Write your own fortune by living in the moment

This has been a crazy year of changes and adjustments. The good news is that I have not only survived but flourished. Going forward, I am increasingly convinced that we all have more power than we realize.

While the fiscal cliff and various personal problems are very real, so is the ability to step back, take a breath and…

Live in the moment, baby!

The concept is completely alien to my upbringing as the daughter of hard-working Confucian immigrants. They made it clear that successful, good people plan and then, stick to the plan. To go my own way with spontaneity and flexibility has taken years of practice. And practice makes perfect, as they would say.  :)

Yes, planning is still critical. The difference is that it’s no longer a noose that spells F-A-I-L-U-R-E whenever I blow deadlines. For starters, there are fewer hard deadlines because I’ve become more realistic. For another, many of my plans are deadline-free.

On that note, I’d like to share something that was posted by a Facebook friend. It’s a quote from C.S. Lewis that best describes my top planning priority. To be free, to be happy — it’s all about love. The hard part? To love takes guts. Here’s his quote:

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. 

Isn’t that beautiful?

For a little group inspiration, this post includes my doodle of a blank fortune cookie fortune. You can fill in with a wish for your day.

Here’s what I would scribble in write now:  “You will become fabulously wealthy next year.”   Ooops, haha! What was I thinking. Let’s take another shot at that…

Okay, okay. Here’s a real fortune. It will keep me on track emotionally for the next 24 hours: “You will realize today just how rich you really are.”

There! I like that. As a single working mom, paying the bills is a top priority. This message puts me in a grateful frame of mind with a sense of wholeness and confidence. I hope it will turn me around during those encounters with split-second grenades when I want to scream $#%^%#.

Well, that’s my in-the-moment fortune. What’s yours?