Spiritual Boot Camp Yields Bumper Crop

I planted some seeds earlier this year and the harvest appears to be fruitful.  My time away from home gave me the opportunity to refine my new habits and make them a permanent lifestyle.  In a way, the journey was a spiritual one.  It's hard to describe but I felt this Divine presence in my life.  There's absolutely no way I could have planned everything that happened or the "random" people I met who touched my very soul.

You may be asking, "Michael, what seeds did you plant?"  Here goes:

• Books.  Nine of them so far this year.  Each one deeply impacted me.  Currently, I'm in the middle of "The Art of Uncertainty." I find it as a compass to help me go in the right direction.  My mother pointed me to an interesting author, Dr. Joe Dispenza.  His words comforted me while I was in Minnesota.  "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself," and "Becoming Supernatural" were filled with all kinds of interesting ideas which inspired me to meditate daily.  One of my day job colleagues offered me a free copy of "The Slight Edge." I found it so inspiring that I ordered additional copies for our adult children.  My wife is reading "The Happiness Project," something I discovered earlier in the year and gobbled up after reading "The Surrender Experiment."  I found some nice morsels to nibble on while reading "Get Over Your Damn Self."  John O'Leary offered up some great pointers in his book, "On Fire."  Dan Millman lived up to his promise of changing lives in his book, "Way of the Peaceful Warrior."
• No TV while away on my day job assignments.  My only exception to this was game 7 of the World Series.  You will understand the importance of this when you read "The Adventures of Wilson.  This freed up time to read and fill my mind with new ideas.
• Travel.  I can't wait to share more about the people and places I met in my next book.
• Tennis.  My time away from my regular teammates gave me an opportunity to discover new ideas about a game I've been playing since my high school days.
• Beach Tennis.  Yep.  There's a sport that combines tennis and volleyball and I fell in love with it on one of my adventures.  I'm hooked.  Hey cousin, we must try this sometime.
• Daily meditation.  This new part of my life is part of my morning routine.  Sessions go from 15 minutes to two hours depending on the size of my daily tasks.
• Limited social media time.  I often find myself getting lost reading random stuff that really serves no purpose other than to distract me from other high priority items.
• Writing.  Yeah!  I'm finally back on my laptop.  Today's lengthy post is my first time using it and it's so much better than blogging on my cell phone.  I'm super motivated to keep going until both book projects are completed, edited, and self-published soon.

This entire year has been one fabulous spiritual boot camp.  The new habits are sticking.  I'm living proof you can reach any goal you set as long as you plant the right seeds, nurture them and harvest them at the right time.  Thanks for staying with me on this journey.  I can't wait to share my next books with you soon.  Have a great day.