This week I would like to make a tribute to a very special friend of mine – Sheralee Lee. Sheralee passed away tragically last week, just three weeks short of her 50th birthday.

She was an extremely gentle, kind and unassuming woman who was totally devoted to her family and friends. As a testament to the type of person she was, on the day of her funeral, there were twice as many people congregated outside the funeral home as there were inside. The procession to the cemetery stretched for several kilometres across the entire town of Seymour. She has touched many lives.

It struck me as I stood outside the funeral home that we never know when our time is up. One minute she had a cold and the next moment, she was gone. Just like that. It all sounds very cliché, doesn’t it? “You never know which day will be your last”. But, it’s true. We never know which day will be our last.

I spent the weekend looking at my life and thinking about my future. What do I really want my life to look like? What journeys, tastes, smells do I want to have experienced? Then I asked myself this question: “If I had 6 months to live, what would I do?” The answer was no surprise. Do what I’m doing now. There is nothing I would rather be doing than being a part of something great. Something fantastic. Something that’s making a difference.

As I clung to my own children and partner during the service, I looked at them and reaffirmed exactly what they mean to me. How important they are. What I hoped for them now and in their future. I am living the life of my dreams. I am surrounded by the people who mean the most to me, meeting fabulous people, teaching, inspiring, motivating and helping others create their perfect life. The best thing is that I now get to step it up. I get to create even more of this fabulous life.

The next couple of months for me are going to be filled with lots of new learnings and experiences. I’m about to embark on another round of seminars and workshops to increase my knowledge and skills. I’m so excited. To be in a room full of like minded people who simply want to create more for themselves is exactly where I want to be.

To my friend Sheralee, thank you for reminding me of what is really important and for giving me the sense of urgency I needed to make sure that it happens now. No doubt, we will talk again soon.

All my love,

Jo

Over the last 20 years or so, our society in general has been on a quest to obtain stuff. Bigger houses. Flashier cars. Debates have been conducted in many staff rooms on which is better – LCD or Plasma TV’s. We don’t go to the Gold Coast for our holidays anymore. We go to Thailand, Bali, Fiji.

We are trapped in a consumer cycle of buy, buy, buy, which means we have to work, work, work. The more stuff we accumulate, the harder and longer we have to work. We have credit cards, interest free loans, buy now pay later schemes which make it even easier for us to buy more stuff. We have become trapped in a system that feeds us externally. The problem is that this is only a short term solution.

More and more people are realizing that all this stuff that they are accumulating isn’t really making them happy. While it feels good at the time to buy these things, it doesn’t take long for that feeling to turn into stress when we get the credit card bill in the mail. Then we ask the boss if we can work some overtime and next thing you know your average work week has been extended. That means there’s even less time to enjoy the very things that put you in this situation in the first place.

AAAHHH!

Our problem is not the things we buy. We’ve become addicted to the feelings associated with buying stuff. We walk out of the store with this humongous TV which is so big that the family have to find their own way home from the shopping centre because they can’t all fit in the car. Then, we arrive home with our new TV and spend the afternoon rearranging the entire lounge room to fit it in and then we finally get to sit down and actually watch it, feeling fabulous. We feel elated, excited, proud. We have a ‘look at me’ moment. It’s everything we’ve dreamed of. Now, because we want those feelings again, we make more purchases. It’s a cycle. Buy it, feel good, buy it, feel good …

We’re starting to realize that once we have bought everything on our list and we really don’t want anything else, that we’re left feeling empty. We’re starting to shift from an externally driven validation to an internally sustainable foundation. We’re starting to realize that nothing of the senses will satisfy the soul. Nothing we can taste, touch, smell, see or hear can fill the void that is within us. If we do happen to find something that satisfies the senses, it only tends to be short lived which means we’re left wanting for more.

If you were to take away all of your stuff, what would you be left with? Scary thought? How would it feel to know that you didn’t need all that stuff to know who you were? That who you were came from a place inside of you which is full of potential and possibilities.

The lesson here is that the more stuff you ‘need’ to buy, the greater the need for internal fulfillment. So, next time you’re looking to purchase something, ask yourself this: “Am I buying this because I truly want it or is it because it will make me feel better?” It is from that space that you can really make a choice to buy because you want to, not because you’re trying to fill a need.

A large number of people have contacted the centre over the last couple of months and the common thread amongst them is their need to make sense of their world. More and more people are in search of these three questions:

1. Who am I?
2. Why am I here?
3. What am I going to do about it?

This Blog is for you to help you get more clarity around your life and how you really want to live it. Each week, we will help you answer your questions and make it easier for you to regain your passion and rediscover your dreams.

This is your life! Live it the way you want to, not the way you think you should.