When you focus on what is directly in front of you that next step is manageable. You know that there is nothing that will prevent you from taking it…ONE STEP AND THEN THE NEXT.

Imagine being at the bottom of a steep incline; when you look up you notice the steepness of the trail. But when you break it down into separate steps, the slope of the incline is neutralized.

So you take that step and then another. Of course there will be difficulties that get in the way, but you don’t let them stop you. You pick yourself up and continue on your journey. You are determined. Soon you are near the top and you sense what’s there. You are reminded why you began the journey. You know how satisfied you’ll feel from completing the task. You are ready for the next challenge. You are a seeker-the journey brings you alive.

JOURNEY ON

MARK

Mark Susnow, is an executive & life coach and thought leader who inspires others to believe in themselves. He is passionate about life being an exciting journey of discovery. His enthusiastic and inspiring keynotes on change, leadership and connection thoroughly convey this message to his audiences. A former trial attorney for 30 years, he integrates what it takes to be successful in the world with the inner wisdom unfolded to him through years of yoga and meditation. He is the author of Dancing on the River…Navigating Life’s Changes. Give yourself the gift of coaching and make an investment in your future.

There is another component to getting there. Quite often whatever you are doing becomes much more difficult than you originally thought. If you keep where you are going in mind, the inevitable detour in the way, in the form of a “No,” won’t derail you.

You’re closer to where you are going even if your progress seems insignificant. Small steps are powerful——much greater than what is obvious. We discover that these small actions collectively have a positive impact on our life. Appreciate these steps for they are the building blocks of the future.

Of course to keep going, we must have a clear intention and the persistence to rise above the momentary disappointments that get in our way. Before we know it we are where we want to be.

Sometimes it might take years to get there, but when you do it’s fulfilling and quite often momentous.
With each temporary setback, we ask ourselves how can we be better. We ask ourselves what we learned. We ask ourselves, how did what happen make me a better person.

JOURNEY ON

MARK

Mark Susnow, is an executive & life coach and speaker who inspires others to believe in themselves. He is passionate about life being an exciting journey of discovery. His enthusiastic and inspiring keynotes on change, leadership and connection thoroughly convey this message to his audiences. A former trial attorney for 30 years, he integrates what it takes to be successful in the world with the inner wisdom unfolded to him through years of yoga and meditation. He is the author of Dancing on the River…Navigating Life’s Changes. Give yourself the gift of coaching and make an investment in your future.

Because we understand the cyclical pattern of nature, we trust the process. We also know that we can only take one step at a time and each step prepares us for the next so that we can reap the harvest.

When we harvest the fruits of our labor we have a sense of fulfillment because of the effort that went into it. It wasn’t just given to us. Much hard work was involved.

All of life is like that. There are always going to be obstacles and challenges. They are there to challenge us to look deeper and to try harder. These difficulties serve us. Honor them rather than complain about them.

BE THE BEST YOU, YOU CAN BE

JOURNEY ON

MARK

Mark Susnow, is an executive & life coach and speaker who inspires others to believe in themselves. He is passionate about life being an exciting journey of discovery. His enthusiastic and inspiring keynotes on change, leadership and connection thoroughly convey this message to his audiences. A former trial attorney for 30 years, he integrates what it takes to be successful in the world with the inner wisdom unfolded to him through years of yoga and meditation. He is the author of Dancing on the River…Navigating Life’s Changes.

Your concerns can serve you by making you better prepared but they won’t serve you if they stop you. Even after you make the decision to go for it you might have lingering doubts for quite some time. That goes with the territory as you explore the unknown. It’s also possible that the unknown can be your friend. What would your life be like if you welcomed the unknown future.

But what happens is that we stop and give up on what we really want and believe. But what happens is that you are cheating two people. Yourself for not living up to your highest ideals. And the other person because they don’t get the gifts of your uniqueness. Go ahead and let the world know who you are. Speak your truth———remember it’s your vision not someone else’s.

The challenges along the way make the end result more fulfilling. So whatever it is that you are on the verge of beginning, be bold and take that next step. Now is the only time to begin. With exploring the unknown comes the exhilaration that lets you know that you are totally alive.
Imagine this!!!

What if your life turns out better than you expected. What then?

JOURNEY ON

MARK

Mark Susnow, is an executive-life coach and speaker who inspires others to believe in themselves. A former trial attorney for 30 years, he integrates what it takes to be successful in the world with the inner wisdom unfolded to him through years of yoga and meditation. He is the author of Dancing on the River…Navigating Life’s Changes.

Collectively we are and have been in many different phases of the relationship cycle. Regardless of what phase we are in, we all have wounds that are preventing us from experiencing deeper levels of intimacy in our lives. Relationships demand trust and risk.

But what holds us back is the fear of again experiencing the pain that we have felt in past relationships. It hurts and we don’t want to experience it again.

