Dana LaMon

COMPETING MEANINGFULLY

Making each moment meaningful is a choice to be the captain of the ship that carries you through the adventures of your life. You may not always control the circumstances of your journey, but you always control the benefits that you gain from your sojourn. Because everything that you do involves interaction with other people, a commitment to making the moment meaningful is also a commitment to help others to do the same. This is true even if you are engaged in an activity in which you are competing against another person.

WISHING FOR FRIDAY

Now is the best time--indeed, the only time--for you to live. You cannot live yesterday, nor tomorrow. You can learn from yesterday, and you can hope for tomorrow. What lies in tomorrow to give you hope for the future is what you create for yourself now.

MAKING THIS YEAR A BETTER YEAR

There is no point in resolving to do something or to stop doing something if you don't change the circumstances of your life. This new year will not be any different from the last if you are not willing to change what you do. Even a small variation can change the course of your journey. The key is having the motivation to change.

GIVING FROM YOUR HEART

Giving and sharing are actions that satisfy the yearning for significance. You were born to provide a contribution to the people with whom you come in contact and to your environment. The depth of your significance is best measured by what flows from you rather than what comes to you. The value of your contribution cannot be measured in monetary units.

Showing Gratitude

Throughout the year, there are days which are designated for showing appreciation. On the second Sunday in May we can show our appreciation for mothers; on the third Sunday in June, to fathers. We honor a person on his or her birthday and express gratitude to family and friends by giving gifts on Christmas. It is common that our appreciation is expressed by giving something material.

Resolving the Inner Conflict

We think with two minds--the rational and the emotional. When they agree, we have inner peace and feel that life is in balance. When they don't agree, the conflict can push us into indecision and uncertainty. We may be compelled to seek an answer from an external source. There are plenty external voices ready and willing to offer answers to the questions you may have about what to do with your life.

MAKING NEW CONNECTIONS.

Take a few minutes to consider everything you did in the past month. I challenge you to identify something you accomplished without the help of anyone else. Wait! I'll even bet you can't do it. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. often spoke about how our lives are inextricably intertwined. John Donne wrote, "No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." Because our lives are intertwined and we are all a part of the whole, every aspect of our lives is about relationships.

August month's message from Dana is on LOVE AS PURPOSE.

What if the ultimate purpose of our lives is to love?

I have been pondering this question for the past several months as I worked on the completion of my book, Making the Moment Meaningful: Creating a Path to Purpose and Fulfillment. The question move to the forefront of my thoughts recently as I listened to a radio interview with Poet Elizabeth Alexander, and she discussed the question she posed in her poem, "Praise Song for the Day," which she wrote and recited for the 2009 presidential inauguration. The question she posed: What if the mightiest word is love?

This month's message for June is on Making A Living

Why are you working at your job?

Making a living is likely the greatest barrier to your living meaningfully. If the only reason that you are day after day going to work for someone else or in your own business is to have an income, you are methodically building a wall that separates the life that you are living from the one you are supposed to live. Making a living can get in the way of your living with purpose in several ways.

This month's message for February is on Engaging the New Year

How will you engage the new year? The second that brought 2011 into the present brought with it a new decade, a new year, a new month, a new week, a new day, a new hour, and a new minute. Why limit your celebration to only a new year? Oh sure, the beginning of a new year brings energy, fresh promises, and encouragement with a sense of new hope. For each moment of life to be meaningful you need such a revival more often than once a year.