I was recently at a seminar and the leader said “What words do you live by?”

I was like “Huh, what are you talking about?  What do you mean ‘what words do I live by?’  I live by whatever words come out of my mouth hopefully they’re relatively kind but catch me in a reactive moment and I can tell you – it’s not pretty – colourful maybe – definitely not pretty.”

Then he asked us to write down 3 words that represent how we will show up in life for the next 30 days.

30 days?  I’m thinking 30 minutes would be a big commitment but 30 days?  That’s a challenge, don’t you think?  Then he said, “Remember to also write down ‘why?’”  Why do they always do that?

I struggled for a few moments (mostly deciding if I could really commit to this). When I decided I could, here are the 3 words I chose:

• Present.  Why?  So I can experience life’s joys.  So often, I’m guilty of multi-tasking (which is the anti-thesis of not being present), glancing at my phone message or email while I’m speaking with someone, thinking about something else when someone is speaking to me (I know I didn’t do that when I spoke to you, though!), rushing around when my kids are trying to talk to me – all the little things that take me away from the present moment.  I know I’m not the only person who isn’t present cause we have a culture of people who aren’t present.  The worst part is, we think people don’t know when we’re not present with them.  The truth is everyone knows because they can feel it.

• Energy. Why?  So I can do the things I want to do – be present (there’s the word) with my family, be fit, achieve my goals, get through my “to do” lists and be healthy.  I need Energy for all of it.

• Courage. Why?  I need to have the courage to do the things that scare me because those scary things are the reason I’m on this earth (at least that’s my belief).

Every morning I’m going to get out of bed and remind myself that these 3 words – Presence, Energy and Courage are how I’m going to approach my day.

Why would I do such a thing?

Because I just attend a High Performance Academy and I learned that to be the best I can be, I have to set challenges for myself.  My first challenge is changing how I show up in life.  I started last Saturday.  It’s going good so far.

What are your words?