So we adopt a strategy that protects us. Most likely we are not even aware of what we are doing. Let me share with you what I did for many years to avoid the possibility of experiencing that pain again.

My favorite approach was to select a partner who was emotionally unavailable. They were hopelessly self-centered, already in a relationship or afraid of intimacy because of the same wounds that I had experienced. Another approach was to select partners who I knew did not fit my picture of the person I wanted to be with. This allowed me to be in control of the relationship. By focusing on their flaws and imperfections I could keep them at a distance.

I kept trying to make these relationships work and played out the drama longer than I should have because I didn’t want to acknowledge that I was alone. Now I realize that feeling alone has nothing to do with whether you are in a relationship. There have been plenty of times when I have felt alone while in a relationship.

There is no doubt that relationships stretch us. We experience a myriad of emotions that we would not have experienced without the relationship, ranging from fear, anger and avoidance to fulfillment, confidence, and passion. We are forced to explore uncharted territory discovering new ways of saying and looking at things. We’re never totally prepared for what needs to be done or said, so quite often we avoid saying what’s on our mind.

Sooner or later what we have been withholding from our partner is reflected in our attitudes and conduct, often leading to feelings of separation and alienation, which defeats the purpose of being in relationship.

Sharing our most intimate feelings is not the easiest thing to do. For various reasons we have not had much practice. So we create a system, albeit not perfect, that works for us. We carefully measure how much we are willing to share about what’s really going on with us. Perhaps we experience more isolation and loneliness than we would like, but we keep our innermost feelings a secret.

So we go on to that next relationship thinking that there is a relationship out there that will eventually fulfill us and make us whole. This time it will be different we think to ourselves.

When I was in my early thirties, I had an enlightening conversation with my good friend Stephen Sawyer, “Stephen, do you think that each relationship gets better and that there is an ultimate relationship?

“Yes, and it’s with yourself,” he responded.

As we know not all relationships work out the way we would like them to. But we know more about ourselves for having been in the relationship.

With each relationship I discovered something new about myself. I was able to bring these new insights into my next relationship. Each relationship brought me closer to where I wanted to be. I experienced a new level of intimacy that affected every relationship that I had. Most importantly I experienced a greater knowing and love of myself. I enjoyed just being in my own presence. The ultimate relationship occurs when you learn to know and love yourself. Until this happens you won’t be able to love another person deeply.

As you keep evolving you become aware of a fundamental truth. You can’t change another person. You can only change yourself.

This version of the Serenity Prayer says it best:
God give me the serenity to accept the people I can’t change,
The courage to change the one I can
And the wisdom to know that it’s me.

So now we have shared some valuable time together. We know where to look and sometimes we don’t like what we see because we are own worse critics.

Sometimes there’s a quote or a poem that resonates with us and makes the biggest difference in our life. It puts everything in perspective. For me, more than anything it was this quote by Anais Nin that inspired me in my quest.
“And the day came when the risk to remain closed in a bud became more painful than the risk to blossom.”

As I expanded my capacity to risk I also increased my ability to trust. I embraced my fears, overcame my barriers to intimacy and became the love I was seeking.

Let’s celebrate this Valentine’s Day in a different way. Let’s celebrate this day as a day of inspiration; an inspiration to open ourselves more to love and loving, love of others and of course ourselves.

JOURNEY ON

MARK

Our momentum wanes and we lose our enthusiasm. We encounter resistance. Yes you know about that. We experience it to some degree in almost everything that we do. Usually the resistance stops us but it doesn’t have to once we make peace with it.

We still do what we set out to do and at the same time notice are resistance to it, especially our thought process around the particular activity. After all of the years that I have been meditating, I still have resistance from time to time to sit down and meditate. The resistance has many disguises. For example the the latest winter disguise is the sound of the heater. I have this ongoing chatter that the sound from the heater is in the way of my going deeper. And I know that at a different time of the year the tape will change and I’ll come up with something new.

So i’m suggesting a different approach. Think of the big picture in the form of an underlying theme. For example in the process of working with one of my life coaching clients, we discussed that for him his burning desire was to experience more personal freedom. His theme for this year is the “year of liberation.” For another life coaching client, it is the “year of transition.” What is it for you? When you think of a theme, you are really thinking about the kind of person you want to become.
So I guess what I’m really asking you, is what is your theme for this year? For me it’s the year of love and joy.

JOURNEY ON

MARK

Mark Susnow, is an executive and life coach, who inspires others to believe in themselves. A former trial attorney for 30 years, he integrates what it takes to be successful in the world with the inner wisdom unfolded to him through years of yoga and meditation. He is the author of, Dancing on the River:Navigating Life’s Changes.

