of a hot dog joint).

Here’s Haley saying goodbye to Cokie and here they are when she was first born and he crept his way up my shoulder for a little babying too.

Even though I know Lisa will continue to work with me and we only got together maybe half a dozen times a year, I loved knowing she was right off the highway on my way to the airport. Lisa you are one in a million. You changed my business and thus my life for the better. Here’s to the next Work at What You Love retreat in New Mexico!

Oh, and I also celebrated my 57th birthday last week! No wonder Goodwill offered me the senior discount.