Let’s start this year with a different exploration. Rather than having a goal or intention let’s look at the big picture. This is the year of reaching out and connecting with our spiritual tribe of kindred souls; those that have the same yearnings and concerns that we do. In the process we experience a synchronicity that becomes a way of life rather than the unusual circumstance. On our journey we discover that there is no such thing as coincidence, but rather the discovery of a deeper purpose that unites us. It can become an exciting adventure if we allow it to be.

At certain times we reflect upon where we are now and where we are going. We also reflect upon how satisfied we are with our lives and what we are committed to changing. There is no better time than now to make this exploration.

In the process of spreading the word about my book Dancing on the River: Navigating Life’s Changes I have been asked on many radio shows what I think are the biggest challenges that we face.

This process has helped me crystallize many of the ideas and beliefs that I have been working on for years. Having clarity is just the first step. A bigger challenge is integrating these insights into our essential core so that they become a way of being. It’s powerful when we share our deepest truths with others. In the process we are affirming how we want to lead and live our lives.

But the integration does not happen all at once. It’s an ongoing process that keeps unfolding because we are essentially changing our approach to life and the way we think about ourselves. One of the benefits of doing the work that I do is that over time the same themes keep repeating themselves. Too many of us have forgotten how to play. We are too serious in our approach to life. I remember when I was a kid, I would casually walk over to a neighbor’s house. “Can Johnny come out and play?” I would ask Johnny’s mom. Too many of us feel that we don’t have enough time to get together with a friend.

This attitude contributes to the feeling that life is a struggle. With that mindset every challenge becomes another reason why we think we can’t be happy. We mistakenly believe that when the current crisis is resolved we can be happy again; perhaps not happy, but at least not as stressed. Our mantra becomes “only if my life were different.”

There is a more empowering mantra which is “happiness is a choice.” Most of you know that in my previous incarnation I was a trial lawyer; a profession with a great deal of uncertainty and loose ends. And that’s the way life is. There is and always will be uncertainty. Our challenge is to become happy even though we have those loose ends—to be happy even though there are things in our lives that we wish were different.

A few days ago I was reminded by a former client of something that I had said to him that made a difference in his life, especially in light of all of the uncertainty that he was currently experiencing.
“Learn to make friends with the unknown,” is what he reminded me that I had said to him.

We are affected by events and circumstances that we have no control over. Although I’m curious about the future and sometimes wish I knew how it’s all going to turn out, most of the time I’m enjoying each step on the journey. I’ve embraced the “great mystery.”

I’m frequently asked what I mean by Dancing on the River. Here’s what I say. “It’s a consciousness that is a reflection of a life decision that you make to be happy in the moment that you make over and over again. That choice does not depend on the circumstances of your life.” Instead of waiting to be happy until what is bothering you is resolved choose to be happy now. You can honestly say that you’re happy and you still have a few loose ends. You might even wonder what your life would be like if what concerns you now turns out better than expected.

In many ways we are in the midst of a global renaissance. Every day there are more us reaching out touching souls all over the world. With the emergence of the internet we have the capability of becoming one global family. Please feel free to share this message with those in your circle.

JOURNEY ON AND CHOOSE HAPPINESS

MARK

Mark Susnow, is an executive and life coach, who inspires others to believe in themselves. A former trial attorney for 30 years, he integrates what it takes to be successful in the world with the inner wisdom unfolded to him through years of yoga and meditation. He is the author of, Dancing on the River:Navigating Life’s Changes.

You question. You read books. You read blogs. You listen to podcasts and still there is that voice…you know it…yes that voice.

It never seems to stop. In fact at times it casts a hypnotic spell over you. You are a prisoner. You can’t break out. And then you do.

During the last few months I have been a guest on many radio shows promoting my new book Dancing on the River: Navigating Life’s Changes. Their seems to be a voice out there that things are tough; more so than at other times. And while it’s true that many of us are hurting and many can’t find work, there has always been challenging times. That’s the way life is. There will always be challenges, some more difficult than others. We can’t avoid them. We can try, but sooner or later we’ll have to come face to face with them.

Our work is to develop the life skills necessary to navigate these challenges. They won’t go away. But we can experience those moments of grace; those moments when are minds stop churning and we’re able to experience a stillness when we a deep-rooted experience peace of mind. You’ve heard me talk and write about these moments many times. How do we get there? Is there a road map?

There is–and it starts with taking the first step, which is sitting still in the morning before you do anything else. Focus on your breath for at least five or ten minutes before you concern yourself with the concerns of the world. It’s one step at a time.

JOURNEY ON

MARK

Mark Susnow, is an executive and life coach, who inspires others to believe in themselves. A former trial attorney for 30 years, he integrates what it takes to be successful in the world with the inner wisdom unfolded to him through years of yoga and meditation. He is the author of, Dancing on the River:Navigating Life’s Changes.